My Muse

Who Knows Where...

There is a challenge going on at Oscraps to use a free Anna kit, ArtPlay Palette Saffron Villa - and it is a truly gorgeous palette! I was inspired by many of the entries of heritage photos and began thinking of clocks and time and the passage of time and what happens as time goes by...

Whenever we reminisce or talk of things long ago, my dad always says it was "the day before yesterday". As I looked at the other vintage pages, and thought of this favorite photo of my parents, the Judy Collins song "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?" came to mind. That haunting song gave me the last piece of inspiration for making this page.

SUPPLIES  By Anna Aspnes:  ArtPlay Palette Saffron Villa (FREE!!!), 12x12 Page HipsterPlume FotoBlendz No.2, SprayPaint No. 2, Painted Circle Splatz No. 1 BrushSet, ArtsyClocks No. 3 ElementSet, Yesterday and Today Digital Art, FONTS:  King15 & Minion Pro 

Makes me want to notice more...enjoy more... and appreciate more - each moment before it is gone. Thanks for looking!

You Are Loved

Anna asked us which of her products we like best, and I have to say the ArtPlay kits. There are MANY - and I have many favorites among them. The one I used for this card is "Smooch" - and it is definitely on the list.

Her papers are like mini-works of art, and seem to just need to be framed and hung on the wall, so to speak. I used that approach in making this card - finding a special snippet in one of the papers, matting it to black and hanging on a "wall" where I blended in some of her other artwork. I started the project with the digi version (second card below) and then decided to try it as a hybrid as well.

SUPPLIES  ArtPlay Palette Smooch No. 1 Kit by Anna Aspnes, Cardstock: Bazzill White OP, Embellishments: Paper Blooms Coconut (KaiserCraft), Creative Candy Micro-dot Twinkle Stickers (Amuse)

Super-dreary day here - and hard to get a good photo with only unnatural light to work with, but hopefully, you get the idea! I found the focal image printed the best on photo paper, though it is hard to see the difference in paper stock in the photo. I generally use Epson Ultra Photo Paper Lustre. I like the texture of my good ole' Bazzill White OP cardstock and the background image printed on it very nicely. Then mount the image on black cardstock, attach with dimensional foam tape, add a few pale pink gems under the word "loved" and a pretty paper rose - and there you have it.

Here's the digi image I designed originally. It has all the elements, but sometimes it's nice to have the added texture and dimension of the hybrid card.

Thanks for stopping by today!

 

 

If You Don't, Who Will?

If you've been missing Anna's products for the last month, I have some good news for you. Anna's store opens at O'Scraps today with nearly 1000 products at a 35% discount! See her announcement and giveaway here. The giveaway ends today at 3:00 MST - so better hurry...

Thinking through what I might make as my first endeavor on AnnaTeam, I was drawn to one of her recent kits - ArtPlay Palette Find My Way No. 2. I loved how she had a butterfly with other butterfly images offset within (see large butterfly below) and especially that it had dictionary text for the word "follow". I looked online for an interesting quote about following your dreams and found this really cool one by Emerial Lagasse. Who knew he was a philosopher as well as a chef? "If you don't follow your dreams, who will?" It's so obvious, yet so uncommon, isn't it?

This card is all digi, and can be printed right onto cardstock, scored, folded and mailed - but could also work well in a hybrid format. Working with Anna's product brings out the artsy in everyone!

SUPPLIES  Anna Aspnes: ArtPlay Palette FInd My Way No. 2, ArtsyBlendz Origins ElementSet, Katie Pertiet: Alandia Tropics Kit

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a great holiday!

 

 

AnnaTeam and me

Maybe dreams do come true...

When I started blogging about card making in May of 2008, I really hoped to be on a design team. I created and blogged and participated in challenges and submitted my work for publication. But as I delved into digital scrapbooking and graphic design over the last 20 months, my focus moved away from traditional card making and shifted more to learning and experimenting.

At first, all the choices of digital products seemed so completely overwhelming. Then, I noticed that a couple of specific digital designers kept finding their way into my shopping cart. As I continued my journey, a preference for certain artists most definitely began to emerge and Anna Aspnes was on that short list. I was always so taken with her fabulous products. Never being able to draw myself, using her ArtPlay products made me feel like I could be a "real" artisit, too!

And now, she has invited me to be part of her new creative team - AnnaTeam 2011 - with a focus on using her products in digital and hybrid card-making. I am honored, humbled, nervous, excited, and more. Ultimately, though, I am thrilled to be part of this new venture!

Thanks, Anna. Can't wait...

 

Basket of Tags

I have had these dimensional tags on my desk for the last year - always intending to make a set of gift tags for someone. When I saw PaperTrey's recent release with a tag and embellished circles, it seemed the missing link had presented itself. So, I sat down with a matching paper pad and my trusty Wizard and got to work...

SUPPLIES:  Brenda Walton Evergreen Tags Layered Accents & Mat Pack (K&CO), Tag#2 Die, Limitless Layers 1.75 in Circle Collection (PaperTrey Ink), Pure Poppy & Kraft Cardstock (PaperTrey Ink), miscellaneous ribbons

It was easy and fun. I wrapped them in a pretty gold basket and now I have a lovely gift for my Mom's birthday that she can use this Christmas! Here you can see more of the tags:

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Ghostly Boo!

It's been awhile since my last post. I've been doing a lot of digi learning/work, and much less of the traditional card-making. To be truly honest, I don't think I've made a traditional card since early summer, and that attempt was sort of half-hearted.

However, I had so much fun making this digi Halloween card, I just had to share. I even inked the edges (digitally, of course!). The orange paper, "perfectly scary" header and bat swirls are freebies from the wonderful Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals. See links below.

 SUPPLIES Trick or Treat Kit (Baersgarten at Scrapbookgraphics), Date Tags No. 3 (Katie Pertiet - Designer Digitals), Katie Pertiet freebies:  Orange Paper, Bat Swirl, Perfectly Scary, Stamp font, Georgia font.

Happy Haunting, my pretties...

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Now and Forever

Back to cards again for a little while!

SUPPLIES Stamps:  Antique Flower Background (Hero Arts), Simple Little Things (PaperTrey Ink), Ink:  Encore Ultimate Metallic Silver (Tsukineko), Black (Memories), Cardstock:  Smokey Shadow (PaperTrey Ink), Whisper White & Black (SU!), Other:  Lemon Tart Grosgrain ribbon (PaperTrey Ink), Decorative Pearls (Joy! Crafts), Vintage Findings Gem Pins (Making Memories), pearl and crystal (Michael's), Stampin' Dimensionals (SU!)

Such a beautiful background stamp. Embossed in silver, it seems it can stand on its own. Hope you had a great weekend. Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Ten Things I Love About You

Back with another layout inspired by Jessica Sprague's "Pen Tablet Basics for Scrapbookers" class. She encouraged us to enter a contest at Penscrappers, and I made this layout as my entry. All the digi elements I used are from the gorgeous kit by Anna Aspnes they are giving away for free (!) as part of entering this contest.

Today was the last day of the class, and it has really been chock-full of great techniques and lots of inspiration. On this layout, I used my pen (mostly) and was able to use three techniques I learned from the class - enhancing/brightening the eyes, incorporating my own hand-writing and watercolor-brushing-in a photo. This is one of my favorite photos of Thomson in the last couple of years as it shows his different-colored eyes so beautifully. Credit for photo to my ultra-talented photographer neighbor, Tracy.

What fun - and a great way to end a fabulous class. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Life Continues

Here's another digi layout from the Jessica Sprague "Pen Tablet Basics for Scrapbookers" class I am taking. In this week's exercise, we used our pen (and it's pressure sensitive capabilities) to "paint" with brushes, make custom embellishments by tracing chipboard on our tablet, and handwrite journaling. It was a lot of fun - but I think I spent way too much time on it... ha!

Journaling reads: This week in February 2010 brought us 2 giant snowfalls (30" & 12"), totaling a record 63" for the season. Having only been out to shovel snow, I was going stir crazy. My spirits were finally lifted on the 11th when our street was plowed, the sun was shining, and this sweet little bird reminded me that life continues.

If I had been journaling with my computer as I usually do - I would have definitely said more. But since the handwriting space was limited, I edited to fit the space. 

SUPPLIES  Tablet Lesson Week 2 Template (Jessica Sprague), Vintage Photo Frames No. 7 (Katie Pertiet), Date Strip Stamps No. 1 (Katie Pertiet), Snowflake brush and photo overlay from Winter Wonderland Kit - 2ps free kit (Jen Allyson), glittered snowflake from Snow Day kit (Digital Design Essentials), clock face from Yesterday Today kit (Anna Aspnes), Christmas Twill (Ali Edwards), Holly Plume Overlays 12x12 (Anna Aspnes), Artist Edge Overlays No. 02 12 X 12 (Anna Aspnes), background paper from Bag Queen kit (Pixel Canvas), contrasting paper from Harvest Paperie kit (Anna Aspnes), paper in large swirl designs Vintage Paper Reveals (Katie Pertiet), Stereofidelic font (free from internet)

Interesting little story about the bottom right photo where you see my husband shaking hands with a guy from the Virginia Department of Transportation. Ironically, the VDOT guy got stuck in the snow on our road, and my husband had to pull him out with his 1977 Land Cruiser! (Yes - we needed a snow plough on our street in the worst way.) I'm happy to tell you that the snow is about 50% melted and we can actually see some patches of grass again (yay!). Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Coulda-Shoulda-Woulda

Just getting around to posting this one...I started these two cards for an earlier Embellish Challenge (purple, brown, kraft, stripes). I just couldn't get things to work to my satisfaction before the deadline - and walked away. Ever happen to you? 

 Well, when I went back into my craft room, these unfinished cards were just sitting there, looking so pitiful. I hate to be a quitter - and thought I would give them one more go. With the first one, I felt so much better, being able to add in a little pink. And hey, once the deadline was over, I could do whatever I wanted, right?!

I tried the Martha Stewart Vintage Leaf Glitter. It's pretty and sparkly, but I was hoping it would apply like other metal leaf products. This stayed chunky. Also, I dyed the acrylic heart with alcohol ink.

SUPPLIES  Stamps:  Loving Words (Ali Edwards Technique Tuesday), Basic Borders Retro (PaperTrey Ink), Ink:  Chocolate Chip Kraft (SU!), Plum Pudding (PaperTrey Ink), Passion Purple Alcohol Ink (Pinata), Cardstock:  Kraft (PaperTrey Ink), Other:  Acrylic heart from Bracket, Book & More (Fancy Pants), gem (Studio 18), Vintage Leaf Glitter (Martha Stewart), Clear Embossing Powder (Hampton Arts)

Here's the second card:

SUPPLIES  (not mentioned above):  Plum Pudding Grosgrain ribbon (PaperTrey Ink), sparkly thread (EK Success), heart charm (Michael's).

Hope your Valentine's Day is fabulous! Thanks so much for stopping by today.