I realize this is very late in getting posted, but I did want to show it any way. I actually made this for my brother in law's Mom. He had asked me to make one for her the year before and I never did get it done for him. So this past Mother's Day I made this one for him so he could take it back to Minnesota with him when he went to visit her. Apparently she really liked it which is all that matters to me. Plus I'd do anything for my brother in law, he's a doll and I adore him. I'm so happy my sister found him.

Instead of doing regular "Birthday Cards" to my family and friends anymore, I've started covering a 10x8 canvas board with decorative scrapbooking paper and going from there. It makes the whole card thing a bit nicer for them (the card itself is a gift), and it's something they can hang or display for awhile and then I think most people save them instead of tossing them.

This first one was for my sister Stephanie and the second one above is for my Step-Dad's brother who I make one for every year now.

I was excited to be asked by the "Uber Talented" Mandy to host a theme over at Sunday Postcard Art. The theme I came up with was "Rusty Ole Barn".
I have no idea why I picked that topic, it just sounded good I guess. But after all was said and done, I was happy with my results.

I was honestly thrilled to be asked to host &/or pick a theme. I had fun making the postcard. I used Artistic Outpost stamps, and I also used Tim Holtz metal embellishments on the postcard as well including his new miniature gears for the tires on the truck. The background wood paper is from MME.

I'm pretty happy with the how it turned out. Let me know if you like it, I'd love to hear from you.

If you get a chance check out the Sunday Postcard site at:
http://sundaypostcardart.wordpress.com

or check out Mandy's blog where there is an endless amount of inspiration:
http://mandysmagicalworldofart.blogspot.com

This was a project I made for Stampington. I am lucky enough to be on their "On Call Artist Team" and when Dina Wakley and Stampington came out with those completely cool stamps, I was so excited to make some projects with them. In fact, I went crazy playing with them, I think they asked me to make five or six pieces using the Dina stamps and if I remember correctly I ended up making like 20 pieces. They are so, so much fun to use and you can do so many different things with them. They are on sale at Stampinngton.com of course if you want to get your hands on any of them.

Wow....... I have really been messing up where my blog duties are concerned haven't I???

Hello, hello, hello. I have to first say I did come across a few other blogs out there in "blog-land" where the person had also missed out on posting for quite awhile as well, and it actually made me feel better seeing those.

I'd first like to tell those of you who decided not to delete me off of your list....thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. I appreciate you keeping me around.

The holidays are always stressful to begin with, and then keeping up with posting and everything else......well something has to give. I also have an ailment that slows me down more and more as I get older. What are ya gonna do? You just deal with it all and move on..... right?

But I have made some items that I'd love to share with you. Hope you enjoy looking at them and thank you again for not deleting my blog.

The above piece I made using one of Lily's amazing stamps from Octopode.
I know everyone out there should be familiar with her art and how crazy talented she is, if your not I would say hurry, go straight to her blog and gaze upon her talent. Her website is: http://frillyunderwear.blogspot.com

I still do not have a new computer and now my high speed modem has died as well. I should have a new computer by next week. I'm going crazy without one, I feel like I haven't posted on my blog for a year. It's amazing how dependent you become to your computer. But boy o' boy, they sure are a pain in the bum sometimes aren't they? Looking forward to getting back to the blogging world and visiting all my favorite, inspirational blogs. I miss all of your blogs so much as well. See you soon!!

My computer has died.........

well, in all actuality, it was my hard drive that died. My Dell computer is only four years old, you would think it would have lasted longer.

At any rate, I just wanted to mention it because I won't be able to scan and/or post to my blog until I get the new one. That will probably be sometime around October 3rd when I get my monthly paycheck.

I'm not the most "computer oriented" person there is, so if anyone has any helpful hints on buying a new computer or what to look for, etc, I would appreciate it very much. This will actually be the first computer I buy for myself on my own. The Dell computer was a very generous gift from my sister Stephanie a little over four years ago.

I'm kind of struggling between a desktop or a laptop. Basically I use the computer only for receiving and sending e-mails. Also, scanning, downloading &/or uploading pictures to save and edit for my blog. I would love to eventually try some digital art, however, for some reason I'm very intimidated by it.

This last computer has Microsoft Vista, which was a pain in the rear. There are lots of problems with Vista. I can't wait to get Microsoft 7. So, again, if anyone wants to point out anything I should look for, feel free. Also, I have no idea what brand is better than the next.

I look forward to doing a new art posting with my new computer the first week of October. I thank you in advance for any computer tips you might give me. Is it really the end of summer and the beginning of fall already? Wow!

This is a cute little piece I made using almost all Alpha Stamps goodies. The cute, good sized clown and the font for the sentiment is Alpha Stamps. The one sheet of scrapbooking paper with the words "Carte Postale" on it was also purchased at Alpha Stamps. She's got some of the greatest stamps and a lot of them you can't find anywhere else, check it out if you haven't already.

Happy Wednesday!! August 3rd already, where does the time go??

White Pen For Journaling &/or Mixed Media Artwork

I am calling out to all of you mixed media artist's to please help me find the "Ultimate White Pen", it would of course be for mixed media artwork.
I beg of you artist's out there in the mixed media world, please help me. One that doesn't run out with too much ink or paint so that you end up having a little puddle, one that doesn't skip as you're writing with it, one that works on any kind of paint or medium, basically one that just actually works well.
I am so frustrated, I swear I've bought every single one that is out there on the market (I think?), and they never seem to work right. In magazines like Stampington's "Art Journaling" I will read how those artist's suggest getting the Ranger Inkssentials white pen or the Sharpie Paint pens or whatever else that seems to work for them, but not me. HELP!!! Can anyone suggest a white pen to me that will actually work, I'm desperate?

I can't even believe it but this is my very first participation in one of the OCTOPODE challenges that Lily has. I'm such a fan of her stamps that I really am surprised by myself and that I don't have a bunch of cards made using her stamps. I'm a very slow starter , and of course better late than never right? So here is my first attempt.

I'm not that thrilled with the outcome of the background (we were suppose to have dots and dashes incorporated somehow), it doesn't look like it meshes well to me, but I don't have time to do another one now so there you have it. I do however like what I did with Marie Antoinette's hair. She was known for always having what we girls used to call "Big Texas Hair", and she always seem to have embellishments in her hair as well.
I used white yarn to do her hair and then I had to add some Pearl Ex to it so it went with her dress.

I'm looking forward to doing another challenge using Lily's amazing stamps. If you haven't bought yourself any, you are probably in the minority because it seems everyone has her products now. But if you don't, I say rush over to OCTOPODE and buy yourself some. The prices are extremely reasonable for what you get, and who wouldn't have fun with these images?

Talk to you soon and thank you very much for stopping by and for taking time out to write any comments. I appreciate it so very much.

This is a piece I made for the current Stampotique "Flower" Challenge. Lately I've been so in love with turquoise, silver and yellow together.
It's such a pretty combination I think. With these great Daniel T. characters, I love to add the larger heads to the bodies. I already had some of these flowers stamped out in turquoise from a previous project and I just didn't end up using them. So I got lucky because the flowers were mostly done already. Cutting the stamped images out sometimes can take forever. I have a box of stamped images that I've cut out for various projects over the years and I just didn't use them for whatever reason.
I dip into that box whenever I can, it comes in handy.

These are a few tags I made recently just for fun. These little art doll stamps are from Catslife Press. They have some pretty cute stamps for very reasonable prices over there.

The black and white bottle cap circles and the bubble wrap impressions have a very "Kate Crane" looking style to them, at least that's what I think (hopefully I'm not insulting her by saying that). Of course I don't have anything close to the talent she has, if you haven't visited her blog lately I highly recommend it http://thekathrynwheel.blogspot.com
She also has recently come out with a couple of DVDs that I'm sure are wonderful. I have yet to get them but they are at the top of my list.
I admire her style and talent so, so much.

At any rate that's all for now. Just trying to get through an Arizona summer, it was 117 degrees here today. Thank God for the pool and the air conditioning.

At the Stampotique Designer Challenge Blog right now, the challenge that Joanne came up with is "Clean & Simple." I usually have a tenancy to embellish and to keep adding stuff onto my cards and projects until I'm satisfied, so doing a "Clean & Simple" card was actually a big challenge for me. That being said, this is what I came up with. I used the TOBY and MINKYGIRL stamps and then I just hand drew a quick border and a heart in the middle.

My gosh do I feel guilty about not blogging since April. I've had a lot on my plate however, I really do want to get back to creating and blogging at least a few times a month if not a lot more. I swear, I've said it a million times but I don't know how some of you girls do it? Some of you have full time jobs, families to take care of when you get home from your jobs and then you post to your blog every other day, you are miracle workers, no question. I admire all of you.

These little tags or whatever you want to call them are part of my STAMPINGTON AOC samples using the "Divinata" stamps. I recycled the main panel from Prima packaging materials, the absolutely adorable and so fun to use kraft Eco Embellishment Birds and Crowns are from ARTCHIX STUDIO. Recycled some leftover bags I had from a local shop that had kraft newsprint on their bags, a little stitching added, some color coordinated rub-ons, a MAYA ROAD kraft ticket and some words of wisdom and there you have it. I also stitched up this little bag to hold them, sprayed the bag with some Adirondack Color Washes from Ranger. I thought they turned out kind of cute, hope you like them.

I hope everyone is well and I apologize if I haven't visited your blogs lately and left comments, I plan to get caught up on my little inspirational blog hopping that I like to do very soon.

Happy Summer to all my wonderful blog friends. Be safe, relax and have fun.