Inspire Me Thursday - I Have Something to Say

I've never been much of a talker. Words always escape me, or I think of the right thing to say when the opportunity is past. Maybe it has something to do with growing up in a family where I never could get in a word edgewise. Or maybe it's because I thought nobody was listening to me anyway. I've always, always struggled to express myself verbally. Shyness is one of my demons! So in recent weeks, as I've admired the submissions over at Inspire Me Thursday, I've noticed that so many of the artists there are able to express themselves so beautifully, not only with their visual art, but with their words as well. Pattie, Cheryl, Royce, Leah, and many others have such a gift for words! Suddenly, I found myself thinking, "I have nothing to say! Everyone but me can speak!" Then I realized that I do have something to say, a LOT to say, it's just that I have to say most of it visually. And I know that my art cyber-friends can hear what I'm saying, even if I'm not writing about it! I'm so thankful for all of you who speak my language!

Anyway --it's "Open Topic" at Inspire Me Thursday this week, so I thought I'd share some more of my "tiny works". I'm still using these little Prismacolor pencil drawings for motivation and inspiration. These are all 1-3/4" square. Here's how it works: I keep small pieces of bristol board on hand, and when a design pops into my head (which can happen at any moment - while reading, watching HGTV, playing with the cats -- you know how it goes), I grab one of these squares, quickly sketch my idea in pencil, then immediately make it permanent with a Micron pen. Then I color it with Prismacolor pencils, trying not to think too much about what colors I use. I may (or may not!) use these squares in a larger piece. Some of these may be combined with the background pictured here, which is acrylic paint on watercolor paper. Who knows?

Wednesday Stamper - Open Theme

The challenge at Wednesday Stamper is currently an open theme, so I'm sharing a stamped greeting card in one of my favorite stamping styles. I love to do multi-layered backgrounds, typically with a text background stamp, or sometimes with musical notes or other all-over textures. Here I've used "French Script" from Stampin' Up!, and have added a floral stamp and a subtle leaf stamp. For the greeting, I've used the same layering technique, but without the background text. I also enjoy using gold cord, so I've wrapped it around my greeting here.

This will be going out in the mail in the next couple of days. Who will be seeing this in her mailbox? Hmmm, maybe it's you.....

Daring Cardmakers - All Checked Out

The challenge this week over at Daring Cardmakers is as follows:

"Its my turn (Jane) to dare this week. Okay -are you ready? For my dare you can choose any theme for the card BUT it must incorporate 'Checks', whether it be gingham paper or ribbon or squares, any thing really as long as it incorporates some kind of shape with 4 equal sides....... so go on- I dare you to think outside the square/step out of the box ..............easy as, eh ?!!"

I've had this tiny checked frame rubber stamp forever, and had never used it, so this dare motivated me to take it out of the box. Since I still haven't managed to get a Cuttlebug, I embossed the butterflies by hand, snipped some petals off a bunch of flowers I had in the closet (I knew they'd come in handy eventually!), and added my usual eyelet. Simple and sweet!

There's a Chocolate Cake In Here Somewhere

Tonight was the final class of Wilton Course 2, and here's a shot of my grand finale cake. I had a blast in this class, but it was accelerated due to our teacher's travel schedule, so now I'm very tired! Week after next I'll be starting Course 3, and may be taking Course 4 simultaneously (big class discounts at Michael's in August). I must be out of my mind! I hate to cut this cake after all the work, but it is chocolate under all that icing, so....

Marble Magnet Tutorial

Well, maybe it isn't real art, but when I'm short on time, or I just can't get myself going with my usual art materials and I'm feeling the need for some instant gratification, I work on a quick and easy crafting project. Besides, there's nothing wrong with dressing up your workspace a little bit, and if you have a metal surface in your studio that you use for posting bits of inspiration, then these little magnets are both practical and fun.

Supplies:

- clear mosaic marbles from the craft store (These have a flat side and a domed side.)

- small round magnets (need to be a little smaller than your marbles)

- Mod Podge or other craft glue/sealer that dries clear (Edit - 11/13/08: I now use E-6000 glue for a durable, transparent bond.)

- scraps of decorative paper or magazine pages (most of mine come from catalogs or magazines)

- Sharp scissors or a round hole punch that's slightly smaller than your marble

- Circle template (optional)

Directions:

- After collecting your scraps of paper, cut them to fit the back of your marble. You can use a circle template from an office supply store, if you have one, to draw your shapes. Or, use an appropriately sized hole punch -- it's easier and a lot faster.

- Apply Mod Podge to the back of your marble (flat side) and place your tiny circle of paper on this, right side down. You want to be sure your image shows through the front side of your marble, so be careful you don't apply it backwards. Also make sure the entire front surface of your image is stuck to the marble - no loose edges.

- Carefully smooth the paper against the marble to get out any air bubbles.

- Apply more Mod Podge to the back of your image (again, covering it completely), then press a magnet onto this, being careful to keep everything centered.

- Press all layers together to squeeze out any excess glue.

- Set aside, magnet side down, to dry. The image beneath the glass may appear milky at first, but the milkiness should go away when the glue is completely dry.

Inspire Me Thursday - Goddess

Goddess of My Imagination

6 x 6 inches, Prismacolor pencils and ink on bristol board

The creative prompt this week over at Inspire Me Thursday is "Goddess". I wanted to think about this for a couple of days, so I spent most of the weekend immersed in Harry Potter (yes, I finished it, and all I will say right now is "Wow!" - don't want to spoil it for anyone). Every now and then I took a break from reading to get some gardening done, go to Erin's birthday party, and to contemplate art. So when I visited the IMT website earlier today, I was left speechless by all the beautiful goddesses everyone has been working on.

This is the Goddess of My Imagination, who sees color, movement, and life all around her. She started as a doodle in my sketchbook, and was supposed to be a quick, simple sketch, but became more complex as I worked with her. I think I may have also been influenced by all the violets I've been making in my cake decorating class!

I do love working with colored pencils. I think it's the child in me, who has always loved coloring books and big boxes of crayons. They're portable as well, so I can take them just about anywhere I might want to draw.

Daring Cardmakers - Pockets of Fun

The new dare over at Daring Cardmakers is as follows:

"I’d like to see lots and lots of pockets. Pockets full of posies, Brass in Pocket (love the Pretenders).Pockets on clothes, Pockets from clothes, Library Pocket, Pockets of this and Pockets of that."

I love to make pocket cards (maybe it has something to do with the requirement that every outfit I wear has at least one pocket), so I've done two cards for this dare.

I was feeling the urge to use the hammer again, so the first card is held together with eyelets and has a "Happy Birthday" greeting tucked inside.

On the second card I used some tiny punch-out tags (just love little stuff like that!), and made a pocket for a thankful heart.

Daring Cardmakers - Faking It!

The mid-week dare at Daring Cardmakers is as follows:

"For our Little Extra challenge this week, we'd like you to 'Go Faux it'. Yes, all we want you to do this week is to use something fake on your cards. For instance you could make fake ribbon, fake brads or fake chipboard - we think you talented folk can come up with lots more 'let's pretend' ideas so we can't wait to see your ideas."

I had made the faux stone background ages ago, before alcohol inks became widely available, and never came up with a use for it, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity. My other faux elements are the fake embossed metal and the fake copper patina charm, which is made of shrink plastic colored with Pearl Ex powders and metallic ink.

Inspire Me Thursday - Bold (Tiny Works - Part 1)

The prompt this week at Inspire Me Thursday is "bold". Instead of a new creative interpretation of the prompt, I decided this time to offer what has become part of my creative process in recent months. This tiny (3 in. x 3 in.) Prismacolor pencil drawing of bold color and movement is actually part of my journey back to art after a long creative famine. I'll try to keep the story short!

In 2005 we were living on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi when Hurricane Katrina devastated the region. We were very lucky (didn't even have to file an insurance claim!), but I was shocked by the devastation in my community and in my neighborhood. I had already been struggling creatively, but suddenly I was paralyzed by the pain of my neighbors and friends, and by the stories of suffering that I heard first-hand every day. So I went to work, or waited in long lines to buy groceries, or drove along the beach looking for familiar places that no longer existed, but didn't make art. Many people find this sort of event creatively stimulating, but I simply could not pick up a pencil or a paintbrush, or even take out my sewing machine. I struggled even harder than before, trying to find a way to put something to paper or canvas, and several months later, after moving back to Alabama, I pulled myself together and decided that I would have to tackle this problem one small step at a time. So every day my goal was to make a tiny piece of art, no matter how simple, and what you see here is my very first attempt. After that, even if I just painted a bold square of color on a scrap of canvas, that was enough. And although I still struggle with ideas more often than not, I at least have a process that lets my mind get in the right place for making art. Now I really enjoy making small things, such as little drawings or itty-bitty craft projects, some of which I may be sharing in a few days.

Oh, and by the way, staying home during a powerful hurricane when you live only a couple of miles from the beach? Really bad idea.

Sunday - Pink

Andrea's Color Week wraps up with pink, so here's my final photo. Hope everyone has another colorful, creative week!

Daring Cardmakers - The Haberdashery Department

The dare this week at Daring Cardmakers:

"Your card can be any theme you like, just as long as it's got something you'd find in a Haberdashery Department on it."

Well, here in the southern U.S., "haberdashery" isn't something you hear very often, so I had to think about it for a moment. Back in the day, we bought supplies like this at the "dry goods store" in our small town, and now we just refer to such departments as the fabric or notions department.

I'm still in the middle of my Harry Potter re-readathon, which I must complete in the next few days, so I felt compelled to make this card as quickly as possible (my excuse for submitting such a basic card!). I'm also trying to use up some of my small paper and cardstock scraps, so that's what I did here. My haberdashery items are the snaps and the ribbon. I love using my snapsetter (although I rarely set them in clothing) -- it's an excuse to bring out the hammer and pound away!

Saturday - Red

As "color week" winds down, here's a solitary photo for today's color - red.

Friday - Orange

Lots of flowers here, but hey, that's what I'm about sometimes!

Create a Connection - Photo Thursday: Cool Ideas

Katherine is hosting Photo Thursday for the month of July over at Create a Connection, and she has asked how the rest of us are staying cool this summer. Well, we're used to sweating it out with 90+ temperatures here on the Gulf Coast, but the heat still takes its toll. Thank goodness for central air conditioning, lots of ice, and our pool!

Thursday - White, Brown, & Black

My "color week" photos for Thursday...

Create a Connection - Getting to Know You

Over at Create a Connection, Holly is hosting "Getting to Know You Day" for the month of July, and she has posed the following questions:

1) What are some of your memories about the "great outdoors?" (games played outside, camping, hiking, bike riding, running in the rain)

Wow, this question prompted a flood of memories for me. My most memorable "growing up" years were spent in LaPorte, Texas, where I spent my summers with the boys - my 3 brothers and my 4 cousins (all boys). Back in the day, the neighborhoods all had shallow ditches running along the streets, and every time it rained and the ditches filled up, we would be out catching crawfish, or crawdads, as we called them. My oldest brother, Brandt, had built a cage of sorts, made of scrap wood and window screen, and we would submerse it enough to keep our catch alive, get as many of the poor critters as we could, then release them all til the next rain. There were many long evenings of play -- usually we wouldn't come inside until Mama called us for supper, and by then our bare feet were filthy and I'm sure we didn't smell so good either! There were also hours of lying on the trampoline, looking at the stars with my cousin John, who knew all the constellations and who made sure I knew quite a few of them too. And then there were the afternoons crabbing from one pier or another, and two weeks of camping with the family every summer... Those really were the good old days!

2) Do you spend a lot of time in the outdoors, or have you lost touch with nature? If you've lost touch with it, how could you incorporate more of the outdoors in your every day life or would you want to?

I don't spend nearly as much time outdoors as I used to, but I haven't lost touch with nature either. I do try to spend as much time as possible in my flower beds, we go to the beach fairly often (it's so close, there's no excuse not to!), and we frequently spend time on the causeway over Mobile Bay. Like Holly, I have some asthma issues, so if the air quality is very poor, I try to stay indoors as much as possible on those days.

3) What small thing can you do (or are you doing) to ensure that the earth and all it's bounty will be here for future generations?

We've been trying hard to minimize our impact on the environment, by carefully planning all our errands and keeping our driving to a minimum, and by recycling. We have also started composting, and I'm amazed at the volume of stuff we were throwing in the trash that we could have been composting. Maybe next summer I'll be growing some vegetables in nutrient-rich compost! I also like to shop for little treasures for my artwork at second-hand shops -- might as well rescue all that good stuff and use it to make something pretty!

4) Can you share one or two links that showcase the great outdoors or some way to help heal the earth?

I love to visit You Grow Girl, where I got the inspiration for my compost bin. I also enjoy reading treehugger.

5) Feel free to share a picture of you in your environment, enjoying the outdoors and just plain having fun.

Well, it's not me, but that's a photo of a special family member, Charley, at the beginning of this post. She's a portly girl....

Wednesday - Green

Today's color is green. Green is plentiful here, as long as you're willing to photograph plants. But why not, it's summer, after all!

Tuesday - Blue & Turquoise

Blue & turquoise are the colors of the day, so here you go... I was surprised at how easy it was for me to find blue in and around my house, and it was hard to choose what to post here.

Monday - Yellow

Over at hula seventy, the very talented Andrea is having a "color week". This looks like fun, not to mention a bit challenging, so I'll play along. The colors will be as follows:

monday: yellows
tuesday: blues/turquoises
wednesday: greens
thursday: whites/browns/blacks
friday: oranges
saturday: reds
sunday: pinks

I got a late start on this, so I'm offering a solitary yellow photo today.

Inspire Me Thursday - Seven

Here's a quick digital collage for Inspire Me Thursday, where the prompt this week was "seven". Here, there are seven butterflies on a background text of sevens, such as "seven deadly sins", seven virtues", and "seventh son of a seventh son". I can never get the colors here to match my original Photoshop file, so they're a little bit off (probably need to calibrate my monitor). While thinking about what I would do for this challenge, it has been interesting to read about the historical, mythological, and superstitious use of the number seven.

Wednesday Stamper - Buttons

The challenge this week for Wednesday Stamper is to use buttons in a stamped project. Here, I've used stamps from Stampin' Up!, and a lonely button from my box of treasures (there it is, trying to hide in the bow). Unfortunately, this photo doesn't really show the metallic cardstock, or the metallic ink I used on the black background, or even the beautiful detail in the button. I may try another photo later.

Now, it's time to take a few days off from cards and stamping. I think I'll work on some bottle cap charms next, and maybe experiment with shrink plastic. I'm also working on a "seven" collage, but probably won't finish that today.

Happy Birthday Bubba!

Yesterday was my big brother's 50th birthday. When I was little, I called him "Bubba" because I couldn't say "Brandt" or "brother", and I do still call him that occasionally. We'll be celebrating tomorrow with a family party, so I made this card for him. He's not a blogaholic like me, so I think I'm safe posting it here. Since I'm on this "Photoshop background" kick, that's what I used here, along with some bronze metallic paper. The bottom section with the big stripes opens to reveal a personal greeting. Now, I'm off to bake a chocolate cake for the party...

Daring Cardmakers - Text Message

Today's dare over at Daring Cardmakers is to incorporate a portion of text into our cards. So, I dug out this piece of newsprint from the food section of the newspaper, that I had started painting for a collage months ago. I was going for a "kitchen towel" look with the background paper, and since I made Orange Blossom Muffins last night, I still had citrus on my mind. Ha, I also made lasagna last night, so you're lucky I didn't go that direction for my card!

Daring Cardmakers - Cartoon Crazy

Here's my shamefully simple offering for the mid-week dare at Daring Cardmakers - Cartoon Crazy. Inspired by The Flintstones, "yabba dabba doo" background printed on my laser printer (gotta love Photoshop!), and a Stampin' Up! background stamp.

And now I'm off to re-read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix!

Inspire Me Thursday - Light

This week's prompt for Inspire Me Thursday is light. I didn't expect to participate this week, but last night I was noticing how bright the moon was, and I was thinking about all the things that happen by the light of the moon, right here in my own yard. Like the armadillo who comes out occasionally, only to scurry off when she realizes I'm watching her; the frog who sits by my front door, as if watching for it to open; the night calls of birds all about the neighborhood; my fat cat Charley carefully patting the grass, trying to capture something; and the sounds of the nocturnal insects. So much artistic inspiration, but where do I start? Then I remembered a bland, boring photo of the moon I had snapped a while back, and decided to have a go at it in Photoshop. The result -- my digital painting of the moon.

Wednesday Stamper - Hats

This is my first submission for the Wednesday Stamper challenge, where the current topic is hats. I was a little late getting around to this, so I had to stick with some basic stamping and layering, but it was still fun and stamping always makes me happy, no matter how simple my project is. All stamps are from Stampin' Up.

Daring Cardmakers - Beady Eyed

This week's dare at Daring Cardmakers is to make a card on which we have used beads. I love beads, and have quite a little collection, but I am too impatient to sew them on or to string them -- maybe that's why I still have so many! So for this challenge I went with a shaker card full of bugle beads and some micro beads that are so tiny, you can barely see them in this photo.