I'm A Swappin' Fool!

Hello! I have been having a blast on swap-bot.com participating in swaps for everything from ATC to cards to bookmarks to cat toys and pen pals. I've met some great swappers and received some really great art. I realized that I haven't been taking pictures of the swaps I've been sending out and decided to start, so here are two swaps I just sent out this week.

"Picture of Your Pet - USA" swap
This is my dog Jasper. I used a printed background paper, stamped it with paw prints, then cut out the picture of Jasper and glued it down. I stamped the words and dog bone and affixed those using foam squares so they'd stand out. I had two partners for this swap, so I made two ATCs just slightly different from each other.

"Julie Nutting Prima Doll Tag" Swap 

Again, I had two partners and made each tag different.

Prima Doll tags

Close up of flowers and buttons on one tag

Close up of top of one tag

CLose up of top of the other tag

Close up of flowers and buttons of other tag

How I made them:

1. I used a printed paper for the background and mounted that on acrylic paper so it would be sturdier. 
2. I added some washi tape to the top and bottom to add some interest and for one of the tags.
3. I stamped flowers over the the background paper, but it doesn't show up well, so I don't did one.
4. I stamped the two doll stamps onto  paper with words printed in the background and then colored them in with Copic markers. 
5. I stamped the dress onto printed paper and cut out the dolls and dressed and affixed them to the tag. 
6. Then, I added paper flowers and glitter buttons.
7. Lastly, I created the short poems and stuck those on the tags.

Poem 1: find the courage to be wonderful
Poem 2: experience yourself as a living dream

I love Photoshop!

I've been on such a creative streak lately, but because I have a toddler at home, I don't have the free time I used to have. In any case, Photoshop is such a great creative outlet an I'm having fun with it. Here is what I created today.

"Fairy Finger"

There's a magical quality to the collage. "I believe in fairies, I do, I do, I do!" Stay tuned. I'm likely to create more.

New Scrapbook Pages

Somerville held open studios May 4th and 5th and while I was hanging out in my studio, I created these pages.

This page was from Christopher's first trip to the Mystic River where he cautiously put his little toes in the water.

First I did a page on my niece Sonya.

The elements on the page consist of quilled flowes and leaves, buttons (regular, glitter, and wooden), die cuts, epoxy stickers, paper punches.

Here's the full page.

Then, using the same theme, but more greenish blue hues than the pink and greens of Sonya's page, I made one for Christopher.

I made the elements on the page using pieces and parts from all over my studio with cut outs, stick on letters, plain buttons, glittered buttons, and  wooden buttons.

Here's the page all put together.

CKC Manchester

Sometimes all it takes is a little nudge and off you go. That's exactly what the Creating Keepsakes Convention was for me. To be surrounded by tons of talent and have the time and space to be creative and my love for papercrafts and scrapbooking is fully recharged. I took 4 classes on Friday and participated in the celebration crop and I took one 2 hours class on Saturday followed by sit and crop for the rest of the day.

My favorite class on Friday was the "Adorable Envelope Album" class and I loved the "Creative Color Techniques 2" class on Saturday. The other classes were okay, but I don't feel like I learn anything when the entire class is based on a kit. I don't need to pay money to sit in a class and make a card or page based on a kit. Anyone can punch pieces out of a piece of paper and glue them down. I really wanted to learn a new technique or layout. Next year, I'll make sure not to take any kit classes. Next year, I will stay for the celebration crop on Saturday, too. I was so sad leaving at 5pm on Saturday. Then again, I did need to rescue Nana from my 2 year old.

Here is one of the pages I made during the celebration crop on Friday night. So fun!

I have to wait until the end of April 2014 to go back to CKC, but I did so much shopping while I was there, it should take me until then to use all the stuff I bought. Can't wait!

Colored Pencil Drawings

I finally recovered the hard drive of my old computer and found all kinds of art that I have done previously. Here are some that I did with a new set of colored pencils. The proportions are off on some of them, but still I love the colors.

Big Heart Kitty

Flying Fish

Goldfish 1

Stained Glass Fish

The Windy Scarf

Snowman 1

Stop Singing Across My Face

More iPastels

If you enjoy creating art on your iPad, I highly recommend iPastels. I use it with my Bamboo stylus and I'm having so much fun with it. The image quality is only for small format printing, but if you're looking to make something like a 4x6 or 5x7, this is prefect. Here are two more pears I drew using the app.

More Fun With iPastels

I'm having so much fun with the iPastels app on my iPad2. There's a pretty short learning curve allowing me to draw fairly decent pictures rather easily. Here are my next two creations I drew by looking at photographs of pears.

Pear #2

Pear #3

Now if I could only figure out why my real pastel drawings don't look this good. I think it's the 'back' button and erase feature. :) I can't wait to do more!