I love the weekend...

Yesterday was a day of running errands and returning things. I did it in a nice leisurely fashion and even managed to pop in on my friend Rebecca and join her at Scrap Chic to watch her give a demo on using a circle cutter. We had a nice time after going to dinner and watching Kingdom at her house. It was a good movie and I thought it was interesting the point they made at the end how both sides want to kill the other side. It seemed like they were trying to point out some similarities between two very different sides. Through most of the movie I just couldn't fathom living in a world where there is so much violence and death. I know there are areas in the US where you could get shot walking out your front door but I live in a very sheltered world in comparison.

Today was my painting day. I can't believe I've managed it two weekends in a row. My main goal was to try to find a focal point for the first canvas from Paulette Insall's class and the more I thought about it the more I wanted it to be a tree. I didn't feel confident in creating one on my own so I used a diecut for my template. I was also worried I wouldn't like it so opted for creating one and then adhering it onto the canvas if it seemed to work. As I thought about it I decided to live on the edge and use cardboard for the tree. I even went as far as cutting out leaves from the scraps of cardboard. I'm still trying to decide if I like it. I really wish I could paint a big beautiful tree myself. In looking at the tree I decided it really did need some words to go with it. It looked lonely. These are action words that just mean a lot to me. Trees are a symbol of life and of God to me and wanted the whole theme to be centered around that. I haven't decided if I will make any changes to the second canvas. It may have a life of it's own with it's current colors and patterns.

Movement...

Well, it's time to go to bed again so I thought I'd blog. I'm trying to go through all the wonderful entries on Inspire Me Thursday and saw a posting for Photo Friday. The theme this week (or should I say last week) is movement. Here are some pictures from a day I went out and tried my hand at some water pictures. I really wanted one of those pictures where you capture a drop of water in mid air and one where you leave the shutter open longer and it makes the water look like a rolling fog. Well I failed at both of those but it was a first try. Here are the ones that came out decently but are just normal. It's good to have things to aim higher for. ;-)

Beauty in the everyday...

It's been a while since I visited Inspire Me Thursday but since I'm supposed to be going to sleep now I thought it was as good a time as any. Things have been a little hectic and I've really been missing my IMT fix. There are so many talented people who post to that site and I'm always so inspired by them (no pun intended). This weeks them is beauty in the everyday. There are so many things that I see as beautiful including the people I love but I chose to go with some pictures from the garden. For some reason I find nature so soothing and at the same time energizing. God's handiwork just moves me.

My sister loves to give me orchids and I have a full kitchen window sill to show for it. Orchids are so beautiful and delicate.

This is a man made bird house with a roof made with pine cone pieces. I just love the texture.

Funny, this is another man made item but he is just so cute he makes me smile.

Catching up...

I'll start with today and work backwards a bit. Today was a very lovely day. Mom was off helping my brother and sister-in-law with some pine straw so I had the house to myself. Originally I thought they were coming over for a workday here but that's next month. Finding out that it wasn't for another month was like eating a dark chocolate candy bar with almonds. Hm, now I'm hungry.

I've had a nice leisurely day in my pajamas painting away. I decided to do another canvas for my online art class with Paulette Insall. I really liked one that another classmate did with a black wash. I thought of doing that but picked this paper with brown flocking so went with brown. I also made a change and put my collage paper on after the color wash because I wanted it to show through more.

Here I've added some stamping.

And this is the finished product for the day. It seems I like it on the busy side and I'm not sure it's going to be a background for anything. We shall see. I have more ideas swirling in my head and two more canvases to play with so who knows what will happen. I'm going to play with some of my photographs and see if I want to use one or two for elements but I also bought a new book that incorporated fibers so that could happen too.

Yesterday was a lovely day at Archiver's with the girls. Originally we had planned to scrap but then we rearranged to the 28th because of a scheduling conflict with one of the girls. We went back and forth for about a week picking that date. Then the conflict disappeared so we were back on again at the last minute. So now we get to play twice this month. I finished another card set while at Archivers. I still need to decorate the tins I'll use to hold them. I'm stock piling various things to open an Etsy store that I hope to sell in the not too distant future.



This is the last card set I created. I'm making 4 sets with 4 cards in each for each grouping.

This is the card I made for my friend Renee's birthday. It's actually two layers with a transparency as the 2nd one. I stamped the flourish with Staze On and added a little bling. The bird is a Heidi Swapp ghost shape that I used alcohol inks on. It wasn't quite dark enough so I also added a layer of paper behind it.

My nephews had birthdays recently and these are the cards I made for them. They were mainly to hold money which is always their prefered gifts.

Tagged

Well, Misti tagged me. I've seen these things before this is the first time I've been involved in one. Here goes nothing.

What were you doing five years ago?
Five years ago I was in about the same place but hadn't started scrapbooking yet. Life consisted of working and shopping and now I've added scapbooking, painting, and card making. Still manage to find time to shop.

What are five things on your to-do list for today (in no particular order)?
1. Make it to the bus at a reasonable time.
2. Work.
3. Work.
4. Work.
5. Get to bed at a reasonable hour.

What are five snacks you enjoy?
1. Black olives
2. Honey roasted peanuts
3. Baked Cheetos
4. Beef jerky
5. Biscotti

What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?
1. Buy a huge piece of land and build a house and several cabins for friends and family.
2. Start some sort of business or two and hire all my friends and family
3. Take my family and maybe even my friends on a European vacation
4. Buy houses for my family
5. Find a few charities to support

What are five of your bad habits?
1. Procrastination
2. Not pick up after myself all the time
3. Procrastination
4. Several things I can't seem to think of right now
5. Procrastination

What are five places where you have lived? (not in order)
1. Wurtzberg, Germany
2. Toledo, Ohio
3. Chicago, Illinois
4. Decatur, Georgia
5. Clarkston, Georgia

What are five jobs you've had?
1. Sales Clerk
2. Carpet Sales
3. Office Assistant
4. Bookkeeping
5. Applications Analyst

Now, let's see, who in the world can I tag. It will have to be Stephanie, Jenni, and Sandy since they have posted anything in quite a while.

Oh, and the picture above is from my trip a couple years ago (wow, has it been that long?) to Great Britain. I played with it in Photoshop with some of the tools from Pioneer Woman and a built in filter.

Finally caught up...

Whew! I'm finally caught up with my online art class with Paulette Insall. I have been working so much overtime that my art endeavors have taken a back burner but today was my art day. That and try to post to my blog. So here are the results of my class so far.

Art supplies. I found it a little too much fun buying paint colors. This is the first batch and of course I had to go back and get more.

Week 1. This is the first stage of a base color.

Then scraps of paper are added. Good thing I have such an ample stash.

Final step is to add a wash and drip water on it. Cool effect. I may have to try one and stop at this point.

This is week two class. Here are more layers with stamps and bubble wrap as a stamp.
then free hand swirls are added for the final stage of class 2.

This is week 3 with more layers of paint applied with wax paper of all things, some more stamping with a text stamp and with the end of a paper towel card board roll.

Can't wait to see what we do for the next two and final classes. Originally I was going to do at least three of these at the same time but because of time restraints and being unsure of what the heck I'm doing I decided to tackle just one for the class and then to do some more. Of course then I have more things I want to try with paint. So many things swirling through my brain and so little time. Oh well, as long as I have fun with it.