A friend of mine called and asked me where she could get her daughter some stencils for a picket fence. She wanted to paint one on the wall in her nursery.  Well the conversation continued and I volunteered to do a mural for them instead of stencils.

She lives an hour and a half away so we have short painting windows of a 2 to 4 hours per painting day.  That includes set up and clean up.  I'm not complaining... no way.  I'm loving doing this project... just wanted to explain why we are only this far on painting day 4.  We have two to three more days of painting to go.

I'll have pics of each painting day when it's finished - but I brought my camera this time and snapped a few shots of the work in progress and wanted to share them today.

Scrubby grass and weeds were added to the field and the fence was blocked in,.  Shading and texture on the fence, crossbars and the gate come on the next painting day.  As well as the wild flowers in the field


Here's a closeup of the tree.  I love painting trees.  The rope will have a tire swing at the end of it.  this may or may not have more detail added.  It all depends on how it fits with the flowers and bushes in front of and climbing over the fence.

Hope she likes it!

Joanne started out as a blog design customer and turned into one of my good friends.  She's funny and off the wall and just the type of person you love talking (or emailing) with.  I knew she was turning into a good friend when I realized I was doodling while talking to her.  Do you do this?  Do you doodle when you are on the phone?  Well I do ... but only when I'm on the phone with people I enjoy talking to.  See, it's sort of like I just let go with people I like.  That's when the doodles come.. at least the one's that are weird and wild and cool. 

So.. here's today's doodle..  Why a sea monster eating a spider?  I don't know. These things just happen...

What?  Oh the title... well I did start this post with something in mind and got sidetracked.  Ok, well Joanne, my friend that I mentioned before... she sent me a card.  It's a very cool card and I wanted to share it with you.  (BTW I have several other cards that came in the mail TODAY!!! for my birthday and I'll be sharing these too.  Such talented people out there!)

So before you stone me... here's Joanne's card.

Isn't it so cool... and the tiny tag says "Friend".  Awwww oh and did you see all the needle piercing?  Whew.  Then, I opened it up and BOOM!

Do you have a lot of Halloween stamps? Well I don't. *pout* So I pulled out a skull that I'd carved for a skull LTC swap and decided to not use. He's supposed to be laughing (as in "Dead Men Tell no Tales" Bwahahahahah) He's pretty spooky right?

The tiny little black edge you see is from a 1.75" circle punch that I adhered to the back. Why? Well... just cause I could and I like the look of the little black edge.

I stamped him on green to coordinate with the card I was working on. The green lent itself very well to creating shadows when I was painting.

I used a water brush and the china white from my watercolor pencils for the skull and an olive green and black for the shadows behind him. I pick up the color directly from the pencils onto the brush and mix on an acrylic stamping block (when needed). Keep in mind that the card stock is going to darken with the water and your finished color will be lighter when everything dries. If it's too light, go back and add more color.The tag on the card is cut out of DSP so it needed the black to make it stronger. I cut that one with the circle scissor plus so I could get a bigger border on it. The tag is tied onto the ribbon and loose otherwise. I think it's cool when stuff on the card moves, or flaps or something. You too?

I liked the way it turned out so much that I did six more!! (tags not cards) The one at the top is part of those six. They are on Stampin Up Kiwi Kiss (retired) card stock cause it's the stiffest stuff I have. Seriously nice thick paper... anyway you need that with the tag clearlits die by Sizzix. It was gifted to me and I really like it. It's clear in the center so you can see what you are going to cut out. So cool.

Oh! Did I tell you I got a cuttlebug from a friend for my birthday? *squeal* It's like the most amazing gift EVER! Another wonderful friend came and took me out to lunch - risking life and limb to do so since it was my first day I was allowed to go out without a mask. Yeah.. swine flu hit our house and it was NOT fun. Wash your hands boys and girls!

Now to figure out what to do with the six spooky tags that I made... Joey says I can give 'em to the teachers. I was thinking of making some banners with punch pal bats... these might work really well with that theme. What would you do with 'em?

Thanks for looking!

The glitter is so hard to see on photos. *sigh* Ok let's talk glitter for a minute. My favorite cards when I was a kid were the ones that shimmered. Now I know that people hate to work with glitter because it gets everywhere. This technique is one way to use it without it getting all over the place.

Simply mix your glitter with embossing powder. My formula is one part glitter to three parts embossing powder. You just have to use really fine glitter for this to work.

Yes, you can buy embossing powder with glitter in it, but I tend to skip buying things that have a single purpose. I like to use the clear embossing powder over colored ink or mixed with other things to get the effect without investing in a huge variety of colors and types.

Thanks for looking!

I love the little flower brads and the combination of the ticket corner punch and then rounding the corners on the mat. I'm not a real flower kind of girl. No really. *huff* You can stop laughing now.

Ok, a boy brought me flowers the summer when I was 17. The poor guy thought it was going to win me over and I'd finally say yes to going out with him. Cut flowers are dead, useless and therefore a waste of money. I told him so while I was rubbing down my iron gray mare's flanks. He learned though because he came back the next week with a new red halter. We had a great time on our date and he was a sweet guy.

Definately not a flower kind of girl. However, some of the people I give cards to... are.
*smile* So this is for one of them. The point here is that you can still design with your style, but take your audience into consideration. It's no different than taking the time to purchase a card that is right for the person or occasion.

Think about it, get your scraps out and play!

Yes. The Gnome knows who made a stamp in his image. Oh, yeah and I do too now! Sharon confirmed that it is a Stampin Up stamp - probably retired now.

Ok, we have reached the end..... of the gnomes! The scrap bins are still HUGE.

Thanks for looking!

A pocket card is a lot of fun. It's more like a postcard but you make a pocket for it. It's just like the sleeve or pocket that I made for Morgan's one of a kind ATC/LTC. In this case, it's quite a bit larger than the obligatory 2.5 x 3 inches of an ATC. For a card sized project, you seal and envelope and then trim an end to open it.

Mine? All scraps... again. LOL Even the envelope. It was even crimped like this and tossed in the box. So I pulled other decorative paper, card stock, rub ons and stickers from the boxes and this just sort of happened.

When you pull the card out it looks like this:



Go ahead. Say it. Say it out loud!! "Will she ever finish using those scraps?" LOL