Lens

Simon Says Stamp & Show challenge: Thank You

I had intended to make something along these lines for Thanksgiving this year, so it matched up serendipitously with SSS&S's weekly challenge! 

I sandwiched a piece of burlap between cardstock and thin cardboard. A very appropriate piece of Tim Holtz paper is adhered to the cardboard (it features Thanksgiving recipes!) and strips from another sheet provides the "sentiment." Using gold Ranger acrylic paint and a Hero Arts stamp, I stamped a floral design on the paper. I sprayed the kraft leaves with orange glimmer mist and stamped words on them with a Hero Arts alphabet set. They are attached with copper brads. The fifth leaf was stamped with a Prima script stamp. I added a bit of twine from The Twinery and some punched hearts. 

Thanks for visiting!

~ Laura

WOYWW #181 | What's on your Workdesk Wednesday

Happy Wednesday! If you've no time to read my verbiage, just scroll for pictures of what's up in my craft room/den. 

To those on my side of the Atlantic, happy day-before-Thanksgiving when we should be accomplishing things but we might, perhaps, be posting to WOYWW first as a procrastination technique. {{imagine innocent look here}} I'm not really panicking, although I am hosting 13 including myself, because dinner is tomorrow at 6:00 (assuming both sisters and families arrive on time). So today is for cleaning, making the stuffing, making the pumpkin pie (don't be too impressed, the pie crust is from the store), and visiting WOYWW friends in between. 

I'm giving the wide view today so you can see my mess. (Yes, in any other context, this would be an odd thing to say.) 

Potential Christmas cards are waiting on the chair while I finish something for Thanksgiving. I've die cut every last scrap of a piece of gold glitter paper and embossed some cardstock. Maybe they'll be cards by next week. 

I'm reasonably happy with this bit of home decor. Not too grungy, not too cutesy is where I was aiming. I had to laugh because I had to be thankful only for things that my stamp set could stamp on the leaves -- hence the reason that "family" is not on the fifth leaf. I tried letter stickers, but the black was too harsh. So. . . . 

Thanks for visiting me virtually, dear crafty, artistic friends. I'm thankful for you, too. :)

~ Laura

Christmas Ornaments . . . very simple

I've painted laser cut wooden ornaments from Michael's with gold and silver acrylic paint. I had originally planned to use Martha Stewart red glitter paint. I thought the paint would allow for an opaque glittery finish. Instead, the paint was almost clear, with bits of glitter in it. Maybe with many, many applications I could have gotten the look I wanted, but who's got that kind of time? So I then tried using Versamark and silver embossing powder. It was difficult to get a uniform layer of the Versamark ink on the wood. So, in the end, I used Ranger paint with a brush. :-)


On this one, I've used silver Stickles. (This was the one that had originally had the MS paint on it, which left a reddish tinge after I wiped it off.) 

Another year I might try white glue and glitter for an opaque glitter finish. But I think the painted ones for this year will be pretty. 

~ Laura

I made this card Saturday on World Cardmaking Day. The paper background was already made, and the stars were already die cut, so it was quick to put together. I sprayed the stars with Perfect Pearls and layered them with dimensional adhesive and used a piece of a journaling card for the sentiment. 

I finished putting together the minibook I made during the month of September during Learn Something New Every Day -- a Shimelle Laine class. 

This will be added to our Halloween decorations this year. I used a 12x12 piece of Graphic 45 paper plus embellishments from the same line. I added a glittered Doodlebug border on the bottom and embellished the patterned paper with Stickles and Sakura pens. 

Thanks for visiting!

~ Laura

Simon Says Stamp and Show | Paint it Up Challenge

Well, this project was sparked by this challenge . . . but it ended up being less of a painting project and more of a collage. The paint that shows behind the floral paper at the bottom covers the whole piece -- I just ended up covering it up! 

I die cut the words out of a piece of Tim Holtz patterned paper. The quote is from Annie Dillard and let's just pretend that the "of course" is set off by commas. Thanks. :)

This is a bit of a carpe diem quote, to my mind, and so I added some things that bring my life meaning: music, reading (the dictionary quote encircled by the copper thing), etc., as well as things that represent time (clock faces, snippet of a calendar.) 

WOYWW #153 | What's on your Workdesk Wednesday

Happy Wednesday! I am just getting around to posting a picture of my craft space and will then link up over at Stamping Ground, where Julia hosts this weekly "party." 

New goodies this week include a handful of Distress markers -- woo! -- which I broke down and bought at Michael's over the weekend, but haven't had a chance to really do anything with, yet. The tan album is my pseudo-Project Life album and it's there to remind me to do last week's page. (I'm doing a page per week on a piece of 8.5x11 cardstock -- minimalistic and therefore fast.) On top of it are the handouts from May Flaum's class which just ended over at BPC. I didn't get a chance to try everything and want to keep those front and center to remind me to play some more.  

I'm making this canvas for my daughter for her room. We read The Wizard of Oz together this year and she's seen the movie, so I thought she might like this. The yellow brick road needs some help. I mixed paint and mist to paint over the top of the molding paste and the yellow isn't anywhere near the yellow in the paper. I am not even sure exactly what to do to it to make it match better. Would a little orange help? I'm pondering Wild Honey distress ink. 

Thanks for visiting!

~ Laura

Things have a way of working out: Canvas

One of the reasons May Flaum is an effective teacher for me is that she helps me get over the "fear factor" of trying new things. This is the second canvas item I've made during the Field Guide class and it was fun!  I'm going to give this to my Mom for her birthday. I used multi medium in the upper left with a stencil, colored the background with distress stains and distress ink, decided the "grass" area needed something, so used a damask stencil there, painted the clouds with acrylic paint. The flowers are Prima (freebies from Two Peas), the butterfly was stamped, colored with inks, and stickled, the bird die cut was from K & Company a year or two ago.

WOYWW #148 | What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday

Happy Wednesday! Along with Julia over at Stamping Ground and a bunch of other artistic and crafty folks, I'm showing the current state of my work table this morning. 

By the window I've got a layout I finished yesterday.

And front and center is a project I started last night for my Mom's birthday. This is a family saying -- simple, yet profound, you know? I'm trying to decide whether I want to use the music paper clouds and/or the Prima flowers. I got the flowers as a freebie in my last box from Two Peas. What do you all think? Clouds? Flowers? 

Thanks for visiting!

~ Laura

A non-edible Easter Egg

This took longer than you might expect, but I'm glad I made it. :-) The frame was originally black and I've learned a valuable lesson: either buy an unpainted frame or make sure you buy one that doesn't have a smooth surface! Between trying to cover a darker color with lighter colors (originally tried white) and the fact that the paint didn't want to stick to the slick surface, the paint job is not what I envisioned. But I decided rather than sand it down, prime it, and repaint it, it was good enough as it was! And I decided I'm also okay with the fact that the "egg" isn't perfectly centered, either vertically or horizontally. It's pretty and it's festive. :)

~ Laura

Flower Heart canvas

I had fun making this! I painted a 12 x 12 canvas with Martha Stewart craft paint, let it dry, then glued on Prima flowers using Glossy Accents as the adhesive. It's now hanging in my den. So satisfying to make something pretty, start-to-finish, in a couple of days and hang it up.