New Punches

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These are both pictures of my recent spending spree to buy new punches. Martha Stewart has a bunch of new ones that just came out and I want them all. (No this isn't even 1/4 of the new punches she has.) There are even some cool punches that comes with rubberstamps the same shape as the punch.

That is 22 more punches to add to the total count so that makes it 1,034 punches.

What's In My Drawers? (I forgot about Wednesday Again!)

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This is the final set of "iris carts" in the bottom cabinets. Don't worry there are some other drawers in an upper cabinet plus a really big set of drawers in another part of the workshop. Plus I have 2 alphabets under the table and a slew of new punches I bought this week. (Maybe I'll post those later today if I can remember to take photos of them.)

These are all my "Renaissance Squares". I labeled the drawer with that because the company that used to make the burgundy colored punches called them that and the name just stuck for all the rest.

These are all my extra decorative corners and squares. Yeah I know it isn't alphabetical but I wanted them with the other squares.

These are all my snowflakes. Again I know this isn't alphabetical but the important thing is that I know where they are.

These are all my sports and school related punches. HEAH!... who put the wedding punch in there? I have been looking for that bleeping thing forever. Did someone think this was funny? OK ... come on... who put it in there?.... OH (eh hem) that would be me!

This is all my stamps and tickets with a few other office supplies in there. (I am really running out of drawer space.)

This is all of my stars except for the "primitive" and "funky" ones. (That is another drawer.)

These are all of my scalloped hearts.

These are all of my straight hearts. (I don't think I have any gay ones but they may not have "come out" of the drawer yet.) Sometimes I just crack myself up.

A whole drawer full of suns. Who knew there could be so many and that I had to have all of them. (I really do use them a lot actually.)

Last weeks total is 825 plus this weeks (187) = 1,012. DING, DING, DING we have hit the one thousand mark and still have a ways to go. (Seriously.... does anyone have a spare room?)

Happy Halloween

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I thought I end the week of Halloween images on a cute note. May all your candy be sweet!

Orange And Black

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Journals In Miniature

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Page for Alison Brandist in the style of "Tim Holtz".

Page for Joni Owens with a theme of "Seashore/Beach".

Page for Diana O'Cobhthaigh in the style of "Zetti" using a picture of yourself from childhood. (Yeah... that's my face when I was about 3 or 4.)

Page for Suze Urquhart with a theme of "winged time".

Page for Treez Malyon in the theme of "Olde World/Treasure Island".

Page for Sandra Zengler in the theme of "Cats or Dogs."

These are all pages for a miniature journal swap that Treez Malyon put together. We each do a page in the artists chosen theme and send it to them by the 3rd week in November. The journal itself is the tiniest thing I have ever worked on at 2 3/4" by 1 3/4" with a 3/4" binding fold on the left. Even though they are very tiny and a great challenge I found I really liked working that small. Here are some details and comments about each page. ( I showed the back of each page because I spent almost as much time on them as I did the front.)

1. Alison's (Tim Holtz Style) - Background is done with Tim's recipe for "Glimmer mists" in a lime green purple and orange with a little walnut ink mixed in. I rubber stamped with black ink , white paint and purple embossing powder. I then added micro beads, s line of sheet music, a small key attached to a chain, a printed postage stamp and some very, very tiny pearl buttons.

2. Joni Owens (Seashore/Beach) - The background is again done with the "glimmer mist" recipe and the clouds are painted with white acrylic paint. The net I hand notted to get one small enough and the mermaid is a small silver charm that I hand painted with special metal enamels. The beach has real sand, rocks and tiny seashells.

3. Diana O'Cobhthaigh (Zetti childhood) - Diana wanted us to use a picture of our own face and mix it with other images of body parts to create a "Zetti". I used my face on an image I found and then decorated it with glitter and some Flower Soft.

4. Suze Urquhart (Winged Time) - The background again is the glimmer mist recipe with a piece of a vintage book page and embossed swirls. The bird is a punch that I own and the clock is an actual watch face that I added hands to and encased in a thick layer of Diamond Glaze.

5. Treez Malyon (Olde World/Treasure Island) - The background is the glimmer mist recipe with a layer of walnut ink spritzed over it to make it antique looking. (There is also a compass stencil I used but not much of it is visible.) The map and boat are pieces cut from some wrapping paper. The skull is a piece of polymer clay and the bones beneath it are part of another punch. The "pirate treasure" is some very small coins attached to a small length of gold chain. (Notice that "X" marks the spot and the ship is following the "trail".)

6. Sandra Zengler (Dogs or Cats) - The background is again (you guessed it) the glimmer mist recipe of lime green and walnut ink. The whole idea was based on this stamp I own which I think is just hilarious. It says "Hi, my name' s bad dog. What's yours?" Of course there is also an image of a dog in a dog house they were both too large to fit the page. So I made my own version using other stamps I had. (The crown is a punch I have.)

Pretty Witchy

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These images prove that you don't have to be scary looking for Halloween.

A Trip To The Movies

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I chose these images because they were some of the scariest movies I had ever seen and the design of the posters are also just very cool. Enjoy!

Trick Or Treat

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Here is some very cute vintage "witch" costumes from various eras. Enjoy!

Ancient Wisdom & Magic Chunky Book

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We design our own cover for the book and each month we are assigned a different player to receive our page.

This page goes to Tracy Kaufman this month.

Once Alison Brandist has come up with another unusual and interesting swap. This is based on a book she has with the same title and every month we do a page based on a chapter of the book. The first chapter is title "Bird Lore" and we are to do a 4" x 4" page based on one or more birds from a list she provided. For each bird there is an explanation of it's meaning and what qualities it embodies which we are to include on the page somewhere. I chose a peacock because I LOVE the colors and iridescent qualities of it feathers.

The background paper is a white mulberry paper and some asian paper I recently purchased at a rubberstamp show. (The booth I found them at was run by this little old asian man who explained the meaning of every paper to me.) The chinese "characters" are for "happiness" and "properity" which I painted myself. The flowers are done with very small punches and then shaped to give them dimension. The "eye" of each feather has a very small rhinestone in it that I colored with alcohol inks. The lanterns across the top are some charms I found strung on a piece of embroidery thread. The feather on the back is stamped on to a another piece of that wonderful asian paper I found. I created the gold area with Rub-N-Buff to make it stand out from the busy paper. The label is one that I removed the center ad from in Photoshop and added all my own information onto. The "kanji" in the left corner is my own personal one that had made from a company on-line.

A Week Of Halloween

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Since Halloween is in a few days I will be posting all Halloween images this entire week. Hope you like the cool and spooky stuff I have found.

I Dream In Colors

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Yet another set of pages for another circle journal. This is the one where all the artists select certain colors and all the art that is contributed by other artists are done in those colors. This was a set of pages for Lee Hynes and her colors were a deep gold, watermelon and teal. My whole inspiration was a poem I found on Teesha Moore's site about art being a lover with large wings. Here are the details of the pages.

1. The background is done similar to the other journal pages I posted a few days ago. I started with a heavy watercolor paper and laid down my stencil masks on the corners. I did an overall spray of walnut ink then dabbed off the excess to lighten it up. I removed the stencil masks and put down a strip of "sequin waste" ribbon and sprayed over it with my own mixture of Lee's colors as I describe in my video tutorial on how to work with metallic powders. (It covers the Tim Holtz method of mixing your own "glimmer mists".) I removed the sequin waste ribbon and dabbed off the excess in certain spots and sprayed again to intensify the color.

2. After the background was dried I cut the teal colored scrolls from tissue paper and Mod Podged them down. (A feat that is easier said then done.) To cover the pencil marks to tell where to brush the Mod Podge I took a gold metallic marker and drew around each scroll very loosly.

3. The wings I drew on my computer and then printed on the same heavy watercolor paper in a sepia tone. I then painted in all the shadows using regular watercolors in golds and sepia tones. Once that was dry I painted a wash of metallic teal over both wings to make them shimmer.

4. The image was something I bought and hand colored on my computer in Photoshop to match Lee's colors. Once she was printed out and glued down I embellished her headpiece with rhinestones and pearls. I then created a pendant and hung it from some antique gold chain I had. I also stitched more of the chain around her throat to mimic the necklace she already has on. I then attached self adhesive pearls in between the rows of chain to complete her "collar".

5. The last part was to attach the quote to a piece of mulberry paper and glue that to the page.

6. Since the artwork was done in one piece I then had to cut it apart to put the pages into Lee' journal. I was very nervous to even do this but I managed to cut it apart without ruining it. I then had to glue it to a backing page which had another artist work on it and punch the holes in each page. (Something else that again made me nervous.) I again managed to do it all without destroying my work or someone else's and even get it in the journal. (That required taking all the pages off the spiral coil and putting mine on then replacing all the other pages.)

Sunday Digital Download

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Here is the rest of the paper for the "Blue Crystal" collection.

Stay On Your Toes

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I took ballet for many years but I never made it into toe shoes. Once puberty hit I became too top heavy to ever be a serious ballerina. (Besides I always knew I would be an artist.)