Good day my friends. It just rained a while ago so any attempts to do anything outside might be a bit damp. The sun is trying to come out but looks like it might be like this on and off all day.
So lets do something fun.....lets do our Garden Plant Pokes as I promised I would show you in a previous post.
I will be showing you how to do the paper ones because they are relatively quick but for anyone that wants to paint them I will give you a few suggestions for prepping before you do them.
And of course a finished pic of various ones I did to give you an idea.

First of all gather some paper supplies together, find some nice paper, scissors, some rub-on stickers, regular stickers, words, glue, stamps, printed images, brads, flowers or whatever tickles your fancy.

Next, cut a pice of paper to slightly larger than your surface of your poke. Cover the one side with glue then press on the back of your printed paper. You can let it dry at this point or continue but be careful you don't want to tear your damp glued paper while fussing.

Next cut across the corners as shown close to the corners on the tag on all 4 corners.

Being careful with a craft or X-acto knife, cut along the bottom as shown so that piece flips up and you will be able to glue it down later. Do this cut on either side of the stem part of the poke. If your paper is still damp from the glue then you may end up tearing while cutting so be patient and let dry, use a heat gun if you aren't or just be slow and cut carefully so you don't tear it.

Next apply a good glue, I used Aleene's Tacky Glue, and apply to all 4 flaps. Now a side note here if you don't want to do these steps then you can just glue your poke to the paper face down and not bother with all this but make sure your paper is dry if you attempt to just cut around the excess paper and have the front covered. I like a finished look to things because people always turn things over to see if they are finished. I learned this a long time ago when I was learning to paint and did shows. People do turn things over and they do look.

Now press those flaps down and hold them for a bit to make sure you have covered the flaps and they are sticking. If they start to lift, just add another dab of glue.

Now that the front is covered, take another piece of the same coloured paper, put glue on the backside that the flaps you just glued down are, press the garden poke onto the paper. Let dry then carefully cut all the way around . You now have the back and front done and now to decorate.

This is how the back looks, just like the front only you might see the plastic corners are a bit exposed.

Here are some finished plant pokes. Some I stamped on, some I collaged, some I used Rub-on, and of course here is one I painted, well 2 are painted but the snowman is an actual stamp but I didn't use ink I used black paint to brush on my stamp then stamped it on the painted white surface.

Now my friends who paint, before painting I took a fine grit sandpaper, lightly sanded the one side giving the surface a bit of tooth. Then I wiped them then put a coat of all purpose sealer on them. Let them dry then go ahead and paint. As usual let your paint coats dry between coats, as you can see in the Saltbox house I painted and shaded, the snowman I just shaded the one side of the body in a nice blue, painted the nose orange, put a little white on top to look like a bit of snow on his nose and there you have it.

So have fun my friends. Need a quick little gift for a grandparent, get a plant and make them smile, put a plant poke in the plant, use these as little signs for your craft projects, place in a cupcake all dollied up for a friend's birthday, you don't have to limit yourself to just plants.

I suggest these not be used for outdoors since they are painted and paper. All that work and you don't want them to get damaged.

Have fun and let's see some of your plant pokes.

Enjoy and leave me a comment if you need any help or just want to share what you do.

Lesley

Foam, Paint and Paper

This tutorial will show you how much fun and easy it is to create a background paper for inchies, ATC's even greeting cards.
You can either use foam picnic plates, if you use meat trays from the grocery store I highly recommend that you disinfect them before you do your project. I WILL NOT be held responsible if you do not do this before hand. I used to work in a lab and believe me I have seen a lot and know how people can get sick, this you do not want to happen nor do I.

Ok that said, think of a simple design that you want to make a stamp image. Here I used a strip of foam and drew spaced circles, the other is a simple leaf shape with swirls and lines. If you make a leaf or flower shape cut that shape out first then proceed to make your lines. I used the end of a smaller paint brush, the rounded end to make the lines. It does not tend to rip up the foam. Make sure you make a good impression in your foam.


Gather your supplies together, a plastic lid or something for a palette, some paints, a couple foam brushes and some paper and of course your stamps.



Next squeese some paint onto your palette, here I chose my wintery blue and pink and I do have aqua on there but never did use it. Dampen your sponge brush just slightly but not wet, if it is too wet the paint will go on sloppy on your paper and believe me...been there done that you really don't need any water at all.
Load up your brush and as you can see here, I double loaded up pink and blue on my brush.

Now in an up and down motion I applied paint and as I went along I blended on the foam stamp so it wasn't so solid looking. Then take the stamp and press onto your paper and lift up.

Now keep stamping until your page is filled up or you have the desired look you want. I rather like a distressed look to my projects, it doesn't have to be solidly filled but if you want to have that look by all means put more paint on. Remember tho if you do use water it will be runny looking.

Here I have used Timberline green to show you the leaf print and although when I was finished it wasn't what I liked and the paper got tossed but here you can see how this stamp looks. A nice tan colour on cream coloured C/S (cardstock) looks pretty as you will see in my last photo.

Again apply paint then press onto paper, lift and take a peek. Oooo not sure I like this green on here....way to drastic...have to toss that baby out.

And the finished pieces with my backgrounds. A nice card and a little inchie with a small dragonfly stamped over top with some glitter. Ohhh aren't they pretty?

Now lets see what you do with your new background papers. Try this out and leave me a comment or better still send me a pic. If you have any other ideas how to embellish let me hear too. I love to share and create and I hope you do as well.

Some winged inchies

I belong to 2 inchie swap groups. The one recently created Addicted to Inchies is having our first swap titled Wings. There is always a theme to these swaps and it is amazing what kind of creations you can do with a one inch square piece of paper.

So here are my 10 inchies. Our host Becky gets all the inchies sent to her and then she will pick inchies and send them to those who have entered in that inchie swap.

Everyone makes the same number and in some cases you may get one or two of your own back but that's ok because some of these gems are hard to let go of.

I think my fav of all these is the one butterfly that looks like it is going to take off the paper. It is simple but yet looks so light and delicate.

I hope you can be inspired by these small pieces of art as I have been. They are very addicting as well.

Before the rains come

Well today JB and I spent outside doing yard work. He cut the grass, whipper snipped and I decided to go down to the veggie garden and tackle some weeds. Well since the ban on RoundUp we have really been at a loss as to how to conquer the task of getting rid of the weeds we get every year. You kill them, you pull them you strangle them you do everything but every year they come. Well, today I went down and started just going around the beets and the beans and potatoes and before I know it, I am on my hands and knees with my little garden trowel and I am raking the dirt and the weeds are really easy when the earth is damp to pick through the dirt one weed at a time. Well I thought it was going well. Stopped quite a bit to stretch and give my shoulders a break. Anyways JB finally gets those other jobs done and comes with the hoe and helps me and I just pick through the dirt now to accomplish my task. It was a huge job but you know after you get a chance to look at your garden and see things like your first tomatoes coming it makes it all worth while.

This little tomato is called a Yellow Pear. Mum gave me some plants a few weeks ago she picked up at a Church sale and this is one of the exotic, well exotic to us, tomatoes we will be harvesting this year. There was an even smaller one on the top of the plant. So Mum if you are wondering how these are coming along, here it is. I noticed on the Mennonite cherry tomatoes they are producing already as well. All this work makes it all worth while and of course rain the the good Lord provides us with.

Tomorrow more rain to come so our work is done and tomorrow we can just relax and maybe even get out on the Harley if we get out early enough.

Plastic Garden Plant Pokes

Last week I had a brainfart and bought some plastic garden T-tags at a local dollar store. They come 10 to a pack.

I will probably do a step by step tut later next week once hubby returns to work after an illness.

I painted some of these and then stamped on them, this one I just used scraps of paper, a flourish stamp, some stick on pearls, and of course a beatiful Asian geisha image on an inchie.

These of course should not be used for outdoor plants as the water will disintegrate them but for indoors in a plant as I have here in my Africal Violet really makes you take a look.

So if you need an idea for a party favour, planning on a little cupcake birthday surprise, need a little sign in a painted skate that you are filling with a bit of greenery, then these are great little quick and easy ideas.

Again I will do a little tut next week so you can see what I do with them. I even added some rub-ons to some.

And Kathy if you are reading this today....put a few little quilled flowers with a printed verse from the computer.

Keep those scraps you never know what you can use them for....I have.

Sunflower card

Yesterday was incredibly humid and my brain just kind of goes to mush. I had all kinds of intentions but I was just looking at things then moving them around on my table, which of course is my kitchen table that never gets eaten on. Anyways, after the cool air moved in and pushed the humidity out my brain became enlightened. I bought this 3-D sheet of sunflowers a while back, some sheets come precut but of course I bought the one that you had to cut. So I just took my time and each layer I cut with my smaller scissors and just put this very simple card together, layering each with thos adhesive foam squares that add dimension to these kinds of designs.

A friend of mine Becky loves sunflowers and if you could say what flower is that person? I would say, Becky is. She smiles all the time and has the biggest eyes and hair to match, but, she is a very kind and generous person. She just glows like sunshine...so Becky if you read my post today this card I made thinking of you.

The sentiment inside is stamped in Tim Holtz Distress Ink and reads Thinking of You.

My first post

Hi everyone, I am just now entering the world of blogging and have no idea what I am about to embark on. I am not going to bore you will all my life's daily events but now and again I will let you inside my little world. I will be doing mostly creative things on my blog. Lately it has been making inchies and doing ATC's.
I am a totally technique junkie, so if you want to see what I am up to, stay tuned and I will show you.
Thanks for stopping by and hope to hear from you soon.
Lesley