So Artful - Georgia O'Keeffe

For So Artful, I am using one of my favorite watercolor paintings I made a while back. I always think of the close-up view O'Keeffe did of flowers.

Gothic Arches - Metallic

Here is my entry for the gothic arches challenge - metallic. The metal on my arch consist of a gold button, a brass wire, and some heat embossing, some of which is metallic gold. The background is inked glossy cardstock.

The photo on the left is sharper but it shows the camera flash. So I did a scan, but it doesn't show the shininess of the embossing.

Scottish Themed - Rainbow Lady's Challenge

When I was very young I remember my great-grandmother's half sister whom we called Auntie Belle. She was married to John Reid, a Scotsman. At this point in her life she was a mite strange. However, in her heyday, she was an artist and made invitations to her Robbie Burns teas. I don't know how often she had them but it seems that it was more often than once a year. I think it was like a book club, except it was all Robert Burns.

I am using one of her invitations for my entry to Rainbow Lady's Challenge today. Normally, she did a handwritten invitation, but she had this one professionally printed.

The upper right page is the program. In it we can see that they closed by having Auld Lang Syne read by Mrs. Lancaster.

(To all Scottish lassies, please forgive my Auntie Belle for saying Scotch. Scottish would have fit just as well in the last stanza.)

I'll decorate with flowers and ferns
My drawing room for Robbie Burns;
Akin to all, God's noble man,
Show me his equal if you can.

His faults were many, but his worth,
His big kind heart embraced the earth;
And that is why all Scotchmen pray
That God will ever bless the day
That gave to Scotland Burns.

So come and join our Scottish clan,
Sing Robbie's love songs, if you can,
And see how every Scotch heart yearns
In homage sweet to Scotland's Burns.

Dragon's Dream Tag it On - The Beach

There are mountain people and there are beach people. Most of my friends are beach people.  Elizabeth who formulated this challenge for Tag it On seems to be a beach person. I am a mountain person although I once lived on an island in the San Diego area. A fish out of water, so to speak.

Here is my tag for the challenge. It is mostly a watercolor background with a stamp of hot air balloons and a shell.

Sparkles - Pecreativ

This is my entry for the challenge: Pecreativ #17 (Let it Sparkle!).

I have used some really gorgeous decorative papers given to me by my good friend Laura. The paper actually has those 3 colors for Paper Minutes in it. However, PM calls for the shaving cream method. To make it sparkle  I used Stickles with a neon green shine.

Big Thanks to Peggy

Today I received in the mail a wonderful Keepsake Photo Album Calendar from Peggy. Each page has a spot to put a print of one of my blog photos. It has exciting potential. I am so grateful to Peggy for having drawn my name in her giveaway. She also sent this marbled bookmark. Utterly gorgeous.

Operation Write Home

To all USA crafters:

Are you familiar with Operation Write Home? You can be a part of this project that supplies military personnel stationed far away with greetings cards that they can send home to their loved ones. Please click on the link above to see what the guidelines are.

Art Cards - Grungy - Shabby

Here is my entry for the Artekarten challenge of Grungy, Shabby. I used various stamps and distress inks for the background.


















And then I discovered I had a grungy background ready for an image. So the second card is one I had in my stash. I just added the stamped elephants.

Animal Kingdom - the 3 Muses

In my entry for The Three Muses - Animal World I used a watercolor background I did some time ago. The hummingbird is a pastel painting I had made into a png. Some of the other images are Dover and Dezinaworld.

Just noticed as I was looking around at the other entries that I misread the alter part. I just altered the whole watercolor painting, not the animals themselves. Sorry, my entry is not in compliance.

TMTA - Everything about Sewing

This is my ATC for Think Monday Think ATCs. First I did a digital collage that was 2.5" x 3.5". Then I printed it out on glossy photo paper, attached the ribbon and the heart "button",  and distressed around the edges with Vintage Photo ink.

Rainbow Lady's Challenge - faces of women

This is a work in progress for Paint Party Friday but I am entering it here for Rainbow Lady's Challenge  - many faces of women. I saw a mother and daughter in a catalog and copied their positions. I didn't try to get the same images, only how there were standing there together, and yet not together. Notice that they are leaning away from each other with their heads. Children begin quite young to try to pull away from their mothers. Mothers try to hold onto their young but eventually know that separation is a part of life.

Sorry this is not finished. If I can't get the features better, it may just wind up in the "round" filing cabinet on the floor.

Art Cards & So Artful Challenges

My colorful background for this entry to Art Cards was made by blowing air through a straw onto alcohol inks using glossy card stock. The image is from DezinaWorld. I don't know where the alphabet came from.





The second version is enhanced through Photoshop Elements to fit the colors for So Artful Challenge.

Paper Minutes - sketch

Paper Minutes gave us a complex sketch to make a card. I have used several newly acquired decorative papers to do mine. Also the blue background stamp is from one that I cut out from craft foam. I used a shiny blue acrylics paint.

Take a Word - Nature

Not a new photo, but one that fits this Take a Word challenge - Nature.

We have these blue tailed skinks running around on our deck all the time. I have learned that the adults are all brownish without the gorgeous blue tail.

This is staged. The skink is a fake one I bought at the botanical garden.

Gothic Arches - New Beginnings

I realize this is a super simple entry to the revamped Gothic Arches challenge, but nothing says new beginnings to me as much as babies. This is my mother and she was born in early 1909. I don't know where the background papers came from. Thanks to Lynn and Effie for starting GA challenge again. I have missed it.

Art Cards - Shave Cream Technique

Here is my entry for Artekarten challenge using the shaving cream technique.

Rainbow Lady's Challenge - Travel through Time to 2012

Time flies by, doesn't it? Here it is 2012 and so many things have changed in the last 100 years. My entry for Rainbow Lady's Challenge is this digital card I made using my dh's great grandmother feeding her chickens. Raising chickens was an important activity in her time. She probably got to keep any money she got from selling the eggs. Sunday dinner was often one of the flock she had fed on Saturday. (Sorry, vegetarians, but that was the fact of life in the countryside.) I have added a few things to this photo (originally in black and white) such as the cat and the weeds in the foreground.

Think Monday Think ATCs - Glückspilze

I'm not sure how this mushroom fits into New Year's wishes, but that seems to be what the topic is for Think Monday Think ATCs. I suspect it is my not knowing of some European tradition.  I think this translates to lucky mushroom. Anyway, I have used parts of two new scrapbook papers my dh gave me for Christmas as my background for the mushrooms to make my ATC. I think the colors go together very well.

Take a Word - the New Year

Here is my Take a Word entry celebrating the new year of 2012! Best wishes for a safe, peaceful, and happy new year to all my fellow bloggers.