Simon Says Stamp & Show Challenge

Hi everyone, I hope you all having a great week.  Things have been a bit crazy lately so I'm a bit off on my posting schedule.  Hopefully things will smooth out soon and we can return to a normal schedule.  Any-who, I got so great new last week!  I won the $50.00 gift certificate for the Simon Says Stamp and Show, Get Messy challenge!!  Whoo Who!!!!!  Do you play along with them?  If you don't, you should!

Have a great day friends, I hope you'll join us for the PWP hop tomorrow.  It'll kick off at 8:00 am CST.

Asta manana!!

Art Journal - I am.....

Thank you all for your sweet comments on yesterday's post, "Love Birds".  I'm so glad you all liked it and enjoyed seeing it come together.  Today I finished up an art journal page that I started over the weekend.  This page is the very first page of my Donna Downey Inspiration Journal.  As you can probably tell from my page I was needing some reminders and what better way to start the journal right....

This actually started out with some left over molding paste from a stencil, Postbox Red Dylusions and some gold paint.  You can see what it looked like on my FB page: HERE.

I did a little more stenciling, inking and highlighting while I thought about what I wanted this page to be and say.  Then it hit me "I choose to be happy" like in Rihanna's song.

So with my favorite Signo pens I started adding my lettering and did some doodling.

I actually stamped this on the inclusion back in December and it ended up working great for this page.  All this has is some over spray from the other page, some inking and the journaling.

I even added little hearts to the doodling down the seam :D  Thanks for stopping by today.  I truly appreciate every visit and comment.  Have a Beautiful Day!!!

Love Birds

Hello, Hello!  Did you all have a good weekend?  Mine seems like it just flew by.  I did get a chance to complete a couple of projects and I have a couple of others started.  So today, I've got a new altered project to share with you!! 

This is a 10x6 wooden plaque and I'm calling this one "Love Birds".

I picked up this plaque at Ross for $.49, not bad huh.

I pulled the bird off, applied gesso, then adhered scraps of fabric and patterned papers.  Then I applied another layer of gesso and stenciled with some Dylusions.

Next came some red paint, molding paste and a Prima stencil.

I let it sit for about 24hrs to make sure the molding paste was dry.  Then I accented with some light blue paint and a white pen.

I found this sentiment in my scrap bin.  I stamped it on some canvas but never used it.  I also did some other stamping here and there for interest.

I added swirls with my 3-D Enamels.  I really love this stuff the only down side is the drying time so when I use it I normally set it aside and start a new project.  I also used some Tim Holtz crackle paste for some added texture.

You know its funny because I use to really have trouble working with purple but I noticed that I seem to be reaching for it more and more.  Well that's it my sweet bloggie friends!!  

Thanks so much for stopping by & have a beautiful day!!!

Happy Friday!

Hey friends, I've got a super fast post for you today because I have to run but I wanted to let you know that I'm sharing a new project over at The Aviary

I hope you get a chance to check it out.  Have a wonderful weekend & thanks for stopping by!!!

Mark Your Calenders!!

Hi everyone!!  I'm just popping in really quickly to say hi and to catch you up with what's going on in my little world.  I've been working on some projects every chance I get but none that I can share with you just yet.  I do have a post coming up on Friday over at The Aviary for Paper Wings Productions so keep an eye out for that.  We've had a busy week around here because my DH and son have been working out of town.  Then my grand baby caught a 24 hr bug but luckily he's doing much better now.  Oh and tomorrow is a very special day for us because our son is receiving the Cub Scout Arrow of Light Award at his Blue and Gold Banquet.  I just know I'm gonna cry when he's up there and the Order of the Arrow Scouts are doing the crossover ceremony.  He's been in Cub Scouts since 1st grade and the Arrow of Light award is the highest Cub Scout award he can get.  The crossover ceremony is to celebrate his Arrow of Light award as well as him leaving the cub scouts and entering boy scouts.  I'm tearing up just thinking about......I'm so proud of him.  I'll post pics to celebrate his scouting journey sometime next week.

I also wanted to let you all know about the upcoming Paper Wings Productions Design Team Blog Hop on March 1st.  Our theme is "Winged Things" and the lovely and talented Heather Lynn Novinger will be joining us as our guest designer.  We'll also have some blog candy up for grabs, so be sure to mark your calenders and tell all your friends!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by, HUGZ!!!!

Fairy Whispers - Altered Journal

Hi there!  Today I have a really cool altered miniature journal to share with you.  

Isn't that neat?!  Well ok, this is not the best pic but the rest are much better..I promise.

See better right ;D  I started out by layering scraps of papers from my workspace on the cover.  Then applying layers of pink and purple using Dylusion inks and paints.  I used a stamp from Glitz - Afternoon Muse and embossed with metallic powder.  This stamp was my inspiration for the whole design.

I added more texture using 3-D enamels in gold.  I did some more embossing around the edges, this really helped give the journal the look of leather.  I used a white Signo pen to outline the letters to help them stand out.

I applied all of the same treatments to the back of the journal for a cohesive design.

I added some sheer ribbons and charms to my stash.

At this point I really felt like something was missing so I started digging through my rubons and found these beautiful Prima rubons from their Reflections collection.  All of the flowers and butterflies are just what my journal needed to come together.  Finally I added a little sparkle using some Stickles and I was done.  This is the first "fairy" themed project I've ever done so I was wasn't sure at first but I love the way it turned out in the end.  I think I'll definitely be doing more of them!

I'd like to WELCOME my newest bloggie friend Rosie!!  Thank you so much for stopping by and following along!  Have a beautiful and creative day!!

Royal Tag

Hey there my creative peoples!!  I hope you all had a great weekend.  Ours was jam packed with birthday celebrations.  We celebrated my DH's birthday and another very special birthday.  You see my DH and our sweet grand daughter share the same birthday.  I did manage to work in some crafty time.  I started several projects but they're being a little temperamental  lol.  So I decided to dig into my stash of unfinished tags and put this together:

The card is from my haul of vintage items that I shared with you on Friday and everything else is either from my stash or scrap bin.  I always love when I can use up some of the scraps on my desk or something that has been in my stash for a long time.  I'm just a few things away from being on hoarders, lol!

See the white and red embossed heart behind the king?  That is from a scrap that I've been holding onto for around six years, lol, see what I mean......hoarding, lol.

I used a piece of zipper for the loop up top, some jute twine (love this stuff), a metal star (miniature Christmas ornament), a pin and a Prima charm.

The sentiment I used is by Autumn Leaves, Rhonna Farrer - Gypsy Style 2 and the heart chip is a Creative Imaginations sticker.

I mixed in some muslin and scraps of white washed corrugated cardboard.

I really like all the texture and dimension I ended up with on this one.  Now if I can just get my other projects worked out I'll be golden.  Well friends if you were lucky enough to get an extended weekend,  I hope you enjoy your day off.  If you had to go back to the grind, I hope you day passes fast and smooth.

I'd like to send a shout out to my newest bloggie friend: Francine Schneider!  Welcome Francine, I'm so happy to have you joining me here in blogland!!!

Thanks so much for all your sweet comments & Have a Beautiful Day!!!

Check out my hauls!

Happy Friday my creative peeps!  I hope you all had a fantastic Valentine's Day with your loved ones.  Mine was pretty great, I got so many chocolate dipped strawberries that I'm sure I'm gaining at least 5lbs just from that, lol.  My DH brought me some on Wednesday then my son brought me some more yesterday :D  Oh but the best part was finding cards on my pillow with Hobby Lobby gift cards (yes, score!) and to make things even better the dog and my grandson slept in which means I caught some extra ZZZs (priceless).  So you know those gift cards were burning a whole in my pocket, lol.  I went into town today and picked up a few things ;D  Before I show that, I wanted to share some of the things I picked up last weekend when my hubby and I went treasure hunting.

Isn't this cool?!  I picked up two briefcases in great condition along with all kinds of trims, buttons, zippers, books, broaches, cards and dominoes.

This is about half of what I picked up but you get the idea right.   Alright, moving on to today's haul:

I picked up these really cool paper mache hearts at Michaels for 70% off.  I had my eye on these for awhile, they're pretty big.  I think they'll be good for some mixed media painting.

Next I went to Hobby Lobby to use my gift cards and hit the clearance isle.  Not bad right, lol.  Well I hope you all have a great weekend hopefully I'll get crafty with all these things and have something to share with you next.

Oh before I head out, I wanna WELCOME my newest bloggie friend Jette!  Thanks so much for joining me :D

Later Gators!

Hop Along with the talent ladies of Berry71bleu!

Join the Berry71bleu designer as they share peeks into their worlds through photos of some of their favorite places and things!

Berry71bleu : Welcome to Berry71Bleu's Blog Hop!

 Happy Valentines Day!   

Lace, Buttons, and Gumdrops: Marivic's February giveaway

Take a look at all this awesomeness that Marivic is giving away to one of her lucky followers!!  Follow the link below to enter!!

Lace, Buttons, and Gumdrops: Marivic's February giveaway: 

Wings - Art Journal

Happy Wednesday my sweet, sweet bloggie friends!  I hope everything is well in your part of the world.  For me all is fine but yesterday I was in a bit of a slump.  Not for any particular reason, just the normal cycles of life I guess.  So I sat down flipping through my smaller art journal and this beautiful background filled will vibrate colors popped out at me just begging to be finished.  Now I have to be honest, I really wasn't in the mood for creating but I've come to realize that it's during these times that its most important to forge on and so I began.  As I worked, I could feel my spirit lifting, my eyes twinkling with excitement and a smile forming on my face as my page came to life.  Ah.....the power of art at its best, and in the end this is what my heart had to share:

I'm not always good at putting my thoughts and feelings into words.  Truthfully, I like keeping them to myself most of the time.  So I tend to look for quotes that express them for me.  Sometimes I choose a quote to use because its what I need to hear or remind myself of at the time.

Since I've been art journaling so much lately, I went to bed thinking about what it really means to me.  What I came up with is that art journaling is more than just a way for me learn.  It's a way for me to share the colors of my soul.

Art journaling is a very personal thing.  We all have our own personal styles of expression.  You know, I often create things with others in mind.  I worry if they're good enough, will my project by liked, would someone want to buy it and so on but these are just for me.

They're the pieces of my soul that I get to keep.  They're the story of my creative journey and through the layers of paint, paper, inks and twine my heart gets to shine purely for me, for my own happiness.

So I have to say, I especially loving the way this page turned out!

I hoped you didn't mind this other side of me today and that I made some kind of sense, lol.  One of my goals this is year is to be more open with my feelings instead of always keeping them locked up.  I'm usually a very quite person but my mind is always racing.  My inner voice is always speaking to me helping me find balance and work my way through this crazy life, lol.

Thank you all so much for stopping by today!  If you've never tried art journaling, I hope I've inspired you to give a try.  Have a BEAUTIFUL day!

I've entered this project in the Simon Says Stamp & Show - Something Messy Challenge

The Aviary: Art Journaling Video - Tutorial Tuesday

I just wanted to let you all know that I've got an art journaling video posted today over at the The Aviary for Tutorial Tuesday.  Here's a quick look at the art journal page I'm creating in the video:

Go check it out and let me know whatcha think!  Have a Terrific Tuesday!!

I Love Your Smile - Card

Happy Monday my crafty friends!  I've got a very quick post for you today because it's been one of those very busy kind of days.  I had to be up and out running errands early so I just got a chance to snap so pics of the card I made yesterday.

I made this cute little card with my PWP Feb Mixed Media kit and this just happens to be the 3rd project I've made with this awesome kit.  

I've added a lot of fun doodling all over this one!

Cute right :D  If you'd like to see my 1st project using this kit, visit the: The Aviary and tomorrow I'll be sharing an art journaling video of my 2nd kit project.  So make sure you check that out ;D

Thanks it folks, I gotta go make sure homework is getting done while I get dinner going!!  Have a AWESOME day & THANKS for stopping by!!!

Zeus and Zoe: February Challenge

Have you joined in on the new Zeus and Zoe "Love" challenge going on this month?!

Follow the link for all of the details and to join in:  Zeus and Zoe: February Challenge!!

Celebrate Life - Art Journal Page

Happy Friday & Welcome to the weekend!!!  Today I have some more art journaling to share with you. For these pages I used the PWP Jan Mixed Media kit which came with small craft bags that I had no idea what do with.  So these two pages were all about finding a way to use them :D

Everything I used on these pages can be found in the Jan kit with the exception of my paints and inks.

I ended up stamping the craft bags with the butterfly wings, splitting them open a bit, inking and applying a layer of gesso on them.

Here is a closer look at the other page.

I tucked in some of the chipboard stickers here and there.

That's it friends, short and sweet cuz I know you wanna get on with your weekend!
Thank you all for stopping by today and for all of your sweet comments!

Have a Wonderful Weekend!!!

I entered this project in the DL.ART Thankful Thursday Linky Party: Anything Goes