Theme Thursday Challenge Stripes

What can I say? I just felt like a Halloween theme today. This weeks challenge at
Theme Thursday is to use stripes and I had a piece of this orange paper I had painted left. Then I drew stripes with my black Pitt Pen and shaded them with the Grey Pitt Pen. Then I started seeing Halloween .
That is actually a mouse in the bottom next to the boy but it's a bit hard to see him.
Digital images from Shabby Cottage Studio and Digital Collage Sheets.

I think I am going to take a break from challenges and work on a few other things. During summer I find I have less and less time in my art room to play and I have ideas of things I want to work on.

I had a lovely birthday yesterday, and was very surprised by my DH who gifted me a Sony Handycam, it's so small and easy to use , you can take videos or photos with it, so we were practicing a lot yesterday :) I only wish we could have afforded a video camera when our daughter was young, it would have been so nice to see her as a baby on video. This one saves everything on a hard drive so now I need to figure out how to get them on discs or on the computer. More technology, I just got used to my ipod after a few years.

Thanks for dropping by, and hope you are having a nice summer day :)

Theme Thursday Pink and Brown

Theme Thursday this week is to use Pink and Brown.
This is the ATC I created for my challenge entry to Theme Thursday.

I have to tell you it did not come easy today, do you have days like that? I love this background from Gail at Shabby Cottage Studio, and I was determined to use it for this weeks challenge. I started out with a vintage woman, didn't like it, peeled her off before she was dry. Then I thought, ok, nature, and cut out a nest, birds, eggs etc and I didn't like it either, just happy I had not glued them at this stage. So then I went flipping through my box of printed papers and this stone Angel said "use me", so I did. It is also from Gail and is on one of her collage sheets, and it actually has a touch of pink in the image, some blue too. The background is quite pink but on my computer screen it looks different, and I even took the photo outside.
I felt as if it was one of those moments, "An unmistakable touch of Grace" as author Cheryl Richardson says, so I used the word "Grace" for this piece and kept it very simple.


What would I do without all of you, my blogger friends? You leave me such encouraging comments and I appreciate it so much , especially because I have no one else in my life besides you girls online who are interested in what I do. I have probably said before, but I don't think I can thank you enough, I am so grateful for you all :) I am not saying my husband and daughter do not support my passion, they really do, it's just not very interesting to them :)

Have a great evening, and thanks for visiting :)
Lynn

Theme Thursday is Red and Black

I created this ATC in the Red and Black theme for the Theme Thursday Challenge this week.
I had a small piece of watercolor paper so I started with that, then I used my new music sheet stamp by Crafty Individuals in black. Which btw I purchased from blogger friend Terri's Etsy shop, Blooming Ideas.
I was going to leave it very plain but I got carried away :) I used two images from The Vintage Moth, (link in left side bar), stitched on some red mesh I found in my daughters stash she left here and hand stitched the tiny buttons to it.

Thanks for looking, and I hope you are having a great day :)

Theme Thursday Tags

The challenge this week for Theme Thursday is tags.
This is a very large 5 x3 inches, heavy duty tag which I cut from kraft paper, with a lot of texture, it almost felt like leather when I was finished, you have to view the close up to see it better. It felt too flimsy so I glued it onto an extra strong piece of card that was in a package of ready made gift cards.
I have no idea how I got the texture, I did paint on some gesso around the edges, then I tried numerous things including some glue and the heat gun, chalk inks, distress inks, until I finally had it right. Phew.... I was determined not to give up.
I suppose you would called it Vintage Grunge :) I know I make a lot of pretty stuff but this look is something else I love to play with.

Hope you are having sunshine, it is horrible here, thunder, rain, and cold, BUT, the perfect day for my magazines to arrive from Stampington. I ordered 6 in their back issues sale woohoooooo.. going to make some strong coffee and browse through them right now :)

Theme Thursday Numbers

The challenge prompt for Theme Thursday this week is "numbers". I made this ATC using a collage sheet from Digital Collage Sheets.

The background is a bingo card repro' but I took another piece from the sheet and covered the words to leave only numbers showing. I Then made a black border with a chalk crayon and shaded with grey and black chalk crayon. Then I added the tiny little pearl to her hat.

This ATC and the one I posted yesterday called "Vintage" are both up for trade, so let me know if you are interested by leaving a comment here, and I will reply to your post by email unless you have a no reply blog. Or you can contact me at hercreativespirit at gmail.com . I now figured out that I can have that mail forwarded to my Outlook, yippeeee... love my Outlook, but IE is giving me so many problems lately, it won't even let me open some of your blogs :(

Now I really have to think about Firefox instead, or can I use both, does anyone know?

Have a great day, I have been without power from 9am until just after 1pm today and it was terrible LOL, it is amazing how much we depend on electricity. I do anyway, I was having coffee withdrawal , couldn't blow dry my hair, couldn't use the toaster either, or the computer, the printer, my glue gun, my heat gun. Then I thought ok, I will get on the treadmill, (I started back at it yesterday after bringing my shorts out of hibernation) well ..... duhhhhh. You need electricty Lynn. I don't even know how to open the garage door manually LOL... Oh and another thing, our phones don't work either when the power is off, good thing I have a cell phone because I had to make an important call. Time to change the phone company I think. See how spoiled we are, or lucky. I am SO grateful for electricity :)

Theme Thursday Glamour Girl

This week Theme Thursday's Challenge is Glamour Girls.

I made an ATC with this beauty. Her hair is done in finger waves, which is something I had to master to pass my hairstylist exam, many moons ago. That certainly brings back memories, I have not worked in the field for about 24 years now.

Head on over to the Theme Thursday blog to see what everyone else is doing, it should be a fun challenge, there are so many beautiful images of these gorgeous women to play with. This lady, stamp and pen on paper is from a collage sheet at Digital Collage Sheets, the background paper is designed by Gail at Shabby Cottage Studio.

I thought I would try to change colors of fonts etc when blogging, but for some reason they will change color and sometimes they don't..so I give up this time. I think it's about time I had a new blog look too. I took the black background off at least but no idea what I want for a header yet, so the old one with have to do for a while. Sometimes you just need to have a change, I know I do :)

Hope you are having a fun art filled day, or out gardening or something you enjoy :)

Theme Thursday ~ Sewing ~ Fabric ATC

A Stich In Time fabric ATC for Theme Thursday challenge.



This weeks challenge at Theme Thursday is "Sewing".
I never know when I go to my room to work on a challenge what will happen. Last time I did a sewing theme for a challenge I had a hard time, so I thought oh no, here I go again, and yes, I fiddled with bits of paper and stamps and nothing was coming to me, so as I started looking for some lace I picked up this vintage table cloth in my stash that is for cutting and off I went, ending up with my first fabric ATC.
The embroidery was probably done by someones grandmother, but her table cloth was stained and ripped so I have been recycling it. All I did was back stitch the words, sew some buttons on and added the little charm. A little different for me but this is where my muse took me today.

I thought I would share with those of you who like vintage linens two other items I made from this table cloth which I picked up on a shopping binge at the local charity thrift shop. A year ago I was selling items on Etsy, both handmade and vintage linens, but recently closed my shop to focus more on mixed media and learn all I could about it.

This cottagey style pillow cover was fun to make with this vintage table cloth....

and so was this tussie mussie. That's a vintage earring you can see on the front too.

Doilies are great to pick up at the thrift shops, I get mine for 25c each, and if they are stained or torn that's fine , I just cut them up anyway. You can stick them in some tea and dye them too if they are not the right color, or paint over them. If you use them in mixed media work, on a canvas for example, the gel medium we use for our collages sticks them soooooo well.

Before I go, I would just like to thank all my blog visitors so much for your encouragement through lovely comments, I appreciate each and every comment :) Just incase I am not back I would also like to wish a Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate.

Theme Thursday Paris ATC

ATC for this week's challenge at Theme Thursday

It all started with the lady in pink, she just looks so French to me, well , from years gone by of course, but I went with pink and black papers, then gesso over that and scratched it up a bit. Then I used half a stamp and cut some black paper on a punch to trim it.

All images and papers are from Shabby Cottage Studio.

Theme Thursday Circus Challenge

This week's Theme Thursday Challenge is to create something in a Circus theme. Something that comes to mind when you think of the Circus.
The last book I read was "Water For Elephants", it's a great book and this Elephant reminded me of Rosie so I made an ATC with her. Maybe it ended up in such dark colors because it is such a horrible dark and wet day here, but that's ok, you never know what will come when you sit down and just try something :) Hope you are having sunshine wherever you are.

Theme Thursday Challenge Orange

Theme Thursday challenge this week is to use the color Orange, and for it to be the predominant color. I think I have used orange only once before, so this was a good challenge for me. I had time today to make this ATC using an orange scrapbook paper and part of a label reproduction which is on an ephemera collage sheet from Shabby Cottage Studio.
I then stamped imperfectly in places, and sewed a piece of an already cut up doily.
The beautiful little girl is from Outsider Artists and is one of their free images, and this gorgeous butterfly is from The Vintage Moth, also free :)
I have attempted to make it look as though the girl is wearing the butterfly on a string around her neck, and have shaded, highlighted and used chalks on the girl's face to soften everything. At the last minute I decided on giving her a cone hat, placing it in her hair :)
Thanks for looking!

I just want to say how much I appreciate all your comments. I visit everyone who leaves a note and am finally all caught up, so I think tonight I will do some rounds of blogs I follow, which is becoming an ever growing list. I hope to go rent a movie too, I just feel like one of those nights cozied up on the couch.

Theme Thursday Flowers Canvas Block

Pansy Girl on Canvas Block This is my entry for this week's challenge on Theme Thursday. This week's theme is flowers, just perfect with Spring almost here in Canada, and I just love purple and yellow pansies together, I can't wait to plant some.
I found this beautiful Pansy Girl holding her Pansy Doll on one of my clipart cd's while I was looking for flowers to print. She just looks so sweet and innocent, and I just fell in love with her.

I sprayed some gold Glimmer mist on the block when I finished but I don't think you can see it unless you click and view the closeups. I really enjoyed making this block and am going to get some wood rather than the canvas blocks for next time.