a card for another mother

i made this card for my aunt (who's also my godmother) for mother's day. i printed a pic of a succulent that i shot from my mother's yard on to lutradur (pre-treated with a thin coat of pouring medium). nice and simple on some pretty cardstock, with a few dried flower epoxy stickers and a sheer ribbon threaded through a small slot at the side of the card and wrapped around to tie off in the front.

here are the materials i used...enjoy!

Silver J Pressed dried flower self adhesive stickers, epoxy floral sticker, 2 packs
Lutradur Mixed Media Sheet 10-Pack
Liquitex 8-Ounce Pouring Fluid Acrylic Medium Gel
May Arts 1/4-Inch Wide Ribbon, Olive Sheer

mother's day card

this is the card i gave my mom...i made the focal panel by adhering a cluster of torn strips of nylon and silk fabrics on to a piece of sheer organza with fusible web, such a fun effect! i edged a random selection of scrapbook papers with a marker and embellished with a couple of beautiful buttons (click the pic to zoom in).

here are the materials i used...enjoy!

Buttons Galore - Haberdashery Buttons - Classic Retro
Pellon 807 Wonder-Web Fusible Web
Sakura Permapaque Dual Point Paint Marker, Purple/Pink/Orange/Sky Blue
White Mirror Organza Fabric 58"/60" x 1yd

peace and honor greeting card

these are the japanese symbols for peace...and in japan, the crane symbolizes many wonderful things like honor, loyalty, luck, and hope. i gave this card to my mother for her birthday.

i ran some treated lutradur (brushed with iridescent medium and allowed to dry first) through my inkjet to print it with a photo of the blue granite gravel in my front yard - it's great texture! i cut out a crane shape from it, then fused it with bonash powder in between two layers of ultra-light lutradur. i had tinted the top layer with purple ink that i blended from primary colors, and the bottom layer with yellow ink. i love how the purple fibers pop against the yellow (click the pic to zoom in).

i drew the symbols in position with a purple marker on a piece of white fabric, then fused the lutradur to the fabric (so the ink colors would look brighter) and machine-stitched the crane's wing and an outline around the symbols. i adhered it all to the front of a bright olive greenish-yellow cardstock with craft glue and hand-stitched the border with embroidery floss.

here are the links to the products i used...hover over the link to see more details.

Bo Nash Powdered Fusible Fabric Repair Bonding Agent
Ultra-light Lutradur: For Fiber Arts, Mixed Media & More! 20" X 2 Yds., 25 Gram
Lutradur Mixed Media Sheet 10-Pack
Reeves 30ml Liquitex Professional Acrylic Ink Set, Primary Colors
Liquitex Iridescent/Pearlescent Tinting Medium 8 oz.
Aleene's Clear Gel Tacky Glue 4 Oz.
Sakura Permapaque Dual Point Paint Marker, Purple/Pink/Orange/Sky Blue

more artist trading cards

last month, the theme for my local atc group was postage stamps. i broke the rule of using actual stamps and went rogue with squares that looked vaguely stampy. i diecut a page from an old art calendar, so the squares all came out with random textures and colors. i also liked the idea of cutting a tiny slit at the top and bottom of each card to hold the embroidery floss in place.

here are the cool cards from a few of my cohorts who did it the right way :-)
click the pics to enlarge.

springtime cards

i placed a rose charm on top of a lovely metallic paper medallion (given to me by a friend), layered on top of blue-inked lutradur® and some chunky purple handmade paper (given to me by another friend). the background is a multi-colored scrapbook paper.

the center is inked and stamped mul•tex® peeking through a window die-cut. click the pics to enlarge.

fun with mul•tex

in april, a new product from c&t publishing (where i work) is coming out called mul•tex®. it's this really cool art surface that's mulberry paper on one side, with a glossy laminate on the other side. lots of really cool stuff you can do with it!

i demonstrated a couple techniques for using it in cardmaking on cyn gagen's webcast last sunday...here's the link to watch the replay.

Glitter fused between two layers of mul•tex

valentine for mom

this card with the stitched border was actually a sample made by my coworker sue for her book, spectacular cards. she had put all her old samples in the free-box at work and i scooped them all up, knowing i'd have fun altering them at some point. i removed the faux party invite panel from the front and replaced it with a heart that i needlefelted and embellished with some beading stitches and a postcard charm. i added white panels inside to write on. i love a card that opens from the top instead of the left...cute!

a steampunk valentine blog hop—plus a giveaway!

so my crafty pal leslie rahye organized a fun blog hop for the heart day with a steampunk theme. i'm not much for the "hallmark holidays" but i do enjoy steampunk, it was the perfect theme for me. for my valentine, i decided to write a racy (or shall i say steamy?) little limerick from the era, and i posted it in a mini board book that i painted and stamped with distress inks, then embellished with various steampunkish doodads.

a corseted woman named belle

had yearnings for living quite well.

her lovers were heroes,

but their finances zeroes...

she lived in her own kind of hell.

with anachronistic disparity,

a time machine showed her some charity.

she traveled back years,

despite all her fears,

to seek out a man of prosperity.

a leader of this very nation

she met with considerable elation.

her body did shiver,

his lips felt a quiver,

and thus began their fornication.

his gears (and her engine) ran clean,

their faces resplendent with sheen.

a charming romance

was born from their dance...

his fortune (and heart) she did glean.

now for my giveaway...i have a lovely selection of goodies, courtesy of my friends at fiskars! a pair of scissors, a fingertip blade, and a pretty bird punch...this prize package could be yours! leave a comment here to enter to win, i'll draw a name on monday night 2/13. good luck!

update for 2/13/12:  according to random.org - the winner is jess...congrats!

check out the rest of the bloggers' links below - lots of different creative projects...this is a great hop! thanks leslie rahye!

craft & hobby show...it's about the people!

i just returned from a week at cha - the craft & hobby association winter conference & trade show. favecrafts is hosting a blog roundup if you'd like to browse through several other designers' posts about their cha adventure too!

i attended for many reasons...to show off some of c&t publishing's new books and products, talk to customers, do some trend-spotting, take some seminars, meet with members of the media and press, see imaginative ideas in action, and of course, ooh and aah over loads of exciting new products from hundreds of manufacturers of all shapes and sizes.

i am thankful every day to be working alongside creative people in an industry that fosters and values creative expression. there is no better way to spend that handful of precious disposable income dollars than on art, craft, and sewing supplies, right?

it's true that a lot of this show is centered around the scrapbooker...but the quilter, the knitter, the beader, the sewer, the sculpter, the metalworker, the cardmaker, the mixed media artist, the papercrafter, the felter, the stamper, the DIYer, the painter, and the family crafter (and dare i say the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker) are all represented as well.

for me, it's really all about the people. going to cha is about connecting with friends, building business relationships, meeting the movers and shakers in the craft world, networking with colleagues...and sharing news and inspiration with people who really, truly, almost divinely "get" each other.

here's just some of what i did last week!

• danced in a flash mob for charity
• promoted and demonstrated some awesome stuff
• heard some really good sales spiels and brainstormed some really good plans
• listened to heartfelt personal stories and was gobsmacked by so much gorgeous work
• taught a fun workshop
• gave away prizes and received lovely gifts
• learned better blogging skills and search engine optimization tactics
• discovered more about shopping behaviors of the young (and the young at heart)
• met talented designers, enthusiastic retailers, passionate teachers, and exhausted exhibitors (lol)
• chatted with my favorite spotlight artists and crafters
• spent time with creative entrepreneurs who have worked so hard to release their own books and product lines, and i couldn't be happier for them (and i will be buying their amazing wares)!
• hugged so many people and shook so many hands that my arms hurt

i have attended this show for several years now, and i always come back energized and sparked up with encouragement and optimism about my work in this industry at large, and about my personal growth as an artist and a crafter. onward and upward!

december atc swap

here are all the artist trading cards from my online swap last month (theme was art deco). the artists for the 9 atc's in the order shown are...lisa morris, joan hume, roberta birnbaum, sherry payne-scott, melissa sehmer marro, linda edkins wyatt, me and me again, eunice ortegon.

join us this month - the theme is metal. for details, click on the atc swap link at the top of the blog here.

january swap with my local atc group

these are the art deco artist trading cards that i received in our swap this month, each is so different and lovely! click the pic to zoom in. my fellow artists are (clockwise from the left) uni, tarri, liz, donna, and cathy. our theme for february is space (as in the final frontier), so soon i'll be perusing the planets for inspiration.

more art deco atcs

we chose art deco as a theme for my local atc group this month. i printed an image of an art deco-style wood door on brown parchment cardstock, then i printed an image of a 1930's ad for a lingerie company called kestos (a greek word for the corset worn by aphrodite) on vellum and trimmed it out. i layered the vellum over the cardstock with matte gel medium and accented with a bronze pitt pen and crackle medium. lastly i tinted the ladies with a little yellow copic marker, and embellished with ribbon and little pearlies. these poses just crack me up!

this is the original ad - i adjusted the contrast before
printing to remove the black background 

thank you cards for the zendo

i recently joined a local meditation group (it's wonderful for stress!) that is getting ready to move into a new, larger space. they are fundraising right now, so i offered to make some thank-you cards for them to send to donors. the japanese symbol means thank you.

i also just picked up a copy of the simple art of japanese calligraphy...i want to use some symbols and quotes in my mixed media and fabric painting, so i will be practicing to get my own writing to look as nice as the computer print-out i used for these cards.

art deco atc

this artist trading card was inspired by this art deco door i found online. the background is acrylic paint on textured watercolor paper...with scratch lines, heat-embossed spiral stamps, and metallic embellies.

the last of the leftovers

i made a ton of this really yummy cranberry jelly from scratch for our holiday dinner, and i've been enjoying it every day since. on toast with breakfast, on sandwiches, or just by the spoonful like a jello fruit salad - very versatile. so i thought i'd share my recipe, i was pretty much winging it, but there are other similar recipes out there too.

it's really fast and easy to make, and i like the firm texture and golden colors that the mandarin oranges and pineapple add to the mix (don't use fresh or frozen pineapple in gelatin, it won't set). i also love the purplish shade of the blueberries and cranberries combined. i prefer to use canned fruit that's packed in natural juices, and 7-up is all natural flavors now too. using these liquids instead of just more water adds better flavor to the jelly, i think. this recipe makes a pretty large bowl, so you can halve it.

1 12oz bag of fresh cranberries; rinse well
1 cup of organic sugar
1-1/4 cups of water
1 small can mandarin oranges (reserve the liquid)
1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 regular can pineapple chunks (reserve the liquid)
1/2 can of 7-up soda
2 packets knox unflavored gelatin

soften the gelatin first by mixing it with 1-2 tablespoons of the orange liquid in a small coffee cup. bring sugar and water to a boil in a medium pot. transfer 1/4 cup of the boiling sugar water to the coffee cup to stir and dissolve the gelatin, set aside. add cranberries to the remaining sugar water in the pot and return to boil; simmer a few minutes until the skins pop. stir the gelatin water into the simmering cranberries, then remove from heat. stir in remaining orange/pineapple liquids and 7-up, then mix in all the other fruits. transfer to a decorative bowl or dish, cover with plastic wrap (vent it on one side), and refrigerate overnight to set the gelatin. serve solid by the scoop, or stir it up to serve chunky as shown. enjoy!