St. Patrick's day is coming up

Corned beef and cabbage.

YUM!

And adorable leprechauns too.

GOT THIS FROM THE INTERNET!

How adorable is he and HOW COME I CAN'T

COME UP WITH CUTE STUFF LIKE THIS ON MY OWN.

Seriously.

So that little sticker sheet was used to put

stickers on the inside with the sentiment,

No photo of that,.

And no I didn't use the piles. 

Shapes are amazing actually and I find I can make stuff

with shapes as opposed to lifelike.

So to make the shamrock - actually clover on the hat.

Hearts.

I used QK cookie cutters and rectangles

were whacked on the cutter.

I also in looking at this photo it needed a background

which is why if you look above I went

a little nuts with a shamrock stamp.

Used Peeled Paint and a really old hero arts stamp.

 

Just doodling around

I was up late one night and I bought these mixed media

art journals to mess around with different

kinds of inks, paints, crayons, stamping and also

use them for journaling without all the creative stuff in it

so I decided why not mess around and doodle.

So I grabbed a black pen and graphite pencil and just

started messing around.

Now, I seriously have no drawing skills. 

However, I found I can draw flowers so I started with that.

And then birds, a really bad copy of some

Dina Whakely's birds but none-the-less they came out

seriously not bad.

I also did the backgrounds, my fussy cut doodlings are on.

Not bad for an amature.

I love how they came out. 

I colored them in with distress crayons and honestly 

using them like watercolors made my drawings look pretty good.

Surprised me too.

Found more backgrounds I did with TH inks and Nuvo shimmer paints 

because I did a lot of doodling that needed a background.

So I laid all these out and didn't adhere them because I

was not sure I want to add to the backgrounds

so just to keep things interesting

 I opened the window, next to my desk, 

and everything blew everywhere

Good thing I took a couple of photos LOL.

It'll be fun putting them all back together.

 

Birthday cards

 

Tim Holtz style.

I really love the how they turned out.

The doily is a new die cut I got from Mitzi's and I

do not remember the name because I have it

hanging in a magnetic storage folder.

Well, it's a perfect fit and size and there are

2 doily dies and the smaller one tucks in the middle of the

larger one but I didn't do that here.

I used a piece of tissue paper and that flower tucks in

quite perfectly.

TH Abandoned paper and I used his inks and oxides

to make the background for the doily.

I even got carried away and added some balloons to the

envelope and used ink to paint them.

And TH stamps.

Oh and that flower is covering a stamping boo boo.

 

My pal Holli made this Arthur - so much better than mine.

Especially in the gluing department.

His colors were perfect for that pre-made background,

Good tip from TH to make backgrounds to have 

in your stash.

Worked for me.

 

The internet is a wonderful thing and found 

"you are not getting older

you are getting upgraded" off the internet.

I can't believe I didn't photo the inside. Cool, fun and

funky stamped words ransom style.

I really enjoyed painting the balloons.

Tim Holtz

Oh and the birthday boys middle name is Arthur.

And OH, I drew the balloon lines and yes its a big deal to me.

because yes I could screw that up LOL.

We had a lovely birthday dinner at my sister-in-laws house

and had fun with the nieces and nephew,

 

Valentine Tags

 

For the grands.

I used some watercolor paper because I knew I was going

too use inks to making and I wanted the

background to have texture, so whipping out a cool embossing die

I didn't know I had sent 10 tags on through.

Using a few distress inks using the smack and dab technique

that Tim Holtz teaches and uses.

It was a lot of fun actually, and normally I don't

heat dry the layers, but I did this time.

The background looks great.

 

Oh I added the pockets on the back to hold the $1

I took in - quite the big spender.

That was a total stash bust, but I love those envelopes

and have no clue where I got them or the brand.

Some punched and die cut hearts.

M's dinosaur stamp.

 

Play date with Holli

Was so much fun and we timed it for the great

TH unveiling of his new ink color

Kitsch Flamingo.

A really, really neat pink that needs to be in

my collection.

Her scrappy room is amazing and I love "shopping" there.

We worked in some selfies because why not.

Where in awe of what the makers make.

They are soooo creative it blows me away.

We were actually at this point binge watching all his videos.

As we watched, we shared die cuts, embossing folders

I bought the coolest "doily" die cut

as you can see below - and used nuvo shimmer powders

which made the doily sooooo dainty.

TH flower in abandoned papers totally rock it.

You'll be seeing them on a page or card soon.

I also love that she gifted me an Arther AND those

windows were fun to put together.

There's more playful fun as I add color to

those embossed tags.

Oh the fun to see them come to life.

 

Had a play with Nuvo shimmer powders and distress inks

Heard a lot about the Nuvo shimmer powders and

I broke down and bought 2 - blue blitz and golden sparkler

and I loved how it turned it.

I felt it needs another color so I popped in some

distress ink - fired brick.

Just a touch.

It was so much fun to use the powders I went back

to my LSS and bought all she had.

I found out later I did miss a color so I need another

trip back LOL.

I also broke out the distress inks

and didn't write down the colors but

it was a fun play spraying,

using the packaging technique

and just splattering ink about.

Love how they turned out and these will

be used for tags, die cuts and stamping.

I also bought Oliver and love how he

pops off the blues, greens and purples.

You'll be seeing more of him.

Oliver wasn't so bad to put together.

Lots of moving parts and layers are the fun of it.

Also can drive one batty too.

LOL.

Love how he pops off the background.

 

Love to color - TH crayons

I have loved to color ever since I was a kidlet.

NObody touched my crayons!!!

I did share, 

I had to supervise.

Just like NObody touches my scrappy tools.

LOL!

So my pal Holli and I get together every so often

and we bring stuff that one has but the other doesn't and we

stamp, die cut, bounce ideas around and create to our heart's content.

There is something soothing, just sitting, choosing colors,

smooshing things around, just "crayoning".

These stamped/colored images can be used on tags,

cards, fussy cut, it's endless.....

I stamped these images to use someday - and had a blast

one night and just sat and colored.

Tim Holtz crayons are fun to use. 

One just smooshes them out, adds water and WA-LA

sort of like watercolor paints 

with an attitude.

How fun is this little guy and I made a few to have on hand.

I do love "watercolor' coloring because there are

no rules and messy is king.

This mutt just cracks me up and it's TH stamp set.

It's fun to make vinettes on tags with them

or add to your pages.

Love the birds - and had fun just swirling paint around...

Love the colors I have and there are so much more.

However, I need to figure out which packs I have.

However, wouldn't it be really awful if I have more

than one of the same color.

LOL!

The dog and all doggie things are TH stamps

and this one cracks me up all the time/.

Actually all the crazy animal stamps crack me up.

He has a way with fun and funky.

These coffee stamps you've seen before and will see

again because it's sooo neat and every time

I color it it turns out different.

As you can see I'm not the greatest stamper in the world

but even with that it was fun to try

and bring out the images.

Once I layer it with other fun stuff the ugly 

stamping sort of fades to the back.