My Phone Hates Me

Collage and mark making. Old book text, magazine ads, and gel prints

The butterfly is a stencil, gel prints and doodles

Gel prints and a graphite sketch

Completely relaxed dog doing his best to stop me from working

Collage with text, scrapbook papers, gel prints, tissue

Inspired (ripped off) from Pinterest

Scrapbook page I now am not fond of, except for the subject. That pink is dull, dudes!

I have been busy. Did 4 scrapbook pages yesterday morning in less than an hour after printing off the pics from Valentine's Day. Then started on painting the flowers. Because it was at 48 degrees with sunshine by noon, we went for a long walk. The longest we have taken in years, and all 3 of us were ready to come home. It was so nice. I enjoyed it.

I follow Christy Trombley Art on Instagram (christytrombleyart) and she does these wonderfully whimsical flowers, in all shapes and sizes. So the other night I used one of her posts as a basis to draw the above, then went over the pencil lines with the Uniball waterproof pen and let it dry overnight. The ink does need to set before applying watercolor. I love this look!

Don't forget to double check that you are still registered to vote. Please don't take anything for granted this year.
Linda

Snow?

All day long. All day, people!

A layout I did yesterday with Gracie and Sarge

The entire central region of Indiana had been hearing varying predictions of snow all week. First, it was 3 to 6 inches, then 3 to 8, then by Friday night we were back down to maybe 2 to 4.

All of those were incorrect. I have close to a foot of snow in my backyard. The snow started around 6a.m., light, fluffy flakes that just drifted down to rest. A few a minute, no biggie. By 8a.m. it is snowing with serious intent. "Think you are going out today, folks? Yeah, NO!" There were several periods of serious white outs. Because it is all going to start to melt today, no plows are out in this area. My driveway is covered, and I do not shovel. I did clean the deck in the back off once for the dogs, then tried to clear it again around 6 last night with the snow still coming down, and barely could move the shovel. Pushing is the only option. I do not lift, nor am I suppose to.

Spent a bonding moment with Jake every single time he went out. The snow sticks to his terrier fur like little balls, so I use the heat of my hands to pry them loose. Poor babies, it is beyond belly deep in the yard.

The layout was one of many I completed. That is a new to me steel die cut from Creek Bank Creations. You get 5 circles, this being the largest, that cut a very thin line. I hand cut the sticks and hearts, because I had seen a layout like this at the stamp show on Friday. If you are interested in the die set, Creek Bank Creations is a couple in Perrysville, IN. They do over 20 shows a year in the Midwest, and I think there is a website.

We are home today. More scrap book pages to complete. And hopefully get the deck clear.
Linda

Sigh

I stamped this dog image on white cardstock and cut it out for an embellishment

Same with this dog

The first "thing" that attracted me to scrap booking in 2002 were the incredible papers available. The depth of color, the patterns, were so unique to me. Now I believe that that appreciation of color is what brought me to mixed media, gel plate printing, and art journaling. In the first photo above, look at the play of muted shades in that paper. It is stunning. After rediscovering this sheet in my stash, I immediately pulled it out to use.

Now. NOW I want to recreate that on the gel plate. Or in an art journal. I have owned that sheet for at least 14 years. And it has finally inspired me, twice.

I am nuts.
Linda

How to get rid of stress

double page scrap book spread

Yes, he is!

I am so back into scrap booking. No idea why, other than it seems to go hand in hand with what I've learned in mixed media classes. I have so much paper in my stash, I could scrap photos for years to come.

Plus, you can dive into a scrapbook page and forget what is going on around you. I am disgusted with politicians. I am disgusted with the people yelling "I have rights! You can't take my gun(s)."

So today I cleaned the house, hugged my dogs, did laundry, and will work on scrap book pages and art journals the remainder of the day. Enjoy yourselves.
Linda

Busy

Jake also likes to scrap book

As long as the page is about him

What?

This is the photo from the shelter book that made me go to the shelter and get him

Collage and ink, before embossing

2nd collage and ink before embossing

3rd collage and ink before embossing

First pass at embossing with the Emerald Creek Vintage Beeswax

This is after 3 layers of embossing and the addition of metal washers

Close up. I am so in love with this technique

I was gone all day on Friday with Cathy, so had a very pleasant surprise when I opened the mail box and there was a box of goodies from Seth Apter. I had ordered the entire set of his Baked Textures from Emerald Creek when it was first announced. I am missing the Rusty powder, and there was a note of apology from Seth in the box. No problems, no worries, I have plenty to play with.

If you would like to watch a series of videos on these powders, go here and go back to the January 27, 2018 post. I have not watched all of them, but did watch the 31 minute video on collage and Vintage Beeswax Baked Texture. Lots of good tips.

Yesterday I cut 3 pieces of paper 8x8 inches. The first was Master Touch water color paper, second was Strathmore 300 Series water color paper, the third Strathmore Mixed Media paper from the green line. I used a UHU glue stick to adhere all the collage pieces, because as Seth says in the video, you are going to seal the papers with powders so they are not going to come up or shift.  The last piece above is on the Mixed Media paper, and it did NOT curl or bend, even with the weight of the 3 antique washers embedded in the pile of powder.

So far I have tried the Vintage Beeswax which is a favorite, Amber, and Patina Oxide. That is the Patina above to the right of the washers, but here is a tip: I hit that with heat for just a few seconds until it just started to melt, then removed the heat. If the gun stays on the same spot with the Patina, it will go solid. I wanted that bubble, mottled effect. There is a lot of room to play with these powders, and I plan on doing that with a series of collages on paper. It is a cheaper way to learn and a whole lot of fun.

So much more to come. Stay tuned!
Linda

Back to my roots

First attempt but did not like the title area to the left

Did a second page with a larger title

9:00 at night I went back into the studio and pulled out craft paint. YES!

Then added paper flowers and buttons to this page

And yesterday did this. I have a dog album. Of course I do.

I started scrapbooking in 2002, at the height of abundance of supplies. At that time, I could drive to a huge store in Matoon, IL., several stores at the north end of Indianapolis, and AllyScraps, the first incarnation, in Plainfield, IN. That is where I met Cathy. She owned the store.

Like a lot of women who made scrap books (HI, Tracie!!!) I bought tons of supplies because in those days the manufacture matched papers to ribbons to buttons, to embellishments, to die cuts.....you get the idea.

I saved almost all of it. Let a lot of stickers go about 2 years ago, but the rest of it? Yeah, in the studio. And the other day while watching a scrapbook layout video, the bug once again bit. I pulled the above photos out of a junk drawer, having forgot about them. The first two are from my going away party in Terre Haute, IN., after I sold my house in Marshall, IL., and decided to move to the west side of Indy. The set of three photos, and yes, that is me in the red hoodie with the sheep, were taken by a nice co-herder one late fall day at the farm. He gave them to me just before he quit bringing his collie for herding. Actually it is a fair depiction of Gracie herding, because she is either still in the photos, or moving slow, not running like a maniac all over the field.

This felt good, doing these pages. And I like the idea of combining stamping, painting, embossing into the layouts. More to come.
Linda

Scrapbook Layout for Allyscraps

A layout using Echo Park papers

This was one of the layouts I did for the store when Cathy was off a few weeks back. I like the muted colors of this paper. A lot of the Echo Park line is very bright. I tend to like not blaring bright type products.

The city of Indianapolis is returning to normal. I have the local news on, and all of the tents for the NFL experience will come down tomorrow. It was one long party.

I am planning on a quiet day of working in the studio, walking the dogs once it warms up. Unbelievable weather this winter, for which I am very thankful. A year ago we were still waiting for 6 inches of ice to melt from a blizzard that hit on February 1st. This year we have walked at least 5 days a week, stopping only for rain. A good thing for all three of us.

Enjoy your day.
Linda

A Scrapbookk Layout

My youngest granddaughter, Allie

I bought a Christmas present for me, and have been playing with it. It's a Canon Powershot 100 HS. I wanted a small, compact camera to take with me on walks with the dogs. Plus, it's nice to have one that I can quickly grab and take a shot in the house as well.

So the first thing I now realize is to take the date stamp off. Don't like that at all. Forgive me on that one. I'm not used to all of the automatic stuff. This is a layout I did for the store to promote the Life Is Simple line of papers. This particular line is called "100 Days of Summer", and I really like the faded but intense look.

Grandma is a tad behind in scrapbooking. Allie is now in 5th grade. I do appreciate her mom sending me these kind of pictures. They are priceless.

Have a great Sunday. It is cold and sunny here. Winter has definitely arrived.
Linda

Scrapbook layouts

The title is on pop-up adhesive, so the letters "pop".

Little Miss Bella

The chaos of this paper fits the lifestyle....

I have never photographed my scrap book layouts before. It ain't easy. I don't know how others do it to post to their blogs or enter contests, but I obviously need to practice a different technique if I want to do this. One of the pages turned out so poorly in the photo, I wouldn't even put it on the blog.

Perhaps I need new glasses. Perhaps I need to wear my glasses when I'm doing this. I could go on, but I won't.

So these are a sampling of what will be up in the new store when Cathy opens. I used my Cricut to cut out the letters for the titles. Far cheaper than using other lettering, and it is fun to experiment with the various fonts and sizes. My favorite of the above examples is the one with Bella. I just like the way it all came together.

Stay safe during this short heat wave. It officially hit 99 degrees this afternoon in downtown Indianapolis. Dang.

Linda