When I see you again

For this month's color challenge I had a very special photo that I wanted to use, we got it in a Christmas card from the family of my husband's childhood best friend who was killed in a car accident.  I never showed Coby the photo, I wanted to do something special with it for him for his birthday.  This month's color combo over at Lindy's color challenge was a great starting point.  

I wanted to frame it for him so I opted to work on an 8x10 surface.  I started using a 12x12 piece of patterned  paper.  I used a light coat of gesso texture paste, for color I went with Hydrangea Blue, Silent Night Silver  and Clam Bake Beige.  After my background dried I cut it down and edged it using a gray gelato.  I used the scraps to create more texture on the background, also edged in gelatos.

 The title came from the song 'When I See You Again' from the new Fast and the Furious movie, it really hit home with Coby and made him think of David quite a lot.

The photo was layered with several bits of ephemera some twine and a few bits of metal jewelry colored with alcohol inks.  I added some mica flakes using soft gel. 

I think Coby was happy with the outcome, I certainly was.  Thanks for taking a look.

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April Color challenge and a new edition!

Hi folks!  I can't believe April is almost over, we finally have some beautiful weather here in Minnesota, which means allergies are in full swing, but that doesn't stop me being outside soaking in the lovely weather.  It also means finals are coming up at school.  I'm working on my masters in business.  So the last couple of weeks crafting time has been a bit lacking.  But the biggest thing keeping me out of my studio is the newest addition to our family!

Last winter my hubby and I lost our beautiful pup Jewel.  It has been very lonely without the big furry lump taking up whatever available floor space there was in my studio.  So last week my oh so wonderful husband surprised me with a new puppy!  Meet Cheyenne, a 9 week old german shepherd lab mix-at least they think.  She was a rescue so we aren't entirely sure what she is, how old she is, or how big she'll get.  But she has us wrapped around her little paw already.  

Before she settled in and turned our lives upside down, I did have a chance to get the new color challenge done for Lindy's Stamp Gang.

When I was working on this month's challenge, it was cold and rainy out so the colors were the perfect pick me up and had me longing for the sunshine.  Which was the inspiration for my journal this month.

The colors this month were a bit of a challenge since I'm not a big yellow fan and found out I didn't have any yellow Lindy's.  First on my gessod journal pages I used hydrangea blue and creme brulee cream with my gelli plate.  I used the Tim Holtz ray stencil with some yellow luminart paint.  I sprayed the same two colors on torn tissue paper and glued them down using gel medium over the background.  

Once that was dried I used heavy gesso for the clouds; topped off by a couple of water colored-with a touch of white gelato-balloons and some sequins.  

Working on this spread really made me realize that I need more alpha stamp sets, I used two Lawn Fawn sets and while I like the look it wasn't quite what I had in mind.

Overall I am happy with the end result and had a lot of fun using this month's colors!  Even happier with the new little addition who's already left little paw prints on our hearts.  Thanks for taking a look!

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Lindy's March Color Challenge

I can't believe how long it has been, what a whirlwind couple of months.  Between illness, two funerals, a vacation and a huge loss of crafty mojo I haven't had much time or energy to create.  But as always inspiration struck in the form of Lindy's March color challenge.  The colors are so pretty and soft.  There were a few false starts but in the end I'm fairly pleased with how the final product came out.

The soft colors of this month echoed the feeling in the pine forest that my husband and I tromped through for the photo.  It was so dreamy and romantic that it just fit.  

After priming the canvas with gesso, I used a crafter's workshop stencil and modeling paste for some texture.  I used the following Lindy's colors on the background, A Bit O'Bubbly, Golden Sleigh Bells, Wild Honeysuckle (this has an original starburst label on it, and I don't believe it is the same color as the Wild Honeysuckle Coral-would love to see the difference between the two though!),  Frosted Forget Me Not (discontinued) and Creme Brulee Cream

To frame the canvas' edges I used the Faber Castell Gelato 'Squid Ink'; the photo was framed using some glass bead gel and built up over layers of the Pink Paislee 'Butterfly Garden' collection.  I finished off the photo with several flowers from Petaloo and a few pearls.

The title of the canvas was inspired by my husband, while I was looking through photos trying to decide which one I wanted to use, he picked this one up and mentioned the experience was like something out of a dream.  It really was a beautiful, serene place for photos, 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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Paper faces on parade

It's a masquerade!

This month's color challenge over at Lindy's Stamp Gang was another beautiful palette of color.  Purples are hard for me, mainly because I don't really have any.  But that's what I love about Lindy's, I was able to blend colors to make something work perfectly.

I had an old mask that I wanted to re-do since day one and for some reason this color palette sparked an idea that just fell into place.  

After peeling off all the old hot glue and fabric from the original mask I did a base layer of torn book pages and gel medium, this helped cover all the hot glue residue I couldn't get off.  Over that I used a Crafter's Workshop harlequin stencil and light modeling paste.  While the paste was still wet I added Lindy's embossing powder in Midnight Ruby.  I let the paste dry overnight then heat embossed the powder.

 At this stage I wasn't really a fan of where this was going, the mask didn't go on as well as I had imagined, but I kept going.  I gave the entire mask a light coat of Golden Sleigh Bells and a few spots of A Bit o'Bubbly.  Over all that I sprayed, the sadly discontinued, Cranberry Mist Burgundy.

I used the same colors on some prima leaves then inked the edges with an eggplant chalk ink.  I just used the Cranberry mist on a feather spray that I salvaged from the original mask.  The gems were also salvaged from the original mask.  The flower is a Maya Road that matched perfectly.  

This time I am much happier with how my mask turned out and have no intentions of another re-do!

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As Sure as Sun Turns to Moon

I've mentioned before how much inspiration I draw from music.  I have a whole stack of lyrics that I want to use at some point in time, and I finally used one of my favorites.

I love broadway and musicals, they just make me happy and want to sing out loud.  So when I see a new Broadway soundtrack I don't have, and when that soundtrack is on sale for $2 I just have to snatch them up.  Several years ago my darling hubby found me Tarzan the Broadway soundtrack on sale.  It had just come out on stage-and it was a flop.  But I loved the Disney movie and thought I'd give the music a try.  The music made up for the shoddy costumes and scenery I'd heard so much about.

One song in particular really jumped out "As Sure as Sun Turns to Moon", it is such a sweet song.

I had so much fun creating these pages.  I knew I wanted to use lyrics from the song, and I had just spent a day organizing all my colors. I was intrigued by the idea of mixing various brands of mists and inks to see how well they would play together so I pulled out a variety of blues and golds in mists and paints from Lindy's Stamp Gang, Shimmerz, Tattered Angels, October Afternoon, Heidi Swapp and Tim Holtz and started spraying.

The sun was created using paints from Shimmerz and Twinkling H2Os to build up the color.

I loved how the October Afternoon spray left the small white 'stars' as I was spraying.  I'm not sure if it was a reaction to some tattered angels I had used, or if it had something to do with the gesso'd surface of my journal-either way I loved it.  The moon was a combination of Heidi Swapp and tattered angels spritzed with water for a mottled look and the clouds were created with white faber castell gelatos with dry burshed gesso on top

Overall I love how this turned out and the only thing I would add is maybe a black boarder of gelato to frame it in.  Next time...something to help me warm up in this frigid weather!

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