What I Am Working On

Can't believe I still have 5 faithful followers, I post so seldom.  Lots of activity here.  Daughter got married which kept me pretty busy, then 2 days later my new Step Grand Daughter In Law, Sarah, got in an auto accident with a UPS truck and was in ICU for nearly a week. She suffered slight brain' bruising', whatever that means.  It affected her speech and right side of her body.  It has been over a month now and she has been in both speech and physical therapy.  She is at home and can finally walk by herself without wobbling and needing someone to hold on to her.  Her speech is improving and she and dd sit here with me and do 'art therapy' which is helping improve her eye/hand coordination.  Full recovery is expected and she will be able to graduate.

So.  I have been busy.

Now I am looking ahead to getting some art in.  I have joined the 29 faces and am excited to also be taking the Portraits course by Rhomany.  It is awesome!  This woman gives you so much information that other instructors always seem to think you already know.  And you don't have to draw an oval (I can't. They are always wonky) she works from squares and it MAKES SO MUCH SENSE.    I can't tell you (well, won't confess) how many on line portrait classes I have taken, but still spend most of the time erasing.  It shouldn't be that difficult.  Now it won't be.  I highly recommend Rhomany's Portraits course.  I've signed up for all 3.  She has female, male and the last is stylized which teaches clothing and accessories and stuff like that I think.  Don't care.  Want them all.  I actually learn from Rhomany.

Here's the link: http://rhomany.org.uk/classes/

Check it out.  She also has a Ustream channel that I watched before signing up for the class.  http://www.ustream.tv/channel/rhomany-s-realm

So here are 2 faces (before Rhomany's class started) that took me most of the 2 days to complete.  The 3rd day I threw away.  It was really bad.

Above is May 1.  This gal needs better shampoo and conditioner, doesn't she?  Very limp.

This is May 2.  You may notice that I didn't mess with hair at all on this one.  I don't know what to do with hair.  Rhomany will teach me.  Also, they are already beginning to look like the same person, just with different bad hair days.  I have GOT to learn not to draw the same face over and over, in spite of all the erasing!!!

Well, gonna work this weekend on my Rhomany homework, so I'm thinking I might not actually make 29 faces.  Or will.  Guess I and you faithful 5 will find out.

Love ya
Hugs
Sande
  

Some New Things I have Done

What can I say?  I have been practicing and painting and drawing and having so much FUN.  I got supplies from Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium.  After you join the yahoo group (same name) you can shop in the OWSE shop site.  Great gals and they have a nice mix of cardmakers, art journalers, stampers, well, crafters in general.  Also, challenges for everyone to win great prizes and weekly specials and tutorials.

Anyway, here are a few of the artworks I have finished, and photographed.

Enjoy.

This is from a Tamara (willowing.ning.com) class.  

And this is my first She Art from Christy Tomlinson's She Art class.  Can't tell you how much fun it was!

Hope you enjoy!

Journal Classes

I am having so much fun!  My daughter and I hauled out all the art supplies we have been hoarding for years and gathered them in my craft area (my entire apartment).  They will finally be used instead of occasionally touched and hugged and put away again!

The Tamara LaPorte Portraits class is moving along fairly well.  Lots and lots of practice and I finally can draw a face that looks, well, a little more like a mannequin than a human, but human-ish which is great progress for me.  I can now draw eyes the same size, on the same face, and in the correct position!

I finished my first LifeBook lesson above.  That is my very first ever background (couldn't tell could ya) hehehe.  Now that I have gotten over my inner "but what is it FOR" demands I can learn to stamp and smear and paint and stencil and ink with wild abandon for no other purpose than to have fun.  And with more practice, I will get better and better and ya'll will eat your hearts out!

Till next time.

Merry Christmas to all!

Hope everyone has a very very lovely Christmas Day!

I know I have been among the missing.  I'm never sure what to say so I decided I would just ramble on.

One reason I have been among the missing is that I am busy taking Art lessons on-line!  I have always wanted to learn to draw, and lately have wanted to learn both mixed media and collage.  Beginning to get tired of doing cards.  Not certain what I will do with the new finished artwork projects, but I didn't know what to do with all those cards either.  It's all for fun anyway.

Right now I am busy with Tamara Laporte's Portrait class http://willowing.ning.com/, then I will do Whimsey and Art Journal (me, and Art Journal!!!).  Her Life Book series starts in January and from the looks of it will keep me pretty busy.  I also want to take several of Suzi Blu's classes http://suziblu.ning.com/.

When I finish something I won't mind people seeing, I will post it here.  In the meantime, here are a few cards I have done.  Could we call them a Christmas present?

So Excited!!

Boss Kut has not only a software upgrade but a motherboard upgrade as well.  The combo is primarily for Print and Cuts, which to be honest, I haven't had a big problem with - but I'm all for easier so I ordered my new motherboard as a Christmas present to me.

I can't say enough for Boss Kut, that they are not forcing me to purchase an entirely new machine for this upgrade.  Not many companies would go that far for existing owners.  They have the best customer service going as far as I am concerned.

I haven't used my little Gazy a fraction as much as I had planned to.  Got sidetracked with Copics - Taking lessons, practicing and practicing and so on.  Gazy sat by gathering dust along with my Prismacolor pencils, which I love, and a lot of other supplies.  Well, the new upgrade gave me a kick where I needed one to put Copics aside for awhile and start using my Gazy.

I have tons of gorgeous cutting files from Penny Duncan (side bar) and Paulo at http://scale-files.blogspot.com.  They are both such totally talented and amazing designers and they GIVE their designs away to us far less talented people.  I appreciate them both so much!

So now I'm guessing you might be expecting an example aren't you?  Well, I don't have any new ones yet, but I do have a couple of really bad photos of a couple I made with an intricate Penny Duncan file that cut just beautifully.

BAD PHOTOGRAPHY, GREAT FILE

Isn't that a gorgeous file (ignore how bad the photos are please - so embarrassing)?  I took the little wings off for the pink card, mostly because I tore the blamed thing taking it off the mat.  Since then I have learned how to remove delicate cuts from the mat without destroying them.  I tried that little Cricut spatula thingee and it gouged stuff to bits.  Then I discovered pins.  Plain ole pins get under and lift SO EASY!

Now for those of you who are gluttons for punishment and keep reading, or are designers who can enjoy a good chuckle (or a smug smile) I have one more card that I actually created a cut file for!  GASP!  Yes, it's true.  The little checked border.  Won't win any prizes, but yep, made it meself!  It is a card for my sister, in chemo after cancer breast surgery.

Black checked border by ME.  Image by Cheryl Seslar, colored with Copics.  Paper from stash.  Really big stash.

Well, that's it for today.  I'm going to get busy with my Gazy for the rest of the day.  Be blessed yall.

Autumn is in the air, so I'm thinking Spring

Autumn has arrived!  It is so gorgeous here in the Georgia Mountains.  Gotta love it.  But I would love it a lot more if it jumped right into Spring.  Autumn means Winter and 30 degree temperatures and snow.  Snow and cold are two of my least favorite things.  I have really tried to convince daddy God that a little adjustment would be very welcome, but as anyone can see, He has chosen to leave it as it is.  Sigh.  I can't be sure, but it just may be that He figures I am blessed enough as it is.  And I am.  Such a spoiled brat, really.

Meanwhile, there are still many mysteries to life.  For instance, while I truly intended to enter many challenges, this has not happened.  For one thing, you have to find a challenge that hasn't got 500 entries already.  500 to one is not the greatest of odds.  Then you have to create a card that suits the challenge.  Well, I can't slap one together in a day.  Takes me that long to pick out JUST the right paper.  Then a day to Copic the image and start assembly and then learning that what you had in your head is really not working out on the card.  So there is another day redesigning.

Not to mention the TIME involved in finding the challenges.  Exhausting really.  So as much as I love to win prizes, I think I will just post what I make and if it accidentally fits a challenge, terrific.

And --  I found one.  (yes, the crowd can go wild with applause and relief)  It is for the Color Me Copic Challenge group and is a 'boy' card.  Not sure how boyish this is, but little boys like dogs, right?

It's a little washed out from the flash.  The black cardstock should be, well, black.  And Bowzer is a nice dark brown.  Will I ever get the hang of this?



http://scrapbitzcopics.ning.com/group/cmccopicchallengegroup is where the Boys Boys Boys challenge is located.

Hope you enjoy.

BUNNY GIRL

Among others (way too many others) I love the prim images of Cheryl Seslar!  I am also in love with almost anything of Mo's Digital and A Day for Daisies and...... Anyway, this is a Cheryl Seslar I colored with Copics and my daughter put together.  Kind of a bonding activity, even though we don't need it.  We are Best Friends, which means I am major blessed.

This is being entered in:
Digital Tuesday Challenge challenge#134 Buttons and Twine
Crafty Sentiments Designs No Designer Paper challenge

If you haven't guessed, it is a Cheryl Seslar digi, colored very early in my Copic life.  Hope you enjoy.

A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR YA

Whoo Hoo!  I am entering a challenge!  Can you believe it?  My courage knows no bounds, right?  I've decided that most people are probably not like me and have to look at every single entry.  I'm also thinking that this is what blogs are actually for since most challenges want a link to the blog.

So this is a card using an image I colored with my Copics.  Don't know which ones.  I need to find a way to, well, first MAKE A LIST, then how to keep track of it with the card photo.  Anyone have a system that works?  Would love to hear it.

Miserable photo, I know.  But I have since found that just placing them on the floor on a white sheet of cs works best of all.  Never mind that light box gadget thingie.  I even bought one of those frogs and deco'd it up with rhinestones, but then I learned I still had to have a background.  Way too much to think about, doncha no.  So paper and card on floor is my way for now.

Hope you enjoy.  Am hunting other challenges I may add.

Challenge:
heartsonginspirations
lollipopcrafts
Did I do that right?  I don't think so.  Well, there it is, anyway.

Long time No write

Pathetic title, eh?  But true.  I don't know where time goes, just got up and went somewhere and forgot to take me.

Anyway, I am pleased to say that the eyelet card actually won a challenge on Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium yahoo group!!!   Gotta love random.org, right?  I sure do.  Totally nice prize too.  Got a bottle of Distress Stain, which I have been wanting to try.  Also some really awesome charms, one of which is a little heart that opens up, like the kind that were so popular when I was a teen.  AND a package of totally cool Glitz Whatnot's that are wonderful.  I had never heard of Glitz but now I have to find more don't I?

Shook myself loose and got lots of cards done.  I was really on a roll, mostly because I decided I really don't CARE if I sell any cards.  I used to have fun making cards as a hobby, but somehow or other which I can't recall, I ended up placing some in a couple of places for sale.  Which is fine, except I slowly evolved from making cards just for fun, to making cards I thought others might like and purchase.  That made it more work than fun.  I was also trying to be like those wildly talented ladies who make those wildly gorgeous cards with 10 layers and a garden's worth of flowers AND a big bow.  I so admired their work, but can't do it.  So I quit and am just doing what appeals to me at the moment, never mind if anyone ever likes it.  Anyone else ever been through that?

I've also been going through all my 'stuff' and have cleared out a lot I just never used.  Now I am mostly surrounded by the things I enjoy using and not the things that make me feel guilty because I don't use them.  You know - gee I paid X amount of money for that and there it sits.  Fine little budgeter you are lady.

In the process I found I have a zillion means of sticking stuff to stuff, most of which I soon learned didn't work too great or ended up costing an arm and a leg to replace.  I gave myself permission to THROW OUT the liquid glues that ended up wrinkling the paper, or that you had to sit on till the layers dried.  Some of them, even a little touch would soak through.  Eek!  I have used up all those little tape runners that are so expensive and am sticking with my big ATG gun, which is practically free per inch next to those little tape runners that always ran out when I was in a hurry.  For liquid glues I am sticking with 4 - Yes, Daige, Martha S, and for heavy embellies, Beacon Multi-Grip.  When my Martha S is used up, I will not buy more since Yes and Daige do the same and last forever.  Martha is really tough to squeeze too.  At least for me.  Wish I could afford a bunch of her punches though.  Love her score board.  I have those raspberry Crafters Companion boards but I never got along with them.  Crooked crooked crooked.  With Martha Stewart I have perfectly square corners and this is essential when you are a tad, ok, a lot, OCD like me.

Well, am going to find a challenge so I can post some of these cards, ok?

CDAC Progressive Freebie - Entry 1

I had a lot of fun with this image and I really did intend to submit it, but for the life of me, couldn't figure out all the rules.  So here it is.  Used the dreaded (for me) RV copics for her dress and shoes, discovered some forgotten punches I had buried and used them.  Used one of my many embossing folders I usually forget about, and finally my Viva Decor Pearl Pen.  Oh - used a little spica on her petticoat ruffles.  Image is from Whoopsie Daisy http://linnie-whoopsiedaisy.blogspot.com/.  Challenge is here:  http://priscillastyles.ning.com  (I hope).  

Here is a second one for the challenge, and I actually got him uploaded.  Went really wild with color.  This one I can enter into a OWSE Quickfire challenge as well - eyelets.  First I've used eyelets in awhile.  Why did they get un-trendy?  Or brads, for that matter.  And is it just me or are the ribbons and flowers getting bigger and bigger or more numerous?  And how do they put them in an envelope without destroying them?

I'm thinking I need to stick with CAS (clean and simple) because that's what I do.

The digi is from http://www.digistamps4joy.com/ , and he IS shown on the challenge page of CDAC Progressive Freebie Challenge - week 1.