Traveler's Notebook - Start of a new album

I probably posted this awhile ago sorry for the repeat and

if I could find the link I'd hook you up, however,

love this look and it was my first adventure

with TH alcohol inks and of course, I did things wrong

but it turned out soooo right.

So this is my new TN cover - front and back the same

and since the other book was

retired - well I dug these out thinking it

was sooooo cool I had this done ahead of time, 

so this album was originally 8.5x8.5 thinking I wanted

to change sizes, do something different

and in hindsight maybe next time AND I had the thought I could use

page protectors IDEA CAME LATER(like this minute LOL)

 so I really do like working with this size so

I decided I liked the smaller size so it's 6x8.5

FOR NOW.

Love the sentiment which is a stamp-Studio Calico I think.

The next page is the inside cover which I have to

say "what was I thinking" looking at it now.

Well I'll roll with funky. LOL.

And the first event to go in is the Muprhy Reunion.

Very fun and scrappy moment.

Next the fishery - swoon.

A favorite restaurant for the food and ambience 

can't have one without the other. 

And it's very photogenice.

Did I think to take a photo with friends?

Why, no, no I didn't. 

Someone should take my scrappy badge for that

but sometimes I feel like it's too much,

ya know? Like you're just looking for a photo op.

Tell me I'm wrong.

Seriously?

 geez do I need an attitude adjustment or what. 😂

And pizza with friends where I actually remember to not

only to get a photo taken BUT to make a cameo appearance.

I tried to keep everything simple on the pages using die cuts and 

unknown hand me down embellies and get a bit more

chatting with the journaling.

2 outta 3 ain't bad.

 

The making of Olivers for Easter Cards

There are a lot of moving parts on this baby so

trying to keep track was seriously tough.

They tend to wander off no matter how careful I am.

I also decided to just go for it in making 10 Olivers for 

the grands Easter cards....

So I picked the brightest colors I had and die cut out 20.

Why you might ask,

well....

there are alot of parts and itty bitty parts so just

in case I had two.

And carefully piling them in a small bowl in order

to keep the pile piled which gave it

a real good chance that all the parts would be there

by 2's just in case.

One can only hope.

And then you have to bold, if not daring, and just lay it all out.

On a table.

Near an open window.

I did leave the really really tiny parts in the dish.

And since I decided to use whatever color caught my fancy

in putting together the bunnies.

Yup them babies are mutli-colored.

It was kinda fun, but I found I used the colors I really

liked and ran out of parts in order to 

roll the colors across the board.

Like so.........

That grass patch cracks me up and it reminds me of a skateboard.

LOL.

So wild colored bunnies needed wild colored backgrounds,

obviously not thinking it through but they looked good

when I tried them out as they were premade.

A few days before I played around with inks

and oxides and decided why not.

So I did.

HOWEVER, WHEN I BOUGHT OLIVER I ALSO BOUGHT

THE BASKET WEAVE EMBOSSING FOLDER

AND DID I REMEMBER TO USE IT???

Why NO, no I didn't 😐

 

Babcock Webb Wildlife Management Refuge

So yesterday we did what most old folks do - we took a Sunday drive. 

Florida has a lot of cool parks and areas that are

chock full of cool things. 

Like this amazing lake at sunset.

Who doesn't love a woodstork.

They remind me of grumpy old men.

An egret strolling through a swampy area

trolling for a meal.

A anahinga drying it's wings.

It actually held that pose as we traveled down the road

and back again until he was on my side

of the car.

We did see a couple of deer only was able to capture this one.

They are quite fleet of foot.

A doe and fawn and I mean itty bitty fawn like a couple

weeks old flew by us in front of the

car. I was too busy praying don't get hit and

didn't get a photo.

Actually they were *that* quick.

The road on to amazing critters and look at that

gorgeous sky.

Twas in the balmy 80's and a great day for a ride.

These guys just cracked me up.

Hanging out.

What can I say - cows love me and this one

was soooo pretty in the swamp.

A sunset photo on the lake.

And where were the birds because that would've been cool.

They're headed to their roost for the evening.

This was a very popular swamp chockful of birds.

Until I took the picture LOL.

Sand Hill Crane taking off.

A anahinga snatched up his dinner.

Fun day!!!

The animals came out to play eventually.

They were tough to find.

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.