Umbrella Chunky book for AAWA

Every year we do a 4x4 book in AAWA, which is my online art group.
This year the theme was umbrellas and the 4x4 had to be chunky. This is my first 4x4 and I will have to make one for each person that signs up to work in the book. I did the background in an embossing folder that has a shell on it and then I inked it. I added the umbrella picture with a funky border and  used a paperclip with a jewel on it to hold it. I love the quote from a John Denver song and then I added a heart with gold distress stickles and a brad and another jewel. Our books in AAWA are always a joy for me to look at and I cannot wait to see everyone's art for this one. The scan on this is not great since it is so dimensional but I think you can see it enough to tell what it is.

Double Dutch Card with Postage stamp

 This Double Dutch card is shown on the Split Coast Stampers site in their tutorials here.  I did this one for someone in our online art group, An affair With Art (AAWA). To make it even more challenging, Susan in AAWA asked that we use a postage stamp on it somewhere also. I think it turned out very pretty and made one more to put into my cards.

Ladybug ATC

Do you remember hearing this nursery rhyme? I did not realize that her poor little ladybug home burned and she only had one surviving child. Nursery rhymes are sometimes very brutal, aren't they?

In case you cannot see it, because the scan is not very good with it being dimensional, It says,
"Ladybug, Ladybug fly away home. Your house is on fire and your children all gone.
All except one and that's little ann for she crept under the frying pan."

Anyway these ATCs will go to someone in my online art group, An Affair With Art (AAWA).

Queen Ann's Lace All Occasion Card for Yooper

I wanted to play with a new die that I purchased from one of our Altered Book Club girls who had a shop locally which was closing. So sad to lose all of our local shops! But anyway she had this die and I LOVE Queen Ann's Lace which grows here like a weed by the side of the roads. I love to get out of the car if it is possible and cut some and bring it in the house. So I decided to do Yooper 2 cards, this one and the dragonfly one that is 2 posts back. Hope she enjoys it! The blue under the die is embossed and inked. The embossing die was a sweet giftie from my friend, Claudia. The white on the flower is stickles, pearl white.

Abstract Art - Mix It Monthly

 Abstract art! That is what Conny wants over on Mix It Monthly this month for our challenge art. Certainly a challenge for me! I have never done one. I've seen some that I really love but I didn't have a clue how to do one. Then I talked myself down by saying, "It's just a background for a journal page!" OK, I can handle it that way. I did want to do a journal page reflecting how happy I have felt recently anyway. So I just let the paints be happy and run and do their own thing. The darker blue things started out to be flowers but went their own way. The orange things are my fingerprints because I just though that it needed a pop of color. I put it beside the Butterfly Queen that I did in January and it's perfect and all those colors are so happy together!

Watercolor and chalks

I have been looking at Jennifer McGuire's blog here. She has been doing lots of card with a watercolor technique. I love her cards and wanted to try it too. I looked through my dies and thought that this dragonfly might be a good one to try it on. The first card was not done with any cardstock behind the watercolored papers and I thought that after I made it, that the 2nd card I would make would need that. The dragonfly was cut out and colored with water color markers and then sprayed with water. After that dried, I used stickles and let that dry then glued it back into the background. The background was inked with ink pads and water color markers. My markers left streaks which I did not like. I guess I will need the new distress markers if I want it to look as pretty as Jennifer's cards. I did not do the Happy Birthday with cardstock behind it at first but after doing my 2nd card, I changed that. I did not put the black on the dragonfly with a sharpie at first but again, after my 2nd card, I decided to do the black after the card was finished and I like it better. It was just too pale without it.

This is my second card and it is done with chalks and then sprayed with a sealer so that the chalks will not rub off. I put several colors of blue on the background and then rubbed it with the wet paper towel that I used for the first card. After I cut out the dragonfly, I embossed it and then colored it with a black sharpie and then the chalks and stickles. I put several colors of cardstock behind the background and I like that and the chalks better. It is not as messy and easier to do also.

This card will be used for a card swap for my online art group, An Affair With Art (AAWA).

Blue Bird

I felt that I just had to do some art today for my sanity! With cold weather coming back soon and some other stressful things going on in my life, art is the most relaxing thing that I do. This one is a bluebird and we have lots of them here. I expect to see them as soon as warmer weather truly arrives. They are usually all over my pastures fighting for prime nesting boxes. I really look forward to seeing them again. The flower looks a little like thistle to me and that is one thing we do not want in our pastures. Thistles will just take over a pasture if you don't carefully get rid of them. I know they are beautiful but I had just as soon not see them here except maybe in my paintings. The magazine picture below my painting is what inspired my painting.