Snail Mail

We have had a short fall of rain in N CA this year, but maybe we are catching up a little.  It rained a little yesterday and continues this morning.  Earlier this morning I was sitting on the front porch with the outside cat Cass, watching him the rain and the snails, Cass hates snails, he walks around them like he is avoiding little land mines.  Just to give you an idea of how crazy this mind works, LOL, I thought of this card and when I went inside, decided to do my hour with Sketchbook Pro. The background is one of my favorite gelli pulls, the snail was first sketched out with SBP and then to my ever faithful Cameo to cut out, I then hand colored with Copic markers, scanned in and again to the Cameo to cut.  Then did the simple word block with the Cameo also.  I have been clearing out our storage locker and found a couple of boxes with some really old cards, etc., and realized that all of my stamped images on them were hand-cut, I feel so blessed to live in this incredible period of time, the progress for our little habit has developed some amazing time saving tools.  Hope your week is amazing, send someone a little snail-mail this week. Hugs

Snow

It is so easy to love snow when you do not live in it, lol.  I can be up in Tahoe in about 1 1/2 hours and when it gets overwhelming, come home, so I love it.  One of my goals for the rest of the year is to work with Sketchbook Pro for at least an hour a day, whenever possible.  Skier was done this morning and holly and snow flakes are from a previous work out.  All images were hand colored using Copic markers and Inktense Pencils, I love how the two work together, I first lay in my copic color and then Inktense and blend with my watercolor brush.  Snow is an old old old rub-on, another of my goals to use up some of the rub-ons, there are a bizillion in my stash.  Hope everyone stays warm and cozy this beautiful Monday, hugs

Your Basic Chalkboard Dress

 While I was in SO CA, my friend and I were looking through the latest issue of Somerset Studio, her eyes lite up on page 60 "Whimsical Dress Pendant", we oood and ahhhhd, and she says, oh I want one for my great granddaughter and I said okay, I can do that.  Lol.  As I was flying home, I pulled out the magazine and started reading and really looking at the article.  The amazing artist Cat Kerr is a mixed media artist and does a lot of work with cloth and on this project some soldering.  Since sewing is not in my repetoire at this time and it would take a miracle to do a search and rescue on my soldering iron, I needed to come up with a medium that would work for me.  Then I had an idea, why  not do a chalkboard dress of my design and a blank one she will be able to do with chalk, over and over and over again.  I went to work when I got home and here is the dress pendant I did, I did it with the "Marvy" Bistro Markers so it would not smudge.  The ends of the necklace are lobster claw closures so she will be able to remove my dress and attach hers, whenever she wants.

 It had to have it's own special put away box, so I used a wonderful soap box I have been saving, it smells yummy too.  The charm is from Hobby Lobby, is that not precious?

here is a closeup of the box, it will have her name on it, before I send it out.

 This is the dress blank for her design work.

Here is everything in the dress box, hope it brings her hours of fun and good memories. Hope your weekend is filled with inspiration, hugs

When Angels Pray

When angels pray, we are all Blessed.  This is my morning exercise, angel was sketched with SketchBook Pro and then hand colored with Copic markers.  I then took her to PS6 and used one of my cloud photos and doodled her in a cloud, and added my star.  2014 will be my year to refine and add to my PS6 knowledge.  My each of you go into the weekend, watched over by angels, hugs

Dance

A digi page to share this morning.  I am so excited to be doing some digital art again, it is almost a meditation as it comes together.  I brought back some sheet music to scan into my collection from Southern CA and since we are visiting Germany this month at the Art Journal Caravan, I thought I would play with Beethoven a little this morning.  All other images are from "Tangie's" AJC2013-November Kit.  Beethoven's "Moon Light Sonata" has been a favorite of mine since childhood, as a little girl I would have my mother put it on the record player, lay on the floor and travel to grand balls with a gorgeous dress and dance and dance, I have always had my imagination, lol.  Hope your week is a dance, hugs

money money money

My son and wife are busy busy and they are always changing what they are busy at, so as Christmas rolls around I simply cannot keep up with what is in and what is out, so other than a little of this and that, they get money.  I am always trying to figure out a new and creative way to present the monies.  This year for me blackboards are in, I love them and love that they present themselves to so many things, so when my friend and neighbor presented me with a bin of old craft supplies, included were A LOT of the snap barrettes you can find at Michael's to decorate.  I took a couple of them out and placed them on my table so I could figure out what I could do with them.  I had a receipt and $5.00 on the table also and omg I had an idea, why not use one of my mini chalkboard blanks and create a money clip.

There were an assortment of sizes, I used the large one, perfect fit.  I used Bistro Markers by Marvy on the blackboard blank, they are permanent in so much as they don't wipe off with a cloth as chalk does.  I also discovered that the skinny Bistro's will work in my Copic Airbrush, that is how I did the snow, oh boy oh boy.

when the bill is snapped into the clip it is a snug fit, so it will not fall out.

I adhered the chalkboard to the clip with my trusty glue gun.

look at that!  If you do not have mini chalkboards, you can use a couple of layers of chipboard and then decorate cardstock for the top.  It would be fun to clip these to the Christmas Tree too.  Happy Sunday, Hugs

Juiced

While on my visit south, my hosts have this magical rooftop oasis, I spent many hours up there and one of the things that tweaked my inspiration were the above ground electrical wires.  It is not normally a daily visual for me as most of our electrical in N CA is underground.  I did some morning meditations up there, when the sun had not yet arrived, the sounds and sights were mostly mother nature, the stars, the moon, the waves lapping and tumbling to shore, but there is a low rumbling hum emitted from these giants and they became my focus during the daylight hours with my camera.  Do the birds sit atop because they deliver warmth or do they meditate to the hum? I don't know, maybe a little of both.  I love how they criss and cross, going to this house and that one. A sort of organized chaos.  Hope your weekend is juiced with inspiration and relaxation, hugs

Big Box Tag

A friend asked me to do some big box Christmas Tags for her, this week when I saw the free image in the Silhouette Library I was pretty sure what I wanted to do.  I took a very old Sizzix Die "Index Card" approx. 3 3/4"X 4 3/4" and pulled it on chipboard.  I then cut with my Cameo the "Merry Christmas" from red card stock, added some snowflakes by Marvy and one of mine.  Then with a fine nib pen and white ink wrote the "2013" and added dots to the "C", added an eyelet and ribbon.  On the back I used some rub-ons "to:, from:" that I had left over from last year.  I love using the index card as a tag and with the Silhouette, I can also adjust the size.
Hugs

Gravitation is not responsible

For the month of November the Art Journal Caravan is visiting Germany.  My first page for November is highlighting a quote from Einstein (one of my favorite quotes from him).  The background is a gelli pull done with Gesso, acrylic and Golden Gel Liquid.  The Sea Stars are from a photo I took while in Seal Beach last weekend.  This is a digi page created with PhotoShop6.  Happy Wednesday

Leave Your Mark - Inspired

I am home, inspired, renewed and re-energized by the oceans pulse. Four days and five nights at one of the Southern Beach Communities of  Los Angeles, I believe "Leave Your Mark" embodies the essence of this area, I left Sacramento with these words and I return with them written boldly in my imagination.  The lost art of walking is as alive as breathing in the beach communities and as you meander from this and that the eye is drawn to feast on man made images, building and creations.  Four mornings in a row, I communed with the Ocean, the sky and the stars, I swear "Venus" is 5 times bigger as it hovers over the Pacific Ocean at 5AM than it is here in the North.  Palm trees tower on spindley trunks, they dance and nod with the sea breezes and crows caw, whirl and twist to the fronds to dine from the cluster of nuts dangling from the tops.  The salty sea air encases the aromas of grilled fish and creamy spiced sauces so that your mouth waters as your eyes dart to drink in the wine and treasures that swirl in every direction.  The sense of color is magnified and there are colors there that exist no where else in the world.  My heart beats this morning with gratitude and wonder.
I woke this morning and could not move fast enough to get my pictures downloaded and to begin play.  My share this morning is a photo I took of tire tracks in the sand on Seal Beach.  I printed it out on tissue paper, then printed the words out on tissue paper as well and adhered with gel medium to the tissue background, it will be my thank you card to my amazing hosts in paradise at the Ocean.  Hope everyone had a fun Halloween and are well into a fabulous week, hugs