January AJ Page-BRR!

Hello friends!  Hope you’re enjoying your day so far and staying warm!  We’ve just recently survived a very cold below freezing temps in my area, so going outdoors is not that pleasant even bundled up!  So with that, I stay inside and find crafting to be my happy space!  

I’m very excited to be joining with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper) for another year of SMASHING OUR STASH!🎉  I love the inspiration that we bring each other as well as accountability for getting those piles of stash used up!  Thank you for joining me again and please be sure to check out the wonderful inspiration on her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with this month’s prompt of “COLD” (anything related to this word):

Of course when I think of cold, I think of my favorite animal…the penguin!!  I pulled out some Lawn Fawn stamps to use on my page today.  Lots of blues and silver and sparkle help with the feeling of cold too!  I have so many sparkly items, so it was great to use some up!

For the background:  I started with a piece of Canson Watercolor 140# coldpress 5.5″x8.5″ pre-punched holes at the top and covered it with blue colored acrylic paints using a baby wipe.  I also went around the edges with a darker blue and then used a number stencil with white paint which you can barely see as I’ve covered most of it up.  I then splattered with white paint using a fan brush for the snow.

  • I also found a cool icicle border and cut it out with my Cricut machine in silver glitter cardstock for the top of the page.  I then used my Zutter machine to punch the holes again and used a corner chomper to round the top edges.

For the bottom:  I used all Lawn Fawn border dies for the mountains and snow hills.  The blue ice water the penguin is standing on is just a straight piece of blue cardstock covered with a glitter brush pen.  I also used Stickles glitter to cover the snow cone that the penguin snowman is holding.

The lettering was done with a Lawn Fawn alphabet die that I ink blended in blues and covered with crystal effects.  I foiled over the “January” word with blue foil and cut it out with a die and placed a couple of silver rhinestones next to it.  This was popped up with foam underneath the “BRR” letters.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my AJ page today and have been inspired in some way!  Thanks so much for stopping in!

Challenges:

  1. Art Journal Journey – It’s On the Calendar (January is COLD!)
  2. Kreativ-Tanten – Snow
  3. Once Upon a TimeMr. Popper’s Penguin book cover
  4. Penny’s Paper-crafty– Anything Goes with Paper
  5. The Sisterhood of Crafters – Winter Blues

2024 Calendars Completed

Hello friends!  It’s that time of year when we turn over a new year and then realize that we need a calendar to keep track of our days…at least I do anyway!  I don’t feel ready for the year ahead until I’ve got my calendars up and ready to roll!  Usually, I’m ready to go by the end of the year, but I ran out of time with the Holidays, and I had planned on giving calendar gifts which I sent late, but I did get them done!  I still feel in Holiday mode because of this…Ugh!

So this month I’ve been working on several calendars and spending most of my time coloring them up.  It’s been very cold over my way, so I actually enjoyed doing them.  Here are a few sets that I sent out for gifts:

I think these Taylored Expressions Feisty Square Calendar Cards are my favorite!😆  I was laughing at each one as I was coloring them up!  The cards are already printed and makes it easy to get them colored up and attach them to the Desk Calendars.  All of the image cards are blank so that you can use them however.  I decided to just create my own background with each one using my markers in different ways while I was coloring them up.

I gave this set as a gift and wasn’t sure how they would choose to be displayed, so I added a magnet on the back of each one and also included a Walnut Wood Display, so they had a couple of options to use.

This next set was put together the same way I did the calendar above, expect these are the Taylored Expressions Scratch-Off cards.  (This one is not available in the store because I received the entire set with my Advent Calendar purchase.)  I thought these pups and cats were too cute and a perfect gift for someone that has both a dog and cat in their family.

After I colored them in, I added the Taylored Expressions Scratch Off Stickers to cover up the joke punch line.  I then used the TE Square Tear Off Calendar dies to create the design around the edges and a layer of cardstock to coordinate behind each one before placing on the calendar cards.  I also stamped “scratch off” under each card so that the person can scratch off the joke punch line for every month and see a new joke.

I also added a magnet on the back of each one as well as include a Walnut Wood Display so the recipient can choose how to display the calendar.

  • Click on the photos to enlarge on website!

Every year I always get the Inky Stamper Calendar kit that gets put together at the end of each year.  There is usually a number limit on how many are available each year, so if you are interested, you might want to click on the link to get one because I’m not sure how many more there are left.

These were also fun to put together and color.  I chose to stamp my own images and cut them out.  You still get the pattern papers and white sentiment strip with each month.

I absolutely love how this calendar turned out!  I’ve used the Taylored Expressions Friendly Square Calendar Cards and I thought they were so uplifting.  This time of the year positivity is something that is very important to me and can be hard to come by.  The days seem to be gloomy and short with little sunshine, so coloring all of these was great to fill my time with.

For this display, you may remember a calendar I had done a few years ago on THIS POST using the TE Snarky Calendar Cards.  I’ve decided to update that one and used the same display stand to create this one, which is why I prefer using this stand.  It’s nice and durable.

I have gold foiled each card and colored it.  I’ve made a new background display card with a layered stencil and I’ve layered everything with gold foil cardstock.  I’ve got a bag on the back to store my extra cards so that I can switch them out whenever I’d like.  All of the gold shine really catches my eye and is pleasant to view.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my post this afternoon and I REALLY appreciate you taking the time out of your day to leave me a comment.  It means very much to me as does your support!

Have a beautiful day and I’ll see you on Saturday for my first Art Journal Page of the year!

Challenges:

  1. Crafting From the Heart– Anything Goes
  2. Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
  3. Love to Scrap – Anything Goes
  4. Love to Craft – Anything Goes
  5. A Perfect Time to Craft – Anything Goes
  6. Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
  7. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes

New Beginnings at Sparkles Monthly Challenge!

Hello friends!  With January comes a new year and every year people are thinking about everything “NEW” like resolutions, out with old, in with new sort of things.  It seems with cold and snow winter outside; I’ve been doing a majority of my time organizing and figuring out what to toss or keep!  I’m thinking I need a new “for sale page” here on my blog!  I will need to figure that out and update later!

Today brings a new challenge for the start of the year at the Sparkles Monthly Challenge Blog!  For the start of the year and this month’s challenge, we have the theme: NEW BEGINNINGS!  I received a Lawn Fawn gift last year and this is my first time using it for my card today:

Of course, a baby is a wonderful “new beginning”, and I was inspired to use this darling Lawn Fawn stamp set called Elephant Parade plus the Add-On.  I stamped, colored and die cut all of the images to arrange a scene over the arch opening of my card front made with the Lawn Fawn Secret Garden Window die set.

I wanted to keep the colors gender neutral, so I went with mint and yellow type colors.  I blended around the inside edge and white heat embossed the sentiment at the bottom.  I found a very old scrap of decorative paper and ran a stitched cloud background plate die over it.  (I think it’s been retired) This was the background for my window opening.  I added foam tape to the back of the mint card front and attached it to the decorative paper.  Some of the images were glued directly onto the background and some were popped up with foam tape. I’ve added this panel onto a top folding A2 white card base.

I finished out the design with some clear sparkling sequins filled with Stardust Stickles and a few white and black dots with gel pens.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and have been inspired to come join us this month to enter your creation!  I look forward to seeing what you make!  Thanks so much for stopping by as I appreciate you taking the time!  Have a great day!

CHALLENGES:

  1. Simon Says Stamp – Cute Critters
  2. Critter Crazy – Anything Goes featuring a Critter
  3. Time Out – NEW
  4. CRAFT – NEW
  5. My Time to Craft – New in Your Stash (stamps/dies – first used for this card from gift given October 2023)

December AJ Page-Keep Dancing + book and review

Hello friends!  Hope you had a great Christmas and were able to make some wonderful memories!  I can’t believe that we are ready to close out another year!  The time just goes way too fast and there’s so much more to look forward to!  I think the theme for my upcoming year is in this title post – KEEP DANCING!!!🕺

The last Saturday of the month (AND THE YEAR!) brings us to the monthly Art Journal Page collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper)! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month.  I know she always has great inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” December prompt of “Previous Prompt”:

Since this is the time of the year that we have a “look back”, I thought it would be fun to take one of this year’s previous prompts and come up with a new AJ page.  I chose April’s prompt of “SHINNY/SPARKLY”, and you can catch that page in the photos below or see my previous blog post HERE.

There’s nothing quite shinny or sparkly than New Year’s Eve!  I always think of the ball dropping on Times Square in New York, but it also had me thinking of a disco ball that is very sparkly.  Found this image online and printed it out.  Cut it out with a circle die and then added a bit of colored shading with my markers in grey.  I took a sponge to add glue to the entire ball and then covered it with chunky glitter.   I added some sparkle images and filled them with silver glitter and then die cut the numbers and glued them over top of the ball.

For the background:  It’s just a 6″x9″ black cardstock pre-punched at the top and then splattered with silver watercolor.  I added some music notes and die cut stars.  For the bottom, I used some woodgrain texture paper and cut strips to make a wood floor for the Riley the Moose disco dancer.  A silver metallic paint pen was used for the ball string at the top and the wording around the top of the ball.

I stamped, colored and hand cut the moose and popped him up over a die cut shadow for under his feet.  I typed a quote on the computer and printed it out over silver cardstock.  While it was still wet, I sprinkled clear EP over top and cut rounded corners for the page.  Lastly, I just popped up the glittered ball with foam tape and added some silver rhinestones at the bottom.

  • I thought it would be fun to do a review of all of the monthly pages that were created this year.  I put the months in order below.  (If you are on my website, just click on the photos to enlarge them.)

I pre-punch the holes at the short side of the pages each month and then at the end of the year, I use my machine to bind them together to make a book.  I add covers and decorate them.  There is a post with last year’s book HERE.

For this year, I went with the vertical look and added a stretch cord to keep them together better.  I also tried out the napkin with the cover:

The napkin is at the bottom with the foil marble look.  My husband got some napkins for New Year’s, and I thought I’d try it out.  I added some chipboard, stamped and cut out numbers and added some wooden pieces.  I used the rose papers for the covers on the inside as well as the back of the chipboard covers.  It was put together with my Bind-It-All machine and coils.

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing my Art Journal Journey throughout the year as I sure have enjoyed doing them!  I get to pull from my stash to use, but there is also so much more to use!  So this means that I will for sure be continuing with this journey and I hope you’ll join me too!

Thank you so much for stopping by to have a look back.  Wishing you peace, love and health for the upcoming 2024 year!  See you in the next year friends!!!🎉

Challenges:

  1. Art Journal Journey – Above Us Only Sky (New Year’s Eve Ball Drop on Times Square with stars in the sky!!!)
  2. Crafting From the Heart – Anything Goes #8
  3. Creative Artiste – Anything Mixed Media Goes with option of Christmas
  4. Alphabet – ‘T’ is for Texture (texture on the top page with woodgrain floor, the chunky glitter disco ball.  Texture on the book with chipboard, wood pieces and paste.)

November AJ Page-Winter Wonderland

Hello friends!  Hope everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving for those that celebrate.  And with that, there is also the Black Friday deals, and today is “small business Saturday”.  So have you’ve gotten some really good deals or do you shop during this time?  I don’t really shop too much during this time, but I enjoy hearing about the great deals everyone has gotten!

The last Saturday of the month also brings us to the monthly Art Journal Page collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper)! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month.  I know she always has great inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” November prompt of “STENCILS” (can also make your own):

I do love stencils, don’t you?!  I have lots of them in my stash and I don’t always use them as much as I’d like to, so how fun to pull out several of them for this month’s prompt!  All of the ones I’ve used on my page are from Tim Holtz.  The entire page is stencil expect for the deer, sentiment and bottom snow!  (I would’ve used the deer for a stencil too, but I don’t have one.)

For the background:  Started with my usual 6″x9″ 140# watercolor pre-punched holes on the side.  I took the large star looking stencil and sponged some VersaMark ink over it towards the top of the page and heat embossed it with clear EP.  (This made a “resist” for the ink I layered on top.)  I took a long strip of masking paper and ripped it to create some hills for the bottom.  I needed to mask so the colors didn’t go over it.   I took several different colors of Distress Oxide sprays along with spritzing with water to help the colors move around and made a few layers with this.  Once dry, I went over the background with the dotted stencil and sponged ink over it with a blue color.

For the tree stencil, I needed to be sure that it would cover the background I created, so I used some green paint to sponge over the stencil, but because the background is blue, it’s sort of harder to see the green.  This stencil also had a second part where you can cover each tree with another layer for either another green or snow.  So I used some Hero Arts white paste to cover it with.  I also used the same paste to add another layer of stencil to the sky for snowfall.

The silhouette deer is a stamp that I stamped with black pigment ink and then I heat embossed it with clear EP.  My final touch to the page was to take the Hero Arts white paste and cover the hills at the bottom using my spatula.  Really love the dried look of the paste as it has a wonderful shine to it which works great for snow!  It didn’t take as long as I thought it would to dry. (About 2 hours it was hardened.)

I found a couple of the Tim Holtz sticker quotes to go with my theme, added to black cardstock and went around the edges with a silver paint pen.  I cut them out with scissors and glued to the page.  I took some silver wax and went around the edge of the page with my finger and lastly added some glitter drops to a couple of the centers of the “stars” in the sky.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my art journal page today or have been inspired!  I appreciate you taking the time to stop in! 

Challenges:

  1. Art Journal Journey – Nature (I love nature in the wintertime!  So pretty covered in snow!)
  2. Try It on Tuesday – Baby, It’s Cold Outside!
  3. Crafting From the Heart – Anything Goes
  4. Creative Artiste – Anything Goes Mixed Media (stencils, pastes, paints, inks)
  5. Stencil Fun – Anything Goes using stencil(s) optional: leaves
  6. 613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes optional embossing (heat embossed)

Winter Animals for Sparkles Monthly Challenge

Hello friends!  I hope you’ve had a great start to your November so far!  It’s been a few minutes since I’ve posted, but I have to say that I’ve been pretty busy in the background!  Hoping to share what I’ve been up to soon!

Today begins a new challenge over at the Sparkles Monthly Challenge!  This month, we’re looking to see some WINTER ANIMALS!  I hope you can join in the fun with us!  A reminder that this will be the final challenge for the year as we’ll be on Holiday break until January.  Here’s my take on the theme:

My first thought of a winter animal is a penguin of course!  I’m a huge fan of them and have so many in my collection…including other than stamp related!  These guys are really enjoying winter on this scene!  I’m using the My Favorite Things Playful Penguins stamp set and I started with a stencil from MFT that has “pond” shapes and lightly stenciled the soft blue for a place for my “ice platform” to be.

After creating the “ice pond”, I used some tape to mask off the bottom portion so that I could ink blend a sky at the top.  I used some White Opaque Copic and splattered it over the sky area.  I then used another MFT stencil to create some snow drifts in the background.

The two penguins, igloo, ice pad and sign were stamped, colored with Copic markers and die cut out to be placed over the scene.  I added the flattened penguin to the ice pad and then had the igloo in the background while the sign and penguin are waiting at the side of the pond.  I used a pen and wrote “FREE RIDES” on the sign.

I finished it off with a glitter pen over the “ice pad” and igloo and then used some Stardust Stickles over the snow on the sign.  I thought it needed some more snow falling down, so I took some sequins and added it to the scene.

If I were on that scene, I would probably be more like the flattened penguin on the “ice pad”!😆  How about you?  Do you like the snow?

Thanks so much for joining me here!  I hope you like my penguin card and will sharing your favorite winter animal in the challenge too!  Have a great day!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

  1. Pearly Sparkles – #90 Christmas/Winter
  2. Craft Rocket – #109 Wintertime (No Christmas)
  3. Crafty Animals – Anything Goes with animal(s)
  4. Critter Crazy – Anything Goes featuring a critter(s)
  5. Love to Scrap – #164 Anything Goes
  6. Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
  7. Creative Moments – Winter
  8. Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes

Things That go ‘BUMP’ in the Night for Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends!  I hope you’re having a great weekend!  Did you have “good luck” on Friday the 13th?  It’s getting closer to Halloween!  I don’t send out very many Halloween things, but it’s something that I share with friends and my adult kids because it holds some special memories of just having fun.

Today begins our October challenge at Sparkles Monthly with a theme that was my turn to pick: Things That go ‘BUMP’ in the Night (Does not HAVE to be Halloween!)  So, if you’re not a Halloween person, this theme is open-ended.  Try nocturnal animals, Santa on the roof, etc.  Just have some fun crafting!

Of course, I love Halloween and had fun making my card:

I thought these mice were just too cute!  They were out bumping around in the night trying to be scary but scared each other instead! LOL

The mice came from the STAMPtember collaboration with Whimsy Stamps and the set is called Spooky & Mice.  I colored them with Copic markers and die cut them out with the coordinating dies.  They were popped up with foam tape over the background.

For my background:  I used a cloud stencil on a white piece of cardstock and blended some clouds with purple ink and then blended around the edges with black and grey ink.  I then took the SSS Spook Up Some Fun stamp set and stamped black stars over the background and I also white heat embossed the oval sentiment panel that was in that stamp set over black cardstock and set it aside.  I’ve also splattered the background with black, white and silver acrylic paints.

While that panel was drying, I heat embossed the Whimsy Stamps Spider Web Frame with a white sparkle EP and then cut the middle of it out with scissors so the cloud background would show.  I stamped the spider hanging down onto the background while sizing it up with the frame and then drew a black string with a marker for it. Glued on the frame, attached my oval sentiment panel, and attached it to a top folding A2 sized grey card base. (Then added the mice with foam squares.)

Lastly, I’ve added some silver gems on each side of the sentiment oval and attached a few clear sequins over the night sky background.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you’ll be able to join along in the fun with us this month!  I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Two Old Bats Halloween – Anything Goes Halloween
  2. Crafty Animals – Anything Goes with an animal
  3. Critter Crazy – Anything Goes with a featured critter
  4. Creative Inspirations – Autumn or Halloween
  5. Craft Rocket – Autumn and/or Halloween
  6. As You Like It – Favorite Halloween or Fairies & why? (I love to make Halloween theme because it’s so fun with cute, scary or fun characters and I love the colors too!)
  7. Most Magical Time of the Year – Anything Halloween or Christmas
  8. Creative Moments – “It’s Alive!”

Let the Fall Begin!

Hello friends!  We have now started the Fall season over my way and although the weather has been quite unpredictable, I am looking forward to the temperatures dropping and pretty Fall colors outdoors.  I have just now started seeing some slight changes in some of the foliage.

  • COMMENT UPDATE:  I thank you so much for taking the time and trying to leave a comment with me…I appreciate it!  I have been in contact with a support team and they’ve been very helpful.  Here’s what I’ve been told – “In response to your inquiry, WordPress.com indeed made some changes recently to enhance security and user experience. We released the new comments User Interface on 20% random sites which we believe is better than the older version in every way. e.g. Earlier the Facebook login was treated as a quick way to fill the guest form, but now when you log in with Facebook, your subscription preferences are recorded and rendered correctly; i.e. you’re actually logged in and remembered, and you can configure your preferences. However, we understand that this might not be convenient for all users.”  
  • So basically this just means that the way the comment box looks is different.  You should still be able to leave a comment.  Just pull up the comment box and start typing whatever you want to say, once you do that, buttons will appear on how you’d like to enter your information/login.  Once you do, the “reply” button will highlight and you can leave your comment.  Hopefully you will be “remembered” the next time you visit.  Hopefully, this all makes sense. (If you have any more questions or problems, you can always contact me)

So now let’s get back to some Fall crafting!  I’ve made a birthday card for a guy that likes to go camping and eat smores by the fire….

I think this turned out so fun!  I have used an older STAMPtember collaboration set from My Favorite Things and not sure if it’s last year or before that…but fell in love with the camp critters in the set!  (This year’s STAMPtember collaborations will be fun to play with too!  Stay tuned for some makes coming up with those!)

I have ink blended a panel in blues for a night sky and splattered some white over it for a starry look.  I stamped and colored all the images and cut them out with the coordinating dies.  I die cut a very dark green panel with a grass border die and attached it over the blue night panel that was layered onto a white A2 side folding card base.  I tucked in and attached all the pieces over the grass and behind it for the scene and then even added some shadow with a marker under some of the images.  I white heat embossed the sentiment from the set and then the celebrate banner was attached at the top.  Lastly, I’ve added some Stardust Stickles over the flames from the fire.

How about you?  Do you like to camp?  Eat smores?  Enjoy Fall weather?  I like all of the above of course!  Thanks so much for stopping in today!  Hope you’ve been inspired or gotten smile!

Challenges:

  1. Make My Monday – Create Your Own Background (starry sky)
  2. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  3. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
  4. Love to Craft – Anything Goes
  5. Allsorts – 4-legged Friends or Anything Goes
  6. Passion for Markers – For a Man or a Boy (colored with Copic markers)

Feeling Tropical at Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends!  I hope that whatever state you’re finding yourself right now, that you’re able to find a bright spot in your day somewhere.  In watching the news, there are so many variable patterns in the weather and my heart goes to those in Hawaii dealing with the wildfire disaster.  My card today is not only for the DT challenge, but also a tribute to our tropical friends in Hawaii.

There’s a new challenge today over at the Sparkles Monthly Challenge with the theme of: TROPICAL and/or BEACH

Since I live in the Midwest area, I don’t get a chance to see too many scenes like this, but maybe someday hubby and I will get a chance soon!  The inspiration for my card came from my computer background photo and I loved the look of the water with the setting sun.  Everything I’ve used on my card today came from Lawn Fawn.

The entire background was done with stenciling using the LF Beach Sunset Stencils and inks.  I added that mice couple from a freebie stamp set that came with one of my orders.  I colored them pretty dark with cool grey tones so that they blended into the beach and looked like a silhouette.  The sentiment at the bottom was white heat embossed from the LF Butterfly Kisses set.   I’ve used a glitter brush pen over the sun and purple reflective water.  I think I got a little carried away with the white gel pen, but I was trying to make it look like the dark areas were highlighted with some of that setting sun over it and there’s just no removing any lines! (If you’ve done this, then you know what I’m saying!)

I hope that you’ve enjoyed my Tropical themed card today or found some inspiration with it.  Thanks so much for dropping in and please check out the challenge details with inspiration from the DT and play along!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

  1. Four Seasons – Anything Goes Summer
  2. Crafts Galore Encore – Anything Goes
  3. The Paper Funday – Anything Goes optional: Great Outdoors
  4. Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes using paper
  5. Get Creative – Summer Nights
  6. My Time to Craft – Stenciling
  7. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes

July AJ Page-Always Look Up!

Hello friends and happy weekend! As we finish off another really hot day…probably for most of the U.S. right now, I do hope you’re staying cool and enjoying the rest of the month of July.  We’ve been in a heat advisory in our area for the last few days, but hopefully it will cool down soon.  In the meantime, I will be crafting inside!

It’s time for the monthly Art Journal Page collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper)! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month.  I know she will have some wonderful inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” July prompt of “STRIPS/STRIPES”:

I don’t know why this makes me giggle, but it does!  I thought the best way to create the “STRIPS/STRIPES” prompt would be to pull out some more of those never-ending stash of pattern papers!  So I pulled some out for the strips at the bottom that I cut out with a hillside border die and one of the pieces happened to have stripes on it which worked out for both!  I thought it would look great for the field that the cow WAS on.😆

For the background:  I started with my usual piece of 6″x 9″ pre-punched at the top from Canson Watercolor paper and made a galaxy background with watercolors.  I had fun making a mess with it!  I let it air dry underneath some heavy books to keep it flat as it dried.  Once dry, I splattered some Copic opaque white with a fan brush over it.

This is where I added the strips of cut papers at the bottom.  Before I cut the green layer at the bottom, I ran it through my printer to create the quote on my computer.  I sponged the edges of it with green ink.  I also sponged some black ink around the edges of the galaxy background too.  The striped paper was painted with a light green ink and then splattered with a darker green color as I was trying to mute it a bit.  The “fence” behind it was cut out with white cardstock and placed behind the striped strip piece.

For the flying saucer and alien, I used an UFO die set from Whimsy Stamps and cut it out with several different specialty papers like holographic, silver glitter, green metallic, black glitter, vellum and acetate (for the front window of the saucer).  I popped it up with foam tape over a die cut piece of vellum that I’ve colored with a yellow marker and sprayed with shimmer spray…hard to pick up in a photo, but you can barely see it.  I attached it over the background by using my Xyron sticker machine, so you can still see through it.

I glued the “confused cow” from the MFT The Whole Herd stamp set within the “beam” vellum.  The hillside borders that I cut the bottom strips with came from MFT as well. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed my AJ page today and been inspired in some way!  Thanks so much for dropping in and don’t forget to look up!!😆

Challenges:

  1. Art Journal Journey – Come Fly with Me!
  2. Crafting From the Heart – Anything Goes except cards
  3. Creative Artiste – Anything Mixed Media
  4. Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
  5. Crafting Happiness – Any Type of Craft
  6. Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes Using Paper
  7. Through the Purple Haze – Anything Goes