Reflections on 2009

The past couple of days I have been reflecting on 2009. I think I accomplished some great things. Just a few of those things were:

-Got juried into an art show again (each time is always exciting)

-taught my first workshop

-sold some art (thats always fun)

-licensed some artwork to a major retailer twice!

-learned how to do assemblage, something I have wanted to learn for years.

None of the above things were really very well planned (other than the workshop, of course) but I hope to set some goals for 2010 and stick to them.

Have a great 2010 everyone!

Spill It

I feel like I really needed a creative jumpstart so I signed up for an online workshop through Carmen Torbus. Its been nice revisiting some techniques I have not done for a while and most of all, its been fun getting messy! the paint is so thick on my hands! I have wanted to get my canvases out again-its been way too long! This is my first lesson doing the workshop and so far its great, looking forward to playing more.

Back in the saddle again..........I hope!

Its strange not doing any art for a couple of weeks.......and I have missed my journaling.

This is the perfect day for it too. Our dogs got in our chicken coop this morning and sadly we lost a few of them. My son did not hook our electric fence back up last night and left the gate open enough for the dogs to get in and they broke into the coop. I am sad as I just loved having the fresh eggs-nothing like fresh eggs! We still have one chicken left but that won't give us that many eggs :( Gotta wait till it gets warmer so we can get some more chickens. ugh! Makes me sick!

Used on this page:

Acrylics, masking tape, collage, charcoal, watercolors and sakura glaze pens

Crazy Holiday Season!

Sorry I have disappeared! This has got to have been the busiest holiday season ever! Between doing around 40 domino ornaments and getting ready for Christmas and having the kids home from school its been insane-I really have not had anything to post here. Now that Christmas is over I will be back to my regular activity I am sure.

I just had to share this though! The Pinata pictured here was made by my husband's uncle. Each year they have a "Pinata Party" right after Christmas. This is a tradition that has gone on for many years. This year's pinata just blew me away-its my absolute favorite. I hated seeing them beating on this work of art that took hours and hours! I would have brought it home!

Ah well, at least I got a picture of it! Just had to share its awesomeness :)

I hope everyone has had Happy/Merry Holiday Season!

Looking forward to getting back to doing some art!

Sumo got a new sweater

Secret Santa Gift-wow!!

I recieved my Secret Santa gift

today, from one of my yahoogroups!

Lots of really cute stamped cards and envelopes, and hand painted ornament, a composition book and some fibers and This!I was wondering why the package was so heavy!The picture does this no justice -it is soooooooooo cute!I wish my daughter was here when I opened it-she is going to ask me probably 100 questions about it when she gets home from school today! What a fun package!

wedding card

Had to have a wedding card to go with the wedding gift so made a quick one today, using leftover papers from making the album I finished last week! Stamp is from IBFS

Its been a horrendous week and a half, thats for sure!

Everyone (except me-knock on wood!) in my house has been sick-last week it started with my husband-they almost admitted him to the hospital (never ever seen him so sick, ever!). A few days later-my daughter-she could not hold down anything for almost 2 days-had to take her to the ER-turns out she had the same thing my husband had, Gastroenteritis. Then a couple days ago the school called and yes, it was my son. sigh. Needless to say I was pretty freaked out-we have never had that much illness in this house in that short of time, and I was extremely tired from taking care of everyone! And all of this before christmas when of course I have a zillion things to get done. So now I am playing catch up!

Wedding Gift

A friend's daughter is getting married next week and I wanted to make them something for their wedding gift. So I decided to make them a 5x7 album to hold misc. wedding photos-and I used their wedding colors of white black and red. LOVE this color combo, so fun to work with!

I had the idea to bind some love and marriage quotes in with it-they are random throughout the book. At first I was going to do each page this way but then I thought just throughout would be fine. I did something different with this one-rather than using the O-wires for the Bind it All , I bound this with ribbon. It just seemed to fit perfectly with this book. This will hold around 26-28 4x6 photos. Its fairly thick so I thought a closure would be nice and added to the whole look of the album itself. I was undecided on the cover-the original plans I had just were not working out, so my dear friend Katie suggested a frame with a place for their picture or something. Ta-da!! there are pictures on their announcements so I used one of them-and it came out perfect! :)

Last batch of Domino Ornaments

I have made about 20 of these domino ornaments just this past week! Today I did my last batch and I think I am done! Here's one of them :)

The flourish is from I Brake For Stamps, the Stampinback line

More Glass Ornaments

Did a whole bunch more of these glass Ornaments-this time I did some in the purples and greens and also blue and silver.

The phrase in the blue one is from Artistic Outpost and the purple one is from I Brake For Stamps

Itty Bitty Canvas

Here's an itty bitty canvas I completed yesterday-didn't spend much time in the kitchen but sure spent alot of time working on Xmas gifts! Here's one for a secret santa swap I am in :)

More Domino Ornaments

Made a bunch more of these today..........will be for probably a couple more days, along with more of the glass bulb ornaments! I wish these would scan better! They are so much better in person!

Images used : Doll Face, Boy: I Brake for Stamps and the Santa is from Artistic Outpost

Domino Tree Ornaments

The past couple of days I have been busily drilling dominoes-lots of them! I am working on a slew of these wire wrapped domino ornaments to give as gifts to a list of people! I picked up a box of Dominoes months ago at a thrift shop and was trying to think of something to use them for this christmas and decided to make some ornaments!

Images:

Snowman, wisemen: I Brake For Stamps

Tree: Quietfire Design

Snowflakes: Artistic Outpost

Wednesday Stamper-Maps

Its been AGES since I have played in this challenge! Saw what the theme was and decided thats what I would do today :)

The theme is Maps-and I have a GREAT ATC sized Map Background from I Brake For Stamps

from the Travel Themed Sheet

The Collage image (on the one)is an old one from the now defunct Collage Cat Zine that I have had in my stash for what seems like forever!

The other one also uses Images from these two sheets from IBFS:
Wendy's Faves
Photobooth

Quietfire Design Blog Hop WINNER!!!

Thank you to all for the wonderful comments on my entry for the Quietfire Design Blog Hop! This was my first time ever participating and it was alot of fun!

I used Random.org to generate the winner and the winner is:
Vicki Holdwick!!
Vicki i have sent you a private email :)

Congratulations!

Don't forget to visit Kim's blog today for another chance to win!

Quietfire Design Blog Hop!

Please leave your comment in the
comments section for a chance to win a grab bag of Quietfire
Design Rubber Stamps. A name will be chosen randomly from the list
of comments on this blog entry and the name of the winner will be posted on this
blog tomorrow. Then hop on over to the next
blog on the list the next day to be entered to win more
rubber!
The winner must contact suzanne@quietfiredesign.com
to claim their prize!!!

Here is the list of those participating:

Monday, Nov 16th - Yogi Grunwald

Tuesday, Nov 17th - Kristy Christopherson

Wednesday, Nov 18th - Kim Prince

Thursday, Nov 19th - Deborah March

Friday, Nov 20th - Suzanne Cannon

Saturday, Nov 21st - Wanda Hentges

Sunday, Nov 22nd - Becca Feeken

Monday, Nov 23rd - Monica Black

NOTE: You need to take note of all the rubber stamps used on each DT's blog.
At the end of the blog hop, go back to Suzanne's blog and list all the stamps
used this week on everyone's cards to win a grand prize.
*********************************************************************************

I wanted to do something other than a card for this blog hop and I came up with this idea after seeing another website that had used printed photographs inside of these types of ornaments. I figured why not stamp something on transparency instead? I think Quietfire Design's Christmas Phrase stamps are perfect for these! These are really easy peasy! I have had these clear christmas bulbs from the dollar store several years and I woke up inspired to use these today. I simply stamped the Christmas Phrases onto transparency film in Stazon Black ink and let dry. Then cut out around the stamped phraseI rolled up the pieces and popped them in through the opening of the ornament. Then I applied Alcohol Inks (colors used: Cranberry and Lettuce ) with a felt applicator and voila! On the one to the left, I also put in some fake snow! Pop the top back on and tie a pretty ribbon at the top and you are all set! I think I just may use these for teacher gifts this year :)

For these ornaments I used these stamps from Quietfire Design:


Have a Holly Jolly Christmas


Tidings of Comfort and Joy



Alcohol Inks


***I have had several questions about whether I did the alcohol ink on the inside OR the outside! I applied the ink to the OUTSIDE of the bulbs with a felt applicator. Sorry-should have stated that :)

One of my old Polaroid SX-70 Photo Manipulations

I have done some Polaroid SX-70 manipulations in the past and enjoyed them very much. I long to do more (If only there were more time in the day!)but need to get up to date on what actual film to use-I have understood that the original film to do this technique with have sinced ceased. There has got to be an alternative. I do love the artistic effect of manipulating these photos! This is a picture of my husband's beloved 1970 Chevy Blazer-it was the perfect subject for this! I did this one several years back.

Golden Digital Grounds on Canvas

After my first experiment with Golden Digital Grounds on Rice paper, I was itching to try canvas. So I grabbed my Canvas Pad and cut out a piece. I brushed some text on randomly first

with some Sumi-E ink. While I was applying the Digital Grounds to prep the surface I did noticed some smudging, but it wasn't too bad as long as I applied the digital grounds in gental strokes. Once that was dry (and I was impatient so I shot the surface with my heat tool and it dried much faster) I ran it through my epson inkjet printer. It worked! The only thing was it came out with some lines and I don't know why. I thought perhaps my printer may need its heads cleaned or something-but I printed the same picture onto regular printer paper after this printing and it was fine. It could be the canvas surface. At any rate, I like the way it came out and I can see this being used on an art journal page for sure!

My Experiment with Golden Digital Grounds and Rice Paper

So I have had this bottle of Golden Digital Grounds for a long time-more than 6 months. I have done so much other stuff that this wonderful stuff has been completely overlooked. For some reason today I felt inspired to play with it-so I did.

I have a large stash of rice paper (you know, you never know when you will need it so of course I have it) and decided to try printing on it. Never in a million years would I even try to run this stuff through my printer-I have always been afraid it would tear and jam up in my beloved printer. I have heard of it being used with the Digital Grounds so I thought I would try it. I treated my rice paper as directed with the Golden Digital Grounds (gloss) and then taped the paper to my regular printer paper with masking tape. I was surprised-this stuff really goes a long way! I picked out the image of the door to try with this, and printed it up as usual on my Epson Inkjet printer. Wow! I LOVE it! I can see this opening a whole new door, so to speak :) Endless possibilities. This has left me wanting to try more. I tried placing the image I printed over a piece of old text and I love it! The rice paper is so transparent. I can see myself totally using this on my canvases. As much as I adore doing image transfers, this just may be another way to add an image without all the effort. This stuff has my mind spinning!

Stamping

Did quite a bit of stamping today-these are new images coming from I Brake For Stamps tomorrow :) I always love to do techniques that add an artsy touch to the image. I often spend lots of time doing the background until they look just right to me!

Assemblage done!

I am happy with this one just like it is-been working on it lots today. I am calling it done now :) The collage image used here is from Collage Visions

Now to name it...........thats the difficult part.

***Update! Thanks to an old schoolmate this has a name. She suggested "Timekeeper" and it just seemed to fit! So that it is!

Today's bit of stamping

Focal point is a new stamp from the Stampinback Collection over at I Brake For Stamps and the swirly-like background is from This sheet. Remember if you ever order from I Brake For Stamps to put in coupon code SAVE10KRISTY to get 10% off their already great prices!

In Progress!

Here's my latest work in progress-or at least a glimpse of it :)

Assemblage-Guardian Angel

I began working on this one in May.........set it aside as I think I moved onto something else. I have been walking past this unfinished piece and she has been screaming at me to finish her. So today I went back to work. I like the finished piece-she is drying and waiting to be sealed but other than that she feels done to me :)

On to the next! I have my assemblage bug again. I have another assemblage in the beginning stages.

In case you noticed, I bounce around alot. I think I dabble in so much, but its nice , to me, to be able to do alot of different stuff. Its the creativity that counts to me.

Halloween

Here's my kids on Halloween!

My son is almost 13, so not much on dressing up. He just wanted to wear the dread lock wig. Gillian wanted to be a zombie-my mom made her costume.

New Moon Linoleum Carving

I was thinking last night in my drunken "Nyquil" haze that I needed to do a Linoleum carving of "New Moon" since I did one last year for Twilight. So that is what I set out to do today. This took me around 2 hours to do (with breaks so not to have my neck aching!). Of course now that I see it here I see a change I may just make to make it better. I am SO meticulous about my carvings! But for now I am going to step away for a long break. Don't be surprised if you see a revision on this. I love the instant gratification of doing these. Now I am looking forward to doing "Eclipse" when it comes out!

Stamps from I Brake For Stamps-I used the "Embossed Crayon Resist Technique" and "Bingo Blast"here along with new papers from Basic Grey (my ultimate favorite). The flower is punched from copper tooling metal.

Try

Art Journal Page for today

It felt good to get some done-another bad week. I had something happen on sunday that has left me feeling REALLY hurt. I have had to work through these feelings. Doing a little better now, but still feeling very discouraged. Good thing I have art journaling to turn to!

Published in RSM

Just got published in RSM..........received it yesterday. Mine is on the right hand side.

I sent this in a loooooooooooooong time ago!