What's new at The Loft - Episode 37

Happy Halloween!!!

Pumpkin Carving

Halloween is always a fun time of year, and it wouldn't be Halloween without carving a pumpkin  This year I let my youngest daughter carve most of the pumpkin by herself with some close supervision of course.



First she drew on the face.

Then I cut the opening on top for her

Then she scooped out the inside.

Then it was time to start carving.

Here is the final result, Cassidy called him Bob!!! 

Pumpkin Painting

I love to carve pumpkins too, but this year I wanted to try something different so I decided to paint a two small pumpkins.

First, I primed both pumpkins with white paint

and from my other paints I chose a fall color palette to use. 

Then I painted my pumpkin using my fall colors, laying down color in a random pattern.

I then painted on some hearts with black paint, and added decoration to them with gold paint.  For added color I found some old puffy paint and put some green and purple dots on top.

The second pumpkin I then spray painted with gold paint.

I doodled a flourish design that I was really happy with and decided to follow for this pumpkin.

I then used the same color palette and painted the colors in a random pattern.  While the paint was still wet I laid paper towels on the surface to remove some of the paint and to give it the look of texture by letting the gold spray paint show through.

I then used black paint to draw on my pattern.

I think these both came out so cute!

Trick or Treat

Lastly what is Halloween with out kids in costumes.  This year only our youngest Cassidy wanted to go make the candy walk, so of course we had to take pictures before she went out.

As always your comments are always welcome so feel free to drop me a note and let me know what you think.

Have a Happy and Safe Halloween!!!

What's new at The Loft - Episode 36

New Susan Tuttle class Ghostly Figures

I've just finished up another class with Susan Tuttle called "Ghostly Figures".  I've taken several classes with Susan already and she is such a great teacher and I have learned so much from her.  Here are some photos that I created for the class.

"Evil Clown" - Doesn't he look creepy!

"Lady Waiting for the Train"

"London Fog" - Our assignment was to create artificial fog, so I used this night picture I took from the England pavilion at Epcot to try my hand at it.

"Ghostly Girl with Cats"

"Forgotten Man"

"The Shadow in the Window"

"Ghosts of the 4th of July"  - This is a great straight out of the camera photo I took on the 4th of July.  I was playing with long exposures and caught this great shot of some people walking on my street in a ghostly haze of the firework smoke.

ATC 3.6.5. Challenge

*** Disclaimer on digital ATC cards***. Most, but not all of the digital ATC's here were done with images found openly on the Internet for my own personal enjoyment. I do not own the photos and they have not been reproduced or sold in anyway.

It's hard to believe that on 9/6 the first card shown here I had already made 249 cards this year, but there is still 116 to go.

9/6 "The Ocean"  - I grew up on Lake Erie, literally.  My parents had a house on the beach and when I was younger that's where I could be found most of the time.  Strangely though when I moved to Florida in 1996 I have only been to the beach a handful of times, and I have only been to the beach once on the west coast of Florida where I live.  Our favorite place to go is for a vacation to Vero Beach on the East coast of Florida.  We all love going there just to relax and unwind, and reconnect as a family.    This year we are trying something different by going to Vero Beach for Christmas.  The Image and background for today's card was from an Urban Outfitters catalog.  The journaling was done with a white fine point sharpie poster paint pen.

9/7 "Bored to Tears" - I really loved this picture and the expression on the girls face so I had to use it in this digital card.

9/8 "Peace" - The background was painted with red Liquitex Basics acrylic paint, then stamped on with Black Staz on, and embellished with a white Sharpie Poster Paint pen.

9/9 "Winter Bride" - A digital card created starting with an image of a bride and overlayed with several texture layers.

9/10" Vintage 1908" - My version of going green has combined this vintage image of children with modern packaging for soup.

9/11 "Dream" - A fun little banner for such a sad day using paper scraps, and ric-rac.

9/12 "Holly Short" -  a digital creation which is my representation of a character from a children's book I love called Artemis Fowl. 

9/13 "Queen" - This is my first attempt at a steam punk ATC and I love the way it turned out.  I used some glitter paper for the background and the image was of a Ziegfeld girl I pulled off the Internet.  I then embellished the card metal jewelry findings, and wire along with typewriter sticker letters.








9/14 "Paint explosion" - A card made of bleached muslin used as an experiment in color.  Before adhering the muslin to the card several drops of color were put on the plain muslin, then rolled and flattened.
A messy but very fun card to make.

9/15 "Venus" - Another fun card made using an image of the lady in the Clam shell, embellished with different buttons with the shanks cut off and a small square mirror strategically placed.










Well that's all I have for today.  Comments are always welcome and appreciated so please feel free to drop me a line.  Thanks for stopping by and come back soon.

What's new at The Loft - Episode 35

Greetings friends,

Fall has arrived in Florida!  It's wonderful to finally be able to open the windows and enjoy the cool nights.  And now that the humidity has seemed to have left the air, it also time to start thinking about some home improvement.  Hubby and I are already looking at projects to fix up the old Loft.  Disappointing though, that as much as we tried it doesn't appear we will be able to work out any kind of studio space for me to work.  My sweet hubby though recognizing my need for storage space donated some of his home office space to accommodate my needs. 

Besides addressing the storage issue, hubby and I are now planning on some redecoration of our living room, along with giving our kitchen some much needed new color.   For us though this is not as easy as it seems.  Picking colors in our house can be a long process.  Our normal process is to first decide on a color and then I go to the local home improvement store and grab tons of paint chips in that color and begin taping them to the walls. We will observe the chips every time we pass them, so we see what they look like in natural and indoor lighting at different times of the day.  Slowly we begin to remove the chips that for whatever reason don't work for us, until we are left with a color we all like. 

This process has worked pretty well for us in the past but for this new home improvement project the thinking, or at least my thinking is to choose more than one color for the kitchen, and have one of the colors be the same for both rooms as we have one wall that carries through from the kitchen to the living room.  Right now our current solution is just a basic cut off point between the different colors of the rooms which hubby and I agree is very unattractive.   Picking one color is a process in itself, but trying to pick more than one which coordinate may prove near impossible.  We'll keep you posted on our progress.


ATC 3.6.5. Challenge

"Where do I get my ideas from", is a question I get asked a lot.  The truth is that I find in several different places.  Sometimes ideas come from the simplest of things or places, or from just playing with the supplies both old and new that I have.  Often times I take inspiration from things I've seen other artists and crafters do.  I always keep a notebook nearby to jot down ideas or flashes of inspiration, but I have to admit there are some days when I just get stuck.  To me those are my worst days as I then force myself to put something together for the sake of "getting it done". 

8/27 "Organic Fashion" - photos from Somerset Life magazine, alpha stickers from Making Memories.

8/28 " Moxie" - Background paper from Graphic 45, rub on from Sassafrass Lass

8/29 "Lucky Lady" - Background paper from Somerset Studio magazine, image and bingo card from Tweety Jill, mini alpha stickers from Making Memories.

8/30 "The Great Escape" - Background image from an Urban Outfitters catalog, epoxy stickers from K & Company.

8/31 "Today I Feel" - This was an emotionally charged day for me so I reflected that in my card for today.  The calendar background image printed from google and inked with Tsukineko terra cotta chalk ink, journaling scraps printed on white cardstock at home then glimmer misted with suede, and edged in walnut distress ink.

9/1 "Who Me" - I saw this image in the Urban Outfitters catalog, and it was perfect.  The title was a perfect fit with the expression on the mans' face.  Mini alpha stickers from Making Memories.

9/2 "Contradiction" - named for not only the contrast of the black and white, but also the contrast of the black and white image against the red background.  The background was painted with red Basics acrylic paint.  Image cut from magazine, definition taken from Websters dictionary.

9/3 "Top Secret" - This was a fun project, and took longer than most of my cards, because it is a lot larger.  Each "file" is cut from an actual file folder, with the contents inside including a picture of me and my family.  The simulated coffee rings was done by taking the cap from a pump style hairspray bottle and using it as a stamp with a sepia ink pad.  Below is one the of pages inside.

Here is the page created for my oldest daughter. This was a great way to have fun, and hopefully make the person looking at the card laugh a little.

9/4 "Best Friends"- Background paper from K&Company, Image from Tweety Jill, mini Alphas from Making Memories.

9/5 "Laugh out Loud" - The title was stamped from a $1 stamp I purchased this day at Michaels.  I found the image in a Delia's catalog, which fit the title perfectly.

That's all I have for today.  Comments are always welcome and appreciated so please feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you thing.  Thanks for stopping by and come back soon!

What's new at The Loft - Episode 38

Homecoming! 

My little girl is not so little anymore. Daughter #1 went to her first High School Homecoming dance. She looked so beautiful!!!

ATC 3.6.5. Challenge

*** Disclaimer on digital ATC cards***. Most, but not all of the digital ATC's here were done with images found openly on the Internet for my own personal enjoyment. I do not own the photos and they have not been reproduced or sold in anyway.

9/16 " Girl in Glasses"  I took this vintage image I found on the Internet and embellished it with a sunglasses button with the shank cut off, along with a clear star Gelly Roll pen, which you can see in the picture makes the necklace sparkle, and a little bit of red Stickles to the roses for dimension.







9/17 "Wish You Were Here" - this is a collaged postcard ATC made from Tweety Jill collage sheets and travel rub-ons.






9/18 "What's For Lunch" - this card is made from a regular brown paper lunch bag, and filled with the pieces of packaging from food items one might find in their lunch. The card is actually a lunch sack which you can see from the side view below.

9/19 "Katherine" - This digital card was created using a black and white photo found on the Internet and colorized, and then a texture layer added.






9/20 "Time Lord" Graphic 45 paper was used for the background then stamped with the image of the clock.  I added some Tim Holtz gear hands and an image of David Tennant, my favorite Doctor Who.










9/21 "Color My Moods"  I created this crayon out of cardstock.  The card is actually dimensional and is approx. 1/8" thick.  I created each crayon on my computer, which displays a different mood, as shown in the close up picture below.

9/22 "Wishful Thinking" - The background along with the image of the woman and little girl , taken from a catalog I had on my desk, were the source of inspiration for this card.   I created the thought bubble on my computer.

9/23 "Waiting" - the image and background were both taken from my handy Urban Outfitters catalog which has been used for many of my ATC's.  The title was printed on my computer and each word was cut separately.









9/24 "Lounging" - the dotted background paper and image of the girl were both taken from the Urban Outfitters catalog.  The text was written using a Uniball Signo pen.

9/25 "Happy Halloween" - the background was created by using an orange spray of glimmer mist and then laying down a glimmer screen tree stencil and spraying again with a purple glimmer mist.  I then stamped the image of the crows.  I added Halloween buttons with the shanks cut off, and the title cut from Halloween paper.







That's all I have for today.  Comments are always welcome so please feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think.  Thanks for stopping by and come back soon.