Happy Hello

I thought for today's post, I would post a card and then follow it with an interesting DC event for those of you who live in the area. That way, people who are here just for the crafts won't have to read as I blather on and on.

I made the clear card posted above as part of the Hero Arts floral challenge. I am mostly happy with how it turned out. Do you ever feel that way when you finish a card/project? Something just feels a little "off" to me. Perhaps it is the fact that the two blues don't match. Hummm.. I just don't know.

Anyway.... to make this card, I took a clear acetate card and stamped a floral background using blue opaque Staz On ink. I have fallen in love with my opaque pads! I bought the pads a while ago and never used them. However, I am going through a clear card phase and have used them a lot lately. I think the opaques are so much better than regular Staz On when stamping on acetate. The results are quite dramatic.

I stamped the flowers onto white, smooth cardstock using my black Memento pad. I colored them with Copic markers but didn't worry about any shading. I wanted the flowers to be solid and bright. I punched out the flowers with an oval punch and added a thick layer of Diamond Glaze over the top to look like glass. I let my Diamond Glaze dry overnight. Trust me, this works best!

I added a blue oval scallop, ribbon, and saying to finish the card. I might have to try doing this card again to get it right (at least in my mind). Then again, I may just move on to another card and another challenge. Decisions, decisions.

Last Friday, I went to go see my friend Julie perform a belly dancing routine in DC. After I got over the fact that it STARTED at 10pm (I am getting to old for this), I was excited to get the chance to check out Artomatic. Basically, Artomatic is an art show that occurs for one month of the year in DC and features over 1100 local artists of all vocations (poets, painters, dancers, musicians, photographers, etc). Someone donates a location, artists display their works, people donate their time to run it, and the public is welcome to visit (for free). My friend Julie said that it was bigger than she anticipated. I figured it would be the size of a community center. Boy, was I wrong. Artomatic takes up 10 FLOORS of a DC office building under construction! Yikes! There is plenty of art to see, lounges, a tattoo parlor, shopping, bar areas, and much, much, more. Trust me, it is something to see.

The picture above is one of the floors of art. It is just to give you an idea of what the interior looks like. We only saw a fraction of all the art.

The best thing about Artomatic is that it houses the finalists of the Washington Post Peeps contest held every year at Easter. For those of you who live out of the country and might not know about Peeps, they are disgusting marshmallow candies sold at Easter in the shape of bunnies or chicks. The Washington Post has a contest encouraging people to make dioramas with Peeps. Here are two of my favorites:

Notice in this one that they made a tiny wig to make an Andy Warhol peep. Plus, they made Peep pop art for the walls. Love it! It is worth clicking on this picture to enlarge it. With a larger picture, you can see that even Marilyn Monroe's hair has Peeps in it. Wow.

One of my favorite movies is "A Christmas Story." I laughed so hard when I saw this one. I could hear the line "Fra-gee-lay...must be Italian" going through my head when I looked at it. Classic!

If you have a chance to go, Artomatic is right next to a Metro stop and is open till June 15th. I just wanted to share.