Year in Review-June 2009

Elizabeth's Birthday-Sweet 16

(Overlay and date brush by Ali Edwards available at Designer Digitals.com)

Cookie Dough and ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. Elizabeth is a little disappointed that she won't be able to try for her license until Thursday, but when you consider that you'll be driving for the rest of your life (I tried to reassure her) one week isn't that long. Not sure if it soaked in or not. On Saturday we went shopping at the Coral Ridge Mall to buy a few of the things that she wanted for her birthday (mostly at Holister, American Eagle, Scheels, and PacSun). I was even able to squeeze in a quick trip for me at Barnes and Noble....

The party happens on Thursday night. I'm not sure just how many people she invited....or how many are coming...and I don't really want to know....

We love you Elizabeth-Happy Birthday!

Finished Painting

I finally finished the painting. I finished it last night and scanned it in at 11:00 pm. The painting is done on an 8x8 canvas from Dick Blick. {It has been sitting around waiting for inspiration for quite some time.} Then I hung up the original in my cube on the "wall" when I got to work this morning. It totally brightens up the area. I love it!! Happy Friday-have a great weekend!

Thursday-Playing in the Studio

Last night I decided to work on some paintings. My inspiration comes from Traci Bautista and her "Springtime" print on Etsy-her blog can be found here. I totally have to learn by copying first. Once the techniques are embedded in my brain, then I can draw on them to create my own stuff. Until then...I do a lot of pointing to other people's work :) Anyway-I am still loving her Creativity Unleashed class! I haven't been doing a lot of "finished" paintings lately, just a lot of backgrounds that I have been scrapbooking on, or creating journal pages for. So I had a GREAT time creating these pieces. The above piece is a 9x12 painting done on watercolor paper. The other inspiration for the painting is some new paint that I just ordered from Heidi city. It can be found here. The colors I bought are icee, betty, and cotton candy (under accessories)-of course I had to order a couple of other things as well. What I liked about the piece was the colors and the flowers. What I didn't like was that the background was a little bland.

That's where this piece comes in. I didn't like the flowers so much on this piece, but I LOVE the background and the stems. Tonight I am working on an 8x8 canvas piece that will hopefully take what I like from the above 2 paintings and merge them so that I can take the piece to work and brighten up the "Pod" as they are known at work (6 cubes=1 pod). Keep in mind that I don't often spend a lot of time in the pod. I also work in the lab a lot and do some running to different buildings as well.

This is the front cover of a journal that I created using a combination of techniques learned in Traci Bautista's class as well as a couple of techniques from her book which can be found here.

This is the back of the journal. I am totally loving the painted pages inside the journal too. In fact, my post from yesterday was written on one of the pages of the journal and scanned on my scanner. Gotta go-boy is it warm in here! Hubby just put the AC in the attic window. Back to creating soon. Happy Thursday!

Mini-Book

Here is a look at pages that I created for a mini-book. I started it as a way to experiment with watercolors on cotton duck canvas fabric. The photos were printed on the "wallets" setting on my computer, and the pages are 6x6. The paints I used were just plain old Crayola watercolors with water. I love the effect! I plan to sew the pages together soon, but I wanted to scan them individually first. Happy Tuesday!

In the Studio...

I realized that it's been quite a while since I posted any of my project stuff, so here is some of what I have been working on in the studio! Above is an 8.5x11 layout that I started by painting on a sheet of watercolor paper in a color combo that I was playing around with. It sort of sat around and I would add things to it as I walked by it sitting on the table. Finally, i decided it was time to just FINISH IT and put the definition sticker on it and called it DONE.

The 2 photos above were inspired by a class that I am taking online called Creativity Unleashed that is taught by Traci Bautista. I love her style and I have learned a ton of new techniques and ways of creating and "unleashing" my creativity since taking her class. There are 2 weeks remaining and I am not ready to be done with the class yet! There are several different types of acrylic paint, gesso, and spray inks, as well as marker for the drawing. I love these colors together! The paintings are done on a cotton duck fabric that I bought at JoAnn's.

This is a 12x12 canvas (cotton duck) page inspired by donna downey's kits. The kits are here. I just cut down the canvas to match the 12x12 scrapbook page size and painted it in one of my favorite blue acrylics. Then I painted the bird which is also one of donna downey's designs for Prima-I think the words are from a supply list she had on her website as well. I love this photo of Sarah and I from Elizabeth's confirmation night! I threw on some pink flowers and sewed a piece of ribbon on (both from Prima) and Voila!!

I did the stitching with my ancient sewing machine...

Here is a close up of the words. They are applied with gel medium and then I added some Ranger ink. (Sarah-your directions for the gel medium transfers are coming. I sent the email and then realized that I forgot to send you directions. I have them typed up, just need to send them off.)Aaaaahhhhh......good times.

While I was taking photos of my projects in the studio, Tigger decided to hang out on the ledge at the top of the landing. She looked so cute that I had to add her. Happy Weekend!!!

Prima {donna downey} Canvas Album Page

I am really proud of this page, so I had to post it as soon as I uploaded the photos. I LOVE this photo of my husband! (taken earlier this week in the back yard and printed on my Epson Stylus Photo 280). The canvas was painted with red paint, then the heart was collaged onto the page (the heart was cut out of an old book that my Mom was going to throw out!)

Then I used a "B" stamp with white paint onto the page with a Making Memories foam alpha stamp. I used my sewing machine to sew some zigzag stitches onto the photo.

I wanted an acrylic heart, but I was out of those, so I found my last large acrylic flower. The button was part of a random set of buttons that I ordered from jenni bowlin's retail site.

Finally-the purple and pink outlining around the heart was done using Portfolio oil pastels. I love the way the page turned out! Happy Saturday!

National Scrapbook Day Self Portrait

This was me last Saturday working on a layout on National Scrapbook Day. What would I do without a tripod and a self-timer? Happy Saturday!

Layer Album Part 1