December creating!

December can be such a busy time. Do you find time to do some creativity at this time of year? As busy as it was I surprised myself with how much I was able to get done. Here are a few of the projects I got done this month.

Altered tin

I started a few of these altered tins last year so it was fun to get them out and finish them. The one above is my oldest son when he was one year old.  

This is made with a photo of my two boys and nephews from over 20 years ago.

Gingerbread house

Often in the past we have bought Gingerbread house kits to make. This year we couldn't find any in the store by the time we went looking so we decided to try our hand at making one from scratch. I think it turned out pretty good for our first try. 

Christmas card

This is one of a few card that I finished this month. You can see more over on Dragonfly Dreamers Monthly Exploration FB page.

How was your December. I'd love to see some of your creations. Share them in the comments or over on the FB group page.

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Distress Ink cards

Well once I get started on the Distress ink backgrounds it's hard to stop so I made some cards while the table was a mess. Here are a few of them.

What have you been creating this week?

Wendy

White inspiration

 When I was asked to make a wedding card last week the first thing that came to mind was white. I've been toying with the idea of working with white for some time now. Not necessarily for a card but this was a great start to collect together my favourite white papers. As you can see, for me whites are more on the cream side. Like so much of what I do it's all about the texture. So many of the papers I pulled out have a lot of texture to them, some that you can feel and others that just appear to have texture.

 Hearts seemed a natural thing to use for a wedding. These heart were die cut from book text paper and then I added texture by embossing them. To make the embossing pop more of course I used my distress inks and applicator to swipe over the raised image and darken the edges.

This Celtic knot is one of my favourite stamps and I think it's appropriate for a wedding too. To add texture to these I used gold embossing power. I guess I didn't stay true to my white monochromatic idea but it's a start in that direction for some bigger project to come hopefully. I'm seeing a 6"x6" or 8"x8" cradle board canvas with grid squares, with lots of layers, buttons...oh where is my idea journal when I need it!

What's your favourit colours or themes for wedding projects?

Happy Creating!
Wendy

Quilting cards

Earlier in the year I made a card with this stamped quote on it but the saying just didn't really match the card. So at one of my shows a lady asked me to make some cards that were more quilt like to go with the saying. This was something that I already had on my mind so I told her I would. 

After a month or so of having it floating around in my head I finally came up with a few designs and here they are.

I tried to come up with my own patterns but the old traditional quilting blocks kept coming back to me so that is what I ended up doing. So much easier to do with paper than material!

Years ago I tried my hand at quilting and decided it wasn't for me. The sewing machine and I do not have a good relationship and so I satisfy my quilting desires by collecting fat quarters and every once in a while making some kind of paper quilting project.

Am I the only one with a bad sewing relationship? Let me know if you do to and how you deal with it!

Wendy

My week...

Again I've been busy getting ready for an upcoming show this weekend. I'll be at the Uniquely Goulbourn Arts and Crafts show this Sunday from 1-4pm. This is a wonderful little local show that I've been doing for a few years and I really enjoy it. Check out some of the vendors for this year on their blog here.

I bought a bag of leather remnants from a local leather store a few months ago and finally got around to playing with it. Here is a sneak peek at one of the cuffs I will have at the show on Sunday. I've got 4 done so far and they're all different. I'm really loving the leather and have so many ideas for it! 

 This is a card that I was inspired to make after my metal workshop last week. The leaf is a piece I made while demoing for the class. Of course the fall theme emanates right now.

If you didn't get a chance to do my workshops so far this fall, I've add 2 more dates in November. You can check them out on my Workshops page.

Have a wonderful weekend. Hope to see you at the Museum on Sunday.

Pink and Purple

Ha, I'm not sure where the pink and purple came from. As you probably know, that's not my usual colours. The Tin Man says I must have found my feminine side. It doesn't happen very often. I'm much more attuned to my grungy side I think. Well I had flowers on my mind because I have a group of friend that get together to do some creating once a month and our theme for next meeting is flowers. So I thought I'd get out my box of extra flower...you know the ones you make but then they don't work for the project any way or you just get so into it that you make way too many. For some reason the flowers that appealed to me were all kind of pinks and purples. And so my feminine side emerged for a short time and these cards are what came out of it. Don't worry it didn't last too long. I've been back to hammering my copper since and the tumbler is going as we speak.

If you're in the Perth area on Saturday I'll by at the Market from 8am to 1 pm. Come on out and see me. it's a beautiful picturesque town well worth the trip out.

And the winner is...

Sorry I've been busy and time just got away from me again. So this is just a quick post to let Lori know that she is the winner of her choice of cards.

 Lori said...

They're all awesome! But, if I had to choose, I'd go with the dragonfly card. Love it!

I'll get that sent to you as soon as I get your snail mail address Lori.

Thanks you everyone for your wonderful comments. It's so nice to get some feed back on some of my creations.

I'm working on some new jewelry pieces and hope to get some finished soon. I'll share them as soon as I do.

Have a great day!

You could win, which is your favourite?

I gave myself a bit of a challenge the other day. I hadn't cleaned everything away from last weeks challenge cards so I decided to try to make cards from my card scrap box. In this box goes backgrounds, stamped images that I don't use right away and other bits of paper. It's starting to over  flow, hence the need for my challenge.

So here are the cards that I created. I'd like to say that this put a dent in my scrap box but not really. I'll have to have another go at this challenge for that to happen.

My favourite is the purple one with the little girl fairy. I love fairies and believe they're in my studio helping me out but that's for another post. The Tin Man likes the one with the dragonfly on it best.

So which one is your favourite. Leave a comment letting me know and I'll draw a name from them at the end of the week. The winner will get the card they like best.

Grungy Monday

I really enjoyed last weeks Grungy Monday. Thank you all for such lovely comments.

This weeks Technique is an easy one again but my choices of dye inks is very limited so I wasn't feeling very inspired. I'm afraid I didn't sway much from the sample. Check it out here.

http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/08/september-techn.html

I've done water colour stamping before but I have to say it's not one of my favourites. I find it hard to get just the right amount of water on the stamp so you don't loose your image completely. On this card I tried Glimmer mist instead of water and I really liked the results and it seemed to be easier to not over do the wetness. Unfortunately you can't really see the glimmer here though.

I'm curious to see how others have used this technique since I can't really think of a lot of uses for it. I think I prefer techniques that I can play with and change up a little more than this one.

So head over to Studio L3 and see what others are doing with this technique.

Happy Creating

Wendy

Card making break

So this is how my desk is looking this week for WOYWW. Not so bad really, well not as crazy as yesterday. Don't be disillusioned that I tidied up for you! I didn't even realize what day it was when I did it although I do usually like to tidy up for visitors. I was working on a project the last few days that was just not going as easily as I thought it should be so I put it all away to take a break and make a few cards. For me card making is therapeutic. I'm not sure why but they are always just relaxing and fun to make. It turned out to be a quick break since my sleepy head got the better of me and I retired to bed early with only a few cards put together.When I pulled out one of my card making boxes I found these embroidered images that I had done ages ago and forgotten. So I just finished them up with mats and cardstock.
This one I stamped the background card and added the image to the empty space of the embroidery.
Not a really creative session but maybe I'll find a little time tonight to play again before I have to clean up for the next project.

Have a creative day and head over to check out some more creative spaces for WOYWW.

Digital Magic

I just found this great contest to win an online class called Digital Magic. Check it out here for a chance to learn how to collage with Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. I enjoy playing with Photoshop Elements but oh do I need to learn so much more. Imagine the possibilities!

Busy week...

I had another one of those weeks that just whizzes by.

Saturday was a wonderful day at the Handmade Harvest show. The hosts Emily and Colleen of BlackBird in Almonte were wonderful and the show was a great success. To find out more about how the show went and view a few pics check out their blog.

Although I was tired on Sunday I had a strange urge to start to reorganize and tidy my studio. I had the Tin Man rearrange some shelves and bring in an old cabinet from the back room to use. I'm tired of just have ugly shelves for everything. I've had this cabinet in the back room for many year thinking I would refinish it but I really didn't have any where it could fit. So I decided I would use it in my studio. It's a little rough around the edges but maybe I'll paint it next summer. It makes me happy! Although I still have things I wanted to rearrange in the studio it was on to more creative and way over due projects on Monday. I finished an order for a little guys "first year" scrap book. I've been working on it since some time in the spring I think. Needless to say it took me a little longer than I expected. Once this was finished I took a little time for some card making. This was like a reward for getting this major project done on my to do list and I needed to replenish my card stock for upcoming shows. The rest of the week was filled up with mostly domestic chores with a little break for Tai Chi and Chai tea with the girls. I had done Tai Chi years ago and gotten away from it and it feels so good to be back at it. I'm really enjoying it.

Today in between cleaning house I was thinking about my vision board I'll be doing here with Michelle. She gave us some homework to complete before class on Sunday and it really got me thinking. Probably a little too much since my brain is usually in overload at the best of times. I think I'm going to try to do a Passion Vision Board for my first one. I'll let you know how it goes and I'll see if anyone wants to share their finished board with you next week. LOL.

So I'm off to tidy the studio for Sunday's workshop and then to a Glass Bead show tomorrow with the girls. Wow what more could you ask for in one weekend!

Weekend away...

This is just a quick post before the Tin Man and I head out for a weekend away. I'll try to post some pictures in the next few day and see if you can guess where we are! Their may even be a prize in it for you.

Here is a card I made during a small Christmas spirit burst. Don't worry it didn't last too long. I'm saving it for the real deal. I find if I get in the holiday spirit too early I lose it by Christmas and it's just not as much fun. How about you when do you start to get into the spirit of it all? Have you started your Christmas shopping? No I'm not listening, I don't want to know! I have lots of time left. And don't be trying to tell me how many day there are till...

Have great weekend!

Christmas already?

I'm not a fan of starting my Christmas shopping or the whole prepping for it too early. I generally don't start decorating until well into December sometimes not even until the kids come home for the holiday so they can help. Son #1 is a December baby so he actually likes to decorate and I enjoy the company, as apposed to son#2 who is much like the Tin Man and will avoid decorating if given the chance.

But last week found me making Christmas cards, due to a suggestion of having a ChristmasCard workshop. It seemed like a fun idea until I started to make cards and the Christmas spirit just wasn't flowing too creatively. I did manage to make a couple of card but as you can see the traditional Christmas colours that I usually enjoy playing with for the season just weren't there. So I went with what I had, which as you can see was blue. It's a good thing I don't send out too many card for the holidays or I may have to resort to buying them:( Now that just won't do.

Oh and then on the weekend I actually started my Christmas shopping...well if you can call picking up a $2 stocking stuffer started!!

Busy busy...

It's been a busy week. One of those "where does the time go" weeks! I did manage to make a few quick cards last night. I have a few shoe boxes full of bits of things I started for other projects but they didn't work out for it at the time. So I just dug into those boxes and these are what I was able to create. There is still lots more in my boxes so I'll definitely be doing this again.

I'm off to the Perth Market tomorrow. Have a great weekend.

Easter

Happy Easter. Have a wonderful day.

Happy Valentine's Day

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

I was up early this morning so I made a card for the Tin Man since I was a little under the weather the last couple of days and hadn't made it yet. Feeling a little guilty that I didn't buy him any chocolate I made him some Buckwheat pancakes and bacon. After 25 years that's as good as it gets!!

Don't forget today is the last day to enter the OWOH giveaway. You just have to leave a comment on OWOH post by midnight tonight. I'll announce the winners tomorrow.

Motivation

Their is nothing like a deadline or two to get you motivated. With the Open House on Sunday and another show next week I've been in a great creative mode. Here is one of a few more cards that I've gotten done today.

Have a creative weekend.

Wishcasting Wednesday

This weeks Wishcasting question is "What step do you wish to take?"

I wish to take one step at a time on this journey of art that I'm on for this is all that I can do. I think I'll make it a slow step so that I can savour the creative process and remember to enjoy the view along the way.

I will also take this step with special friends by my side for the joy and support they give me and hopefully I can give them back. For without these friends I don't think this step would be possible and I know it would not be as much fun. It has been my friends that started me on this journey and friends that have encouraged me when I wasn't sure it this was the right step to be making.

So if you're taking a creative step remember to keep you friends by you side along the way.

Enjoy the journey.

Flower cards

I found this interesting way of folding paper to make a flower. It can be made using double sided paper but when I tried it the paper was really hard to fold nicely... so I used coffee filters. Made them really easy to fold and gave them a more delicate look. Here are a few of the cards I made with them.



I'm seeing a box with a flower on top and some embossed metal on the side...gotta go create.

Have a Happy Mother's Day!