Vintage Barber Card

What's this?  Yup, I made a man card.  I don't make cards for men often, so I was nervous about this one.

I had to make a thank you card for a cool guy named Frank who went out of his way to do something nice.  Oh, and in case you couldn't already tell (really?!) he works with hair.  He's a hair stylist or more accurately a hair artiste at Casa De Bellini.

I started the card by gluing down vintage dictionary pages, then painted over them with cream paint.  I found this vintage photo of a man with a fantastic mustache, and glued it down along with a scrap of striped paper.  I also painted over those a bit to blend them in.  I googled vintage barber scissors and drew them out and added some extra doodles around the edges of the card.  Oh and inside I wrote something like "Frank knew a thing or two about hair", which I originally wanted to be the caption on the front of the card, but ended up liking it without it.

So there it is... a man card!  And Frank?  He loved it!  Yay!

Greeting Cards and a Winner!

Hi there.
My greeting cards, along with my business cards, etc from Moo.com came in!!  Yahoo!  The printing on them is so clear and sharp.  I'm in love!

In my last post I bribed you gals with some free cards if you helped me pick some of my art to make into prints.  Thank you to all who took the time to help a girl out!!  You're the best!!  Now I just need to figure out WHERE to get them printed, but first things first...let's announce the winner!  I used good ol' Random.org, and the winner is .......... Mandy!!  Congrats girl!!  You get to pick out FOUR of my greeting cards!

Here above are the cards to choose from.  Your choices are (top row, left to right): The Healing Tree, Paris, Bridge of Sighs, umm no name for this yet.. we'll temporarily call this photograph "Painting Girl" hee hee.  (bottom row):  Remember Flowers, Bird Journal Collage, and Celebrate.  The last one on bottom right shows what the back of the cards look like.

So Mandy, pick which four you would like, then email me your choices along with your address :-)

Now that I know how great they look I will be ordering more of these greeting cards, along with other designs too.  I only ordered a set of 25 cards to start with and I can already tell that's not enough!  I will be selling these when I finally open my Etsy store (not sure when that'll be).. but if you can't wait just let me know and I'll see what I can do.

I know that I was supposed to announce the winner on Monday night, but I had to wait until I could get photos of the cards to show the winner what she won!  First things first, right?  And with that I'm off to bed...

Lovely Lavender

Last week's color (yes I'm behind!) for The Summer of Color was purple.   I needed to make a thank you card.  So what do you think happened?  Yup, I made a purple thank you card.  Actually we'll call it lavender, since that's the shade that I used and the plant that was part of my inspiration. 

I took this photo (below) last year up in Oregon in my sister's front yard.  I love the image and have been wanting to use it for something, so this was the perfect time.

I started by collaging pieces of paper onto a card, then painted over them to make a nice background.  I transferred the image onto the card by experimenting with Transfer Artist Paper (TAP).   I then layered on more paint and added a few embellishments.  

There's just something soothing about lavender, isn't there?  Even when you can't smell it.  Hmm.. maybe I should scent the card.

Nah...probably not.

With each of my Summer of Color posts I've tried to add a few extra photos that feature the color of the week .

So... here's a couple more photos that were also taken up in Oregon.

I love anything "thistle-y"

Lavender field against a white barn... heavenly.

And while digging through my photos I came across this painting that I had in an old post, that I did for another color challenge.  This was the first time I used the color lavender in my art and loved it. 

 That's why I love doing these challenges.  It makes you step out of your box and try out a new color or technique that you might not normally use.  So a big THANK YOU goes out to my friend Kristin for taking the time and energy to do this for us!!  There's still time to join us and maybe even win a prize from Kristin!  This weeks color is Orange... I'm excited about this one!!

So...what are you doing to challenge yourself?

Summer of Color : Blue Cards

Hello there.  I made not just one, but two cards for the first week of the Summer of Color.  This week's color is blue, so of course I had to go with my favorite turquoisy-blue.  

For the first card (more blue in person) I glued down several layers of paper, but wasn't quite liking it.  I ended up grabbing a stencil and heavy gel medium to create the raised stencil pattern and covered up the rest of the card with the medium also.  When it dried I painted it with many layers of blues, cream, and a touch of copper until I liked the effect. 

 I did learn an important lesson with this card.... open it first before slathering on the gel medium or you will glue the card closed.  Yup.  Lesson learned.  I had to cut it open, but it's all good now ;-)

The second card has a layer of hand-painted paper (which ended up mostly covered up by more paint!).   I glued down the center medallion (apparently I'm into medallions right now lol!), which was cut from a scrapbook paper by "Daisy D's" that I love, which then got some paint brushed over it to blend in.  Then I dumped some Distress embossing powder by Tim Holtz into the wet glue and used a heat gun to emboss it.  When that set up, I doodled with a black pen to add some details and used the end of a paint brush to add some cream dots.  And finally I stamped on a quote...

"...the artist is not there to be one with the world-

he is there to transform it"

        --Anias Nin

Yes. 

 Love that!

There's still time to join in with your own blue creations.  Just pop on over to Twinkle Twinkle for the details on the Summer of Color fun!

A Card and an Award

First I just want to share a little collaged card I made for a loved one.  To make it, I layered scrapbook papers for the background, then tore papers into flower, leaf, and stem shapes and glued them all down.  Then I added a light cream paint to soften the colors a bit, and once dry I outlined everything with a water-soluble crayon (make sure to spray it with a sealer).

Next, I won an award!!!  Yay!! 

 It was given to me by the wonderful, super talented, and fun Sada over at Dressology HQ (who just happens to be my aunt who seriously rocks at everything she does!).  Go check out her fashion blog, it's so much fun and there's lots of eye candy (who doesn't love pretty dresses ladies?!).   

OK, so I have to share some lil' tidbits about myself.  Hmm....

1. I actually won an award (different one) at the end of September from the lovely and talented Kristin at Twinkle Twinkle but I never posted it because 1. I couldn't decide who to pass it on to 2. I seriously couldn't think of anything interesting to share about myself,  and 3. I ended up forgetting about it after a while!  Sad, I know... Sorry Kristin!
2. I LOVE to travel and have been to:  Austria - Salzburg & Vienna.  Australia - all over 3x.    France - Paris 2x & Giverny.  Germany - Munich.  Italy- Florence 2x, Rome, Venice 2x, Pisa, & Cinque Terra.  Spain -Barcelona 2x, Madrid, Toledo, Grenada, Cordoba, & Sevilla.  Switzerland - Interlaken.  I've also been to Arizona, Oregon, Mexico, Nevada...and probably a few more that I've forgotten about.
3. If someone would've told me, when I was younger,  that I would be married to an English teacher, I probably would've fallen on the floor in hysterical laughter (a common occurrence back then even past my teens, much to the dismay of my mom) ... seriously. 
4. This one's for you Kristin... my English-Teaching husband is 5 years younger than me.
5. Pretend there's something interesting written here.  oooh!  wow!!
6. Even though I painted faux finishes and murals for my business, there's sadly none of that going on in our house except for ONE room, our bedroom.  In there I glazed the walls and stenciled the ceiling (ouch!).  I also painted all trim and doors to look like mahogany wood.  
7. I've been wanting to share a few photos of our beautiful bedroom with you.  But that would mean I'd have to dust.  Nope.

                                       

So now I have to pass on the award to a few deserving people.  

First one goes to miss Manya over at Manya K Photography.  She takes the most beautiful photos and her blog showcases her specialty which is portraits in beautiful environments.  Go check it out.  Oh yeah, and she's one of my closest friends : )  Hi Nya!

The next one goes to Michele of  Pipi La La.  I love visiting her blog.  Not only is she real, and HILARIOUS, but the girl is a wonderful artist.  I am the happy owner of several of her paintings.  LOVE them!

OK, that's all I've got.  I've been TRYING to narrow my list down to share others, but I'm going to cut it off there.    I started this post days ago and I'm afraid if I don't post it now it'll never get done.  

 Bye now.

Heart On A String

Here is a card I made recently.  This is the one I was supposed to be working on when I "accidentally" made this collage instead using the same materials.  

I first glued down some papers from my new vintage books (oxymoron anyone?)  onto the background to create a nice base and texture.  I painted over it with off white, then added some soft washes of color.   I tore the bird's shapes out of various scrapbook papers,  glued it all down, then added some crochet bits to add additional texture.  I drew in some details with a pencil.     I wanted a bit more depth on the heart so I put 2 layers of heavy gel medium on it.  The stars/dots on the red are a raised silver pattern that was part of the paper.

I've had the image of a heart tied on a string and hanging from a bird or a tree in my head for quite a while (a few years actually!), so I decided to do one with a tree too.  I made a quick 5x7 inch collage on watercolor paper with vintage book pages glued down as a base, and then painted over with fluid acrylics.   I added some details with a pencil and scraps of paper.  

  It's a bit different from what I've been doing lately, but that's part of the fun of art. Experimenting and having fun and following your inspiration .  I'm not done using the heart on a string image, I think it'll continue to pop up here and there.  I'm not even sure exactly what it means to me yet, but that's ok. I do know it has to do with sharing your heart and being open, but I think there's more to it than that.  I'm not too worried about it right now though. 

 I know these things usually reveal themselves in time.     

A Little Art Exchange

Gorgeous, huh?  I think so too!  This was made by the wonderful Bev over at My Awakened Heart.  She wanted my painting "Don't Lose Heart" which I posted here,  and I love her art, so we did a little art exchange.  I love this piece... the colors, the bird, the message, the way she paints on and in between the papers so they look like tiles.  It's wonderful.














It's going to hang in my studio to inspire me and remind me to remember to slow down, be still, and listen...something I am not that good at, especially lately.

Thank you Bev, I LOVE IT!!!


*****************************
This is what I sent off the her....Here's a little refresher of what "Don't Lose Heart" looks like (the red heart is not as bright in person...sorry, not that important, but it bugs me...perfectionist, remember).


















I made a coordinating card (below) for Bev...

 painted a bit on the box...

and wrote a little message that came to me, before sending the art off to it's happy new home.