My Crackled Heart

Just a few more days until Valentine's Day! I don't do alot for this day, my kids and I are super cheap and we go get choclates on the 15th when every thing goes on sale! LOL I used to do little gift bags for my kids and as they got older it was different things here and there. Last year it was their favorites pies LOL Not very Valentiney, but they ate the pies. 

This year I had a few things in my stash that I wanted to play with so I pulled them out and made My Crackled Heart. 

I used one of the TH Baseboards from the Christmas pack, the plaster heart is from Relics & Artifacts, first time using that line and love it. The heart was originally painted in metallics from Finnabair, but I changed my mind (like I always do) and repainted it with the Distress Paints in Hickory Smoke and Wilted Violet.

I edged the base board in the Hickory Smoke and Wilted Violet as well. Super messy job on that because I already had a piece of paper that I was going to use to cover most of it.

 

I used my Stencil Girl stencil to add to this spare piece of paper and used the Wilted Violet and Tarnished Brass to highlights a few spots.

I love how it turned out, but I was going to be cutting out the TH Flourish with it. But I now have a new way to colour with my stencils.

Yes..I really love this! Going to try some different colour combos next weekend.

I also stenciled on the heart. It was a little tricky keeping it in place, but I just wanted a small part of the stencil to tie it in.

Before I stenciled on the flourish I added a layer of the Distress Clear Rocky Candy Crackle. I need to get some more of this stuff, I love it!

And here is the finished My Crackled Heart! I also foiled on a little hand drawn arrow and added some rub ons.

It's all about using what you have sometimes. And quite often I forget that I have something. So I keep digging around and finding new things (well not really new, but forgotten about) and pulling them out where I can see them.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you all have a great start to your week!!

Cathy

Challenges Entered:

Frilly and Funkie: All You Need Is Love

After Christmas

Well it is after Christmas and New Year's and my trees are all undecorated and put away for another year, well not a whole year, just till December 1!! :) But I wanted to share the rest of my Christmas gifts that I made, but wanted to wait until I delivered the last one. 

For the clipboard ones I used my favorite stamp of the season and painted my clipboards with Distress Paint and used my new Holiday Greens Thinlits for embellishing.

One done in green, one done in red and the blue one done with snowflakes.

Some close ups of all the different clipboards (which i got on clearance a few months ago at Michaels and they ended up being the perfect fit for what I wanted to do)

After I painted this one, I cut out some strips from the TH Stash paper, edged them with vintage photo and glued them on.

Shades of blue and silver and shimmery paste for the the snowflake board and and Emerald Creek snowflake charm.

For the green version I layered the stamped image on beautiful plaid paper from the Wild Whisper Designs Holiday Style Collection

For my lovely creative cousins, I made them ornaments for the tree. Oldest is a fan of purple (she's my favorite), middle one is a fan of Supernatural (she's my favorite) and the youngest is a crazy talented knitter and loves crafting (she's my favorite) LOL

6 panels, 6 different shades of purple flowers, some edged in distress ink then embossed with Irridescent embossing powder from Emerald Creek.

Supernatural ornament made with pictures that I took the day I watched them film, and had to add a little skull ornament from Emerald Creek cuz it is a creepy show!

Wrapped a styrofoam ball with yearn and made the little knitting needles with toothpicks and some beads I had in my stash.

Thank you all for stopping by and having a look at my Christmas gifts!! Now to start planning what to do for next year!! LOL although I do have one i didn't finish in time for 2 Christmases ago, maybe I should get that one done for this year!

Have a great day everyone!!

Cathy

 

Creating, Supplies and Winning!!

A few things have been going on and keeping me busy!! Work of course, spending one of my days off a couple weeks ago watching my favorite tv show, Supernatural, filming on either side of my work!! Got some great pics that day.

Creating and playing with items I hadn't really used alot of before, also using some found items from the beach. I had the letter "C" made of heavy duty chip board and wanted to do something with it. So I used some great hemp twine, ribbon, paper clay (colored with my Dylusions sprays) and great silicone mold, and some odds and ends I had here. Plus the driftwood and seashell from the beach.

A close up of the sand dollar I did with paperclay and my Tim Holtz Distress Spray. I didn't mix it in all the way so I got this really great effect!

At the very top of the first picture you can see all my black shells ready for my next black magic canvas board that I'm working on too.

One of my dearest friends came out from Calgary to visit for the day. So we went to the beach with her daughter, and my Dad and my nephews. What a great day!! The adults had margaritas for lunch...okay with our lunch of awesome fish and chips and then finished the day off with ice cream! I didn't take too many pics this time out, spent the time just enjoying the moments and the excitement of my nephews as they touched slimy ocean things LOL I love those two so much and they are so fun to be with, I love being and Auntie and spending time with them.

Also this month.....I was so lucky to have won the wonderful giveaway from a wonderful lady, Cindy Chiu from 
Escape to Stamping
She just had her blog redesigned and it looks wonderful and you can check out all her great creations while you're there!! Thank you so much Cindy for the prize, the butterfly stamps are too die for ! :)

And supper important just on Friday...my baby boy turned 20!! I am no longer the parent of a teenager! I'm very lucky, my son is a really great young man and has been more mature than his age most of his life, my son is an old soul <3 font="">

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!! I plan on being back in a few days with my completed black magic canvas, and I'll be posting about my day watching the filming of Supernatural with some great pics I managed to take too.

Cathy

Summer Days....

Good Morning everyone!!

Again, I have neglected my blog. I finally found a second job and have been working everyday for a couple of months now. I just finished with my part time job and was very excited to have had two days off this week!! It was very exciting for me! LOL I spent it mostly with my nephews and painting with them so they can enter a kids are exhibit at Opus Art supplies .

I haven't arted much in the last little bit, but I was able to take an amazing class at Clipper Street Scrapbooking, with Deanna. Her teaching for the class called "Black magic 2" was based on what she learned through Prima and Finnabair (also two of my fave sources of inspiration). It was such an amazing class and totally took away my fear of using black!!

We started with a simple white 9X12 canvas board and from there the magic began!

the finished project - Black Magic 2!! It was such an amazing class and I even loved using glitter this time!

I'm hoping to take another class here soon if time permits and I have that evening off of work. Clipper Street is by far one the best places to shop, take classes or even just pop in and share some ideas. The staff there are amazing!

So this will wrap up this post...but there is more to come for sure!! A couple of 12X12 canvasses I did for myself and my sister, a beach festival out in White Rock, BC that I managed to snap a couple of great photos at. Two more projects on my art table...time to get busy and complete them so I can share with you!

Have an amazing weekend!

Cathy

Another month comes to an end

It is hard to believe April is almost over! I am still without a computer but hoping I will be picking up my son's laptop tomorrow. There were some installations issues so we had to take his in too!

I am amazed at everything I used my laptop for, before it crashed beyond repair!! But it seems that all my files were able to be released recovered from my hard drive......and I am very thankful for that!!

I have managed to get a second job, needed to try to get ahead of bills and fix the no computer issue. I never thought at this stage of my life that I would be struggling so hard and having to take a minimum wage job on top of the one I already have, just to try and survive and only have one day off in 10. I truly thought with my college education and experience I would be in a much better position and not having to do such physical work (my back is not doing well).
I haven't been doing too much at my art table lately but completed an ATC swap and my part in The Traveling Art Project started by Joyce van der Lely I will share those pics after they arrive at their dest
inations.

I did do a 12X12 piece using colors way out of my comfort zone of....purple LOL I used my Faber Castell Whipped Spackle, Gelato and some Prima Color Bloom Spray and my embossing folders, punches and my Big Shot.

I can't wait to share more with you....works in progress, finished pieces, backgrounds from my art journal.....so many things!!

Thanks for stopping in!

Have a great week!
Cathy

Where does the time go.....

Already at the May long weekend here!  The time has flown so fast it seems. My Dad has only 9 more days of work left then he is officially retired.  He is then moving down to Langley, to his wonderful suite at my sister's house, which is right down the road from my little rental suite too.

I haven't updated much and won't be for a bit due to lack of internet/cable at home.  After being unemployed and job hunting for much longer than I had anticipated, it has been hard to play catch up with all my bills and keep food on the table. So unfortunately I could only catch up on the cell phone bills this month :( But I need that more for work than anything else as I have to call in the minute I arrive at a store to start my merchandising.  It's very difficult not having internet as I use my computer for so many aspects of my life, my art class I just signed up for, sharing my cards that I try to sell to help make ends meet, my photography stuff. It's so strange how dependent so many things I love are on the internet. But it has brought me into contact with so many amazing artists and people that I am very grateful for that.

I am working now and have pretty good hours, but trying to catch up on my bills when so many other things need my money is stressful. I also need a more reliable car as my job is dependent on my having a vehicle as well. I merchandise books and mags in a number of different stores and need to be able to get to all of them. So that adds to my list of stressful things, also I'd really like to be able to afford a new bed lol I am getting too old to sleep on a too short (even for me!) love seat or an air mattress. But all things in time and I know that things are getting better slowly, it's just frustrating to keep struggling right now.

Not too many adventures lately as my son has been working overtime, which is great for him. So hopefully next week end we get to get out and do something. I enjoy the Sunday afternoons with my grown kids, it's nice to just get out and see something new and spend some time just being together, not talking about bills, rent, jobs etc.

I made some cards this week for a card exchange I'm in.

 Also had a nice Mother's Day with my kids and then dinner at my sister's house. It was the first one without my Mom so some moments were making me teary and the weeks up to Mother's Day had me emotional as well as I saw all the Mother's Day ads and cards and everyone getting cards etc. I know it's only the first one but was so sad not making a interesting new project to give my Mom for her special day and making her a card etc.

But my kids were good to me, my daughter made me a card using some of my fave things, purple, flip flops and Mickey Mouse :)

Beautiful flowers from my son. He was up early and went out and got me all the purple flowers the store he was at had, then came home woke me up and put on the coffee :)

The month has been going by so quickly, yet at times has felt like it was dragging. I miss having my internet, the cable not as much as I thought, except missing all the season finales of my fave shows lol
I brought my laptop and printer down to my sister's to use her internet to download and print all my work plano's and info that I needed, so thought I'd use the time to update here too! Hopefully I won't be gone too long and will update when I can, I am hoping to get everything back up soon so I can really make a good informative daily blog post about artists, classes, supplies and really get into my classes etc.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week!! :)