Back Home Again!

Seems like I am always leaving home for extended periods of time these days. I've been away for a month and am excited to be reunited with my computer and my craft room. I did these three cards just before I left but did not have time to post them until now.

My First Ever ATCs

Finally I am trying to catch up on my blog. What a busy summer!

This set of ATCs was made for The Artist Trading Club....Swap Til You Drop. The theme was "metal". What fun for me. And how exotic and exciting to be sending these off to England and then receiving different ones from "The Queen's Country". Chriss Rollins heads the show over there. Not only is she a talented artist but she is a wonderfully warm person with a great sense of humor! Do yourself a favor and check out the swap and her personal blog - The Paper Girls!

So much crafting and so little time!

Where did the month of August go?

I have barely stepped into my craft room (except to do laundry) during the month of August. Lots of traveling and visiting with family and friends. However I did make this birthday card for my father who turned 86 on August 15th. This card was inspired by the wheat fields in his hometown of Harvey, North Dakota and his love of baseball. A week after his birthday, my sister and I took a road trip with our dad to Harvey. We had never been to North Dakota and were delighted with the beautiful farmland - especially the sunflower fields! We also met some wonderful relatives who treated us to the warmest hospitality!

Portrait of a Jewel

Using a scrapbook kit from Manuela Zimmermann from http://www.scrapbookgraphics.com/

Happy Birthday to Lynn

This is a card I made for a dear friend with whom I make cards once a week. She and I, along with two other friends have been getting together every Wednesday for several years. Sometimes we don't get anything created but we always enjoy each other's company and design ideas! It is always a big task when one of our birthdays comes around, as we want to make sure whatever we make for each other is very special!

This year I "cheated" by copying the beautiful ruffled flower medallion card from Becca Feeken at http://www.amazingpapergrace.com/. Becca is an incredible card designer - she is an official designer for Spellbinders and works magic with their dies! She is also a very generous crafter who often takes the time to post detailed tutorials to which you will find a link on the left sidebar of her site. Give yourself a treat and take a look at her site!

Personal Projects....

I finally decided I had to take a break from online challenges and use Photoshop to work on some of my personal pictures. I bought a collage frame for my daughter and added these photos of last summer's trip to Kaui! I have actually been very busy but my blog does not reflect it!

The Fairy Door

We are moving on to the second challenge at The Three Muses - this one is "Doors". Congratulations, Bev, Ann and Marie, on such a successful new site where all art forms are welcome!

Mona Lisa Challenge from The Three Muses

The new challenge blog - The Three Muses is up and running with their first challenge! Here is my altered version of Mona Lisa....

Pinning Up the Moon

The Girl with the Cake on her Head

I wanted to participate in the last Mixed Media Monday challenge but this took me too long to accomplish so I just decided to post if for myself. I used my favorite subject - my darling daughter! I was working on two versions. The second is not completed but I was tickled my daughter liked it so much she said she was going to use it for her "Facebook" picture! Obviously, my daughter has a sense of humor!

Body is a "Fisher Girl" by Luna Girl and the flowers and feathers on the cake are Itkupilli.

Postage Stamp People

Here is my entry for Sunday Postcard Art - Postage Stamp People. This one was quite difficult!

SoArtful Cherub

Here is my take on the Saturday Soartful Challenge! June, I am glad to see you are back and making things a little easier for yourself by consolidating the Soartful and Art Freebies sites!

I am stepping out of my box on this one. With a cherub, I would normally design something very victorian. So I consider this a "stretching exercise". Hopefully, I have not pulled a design muscle!

ACF Challenge 26

Here is my challenge entry for Art Creations Friday - Challenge 26.

Art or Tart?

I have been accused of having an irreverent sense of humor. And with good reason....

Mother's Day Tribute

Here is my entry for the Artarazzi challenge 22.  Today is Mother's Day so I decided to make it a tribute to all you fellow mothers out there in blogland!  Thanks, Vron, for the beautiful background!

Can Can

Just having fun with some recently purchased images from Itkupilli!

Romance in the Ballroom

Here is another digital art piece using Itkupilli's background from her "Paris - Soft Pastels" collage sheet! Image of couple by Luna Girl and swirls from Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals.

ACF Challenge 25

I can just hear Stevie Wonder singing, "isn't she lovely....." I think this is my favorite image from Art Creations Friday - she is lovely! For this challenge, I started out in Photoshop creating the base for my card. Notice Itkupilli's beautiful doorframe I just received in the free giveaway! Wonderful woman - Itkupilli! What do you think - should I have just stayed digital?

The Inspirational Hat

Here is my entry (at the final hour) for Theme Thursday - Hats. I have struggled all week with this theme - which is crazy because it is my favorite! Maybe I was trying too hard because I discarded several designs....or maybe I just needed the right hat for inspiration! Thanks for looking!

Nature's Girl - Artarazzi Challenge 20

This is my first time to take up a challenge at Artarazzi. Thank you, Femmy, for this lovely image!

Dancing her thoughts away...

I just had to use my new images from Itkupilli! What a talented designer and so generous with her work - she really brightens up the blog world with her lovely backgrounds!

Art Creations Friday #23

I was born and raised in Texas and have been living in Colorado for the last 16 years but "western" does not come easy to me! Here is my version of the paper cowgirl challenge found at Art Creations Friday. Thanks for looking!

ACF Challenge 22

Another classical piece of inspiration from Art Creations Friday This is my version....

ACF Challenge 21

Happy Easter!!! It's nice to be home and able to participate in another wonderful challenge from Art Creations Friday. I have been visiting my father in sunny California - loved the flowers and family but not being confined to my 10 inch laptop! Today we had about 8 inches of snow here in Colorado Springs so I enjoyed my springtime pursuits on the computer!

A Special Baby

I'm on the road - now in Arizona teaching my friend a little Photohop lesson using her favorite subject - her granddaughter Chloe who turns 1 in two days!

Boys; ACF Challenge 19

This was a big challenge as I am visiting my father in California and am working digital on a 10 inch netbook! Hard to see what I am doing! But the weather here is fantastic and wisteria blooms are thrilling.

Forever Ginger

"Heaven, I'm in heaven...." I have been a huge Ginger Rogers fan since I was a little girl. I have seen all her movies many times and, of, course, have all her musicals with Fred Astaire on both VHS and DVD! This challenge at Art Freebies was a delight to me because I already have my own little archive of Ginger photos on my computer. It's very hard creating something worthy of Ginger, but I sure did enjoy trying! Now I have to go watch my favorite movie - Swing Time!

Thank you Tacey and June for encouraging me to participate!

ACF Challenge 18

It's so nice to be back among all the talented ladies at Art Creations Friday! I don't know how you all manage so beautifully to create so much! After making 25 original Valentines, writing personal messages and mailing them all off I had to take a break from my hobby as my household was in a bit of a shambles.

After my little break, I am back again trying to master more Photoshop techniques. So using the lovely background provided by our four muses, here is my entry....Reading Beauty. Thanks for looking.

ACF Challenge 17

Here is my version of the pretty young woman in green for challenge 17 at Art Creations Friday. For the background I used two different pictures of the Venice canals from my trip last summer to that lovely city.

So Artful Challenge - Pitfalls of Passion

This card unexpectedly turned into a valentine. Kind of strange for a valentine but there it is! If nothing else it was great practice for Photoshop. I'm still not that good at digital creations so this got the tactile treatment as well.

Valentine Greeting in Purple

This one is back to basics - all paper and lots of layers. The pin nibs are separate paper pieces, though it doesn't look like it in the picture. Woman image from Luna Girl.

Award from Louise!

I am very excited to have received an award today from Louise, who has a very beautiful blog at http://kardkrazy.blogspot.com/ Thank you, Louise!

The rules behind this award are: I would like to pass this award on to the following wonderful people who are first and most importantly ...CARING bloggers who take time to comment on others work. Also they have fabulous blogs with excellent artwork.

I would like to give this award to Jan, at http://jan-jansjournal.blogspot.com/, who creates some of the most amazing mixed media art pieces I have seen!

And to Jacqueline, at http://myscrapbasket.blogspot.com/, who has the most serene blog - you will want to get a cup of tea and linger!

Discovery

I just discovered Photoshop Brushes! I never bothered to explore those dropdown menus. I thought they were all just round with different sizes and feathering. Slow learner here! Who knew what designs were to be found! And the ones you can buy off the interenet - WOW! I just opened up a blank and started sweeping different brushes across the page using different settings and colors. When I finished I decided to add this cool image I got from http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/vintageresources.html under Maggie's Flea Market Finds. I rather like the effect!

Kreativ Award from Kris!

I am so honored and pleased to receive an award from a woman I consider my Papercraft Guru - Kris at http://nostalgiccollage.blogspot.com/ Everything she creates is amazing and the amount of art pieces she produces is equally amazing. Yet she always takes time to visit and encourage newbies like me! Thank you, Kris.

The rules behind this award are:I would like to pass this award on to the following wonderful people who are first and most importantly ...CARING bloggers who take time to comment on others work. Also they have fabulous blogs with excellent artwork.

I would like to pass this award to my other two Papercraft Gurus, talented artists who have thrilled me with their encouragement and inspiration:

Marie at http://ozstuff-ozstuff.blogspot.com/

and

Criss Rollins at http://thepapergirls.blogspot.com/

Valuable Thoughts - ACF Challenge 10

This is my take on the lovely challenge picture at ART CREATIONS FRIDAY

I feel like this is cheating - I just got a new book on digital scrapbooking, which has a disk loaded with background papers and digital elements. The images I used are from the Flowering Horizons collection created by Katie Pertiet. This was so easy it was like shooting fish in a bucket...no wait, my son did that when he was a teenager and he found it was not easy at all. What can I say, he grew up to be a U.S. Marine.

Theme Thursday 2x4 Challenge

This is my first attempt taking up a challenge presented by Theme Thursday. I hope I followed the instructions correctly. Working in this small format is harder than it looks! Thanks for letting me share.

Full Digital - ACF Challenge 9

Here is my fully digital rendition of this serious little student. I could not decide if she was serious about her future studies - planning to be the first female doctor in her town, or whether she was solemn because she knew her career would be in homemaking rather than medicine. What do you think?

Half Digital - ACF Challenge 9

I loved working with the picture of this little girl, though I never could get her to be anything but serious! After cutting and colorizing her image, I scanned a couple of scrapbook papers - rulers and dots and melded them together digitally. After digitally adding a school desk for her studies, I changed mediums and enhanced the rest of the card with real paper, chipboard, ribbon and "sunflower" Glimmer Mist. Oh, almost forgot, she has legs digitally stolen from another little girl her age.

Lesson 2

Digital lessons resume with my daughter home from college for the three day weekend! This afternoon she taught me the basics of using the magic wand. And it really is magic! Well, it certainly cuts out a lot of unneccessary steps I was taking. Anyway, the starting point for this picture was a furniture ad - I ended up blowing up a very small piece of the wallpaper in the ad. Amazing what can inspire....

Love Lyrics

I did this card with only two digital layers. A scrap of red toile Christmas wrapping paper was scanned into my computer. Then I laid in my lyrical Luna Girl lady. The shiny photo paper appeared rather stark against the creams in all the scrapbook papers, so I used a touch of russet luster rub on paint.

A Suggestive Valentine

So happy I got to use this new stamp from B-Line designs! One of my best friends gave it to me (along with several others) for Christmas!