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.

The Errant Knight

I thought these lizards were so cute that I just had to make another one using more of Keron's wonderful photos!

I call this guy The Errant Knight because he is off wandering on his own personal crusade.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

My friend and fellow Paper Trader, Keron Lee, sent me some photographs she took of stones along the River Hutt on her recent trip to New Zealand. I am playing around with some ideas for my upcoming Sticks & Stones swap. Here are a couple of playful attempts:

I call this first one "King of the Mountain" (for obvious reasons =)


This is the chinese symbol for "strength" which was the only word that was simple enough for me to draw and was somehow related to stone... hahahahaha!

Pretty in Pink

This was another experiment in backgrounds. I followed Connie's instructions for decoupaging little torn bits of paper and then "sealing" them under a layer of tissue paper. I followed this up with a thin coat of pearlescent acrylic and a light spritz of Moon Glow's Starburst Stain.

Cherished Friend

I made this ATC for a special friend. I just threw it together pretty quick but I think it turned out completely lovely... The word is glittered and those are real Swarovski crystals on the corners (I found them in the clearance bin!)

Acorn Sketch

A few years ago, while visiting the Puget Sound, I went to the Seattle Temple. While there, I saw thousands of acorns on the ground under an oak tree. I searched and searched for one that still had its cap on and, when I finally found one, I saved it as a memento of my trip. Later, I was so sad to realize that as the nut dried, it shrunk... and the cap came off! But I still have kept it in my little jar of keepsakes.

I decided to use it as my model for a sketching exercise. With the positive response I got on my drawn animals, I thought that maybe it was time I got over my fear of drawing.

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 =)