Hello Again

 

Greetings friends. It haas been a while, hasn’t it? I can’t believe my last post was in August of last year. Time really does pass by quickly. I guess now is as good of a time as any to say that I am going to do things a bit differently on my blog. You may want to stay for the ride, and you might choose not to. In any case, I don’t take it personally! If you just want to see card samples that I am creating, the best place is over on Instagram. My user name there is stampjournal.

A lot of my blog in the past highlighted classes I was teaching or card designs I was creating for various stamp companies. I do still design for Memory Box, but most of those creations are over on the Memory Box blog. 

I have spent some time recently going over my posts through the years, and I got a bit nostalgic. I used to post more about what was going on in my life. Sometimes I shared what I was creating. Sometimes it was trips I took or events in my life. I decided I wanted more of that on my blog. I want a diary format that will record what I am doing and thinking. The blog moving forward will be more for myself. Anyone who wants to follow is welcome, but the topics will probably be as scattered as I am. I do know that a lot will focus on art in different forms. I have been using art for self reflection and healing.

Some of you know, and some of you don’t know that I have been battling endometrial cancer for several years. It has taken up a good chunk of my time. I think this is the first time I am mentioning it on my social media. Part of me thinks it would have been good to have a written record of the really bad times: the year with all the hospital stays, the surgeries, the radiation treatments, the chemo, losing my hair, the years of wound care, the physical struggles, and the pain. Perhaps it is better that there are no written records. I don’t know. I am still in cancer treatment, but I am in a very different place. Currently, I am in a more reflective place, and a lot of it is intertwined with art.

I have utilized probably every cancer therapy offered at my cancer center. You name it, and I have done it. I have even participated in equine therapy! However, I have really resonated with art therapy. I haven’t had good therapy experiences in the past, but I feel like I was waiting to find art therapy. I am also very grateful for my mindful journal group at the cancer center. It is a combination of a support group and art journaling sessions. 

All of this yammering has been very long way to introduce the picture I am sharing at the top of this post. It is one of the pages from my mindful journal group. I have been doing more art collages as well as junk journals. The pages above were created from magazine clippings and were reflections of issues in the past and visions for the future. I didn’t realize how much I would enjoy art journaling. Some pages are really personal and are just for me. Some I will share.

My thought for this blog moving forward is that I am just going to share my life and create a record for myself. I wish I had blogged about the library art classes I took that helped me get back into crafting when I didn’t feel so well. I wish I had blogged about the Frida Kahlo exhibit I saw in Richmond. I wish I had blogged about the glass art event I attended in Norfolk. I don’t have a specific blogging schedule in mind. It will be when I want to record something or when I feel inspired.

I truly hope that everyone is doing well. Thanks for your support in the past and for letting me take my blog in a new direction.  Laura

Sketch Challenge

 

 

Greetings friends. I participated in the Freshly Made Sketches challenge #701 and thought I would share my design.

This is what the sketch looked like:

I have been anxious to make Halloween cards, so I thought I would use that for the theme of my card. I almost went with tall, skinny pumpkins for the design, but I decided on ghosts instead.

To make the card, I took a forest embossing folder by Memory Box and inked the flat side with black Versafine ink. I then placed dark gray cardstock in the folder and embossed it. By adding the ink, the trees remained the gray of the cardstock and the flat "night" areas picked up the black ink.

I wanted a bit more of a spooky factor, so I added a black graveyard scene by Memory Box on the bottom. All that was left was to add my sentiment to the ghost on the right and pop up all of the ghosts with foam tape.

It ended up being a quick and easy card, but I really liked it.

Thanks for stopping by today! 

 

Garden Frame

 

Greetings friends. I thought I would share something other than a card today. I made a frame for my mom as part of her birthday gift and repurposed an ugly frame from the thrift store:

 

I thought spending a $1 for my base was the right idea. I took the frame apart and then painted it with lavender acrylic paint and a foam paint brush. It took two coats to get good coverage on a wooden frame.

Next, I die cut a couple of peony blooms. Because the frame was for my mother, I made sure that they were purple:

 

I added a little extra shading with some Copic markers. To finish the frame, I added an orange/yellow butterfly that I thought was a nice contrast for the purple and added some green leaves to fill the area. Here is another viewpoint:

 

Before I gave her the frame, I added a personal message to the white part to wish her a happy birthday. She can remove that message and use the frame as she chooses.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Mouse Birthday

 

Greetings friends. Earlier this week, I promised another birthday card. This time I used the new Memory Box Town Mouse die. I thought it would be fun to combine the mouse with some of the other Memory Box birthday elements such as presents, a party hat, and a balloon.

To make the card, I die cut all of my pieces out of white XPress It cardstock and then colored the pieces with Copic markers. The exception to this was the balloon that was cut out of yellow cardstock and sponged with darker yellow ink on one side and the party hat cut out of pink cardstock and embellished with white circles from a white pen.

Here is a close up of all the elements:

 

He is such a cute little guy to color! To finish the card, I added a pink rhinestone to the party hat, added white highlights to the black eyes and added a string to the balloon.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Butterfly Birthday

 

Greetings friends. I have two birthday cards to share with you this week, and they are very different from each other. The first card uses a butterfly background die and a lot of glitter.

To make the card, I chose a background piece of paper from the Brilliant Fuchsia paper pack. I chose it because I really liked the pink color and the little metallic gold accents that I was hoping would shine through the glitter:

Next, I put a piece of Elizabeth Crafts double stick tape between the patterned paper and the black die cut. You can't tell from the picture, but the adhesive is exposed through all of the open butterfly holes:

 

 

I then sprinkled all the butterflies with some Art Glitter brand transparent glitter. I chose the Elizabeth Craft tape because it holds glitter really well (it doesn't fall off) and I used the transparent glitter so that the patterned paper would show under the glitter:

 

To finish the card, I added my shocking pink butterfly and happy birthday foil tab. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Art Impressions Challenge- Spritz, Splatter and Paint #407

 

Greetings friends. I was inspired to participate in the latest challenge by Art Impressions called Spritz, Splatter and Paint (#407). I am all about getting a little covered in paint. 

For my card, I wanted to try a night sky because I just got some new white gouache paint and heard that it splatters really well. Gouache is in between a watercolor and acrylic paint. It definitely has a bit more opacity than plain watercolor.

To create my background, I sponged white cardstock with blue, purple and green Distress Oxide ink. I then covered most of the area with Lack Soot Distress Oxide ink. I left some of the underlying colors to peek through and give the impression of a sky with an aurora. To finish the sky, I mixed the white gouache paint with a little water and then splattered it onto the sky using a toothbrush.

For the foreground, I used a traffic light from the Art Impressions Road Trip stamp set. The set comes with different sentiments that fit the sign, but I chose "stamps this way" because I have the image in my head of stampers getting together and thinking it was a good idea to travel a secluded road at night because, well....stamps!

I freehand cut my hills out of grey paper and painted the road with black and white Posca paint pens. I created the moon using a circle punch, cream cardstock and a little Antique Linen Distress Oxide ink.

Here is a close up of the sky:

Thanks so much for stopping by. If you want to join the challenge, you can find all the information here:

 

Another Card from the Weekend

 

Greetings friends. I wanted to share another card I made over my crafty weekend. This card was made using prompts from the Inspired By blog. The current inspo is S'Mores. Here are the two pictures they included:

 

The way their challenge works is that you get to decide what elements of their mood board inspires you. Is it the actual S'Mores? The colors? The layout? You can use as much or as little of the inspiration pieces as you choose.

I went for literal S'Mores on my card because I have really cute S'More dies and sentiments. However, I could have gone with another dessert or leaves in S'More colors, etc. I also chose to use the rectangles from the sketch part of the challenge.

To make the card, I die cut my S'More pieces and added a bit of shading using dye inks and a sponge. Here is a close up:

I then added my sentiment to the center with black ink. Bo the dies and the sentiment were by Impression Obsession.

Thank you so much for letting me share my weekend crafting with you.
 

Cardmaking this Weekend

 

Greetings friends. I have been working on cards this weekend, and I thought I would share. I have a lot of things happening this week, and sometimes it is best to keep your mind distracted with a little crafting.

For my first card I am sharing, I used the sketch challenge from Freshly Made Sketches #692 The sketch looked like this:

 I went with a pretty literal interpretation of the theme. My mind immediately went to one of the first stamps I ever owned. It is a simple landscape sketch by Rubbermoon. It was designed by Dave Brethauer back before he started Memory Box. 

My first thought was to color the progression of a day. Instead, I just painted three interpretations of a day using metallic Twinkling H20 paints. I then cut them down into three squares that would fit onto my card and added a sentiment by Impression Obsession. Here is a close up of the squares:

 I think you can see the metallic paint a bit better in the close up. I do love a sparkly card.

I hope you are all doing well this weekend. Perhaps you had some crafty time as well.

 

Sketch Challenge!

 Greetings friends. I want to share with you a card inspired by Sketch #689 from Freshly Made Sketches.  The sketch looked like this:

I knew that I didn't have to literally have leaves on the side of my card, but I really liked the look and wanted to recreate it for my card.

To cut out my butterflies, I sprinkled some Color Burst watercolor powders onto a mat, spritzed it with water and then placed a piece of photo paper into the colorful puddle. When I was done, I was left with a background piece of paper that looked like this:

 I then die cut a bunch of butterflies and added them to my card on top of an embossed piece of kraft cardstock. I then finished it with a Memory Box thank you label:

 

 Thanks so much for stopping by today!  

A New Technique

 

Greetings friends. I was inspired to try a new technique that I would like to share with you. I learned about it on Splitcoaststampers. If you haven't been there before, it is an online stamping community where people share ideas. I found inspiration in their Drywall Tape Texture technique. If you would like to see a video of the technique, you can view it on YouTube here.

To try this technique, you are going to need some self-adhesive mesh drywall tape. I bought mine at Walmart. In their demo, the tape they used had a square pattern in the mesh. Mine was more of a rectangle pattern. 

Stamp your image onto watercolor paper with black ink and let the ink dry. Cover the area you want with strips of the drywall tape. It is self-adhesive, so it is really easy to place where you want without it shifting or moving. I used two strips of tape because I wanted to cover more of the flower.
 

Next, I dabbed blue Peerless watercolor paint around my flower using a wet paintbrush. Any type of watercolor paint will work, but I used Peerless watercolors in the shade of Alice blue.

Let the paint dry and then remove the mesh from the card.

 

All that was left to do was paint my leaves and petals and add my sentiment. I absolutely loved this technique and will be using it again.

 Have a great weekend!