The Queen of Ever'thang

Hello and Happy Mother's Day!

I hope you are all taking good care of yourselves today and being taken good care of whether you're a mother to children, pets, your plants, whatever.  It's YOUR day!

As is our custom, my daughter and I are spending the weekend at my mother's house (remember the wonderful English cottage garden?  You can see it here.) and are having a wonderful time.  We went "thrifting" and antiquing yesterday (jackpot!), and then last night we saw Johnny Rodriguez in concert.  This little town sure has some big names coming through.  Granted, he's from a different era (my generation as opposed to the NOW generation), but nevertheless, he's one of the biggies.

And now to the project at hand, the one I couldn't share any earlier because my mother reads my blog every day.  Sorry, Mom.  :)

What do you think?  It's the second time I've painted on a mixed media canvas (the first time was here), and I'm quite enjoying it.  It is my goal to paint roses in a decorative fashion (as opposed to a realistic fashion), and I'm starting to feel more comfortable doing so.  

There is a lot of symbolism on this piece, starting with the music notes I stamped onto the colored base layer (I used Neocolors this time).  They're ever so faint, but music is a big part of my mother's life.  Country music from the good old days, not that modern stuff that passes for "country" nowadays.  It plays all day in her house. 

Flowers are another biggie as evidenced by her fabulous garden.  She grows so many kinds of roses, both modern hybrid teas and fragrant antiques.  I have normally given her plants every year for Mother's Day - it was a big tradition for me while she was building her garden.  Roses, hostas, you name it, I probably gave it to her; however, she doesn't do the heavy, hard planting anymore and instead is directing her attentions towards her art, so this year will be the first without a live plant.  Instead, she gets the painted rose which will bloom forever.

 As a side note, I used to grow a very similar rose.  It was a modern hybrid tea and I don't remember the name, but here is a picture which looks exactly like it.  Alas, it was too finicky and no longer resides in my garden.

Two of the digital stamps are from Gecko Galz, and I honestly can't link directly to them because I think they were freebies that Leanne gave to us at the retreat (referenced here), but you could always contact Leanne through the Gecko Galz site (here) to see if she does have them for sale.  I LOVE these images, especially the woman's face, both of which are perfect for Mother's Day.  The "Mother" word has a crown on it because, as today's title states, my mother is the queen of everything.

I added a bit of blush and lipstick with Copics as my mother never EVER leaves the house without her makeup on.  I should be so dedicated.  And the wooden butterfly was painted with shimmer paints to match the rose.  Butterflies are thick as thieves in her gardens.

This soft, vintage image is part of a free collage set that you can obtain over at The Graphics Fairy.  It was designed by my friend Heather Hudson and is featured on her painted canvas blog post here.  It's perfect because my mother had two children, me and my sister.  

By the way, all images were printed onto tissue paper for that soft, see-through effect.  I love how you can see some of the background stamping through them. Card stock is just too thick and heavy for my purposes.

The words "my friend" were printed from my computer, also on tissue paper, and edged with Stickles.

When I had all of the painting done and the images decoupaged, I knew this piece needed something else, something 3-D, and definitely something dangly.  My mother almost never makes a piece of art that something isn't dangling from it somewhere.  So Mom, here are some danglies for you.  At first I thought I'd do a "necklace" but I didn't want to cover the lady's face with it, so then I played around with the vintage chain and it struck me - a charm bracelet!  The first charm is a frog because my mother used to collect frogs, but some years ago she said, "NO MORE FROGS."  Sorry Mom, just one more.  The flower charm of course symbolizes her extensive flower gardens.

Next come the scissors for the woman who sewed nearly all of my clothes as a child.  She also made some of the most fabulous quilts you've ever seen, many of which grace my home.

And of course a heart.  She puts at least one heart on every single project she makes, whether it's quilts, mosaics, paintings, etc.  I don't think I've ever seen her make something that didn't contain at least one heart, if not more.  Because of her, I ♥ hearts.

I made the centerpiece and in-between charms with my various pearls and beads.  The little key (another heart!) was silver but I colored it with a copper Copic marker.  I rarely use silver, and copper looked better.  My mother has always collected keys ever since I was knee high to a grasshopper.  And last but certainly not least, the flamingo.  Why?  Because a few years ago I said I was going to put a flamingo in my front yard for a little bit of tacky fun, and being who she is, my mother made me a huge one, mosaiced in pink and sporting a stylish ceramic bow on her neck.  You can visit Fanny the Flamingo here.  I am now known as "the house on the corner with the flamingo in the front yard."  I truly think this is the ONLY cool yard flamingo out there - nothing tacky about this one.

I will be entering this piece in the Gecko Galz challenge which is all about Mother's Day, and also in the Frilly and Funky challenge which is to use a single word as a focal point.  Hopefully this one qualifies!

So thank you for joining me today - it was long but, well, that's how I roll.  I'm chatty.  And I like lots of pictures.  Here's wishing all you moms out there the most wonderful day that's focused on YOU!  And for my own mother?

I ♥ you, Mom.

Happy Mother's Day!

P.S.  I was on a rose painting roll, and I had a tiny 1" wooden heart, so I painted it for my daughter.  It looked fine until I saw the close up photo.  Clearly I need to work on my vine painting.  I know she'll love it regardless.

Mother's Day is fast approaching...

...but I'm ready this time.

Hello!

I'd like to share with you a card that I made a short while ago.  I made it at the fabulous Gecko Galz retreat in mid-February (which you can read about here) and was saving it for the PERFECT occasion, which I think Mother's Day is.

I was the ONLY person who made a card at the retreat.  Talk about a newbie.  Everyone else was making fabulous albums out of the materials we were given, but my poor little pea brain just drew a complete blank, so I stuck to that which made me the most comfortable in such unfamiliar surroundings (craft retreat), a card.  At least I gussied up the heck out of it.

The image comes from Gecko Galz "Sleeping Beauty," and I edged it with glittery embossing powder along with this wonderful glammy sparkly yarn stuff that was included in our supply packets.  (Leanne, the founder of Gecko Galz, does not skimp on supplies and freebies with which to craft at her retreats.)

Also part of the supply packet (everyone chose a different theme) was the wonderful organza ribbon, this gorgeous blue rose, the jeweled piece, all of the papers and the metal flower thingie underneath the rose (which I touched with a bit of clear glitter).  There was so much but I couldn't quite include everything on this card.  I'll make an album next year. 

Here's a picture of the embellishements up close and personal.  As there was so much yummy, blingy goodness on this card, it was a wee bit too much for the blue base cardstock, so I cut the front off and attached it to a kraft layer that I cut just a tad larger than the standard A2 size, thereby turning a card into another card.  I used the leftover panel (formerly the back of the card) for the inside mat.

The sentiment was printed on my computer.  This is a saying that a lovely Brazilian neighbor used to tell my mother many, many years ago when my father was stationed in Rio de Janeiro.  I was seven years old, and this lady and her family lived above us in the apartment building, and on many evenings he, a concert pianist, would play beautiful tunes such as "Strangers in the NIght," "Moon River," etc. and she would sing.  Lydia (pronounced "Lee-ja") had a wonderful voice which would soar out their window over our ground floor courtyard, crooning us to sleep on many occasions.  (Do women "croon?"  This one did.)  Ahh, memories.  (Her husband also gave us piano lessons.)  

At any rate, this is sound advice to all women when we're tired and stressed.  Give the baby to the husband, put the dog outside, call out for dinner and go relax.  And be beautiful.

By the way, pardon what appear to be smudges on this layer - I had to photoshop out my message to my darling mother-in-law before posting, and I will be entering this into this month's Gecko Galz challenge, which is "Mother's Day."

Thank you so much for joining me, and I wish all mothers out there a wonderful, happy, and pampered Mother's Day.  

Relax, and be beautiful.

Challenges:

Gecko Galz - Mother's Day

It's All About Stripes at StampNation

Hello!

It's time once again for the weekly challenge over at StampNation!  This week's theme is "Stripes," and I had the perfect paper for it, the striped paper that I received from Tattered Angels for last week's co-sponsored challenge which you can read about here.  While the prizes aspect of the challenge is over, challenges at StampNation are NEVER over and you can join whenever you want.

 

I had such a good time making this card.  I was still in the mood for more whimsy as the TA line of papers themselves are steeped in it, including the sheet of quotes and cute sayings.  (To see more ways of how I used these papers and embellishments, go here and here.)

I used a greenish turquoise as the base of my card and layered red card stock, then a layer of black and white striped TA paper, then a layer of their wonderful see-through vellum-like (but not vellum) paper on top of that to tone all that black and white down.  I had first sprayed this vellum-y sheet with the alcohol sprays I'd made with the TA Glimmer Glazes which imparted a wonderful rainbow of colors.  I then stamped the paper with distress ink and learned that this paper needs Staz-On or archival inks because I wound up with ink all over my hand as I worked on it.  How I didn't smear it I'll never know.  

Here's the TA sentiment, also sprayed with the inks and finished with a single rhinestone.

The flourish is cardstock that I painted red, inked the edges with black ink, then coated the whole thing with crackle glaze.  I like how it mirrors the flourishes on the vellum-y layer.

The pixie, popped up for dimension, is from the Gecko Galz Pixie Dust collection and I've added a bit of glitter glue to her wings and tutu.

The black feathers are from my dear StampNation friend Elaine Johnson who sent me a bag FULL of all kinds of feathers a while ago.  Thank you, Elaine!

The inside is finished simply with a red mat under the white sentiment layer, which I've left blank as I will be putting this card into my Etsy shop.

Thank you for joining me and I do hope you pop on over to StampNation to play along and see what the rest of the designers have created for you!


1) For details on the challenge, go here.

2) To learn more about StampNation, go here.

3)  Become a member right now, go here. 

Happy crafting!

THIS CARD IS FOR SALE IN MY ETSY SHOP. 

Challenges:

Crafty Boots - Feathers
The Shabby Tea Room - Anything Goes

Easter Greetings with Gecko Galz

Hello!

Today's project is one that I'm entering over at the Gecko Galz blog, something that I've long planned to enter but somehow never did.  WELL.  That's all changed now.  Why?  Because just a few days ago I returned from the FANTABULOUS, mind-boggling, craft-laden, prize-heavy, idea-filled, rootin' tootin' Cowgirl Diva retreat!  (That's us, some with cowgirl hats for the contest, some without.  Next year's theme is completely different.)

I'm pretty new to the whole retreat business having only attended one before this and was pretty much the wet-behind-the-ears newbie in awe of all the talent the seasoned veterans who attended displayed.  WOW.  And...WOW again.  In between all the wonderful classes, demonstrations, contests and fun, everyone worked on their own projects.  Well, everyone but me.  I'm so used to crafting by myself that I didn't think I'd be able to work in a room full of women.  HA!  That'll learn me.  My mind drew a complete and total blank even though I toted a cart full of supplies, but I vowed that next year would be different.  I'm taking TWO carts full and will be more prepared to craft with the best of them!  Not that taking tons of supplies is a guarantee of artistic creation, because my good cyber friend Heather Hudson, the uber talented creator of My Artistic Adventures for whom I've been guest designing lately and who I finally got to meet in person (!!) didn't take ANYTHING and created the most wonderful little album using borrowed supplies and the gift pack given to us on the first day.  And she won a prize!  Now THAT'S talent to make a prize-winning piece of art out of just a few things.

At any rate, all that to say I've been newly inspired to create with the wonderfully vintage and retro images that Leanne Seed sells at Gecko Galz.  I've been purchasing her collage sheets and digital stamps and papers for well over a year and was using them in my projects but hadn't entered any of her challenges.  So this is the first but by no means the last for me.  The theme is Easter, and I have used several of her images.  (I will show them below.)

 It is a mixed media collage on canvas board and was one of those projects that took on a life of its own.  I started out by coloring the canvas with various soft Neocolors and decoupaged it with tissue that I stamped with music.  Then I stamped swirls using black archival ink.  And now most of it is hidden, but you can see little bits here and there.  The paper layer is from the Moments in Time paper pack (a retreat gift) and I've distressed it (a LOT) and folded a corner over to reveal the postcard from the Wild About Flowers set.  The real image is much, much brighter but I desaturated it so that it wouldn't detract from the focal point of the project.

I used one of the images from the Easter Bonnets collage sheets - isn't she lovely?  I adhered the image to a piece of grungeboard and then brushed clear crackle paint on top to give her the look of an old oil painting.  The frame is from the Frames set.  I used Photoshop to adjust the size to fit the "painting," then cut out the center, embellished the inner edges with bronze glitter glue and popped the frame up on the image to give it more dimension, then I popped the whole thing up on the base for even MORE dimension.

BTW, the lace up the side was white but I used Neocolors to help it coordinate with the piece.  Pearls were added as well.

 Here's a better view of the crackled layer.

I LOVED putting this floral arrangement together with a big black paper flourish underneath.  The blue rose is my last from the bag of goodies we were given at the retreat and the rest of the flowers are from my stash, some of which I painted with shimmer paints.  I included two bows using custom dyed ribbon and some die cut leaves which I also enhanced with shimmer paints.

And what's an Easter project without bunnikins?  He's from the newly-released Hip Hop Easter collection and I fussy cut him and then enhanced him with various tints of glitter glue and some Glossy Accents on his eye before popping him up for dimension. 

 A close up of the enhanced leaves...

...and the greeting, which was printed on tissue paper and then decoupaged onto the postcard.

I will also be entering this challenge over at Craft Hoarder's Anonymous Challenge #3, the theme of which is Retro/Vintage. 

And that's it!  Thanks so much for joining me and I urge you to RUN over to Gecko Galz and check out the many delightful offerings.  I noticed just today that there are many new collage sheets, so I'll be running there too!  And don't forget to enter the challenge.  You only need to use ONE GG product, and they can be any of the freebies that Leanne so generously offers every month.  Just check the home page at the lower left and you'll find them.  See you there, and happy crafting!

P.S.  This piece is for sale in my Etsy shop!

And now for a couple more pictures...

Heather Hudson and me with our gift packs

Heather of My Artistic Adventures, and Leanne, the genius behind Gecko Galz!

Gecko Galz materials used: