Free Hand

So what was the deal here in Chatham this morning? I woke up to SNOW on the ground....{insert that Charlie Brown scream here}...AAUGH!

Now that I have THAT out of my system I can move on. Last year (or maybe even the year before) Emily (da Bella) and I were at DeSerres Art Supply store and I picked up a greeting card that I thought was just adorable so earlier this year I decided to recreate it and sketched the image in my journal. Then I used a combination of Caran d'ache neocolor crayons and pencils to colour it up.

 

 

Christmas card update....since I have not been regularily colouring I've had to rely on mass production to get cards done. While I don't mind mass producing I don't like making 50 of the same thing so I usually work on 4 or 5 different card designs so I only have to make 8-10 of each. Speaking of that, I'd better get moving on them!

 

Later, Linda.

I am the queen of putzing

The last couple weeks I have been very busy taking on a bedroom makeover and painting hallway trims and baseboards that were in a very sorry state. Nothing is coming together YET...but progress is being made.

The bedroom is going to be ZEN BABY! Cool mushroom coloured walls, matching grass cloth behind the bed (yes, the real deal grass cloth!) and a new window covering. This is what I have picked out. The walls are done, some patching needs to get finished before I put up the grass cloth and I'm going to wait till the wallpaper is up before calling my blind guy to bring in some samples.

The swatch on the right is the grasscloth and the one on the left is a first pick at a window covering. I just want a very sleek simple roller shade...no fuss, no frills....ZEN! and that is my paint sample thrown in there. I am a paint sample junkie....I actually own and buy paint sample swatch books. I don't like to make a kazillion trips to the paint store, I want every option at my fingertips. And my current paint of choice is Aura by Benjamin Moore....LOVE that paint. This may sound totally crazy to some, but I actually enjoy painting. Once all the prep work is done I sort of find it relaxing and love watching the transformation happen.

When I haven't been painting I've been putzing. (defn: to behave in an idle manner; putter) It is one of my absolute fav ways to wind down and relax. I'll just look at something and decide to reorganize it. Or maybe open up a kitchen cupboard and decide to empty it, wash it and reorganize it. Are you sensing that I LOVE to reorganize! However there is no organized madness to my putzing. It is totally random and spontaneous. And during my randomness today I popped in on Emily's blog to see what was going on and her theme for this weeks AJ Tuesday was time. While I was in the midst of doing nothing really productive, but somehow managing to keep busy, I thought I'd play along.

I did a quick search on the internet for quotes using the word time and when I found this one it just came together for me and I knew I had drop whatever it was I was doing to sit down and capture it.

Linda.







Mixed Media class at Pickle

Yes...I'm back with another mixed media class at Paper Pickle. If you are a store regular you've probably already seen the sample on display because I'm VERY late with this post. But for those who cannot make an up close and personal visit, I'll tempt you!

Unlike my last class where I gave you guidance but let you choose your own colours, this class will be very 'step by step'. Everyone will use the same inks, sprays, mediums, tools, etc and I will walk you through how I created THIS PIECE step by step. Now don't think that everyone will walk out with exactly something that looks identical to this because you won't, mine won't even look exactly like this. I plan on doing several of these 'technique' type classes and each class will use the same size paper which you will be able to frame like I have done here...

...or keep these 'technique' pages and bind them up into a 'technique book'.

What do you think? Are you coming to join me? The class is on Saturday April 21st and if that one is full, we will run a second class if there is interest.

Hope to see you there!

Tim inspired

Me, along with about 5 billion other people probably have just finished taking Tim Holtz's first ever online class. Many of the techniques I have seen and even done before, but a refresher never hurts. And I have a whole new appreciation for my 'large' supply of glossy paper.

Do you know how smooth and silky distress inks apply to that paper? well just look below.

In his technique he used archival inks with distress, but I only have black so attempted to use Versafine, then regular dye inks and neither gave the results he achieved. Note to self: get some archival inks in various bright colours!

I used a variety of Stamping bella stamps here for my background, as well as my focal image:

eclectic mini bubble wrap

eclectic mini checker

eclectic #8 ticket background

curly silhouette

solid funky bamboo

I must say of all the stamps I own, these are among my most FAV because of their versatility. Did I say LOVE...I don't think I did...I LOVE these stamps.

The background paper was also 'hand made' by me...well, not the actual paper...it is kind of a tissue like paper that was dyed with various concentrations of andirondak sprays, stencils, stamps and H2o paints. I made it in a class that I took with Fred B Mullett several years ago. If you ever get a chance to take one of his classes...JUST DO IT...he is genious!

That's it for today, be back later this week with something more conventional....but in the meantime, embrase the technique and as Tim says, enjoy the journey!

Linda

 

Bring it on!

I'm talking SPRING! ...we are having UNUSUALLY warm weather here in Southwestern Ontario and since I work for a natural gas company I should be wishing for cold weather, but sorry UG, I am NOT! I'm really enjoying this mild winter we've been having and in no way has it made me lose my lust for SPRING.  BRING IT ON! And if you bring it in March instead of late May, I'll take it without a single complaint!

This week Emily's AJ Monday theme was spring and with the great weather this weekend I was inspired to play.

This one was drawn with pencils, overdrawn with markers and painted with watercolours and Derwent inktense. While I was busy drawing and painting I was also baking. Now there is something you should know about me...I DON'T BAKE...I LOVE TO COOK (insert foodie) but I don't have much of a sweet tooth and baking has never been something that interested me.

However the last couple weekends my new Looneyspoons Collection cookbook has inspired me a bit. Last weekend I made a lemon poppyseed loaf and yesterday I made banana blueberry muffins. But it gets better! The poppyseed bread called for the usual flour, sugar, baking power, baking soda, etc...and so did the muffins. However yesterday when I was making the muffins I accidentally grabbed corn starch instead of baking powder. They are both yellow boxes,so  easy mistake! And I would have made that mistake if it were not that I made dish mid week that used corn starch. So when I realized the mistaken box I had a lightbulb moment. Last Sunday when I made the poppyseed bread I realized I DID use cornstarch in place of the baking soda! Guess what...no one knew!

Now that I know the difference between corn starch and baking soda next week I might try making something in the bundt pan I got for a wedding shower gift 24 years ago that has never been used! Stay tuned!

later, Linda

Lettering 101

I'm taking Joanne Sharpe's Letter Love class and I'm totally LOVING it! I've always wanted to know how to letter like the art journalling pro's and have tried, but there was always something I just didn't get. But Joanne makes it easy and doable for everyone! Once you register for the class, it is open to you forever so there is no pressure, no timeline and you can just work at your own pace. I'm hoping by the end of the lessons I can letter just half as good as Joanne. If you are wondering how I found out about this, it was from jumping in on the Stamping Bella SCS forum! You should check it out because you never know what you might learn about there.

This is my page for lesson 5, Whimsey Grids. Joanne used pan pastels to colour her grids, but I opted for prismacolor pencils to 'qualify' for Emily's AJ Monday (although I don't think she is that fussy and you could submit anything from your art journal to qualify!)

This turned out a little busier than I had hoped, but heck...it's my first try and I'm pretty proud of it if I do say so myself! I think I'll try another one with pan pastels just to see the difference. And I'm sure it will take me less than half the time because it did take me a while to colour this in with pencils.

I think I just might go get my lettering journal out tonight and practice some more. REALLY...we all say it...JUST PRACTICE!

later...Linda.

Mixed Media Frenzy

As I mentioned Pauline and I took a road trip to Paula's on Saturday and it was a mixed media frenzy day. Paula lives about 1 1/2 hours from my place and the roads weren't the best for driving. Okay, to be really honest they were the WORST we have seen this winter but we made it and thankfully we had dry clear roads on the way home. And now that it's behind me, I'll admit...I was not looking forward to driving home in the dark on bad roads. I don't mind so much during daylight, but it is not pleasant in the dark so I kept a keen eye on the weather that day and thankfully winds died down and snow stopped which made for a pleasant drive home.

That was until I got home to the news of Whitney Houston's death. Although I lived my 20's during the 80's I was more into alternative rock than the disco scene but her voice, and the movie The Bodyguard will stay with me forever. RIP Whitney.

With crappy roads and a life ended too short behind me, I do have an AJ Monday page to share today which I worked on at Paula's.



Our challenge this week was to use fabric and I knew immediately what I wanted to do. Draw a pretty Suzi Blu inspired face and 'make' her a dress out of fabric. The real challenge for me was that I was playing around with my new Derwent Inktense water soluble pencils which I don't quite have the feel for yet so I threw in some prismacolor pencils and koi watercolors for the face and an acrylic stencilled pattern in the background. What I loved about using the acrylics with the stencil is that I could go back with watercolours and the acrylic would resist the watercolour paints. It was pretty decent and I'll be doing that again in the future for sure.

Before i leave, in addition to stalking Emily's blog to see what everyone else did with fabric, you should also stalk Paula's blog because she was busy snapping pics of food and mixed media projects in the making that I hope she posts. The gals did some FAB projects that you won't want to miss out on.

Till next time...Linda.

AJ Monday

It's been a while since I played along in Emily's AJ Monday and I think it takes me the entire month of January to get back into a routine after the Christmas holidays. But now that February is here, hopefully I will be back at it more regularly. Next week the challenge is to use fabric on your page and I already have some ideas looming in my head. I'm pretty excited about it and can't wait to get started.

But this week, we are using tape and I chose washi tape and created a grid over my entire page.

Then to tone it down I rolled over a couple coats of golden titan buff mixed with clear glazing liquid. Now the fun stuff! It was such a gorjus day on Saturday when I made this I was thinking of spring, so naturally I had to make some flowers and used felt this time around cutting them out with a spellbinders die. I only had white and green so used my Tumble Dyes to brighten up those pretty flower heads. I even got a little crazy on them add added some hand stitching. However, after the first one I was starting to regret that decision.

That's it! another pretty page for my journal.

AJ Monday is BACK!

YAY!!!! I don't think I have messed around in my art journal since the beginning of December and this was a much needed change of pace.

Emily's theme for this week was "RESOLUTION" and I don't make resolutions, I am much more a 'go with the flow' type of person but that didn't stop me. I put all my 'carding' stuff away, cleared off my space, and pulled out my mixed media products. On this page I mainly stuck with sprays, stencils and gesso. Specifically, S.E.I. tumble dye sprays (LOVE THEM!) and crafters workshop stencils.

One tip I learned from Roben-Marie is to work on plain newsprint paper. Use it to catch the 'over spray' or to blot off your stencils. In the end you are left with some lush 'inky paper' which can be put to use in so many ways. Lately I have been using it to die cut out a word for my page and this time I used a Quickutz alphabet for the word resolve. I love how the 'inky' paper ties in the colours of the page and lets me add a focal word that doesn't stick out like a sore thumb.

I was also pretty excited that I got to use my new Stamping Bella grungy sets that are OH SO PERFECT for art journalling....journal your art out moody fingers and journal your art out grungy set #1. LOVE both of these and hope to put them to use in a card soon.

Now if you click on the pic, it should blow up large enough to read my resolution, which is NO resolution at all! But just to take life one day at a time and enjoy the things that make me happy day by day. Once they don't make me happy anymore, I'm gonna move on to something that does.

I'm an easy rider!

Linda.

2011 - the year I found my muse

muse: verb, noun

Definition: (v.) to think about or ponder something deeply; (n.) the source of inspiration for an artist

Emily's AJ Monday this week was to use letters or numbers (or both) on your page. I pondered (mused!) over it for a few days and yesterday I settled on the 2011....the year I found my muse.

It might not be one of my most fav pages I have done, but I think it means the most to me. I spent an entire year pondering over this art journal thing, reading lots of blogs, experimenting and trying to find my comfort zone. This year I took a few online classes from some of my fav mixed media artists and I think I'm starting to find my groove. I've realized that I will never be a Kelly Kilmer, as much as I love her work, it is not my style. I don't know if I have a style yet, I'm still experimenting...and enjoying the journey.

Don't stray toooo far because I'll be back Wednesday with Mo's door with wreath and you are not gonna wanna miss this one because I did something a little different this year.

hehehehee! ....Later, Linda.

AJ Monday - Create

It is AJ Monday, and it's raining here in Chatham, and I have the day off! YAY!!!! And I am totally okay with the gloomy rainy day because I plan on just hanging out here and putting a big dent in my Christmas card to do list.

While I have things that must get done, I did take a time out last night to just create for no particular reason. Well, maybe one reason and that is to play in Emily's AJ Monday.

I used my typical sprays, dies, gesso and molding paste. But what I really like about this page is that I made use of my 'inky paper'. That is a Roben-Marie term for the newsprint she puts under her page as she works on it. Sometimes she uses printed paper, like dictionary paper, or sometimes just plain newsprint like I did. It is great for absorbing excess spray, or blotting off and it gets all inky and messy and was great for cutting out my word. Speaking of that word, I pulled out one of my most fav alphabet dies of all time, Quickutz Washington Grand.

That's about it for today, lots to do here (#1 is to clean up my mess from last night) so I'd better get busy. Be sure to check out Emily's AJ post sometime today because there are always great ideas to be found.

AJ Monday

For Emily's AJ Monday I have journalled another thing to document to my list of ever growing passions...gardens. However, this is not a new passion, more likely something inherited from my dad's side of the family. I cannot imagine looking out my kitchen doors and seeing nothing but grass surrounded by a fence. I want interest, and I want flowering shrubs, and hosta's, and interesting trees and in the summer I want to sprinkle all that with some annual flowers. The problem is, our yard is clay and as dry as the sahara. I start out every May with good intentions and then the heat of our southern Ontarion summer sets in and if I'm not home to water several times a day all my good intentions just dry out by July. But one day, when I retire my yard will be the picture perfect overgrown lush victorian garden that I dream of.

I do have a point to all of this rambling and although I have several 'unpublished' pages in my journal that have hearts on them, I was in the mood to create yesterday. So I looked out at my yard that is losing all its greenery and starting to show signs of winter hibernation and that made me think PINK! I needed some pink in my day so pink along with our theme of hearts, I have this page to share.

I sketched the flowers lightly in pencil then gave a watercolor wash in pink over the entire page. I wasn't too concerned about covering up the flowers because I could still see the pencil marks and painted the flowers with acrylics. I hope I've inspired you today, and if you want/need more....just check out Emily's blog later to see the other 'heart' inspired projects.

For you card lovers out there, I'll be back tomorrow with one of those.

till then...Linda

AJ Monday

Our AJ challenge this week over at Stamping Bella was to draw a face. Now I am no portrait artist but I have been practicing a lot this month and I am getting better at it. I also must say that taking a couple of Suzi Blu's online classes have helped to build my confidence.

I drew her roughly, VERY roughly with pencils first. One thing I have learned is that I am more of a sketchy drawer and cannot get that line correct the first time so I sort of sketch with lots of lines. Then I erased some of the extra lines and watercoloured her face and the background lightly. Now the best part...adding some pencil crayon....AHH the control of the pencil crayon after the uneasy looseness of the pencil and watercolour. I started to gain confidence at this point. Then I used a foam stamp with acrylic paint for the flowers building some layers and softness. And of course I used bright happy colours to represent my mood at the time....a new 'do' will do that to me (don't worry...I'll update my profile pic shortly)

That's it....I couldn't even bring myself to journal anything on it! And speaking of journalling, I have had a couple questions on how I do my journalling. It's no big deal really, NO it is not a stencil, not computer generated, no die cuts....here is how I do it...and it turns out different every time depending on where I thicken my lines.

Step 1: just write (or print) what you want to say

Step 2: I use a black Pitt Big Brush pen to start thickening the lines on the left side

Step 3: Start filling in those thicker lines and wherever else you want! Again, I am using my Pitt Big brush but you can also use a Sharpie, pen and ink caligraphy set, whatever. Just be careful that what you use is not going to react with water if you want to seal your work with mod podge or PPA.

Step 4: this is my fun part and I add some shading. Lately I have been addicted to one of my Golden Fluid Acrylic paints. It is such a beautiful rich gold and really opaque. If I have time and/or desire I might even make those words pop more by adding another 'strip' of shading along the gold lines with a browinsh shade of pitt pen and while it is still wet, just soften it off with my finger.

So that's it, my attempt at drawing a face and my journal style. Hope you enjoyed it. Next week our Bellarific AJ challenge comes directly from Emily's daughter Jayden....YAY Jayden...I miss you sweetie....she wants to see hearts on your page. I think I can do that! Stay tooned!

And other stuff....

if you got a 'sneak peek' at my CPS challenge all I can say is OOPS! It wasn't supposed to be posted until NEXT Sunday.
our theme this Friday at Blogabella is FREE FORM! Strutt your stuff and show us what you got.
Emily snuck in a new 'mini' release not even telling us babes about it! How is that for secrecy! My order is going in tonight....go check it out here
I'm signing off because I'm going shopping! (then sleeping...the time change is KILLING ME!)

later, Linda.

AJ Monday

Emily has not posted her AJ Monday yet, that must mean she had a good time with Paula on the weekend and is recouperating from all the fun! Speaking of Emily (Stamping Bella, in particular) I've been doing a little shopping for new mixed media products and created the page below primarily with the following:

• SEI Tumble Dyes
• Golden transparent air brush set
• Ranger Adirondack color wash
• gesso
• molding paste
• crafter's workshop stencils

Oh did I have fun creating this one and it put me in a happy place, hence the quote which I got out of one of the MANY quote books I own. I'm a gal of few words but do enjoy finding a good quote to express how I feel at the time. I think that is what my journal is going to be all about. Create a page, and find a quote to define the moment. The thought of doing that excites me! I have 5 blank pages left in this journal and then I can bind it all up and starting January my new book is just going to be full of quotes, and techniques, and happiness.

I actually started this one Friday night and then didn't like the page so I cut it up in squares to use on my 'new' page. There are layers here gals.....MANY MANY layers. I think even at one point I gesso'd over 75% of it and started again. Did it bother me to do that , no way...I know what is under it, and I enjoyed the journey.

Not sure yet what our theme will be next week so be sure to stalk Emily's blog and she will announce it when she posts.

'till next time, Linda

I'm late! but I have a bonus

Yes, I had full intentions of posting this last night but I taught a class at our local Paper Pickle and when I got home at 9pm I HAD to devote my full attention to Criminal Minds because it is right up there with Dexter as one of my fav shows. Yup, no reality shows for this babe, I'm all about sick criminal offenders. So as an added bonus I'm gonna show you the canvas I taught at class last night. But NOT before show you Irma and Vieno. This is a Mo Manning image available in rubber at Stamping Bella. Do you know there are a LOT of Mo's images available in rubber over there, check them out here.

I poured my heart into colouring this image and I am not kidding when I say I spent much longer than normal on it. This is another one where pencils overtook the copics. I started with my typical E000, 00, 11 on the face, then used some BG's on the blue coat and YG's on the green coat. Again I shaded the reds with some E7 and 9 and a combo of warm and cool grey's for the fur on the hat's. I couldn't even bring myself to cover anything with glitter because this turned out so pretty IRL. The camera never does this stuff justice!

Now for my Paper Pickle canvas class. Over the last several months I have taken a variety of mixed media online classes and this class does not define any one style. It is an eclectic mix of some of my personal fav techniques that I have learned along the way. I do want to say that I was SO PROUD of everyone and they should feel personally satisfied that they went home with something that they should feel proud to hang on their wall somewhere. I love when I come out of a class feeling that way! I think the lesson here is to NOT let the term MIXED MEDIA scare you! The beauty of it is that there is no right, no wrong...just DO IT! You will be happy you did! And did you notice Lulu's hearts on there! I stamped the cluster on some red paper and let them choose which hearts to cut out for the chimney smoke. Then Jenn got creative and cut out a tiny heart for the door knob and the gals went crazy! I think most everyone left with a heart door knob! I LOVE my pickle gals!

Well, although it's not late, I'm tired because I had to drive my hubby to London to pick up his car from service after work today so that was almost 3 hours of driving to and from the dealer after a LONG day at work. I'm tired, and deserve to go to bed early....but hey, that means maybe I can stay up late tomorrow and get in some quality mixed media time!!!!! There is a bright side to everything!

AJ Monday

Hiya all! Are ya ready for the start of another work week! I tell ya, once my age counter rolled over the 50 mark all I can think about Monday mornings is how I will spend the day, and week, once I'm retired. I have it all planned out in my head, and it a beautiful dream for now!

Emily wanted us to use stencils and sprays this week and that was NO problem for me, however I couldn't resist getting my fingers a little messy too.

My fav part of this page is the upper right corner. I spread some molding paste over the stencil and while it was still in place I sprayed on a couple colours of adirondak color wash. I love molding paste to give just that little bit of dimension to the page.

The quote comes from a book by Autumn Leaves called Quote Unquote. I think there are 4 or 5 volumes and I have 3 of them which I purchased back in my scrapbooking days.

That is it for today....I'll leave you with another little reminder of our Bellarific sketch for Friday...LOTS of time to play, and with Christmas just around the corner and that AWESOME mini release that just came out how can you resist an opportunity to win some Bella Bucks!

not the colour purple

Before I say anything....did you hop on over to Emily's blog and check out the mini release? TWO new Uptown Girls...they are so urban chic how can you NOT resist them, and their funky Uptown Christmas tree!!! To temp you even further she is offering free shipping on orders over $55 with the code freeshippingoctober! Seriously, what is stopping you!!!! GO LOOK!

Moving on to my journal and this weeks theme. I am not fond of the colour purple, my fav colour is green, not pure green like that Christmas green....I REALLY don't like that colour, but greens with yellow or blue undertones. Limes, turquoise, olives....those kind of greens. And when you mix them up together it is even yummier. Emily's AJ challenge this week was to create a page using your fav colour and here it is....all pretty in green!

Prior to making this page I was watching a video workshop with Beryl Taylor that I downloaded from Cloth Paper Scissors. She does these amazing things with paper, fabric, stitching, and beading. That inspired me to dive into my fabric stash and make these little quilted squares. 

Then I tore the page from a dictionary that had the definition of green and everything else just sort of fell into place. And I must say it really felt good to sew on fabric instead of paper for a change and I'm sure it made the Bernina happy too! This page really makes me smile when I look at it.

Not sure yet what our challenge will be next week yet, but Emily said she would be posting it on the blog later today so for sure I'll be stalking.

AJ Monday

Hi All...I had a very busy and productive weekend and it all started with my AJ Monday journal page. The challenge this week was to use an actual picture on your page. I already did that a couple weeks ago so this time I took a different route to use some pictures.

A couple years ago hubs and I took a trip to Nashville and Memphis on our quest to follow the Dave Matthews Band around North America. We didn't see much of Nashville, but did get to spend a couple days in Memphis. We LOVED it there...the music, the food, the atmosphere, the history, all of it was amazing. We took in as much as we could and took a lot of pictures of our favourite spots, some of which I collaged in this page.

I selected a few of my fav's and inserted them into a word document mirror imaging the pictures. I printed them on my Epson ink jet printer on regular printer paper, nothing special. Then using any of the image transfer techniques you may find on the web I transferred them to my page. It was necessary to print mirror images of the pics because you glue them 'image side down' and this way they end up right side facing when you are done.

The technique I used was with gel medium, mod podge or PPA. I used PPA here, but I think mod podge or gel medium works better for this technique. Cut your pictures down to size, or even tearing the edges gives a nice effect. Apply some gel medium and stick it down onto your page. Now you do not want to paste over that piece of paper because you don't want the paper completely sealed. Just use your fingers and press it down good.

Wait for it to dry, or if you are like me take a heat gun to it. Speaking from experience, it does work a lot better if you can wait and let it dry naturally....but I wasn't seeking out perfection here! Then spritz your paper with water and start rubbing it off. The paper will roll off and your image will be revealed! It's like MAGIC! I dried it again with my heat gun and gently sanded it to remove any 'hairs' and soften off the edges. Then I sealed it with PPA because when I overlapped my next image I didn't want to chance any of my first one coming off.

The hardest part was that I five pictures so I had to repeat the above process 5 times so there was a lot of drying involved. Then I added some ink, some paint, some gesso...more ink and paint and I was almost done.

I stamped the word 'Memphis' and the date with a VERY OLD acrylic River City alphabet set, and because Memphis is all about the music I couldn't help but stamp some of Stamping Bella's eclectic music on there.

I hope this has inspired you, and be sure to check Emily's blog for her AJ Monday post sometime today. The gals who have been playing along in this have been wowing me week after week and I can't wait to see what they do this week.

Linda.

AJ Monday with Emily

Okay...this page is a LITTLE crazy...still trying to perfect Roben-Marie's style and techniques. So that is where the background came from but the quote, oh that quote is ALL ME! Actually it was the quote next to my grad pic in my graduating high school year book of 1978. Yes, I have had a love of 'food' and 'drink' for some 33 years...maybe more! Hubby says that means I am solid! Haven't changed in that many years and not likely to change any time soon.

If you look hard, you MIGHT even see that I peeled off the crescent from the wine that I was sipping when I worked on this page, a California Pinot Noir that has become one of my current fav's.

I was even sipping on a glass of the grape when I wtoe this post. I think in a past life I lived in either France or Italy where they drink wine at every meal. They don't drink to excess, just a couple glasses with every meal. Now DON'T GET ME WRONG! I DO NOT drink at lunch! But if I lived in France or Italy, that might easily change! LOL!

So, Eat Well, Drink Well, do both responsibly and enjoy the good things in life!

you would think i would have all this free time...

...with the kids at school and hubby not home for supper, but the truth is my DOG is high maintenance! But ONLY in a good way. She is not accustomed to spending her evenings by herself because there is usually ALWAYS someone in the house for her to throw her demands on. If you are wondering, she is a West Highland White Terrier and that equates to "it's all about me"...where ME is the dog! LOL! So when it is just her and me...that means it is just HER and me! Mostly HER. No colouring, NO mixed media, NO art journaling. No NOTHING, except if it is something I can do on the sofa so she can snuggle up next to me. It would be different if it wasn't cold and rainy because then she'd spend her evening in the yard chasing away squirrels and laying under the bird feeder to protect it from the furry creatures. But sadly, it HAS been COLD and rainy here for the last couple days. So no play time for Linda!
Alright, that has NOTHING to do with my card, just a reason for my lack of posting this week. Today I have ANOTHER, yes ANOTHER new release image to show you. Except for the Uptown Girls, I think this is my FAV OF THE BUNCH...vintage HI WHEEL.

I used some of my mixed media 'talents' (hahaaahahaa) on the background, starting with a blank piece of paper and adding paints, gesso, more paints, distress rub ons, whatever. Then used the memory, laughter and love definition blocks stamping them with timber brown stazon. Finally the bike was stamped with black stazon.

Oh, then I took the my minds eye 'newsprint' paper and added some distress inks and some of Isabelle's crackle on both the image and the background pieces. A metal accent, hammered with my Tim Holtz distress hammer and a ribbon finished it off.

Gals...I think this is a perfect 'guy' card cause it got the thumbs up from hubby! DARN ...he saw it, I could have used it for his upcoming b'day!

I'll be back tomorrow with my animal challenge so don't go to far....BY THE WAY, i LOVE this card so give it some love okay!