Summer Of Color - Purple Queen

I really enjoyed doing the Summer Of Color challenge this week. I have been away from my studio and didn't think I would be able to do this week's color challenge. Which is purple, a color that ranks high in my favorites! Anyway today I was leaving some comments on last weeks challenge and when I went to Lisa's blog at Sugar Creek I was so inspired by her beautiful journal work that I thought I'd get out my dusty journal that I always carry and almost never play with. So I made my first journal page in a long time. I have been singing this song , all week as it is in my car CD player and because I love it. It seemed perfect for purple. I bought some wonderful sheer polka dot tape at JoAnns while traveling and love it. It's very wide unlike washi tape and very sticky! The spirals are clear packaging of something I bought somewhere and the background paints are old tubes of Lil Davis Metallic Shades in Mint and Sweet Pea. Anyway lots of fun ! Thanks Kristin and Lisa!

I'll be visiting everyone whenever I have internet...look forward to seeing everyones as always! :) Nan

EDIT...I added the stars I forgot. Before I glue down 5 gazillion stars tell me better with or with out stars ? Also the song is Going To California by Led Zepplin. It's one of their rare acoustic song and is so pretty!

Summer Of Color .. Little Brown Nest

Well, I do not know where this week went. Sometimes you blink and a week has passed! It's time for Summer Of Color at Kristins and I made a small piece this week. I usually do 6x6 or 8x8 but I really felt like working smaller this week. I was originally thinking inchie but this little nest is only 2x2.... I added a pop of color in the eggs.

I have a calm ( knock on wood) week ahead so I hope to get back in my studio and back to my blog. I've missed seeing what everyone has been doing this week. :) Nan

Summer Of Color...Lemon Fairy Cupcake

Kristin's Summer Of Color challenge is all about yellow this week. Hummm...yellow....not usually my favorite color to work with. But after a few crumpled sketches I came up with this and had fun doing it. I might even like yellow, a little bit more now. Bring it on orange! ( my least favorite color of all!) I thought I'd share a bit of my creative process with you this week too. I think it's fun to see how people come up with their ideas sometimes. Can't wait to see what everyone does this week.

Summer Of Color - Pretty In Pink

Loved loved doing this fluffy frilly pretty pink piece for the Summer Of Color challenge. I used to listen to a band called the Psychedelic Furs and my favorite song was called Pretty In Pink. I got to use some of my thrift store finds like the crepe paper and cellophane twist. I also got to use Shimmerz Ruby Spritz which I love!!! I sprayed the crepe paper with it. Thank you for sending me this Stacey! Can't wait to see what you all do!

On a side note we watched Second Hand Lions for about the 5th time. If it's on we both seem unable to turn it off. A real tug at heart strings movie. They have a dog in this movie that I love. It's a french bulldog and I took a picture of the TV to show you. Sooo ugly it's cute. I keep telling Steve that that is what I want for my birthday. Really really want for my birthday! I added the little bulldog that can't get up video. It just makes me laugh every time I've seen it!
:) Nan

Summer Of Color...He Lives Behind The Green Door

In A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) Christopher Robin lives

"behind a green door in another part of the Forest" (the 100 Acre Wood).

This week's color on The Summer Of Color challenge is green and the above verse was my inspiration for this green fairy door.

Boy did I have a mental block today!!! I woke up thinking about green things but just couldn't see the end creation. Finally just sat down with some green stash and started cutting up dictionary paper and finally got moving toward a finished project. I used some of my favorite supplies like Lily Pond glimmer mist, non smear pastels (the absolute best), tissue paper,and my new favorite spray paint for chipboard and paper. It's called Design Master from Michaels. I think it was intended for silk flowers but it is wonderful on chipboard. The chipboard really looks like it came from the factory in whatever color you use. The doorknob is an old old screw back earring. It is hard to see but it is iridescent & pearly. All the things a fairy doorknob should be. I used a butterfly barrette for my pop of citron. Had to look that color up! "Citron is lemon coloured ~yellow with a slight tint of green"
I also included a picture of some of the supplies I used on this project just in case you wanted to see. Hope everyone had a great weekend and I can't wait to see all your green creations! :) Nan

The Summer Of Color- Sweet Friends In Blue

I made this little blue piece for the Summer Of Color challenge. Sharon at Wildflowerhouse inspired my hue of blue :) with her beautiful delphinium painting. I had a bottle of Tattered Angels delphinium mist and used it on my dictionary page and the vintage crepe paper. Yum! I used an old vintage photo that I have had forever and I'm sorry but I don't have any idea where I got it. Lot's of favorite stash around here. But I have been saving it for a special project and when I found the little enamel bird I knew that this was the project. Thanks Kristin...looking forward to next week! :) Nan

The Summer Of Color

I'm looking forward to participating in a new challenge called The Summer Of Color hosted by the very creative Kristin at Twinkle Twinkle. Every week she will give us a new color theme and we will interpret it in the artform of our choice. I plan on continuing with the series of 4" to 6" mini mixed media collages that I've started recently. I've really enjoyed thinking of ideas for these and I think doing a color challenge piece every week will be lots of fun. We will start posting our art on Mondays beginning next week. Go check it out! :) Nan

Three Muses Blue

When I saw the Three Muses were celebrating 2 years I had to make something blue just for that. I haven't done many challenges recently but Three Muses is one of my favorites and I appreciate all the inspiration they've given me! Thanks Bev, Ann and Marie!

Life is a Verb...The Generosity Of Friends.....

Today I realized how good it is to have friends...the kind who don't mind dropping you at the front of the store if your knee hurts.....the kind of friend who stops and get you tea because they couldn't get a tea and not bring you one.... the kind who inspire you with their creativity...the kind who give you that perfect discontinued piece of red and teal polka dot paper from their stash.....the kind who listen when you have an off day and don't think less of you for it....I feel so lucky to have some of these wonderful women in my life.

I'm on day 4 of my mini collages......I have struggled with the "Life Is A Verb" lesson of quantity vs. quality in my little creations. It's hard to just do a quick piece and let it go! So I'm a little behind...still learning :) I used a piece of a master sheet that I did at Gail's shop....hated to cut that but they are meant to be used. The polka dots are my pencil eraser dipped in a chalk ink. Then took a piece of light weight brown paper and spritzed it with Shimmerz Red-y or Not Vibez to make the ruffle at the bottom. the glitter stamp is from River City Rubber Works and the flower stamp is from Penny Black. Love that stamp! That's all...hope everyone had some fun this weekend! :) Nan

He Feels Sometimes...

It's been a long day! I decided to go into the "big" city and do some Christmas shopping today and just got home. Phew...I was ready to return to the forest where I live. No crazy drivers, no bright lights, just a very calm quiet place with lots of trees and animals. I almost ran over a little cottontail coming up our drive. My headlights must have confused it and it took a while for it to head into the woods. So even though I had some great photos of lights and people to inspire me, rabbits were the thing I thought about when I sat down to my drawing table tonight. Always loved this part of the book Secret Garden. Hope you all are enjoying the holidays and finding the things you enjoy about this crazy time of year. :)

Baby It's Cold Outside...

This is a the first of 37 small mixed media pieces I'm doing for a series I'm calling "Notice". As I mentioned earlier I'm reading Life Is A Verb by Patti Digh. She has a series of 37 day challenges to help your creativity and one of them is to pick an art form and create one item for 37 days, no exception. The thought being that quantity not quality is a good thing at times to get you going if you get in that perfectionist mode. Don't know if I'm explaining it well but can't imagine anyone not enjoying this book. So I'm off and running. Here's to 37 days of imperfect but heartfelt art. :)

I used a bit of netting and a Tim Holtz snow stamp I bought from Gail. Everything else is from my scrap pile. I used his mini stapler and now have a new favorite toy. I will be keeping it out on my desk and reaching for it often. The back of each piece will have a place to write something about the day and a pocket for a daily photo.

The cold weather has definitely caught my attention. It's going to be in the teens here which is very cold in December for North Florida. Hope everyone is keeping warm!

MMM Cheep Talk

This is my piece for Mixed Media Monday. The theme is "Seeing Red" which is great because I've been stashing cherry red stuff in a box for weeks waiting for inspiration to hit. It finally did at 3 in the morning last night...thanks MUse! This is a little 4"x4" mini canvas and an old Basic Grey chipboard book page. I ran the chipboard thru my SU Sizzix embossing plate and then painted it and my bird with a tester bottle of Glidden Candy Apple from our hardware store. They have some great 2 oz bottles of neat colors. I used some embossed metal duct tape around the edges which you can't see very well and I used the new Tattered Angels Glam in Be Positive red on my bird. Think that's it. Was a fun project. Hope you all had fun and can't wait to see what you've created!

Creative Spirit Monthly Challenge & Dezinaworld

Sweet Cindy is having a new monthly challenge called Creative Spirit . As she puts it "Whatever celebrates the creative spirit in each one of us! Please post something on your blog, whether it is artwork, photography, a recipe--whatever it is that exemplifies your creative spirit!"

For me the main thing that makes me feel the most creative would be finding old things and doing something artsy with them. (I think the latest term is upcycling) A close second would be color. I'm always inspired by color when I'm out and about. Shouting at Mr. S to pull over to take a picture NOW or pulling over myself and circling back to take a picture of that perfect color on a sign or house...whatever it may be. So that will be what I show you...mostly old stuff fluffled up a bit.

This time it is a plate I made for my old altered art group...now defunct...sigh...it was a rare flower in our rural community and I miss it horribly but thankfully I have all of you wonderful creative ladies in blogland to play with! Can't wait to see what you all put up for show!

I am also entering this in Dezinaworld's Spot Prize challenge for fairies because it is my favorite fairy piece i have done and I am having to combine a few challenges to be able to play. I have limited studio time until after the first week in September.

MMM Past Loves and August Dress Up

It's time for Mixed Media Monday and August Dress Up at Alice and Camillas. I combined these two challenges this week because I enjoy both of them so much and didn't want to miss them. I am on a dress kick right now though so there may be a few more until I get caught up. For the MMM theme of revisiting an past love I thought about how much I loved to dress up , even in my twenties. Then I thought about an old stamping technique I used to love. I stamped into hot UTEE powder and then used Perfect Pearls powder. I forgot how much fun this is and will be doing it again. Update: I just couldn't leave that leftover couple feet of ribbon sitting there so I started messing around around adding ribbon...tweaking and playing. Hence two pictures now :)

I usually don't combine challenges just because I enjoy doing each one if I can but I am on limited studio time this week because I hurt my back last Tuesday while (overdoing) redoing my studio. Off to the chiropractor on Wednesday! My studio is a never ending challenge! I need to do a before and after of it this time because it's taken on a life of it's own. It's hard for me to be in my creative mode and in an organizing mode at the same time. My brain kinda goes on overload and nothing gets done right. Does anyone else find this to be true?

Compendium Of Curiosities 7 The House Call

Another week gone by and another lesson at StudioL3 for the Compendium Of Curiosities challenge......hurray...love this one. Thanks Linda! This was a lesson in making fragments look old. You can get a copy of Tim's book and play along. It has been so much fun. I used many inks and several little watch parts on this piece. You may be able to see them if you look closely. I got a bag of them on Etsy and it did say the biggest ones were 3/16" ! I realize I am ancient now because I can't see anything tiny anymore....getting old is not for sissies as my dad used to say!

MMM The Summer Dance Dress Up

I found this great site called Alice and Camilla.....there is an ongoing monthly Dress Up challenge and the dresses are all so wonderful. I am starting late in July but plan to try and do one a week for a while to catch up. This was FUN! I had so many ideas about what I wanted to do but when I saw the pack of..yes, you guessed it, TEAL napkins, that was it. I really did consider peach and purple but teal is just always my favorite. Maybe I'll do peach next week.....

Update....Steve walked in my studio, saw the dress and said "You sure do use that color a lot..it must be your favorite" Well yeah! I do use green and teal very often. I also love glitter and shiny too so I think this qualifies for my Mixed Media Monday favorite things piece as well. Thanks Cindy for the idea to use this as my entry there as well. Her's is so lovely.

Anyway go take a peek at both sites. They are both wonderful !

On The Go.....

This was my first magic carpet...I felt like I could go anywhere! Unstoppable! This is my entry for Three Muses. This is a page out of my journal. I am a too little foggy headed from my cold to be as creative as I would like today but thought this page was just right!

Compendium Of Curiosities 5 Distress Embossing

This is my tag from the lesson of the week at StudioL3 Compendium Of Curiosities challenge. I used Antique Linen embossing powder, Shabby Shutters, Bundled Sage and Faded Jeans. I couldn't resist embossing the number with some Broken China. I did 2 of these first because I can't seem to get much of the powder to release. Anyone else find that happening?

I had intended just to do technique tags and make a booklet at the end of the challenge but I love some of the beautiful work I'm seeing and may have to branch out ! Thanks for looking...can't wait to see everyone's projects!

Blue Secrets

This is my piece for Mixed Media Monday. I know it seems a little morbid...maybe its because I got a cold this weekend and I'm slightly grumpy! This is for my secrets journal I've been working on. I've got "secrets" stuck in my creative loop I think! Actually it's a song I heard called "Secrets"...it's by a band called Pierce. Whatever happened to solid names like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin...oh never mind :) I guess it's all perspective, right? I'm putting a link to the video here just in case you want to hear it. Steve is entirely over me wandering around the house this weekend singing this song. Especially since I have this cold. I'm sure I sound like a cat caught in a tree. LOL!

Gingersnaps Mad Hatter Blog Hop

I'm late, I'm late, I'm very very late to the Mad hatter blog hop on Gingersnaps! I decided to try one more time with this stubborn piece of art! Maybe a better photo tommorrow....sigh! Oh well better late than never, right?