new beginnings and a gatsby girl

for tag tuesday "new beginnings" and gecko galz "gatsby girls." 

one of my "new beginnings" goals is to create more! woman and background paper are from gecko galz.

wishing you good new beginnings and hoping you'll participate in both challenges!

love to all. 

from the chrysalis, a new beginning

for sunday postcard art: new year, new you, new beginning 

images from vintage mischief circus artists, holliewood studios, and tumblefish studios.

new beginnings...

our latest tag tuesday challenge, thanks to dear DT sister valerie, is "new year, new beginnings." it took me awhile to think what to do, but i landed on a couple sayings that feel like good things for the new year. i hope you enjoy and i hope you will play along! 

background is from crowabout studio B/nancy baumiller formerly of mischief circus (retired papers from "zetti fairies" kit) and foreground image from gecko galz, with words from tim holtz.

background paper is from gecko galz, foreground image is from art tea life/one crab apple. words from tim holtz.

there is one week remaining to play along.

love to all.

goodbye and hello

 for tag tuesday these next few weeks the theme is numbers chosen by our lovely and talented  DT member Pinky. quite timely for a new year coming up i've made 2 companion tags. 

2020 has been tough for so many people for so many reasons. the look on her face is just such a "goodbye" face that i had to use this one to send the year off to memory land. she is from gecko galz dream girls 2 collage sheet with background papers from the gecko galz "chocolate box" digital papers set. the letters and numbers are from holliewood studios fantastical steampunk.

i can certainly be snarky but i am mostly an optimistic person and i want to look forward to 2021 with hope and a sense of possibility. i thought this woman (also from the dream girls 2 collage sheet) embodied that very well. the background paper is gecko galz also, from the papillon set.

wishing all hope and possibility! love to all.

new beginnings at tag tuesday

it is a brand new year and we have some wonderful themes planned for tag tuesday. we are starting with the theme of "new beginnings." our own beloved DT lead Valerie chose this theme which is really an opening for you to do whatever you like that's about what's "new."

what's new here is that this is my very first tag of the new year! i've used one of my favorite images from the african american collection from lunagirl along with a compass and wings from the wind roses collage sheet also by lunagirl. the rest are other bits from my stash.

i love that she looks wistfully into the future and has wings. this is a good way to begin a new year, thoughtfully and equipped with wings! i hope you'll join us in this challenge over the next two weeks and with all the challenges coming up this calendar year!

love to all.

silver

for tag tuesday "silver" prompt:

vintage image from gecko galz icart beauties collage sheet.  black card stock and silver stickers from my stash.

more happy new year feeling in this card i hope.  love to all.

shiny new year

it is not too late to wish folks a happy new year, right? because i made a card for two challenges on the new year theme -- the bonus "happy new year" challenge at drunken stampers and the week #1 "shiny new year" challenge at scraps of color.

i used lots of glittery paper and glittery stickers and a favorite stamp from the "party cats" set by lost coast designs which i stamped on shiny embossed paper from paper temptress.

of course it is not too late!  i'm wishing all a happy new year!
love to all.

something new

happy new year people!  may this new year be filled with good and enriching things for you -- art, health, joy and growth.  i was visiting shelly 's blog and saw a link to a perfect challenge for the new year, "something new" at sweet stamps blog.

one thing that occurred to me is that i have some new stamps which i've never used before so i decided to use them for this challenge.  so that is the first "something new."

the quote and cityscape are from a set designed by tim holtz for stampers anonymous.  the woman is from a hampton arts set which i got as a present for participating in a fundraiser at scraps of color. .  i stamped on designer paper and also covered my card stock with different designer paper.  i used several bits of left over border so there are 3 different borders at the bottom.  also a butterfly and flower from my stash.

in this first new post for a new year i'm renewing my own quest to stay creative and celebrate my own art while inviting you to do the same.

happy new year and love to all.

let the festivities begin!

the focus for the new two week challenge at lunagirl moonbeams is "vintage winter."  i used a new year image from the lunagirl "winter fun" collage sheet for my DT piece.

the cardstock is stamped with a french script stamp, i added tissue tape and a torn piece of green textured paper then used shiny gold ric rac (for lack of something else to call it) silvery snowflakes and random dots made with a silver paint pen.

new year's eve is tomorrow, let the festivities begin!

love to all.

2013 journal pages

last weekend i took a "journaling in the new year" one day class from wonderful local artist and teacher liesel lund.  we did several pages of art as well as additional written reflections.  it was just lovely spending a day with several other arty women and then gobs and gobs of fab supplies -- acrylic paints, markers, pencils, pens, glues and other collage supplies.  lots of inspiration.  kind of a perfect day!  here are 3 of my pages representing some of  hopes for 2013.  i used torn pages from magazines, acrylic paints, doodles with markers, glitter glues and such like.

you can even see the "journaling in the new year" handout in the photo above!  it is tucked into my notebook.
we sparked our creativity by pulling images from magazines that resonated for us and then collaged the pieces as well as decorated the magazine images with our own art embellishments.

i made a cut out of my hand with a magazine page and then decorated around it on this page.
thematically speaking as you can see, time for retreat, reflection and art are big goals for me in the coming year.  alas for time and (physical) space to do more of this.  i will somehow find a way.

i'm submitting this post for dawn's journal journeys blog as well, this month's challenge is "NEW" and my pages are  reflections for the new year.  i hope you'll check out her lovely art journal blog.

love to all!

cheerful stamp pad challenges are back!

welcome to 2013 and a new year of challenges at the cheerful stamp pad. the first two week challenge for this year is "white as snow" and you are invited to work with a background or palette of white.  use of snow is optional!

one nice new feature on the cheerful stamp pad blog is that you can see the next few challenges on the right hand side bar -- gives you the opportunity to plan ahead!

i decided to try a new technique from technique junkies called "white negative."

stamp credits: tree branch from inkadinkado; japanese script from mad rat rubber and peace stamp from hero arts.

our challenge sponsor this round is classy cards n such where you can find stamps, embossing folders, all kinds of bling and much more.  the randomly selected winner will get a nice treat from the sponsor.

i'm hoping for peace in 2013 so this is my happy new year card to all of you!  enjoy and love to all.

new year challenges

specifically i am referring to blog challenges!  we can talk about life challenges another time...  thanks to Shar at the ill tempered ink blog i discovered a couple of challenges i could enter, and right on time because i finally got a few new year cards done.  i've been having some scanner problems so i only got a couple scanned and the rest just got sent off.  but here are my two representative samples:

the vintage images are from twisted papers and embellishments are random stash items.
my wish to all for happy new year is that we will all work to make things happy for all.

challenges entered:
come and get it challenges
CRAFT challenge
cute card thursday

love to all.

and a happy new year!

now it is time to make new year cards and thank you cards!  here are two cards using the same image from http://twistedpapers.com/.  the first one is glued onto some fancy colorful card stock (came from a card kit, origin unknown) and embellished with a butterfly and flourish from a pack of goodies obtained from http://www.alphastamps.com/.  the second is on simple white card stock with a blue card stock layer.  this one is simply embellished with a very sparkly raised butterfly sticker.  i hope to mail these out shortly.  more to come soon!
love to all.