paper possibilities

a little mixed here, a little media there...

...it's sunday night and I don't feel like I got much accomplished this weekend. I hate that feeling, but what can you do? I was determined I would get out my beeswax and layer it one something. Have you seen what Emily has been doing?? Can you blame a girl for wanting to get crafty? hehe. Well, saturday goes something like this...have a conversation with Emily who informs me I should use a small quilting iron to smooth out the wax. Do I have one? no. Ok, so after going to the movies on one side of town, I need to come back to my side of town to get to Joann's and get an iron. Go to the movies, see 'Good Deeds' with Tyler Perry {I liked it}, stop at Salvation Army and look for homeless Pyrex bowls, head to the grocery store for taco fixings...then head all the way across town to get to Joann's. Get home by 3:30, watch a little tv/nap...make tacos and spend the rest of the night on the couch watching HGTV. Today I wake up with plans and get sidelined in my studio...rearranging the pictures on my wall and cleaning my desk. Find a pounding headache is lurking behind my right eye and retire to the couch at 1pm. Tonight I am back in my studio, headache gone, and watching art videos and making my card for this friday's BellaRIFFIC challenge. Yep, got her done already!

The new challenge is POLKA DOTS, if you wanna join us. Make a card using a Stamping Bella image and email to Emily by thursday evening. Head over to Splitcoaststampers and upload the card to the gallery, using keyword: BELLARIFFIC0812. Two chances to win some Bella $$!

Tonight I am going to show you what I have been up to in the world of mixed media projects. last week my friend Dana and her daughter Kaitlyn came over to 'play' with me and my niece Hailey. On saturday I made two frames, gave one to my sister...
I used a lot of Stamping Bella images in here and layers of paint, sprays, tissue paper & light modeling paste. I had fun making these frames and have more to play with! Here is Hailey's blue frame...she is pretty dang good for a 13yr old, don't ya think!
Hailey gets her artistic talents from me, not her mother...lol!

Then for last monday's AJ Monday on Emily's blog, Hailey, Jordan & I participated in the 'drippage' challenge. We all used canvas boards, not paper, and mine got framed this week. It looks amazing on the wall.
Here is the unframed photo, and a close up. I used Stamping Bella's 'Butterflies' {which I can not find online for some reason??}
Here it is in a frame I found at Michael's that originally cost $35.00 and this weekend there was 40% off and an extra 25% off coupon. I was pretty happy with this find on friday!
Here is Jordan's first attempt at mixed media and her 'create' masterpiece! See her drippage?
Here is Hailey's 'fairy looking' drippage that is melted crayons. I think my sister got this mixed media piece in addition to the frame I made.

I gotta track down the trio of Butterflies I used on my 'Choose Joy' canvas...it is driving me crazy I can't locate them on Stamping Bella's website. The picture frame at the top has lots of Stamping Bella images used as texture, and that includes 'Celebrate LIFE', 'Anise KETTO's flowers' 'Dandelion wisps' 'Eclectic mini in checkerboard'.

I will be back in a couple days to show you the card I made for my dad's birthday. You're gonna wonder if I was smoking something for choosing the image that I did...and I wasn't. lol see ya soon!!

lil red headed princess...

BellaRIFFIC Friday, week 7!! Can you believe this our last friday of February? Honestly, I realize that the older I got, time flew by fast. I mean as soon as you have a child in school and the year ticks away according to holidays and breaks...before you know it...the are graduating. Now, in my pre-pre-retirement years, time is still flying by. I'm not so dense as to think that it is ever slowing down now, I get it. lol

Ebru gave us a cool sketch. I keep saying that they are cool, hehe, I know. If a sketch pops up that has me stumped, you'll know it. Oh, the horror if I spy a triange on a card sketch, I might faint! {or become convienently sick *cough*} No, I am not that kind of person, I am the one that will just complain loudly to Linda, that I have no idea what to do. Am I totally messing with your idea of what I'm truely like?

I am getting a little off track here!

I decided to color up the other little fairy that comes in the set 'Fairy Princesses'. The first Fairy Princess went to Jessica @ work, who spied it on my blog. Here is the second princess!
I was determined to use this yellowy paper that came in the My Minds Eye 'Miss Caroline' pad. {one of my crafting buds, Sandy, works for Archivers. When she came to play with us girls a couple weeks ago, she gave me two of the new MME pads. Does she know I love paper, or what!!} So I right away gravitated to the yellow, odd, because it isn't my go-to color at all. The recent yellow/grey combos really opened my eyes.

Princess red-head has yellow wings, based in a super pale copic color, then all is shaded and colored with my pencils. I love her!

...card recipe:

Finished size is 4 3/4" square, Bazzill cs, Bella's BESTEST paper {for image}, MME 'Miss Caroline' pp, 'Fairy Princesses' from Stamping Bella, memento ink, copics, colored pencils, gamsol/oms, Sakura glaze pen, glitter, Micheal's ribbon & sewing.

Ready for our next BellaRIFFIC challenge?? Just add POLKA DOTS! I love polka dots, always have, always will. Big, little, HUGE, any dots will do. So play along if you feel like getting crafty!

See ya soon for some mixed media project I have been working on!

be mine...even if i'm a little late...

I know you might think I am a little late with this...but guess who forgot to post her Valentine tags on here! Yeah, ME.

I was uploading some cards to my SCS gallery tonight, and I'll be dang, if there they were...in my gallery, NOT on my blog. Well, best I can say is that if you decide you wanna color one up...you'll have plenty of time before next Valentine's day.

I saw this on another blog, while surfing one night. I can not remember who's blog it was on...I am thinking someone in the SCS Bella forum. I only colored ONE, the other three are stunning color copies, printed on my Bella's BESTEST paper. I ran it through our color laser printer at work...I have to search to see which is the original, so it's gotta be a good copy.

I made these up on Super Bowl night, though it took two sittings to cut the giraffe's out. I used 3 layers of Sakura clear glaze on the hearts, so they have a nice texture to them. The little black tags say 'be mine' and it's from a Dymo label maker that I heard about on Tim Holtz's blog. You get 3 font wheels...and it was this font you see here that sold it to me. It's called The Caption Maker & I found it on Amazon.

The Giraffe is from a rubber stamp/digi company called Eureka stamps. My giraffe is a digi...cause you gotta believe that I need no more rubber in my drawers.

Hope you don't mind me sneaking an overdue Valentine on my blog. Off the upload more cards to my SCS gallery. adios!

who you callin' plain...

Hey friends!

I have been attempting to get a post going with a new card to share and it has taken me a few days. I have been packing my weekends in with mixed media {for the past two weekends} and it has kept me on my toes! I think I have told ya that I have to do this in my kitchen, and that means I am constantly up and down getting supplies, washing brushes and then I gotta clean it all up before I go to bed. All week I have been wondering if it was possible for me to squeeze this into my small studio. It would be a huge plus...but I also think it could get to overwhelming visually. Still thinking about this possibility.

So, this past weekend I did get to make 'stuff' on both saturday and sunday. My niece was here and she is really into all this artsy time, so Jordan, Hailey {my niece} and I, all had an entry for Emily's AJ Monday. I will show ya what we made, in a few days. First I want to show you a card I made, that Hailey picked up from my card pile and said 'Why is this card so plain?' I told her it wasn't that plain, just a lot of white space. Sometimes I like those cards. She picks up my card from last friday {Painter MEG} and says 'it's way plainer than this one'. She's 13.

Here is the 'plain' card that I made, lol, I kinda like it...obviously Hailey was not a fan.
This is Millie, and she has a friend named Milo, but I just wanted Millie on my card. How do you like those pink cheeks! I used a yellow copic on her shirt and a couple aqua shades for her pants, then shaded it all up with pencils. Man, I just think she is bursting with the colors of springtime and I still have spring fever over here.

...card recipe:

Finished size is 5" x 7", Bazzill cs, Bella's BESTEST paper {for image}, My Minds Eye 'Miss Caroline' pp, 'Millie' w/ sentiment from Stamping Bella, memento ink, colored pencils, copics, gamsol/OMS, ribbon and sewing

This week's BellaRIFFIC challenge is a sketch. I am going to share it with you again tonight, and even though time is running out quickly, to submit to Emily's blog. There is still that extra week to play along, if you do so on the Splitcoaststampers gallery. You can double your chances to win some Bella Bucks if you submit on Emily's blog and then upload your card to SCS. For the SCS gallery, you need to use that weeks special keyword. The keyword for this sketch challenge is BELLARIFFIC0712.
See you in on friday!! Thanks for stopping in!!

just add color...

Happy BellaRIFFIC friday!!

Wow, this week has flown by and I can NOT believe it's the weekend. But man....am I happy it is the weekend and I am spending it with my niece. Hailey is hanging out with me and has already texted me to see what we're doing. Hmmmm, what to do with an almost 14 year old?? Thank gosh she is into art projects, lol!

There is so much info being shared in the Stamping BElla forum on SCS...and one of the things that was brought to my attention was an online lettering class by Joanne Sharpe. {thanks Cindy!!} So I am all signed up and plan on working on my lettering journal.

So, I shared with you that I have pulled back on making 3 cards a week. Since Stamping Bella just had a HUGE release last month...you-know-who is still working on coloring these beauties up. For todays 'ANYTHING GOES' challenge... I picked 'Painter MEG' {a super cute little girl, by Mo Manning}
I love her face, her boots, her hair and her outfit! lol     Meg comes with a sentiment that says 'you bring color to my life', you know that means she has to get paired with some very colorful paper. {oh, and since I have a few new pads of paper waiting to be used... you know where I'm heading right?} I found a bright flowery pattern in my new 'Farmhouse' pad by Crate Paper.

Something I did, that I normally don't do, can you guess by looking at Meg? I based her overall's and shirt in copic markers. hehe  There are some very nice qualities to the copics, even though I would have spent hours shading...that you just can't match with colored pencils. That yummy pale shade of turquoise is not in my pencil stash. I did do all the added layers and shading with my pencils. I had fun putting my copics to use, I was feeling guilty that I kept them in the closet for so long.

..card recipe:

Finished size is 6" x 6 1/4", bazzill cs, Bella's BESTEST paper {for image}, Crate Paper 'Farmhouse', 'Painter MEG' w/ sentiment from Stamping Bella, Memento ink, colored pencils, gamsol/oms, copics, glitter, corner rounder, sewing & ribbon.

If you are playing with us on our BellaRIFFIC Friday challenges, then you may have noticed that every other week is a sketch challenge {provided by our own Ebru!} This week is sketch week and take a look at what we have...

This is such a simple classic sketch and these are my favorites...very balanced and versatile. {our last sketch was a big hit with the sistahood, I hope we can entice you to join us!}

Thanks for dropping by and I hope you have a relaxing weekend. I'll be back with another *new* release image soon!    :)

saturday with the girls...

Hey friends!!

I wanted to pop on here and share a few photos of yesterday...when Linda, Pauline, Sandy, Mary & Dana came over to play. First of all, let me tell you, I am no photojournalist, as you will see. I snapped some photos of the food and our finished products. Other than Linda and the pizza...ya won't see anyone else...but I promise, they were there! lol I get a little bit overwhelmed with talking, that grabbing my camera is not a natural habit for me any more. Jordan and my niece are not babies, haha, I am lucky if my camera has a charge in it.

How to host a gathering of crafty friends:

by paula

1. Invite some friends over and lure them with parting gifts! {Yes, I'll do whatever it takes to get people to come over}
I know the holiday season is over...but I had to make more little birdhouses to make sure that my mom & I had one. Ten more birdhouses finished...they went to good homes.   :)

2. Have some snacks...homemade is the best! Mary made the pierogi's & Dana brought the yummiest Chicken Enchilada Dip. That should keep us going until the pizza arrives later on.
...who needs Mrs. T's frozen pierogi's?  Sorry Dana, forgot to get a pic of the dip...

3. Lets eat PIE before the pizza! Linda had some wine and if you want a deLISH NON-healthy peanut butter pie...google Paula Deen's Peanut Butter Pie. {it's actually called Mrs Salter's Peanut Butter Pie} It was simple and the best ever. Have I told you how much I LOVE peanut Butter??

4. Order the pizza from your favorite place...hey, we had too much crafting to do! Linda, say 'CHEESE'!

5. Finish up your projects, because it's time to show off the talent in my house. Now, what you won't see is that Mary was crocheting in the living room {niki on her lap} and Pauline was busy coloring up her BellaRIFFIC cards. But Linda got her AJ monday submission all finished...wanna see a peek?
...is she not dreamy? Look at her fabric skirt...the challenge for this weeks aj monday.

Next up is my Archiver working bud & mom to one of our co-workers. Sandy! Her & Dana were TOTAL newbies to mixed media and the LOVED it. The three of us stood at the island and played. Sandy made a 6x6 wooden canvas...& got some Stamping Bella images in there too!
Sandy is giving this to her hubby & she included his initials & a little sentiment of her own.

Dana made a wooden frame, I picked them up at Michael's for like .60 one day. In the dollar section and then on sale! She also slipped some Bella images and we all added texture with a light modeling paste. Can you see the raised clock parts? It's a plastic stencil from Crafters Workshop. Gorjuss!!
Then we have a project that I did for a friends birthday. She actually wanted something for her kitchen, maybe mugs or tea cup? But I was feeling hearts. {I really wanted to use the light modeling paste...i admit it} Kelly has two girls, so this represents them. She also like yellows and I threw in green & a touch of a bright blue. She better LOVE this of I am taking it back and selling it on ebay. Now I want one for ME!

We used rub-ons, stencils, stamps, inks, paint, water and stains for the mixed media wooden pieces.

Everyone left by 8 and I crashed onto the the for the night. I was SORE from the shoveling I had to do for the girls to have some place to park. Can you believe almost no snow ALL season...then it snows friday?

I am outta here, but will be back for a Valentine tag I created for a few friends at work! adios...

'p' is for princess...

Happy BellaRIFFIC Friday ya'll!!

It's been a stressful week for paula...trying to draw some faces on ATC's for a swap. lol, I told my friend at work...there was something wrong with my pencils. But, deep down inside I know that it's my needing to not be sitting sideways in a chair, with a dog on my lap and watching TV. haha, I need to concentrate in my studio with some non-stimulating music. I have been hooked on my 'O Brother Where Art Thou' soundtrack. {because there is a show on cable that uses one of the songs in a commercial}

This weeks challenge was a sketch and it was an AWESOME one! I was able to make my card lickety-split and when I emailed it to Emily...she said something about it reminding her of my attitude? I don't know what she's talking about. But here is the first of the *NEW*  Fairy Princesses...
She is just a sparkling vision in pink and I added this wild green bow to make her POP! Her wings are a pale version of the green, so I was hoping it was going to work out. Seriously, I could add a plump white bow to every card...but that would get boring and...and, Michael's was outta the white satin ribbon.

This Fairy Princess is from the latest release that Stamping Bella had a few weeks ago. She is part of a pair, so there will be another cute princess coming up soon.

...card recipe:

Finished size is 5" x 5 1/2", Bazzill cs, Bella's BESTEST paper {for image}, Basic Grey 'Bittersweet' 6x6 pad, 'Fairy Princess' by Stamping Bella, memento ink, colored pencils, gamsol/OMS, glitter, ribbon and sewing

Next week, our BellaRIFFIC Challenge is 'ANYTHING GOES'...just make sure to to anything with a Stamping Bella image & you're good to go!

Tomorrow my house will be hopping with girls and paint, ink, pencils and Lord knows what else. I have invited some crafty friends over to have a girls-only play date and I think I am breaking out the mixed media supplies for some newbies!! {yes, that's you Sandy!} Linda & Pauline are heading over and for the few friends who can't make it...I promised photos. {I better get my camera charged} I had invited Emily...but she's teaching a childrens party. So, I'll have some extra fun for her!

See ya soon! Have a wonderful weekend...mwah, p

finally...an art journal page...

The Super Bowl is over and if yo're a non football lovin' wife, like me...you may have spent some quality 'ME' time in your studio. haha, yuuuuup, {said like Dave Hester from Storage Wars} I got some projects finished and then headed to bed with the ipad. Oh... and one of the little projects was dipping my toes back into my mixed media.

I wanted to play along with Emily's AJ Monday, but I also wanted to work on a certain page in my book...I started it at Emily's house in Nov...but it remained unfinished until last night. I had limited supplies in my studio, since all my real mixed media stuff is stored in my bedroom. I know, that seems odd, but I do my art stuff like that, in my kitchen. I need to spread my mess out and be by a sink and that isn't gonna happen on my studio desk.

Here is my contribution to using some tape on my page...I love the washi tape, but I hardly have any, compaired to some people I know *cough*. This white polka dotted tape is my FAV & I knew it would work with the background I had started. Like this little square book?? I found it down near the art school in Toronto, I bought this size and a thin long one too.

Emily was playing around with stamping in distress inks and then blurring it out with water & a brush. That technique, plus LOTS of Emily's background stamps and her *NEW* birds, made it onto this space. Then...I needed something to go with the birds, so I wrote a little saying.

Nothing fancy, but I managed to complete the page and maybe I'll get another in this book! One down, mannnny more to go.

Don't forget, we have a sketch for this weeks BellaRIFFIC challenge. You can email your finished masterpiece to Emily, by thursday evening and play along with us.
See ya soon!!

frankies got a gift for you...

Happy BellaRIFFIC friday!!!

Tonight is date night in the Williamson household and I am excited {although still all stuffed up and can't taste much} because I got Jim & I tickets to Cirque du Soliel. I have never seen any of them before, so I am hoping to contain my misery to a minimum and enjoy the show. It even crossed my mind to see if Jordan wanted to go with her dad. But I know I will be sorry, so I think I'll go myself.

This week I have been coloring and using my Silhouette machine to cut stuff out 'stuff' to go on my cards. This is the first card that I got to use a fun die-cut banner on. Check out my 'Frankie' Valentine card. If I do say so myself, I did pretty dang good on a black haired dog. 

I made him black since I am assuming this is an image taken from Emily's Frankie. ~aka~ the little dog who follows her everywhere. That red heart banner is what I cut out with my Silhouette machine, and I have been cutting lots of different elements and sentiments. I figure the machine is nearly two years old, it has aged enough under my desk.

...card recipe:

Finished size is 5 1/2" square, Bazzill cs, Echo Park pp, Bella's BESTEST paper {for the image}, memento ink, 'Frankies GIFT' from Stamping Bella, colored pencils, gamsol/oms, white ribbon, Silhouette heart banner, Sakura clear glaze {for his nose} & sewing.

I am still working on more Valentine Cards, and that day is coming so freaking fast. omg...  ~note to self~  pull out Easter images...pronto.

Next week we have a back to another Ebru *made* sketch...lets see what we have, shall we? Ohhhh, I LOVE it!! How about you?

Here are a few remeinders for playing in our BellaRIFFIC challenges.

1. You can enter your card both on SCS and for posting on Emily's BellaRIFFIC friday post.

2. Emily's email is emily@stampingbella.com. If you would like to participate for Emily's blog...you only have one week to submit. Friday {when the challenge is announced} until the following Thursday evening.

3. The SCS gallery gives you an extra week to submit, after the challenge has closed on Emily's blog. Enter the Stamping Bella forum {on SCS} and look for the current challenge you are participating in. In that 'thread' there will be a keyword code. When you upload your card, use the keyword and your card will go into the correct gallery.

4. For the month of FEB. I am hosting the challenges over at SCS...so when the winner is picked & announced...you will get an email from me. We'll swap some info and then Emily will issue your BUCKS.

Have a GREAT weekend!

 

 

it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

Hey there!

If you noticed my lack of posting these past few weeks, {besides the NEW release cards} then are are pretty observant! I wasn't gonna bring it up, but this is all planned and I am officially doing my BellaRIFFIC friday card and then...whatever gets produced and I find the time to blog about. I have been blooging since the end of 2007 and I now decided it was time to slow down a little. lol, I blamed LOTS of this on Emily and her introducing me to mixed media! But, there are lots of things that get left behind until 'I find spare time' and I stayed almost every night in my studio until it was time for bed. My mental list of things I wanted to do is getting 'checked', but there are still more projects to tackle.     :)

So here is a card I have been waiting to share, because when I finished it...Pauline posted hers and I was chuckling...it's an older Bella image, how on EARTH did we think to color it up at the same time? I dunno. Here is my 'happy neighborhood' card...I hemmed & hawed over what sentiment I wanted to add, if any...and decided on this sentiment...but broke it up. On the inside it says 'to your's' I though that this charming little group of houses might look perfect with a white picket fence. Um, paula...you got a lot of layers to lay a fence across there...think again sister! Well, I played around and snipped the fence and it looks a little dimensional...hey, I liked that. {yes, I AM having a whole conversation in my head, don't laugh}

...card recipe:

I used Bazzill cs, Bella's BESTEST paper, some scraps of cool green pp, 'Happy Neighborhood' & sentiment from Stamping Bella, memento ink, distress ink, colored pencils, gamsol/oms, glitter, Martha's fence punch & sewing.  

This month I am taking the lead in hosting BellaRIFFIC Friday's over at SCS {splitcoaststampers}. Our challenge is 'Valentine' or red/pink/white color combo. If you'd like to play along and double your chances to win some Bella BUCKS...it simple. Make a card using a Stamping Bella image, then email to Emily by thursday eve. {2/2}. Head on over to SCS and when you upload your card to the gallery, use the Keyword: BELLARIFFIC0412. We have been getting a great response on SCS and some fresh new faces are playing along! wooHOO!

See ya friday with my Valentine card!