Charcoal Experimenting

Last night I began playing with some charcoal pencils I have. Now I'll be clear I've played with charcoal pencils many times. I have however, never used them for sketching. Last night I sat by myself, watching some tv and just sketching whatever came to me. Here are some of the pieces I ended up with. I was ubber excited about them! I in no way think I'm a sketch artist now but they defiantly made me want to play a bit more with these on my layouts and cards. Experiment more. I sketched and shaded and then sprayed with a workable fixative to ensure they would not smudge anymore after I was done. I also used the fixative because now I can still water color them if I choose to.

Like I said their not going to be framed in my house but I really had a lot of fun just playing to play, working with shading and so forth. I'm definitely going to be playing more with these in the future.

Inspired

Over this past weekend I mentioned joining my dear friend Tracy, the owner of my fave adhesive company, Helmar Adhesives USA. She did a canvas piece that was just great. Tonight I needed to put together a card for a gal at work for her 13 year anniversary at work.

I immediately thought of the play time Tracy had. I wanted to share this piece of information because sometimes we watch a video or see a project and think "oh that's great, but I don't do canvas pieces." Or card or layouts or whatever it may be. My advice is to not be limited by just what you see. So, what if its canvas, that doesn't mean you can't pick up a little something from it to draw inspiration at a later date to use on something completely different and maybe in a different way even. Here is what Tracy made the other day.

I watched and enjoy and then tonight remembered the torn book pages and what a great textured fun background they made.

I then decided to use that inspiration towards my card tonight. This is what I came up with.

I adore how well this turned out. I think the gal at work is really going to like them. I'm definitely going to be going more background like this. I carried over the front onto the inside, which I thought turned out well. Just goes to show you never know where you can draw your inspiration from.

To see the entire project by Tracy and countless other wonderful things check out her blog HERE



Motivation Monday & A little Story

So, this last weekend, (as you can probably tell from my posts), motivation hit me big time. I got some great masculine cards completed for people this week. I still have about 4 more to do. I think I shall complete them tonight. Including one or two very fun girl cards. I get very excited when I get to do girl cards now, as well, there's only about 8 girls in the business and over 60 men! So, I'm rather excited for lace and charms and crystals!!!

I'm not sure what cause my burst of motivation. I have been making an honest effort to keep my area very clean. Ok, that's a lie, it's never been "very" clean. I'm making an effort to keep it in good enough shape for me to be able to work in it. Yes, that's a more factual statement! I really think this has contributed to my recent motivation to "do" some... anything. I don't dread looking into the room, keeping the door kept shut because I didn't want to have to go and clean up all the many messes that cluttered the room.

While I still create best with a bit of chaos, and maybe some wine. I'm beginning to like to put things up when I complete something.

Do you work better in chaos or with everything in its place???

Side note: funny/not so funny story to share. Saturday, I was making some cards and did some embossed gears on one of them (see previous posts). I knew I also wanted to add some metal gears. I went to look for them and couldn't find them. I looked and looked. I probably looked for a little over 45 minutes. Dumb founded confused as to why they were not where I always put them. My daughter then walks in, I'm beyond frustrated. I have tons of gears, store bought, vintage, clock parts etc. And to not be able to find a single one.. irritating!! So, she comes in and asks why I'm upset. I tell her I can't find the gears. She then informs me that a week or so before Taylor (my 11 yr old son) was in the room going through my metal drawers and "taking stuff." GRRRRRRRRRRR. I then talk to my son and he indeed took, hmm I'd say well over 45 gears from my drawers and used them to build little things for his army men and what not!!! Needless to say we had a big ole conversation, about taking things esp. vintage things without asking. It irritated me soo much! However, I do have a feeling in the near future I'll laugh about it, just not there yet!

Now see I've never had an issue with my kids kidnapping things from my area, as in my area they both have big ole drawer units filled with crafting supplies ranging from play dough to cardstocks, papers, embellishments, glues etc. Anything kid stuff or that I no longer have a use for! Do you kids kidnap things from your stash? This is my first encounter with it but I'm pretty sure it was last.

Crepe Paper Trims

So, today I ventured into my craft room, since the kids were outside and the bf was away at work to complete a few cards, while in there I was on Facebook.. of course and noticed the wonderful Tracy, the President of Hemar was also live on Ustream playing. So, I joined her in some chit chat while we both crafted. made for a wonderfully productive afternoon!!! I loved it. Since moving I often miss having girls to chit chat with while crafting.

I began playing with some crepe paper (streamers). Two days ago I received a box full of goodies from Hemar for winning a game. so, I thought while chatting with Tracy, it only made sense to put them to use.. right??? I began making some trims. I love these in white because then at a later date I can mist them whatever colors I may like to coordinate with any card or layout.  Here's a little tutorial on what I did.

I cut strips of paper I didn't favor, but for some reason had. Turned them over to the white side. iIthen took some Helmar craft glue and put it down the center of the 12 inch strip.

Now you can buy crepe crafting paper, but I just use the dollar rolls of streamers. They work just as well! Pull off a large strip.

Take the strip the and just begin scrunching it. I drag mine along and then the glue hit all over the streamer. This is only one way to do it.

This is how it will be coming along after you just been slidding it into itself.

Here are a few different ones I did. the first at the top and then 4th one down are just sliding it into itself. The second and third from the top is a smaller strip of paper and then just crumbling it onto the glue. The last one is a crepe piece glued to strip and then doing the scrunching up onto the center.

Upclose shot of how great these are.

Pull off a piece of paper and take your glue and make a large circle.

Ball it up in the center and then put it down. Then just begin wrapping it around as you've seen a billion times in a billion places.. lol

This is the ending result of a rather cute crepe paper flower. Ready to be misted when I need it.

Baby Boy Mini

Here's a mini album I have been working on for a gal who just had her first baby at work. It still needs some finishing touches. However, I know I'll get it all finished and then, never get pictures of it before I give it away. So, here it is!! The front is not done yet and will be adorned with a cute train and the little man's name!

Its pretty self explanatory. Some fun papers from different brands. All adhesive by helmar, assorted ribbons and journaling cards. In between of each set of chipboard pages I also created pockets from the cardstocks I used to hold little journaling cards. Then adorned the rings with some fun ribbons.