Sunday, April 28, 2013

They are all our children

This morning I served by bringing the flowers for our "Church without Walls"

The message reminded us that all children are our children and that all children have the God(dess) given right to clean water and air, food in their bellies and love in their families.

The dogwood, apple blossoms, azalea and leucothoe came from three different church yards.
I went to two different worship services and hung out with my friend Kaye, 98 and not much longer for this world.

Kaye does not like fuss. I didn't fuss with this floral offering. The flowers speak for themselves.

May we all, and all our children be fed.

Comment and questions always welcomed.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

WOYWW 203- New Rubber! ATC Sneak Peek and more

Nothing like new rubber to get the creativity flowing!
Please scroll down to see my house warming basket and all the details over at Quietfire Creations!

I am in love with this set!

I also go the new Distress Metallic Acrylic Paints and hoping for a breakthrough with them.

I love mini and gadgets and the litle red thing in between the rubber is a Clover Kanzashi mini template.

Oh for some playtime!
ATC alert! I'm making 5 for the 4th WOYWW anniversary , I'll keep one, send one on to my *below, and have 3 to swap, so leave a comment with a way to get in touch and I'll swap with the first three.
The photo is more of a tease than a  spoiler!

On the fibery side of life...
Cable sweater update...I hope I have enough yarn! Might be a vest!

On the left a newly spun colab skein- a long story, another time, and lower right a sock for mindless moments.
Comments and questions welcomed




How Soon Can I come visit? Tag backstory

I come bearing chocolate!





That little tag...why is it crooked? I was sure it was straight before I posted the pix!
As you can see, it took five tries to get it right! The first is a dummy.

Details at Quietfire Creations.

Comments and questions welcomed!

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Ginny's Blessingway


The only thing I don't love about being in Montreat is being so far physically from so many that I love.

Ginny, you and yours are always in my heart and Faith and I send Love and healing Light to y'all and baby Burger!

We're wondering when you will arrive, 
We're wondering what you'll be.
We're wondering if you'll be a her, 
Or if you'll be a he. 

Maybe you'll arrive today, perhaps tomorrow night..
We're hoping you won't hurt too much, 
And that you'll be all right. 

Life has a few unpleasantries, we may as well confess.
We suppose you'll cry a lot, 
And that you'll be a mess. 

There is one thing you should know well, 
Of this there is no doubt...
You cannot get inside again once you have come out.

Even though there's trouble...
Even though there's fuss...
We really think you'll like it here...
We hope that you like us.
Blessings, Blessings,
blessings,
Robyn and Faith

Monday, April 22, 2013

New Rubber Sneak Peek! and Tip of the Day-Home/Congratulations

This is what it looks like when I get it from Suzanne

This new set "Home-Congratulations" is the perfect cure for Spring Fever! not a moment too soon!

Look for my first post Wednesday over at Quietfire Creations.

A while back I did a video of various ways to mount unmounted rubber.
My new fave, and instant gratification when getting new rubber in hot little hands is
******Glue Stick*******

Rub a bit of glue stick on the back of your stamp and it will cling perfectly to your block. Even an old dried out one will work with a little water. 
I couldn't wait to get ink on them, so popped them all on the compact press and

When you are done, just peel the stamp off, spritz and wipe clean.
I love simple!

I just love "How soon can I come visit?" Just the right note of fluffy and snide!

"Be not forgetful", is resized and perfect for lots of Spellbinders Nestabilities and other label dies.

Comments and questions always welcome.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

WOYWW 202 and what's not!

Lots!

Thankfully the Birthday cards are gone...for now.

I reclaimed this yarn- it was a faded blue (scroll down for photo at end of post)oversized pullover from the 70's(?) and with a little lot of help from Leslie at Nice Threads got this lovely lavender, that will become a cable cardigan.
Where is my project sheet? Not on my desk!

Spring is finally here, thank Goddess and I  got some new brushes( where are they?) and I'm painting a lot!
Flowers=still life!

Update on Distress paint- still working on it.
Black Soot made a perfect black  matte background out of white watercolor paper for the ATC on the easel . You can read about that here.
The tag to the left is messing about in the paint, none of which pleases me so far.

The white lidded jar on the right- it says---Used Clear---it's my tip of the week. I pour the clear embossing powder that i have used into that jar, so if it matters, I have a jar of clean clear powder, without any glitter or whatever in it( well, maybe just a little).
The reclaimed yarn before dyeing.

Thanks for visiting. Comments and Questions always welcomed.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Just Because......

....the Canadian Scrapbooker April Sketchy challenge had a diamond grid

....Elaine gave me the most delicious morel mushroom!

....The Quietfire Creations technique of the month is Modern Grids

....I'm trying to make friends with my Distress paint.














Here is the sketch
The Distress paint transformed a white piece of water color paper into a matte background.
The silver circles are punched out of Joss paper and the butterflies out of what was laying around on my desk, with a little stickles.
I couldn't find a morel stamp- close enough- stamped in VersaFine sepia, watercolored and colorized with Distress Sage and Tea Dye.
I drew in the grid with an Inkssential White pen, and added some Liquid Pearls to the intersections.
Just Because, is one of the Ten Tiny Tag Sentiments, a must for ATC-ers, stamped in VersaFine Olympia Green and thermal embossed clear.

This ones for you Elaine- to add to the Black Mountain Farmers Market Gallery!

Comments and questions welcomed.








Thursday, April 11, 2013

Pressing Flowers in the Grand Calibur

I've been pressing flowers in the Wizard for years, and that faithful machine has been gathering dust except for cutting steel rule dies.

The seasons first violets got my brain thinking that maybe I could press flowers in my Spellbinder GC.

Left is the finished card going out to my dear friend Gabriela-Happy Birthday!!!!
The card is in the mail! (almost)

Choose fresh picked plant material, not too juicy or thick. Have everything ready to press, sooner after picking the better your print will be.

Print onto watercolor paper, at least 90 lb. You will use two pieces for each print.

Instructions below are for the Grand Calibur.
I encourage you to experiment with your own machines and let me know how it turns out.




First lay your paper on the grey A base plate and arrange your flowers.
Place another piece of paper on top
the tan embossing mat
and the B pink embossing plate and run it through.
VOILA!

Above photo is the natural color untouched by ink or Photoshop. A dandelion surrounded by violets.
The left is the bottom print and the right is the top.

Next I cut die cut the print with SB deckle edge classic ovals large.
 I used the largest die , cut and embossed.
I thought it looked a little sparse, so I ran it rough again adding a few spring phlox.

Keeping the print in the die, I stenciled in some Distress Antique Linen. Hint-This is a light color and I label and dedicate one sponge for all my light colors( less distress-the bad kind-that way).



To finish off the card I layered with SB Resplendent Rectangles, colorizing with Distress Shaded Lavender and Delicata Golden Glitz.
The print layer is popped up with fun foam
(I'm too cheap ,Scot,
thrifty, to buy pop dots.)





Happy Spring-take a walk, gather respectfully, experiment and have fun!









Comments and questions welcomed!

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

WOYWW 201

Is it Wednesday again?
Lots on my work desk, and more in the mail, in the car, drying outside and in the works ( stay tuned for that one!).

On the lower right are violets and dandelions pressed in the Grand Calibur. I'll get a tutorial done on that later in the week(maybe!). It's here!

Please scroll around to for details on this creative mess!
Comment s and questions always welcomed!

Learning to love Distress! The Back Side

 If you read the post over at Quietfire Creations, I promised the back story to be revealed here.

It's only been a few years that i have been a convert to using ink pads, must less Distress inks.

I'm an artist- I use tube paints and brushes. Ink bottles and pens.
Pad are for crafters- no offense meant- it was a silly mind set and I'm over it.

To make a long story short, someone gave me a Distress pad, and now I have them all, and all the stains, stickles,markers and paints.

I've learned to love the convenience of pads- especially for art on the go teaching- and the properties of Distress ink formulas.
Ranger has been good to me!

It did take me awhile to make friends with the stains- the online class Chemistry 101 with T!m Holtz helped a lot and now we are good friends.

Not so much yet with the paints.
The fan fold base for these ATC's was going to be one of those marbled Distress Paint backgrounds I've been seeing in the videos.
My first attempts are in the circular file, and this attempt is hiding behind gold acrylic paint and the ATC"s I made to cover the back.




I just need more time to experiment!

Details are at Quietfire Creations-please hop over.
Comments and questions always welcomed.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Every little bit helps....

I've been feeling fibery as the last cold days are hopefully in the past!

Thank goodness my dear SIL's birthday is in April, so whatever I don't finish for Christmas I can give her as a birthday gift.
See those little pieces of yarn on the top of the right sock cuff? That is exactly how much yarn I had left!
Hand spun hand dyed Targhee.

I once saw a film of a master weaver in , I think Wales, and the interviewer couldn't get her to say more than a few words as she worked at the loom.
"What do you think about when you are weaving", they asked.
"Running our of yarn", she replied.

Below is the handspunwarp(not the eyelash)                        sleyed in the reed.
Some call this random warping. I can assure you there is nothing random about it!
I call it multiple bout warping. I prefer to spend my time at the loom rather than the warping reel! 

There is something new and exciting( to me and I hope to y'all) coming into my life and I can't talk about it yet, so I hope you will follow closely as I hope to announce it soon.

Comments and questions always welcome.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

WOYWW 200-Let There Be Light!

I got so many questions about my table I thought I would feature herself, with out too much stuff on her.
She is a Studio Designs Futura Craft Table with a clear glass top, which lifts to a lot of angles- right-never gonna happen with all the stuff on it. The only piece of furniture I ever bought!

My fav feature is the arms that hold my Light Pad underneath the top, so it is always there when I want it and doesn't take up any table space. It's easy to remove too.

Lots of Birthday Cards to go out to my Women's Circle! Quiefire Design Stamps.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will scroll around!

Comments and questions always welcomed!