Conventional Artventures

And so it began on a beautiful sunny day! It seemed that this day was on the mind of several more artistic souls who came in record breaking numbers compared to previous dates in recent years.

Sample boards are always filled with interesting rubber stamp art. I like the vintage feel of this Frida card. This sample was featured at Lost Coast Designs booth.

Here are the ATCs I received from the trade that took place during the rubber stamp convention. I wish I could take a picture of the mini frenzy that unfolds as swappers are trading but it's impossible since I'm a part of that frenzy as well!

I was very excited to read that Lost Coast Designs would be returning! I've purchased several stamps from this company in the past. This time around I purchased several Frida Kahlo unmounted stamps. Linda Malcom is the owner standing patiently behind the sign. I took advantage of this rare quiet moment to take a pic. Go to http://www.lost-coast-designs.com/ to get an eyeful of Linda's images.

I ran into a group of friends while checking the "prize board" outdoors. The weather was beautiful. From L - R, Pat (seated), Me, Sherry (from http://www.gotart4u.blogspot.com/) Ellie (my roomie from the Art Cruise in 2007), Jeri and Char (seated).

These are some creations by Tim Holtz. I like his stamping style and use of color. I like to visit him at http://www.timholtz.com/ to watch his demos. You can learn some great techniques from this guy.

Oh look! It's Alma and Anthony from The Cat's Pajamas! Don't they make a cute couple?! It was good to see Alma again. We used to trade cards at Stampin' From The Heart several years ago. You can get a better look of her swanky stamps at http://www.thecatspajamasrs.com/

Long lost vendors found once more! A gathering of friends! ATCs to

trade! Beautiful weather! What more could one ask for?

After Midnight Artventures!

It was after midnight and I was on a roll. And yes, that is a stamped clock!

I dropped three colors of acrylic paint onto a blank ATC. My good-for-nothing-but-art-phony-credit-card waited patiently to glide paint across the ATC.

Each painted card had it's own personality as you can see if you click on the picture. My "paper people" who in the end turned out to be "Graffiti Artists" were just as individual as each one had been hand drawn and colored with pencils.

It was becoming a long night but the end was near as I stamped images in acrylic paints.

Finishing touches in black and white ink were added to each card. I played around with the placement of each Graffiti Artist before gluing him/her down.

I know what you're thinking. But I was on a mission with a goal to create just 8 more ATCs and I was pumped with enough caffeine to see me through it! All it took was a little paint, my good-for-nothing-but-art-phony-credit-card, some pre-cut ATC blanks and small figures I had previously drawn and colored with color pencils. I was in bed by 3:00 A.M. which may explain why I've been dealing with jet-lag sensations one day later. But it was worth it, as is most things dealing with art. For this girl anyway. Insert BIG smile here!

Blooming Artventures

Look at how graceful this aging Queen Elizabeth rose stands.

My mother must have felt comfortable with the Tropicana Roses because she planted around three bushes. They must feel comfortable in her garden too cause look at them! Blooming madness, I tell you!

It bugs me when I don't know the name of a rose bush. This one blooms more now that it's older. In the beginning, it would give maybe five roses and that was it. I can't believe how many blooms there are now that's it aged. They're a beautiful yellow shade with a little blush. If I could take a rose bush from my mother's garden to plant in mine, this would be it.

My mother has the most lush rose bushes. She and my father began planting them over 20 years ago and those roses have grown like close brothers and sisters. Literally. They practically hug one another once they start blooming. One rose tangles into the next rose and so on and so on. My sister Becky and I were admiring them not too long ago and she made a comment to my mother that each one of us is going to dig up these roses and bring them to our homes one day. At the time I agreed but now I wonder if they'll feel at home away from where their roots began.

Roots. The ground from which you sprout from. I grew up in that house. My parents brought me home from the hospital as a baby to that same place. The place I couldn't wait to get away from once I turned into a young adult. Today as I stood in the living room talking to my elderly father about something he should NOT have done for his and my mother's safety I couldn't help but notice his eyes. They spoke to me as if to say, "How is it that YOU'RE telling ME what I can or can't do and how did this happen?" They looked so sad that I had to walk away cause I thought I'd start to cry. Long ago I'd taken my first steps in this same living room while he watched me with those same eyes only they were filled with joy. I don't like this growing old jazz. A friend once told me "golden years my ass." And I'm starting to believe her.

Artventurous Tuesday

I woke up this morning and I was in a pink and yellow mood. What can that mean? I journaled about that list I wrote at the beginning of my summer vacation. As I looked over it I noticed that I wasn't following through on most of them. OK, all except ONE of them. LOL!

Can you guess which thing on my list I'm sticking to? If you said "drinking coffee..." you're right! You may notice that woman on top of the coffee cups from an ATC I made last week. I blew her up on the copier so she wouldn't fall into the cup!

When I opened this page a paper napkin with tulips fell out begging to be used. How perfect since I didn't feel like painting this large page. And you know what else? I saw these tulips and thought "I'll never have tulips but I'll always have art." Tulips don't grow in my garden and they never will. No problem. But the art will always keep growing and growing and growing.....no problem!

I got up super early today. It was one of those mornings when you can't get back to sleep. I figured instead of wasting time in bed trying to keep my eyes shut when they wouldn't, I should just get up and make some art. And so began my Artventurous Tuesday.

I started my morning by with a large mug of coffee and pulling out my trusty journal. I can't believe I'm very near the end. Seems like I've been working in it for ages. Well, actually I have. You see, I get side-tracked a lot with various art projects and life issues that I end up not being a very loyal journalist. BUT I do try to make at least 2 entries per week - 3 on a good week. Did I just hear the purists out there fainting?!

After completing a couple entries, I began searching for a new journal and found an interesting one. I may have to glue a 2 - 3 pages together though because the pages are not heavy enough to stand up to layers of paint. You know me and paint. As you can see from the above pages I always have to add color and sometimes one shade is not enough! Did you journal today and if so, what did you journal about?

Red, White and Blue Artventures

The streets are alive with the wild cries of children who can hardly wait for the loud thunderous sounds of fireworks!

Here's one child who looks forward to the wild celebration that takes place once the sun goes down.

American Color is a star book that I exchanged with Alma de la Rosa of www.thecatspajamasrs.com before she began her stamp company. Go to her site to check out her swanky stamps. I'll be seeing her next week at the rubberstamp convention.

Here's a page from the star book Alma made. She's quite talented. Even back then I could feel she was bound for something big. This book she put together is filled with her interpretation of "American Color." The first page features a Native American and rightly so.

Here's another page from the book. I like the way Alma made a lot of windows featuring various cultures.

This is another beautiful layout. I love the way she stamped various background images as well.

Women have certainly come a long way not only in America but throughout the world.

Happy 4th to all. Remember, no one can silence you cause it's a free country.

Easy-to-Make Artventures

Need art in a jiffy and don't feel like cutting paper? Have a neglected deck of cards sitting around the house? You've got the main ingredient for the making of some ATCs!

You'll need to prepare the surface of your cards. Gesso will always do the trick but you can brush on a coat of white acrylic paint. It works for me as far as taming the gloss that decks of cards usually have. This will give your surface some "tooth" for the next coat of paint you brush on. Make sure to do this on the front and back of your cards.

Once your cards are dry begin gathering the materials you'll need to assemble your ATCs. I've been making faces for future projects so I had an idea what I wanted to do. I also had a particular color palette in mind so I gathered those paints. Text paper always makes cool skirts. I wanted to add a stamped image somewhere on the card so I chose something swirly.

You can see how I painted these cards in the following steps. Turquoise was the base color. I then patted down bits of Avocado. I added a little bit of Cranberry on each side of the card. And finally I stamped a swirl design in red on one side of the card. I also edged the card in red. This may look a little muddy to some of you but I like this grungy look. Oh, and I made templates for a skirt and legs for the little art doll that will sit on this card.

In the end this is what I came up with. Notice how each face is slightly different? That's because I can't duplicate the same expression twice. Or do I really want that? The skirt is different too. As is the way I placed the gold leaves. I never know what my hands are gonna put together in the end but I know I'll probably like it!

When life gives you a deck of cards, make ATCs! Which is exactly what I did today. There's a Rubber Stamp Convention coming to town soon and an ATC trade is part of the fun. I want to be prepared so I began working on some today. Actually, one of these is for the ABC ATC swap I'm in. The featured letter is H. Can you guess which one it is? Hint, "H" can stand for heart. Notice the extra hearts floating around the swirls on one of the cards?

If you have a deck of cards sitting around that you know you won't be using for card games, make a deck of ATCs. They're very easy to put together, don't cost anything if you use what you have around the house and addicting AND you can trade with others. No one in your neighborhood to trade with? Search for some online ATC groups. They'd love to swap with you. I may want to swap with you too but after the convention. In the meantime, start making some!

Field Trip Artventure

I made some new friends today and their names are Rosie (left) and Tam (right). We had lunch, learned stamping techniques and most importantly, we got along fine!

These are some of the things Ellie had planned for us.

The first thing to greet me on my field trip was this beautiful rose, Perfumed Delight.

I couldn't believe the abundance of roses in this rose bed. These roses reminded me of Ranunculas. They were full of multiple frilly petals but there was no name tag hanging. Does anyone know what this one is called?

The young lady of the house greeted me with a smile as I entered her home. She looks amazingly young considering how old she is.

I was too busy during lunch (busy eating!) to take pictures out on the patio. Too bad cause it was sunny and beautiful outside. When we came in, these ink pads were waiting to be used.

These large background stamps were begging us to use them with the inks in the above picture and so we did. The smaller image stamps were used differently. We actually painted color onto them using Marvy Markers. Some of us huffed and others spritzed water onto the painted image before stamping onto pre-stamped paper.

I'm glad Ellie knows where everything is! Oh look, she got lost in the corner or is she camera shy?

The edges of our stamped cards were sponged with ink.

Here's Ellie adding color with a marker onto her stamp.

The technique below is so cool to learn. It's a water color look using re-inkers. Ellie had pre-embossed our cards to save time. We then HEAVILY applied spritzed water over the embossed image and we dropped tiny bits of color onto the rose. This is Tam inking up her rose. We used up to 3 colors in various shades. After they're dried, they'll be cut out and used on a card. Visit the links I've listed below in my post to see the tutorial and to see how to incorporate these roses in cards.

These are the card fronts I created at Ellie's. I was drawn to purple and pink shades of color. These will become cards for my mother whose favorite color is lavender. You can click on the picture to get a closer look. I'm pleased with the look of my watercolor roses which will be cut out and used on a card.

I went on a field trip to my friend Ellie's home today where I met her sister-in-law Rosie and Ellie's long time friend, Tam. The weather was beautiful and we had lunch on her patio before learning a couple of stamping techniques. I am after all, Stampmaiden. LOL!

Before leaving on my field trip, I tested out my camera to make sure the battery was in full force. I walked around my home and stopped dead in front of my bedroom off the hall. It looked a bit jumbled. How did it get this way? Why was there stuff piled next to my bed, alongside my bed and in front of my bed? Then I recalled the day a visitor (a close relative of my husband's but I won't go into detail on who it was) asked him if I was gathering things to donate to the local thrift store. LOL!!!! I think she was serious. Bigger LOL!!! Why was the one place I head off to when I'm tired and in need of some serious rest look this way? And isn't it time for some new paint? Why not a new bedspread while we're at it. And let's get rid of that carpet already. But what about that "stuff?" I thought I got rid of it last summer. I'm pretty sure I did. When did more show up? Sigh. Don't I have an art room for this stuff? ACK! I quickly got out of there because I had plans to go to Ellie's place!

Ellie had some of her stamps, inks, and paper laid out for us to play with. It's nothing for me to use my alphabet stamps in journaling, but I have to admit I don't utilize my art stamps as much as I should. After learning a couple tricks today, I'll have to bring them out more often. Have you seen the cost of cards lately and are they serious about those prices?! So yes, I'll have to get back into card making. The images we stamped today are just the main focus of a card. I'll have to either add a layer or two beneath it or just attach it to the front of folded card stock in a complementary color. Card making is really not my thing but I did get a jolt of inspiration by the end of the day especially with those watercolor roses. Gayle Smith showcased these on her blog at http://gayle-rubberandink.blogspot.com/2009/06watercolorroses.html and she was inspired by Patty Bennett who has a tutorial on how to make these watercolor roses at http://pattystamps.com/pattysstampingspot/2009/04/watercolor-roses-technique-and-video-tutorial.html Long links I know, but just click on each one and you'll be taken there immediately! This is great especially for those of you who need new ideas on what to do with your stamps.

Now, when do I start on that bedroom?