Cameo: Chinese New Year Revisited

I am so excited (and spoiled!) because I received a new Silhouette Cameo as a gift this past week!  I've barely had a chance to use it but I think it's amazing.  This is my first electronic cutter and now I can see why it seems everyone is obsessed with these things.  I have only cut out a few test items - a gift bag with scrolling heart handles and a Peter Rabbit print-and-cut... both of which I neglected to photograph before giving them away.  And the third thing I cut were these amazing chinese dragons!  These ATCs are for another swap on our Paper Traders group.  Look at the intricate details in the cutting!  I love it.

The backgrounds on these cards were inspired by Dina Wakely's "warm ups" which she talked about in Nathalie's Creative JumpStart Summit this month.  I dipped vintage asian text into black & red alcohol inks and then spread on some gold acrylic paint using a palette knife.  So simple and I love the look.

As an added bonus, these cards fit the theme of the current Paper Traders Blog Challenge as well.  Anyone can join the blog challenge and you might be recognized as the "Trader Treasure" of the month!

Vintage Circus

Over at Paper Traders, Lynda is hosting a Vintage Circus mini book swap.  She will take one page from each artist and bind them into books for us.  These pages are 4" wide and 3" tall.  Most of my images are from Tumble Fish Studio and iTkUpiLLi, with a few other randoms things thrown into the mix.  The "C-I-R-C-U-S" pennant actually hangs on a string attached to the card and is not glued down.

Dog Days of Summer

I loved this quote and had to use if for the "Dog Days of Summer" theme for the latest installment of the Paper Traders blog challenge.  I made this pendant by sanding a white tile domino, adhering the photo and words, then applying a generous layer of Glossy Accents.  When everything was dry, I wrapped some ribbon around the outer edge and added a bow at the top.  I used a jewelry bail to the back so that it could be hung as a pendant.

Run on over to the Paper Traders blog and take the challenge for yourself.  It's lots of fun and we'd love to see you strut your stuff!

Let's Go Traveling... to Balboa Park

For our Round Robin Journal project on Paper Traders, I'm working in Janne Ryan's book this month.  Her theme is "Let's Go Traveling" and I chose to feature San Diego's own world-famous Balboa Park, which is one of my very favorite places.  I love the beautiful gardens and breathtaking architecture, the wonderful concerts and plays, and all the fascinating things to see and learn about in the multitude of museums.  Located in the heart of San Diego, it is a treasure of the city with many free attractions and free parking, too.  You can learn more about the numerous things to see and do here by checking out their website: http://www.balboapark.org/

It's a Hoedown!

I've never done a dance card swap before.  These are the cards I made for Nancy's swap on Paper Traders.  I made the pictures by gluing napkin images onto cardstock.  Dance cards are an old tradition from a time when ladies would have a list of available dances and the gentlemen would request to reserve a space on a lady's card... and maybe even in her heart!

Recent ATCs

Our Paper Traders group hosts a monthly ATC lottery.  Here are some recent ATCs I made for them.  Now, if I could just remember to get them sent off to the corresponding winners!

Blue Christmas & Red Hot Thanksgiving

This week, my parents came to visit for Thanksgiving. I was so excited to have them come here! My mom is by very best friend and usually I only get to see her once or twice a year. My dad is a cool guy too and I love doing things with him. When I go home, we often go fishing together. This weekend, we took a drive up to the Florissant Fossil Beds and took a short hike - although the melting snow made the trail alternately slick and muddy. We had a yummy Thanksgiving dinner and did some Black Friday shopping too.

My mom shares my artistic interests and we do a lot of projects together, often participating in online swaps through Paper Traders or other groups. As I posted earlier, our Paper Traders group puts together a CafePress calendar each year. We had to come up with one more spread for December so mom and I watched a few of Teesha Moore's tutorials and then put our heads together for this collaborative creation using magazine ads:


I had so much fun with this! It is unlike anything I've ever done and was very freeing... I think I'll try doing an ATC this afternoon in the same style. Take some time to watch Teesha's how-to videos... she's so easy going with her art - I love it!


UPDATE: Our extra calendar page wasn't needed after all but there are still many lovely pieces of art to display, including my pear mosaic. If you're interested in a calendar, you can order one here: http://www.cafepress.com/PaperTraders.324251835

Water Journal

This is the spread I did for Joanie's "Water" themed round robin journal on Paper Traders. The scan really doesn't show how sparkly this page is... it has received a generous shot of Starburst Stains spray as well as some turquoise art glitter.

Circus Train

This ticket is my sign-in tag for Abby's tip-in journal on Paper Traders. Her theme is trains and I thought it would be fun to do a circus train. I used a copy of a vintage circus poster, trimmed it with my gold foiling pen, and added animals with 3-D pop ups. It's simple but cute... I hope she likes it!

The Crown Stealer

Peter the Pig has gotten a little carried away with his practical joke this time! I made this spread for Teri's tip-in journal on Paper Traders. Her theme is "Here Kitty Kitty" which is exactly what I imagine Peter is saying!

Wild Mustangs

This is the spread I made for Linda's "Where the Wild Things Are" round robin journal on Paper Traders. I chose to illustrate the wild mustangs from Red Canyon, Wyoming, which is just outside of Cody where Linda lives. My family also lives there and I've seen the wild horses for myself - very cool! I also made a tag to match...

The Artist's Palette

These are the pages I did for Connie's round robin journal on Paper Traders. Her theme was "The Artist's Palette" and she asked us to use paint and try to expand our abilities by challenging ourselves. Since I am still in the early stages of exploring my drawing talents (as in, do I have any?) and I am not very inexperienced at watercolor either, these pages were definitely a challenge. I found the water especially hard to do. I'm not sure if you can really see all the details in here or if the scan washed them out but there are swirly white places to give the suggestion of foam and spray.


I should have taken the quote to heart and exercised a little more patience in writing it out... my lines tended to slant upward and the handwriting is sloppier than I would have liked.

Twos and Threes

This afternoon I worked on getting caught up on the 52 Card Dress-Up challenge for Paper Traders. The them for the TWOS in my deck of cards was "Medieval" while the theme for the THREES was "Animals".

Go Fish

Awhile back, when I was doing the intuitive watercolor, I made this background but just couldn't really see an image there... so I decided to add the fish instead. I used souffle pens to add the gills and speckled scales. The letters for the words are rub-ons and the air bubbles are "crystal" stickers.

I'm putting this card into the monthly Winner Take All lottery drawing on Paper Traders... wish me luck!

The Legend of Pegasus

This is the spread I made for Nadine's Mythical Creatures round robin journal on Paper Traders. You cannot tell from the scan, but I used fun flock on the horse's body and his eye has crystal lacquer over it. I made the wings using black german scrap ones and coating them with gesso and then lightly sanding.

The Chook Shed

This is the spread I just completed for Jenene's round robin journal "The Chook Shed" in our Paper Traders group. She's from Australia and down under a chook is a hen. I thought it would be fun to take a quirky approach to my spread and so I'm calling this one "Mmm... Tastes Like Chicken!" LOL =)

Intuitive Watercolor

I recently purchased Bernie Berlin's Artist Trading Card Workshop and am hoping to try out each technique. Below is my first "intuitive watercolor."

A Motley Crew

I decided to add to these cards according to their names... I'm not sure if I like them better or not but I guess that's the whole point of playing around with things.



I decided to make a few more friends to go along with my first two...



These are all made using Keron Lee's wonderful rock photos.

Sunset: Precursor to Darkness

This is the spread I created for Stefanie's "Darkness" journal in the Paper Traders Round Robin. The buffalo is another one of my hand-drawn animals cut from textured paper and colored with markers and chalk. I guess I'm getting over my fear of drawing just a teensy bit. I made the fireflies by drawing their abdomens with my gold leafing pen so that they shine when the light hits them. The sunset was taken from a preprinted piece of scrapbook paper but I hit it with a Moon Glow Starburst Stain (Alpine Ice Rose) which has a gold shimmer in a pink watercolor base.

I recreated the scene from a photo of Pikes Peak as seen looking through Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs where I live. Just trying to draw a little inspiration from my everyday world =)

Another Twisted Paper Doll

Here's my second paper doll - an african giraffe. I thought it would be fun to try to dress my animals for their native country.

This one also has movable limbs, attached with brads. I drew the giraffe freehand and, again, used markers and chalks to color it. The mane was made by unraveling the edge of a gingham ribbon (a trick I picked up from my mom). The native dress was cut out of some cool wrapping paper I had saved.