A Time to Play...

Every artist needs a little time to play to keep their ideas fresh. That is precisely what I was doing this week. I just got some fabulous new stamps from Tim Holtz and Wendy Vecchi and just had to play. What fun it is to have no plan, no expectations, no deadlines and no rules to abide by. It frees up your mind to discover new techniques. Give yourself a little time to play and see what you come up with. You'll find that once you are in the "groove", it can be quite cathartic.

Tag Swap...

Ready to ship yet another tag swap. This one is hosted by Stephanie Miller With A Grin.

Every participant must stamp 20 tags total of two different designs. They are stamped with an archival ink so that the recepient can personalize them with ink, sprays, markers, etc. and they won't bleed.

I've been hoping to get into one of Stephanie's tag swaps since I found out about them but never was able to sign up quick enough. My good friend Chris A Little of This was right on top of it and let me know right when the swap was open. It filled up quickly but we both got in. Hope my tags are well received by everyone. As with every swap, I'm excited to see what I get in return.

Wet Paint...

We have a wonderful art supply store in our area which I have come to love. It is located on the hip and trendy Grand Avenue called "Wet Paint." Incredibly, at the exact same time as my son's choir practice when I have time to kill, this fine store has classes and demos to delight and enthuse artists of all ages. A very good marketing plan on their part. I usually can't walk out of there without purchasing some portion of the night's "intrigue."

Last night was no exception. I had two hours and Wet Paint had a demo of a new product. The fine people that work their demonstrated a new watercolor ground. It is a product that transforms any surface (ie. rocks, glass, metal, cardboard, etc) into essentially watercolor paper. A surface that can't usually be painted on with watercolors, now becomes a porous surface that excepts the medium.

I didn't see an immediate need for that particular item, but when they let me play with the watercolors they had out, I fell in love with some of the pigments. They had a "buy three-get one free" deal. The color that you got free was a gorgeous gold color, Quinacridone Gold.

My "color" wish list.

I was obviously thinking ahead to my plans for visiting the Dominican Republic this summer. I have a lot of much-needed downtime while on vacation that I could use on something creative. The only problem is that there is limited suitcase space for anything other than the essentials. I found that watercolor is a very portable medium. The paper and the tubes of paint and paint brushes take up very little room (and weight) in my suitcase. It allows me to have some type of creative endeavor while I'm away from my studio space.

Mind you, I realize that I have a very little grasp on how to use watercolors! I'm new to the media. Yet, it is still very cathartic to sit out in a warm sun under a palm tree painting the local fauna especially when the colors there are so much more vivid than where I usually reside. With that in mind, I picked very tropical colors. I can't wait to have the opportunity to use them. Hopefully my paintings will improve with practice.

Local fauna in the D.R.

Oh, where...oh, where have I been?

Wow, let's see..between volunteering, a root canal, play performances, my daughter's first boy friend and planning a major school event, as well as all of my usual commitments on a daily basis driving kids here and there,  I have been able to sneak in a bit of paper crafting for a swap on the {Scrap}beach. It is going "postal" today but I just wanted to share the result.

This was a mini 4x4 page swap using the Cottage Garden paper collection. Each one of us creates a 4x4 page and swaps with 5 other crafters to get a completed mini album that we can add our own photos to. I can't wait to see what the others have done. They are such a talented group of women. I hope they are as pleased with mine as I know I am going to be of theirs.

Back and Front of Swap Page

Used Tattered Angels Candlelight and Embossed Butterfly

Acetate Frame to Personalize with a Photo

"I Am" Roses and Prima Flowers and Stick Pin from Yellow Bicycle

Before Packaging

Packaging with Card Enclosed