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.

Memories

This months More Than Words Challenge

For the word challenge "memories" I decided I would do a journal spread of a few pictures I took from a stop we made at lake Michigan last fall. It was an unplanned stop on the way back to Chicago from Indiana and I was overjoyed, because despite how close we live it's not someplace we really go. It was a hot day, but we enjoyed walking along the beach picking up cool shells and rocks, enjoying the fresh air.

Zazu

Good morning everyone!! I am so excited about this challenge. When I first saw what it was I had sooooo many idea I was trying to decide which one I wanted to do, then my wife says "Do Zazu, Do Zazu!!!" So Zazu it is. It started out as a journal spread, and as something was drying I started on a side project that my wife could take to the office. Well, the side project ended up at the forefront and the journal spread has yet to get finished. I am so grateful that I was able to spend last weekend arting with my mom. We had a great time, and we both were able to mostly get our challenges done. You can check Wanda Hentges blog out here. 

So, as you can see there is plenty of nature on this jumbo Etcetera tag. The feather you see is one of Zazu's actual feathers she lost. The story of Zazu is sad, but I am happy to know that we are able to turn it into a happily every after. Zazu is a 6-8 year old Quaker Parrot. We adopted her from the Chicago Bird House after she was dumped off there by her former owners parents with a broken leg that had a hole in it. When the girl who bought Zazu as a hatchling years ago when to college it was up to her parents to take care of her until the girl could have her back. Well, they barely fed and watered her, she was alone in a room all the time with no human interaction, and when she was brought in and they were asked what had happened to her leg they answered with a "I don't know" as if they didn't have a care in the world, and would certainly never spend money on a vet. She was in the Chicago Bird House for about 6 months, where they did the best they could with her. Now she is part of our family. She had all her blood work done, and is relatively healthy, just a few low levels to fix now that she is in a stable environment. We also had her sexed, and that was when we learned that Zazu was a she. However that has always been her name, so it will stay that way. Besides as Disney fanatics it suits us. Our next step is to do x-rays and find out what needs to be done with her leg. We know she will never have use of it again, but we don't know yet whether it will need amputated. Despite all if this Zazu is full of life, and has a very outgoing spunky attitude. I'm so happy she is going to get the live out her days loved and spoiled.

Comfortable

 So, as you can tell by the date I did not make the post in time to actually enter the More Than Words Challenge for March, but I am going to blog it anyway because I did have it done on time, I just ended up not being home yesterday to get it blogged. I am loving the challenges so far this year at More Than Words and hope you enjoy seeing them.

The word comfortable always makes me immediately of how much I struggled to be comfortable in my own skin, and how far I have come. So my whole purpose was to use the colors given as best I could but the focus would be a quote that stated my feelings on being comfortable just being me. I am not a fan of blogging in terms of explaining my artistic process, but if you have questions please feel free to ask.

Forever

Word Inspiration: Forever

Creative Challenge: Heart

This year for Valentine's Day my wife, Jacquie, was out of town on a business trip. So I decided that for this months challenge I would make her an art journal spread. For those wondering why there is duck tape in the large heart, I ended up with some of the paste sticking together when I closed the book too soon, so I decided to use duck tape to fix it, and made a J out of it so it stayed with my theme. 

Birthday and Tags

A new year of challenges has begun. Last year my very talented mother, Wanda Hentges, and I chose to do the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge every week. However, many weeks were missed, more by me than her, believe me. I tended to bite off more than I could chew by doing larger projects that I just didn't have time to finish. So this year we decided on a monthly mixed media challenge. She sent me the links to a handful of possibilities and I chose the More Than Words Challenge. It combines a Word Inspiration along with a Creative challenge. I'm looking forward to the new year of challenges, and seeing what fun new things my mom will make outside of her usual cards, lol.

 

Word Inspiration: Birthday

Creative Challenge: Tags

The first thing that popped into my mind for the word birthday was our daughters 16th birthday, which occurred In November of 2017. I came into her life when she was just 8 years old, and very quickly became "mama", so as not to be confused with my wife "mommy". I have watched her grow into an amazing young woman, and through all the ups and downs, the good times and bad, I have and will always love her, not as my step-daughter, but as my daughter. Now that she is 16 it will bring on a whole new set of fun, and challenges. The most amusing, and smallest of which is that she has outgrown the "mama" and mommy" phase. Now we just here her holler or say "mom", and immediately have to reply "which one?" I am looking forward to the years ahead, and seeing all the amazing things I am sure she will accomplish.