DLP Week 44

Challenge:  Incorporate leaves (real or drawn/painted) onto your page in a creative way.

I wanted to have a lot of texture on my page by creating a tree.  I started by tearing masking tape into small pieces and placing it in my page in a rough tree pattern.

Once I had my tree defined I added modeling paste using a pallet knife.

I used a fairly thick coat with lots of lovely texture.  This was left to dry which took two days Then I added acrylic paint in sable brown to the tree adding thicker coats in some places and lighter in others to highlight all that great texture.

I then stamped lots of leaves at the base of the tree in pretty fall colors of orange, rust and yellow.

I cut a banner with my Big Shot and stamped a Fall saying and added some twine to make it look like it was hanging from one of the branches.

Hope you like my creation.  Thanks for stopping by.

Pam

DLP Flip Through Video

I've created a short video called a flip video where I flip through my DLP Planner to catch you up with my book .  I've never done this before so hope it works.

Thanks for stopping by.
Pam

Catching Up

What?  It's the end of October?  Really?

I just logged into my blog only to realize I haven't posted anything since May.  Life has been really busy since then.

My only son graduated with his Masters Degree from Marshall University.

My husband and I went on a cruise for my 60th birthday in July.  

We had a wonderful family get together where my 83 year old mother met her great granddaughter for the first time.

My sister-in-law and brother-in-law made a trip to our weekend cottage and we had a lovely visit.

I became the X-Ray tech for the Marshall University football team at home games.

Now it's time for trick or treat and I have a little Lydia bug to snuggle.

So now we are all caught up.  Thanks for visiting.

Pam

  

The Document Life Project - Week 21

Wow we are already in week 21 of 52 week of 2014.  Where does the time go?  During this terrible winter with all the cold snowy weather I couldn't wait until Spring.  Now it has come and almost gone before I realized it.  Seems like Winter was forever and Spring was just a couple of weeks.

The challenge for Week 21:  Add embroidery or embroidery floss to your page.

I don't have embroidery floss in my stash.  I didn't really want to buy it either so I used some Baker's twine that I had.  I cut out some wings with my new Sizzix Big Shot machine.  I stamped the girl image with Stayz- On black ink and "sewed" the wings on after I colored her with colored pencils.

I made the circles using the tutorial from one of the other lovely ladies on the Facebook page for DLP. If I can find it I will add it to my next post.   The little flowers came in some extra bits I got with the new stamps in the mail.  The word Love was also from the extra bits and I added two stitched love knots to it after gluing it to the page.

Thanks for stopping by.

~Pam

Documented Life Project Weeks 19 and 20

DLP Week 19

Challenge: Document a Random Acts of Kindness from you.

I chose not to document a specific act but to work with the words Random-Act-Kindness

I cut those specific words with their definition out of an old dictionary.

DLP Week 20

Challenge: Use a rubber stamp in a new way.

This week my son, Joe, graduated from Marshall University with his Master of Science degree in Information Management.  I am so very proud of him.  So I wanted to incorporate a photo of him in his cap and gown.  I cut a heart from a piece of paper and used a rubber stamp of wood grain to stamp into the negative space.  Then I used Dylusions inks around the heart to color my background.  I added his photo into the heart.

I thought the stamped sentiment appropriate because he took all his classes for this degree while getting married, buying a new home and having a new baby.  

Sometimes he would ask me if it would be worth the pain of taking classes during all this and I told him to just keep going it definitely would be worth it in the end.

Here is the graduation card I made him:

Again, I am a proud mamma.

Thanks for stopping by.

~Pam

Documented Life Project

Week 18 - Add an inspiring quote to guide your week.

I love this quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.  It is so true. Hate is such a burden on not only a person's heart but also the soul.  I try to always give a person the benefit of doubt and believe only good about them.  Yes, sometimes I get burned but for the most part people are really good at heart.  There are those in the world that aren't but I find that they are the exception rather than the rule.  

Thanks for visiting.

~Pam

Catching Up

After Easter and a bout with some illness, I have finally worked on catching up on art projects.

Journal 52 Challenge

I am really behind on Journal 52 weekly challenges.  The Journal 52 Week 13 challenge is How does your garden grow?  

I started with my 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch ATC from 90 lb watercolor paper and inked the background with Dylusions inks and then added some pretty flowers and a butterfly.  I stamped some leaves with a leaf stamp and black ink then went over the lines with a white pen.  I added the little knot of ribbon just because it was sparkly and I liked the look.
It makes me happy because it looks so spring like.

 Week 14 of Journal 52 challenge is Rain or Shine.
Again started out with my ATC sized 90 lb watercolor paper inked with Dylusions inks. I stamped my little guy with his umbrella onto a piece of white cardstock and cut him out.  I cut out some raindrops and inked the edges then covered them with Ranger's Glossy Accents.  I also put some Glossy Accents raindrops directly on the paper.  I found the quote on line and wrote it using a white pen on the dapper fellow and black pen on the background.  I liked the look.  The Glossy Accents "droplets" look like real water drops.

The Documented Life Project

We are working on Week 17 in The Documented Life Project.  My planner grows fatter each week.  Not sure if it will make it for the full year without some surgery.  I've seen a few blog posts from other participants that have done some major planner surgery.  Might have to check those out a little closer. 

For this week the challenge was to "Photograph or draw your favorite shoes."  I am not a "shoe" person.  However, my favorite shoes are any kind of Flip-Flop.  In the summer I live in them except when at work.  Since I work in a hospital and am on my feet 8 to 10 hours a day a sturdy, comfortable pair of shoes is a must.  At one of the uniform sales I bought a rather expensive pair of shoes but, they have to be the most comfortable shoes I have ever worked in.  They aren't the prettiest shoes but the older I get the more I lean toward comfort. 

But I also wanted to incorporate a picture of my favorite pair of flip-flops.  Unfortunately that meant painting my toenails which haven't had any color since last year.  So I had to do that little chore first.  Then I could photograph my less than pretty feet in their great flip-flops.

For the background of my page I used my new 6" x 6" Gelli Plate.  I'm new at this but I wanted to get a some good play time.  I chose my colors and played with the plate and got a good background.  I added the pictures with the great stamp I already have with the quote "Life is better in flip flops." because it is oh so true.

That's it for now.  Thanks for stopping by.

~Pam

Week 16 Documented Life

The challenge for week 16 is to use a cardboard food box in a creative way.

I had just made some treat for stamp club which I am the hostess of this week when I saw this challenge.

I made  brownie nests with chocolate eggs.

So I cut out some of the things from the brownie box.  I also used my new Gelli Plate to make the background.  Then added my picture and the parts of the box.  Added a few doodles and there you have it.  Creative use of a cardboard food box.

Then Miss Lydia came to visit.  We enjoyed some of the sunshine with her.

Thanks for visitng.

~Pam

Documented Life Project - Week 15

Monochromatic:  use shades, tints, and hues of one color.

Wow this was really hard.  I chose shades and hues in the golden warm orange-ish yellow shades, tints and hues.  I know that isn't really one color but they are sort of in the same family.....right?

I saw a lot of people doing faces this week on the Facebook group so I decided to try my hand.  I've never done faces.  So this was a whole new thing.  I didn't just go out of the box, I went out of the box, around the corner and down the street!  But I am kind of happy with it.  I love the colors.  I punched some tiny hearts from scrapbook paper in shades of orange and found three buttons in my stash with orange and yellow on them so I decided to glue them in her hair.  I did some dotted outlines through her hair and along her neck.

I love the colors.  Not sure about the outline of her face but not bad for a first try.  What do you think?

Thanks for visiting.
~Pam

Birthday Box Card

My mother's birthday was March 29th.  We are going to visit this weekend and I wanted to make a special birthday card since it is her 82nd birthday.  I have seen so many of the box cards and thought I might try one.  So here is my attempt at a box card using a great tutorial I found on YouTube.

I used a flower theme.  The butterfly seems to float over the flowers but is actually attached by thin wire that is attached to the little ladybug clothespin that I clipped to the edge of one of the flowers.  I think she will like it.

Thanks for stopping by.
~Pam

Documented Life Project - Catching Up

Week 13 - Ask someone else to draw on your page - finish it.

So this one had me stumped.  The only person I have that I could get to draw on my page is my husband.  He isn't any kind of artist (his words not mine) so he was very hesitant.  But I got him to do it and he drew a wonderful scene from the lake where he goes fishing.  He drew in pencil and I didn't change anything.  I outlined the pencil marks with a fine line marker.  Then I did all the coloring in with inks. The leaves were punched out of tin foil using an oak leaf mini punch and colored with inks.   I think it is lovely. I posted it on the DLP Facebook page and it got 3 likes right away.  I told him that his artwork got 3 likes and he could no longer claim to not be artistic.  What do you think?

Week 14 - Write you name and embellish it.

I had a lot of fun with this one.  I stamped the letters for my name with inks on watercolor paper using the Dyan Reaveley's Dylusion Cling Stamp Collection- Dy's Alphabet.  I cut them down to little squares and inked the edges.  The page was sprayed using spray inks with some glitter spray in gold to make it "shine".  The leaves were stamped using a stamp from Dyan's Doodle Parts collection.  The buttons in the shape of hearts with flowers were from happy mail and I can't remember from whom to give them the props for them. I just love them and wish I knew where to get more.

Thanks for stopping by.

~Pam

Art Weekend

I have been fighting a viral infection this week and finally started feeling better yesterday.  It was a nice day out so hubby went fishing and I broke out the art supplies.

First I wanted to make a box card.  I have seen these all over the place and they are so fun.  I searched Pinterest (of course) for a tutorial.  I found several and after checking them out. Here is my first box card.

Week 12 challenge for The Documented Life Challenge is "Cut up a magazine -add."

I've never been comfortable with this concept.  So I went into this page with a bit of trepidation.  However, I pushed through and I'm fairly happy with my page.

Then I got to work on the Journal 52 week 11 challenge -Stars.

My ATC background was made using Tim Holtz Distress inks in black soot, faded jeans and salty ocean.  I used a torn piece of paper as a mask for the black "ground" then blended the two blues from light to dark on the "sky". I punched a 1" circle out of watercolor paper and coated it with a nice thick layer of modeling paste which I colored with a little watered down yellow ink.  The stars are some dots of white gesso.  I wanted this to be simple so there you have it.  Stars.

Thanks for stopping by.
~Pam

Journal 52 Week 10 - Art for a Cause

The challenge this week over at Journal 52 is to make a page or create something that has to do with a "cause".  I chose Breast Cancer Awareness.

I am doing Artist Trading Cards or ATCs for this particular challenge with the idea that at the end of the year I will have 52 little cards that I can put into a box like a deck of cards.  The cards are 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches in size which is the standard size for a deck of regular playing cards.

Recently on Pinterest (have I mentioned that I am a Pinterest addict?) I found a technique that I have wanted to try.  The idea is to take a piece of acetate and drop several colors of alcohol inks and blend them with some blending solution to produce somewhat transparent background.  Then you stamp over the background using any color of archival ink.After a few minutes you can buff off the archival ink and the lettering is completely clear and you can see it against the background.  The examples shown on the website, Paper Wings Productions looked so nice.

Well, took a few tries and mine don't look like the examples but it is a pretty cool technique.

Here is my first go round.

You can't really see it but if you hold the ATC under a light/lamp it looks kind of 3-D.  But I didn't really like how it looked.  When I wiped the ink off and the letters from the stamp were clear you couldn't read it.  But, when I tried stamping over it again with the black archival ink and letting it dry it didn't look good either.  And the alcohol inks on the piece of acetate more or less obliterated my pink background with the white ribbons.  So I decided to try to do something a little different.

Take 2.

I like this much better but you don't get the whole acetate effect.  The saying is stamped on a piece of acetate and glued onto the card.  The background of the card was made by drawing the white ribbons with a white oil pastel crayon then spraying with Pink Bubblegum and White Linen Dylusions inks.  The butterfly was cut out of tin from a soda can using my trusty Cuttlebug and then inked with the different alcohol inks.  I actually am very pleased with how it turned out in the end.

Thanks for stopping by.

~Pam

The Documented Life Project - Week 11

Draw, photograph or collage a bird on your page.  That is the challenge of the week.

I chose to collage some cute birds.
First I inked through my birch trees stencil with blues and purple,  Then colored the tree trunks and branches with markers for definition.  Then I cut out my little birdies from some left over paper.  I had the oval shape already cut out so I stamped the saying on it.  It just seemed to fit.

Thanks for stopping by.

~Pam

A Documented Life Project - Week 10

Make a list of the things that make you YOU.  This is the challenge of the week.

I cut a 3" circle with a punch out of 90 lb watercolor paper and painted it with black gesso.  I stamped the letters M and E on watercolor paper and colored them in then cut them out and glued them to the black circle.  I glued some newspaper pieces randomly on the paper and lightly painted over the page with watered down gesso.  I painted green, purple and brown acrylic randomly on some of the page.  I'm trying to leave some white areas on my pages.  Then I glued down the black "ME" circle.  I wrote around the circle all the things that I am and then drew a box around some of them that I think are most important to me.  So that is my page for the week.

Thanks for stopping by.
~Pam

Color Swatch Inspiration-Journal 52

Week 9 on the Journal 52  challenge  was  Color Swatch Inspiration.  Of course being the Pinterest addict that I am I immediately went there for inspiration.  There were so many great pictures with lovely colors.  But this is the one that caught me.

I knew immediately that I wanted to try to capture the colors but all that lovely texture too.  And I wanted to do this on an ATC (artist trading card) which is 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 ".

I sketched my archway on a gessoed piece of  90 lb watercolor paper cut to the proper size.  Then I applied modeling pasted around the outside of the arch using a pallet knife.  After it dried I used acrylic paints in the closest colors to the pallet in my inspiration photo.  I'm pretty satisfied with my end result.

Thanks for stopping by.
~Pam

Birthday Card for Lisa

February 25 was my daughter-in-law's birthday.  I wanted to make her a special card because since Lydia was born we tend to pay a lot of attention to Lydia and not so much to Joe (my son) and Lisa (my d-i-l).
I just recently got into making cards and so mine are not as advanced as some I have seen on the internet. Here is the card I made for Lisa's birthday.

We got her a gift certificate to one of the day spa's in the area and I made a cute babysitting coupon on line to put in the card.  I think she liked it.

Thanks for stopping by.

~Pam

Journal 52- Week 8

Found Poetry

My ATC this week came together pretty quickly once I put my mind to it.  I searched for poetry quotes and found the one I wanted.  

"Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder,

with a dash of the dictionary.

~Kahlil Gibran

I found the word "Poetry" in an old dictionary, tore out the page and fixed it onto my card. If you look real closely you can still see the words poet, poetic-justice, poet laureate and poetry with parts of the definitions. Then I tore around the edges rather than cut it with scissors.  I glued down my quote.  Next I found this cute stamp of a hummingbird in my ever growing stash of stamps.  I stamped it in cocoa and colored it in with Inktense pencils and a water brush to give a water color effect.  Then I stamped branches with pink buds.  I made a little nest on the bottom out of strings I pulled out of a piece of burlap and glued down.  Two little pearl are meant to be tiny eggs.  With the edges inked I called it complete. 

 I hope you like my interpretation of this weeks challenge.

Thanks for stopping by.

~Pam

The Documented Life - Week 9

Challenge of the week is to "collage something recycled".

I collaged a pretty piece of paper that I had received some time ago in an art journal page swap, some old newspaper that my sister-in-law gave me for art projects, a piece of tissue paper that had been used in one of my daughter-in-laws shower gifts and a piece of burlap that I cut down and frayed.  I also used some spray inks and paints and some modeling paste through a stencil.

Here is the back of the page.  The piece of watercolor paper that I used already had been inked through a stencil.  I love the way the flowers pop so I didn't want to work on that side of the paper for the collage.  I just decided to keep it clean and let it be the backside of my page.

When I posted the picture of my page on Facebook, I did a little ramble about how much this process has meant to me.  I am going to copy it here too.

FB Post - Week 9

Please pardon my ramble but I feel the need to get this out.  I am loving this project.  I have never been a person who journaled in words just art.  I have never kept a diary even as a young girl.  When I started this project I figured I would just do the art prompts and had no notion of what I would write daily.  I must say that I have completed surprised myself with the little bits of life that I have noted in my planner.  As the weeks have gone on I have found it difficult to find room for all the little things I want to write down and remember.  I have also been using it to document my new granddaughter as she changes from week to week.  She was born in November an dit is such fun to include a picture of her each week.  I am totally obsessed with my little planner and don't go anywhere without it.  It is always with me even if I am moving from room to room.  Everyone at work wants to look at it each day to see what I have added.  I just want to thank the "Fab 5" for this wonderful idea.  And this group is such a loving and supportive bunch of lovely people.  OK.  Ramble finished.

Thanks for stopping by.

~Pam

Journal 52- Week 7

When I Grow Up.....

At almost 60 years old, I'm still waiting to feel grown up!

This week instead of an ATC I made a tag.  I will more than likely make an ATC at some point so that at the end of the year I will have 52 cards.  

I wrote on my tag that "I want to be the best ME I can be."

Thanks for stopping by.

~Pam

A Documented Life

We are in week 8 of this year already.  This weeks challenge was to "add a flap to the flap".   Usually I have these challenges done within an hour of seeing the post but this one stumped me.  I don't know why.  And now that it is complete, the flap and the page don't really go together.  Oh well, I'm happy with how it turned out.

With all the cold, snowy, wet, rainy and nasty weather we have had the last few weeks I needed something bright and cheery.  I used a new stencil I purchased and some  washi tape I've had for awhile but hadn't used yet.  Overall I am pleased with the page.

Here is the page without the flap.  Love the way the colors turned out. I used Dylusions spray inks through the stencil.  The heart is cut from another piece of watercolor paint where I sprayed inks through a different stencil.  

I don't know why I used this bingo card but it turned out kind of nice and I glued the buttons on to simulate the used numbers.  The washi tape has pretty flowers and butterflies on it and just reminded me of Spring which I am so ready to make an appearance.

Thanks for stopping by.

~Pam

Happy Valentines Day

Valentines day has been pretty sweet for me.  First my wonderful hubby made me breakfast.

Heart shaped pancake with apple topping.  I can tell you it was yummy.  I also got a valentine card with two packages of mini Reese's.

Then I got a text from Lydia with a beautiful picture in her Valentine outfit.

And here is the card I made my husband.  He loves to fish so it was so appropriate.  The card was made using stamps from my January Unity Stamp kit of the month and scrapbook paper from Echo Park's Head Over Heels collection.

Then I got chauffeured to work by said hubby.  Going out for dinner later.
Thanks for stopping by.
~Pam