Paint and Paper

Now that I am full speed ahead on the computer and for dial up I have more speed than I know what to do with, yeah right, LOL, I have some things I would like to share with you while I had some down time from the computer. This is just a few of the things I worked on and there is more but I will post them at another time.

My painting group over at The Friendly Palette we decided we hadn't done a swap in a long time so one of the girls was painting on dish towels and they were really nice. So I asked if they all wanted to paint a tea towel and send one to each other, everyone agreed then the girls including myself that live in Canada couldn't find a tea towel that was worth painting on and was nice material. We found waffle type and other types but nothing that I would want to paint on then send to my wonderful friends and I wasn't about to try to sew them all one since I don't own a machine with a serger, forget that.
So a couple of us are painting on coasters and I wanted to show you what I painted and I painted enough for the 6 other girls in the group. I didn't paint myself a set but I used to have a set like this, only this set is made from precut cork. Not sure how good the cork really is but even if they don't use them for drinks or just have on a table for decoration I am sure they will like them. They are all summer insects and I had a lot of fun painting on them although the cork was a bit of a challenge since it was not smooth but I managed.

For my birthday in May I bought myself a Cuttlebug and I recently purchased a brand new embossing folder. I had to pre order it from an online site here in Ontario before they hit the shelves I was lucky enough to get one well actually 2 new ones.

The embossing folder was right up my alley with the look of gears and dials.

I saw a girl in my FlickR group for Inkurable Stampers Gothic Arch Challenge who had purchased an arch book to put all her creative arches in as she creates each theme. Well of course I had to go back and look at this book several times and so I went full speed ahead, and ,once I get an idea in my head it won't rest til it is done, so..... I used a program for greeting cards and found an arch template and I fooled around abit with it and made it the size I want to put ATC size arches in. I even had to design the pages to fit a certain way and measured and made some adjustements.

So here I have made an arch book out of chipboard, I then used my Gear Embossing Folder (EF) to emboss the paper.

I then inked it with Antique Photo Distress Ink and an older black ink stamp pad. I then took a q-tip and dabbed it in Versamark Watermark Ink and dabbed it on here and there on some gears. I then took bronze embossing powder and carefully placed it on the gears and brushed away with a dry paint brush any loose powders then hit it with the heat gun.

I then stamped my lettes using an alpha stamp and Black Soot distress ink and stamped the name of the challenge and I now have a book to display my arches in.

Then.......a few days later I went into Inkurable Stampers Gothic Arch challenge page since I had been offline for a few days and found out the next theme is ......Steampunk.

So, I now have a similar gothic arch in a Steampunk theme using metals as my main subject with gears, ball chain at the top, my metal letters and I even embossed some of the paper with not only bronze EP but silver too. The book below is another design of book I made with the cut down the center of the front cover so you have 2 doors that open. This little book is a surprise for a friend, hope she likes it.

PS the arch is not included I was just using the book as a backdrop. he he

And here are some Queen of Heart ATC's that we are having a lottery for the month of June over at

ATC's for Beginners.

Just some fun using Joan Crawford with that wicked look on her face and the other is a Zettyish style of Queen with her body as the card and I used some flocking for the heart on that card. Flocking is so soft to the touch and a lot of fun.

Well thanks for looking.

Never a dull moment in the studio.

Next I will post a cupboard door and a canvas I painted and I am working on another pattern on canvas. I am making 2 of each design for my hopefully Nov. craft show.

Til next time, create and be happy.

Back in Action

Finally finally, phone line has been repaired and only because Lesley got a little upset with the poor person who had to take my call yesterday. After speaking with this person in India somewhere (because we couldn't possiblye keep the jobs here in Canada to troubleshoot) I find out the technician who was here on Saturday and said he put in a work order for our line to be dug up and then buried cancelled the order and no one showed up again I was livid. Anyways to make a long story short, I lost it, I try to be patient but after 3 calls to say I have a problem with my line, we pay good money for these services but don't dare call us to come repair the problems that are outside and not in your house.....settle down missy,  the technician finally arrived just after 4pm today, replaced the line but couldn't bury the line because he is not equipped to do so but they will come, yeah right whenever. Anyways buzzing is gone off the line, the interenet is faster than it ever was for dial up and Lesley is a happy camper.
I will try to catch up on all the blogs I follow, I can't promise I can leave comments on everything but I will cruise around and see what you all have been up to.
I will be taking pics and showing some of the things I did while I was offline and downtime in the next few days.
I also submitted an application to a juried craft show which I have never had to do before( be juried )and I am awaiting confirmation but keep your fingers crossed for me. I have had to replace a show that is no longer available and I have done for years so this is a new show and some more freedom for me in my painting .
Take care and please come back soon and see what I have been up to.
L

Long time No post

Just touching base with all my blogger friends. I have been absent but not for not wanting to.
We have been very busy with things around the house, had to replace a water pump in the basement, built steps onto the one end of the deck, garden is really taken a jump lately so we are on weed control. Usual bills like house insurance, getting wood in, getting furnace topped up before the Harmonized Sales Tax comes into effect and the usual stuff in life.
Well I have phone line issues, we have interference on the phone which has been reported and the technician came on the weekend to diagnose the problem with some fancy meter he hooks up to your phone line and detected it was across the road and down a ways from our house to the pole. Some contractor was supposed to be here Monday to dig up the line and fix it but of course it hasn't happened yet.
So needless to say being on dial up is very slow, I get kicked off constantly so I am keeping busy doing some painting and working on some swaps but will have to wait a while before doing any more. I can't post pictures either for fear if I am in the midst I will get kicked off. My dial up speed is at a crawl so til further notice I will have to stay offline til the problem is fixed.
Not to worry I will get back on line and try to catch up with all my blogger friends and see what you have all been up to.
Til then, create and be happy.
L