Rainbow trout anyone?

Well, today I'm going to do a quick share of a card that was born from an afternoon spent noodling around with a retired Stampin' Up set.  Many of my favorite creations start out this way. I find myself attracted to a stamp because it's new and I want to give it a spin or because it's old and I haven't used it for a long time or for any number of other random reasons.

Recently, I've been in a coloring mood. As a kid, my Mom knew she could keep me out of her hair...happy as a clam and quiet as a church mouse... as long as I had a coloring book and a shoe box of Crayolas.  I still derive contentment from the process and get a "high" when I smell a box of crayons1 I'm not sure, but think I might have just confessed to a case of arrested development. Oh well, I guess we never outgrow some things.

Anyway, when I know I want to color an image, Memento Tuxedo Black is my go to ink and Neenah Solar White cardstock is my paper of choice... unless I feel myself leaning towards watercolors, that is.  I grab a scrap of paper from my stash (why waste a whole sheet if you start out just noodling around?) ink and stamp and then start coloring. On this recent afternoon, I had my box of Prismacolor pencils on my craft table, so I used them to apply color in bright, almost neon tones. I used Gamsol mineral spirits and a blending stump to smooth the transition of one color into another and to eliminate any pencil strokes. This technique mimics the look of Copic markers and is a perfect choice of coloring agent if you are creating a one layer card.....no bleeding through the paper like you'd see with the markers. This choice of colors is not my usual path. Some days I'm in a sepia mood, some days I am drawn to muted pastels, some days to bright primaries. Who know why. I just let my color mood take charge and hope for the best. Maybe Peter Max was guiding my way that afternoon!

When a project starts it's life this way, it might end as nothing more than an interesting experiment or a way to ride the learning curve of a new product or technique. But, sometimes the results just cry out to become something. When I finished the first fishie, I knew he needed to swim with a friend. So, I colored another image from the set. I fussy cut them both and applied some glossy accents where I thought they should sparkle and dusted them with some ultra fine glitter. (Still have some on my face, I think!) I set them aside before grabbing a border die to cut the waves as well as a sun and some clouds...again cut from paper salvaged in my stockpile of scraps. So, I began building the card background, applied the waves and reached for the fishies. I could only find one of them on my desk. (Those of you who know me will recognize this scenario.) So, I guess even a paper fish flops around and can "jump out of the net" once it's out of water. I visually scoured the floor and moved and lifted everything on the surface of my worktable in search of the wayward fish. No fishie in sight.  So, I bit the bullet and stamped, colored, cut and glittered another fish. I applied them to the background, using pop dots to lift them out of the water (the magic part of working with paper is that fish don't need to hide their beauty under the waves!) and called it done. I started to clean up my work area (trying to build a good new habit) and guess what I found....the third fish in the wastebasket. So, I decided that there would be three fish in my paper ocean.
 

Here's a close-up shot that shows off the glitter!



As I was taking the photos, I realized that I had nearly recreated the cover art of a great piece of kiddie lit...Good Night, Little Rainbow Fish! Follow the link and see if you agree.

On the road again...

My first blog post covered a stamping and scrapping road trip that a bunch of friends took this spring to Angola, NY. Well, we were recently on the road again attending Beth's Crafty Weekend from September 20 - 22nd.  This time we stayed a little closer to home. Beth books space at the local Quality Inn, a mere 15 minutes from home. Who can ask for more?

Beth is kind enough to roll up her sleeves and handle all the planning and scheduling that goes into this event for us twice a year...in September and again in February. She negotiates an affordable room rate so that anyone who wants to craft until she drops can do just that. She also arranges catering of lunch and dinner so that no one has to leave the building for nourishment. And, it's yummy! She sets up a great make and take table and runs a card class. She offers us this event an a very fair price. She's good to us.

I always struggle about what to pack up and haul, and usually take far too much stuff. Yet, every time we go on the road I find myself wishing I had remembered a brad or a bit of ribbon or a certain punch. I'm blessed to have friends who will share and usually someone has something that gets me past my creative impasse.

This year somewhere between 40 and 50 scrappers and stampers turned out to enjoy the fruits of Beth's labor. Here are some photos that show the roomy and well-lit space she provides. Here's a view of some of my peeps scrapping, stamping and gabbing. I just noticed that the folder in the lower left hand corner of the table says Happy. Happy. Happy. Yes we were. Yes we were. Yes we were.

Here's a shot of a different part of the room. Take note of the round snack table in the lower left hand corner of the picture. We don't starve at these events. No, siree!

Here's another view. You can see for yourself that Beth provides a beautiful, well-lit space with more than enough elbow room at each table to craft a long weekend away!

And, just in case you don't believe, or can't imagine, what I mean when I say I haul a lot of stuff to these events, here's the staging area in my dining room where I'm parking most of the stuff I'm preparing to pack into our Rav4. If you're old enough to remember the running gag about the closet in the oldie but goodie Fibber McGee and Molly films/TV series, you'll understand that there is a strategy involved in opening the doors once the deed is done. If you're too young to "get" the reference, follow the hyperlink for a bit of fun.

Lordy, just looking at this photo makes me tired again.


Note: As I type this I'm watching Dancing with the Stars as Bill Nye the Science Guy tries to dance in spite of his serious ligament injury. I'm not sure if I should give him a high five for giving it a go or smack him upside the the head for risking his future mobility.

All flowers....no weeds!

In my first post, I promised to work up the nerve to share something that I made. Today's the day. Hope you enjoy.

So, I love flowers but I don't love weeding. Paper flowers are the perfect solution, as they don't bring along their pesky friends. Consequently, I did an imaginary back flip (a literal back flip is an impossibility) when I first saw the Sizzix line of dies designed by Susan Tierney Cockburn. I own one of her books that explains how to make paper flowers from punches for quite awhile. As much as I love that book, I often found that I was lacking at least one punch needed to execute the design. These dies eliminated that frustration entirely. I was able to quickly create enough flowers to fill a wheelbarrow with no frustrating roadblocks. Love these dies! And, I'm excited because I recently read that she will be introducing some additional flowers to this series of Sizzix products. Woo-hoo!

I first constructed the wheelbarrow using this Bigz XL die. I used cardboard harvested from the back of tablets that I saved while I was still working. (Co-workers aided and abetted my hoarding habit by sending me cardboard in yellow swiss cheese envelopes via interoffice mail!) I cut each piece twice...first in cardboard and then in card stock which I later glued to the cardboard pieces...my home made version of mat board.

 

Then, I "built" the lily, daffodil, pansy and daisies.



 

The "seeds" for my flowers were found in my Iris cart where I keep scraps of paper salvaged from previous projects. I die cut all the pieces needed to create each flower and then applied color using Pan Pastels and Copic markers. I used a Viva  Décor Sunny Yellow Pearl Pen to add the center to the daisies and the pansy. 

 

Here's a quick view of the supplies I used:

 

 



Well, that's about all I have for today. Hope you come back for another visit.

Craftapalooza

Splish Splash...that's the sound of me jumping into my very first blog post.

In May, my sister and a bunch of our gal pals planned a week of crafting and friendship that we dubbed Craftapalooza 2013. We rented a charming little house in a beautiful neighborhood in Angola, NY on the shore of Lake Erie. It was chilly the entire week we were there, but that didn't matter so much since we were there to enjoy the Glue, Paper and Scissors.



We had a seven days of fun...paper crafting, snacking, cooking, and laughing. Some of us made cards, some of us scrapped, and some of us did both. The living room was the perfect size and configuration to set up our worktables and there were plenty of windows, letting in beautiful sunlight during the day.



My sister and I own three little doggies who went along to keep us company.


  
Here's a pic of Pip, Squeak and Buddy enjoying the bright spring day.




Almost every evening we were treated to this view.


When the week was over, we bid farewell to Craftapalooza and packed it all back up to head back home.



The next time I post, I hope that I've worked up the nerve to share something that I've made.

It was a pleasure meeting you. Hello...anyone out there?