Fall is definitely here!

I just love this time of the year. The artist in me marvels at all the colors flowing around us. The child in me wants to gather up all those leaves and jump around just to hear the "crunch" sound the leaves make...oh, ok, I want someone else to gather them and then I want to jump in the piles! The adult in me just wants to sit with a cup of tea and soak in the serenity of the season. The woman in me...wants to go shopping and buy all the fall colored clothes and boots on sale!!! These pics are from the trees surround my home.

Playing with Henna (Mehndi)

I've been wanting to do a Mehndi (henna) design on my hand for a long time. So, I finally bought some and tried it out on my hand. This is my first attempt. There are tons of sample designs on the net. Mehndi is the Indian name for henna. Mehndi is made from dried leaves (not sure from what plant). The dried leaves are then crushed and the powder is sold to consumers. When ready to apply, the powder is mixed with water and a few drops of oil to form a paste. when I was younger, this paste was applied with toothpicks, homemade tools, etc. The pros would take large leaves and roll them like bags, but not everyone could use these leaf bags well. Then someone got brilliant and put the paste in pastry bags!! Now, the designs are so much more detailed and anyone can do them, including me! The longer I leave the paste, the deeper the color and the longer the design will last. I plan on leaving it on for a few hours. That's not a hardship at all, it gets me out of housework!

I'm liking this so much, Iwent ahead and did the back of my hand too.

Floral Tiles

I did these two tiles for Jan. She had won a blog giveaway way back in Christmas. I did the smaller of the two tiles for her then and mailed it out. Never gave it a second thought. I didn't get a note that she got it, but it was during the holidays and everyone gets busy so I thought perhaps she didn't post that she received it, or perhaps, I just missed her post. However, when I recently talked with her, she said she didn't ever receive it. I felt really bad. I should have followed up earlier. So, I made her two this time and hope these will make it to her safely.

I stamped both the tiles with stazon jet black in. The smaller tile is colored in with watercolors, while the larger is done with all stazon inks. Both the tiles are bought at Lowes and they're tumble tiles. The tumble tiles are much more absorbent and take inks beautifully. Gloss tiles are easier to paint, but much harder to stamp on and becase the tiles are gloss, the paint just wipes off! Sealing a gloss tile just makes it even more slick.

Black and White Fairy

Black and White isn't as easy as it would seem! While doing this and a few other ATCs in black and white, I really found it quite challenging not to add a touch of color. My work usually is full of colors, sometimes way too much, so this was out of my comfort zone. First I stamped the moon. Then I painted the tree and the leaves. Added the fairy on a toadstool. I had to darken quite a bit of the fairy, because she just seemed too transparent. To ground the toadstool and to hide the ugly base, I added grassblades and flowering stalks! This might be look like it lacks color, but in the end, I felt I'd actually added a new color to my palette.

Distress Inks Challenge

I love distress inks and have a hard time passing up a challenge to use these inks. This card is done for a distress ink challenge hosted by Christie on Stamp-Shack. I used six different inks. Smooshed (that's a technical term! lol), them on my craft mat, sprayed them with water and wiped my card across them. Then I embossed the stamps with black embossing powder. The dragonfly seemed to blend too much into the background, so I added some green and purples to it using prismacolor pencils.

Monochromatic Challenge

I did this monochromatic blue card for a challenge on the Stamp Shack. The challenge was to do a card in any one shade of color. I decided to do it in blue. Last night, after playing a bit, I came up with a card I was somewhat pleased with. It needed a little bit more, but I wasn't sure. So, I decided to scan it first, just in case. Well, as luck would have it, right after I got it totally colored in with pencils, I ended up smudging it with some black pencil shavings that were left on the pencil sharpener, which came off onto to my hands when I sharpened my blue pencil. I tried to remove the smudges, but just made a bigger and bigger mess. So, I figured, heck with this and I'll just use the card I've already scanned. At 1:30 a.m. when I tried to add my card to the challenge gallery, I found out that I'd scanned my card at too high a dpi. I was a bit dissapointed, but not defeated. This morning I redid the card. This time I used feather stamps on the background paper instead of the eifel tower stamp. The sentiment is computer generated. I like this version a lot more. Hope you guys like the finished card.

Tim Holtz - Nostalgic Metal Memoirs

Have you ever taken a class from a teacher that you just couldn't get enough of. Well, that's how felt when I took a Tim Holtz class two years ago. He returned this past weekend to teach a few classes and I was lucky enough to take his "Nostalgic Metal Memoirs" class. He makes a class so much fun that you don't even realize that 5 hours have passes since you sat down and that you're holding a small piece of art in your hands! This class was a combination of book binding and metal class. The book is 4 x 4 and has 90 pages hand sewn into it. Then we worked with metal sheets which was embossed, sanded, distressed and colored with AI inks. The sheets were then used like wrapping paper to cover the top and bottom covers. Once corners, a decorative clasp and crown on the front were added, the journal was finished. It always amazes me how everyone starts off with the same kit, the same instruction and comes up with a totally different and unique piece when you take one of Tim Holtz class. Oh, and did I say, how much fun this was? Loads!!