I grabbed a little 5"x7" canvas board, pulled out my pitiful collection of acrylic paint, inks and a handful of those triangle-shaped make-up sponges and just started sponging on a few lighter colored paints. Before I knew it, I created this! I stepped outside my comfort zone yet again and I couldn't be happier. As I sat there, staring at it, I actually said a prayer of thanks for giving me this surprise gift. It wasn't pride I was feeling, it was more like magic, that I, someone who can't even draw a straight line, painted a scene that actually looked like something.
And when Dawn spotted it and said, "Wait, what have you been up to?" (looking at my paints all over my craft table) and then looked up to see my little work of art, "You did that?! Are you kidding me?!" it made me feel so great!
It's nothing out of the ordinary for most folks, but to me it is huge because it came from my imagination. I didn't have a starting point with stamps or stencils. I was totally in the moment and made some art from nothing.
I used the edge of the sponge to make the grass, stems and blue and purple flowers. The pinkish-red puffs were made with a Tim Holtz Distress dauber. I did the blue parts of the flowers first and thought I'd ruined it. It needed something more. So I spilled out some purple acrylic paint and sort of smooshed it on. As I was doing that I kept telling myself, you're making a mess, oh, man, you're gonna have to gesso over the whole thing and start over again. But I didn't! They actually look like whispy things found in a field of wildflowers. (At least, to me.)
I'm in love with the sky! I still can't believe this was done by my own hand. On the back is place to name your art, so I wrote "Accidental Beauty."
Okay, enough about that.
Last week I made a few cards. This sympathy card was for someone who had a 9-month old chocolate lab puppy. He swallowed parts of a squeaker toy and rubber, which caused a blockage. Although they did surgery on him, he didn't make it and his owner was really torn up about losing him. I don't know why rubber is included in dog toys. It doesn't make any sense.
I only made 3 Easter cards this year. Dawn gave me this stamp because it's one of our favorite songs, and it's freaking adorable. So it was the natural choice for her card. I fussy-cut the two little birds and popped them up. The bow gave me a hard time, it just wouldn't glue down, so I ended up using a stapler to tack it down.
Valerie has been having a tough time lately, so I made this one for her to set out and be reassured when she looks at it. (Dawn also gave me a set of stamps with darling dogs on it; this is one of them.) The butterfly on the pupper's nose is sort of 3-D. And I didn't even try to glue this bow down, I went ahead and stapled it in place as well.
This is for my husband because he IS "egg"stra special!
If you haven't noticed, the common thread is the pastel card stock I spritzed with Recollections pastel sprays. The squares on my daughters' cards are cut from it and the bunny and sentiment were stamped on it as well. I also started with the same pre-made card base in a pretty shimmery purple. All say "Happy Easter" on the inside from that same sheet of spritzed white card stock.
On this Easter Day, I am thanking God for sacrificing His son so that I can live this wonderful life. In the words to a song we sang in my youth choir (back in the day), from the CELEBRATE LIFE musical, "He is alive, he IS alive"
I was excited to use one of my newer Julie Nutting paper dolls, but when I got paid for it, well, yipee!
My faces are improving!
This sympathy card was for an on-line friend who lost their brother. I know how that feels.
A life-long friend had birthday, which is a lot to celebrate because she's going through some health stuff right now. She likes The Wizard of Oz as I do, so I eluded to it by putting this darling little La-La Land stamped paper doll in blue gingham on a red poppy background.
I wouldn't normally point out someone is another year older, but we're celebrating her life, so...
My daughters recently came home from a trip with lots of PJs and clothes they found at an awesome Walmart sale. Being the hoarder that I am, I saved some of the tags because, tags.
I covered them in gesso and white paint, ran them through my die cutter inside embossing folders then went to town painting them with all sorts of inks and paint. I sealed them with matt-finish Mod Podge because I like the finish and feel it gives to the paper. I'm going to add eyelets at the top when I go to use them.
My daughter bought me a balloon punch (inspired by how much I liked the balloons paired with the Julie Nutting doll above), so I punched some scrap paper from other projects. It made quite the variety and now I have tons to choose from.
Instead of shoving them in a 12"x12" as usual, I now have a binder filled with clear sheets with different sized pockets. This way I can see exactly what I have and (hopefully) use them more.
I'm not sure what I'll do with those tags, but they sure were a lot of fun to make!
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