Paint Pour Acceptance

This started out a pain pouring I did last summer, and I decided to use it to make a wall hanging for a friend. I then used scrabble tiles, thank you Wanda Hentges for mailing me some extras when I discovered I was going to be one "c" short for the project lol. I painted the top and left edges white, and the bottom and right edges black to give them a more shadowed look and to help them stand out on the fun busy background. The final touch was just to paint the edges of the canvas black. A simple project but it turned out great and my friend loved it.

Clem

 My son's bearded dragon, Clem, passed away at the beginning of the month. He had a heart and liver disorder that we weren't aware of when we got him for ours sons birthday three years ago. So while his life wasn't as long as we had hoped, he was our son's best friend for the time he had him. Clem would do everything with our son, eat, chores, homework, video games, and occasionally sleep. There were many nights where our son would fall asleep while reading and we would be in checking under the covers so we could put Clem in his habitat for the night, but obviously some nights that got overlooked, never did Clem stray very far from Steve, they were inseparable. So I decided to make this wall hanging as kind of a memorial for Steve to have hanging up in his room. I started with a blank 16"x20" board and painted it white with gesso. I then sprayed some water on the damp gesso and sprinkled infusions on it and them brushed over it again to get streaks of color. I then stenciled some leaves and some dots all over before layering on the pictures and then I painted wooden letter for the name Clem. I took the glass out of a wooden frame and painted it green and added some orange gemstone embellishments. Steve absolutely loves it and has already taken pictures of it to use as a background on his Ipad. It wasn't much, but I know how much it means to Steve and that's all that matters to me.

Pastel Babies

This months More Than Words challenge was especially fun with me as both of my little brothers became father's within a week of each other earlier in the year. So, I had been planning on what to do with the baby pictures, and this challenge provided just the thing. Now I'm not usually a pastel person so that was the harder part lol.

I started with a 16"x20" board and took bright colors and just added a whole bunch of white to make them more pastel. Using a pallet knife I just smeared the colors randomly over the board, and they still seemed a little bright to me, so I mixed white paint with matte medium to thin it down and again using the pallet knife smeared it over the whole surface. I loved the very rough look it provided.

After that I went in with a light grey paint and stenciled some dots and a harlequin pattern on the board, just to add some fun and depth to it.

Then I added layered black and white photos of my niece and nephew, and name/birthday tags.

The final touch was the solid black wood frame. I was originally going to splatter some of the pastel colors all over the frame but decided I liked the way the black made the whole thing pop. I really enjoyed this project and can't wait to make it back out to Iowa to see these two adorable babies and how much they have grown.

Motorcycle Snoopy

I made this card over the weekend for a friend of mine who is in the hospital. I stamped the snoopy and woodstock motorcycle image and then colored it in with sharpies. Tore it out and wrote the message on the top, and used my sharpies to give the edges the two toned color. Then I layered it up with some texture. It's simple, but I didn't have a lot of time and I really wanted to do something for my friend. Though it is simple I still like how it turned out.

Everything Has Beauty

This card was done while I was in Iowa at my folks house last month. My mom, Wanda Hentges, was introducing me to the Alcohol Ink Lift pad, which I have now ordered one of my own, cause wow is that fun and awesome! I did the red, orange and yellow background and then used the lift pad with a leafy background stamp, which I then stamped onto a piece of white cardstock. I loved both pieces and had to use them on the same card so the contrast could be seen. Then the tree was die cut and layered with two layers of Seth Apter rocky road embossing power, which I think gave it an absolutely fabulous look! Then it was all layered together and I used a few Tim Holtz words for the finishing touches. The person who I sent this card to absolutely loved it, which made me feel even better about it than I already did. All in all I think the card was a great success.

Textures and Layers

This was a card I threw together several weeks ago. The center piece is canvas paper that my mom, Wanda Hentges, was showing me a background technique on. Then I stamped and embossed the flower in the middle, and then ran some embossing around the edge with Seth Apter embossing powders (it was my first time playing with them, and now I want them!!). Fast forward a couple weeks and that had been sitting on my art table and I had an urge to use it and then the rest of the card came together one afternoon. Overall I like how it turned out and I hope you do too.

The Beach Life

This Months More Than Words Challenge

Now, at first glance I'm sure some of you will say "wait a minute, this looks like under the sea, not at the beach" which could be true. However, when people say Beach, the first things that go through my mind and "what turtles can I find", and "what cool shells can I find". Chances are you won't find me relaxing on a towel with a drink that has it's own private umbrella in it, I will be looking for wildlife/sea life. Whether I'm at a man made beach on a lake or river, or at the ocean it doesn't really change for me. I loved being able to showcase this fun side of my personality in this months challenge and I hope you enjoyed it too.