One World, One Heart Giveaway!!

Here is my blog give-away for the One World One Heart event!

It is a blog-wide giveaway event. The original idea behind this was to bring bloggers together from around the world who may never ordinarily meet. It closes the gap of the blog community and enables us to interact, discover new and wonderful people, and in the process possibly win a prize or many prizes along the way. Last years event had nearly 100 participants and many connections were made because of it......friendships that are still going strong.

I am giving away one of my ATCs plus an Art Girlz Creativity pack! I will draw the lucky winner on Feb 13th :)

Comment to this with where you are from and you will be entered :)

Created By Hand Challenge: Black and White

This one was tough for me for some reason! But I came up with a card and I like it :)
Stamps from Quietfire Design

Live For a Moment

My art journal page today.

I have a killer achey headache so not much to say today...... but had to do something. I worked on this throughout the day, in between taking care of myself plus Gillian, who is home sick

today :(

ACK! Lots of junk going around lately :(

Shameless plug...........

I am guest designer for the By Hand Newsletter put out by Suzanne of Quietfire Design.

Here's the link but I am also attaching a photo of my project using her beautiful stamps and products!

http://www.quietfiredesign.com/Galleries/Projects/Bind-it-allBookKristy.htm

Stamp Show

Wow-what a day! I am tired! I stamped allll day and it was fun! My fingertips are completely black!LOL

I saw some old friends-it was SO great to see some people I had not seen and to meet some new ones as well! Here's a couple of pictures. One of them is me with Mary Gayou and the other is with Desiree. Della and Steve were fun to be around too!:)

Preparation for tomorrow's demo!!

NO time at all today for the art journal.........I am packing and preparing for my demonstration tomorrow at the Riverside CA Stamp Convention where I am working at the I Brake For Stamps booth! If you are in the area and are going to the show,do stop by and say hello!

I have not demoed in just over 5 years so I am a bit nervous........but I think once I get going I will be just fine :) I have been working up some samples to have when I start demoing (so I can have at least something there to show as people stop by!) and have had fun with my babies from Time To Stamp that are so close to my heart :) Although I am very nervous I am excited to be at a convention again-I used to love to talk to everyone! Since I have not done it in so long I almost feel like I have become more shy of people-I am not the same LOL I am sure if Della reads this she will be laughing-she KNOWS I am not shy and Ilike to be silly, but thats around SMALL crowds. Get me in a crowd these days and I shrivel up! But I just hope I will be able to come out of my shell . Della said to just pretend I am at home and play all day and do just as I do at home when I stamp..........so hence, I have to pack alot of stuff!LOL I want to make sure I have all my necessities :)

Anyway, here are some samples to share :)

Doorways to Adventure

More art journal play :)

I am really "letting my hair down!" LOL

Fun with black gesso and oil pastels :)

I am SO in love with the black gesso that I have that Olivia Newton John song running through my head (and believe me, its not the normal kind of music I listen to!LOL) "hopelessly devoted.........to you" sigh...........truly TRULY in love with the stuff. I am just sick!

Laughter

This is today's art journal page. I had so much fun with this! I tell ya, I am having a true love affair with this black gesso. I feel like writing it a love song!LOL

To thine own self be true

I just adore this black gesso!! Here's todays journal page-I didn't put as much time into this one as the others, as I just didn't have the time today, but I did create and it felt great!

On the black gesso, I did add some caran d'ache in blue-it doesn't show in the scan, but in person you can tell its there. The paper at the bottom is actually Pink and silver-it looks more red. The dots around the page are actually done with silver paint-it came out looking more white. Its hard to get a scan of the accurate color

Time Is a Circus!

Here's today's art journal page. I choose images that call to me.............this one has been calling to me recently but I just didn't know what to do with it ! So today I challenged myself to use it. This is one I got from Bernie Berlin several years back.

As with my other pages, I combined different media here. Black Gesso (my new fave), acrylics, printed paper, stamps, and I colored the outfits on the guys using peerless watercolors.

Step Outside your box Saturdays-Rusty Things

So I am a day late!

More fun with the black gesso today.............I love that stuff!!! I loved layering acrylics over it and scratching through it. I also added some Caran D'ache crayons and there's some graphite on there-something else that I love to use now :)

Today I was drawn to this photo of a door. Its from a collage sheet I have had for years, from Lost Art Chix. I found a quote to go with it that I loved, and I applied a rusty key so it fit perfect for the Saturday Challenge!

More than anything I am SO enjoying playing in my art journal. Just trying new things, and playing...........Its more addicting than I imagined :)

Today's Art Journal play

What I did today was basically play around with black Gesso. I am in LOVE with it now!

I painted the page with it to start........then painted on some red then added the circles, collaged on the other stuff. I painted a bit of cream on with a dry brush and attached the photocopy of the tree. I LOVED this tree. I found a quote that I loved to go with it. It needed something different so I added masking tape. Love the effect.........and I distressed the page with sandpaper-I love the overall effect of the page with the distressed look.

Theme Thursday: Stamped Backgrounds

Here is my contribution for today's challenge over at Theme Thursday

I stamped the background in versamark ink and brayered over it with a rainbow pad, to create a resist . The text is from Time To Stamp , funky houses , star , and swirl from Invoke Arts, and the flourish is from Quietfire Design

Art Journal Page: Beauty

Just a little play time in my art journal. I used acrylics, caran d ache crayons, stamps from MaVinci.

Created By Hand Challenge: Distress Inks

Here are a couple of ATC's I did for the Created By Hand Challenge using Quietfire Design Rubber Stamps.

Art Journaling

Something I have wanted to do for a LONG time is to start art journaling. I decided last night as I was reading some inspiring material that I would start today! I had this image of this smiling lady that just spoke to me-so I edited her in photoshop and used her on my page.

Lately I have been doing lots of smiling-maybe thats why she called to me LOL
Anyway, so I made the page all about smiles. Many Thanks to the amazing Kelly Kilmer who inspired me. She is an avid art journaler and inspiration to me.

This Art Journaling will work out perfect too as I am doing SO much playing around with so many new techniques. Fun fun! Isn't that what its all about? :)

"Copper Door"

I started working on this yesterday-I made the background and layered on paints, old text, and some stamping from a "texture block" that I made out of penscore.

The door image is an image transfer and I painted the back of the "skin."

I live for doing image transfers-its one of the funnest things I have ever done. Its definitely one of my top favorite things to do-it doesn't matter what transfer technique it is!

I had some copper tooling metal around so I torched it and punched some holes in it and put it on this. That was one of th challenges I gave myself was to use it :) It was left over from another project I did.

Think Monday-Think ATC:Photo Stamps

This is my contribution for today's Think Monday, Think ATC Challenge of using Photo Stamps.

This is the first stamp I thought of when I saw what the challenge was. my favorite ! Its from the Glamour Girls sheet at Time To Stamp. This stamps beautifully! Iwould have to say that Colorbox Chalk inks are my favorite inks to use with these type stamps. I used "Chestnut Roan" to stamp this image.

The hotel receipt image behind her is also from Time To Stamp-its on the Travel ATC Sheet. Love it!

a Giveaway-check this out!

Go here for details:
http://catieanscorner.blogspot.com/2008/01/its-giveawaya-give-away.html

Step Outside your box Saturdays-Magazine Art

Here's my submission for today's "Step Outside Your Box" Challenge!

I worked on this throughout the afternoon-in between errands, dinner, and making a batch of cookies!

This was TRULY outside my box. The image I used here, was from a magazine ad.

She was originally hispanic-I transformed her into a blonde with blue eyes using Acrylics and Caran D'Ache crayons . I also used some colors I normally don't use. I am really happy with this-this was lots of fun. Thanks to Lisa for helping me "Step outside my box."

I LOVE trying new things. I am up for any challenge! You just never know when you try something how it can change your perspective and broaden your skills :)

This one is 5x7 in size, substrate is matboard .

Love this stamp!

I just simply adore this stamp from Inka Stamps

Have not been able to stamp until tonight-I was itching to play with this one.

another one!

Just finished another card using images from Inka Stamps

Stamping fun and something great happened today

I did a little bit of stamping today with some images from Inka Stamps

I LOVE her Alice In Wonderland stuff so was excited to play with some of them today.

Also did another one with a really neat Medieval type woman.

I am SUPER excited today -when I volunteered in Gillian's class today-I was working with a little down's syndrome boy as I usually do, and the teacher called me over because "Some of the kids would like to read to you" she said. So one little boy read to me and I praised him, then we were done and it turns out GILLIAN was going to read to me next! I cannot believe it! She READ to me! Apparently they started reading this week. Short words of course-Cat, hat, sat, mat-but she sounds them out and everything! What a surprise! I had no idea that was what they were doing . I honestly did not expect her to start reading until next year. I guess I really under estimate her abilities. Thats probably how she can push my buttons so well LOL

Created By Hand Challenge: Frames

Here's my contribution for the Created by Hand Challenge Blog-the theme is frames.

Although it is hard to see, it really is a frame :) The background color is using Color mists by Outside the Margins and color diffusing paper I purchased at an educational store .

Stamps by Quietfire Design

Step Outside your box Saturdays-Acrylic Paint

I finished!!!LOL
I did the background but finished the piece just this morning.

Felt good to do something and complete something :)

This is my contribution for this weeks challenge.

I used one stamp on it-the diamond background from Quietfire Design.

37 Today

Today I turned 37. I don't feel any older -I guess thats a good thing!

I have been dying to do some art-actually I have done a wee bit. But these kids have been driving me crazy the past few days! They have been out of school for 2 1/2 weeks so I do think

they are getting antsy to go back (although my son won't dare admit that). Anyway-tomorrow is back to school and that means I can get back on my routine. I haven't been able to do as much with them home-they are always wanting something!LOL

I did a background today on some matboard. I made a printing plate and pressed some "magic stamp" onto it and actually stamped some texture in copper paint on top of the background-its gorgeous! Its very hard to scan.

I hope to finish this up tomorrow, while the kids are in school! yay!!

Todays little bit of art

Today was not a good day-I have had a terrible headache pretty much all day, along with that Gillian had 2 appointments . I am surprised I got to do any art at all today!

I have told myself I have to do something creative EVERY day. Even if I just get to read about a new technique or whatever. This is truly my sanity. After the kids get back in school I know my schedule will change with Gillian's myriad of appointments. Not looking forward to that at all, although it is necessary! At least when the kids are at school I will get some good quality "me" time. I look forward to that. It has done me WORLDS of good being able to have more creative time. Its just amazing what it does for the soul.

Anyway, I did a rice paper overlay onto matboard for this-made the rice paper a bit crinkled on the surface . I applied watered down acrlylics to it. Love the effect!

Also, Today is Della's birthday-Della of I Brake for Stamps that is! Here's a card I made for her yesterday. I can share it , now that she has it :) I didn't want her to see before she got it :)

Just a little brag-not art related. Well music, I guess thats an artform LOL

Okay, I am so excited I just have to brag...........a little :)
I am friends with this guy who is lead vocalist in a really kewl
independent band (most music I listen to is independent, alternative type)-and
I just got their new CD in the mail and I made the liner notes! They have a thanks to me in there! How cool is that! I have gotten to hear most of the tracks on this cd already-I always give him my opinions :) I have never met him personally, but we have LOTS of mutual friends.
He's just a very kewl guy (and not 'cos he sends me his cd's )
I am just psyched.

Today's experiment

Since I received my new "Acrylic Revolution" book, I have been dying to try out some new techniques. Today I tried one of them-this one is on pg. 37-soft-textured absorbent surface. It uses Light Molding paste for the texture. I love it! Now I gotta figure out what to do with it!

I did this on an 8x8 piece of matboard.

My first Inkjet Transfer

I just recently got an inkjet printer -I had one a LONG time ago but got rid of it!

For the past like 7 years I have only been using laser printers. Anyway, I had to replace my good color laser printer recently, and so what I did was get cheap black/white laser then also an inkjet printer. I went and got some inkjet transparency today and did my first ever transfer with my inkjet-and YAY! I was successful! :)

I did a small, 4x6 collage on matboard today and incorporated the photo of the man onto it.

I can see how addicting these inkjet transfers are going to be-I am excited :)

I already checked off something from my "To do " list for 2008 :) Yippeeeeeeeee!

Created By Hand Challenge:Sprays and Mists

Here is my contribution for the Created By Hand Challenge. I used Quietfire stamps for this along with a background I did using Adirondack Color Wash Sprays.

New Challenge Blog: Step Outside your box Saturdays!

My Pal Lisa started a new Challenge blog that begins on the 5th! Be sure to check it out!
http://stepoutsideyourboxsaturdays.blogspot.com/