Making Craft Foam Stamps

Once again I'm trying something new and though I made lots of mistakes.....I did it! :-)  I hope it explains well enough to those of you that wanted to know how I made the dragonfly stamp.  If you think this video is a hoot, you should see the one I didn't post!  haha  After many tries my daughter and I decided that this one would have to do for now.  I wanted to get it up tonight because we have a busy weekend coming up.  If you leave a comment and your favorite stamp I'll have my daughter pick 2 names at random and I'll send you the stamp you chose.

I just want to say "Thank You" to Tracy and all my "Art Journal Loopies"!  You all are great and I feel so blessed to have you in my life. You've inspired me and made me see beauty all around me instead of dwelling on the scary things in my life. I do have to say.....God has worked some miracles in the last week that have relieved so many of my worries.  I shouldn't have worried, huh?  It's not like it helped, I know!  :-)  I must say....Life is Good!

Why oh Why do I seem to procrastinate???

Well, once again I'm cramming to get something finished. A card swap that I had almost a year to get done. In my defense, I did start months ago but as we were doing something different and using sketches I got bogged down. When I finally figured out how to do the sketches.....It's going much better. But, of course, I just have til May 7, to finish the remaining 31 cards. :-) I do have them all cut and folded and part of the mats and such cut. Hopefully, at the crop I'm going to Friday I'll get them all completed and have some breathing space. I have a Close to my Heart party with my niece Thurs. night, the crop Fri. night, a Miche party at my friends on Sat. and church on Sun. I can see lots of resting on Mon. I do know better than to plan too many things in a row but......Hopefully, I'll feel ok and have a great time.

I am excited that I've used some of the things I'm learning from Tracy on some of my cards. I haven't uploaded pics of any except one so I'll share it.

http://www.tracywburgos.typepad.com/ Here is her blog to check out! She's great!!!!!! And such an inspiration to me.

I mod podged the tissue from an actual pattern on the background. The stamp set is from Close to my Heart and I LOVE their stamps. I think they are my new favorite! :-) As for inks (or should I say Inx) I really, really want all of Donna Salazar's Mixed Media Inx colors. They are awesome! Beautiful colors and so juicy that you can emboss with them. No dragging out the embossing pad and trying not to muddy it with your stamps. :-)

http://donnasalazar.typepad.com/ Here is her blog if you want to check it out. She's pretty great, too!

Sooooo, because of my said procrastination I haven't been able to do much journaling but I do have some that I haven't shared yet

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This is not one of my best pages but it is one of my favorites. It is totally me and how I feel. I had been playing the piano at momma's house and then sat down at the table and created it. So many times when I've sat at the piano I've sang a song as a prayer from my heart. I play when I'm happy, I play when I'm sad. I love my piano!

The above is one of my earlier pages and I was in a like/dislike relationship with India Ink but now I love it! :-) Something that might seem so silly to someone else is the India Ink around the edges with the little bows. The more uneven and wavy they are.....the more I like it! ;-) Even tho I can see so many mistakes on my earlier pages I still love them as I learned from them. Now I can't say I feel the same way about ALL of my mistakes in life but I can say, I think I've learned from them and hopefully they've made me a better person. :-)

Way To Go, Tracy!

I just want to say congratulations to Tracy Weinzapful Burgos

http://tracywburgos.typepad.com/treasure_the_momentlove_l/2012/04/change-gratitude.html

She's going to have her work in an Art Show! Wish I could be there and say, "That's my teacher" :-) We're proud of you, Tracy!!!!!

More on Art Journaling.....and life

Life......just when you think you know where it's taking you........it takes a U-turn. At least that's how it seems to me at times. I honestly don't know how people who don't have God to turn to make it through life. I think of the words of this song so often- "I do not know how others make it through, who never go to Calvary as I do, for there's a healing, cleansing stream that flows with peace that only His redeemed can know." And "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" I just wish I'd remember to "take it to the Lord in prayer" first instead of stressing so much. :-)

I am truly blessed in spite of all the curves life has thrown for my family and dear friends. Old and new. :-)

Now for some more "Art Journaling"! I actually haven't done a page since Monday because I'm madly working to get my cards done for a card swap I'm in. Nothing like waiting til the last 3 weeks, huh? I always love getting the cards and going through each one, saving out the ones I don't dare use until I can make one myself for the pattern, and using some to send right away to brighten someone's day. My cousin is so gracious to spend her time sorting and swapping the cards for us. She is "awesome" when it comes to cards, let me tell you. She should be a designer. She'd put other designers to shame. Anyway, I am going to upload some of the aj (aj = art journal) pages I've already done and tell about some of the things I've learned.

Tracy had us to use book text to create flowers and we were to free hand cut them. Mine were so huge I had to put them on a diet. lol This was a fun page and we painted the background with wet wipes.

Here is the completed page. I cut strips of the dictionary page for the stems, crumpled them, and spritzed them. I just drew the leaves. The cool thing is that the buttons are from stuff I got at my grandma and aunts estate sale. :-)

This was another fun page to make and I love how Tracy gets you to try new things that you probably wouldn't have even thought to try before. I'm a little hooked on glimmer mist. Bought and homemade. lol I spritzed the chipboard, the background the flowers.......:-) The butterfly is from a die I got from Stampin Up.

Art Journaling

Wow! Something I thought was so weird and "I would never do" has me eating my words. At least Tracy has me eating my words. lol I had seen so many things that people called art journals and to me they just looked like a hot mess. A bunch of stuff that people found here and there, some trash thrown in, now tons of paint slopped on, etc and they called it art. Well, what Tracy does.....in my eyes, that "real" art. I love what I am learning and I so enjoy the classes, the chats, and our times on Monday nights. I have made a new group of some pretty great friends. :-) We don't just learn from Tracy, we learn from each other, share about our lives and.......well, I like it! I want to try to share just a little bit of what I'm learning because you can not only art journal, you can take it to canvas, you can use it on scrapbook pages, and you can use it on cards. Hey, I'm thinking about art journaling on my room divider for my craft room. The sky's the limit. lol Hubby better hide! ;-)

I so enjoyed making this page. Tracy used something I didn't have for the background so I used some molding paste that I had. The fancy tool I used to make texture is my daughters tupperware toy. lol

Here is a close up of the flowers. Some are prima, paper, and the top set is die cut from watercolor paper and glimmer misted.

The stems are drawn with charcoal pencil, which I now can appreciate, and I am trying to let it go that I'm not so happy with my handwriting on these pages.

Anyway, I'm going to try to share some of my pages and things I'm learning more often. Life has thrown me some scary curves and I am so thankful for the enjoyment and diversion that this gives me! It makes me happy! God is good!

http://www.scrapscene.com/tag/wipmonday.html

Blessings

You never know when or where you next blessing will show up. My latest blessing showed up in a very creative person who shares her time and talents with so many people. To some it might seem strange considering I've never met her in person but she has inspired me in so many ways. I literally laughed out loud tonight watching her class. In case you'd like to know who it is.......Tracy Weinzapful Burgos, President of Helmar Glue Company. I've started two art journal's and I can't begin to tell you the joy that I've gotten out of trying the new techniques, creating new things, and just taking the time to learn from Tracy and all the others in chat. I'm thinking I'll share some of the pages and perhaps some of the techniques that I'm learning. Oh, one more thing that has me super hyped......Chris told me to go ahead and order a kit that goes with a class Tracy will be teaching. My birthday isn't til May but I'd miss the class if I waited til then. I ORDERED IT TONIGHT!!!! WooHoo!

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Here is the first page I made for my journal. Tracy told us to draw our own stems and leaves. I used her technique of using a mask for the background and used a charcoal pencil to draw the stems and leaves. I was dissatisfied with some of my words being crooked but........Tracy says to embrace and learn from what you don't like and don't do it again! As hard as it was to do it, once Glue Dad's vote came in as NO I shouldn't change it.......I did as Tracy said. :-) All in all.....I'm happy with it and I really did learn from it.

Proud of my college girl :-)

My momma amazes me. She has so much spunk and more get-up-and-go than most young people and she's 75 years old! I am so proud of her. She was so worried about her finals this past semester. I spent the night one night and got up early to quiz her because she was concerned about how she would do. She is on her second year and the kids at the college love her. Anyway, the pictures below are the results of some of those finals. :-) Of course I had to sneak and take these pics. She just doesn't understand why I'd want to post things about her tests and such on facebook. To her it isn't that big of a deal that she's going to college, why, people would think she's silly. :-)

She has inspired me and once my daughter gets a few years older I want to go back to school. I just hope I can do half as good as she is doing. I am so blessed to have a momma like her. Below is this years school picture! Isn't she lovely? :-)