Mixed Media is pouring onto my cards

If anyone inspires me, it's Emily, if anyone enables me, that would also be Emily. But only in the BEST of BESTEST of ways! I think it has been a year that she has tried to introduce me to Art Journaling and Mixed Media and I resisted at first and now I'm TOTALLY ADDICTED....LIKE TOTALLY!

So for this card I thought I'd AGAIN let mixed media (MM as we call it) show it's face and I think that MM backgrounds make the perfect backdrop for Stamping Bella's new Three Sister stamps. What do ya think?

When I made the last Vintage Hi Wheel card hubby commented that he liked it so I'm keeping this one under wraps for his 50th birthday in a few weeks. Will he find out, not likely! I don't think he reads my blog unless I tell him to.....so shhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! And if you happened to come by the Stamping Bella booth on Day 1 of Scrapfest you may have seen it...however, I did keep it under plastic so it would be in pristine condition when I brought it home and then I forgot it in my hotel room the next two days.

I used a blend of adirondak sprays, gesso and Crafter's Workshop tiny tiles stencil to create the background. Then I stamped the bike in black stazon and used some Faber Castel Pitt Big Brush pens for some subtle shading as well as the red on the seat and handles. I'm pretty pleased with this one...okay, I'll fess up, I'm REALLY pleased with this one! Hope the hubster likes it!

Next week our challenge will be popping all over the place. That means you have to POP IT UP and use dimension on your card. Hmmmm....willl I play it safe and use a foam dimensional dot, or MAYBE do something more adventurous!!!!!

Time will tell!

Is this a Burberry Babe or what!

Okay, I'll admit to my shallow side in that I have wanted something Burberry for like FOREVER! But since even that 'statement' scarf is like HUNDREDS of dollars the chances of me owning one is pretty much slim to none. think of the art suppies I could buy!)  Besides, I could spend a weekend in NYC, take a trip to Canal Street and buy a knock off, and the price of my weekend plus the knock off scarf would be less than the cost of the original. hmmmm....maybe another trip to NYC should be in my immediate future!

Burberry obsession aside, and although I didn't recreate that well known plaid anywhere, I still think that that the colours I used in RAIN-NEVER-STOPPED-ME-abella just scream burberry!

I stamped her on bella's BESTEST paper and if you wanna create those 'burberry like' colours, these are the copics I used:

E000, 00, 11, 13, 15, 17, 30, 31, 34, 37
E09, Y21, 26, 28, BOOOO. R20

I'm signing off now for a few days, but if you live in the Minneapolis area I'll be at the Mall of America Archiver's Scrapfest on Sept 16-18th spending most of my day at the Stamping Bella booth.

If you are in the area, stop by and say HI!!!!!! Emily, da Stamping Bella herself and Paula will be there too!  It's gonna be CA-RA-ZY fun!!!!!!!!

See ya soon!

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!

CA-RA-ZY for ANIMALS!

Well you heard all about 'MY' animal yesterday so I won't go into any more details about HER, scroll down if you didn't see that post. When I knew we were having an animal challenge my FIRST thought was CHRISTMAS! Stamping Bella has SO MANY holiday animal images I almost had trouble deciding but settled on Mo's PENGUIN WITH GIFT.

Part of the reason I chose this image was because I had just picked up some of My Mind's Eye Lost Christmas paper at Pickle and really wanted to use it. It is SO vintage, and SO glittery and there isn't one piece that I didn't love. I KNOW I have WAY too much paper....but you know what, sometimes you just gotta purge the old stuff, unless you love it and plan to use it, and get just a FEW sheets of some new stuff to inspire you. That is what this paper has done for me! A few new sheets of paper is priceless compared to the inspiration you might gain from it.

Enough gushing about my paper purchase...this guy was stamped on bella's BESTEST paper and coloured with copic markers. I didn't write them down this time, but I will say that I primarily used warm grey's for the majority of the penguin. The outer edges were sponged with chalk inks and I just kept blending different inks until I got the colour I was looking for. I also sponged the edges of the patterned paper in Antique Linen distress ink.

It turned out just as I had hoped for and I now have Christmas card #2 to add to my stash! EEEEEEK! 48 MORE TO GO!

Next Friday we won't have a challenge because Emily, Paula and me will be at the Scrapfest at MALL OF AMERICA! So at the risk of getting kicked off the team I'm gonna give you a HEADS UP for our SEPT 23 CHALLENGE. Shhhhhhh!!!!!! It's a sketch from one of my fav babe's Paulineabella.

Isn't it a beauty! And you have TWO WEEKS TO PLAY! So NOOOOO excuses! Get out that rubber, those markers, those pencils, whatever you choose to use and you will be surprised that when you start, you'll feel relaxed and rejuvinated and pumped to do more! That's how it happens! Really! JUST DO IT!

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!

AJ Monday - Tag it!

Our challenge this week was to use a tag on our page...one tage, several tags, make a tag, use a ready made tag.....just tag it!

I once again was inspired by Roben-Marie and decorated my tag using LOTS of layers of paint, gesso and sprays. And shock of shocks I even wrote a little bit about my day on the back of that tag. Now there is a first!

Again LOTS of layers of paint, sprays and gesso on the page which I overstamped with "I AM" script, now don't look close, I accidentally stamped it upside down. BUT if you do look closely you might even see some ECLECTIC music notes on there to the left of the script.

I was just going to glue my tag in place, but after writing on the back of it I needed somewhere to keep it so I could pull it out and read it later so I created a library pocket and stamped it with YOUR BOOK IS DUE. I was pretty impressed with that moment of genious! And it also helps when you have a TON of stamps in your stash to choose from.

Not sure what her challenge will be next week so I better be stalking the bella blog to see what everyone else came up with and start thinking about next weeks challenge.

Did you notice that my page is removed from my book? YUP, I took them all out because it is easier to work on a loose page and because I've wanted to do this for quite some time so I could cover the front and back with some pretty japanese papers. I really should have gesso'd it and painted it but I wasn't in the mood and now I don't have to look at the ugly blue Canson mixed media cover.

There are just a few blank pages left in there and once I have finished them I'll either slip them back into the original coil which I kept, I just bind it up with new one using my Zutter. Ya, I have all the toys!

Do you ever feel like doing nothing?

Like NOTHING...NADA, not a single thing. That is how I feel today, and how I felt yesterday. I don't feel like making art, colouring, cooking, nothing. I kinda feel like my zing is gone. Maybe I just need a hug....like this little angel is hugging her bear in Mo's Love YA, one of Stamping Bella's newest images.

Of course I stamped her on bella's BESTEST paper and coloured her with copic markers.

E0000, 000, 00, 01, 11, 50, 51, 53
E31, 34, 35, 37, R20, 30, 32, 24, 43
RV34, BV0000, YR30, BG0000, 000, 53, 72

And I won't lie...I did add some shading with my prismacolor pencils. YES you can add pencil over marker, and YES you can blend that with gamsol, or any other odorless mineral spirit without harming your copic layer. I'm kinda like a mixed media card maker!

And you have LOTS of time to play in our animal challenge this Friday so NO excuses, unless of course you have lost your zing. And you still have all afternoon to pull out that journal of yours and stick a tag on it to play along in Emily's AJ Monday....mine is done, and I kinda like the way it turned out, despite the fact that I gesso'd over it about 3 times!

Right now, a LONG hot shower is calling my name!

Back to School!

For us here in Ontario this weekend marks the unofficial end to summer and the start of the school year. If you are a stay at home mom that probably means you have a bit more crafty time on your hands, and if you are like me, I have less people to cook for!

I pulled out one of my fav green bean babies, BETTY the bookworm for this challenge and paired her up with Basic Grey Oxford paper.

These are the copics I used:

E0000, 000, 00, 11, 51, 53, 13, 15, 17
E31, 34, 45, 37, 07, 09, C1, W9
G40, 12, 82, BG70, 72, 75
RV91, 93, 95, 55, 60, R20, Y23

I have the day off today and that makes it a NICE LONG WEEKEND for me! Gonna do a bit of shopping and errands this morning then make my tag journal page for Emily's AJ Monday. I just finished watching this altered tag video by Roben-Marie which gave me an inspirational boost! I'm really loving her style lately.

Next week our Bellarific Friday challenge is all about ANIMALS. USE it in your image, on your paper or an embellishment, just get a litty crazy with animals!

Off to enjoy my day.