Tangled Guitar

I found an old beat up guitar at a  yard sale for $4.00 and snatched it up last fall. Then last month with forest fires all around in CO I found time to work on it.  Had to stay indoors due to smoke, but put on a mask long enough to sand it down.  Wish I had taken some before pics, as this guitar was really a mess!
After sanding, staining and sealing I stamped several images from various stamp companys (including my own).  Then got out my permanent ink Sharpies and drew more images (eyes, etc) and started filling in the blank spaces by doodling some zentangles.  Bought some strings and lo and behold, it can actually play music!  I'll be taking this to the festival with me instead of my "good" guitar.  Hope no one laughs at it too much.  What do you think?  Sorry the pics did not show the drawings very well today.

Beer Mug Card

I found a wonderful sketch over at  Rogue Redhead Designs blog in their challenge called Tilt It Baby.
Loved the sketch!  Just had to use it.  Card is normal sized (4 1/4 X 5 1/2) for a change.  Background paper with the beer mugs is from Printable Haven and the beer mug stamp and verse is from the Drinks sheet of stamps from Wild Frog Creations Rubber Stamps. The beer mug was colored, fussy cut and then embossed with clear embossing ink and clear powder to give it a glassy effect.  The foam  on the beer is fun flock.  Bottoms Up!

I am entering this into:
1. Rogue Redhead Designs Challenge 12 - Tilt It Baby
2. CCEE Stampers Challenge 1225 - Masculine Cards

Negative Shape Dress Card

Made for a challenge on Midwest Stampers Group.  Basically use the negative piece left over after cutting out a stamped image, die cut or punch.  Fill shape with scraps of leftover designer papers, use as desired.

 I used the dress stamp, umm, I mean the paper left over AFTER I cut out part of the dress from the dress stamp made by Wild Frog Creations Rubber Stamps. Click image for larger pic.  I cut the paper scraps with decorative scissors.

Native American Card

Here is the 2nd card I made with the  images from the Kachina rubber stamp sheet from Wild Frog Creations Rubber Stamps.   The stamps used are the arrowhead, the firebird and the mask. I have a dresser drawer full of envelopes of all sizes and tend to make cards to fit the envelopes.  This is a large 6 1/2" square card.  I used a card sketch from the  Stella Says Sketch Challenge over at Bugaboo Stamps and then found a Canvas and Burlap theme post over at Paper Issues blog that gave me some ideas.  I found the background papers as free printables on the web several months ago.  Added a feather and here it is:

Sorry the scan is crooked and faded out for some reason, the colors are actually quite vibrant. I am entering this card into the following challenges and themes:

1. Stella Says Sketch - Bugaboo Stamps Blog
2. Paper Issues Canvas and Burlap Theme
3. Fab 'n' Funky Challenges #125 Fathers Day
4. Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Fathers Day Challenge

Kachina Card

Surprise, I stamped! Maybe I'll come out of the slump for good.  I do hope so.  I started with the Kachina sheet of stamps from Wild Frog Creations Rubber Stamps with absolutely no idea how I wanted the end product to look.  I colored all images at once, cut out the kachina, then went through my background papers and found 5 I liked.  I've had these for over a year and had found them as free online printable scrapbook pages.  Don't remember where.  Then I went online again to find a sketch to use and Voila! found it at Utah Divas International Blog.  I'm not from Utah and not much of a Diva these days (maybe that will change), so I hope they don't mind that I joined in, lol.
Here's the finished product,  a 7 1/4" X 5 1/2" card.

The circle shaped medallion and the kachina image are both layered / raised.  I use double stick mounting foam scraps instead of pop dots.  And here is the sketch:

Guess I took a few liberties.  I am entering this card into:
1. Utah Divas International Saturday Sketch Challenge
2. Dream Valley Challenges - Special Guy
3. One Stop Craft Challenge - Fathers Day

Torn Paper Card

Taylor over at Paper Craft Planet is having a contest for a  Perfect  Tears 3 Tool Set and I really thought I might like to have this set of tools so I am entering this card with the torn background into her contest.

4X4 Flower Book

I've joined a swap on one of the yahoo groups I belong to.  Yes, I ended that sentence with a preposition. It's a 6 week swap, swap a page a week and the lead time was over a month. I have finished the pages ahead of time.  Here are the details and my pages:

Week 1: Just a page with flowers (stamps, hand drawn, etc)  - I used the sunflower/ladybug stamp from Wild Frog Creations.

Week 2 – Zentangle your flower - Easy enough

Week 3 – Steampunk flowers - Tough one for me. I have no gears, wheels or steampunk items.  I looked up the defination, looked at steampunk art on the web, decided I was not going to participate after all, stewed for several days and came up with this using  the sunflower/frog stamp from Wild Frog Creations and adding an eye to the center of the sunflower.  Found the background as a freebie printable on the web.

Week 4 – Flower child - Again, easy enough.  I used the Pansy Woman stamp from Wild Frog Creations.  Colored, reduced in size for the center, same size for the background and popped up a few pansys around the face.

Week 5 – Flower journal page (use your favorite quote, or just add your thoughts) - Roses are from the Rose Woman rubber stamp sheet from Wild Frog Creations. Background paper is a skytone pink and does not show up in the scan.

Week 6 – YOU, the artist, are a flower (self portrait!) - Crap, really?  Ok, drew myself in less than 5 minutes, decided the original was good enough, colored with pencils, used a sheer purple ribbon as the frame and glass over the picture, added some Iris from the Iris Woman sheet of stamps from Wild Frog Creations.  Then realized it does NOT look like me.  She is the spitting image (where does that phrase come from?) of my granddaughter.  Seriously.  I would have to go back and redraw, adding wrinkles, under eye bags etc, lol to have this actually look like me today.

I made 2 of each page.  One for me, one to trade.  So after the trade is done I will have a total of 12 pages for the book.  I still have to make the covers and do the binding after all the pages arrive.  I will post the finished book around the end of April or beginning of May.

Zentangle Bird Woman in Color

Finally got some free time to color this one.  I used water color pencils, but have not done any of the actual blending yet, just the dry pencils.  What do you think?  Looking for honest criticism.  (Yes, you can be brutal)  I had a rough time with deciding how to color the birds and don't quite like them.  Maybe after I get the colors blended they will look better.  The pic is pretty large, so you should be able to click it and see it much bigger.  Images used in the zentangle are stamps from Wild Frog Creations.

Zentangle Journal Page

As many of you know, I've been working on a Zentangle Journal for well over a year.  Just off and on between other projects sporadically.  Here is my most recent *unfinished* artwork.  Unfinished only  because I intend to color this one.  That's why there is very little black and no shading at all yet, however, I still think I could call it done if I wished.  Hopefully will get the colored version up soon.
The images are stamps from Wild Frog Creations Rubber Stamps.

I am entering this artwork in:

1. Gingersnap Creations "Words Of Wisdom" challenge.  The words of wisdon on the piece are: "You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus". 

2. Paper Creations Ink Challenge 19 Show Us Your Style

3. Smudgy Antics "Wicked with Wings" Challenge

Last Minute Valentines & Very Bad Hair Day

This past weekend I decided I had to make DH a valentine after all.  It was that or go to the store and tell him I didn't feel like making him a Valentine.  Can't do that, seriously, now could I?
So off I went to the craft room and the first card I made turned out very nice indeed . . . if I were giving it to a woman.
*sigh* What was I thinking?  Ok, so here's the first card, totally unsuitable for a man:

And here is the inside of that card:

Each section of the inside heart book is either stamped with words (Love, Cute, Sweet, Irresistible, XOXO, etc) or stickers.  The card is an oversized 5 1/2" X 7 1/4".  I got the pattern for the heart book on the inside here.   I've decided to enter this one into Inspiration Emporium's "Put a Heart on It" challenge. That was Saturdays work.

Back to the craft room on Sunday to make a manly card.  Here's was where the bad hair day came in. First I cut off about an inch of my hair in the Fisker's cutting when cutting the darn cardstock to the correct size. Once again a 5 1/2" X 7 1/2" card on two sided stock.  One side red, the other pink.
Then I got my hair somehow taped under the first layer with the double stick tape.  Crap.  Ok, that did it.  I took the time to get a large hairclip.  Then I stabbed myself with the exacto knife while trying to get the fancy red fiber out from underneath the King of Heart.  Had to go get a bandaid, took the darn hairclip out that was giving me a headache and wnet back to it.  Finally finished the front successfully, then glued my hair to the pop - up on the inside with the elmers glue.  Good thing this card was for dh, lol.  Anyway, I was not very happy with the way this one turned out, but I think he will like it.  Here are the pics.  Outside:

And inside.  It's hard to tell the center heart is a pop up, but it really is.

And those are the only two Valentines I made this year.

Floral Zentangle

Here is an 8 1/2" X 11" zentangle that I made for my large journal.  I've done several of these recently and this one was made very quickly in free minutes here and there over the course of about a week.  I don't think I ever worked on it for more than 15 minutes at a time.  It's certainly not my best, lol.

If you'd like to see some of the other zentangle pages posted previously, check the sidebar links  with the label zentangle.

Time Flies

Times sure does fly.  I haven't posted since March of 2011.  Once you stop doing something for awhile it seems easy not to go back to it.  Like exercising, eating properly and blogging too I guess.  I've been meaning to post for ages. So todays the day I start back, before I hit the year mark.  

Some of you may want to know what I've been doing for 10 months, most of you won't care.  I've been playing, traveling, eating poorly, being lazy, etc.   The playing included some crafting, but mostly I was addicted to a zynga game called Farmville.  I am now breaking that addiction.  The travel included 2 trips to Mexico, 2 trips to Florida, several trips to mountain towns in Colorado and I forget where else.

Anyway I'm back.  I've been visiting blogs again for 2 weeks but haven't been posting comments yet.  You've all helped inspire me to come back to blogging.  Thanks!!