Thriving Art

If only my Monday had been as peaceful as this little image of a golden sunset. It was anything BUT, headache made me sick to my stomach, car stopped running about a mile from the house; had to walk home in the heat, jeans and dress shoes. Plus I found that my purse weighs about 50lbs around a 1/4 mile down the road! But ALAS I got home took a cool shower and made this pretty little card. The sun was stamped on black glossy cs and embossed with gold. The sun itself was first painted white so the yellow, red and orange would show on the black. I found an old can of spray webbing in the garage the other day, I'm surprised it still worked when I used it on the background black. All are mounted on a metallic gold cs and then mounted on a glossy black card. Check out the other submissions to the Gingersnap Creations challenge here: http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2010/07/gc63-random-redhead-challenge-sunshine.html

Over at Paper Play the challenge is with colors ( ooooh my favorite ) This week it it blue, cream and one other color. check out all the entries here: http://paperplaychallenges.blogspot.com/2010/07/10-week-29-colour-combo.html I decided to use navy blue, cream and a mirrored fuchsia cs. I love the fuchsia and navy together. My swirling lady is from Stamp Tramp and the sentiment is from Stampa Rosa. The sketch is from the Gingersnap yahoo group. If ya haven't joined this group your missing out on some great gals and art!

Over at Gingersnap Creations the shades of blue challenge is still going on for a couple more days. Catch all the entries at: http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2010/06/gc60-color-challenge-shades-of-blue.html Using an image from the my lights out batch, this card came about. There is just something about coloring the image with markers and then spritzing with water that I love. I think my Prisma colors are getting a wee bit jealous! LOL This "water color" image just kept saying KEEP IT SIMPLE. ( am I the only one that hears these little voices?) This tulip is a rather large stamp, so simple is almost a must, unless it is trimmed out then remounted. I must CONFESS yesterday I bought a new stash of 100 markers :-O just to have a better variety of colors to play with. They don't blend as well as my Tombows but they are going to be GREAT for this technique!

So what have I done with all my "water color" images from the night the lights went out in Shafter? Well I created this card for a second entry in the Gingersnap Creations marker challenge! http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2010/07/gc62-spicy-supply-challenge-markers.html Well, brown is not usually the color I pick for this flower, but I do like the aged look it gave the image. It is from Anna Griffin. I used a couple of shades of brown markers on the stamp, then spritzed with water and stamped the image on a tan cs. Once it was dry I tore around the edges, aged with some ink and wa-la! The square is a mother of pearl tile that fell off a sheet of them at work.......lucky me! LOL

Here is a red HOT little tag I created for the Gingersnap challenge. Believe me when I say it has been HOT here is southern California. We have had a week of over 100', supposed to only be 102' today and then drop to 99'. ( I may have to find a sweater LOL ) The GC site is where to find this HOT little challenge check it out at: http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2010/07/gc61-chestnut-theme-challenge-heat.html I used a large 3 3/4" X 5 3/4" laminate tag for the base. It was on a chain of samples when I worked at the cabinet co. Over the top are layers of many things, ink stained paper towel, embossed fabric softener sheet, tissue paper and mulberry paper. The sun image is stamped on light yellow tissue and then decoupaged onto the top of the tag. The letter were stamped onto an ink dyed water color paper, then trimmed out. A red deco with my Cricut, brass charm and yarns finished it up.

I was busy coloring stamps with my markers, then spritzing them with water, then stamping. Just having a good ole time, the music blasting from the PC, trying this, then trying that. BOOM! no power. Geesh! This house is past dark and way into black when the lights go out! Well, anyway, I did manage to get a few images stamped choosing different colors and different papers. This all came about after visiting this blog spot: http://stempelatelier.blogspot.com/2010/03/voorjaar.html Mine are absolutely not even close to the beautiful images Elli has made with the same technique. She also has a to-die-for-stamp for this. You need to check it out. Now that I have "played" with this technique, and made more than enough images, guess I'll try a few different layouts, hopefully the power will stay on tonight. It is still in the 90's and it is 8:30PM here.........and HUMID. NOT a typical CA heat wave, and I need that A/C working tonight!

Using markers for coloring an images IS a challenge for me. I prefer colored pencils that are soft and blendable, markers always seem so flat, or the stroke marks turn me off. Today I started with a glossy cs and three colors of pink and really practiced blending with them. This has really given me a deep appreciation for the cards that all of you make with markers. This card took me almost all day to complete! I guess I could break down and try some Copinks, my old Tombows are a little hard to work with. Any other suggestions, leave them in my comments I really would like to know what all of you "ink" girls use.