playing

I wanted to share the cards I made at the class I took at my LSS yesterday. They were Tim Holtz inspired cards and we learned techniques to create the backgrounds and then added layers of stamping, acrylic and metal findings. We tried out all of the new Distress Ink colors. I loved the class and created some more backgrounds and cards as soon as I got home! I finally got myself one of the Ranger craft sheets so I could do some of the Distress Ink technqiues and two of the new ink colors to add to my collection (Rusty Hinge and Tumbled Glass). The techniques are so fun! I had used these techniques in a class I took years ago at my LSS and it was fun to refresh and to learn some new adaptations.

We started by creating the backgrounds for each of the four cards. We used a palatte of 3-4 of the new Distress colors, the Ranger craft sheet and a water spriter. Each combination of colors created a very different background. The thing I love is that you can't really control the process...you have to just go with it. I love that you can create layers of texture just in the background alone before you even add stamping and embellishments.

First here are the 4 cards created in the class:

Michaelangelo's David: this card uses the Distress Embossing powder on David and a piece of acrylic is layered over the entire card. The quote is stamped on the acrylic in Stayz-On and the acrylic is held in place by the two brads that are holding the wheels/cogs. To be honest I don't love the David stamp but I like the ideas of how this card is put together. For some reason I have never really liked stamps with people in them! Wierd I know! But I LOVE the quote! I am going to try and use that in some other works. A really important point to remember.

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Movie Time: I think this is my favorite though it has more going on in the card than my personal style. But I liked the techniques. We created the popcorn box and gave it 3-D with pop-dots and some of the popcorn pieces cut out for dimension. I love the Filmstrip Ribbon. We used one of the stamps in the set to create a layer under this really cool, acrylic-like ribbon. I had gotten a tin of the ribbon in one of my Cocoa Daisy kits and I'm excited to find some new ways to use it! We attached it with his Tiny Attacher. I have a little MM stapler that I will probably use on my own cards. I loved the burnt orange colors of this card and I bought two of the new Distress Ink colors...one being Rusty Hinge (the color on the popcorn box). 

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Wishes: This card is definately busier than my personal style but I had fun using the giant acrylic piece. This card has manyh layers. There is a sheet of music in the background that was layered on grungeboard. We inked on that with Wild Honey Distress Ink. Then stamped the quote. A large, thick piece of acrylic is layerd on top of the music sheet/quote. The card background we created earlier is stamped with the black dots on the right-hand side. Once the Acrylic was layered onto the card background we stamped on the acrylic with red Stayz-On and attached the paper heart on top of the acrylic with a pop-dot. Many layers! That was what I liked. The idea of played with clear elements and layers.

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Journey: Here's the final card. This one is much more subtle. The background was stamped on with a cool Eye Exam stamp (I used the Pumice Stone Distress Ink - a great color!) Funny idea for a stamp but it works! Then the car was stamped on top of that with black Archiver's Ink. The Quote was stamped and layered on patterned paper with Pop-Dots. The little clock was stamped and cut out and a clear circle acrylic piece was layered on top. The clock dial arrow was attached on top of the acrylic with Glossy Accents.

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Here are the cards I created when I got home. I took out all my Distress Inks and some watercolor ATC's and played around....used some various stamps, fabric flowers and other fun stuff.

I hope to play around with my stuff more later today!

Happy Sunday!

calm after the storm

calm after the storm - waves at the Boulevard

So we rode out the wild storm that came through Eastern Massachusetts last night. Didn't see that coming quite so strong! We lost power last night at 10ish and didn't get it back until 4pm today. My parent's still don't have it...but they have a generator. Pictures I've been seeing of the ocean views here during the storm were crazy! I took one photo this morning of the harbor but it definately looked more like the calm-after-the-storm. One thing that struck me when I drove to work this morning was the amazing smell in the air. Fresh. Like wood and pine trees. There were so many trees and branches down. But we are safe and sound...as are family and friends. Just some cleanup.

I'm feeling grateful about that this week. On Monday we watched a big fire in another apartment building in our complex. Scary. Everyone is ok but two apartments are uninhabitable. I need to buy myself some renter's insurance asap.

I'm very much looking forward to a few days to relax. Cary is going to a gamer thing tomorrow so I signed up for a class at my LSS. It is using Tim Holt's new inks and some interesting techniques on cards. I'm excited. One of my New Year's Intentions was to take one art class a month to challenge myself, learn new things and take time out for myelf.

I hope to post some pictures tomorrow!

TGIF

my name is emily and i am a journal starter

I am a journal starter. I am good at getting a nice, clean new journal full of blank pages. I am good at using the first pages. But then I quit. When my Virgo, perfectionist self takes over. When the pages get messy. Or when my handwriting gets messy. I quit. And then I start a new journal.

That is my pattern. I run a therapeutic journaling group and have for six years. I don't take my own advice and just put stuff out there and not worry about the end result. I hesitate and am afraid to have it not be pretty. I have always wanted to create some art and journaling that is just messy. I have gotten better and have let myself just play more than I used to. But still have struggled with doing this in journals. I must have so many of them in my box of high school and college memorabilia in my parent's shed. None are finished!

For the past few years I have carried around an inspiration book/journal with me. I get these 5x7 wire bound sketchbooks and fill them with magazine cutouts, card sketches, journaling, thoughts, gripes, etc. I don't let myself cut out pages if I don't like them. I have several volumes I have filled. This has been great. I use them when I sit down to scrap, knit, paint or make cards. But I really want to do an Art Journal. A place to just experiment, put down my thoughts. I want the pages to be heavier so they can handle layers of paint and stuff. I just bought the book Journal Spilling at my LSS Friday. I love it! So many awesome ideas I can use in my Art Therapy groups and for my own Art Therapy. I hope this marks the end of my journal starting addiction?

valentine

Valentine's dinner at home

Today I am grateful for:

• a beautiful homemade Valentine's Day candle lit dinner last night.
• red roses
• candles
• Trader Joe's yogurt
• chocolates
• Better Homes & Garden magazine
• the Olympics and remembering dreaming about being an Olympic Figure Skater as a little girl
• time to scrap with my friend on saturday
• heart shaped sugar cookies
• the sun streaming in the window
• long weekends
• barn stars
• faith

I am having a very nice weekend. Saturday went food shopping with my mother and sister and then finally had a friend over to scrap. I'll show some of the layouts later in this post. Then Sunday I prepared a Valentine's Dinner for Cary. He had to work until later in the evening so it was a late dinner. An appetizer of scallops and ceasar salad. Then steak tips with peppers, onions and mushrooms, scalloped potatos, green beans. And three beautiful desserts from a local specialty grocery store....

We ate by candlight which we never do and I loved it! I got the two candlesticks at Michael's for $5 each marked down from $12 each! What a deal. It really made a difference for our dinner. We sat and talked for awhile about all sorts of things. It was a really nice night. I am lucky.

Here's some recent layouts...some I did this weekend with my friend and others I recently finished. Most of the supplies came from Cocoa Daisy kits with a few other supplies I had on hand thrown in. I'm typically not good of keeping track when I'm scrapping so I'll just post them without supply lists this time!

"Christmas Nest" - a page documenting some of the directions around the apartment. The tree picture is mounted on an envelope that contains more images. There is something about this layout that bothers me. It took awhile to arrange the photos and never really felt like it came together. But I'm letting it go!

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"A Night Out" - about an after Christmas get-together with old friends. Pretty simple layout using all elements from the January Cocoa Daisy kit.

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"Christmas Girl's Night" - 2 page spread of the festivities when I hosted Girl's Night just before Christmas. This layout was fun to do....

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"Christmas Eve Morning" - Played around with the scalloped paper and some non-straight lines. I feel like I get in a rut with my over-organized linear style. I wanted to try something different.

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"Christmas Eve" - need to still do the journaling on this page but I like how it turned out. Used a piece of paintable patterned paper I have been holding on to forever. Used some iridescent metallic watercolors to just highligt some of the scroll and leaf shapes. Little hard to see in this picture.

So now I just want to finish my Christams Day layout and add in the journaling and I can close the book on 2009....literally! I did start a smaller scrapbook with just some favorite photos over time. No particular order or year. Just a place to tell stories and scap photos  feel like scrapping. And this year so far I haven't been as good at taking photos and developing them so I want to get on that. But I've never really been one to worry about being "caught up." I used to be and I let that go...too much pressure.

Well....
Today having a lazy morning so far. We'll see what the day brings!

Happy monday!

monday gratitudes

my old desk chair

Today I am grateful for...

• The sun streaming in the window when I woke up.
• My old desk chair and yellow gingham cushion.
• a clean apartment to start off the week with.
• My ipod.
• My YMCA membership.
• Yankee Candles.
• The coffee table our friends gave us.
• comfy shoes.
• Shredded Wheat cereal.
• Coffee in my aqua blue mug.
• Snowstorm on the way.
• Knit-a-long meeting this week.
• a day with my brother and sister on Saturday.
• Seeing my parents this weekend.
• a paycheck.

Happy Monday!

today

Lavender plant from Trader Joes

Looks like it is going to be an overcast day. Kind of wishing we had some snow! There are some flurries..but not much. Nothing like in D.C. When I lived there for Grad school a few inches would shut down the city...I can't imagine what it is like today! I kind of wish I was there...it was fun to see the capital look like a ghost town. And all the buildings and monuments look stunning with the snowy backdrop. But...I am here...and we just have the dirty snow remnants of weeks ago and the deep cold.

Anyhow...so glad it is the weekend. I have been falling asleep this week at 8:30pm on the couch! I have slept through the better part of two good movies. I just can't stay awake! Today I am excited to be going to lunch with my sister and to the mall. I want to use a coupon I have for Yankee Candle and check out some things in Sephora. Also need to go to Sears for some very exciting.....vacuum cleaner bags. But all-in-all this will be a fun outing. When I get home I'd like to do a little scrapping. I want to try and focus on my 2010 One-Little-Word this weekend...

ENJOY

This is my goal. Just be. Don't feel like I have to accomplish a million things. That is very hard for me. I'm going to do two errands this a.m. but try and make them fun. Get myself a coffee at my favorite coffee shop. Dress nice. Enjoy a great lunch with my sister. Buy myself a treat or two. Just have fun!

Happy Saturday!

monday gratitudes

Bringing back my monday gratitudes to start of the week on a good, positive note. Today I am grateful for:

• the flowers Cary bought me "just because."
• sun coming in the window
• feeling better after the stomach flu last week.
• straightening up some confusion with a class.
• coffee
• lavender candles
• movie theatre popcorn.

That's it for now!
Happy Monday!