PCAW #5

PCAW #4

This was finished this past weekend in the midst of ongoing household sickness, so I'll skip an explanation for now.

Playing Card a Week (PCAW) #3

The journey of my art plans can be quite meandering and random. Sometimes I start with an idea: a theme, a technique, or a supply I want to use (like last week). This week, I started with none. This week, I just kind of stared at my desk and a black-gessoed card, and my mind was blank. Then I looked to my left and saw a stuffed bundle of ripped gold balloon leftover from a birthday. Repurposing even a tiny piece of that gigantic pile of mylar was the impetus for this week's card.

Creation steps:

1) Glue down gold mylar.

2) Use large bird background stamp (by Stampin' Up) to stamp white on the black exposed middle of the card (masking/covering over the gold), then mask over the black section of card to stamp the same stamp in black onto the gold mylar.

3) Mix gloss gel with a little iridescent gel and some glass bead gel. Apply through a stencil to the center of card. (Inevitably, there's some leftover... I'll address that next week)

4) Apply clear crackle paste around the dried stenciled gel to the remaining black background. 

5) Make small nest from burlap string (fallen from Halloween costume & repurposed); glue down and add a star. 

Playing Card a Week (PCAW) #2

Week 2 of my playing card challenge has been easy peasy. It's spooky season and this is the first Halloween crafting I've done, so there were lots of supplies vying for my attention. Some black gesso, a "Laboratorie" chemistry stamp, Versamark ink, and Archival ink pulled together the first layer:

Stampers Anonymous' "Anatomy Chart" was the first supply I envisioned as part of this card so I knew it would be the center piece. Initially it was a toss up between the rib cage stamp or the skull stamp, but you see which won out. Emboss in white...

... add a fuzzy text rub-on and some 3D stickers...

... with a final twist of glow-in-the-dark paint! This was the first time I've tried stamping glowing paint and I'm very excited that it worked!

Happy Halloween, y'all!

Quick Bookmarks

Next week I'll be mailing some bookends to a friend and thought that some bookmarks for their family would be a nice addition. The bookmarks would have to be simple, otherwise I wouldn't be able to finish them in a timely manner. Simplicity worked and I finished these over 2 evenings!

Supplies used:

Creative Challenges

Apologies for the long delay between posts; life got busy and interesting and there wasn't a lot of crafting going on for a few years. There was a relocation, a large and extended remodel during which my craft supplies were packed up, more active fostering, some pregnancies, and a birth!

During the first couple years of getting into the rhythms of parenting a youngster, "creative" time frequently was spent cleaning off my desk and trying to feel at home again in my craft room. There were a few projects: a 1st birthday album (that was completed sometime around the 18 month mark), some thank you cards for a job interview (completed several months into working said job), and a set of Halloween "BOO" letters that I thought were done but I may tinker with some more. You get the picture; drawn out projects that are completed much past their timely aims!

Without time to really settle into creating, I have been feeling adrift and blank when I sit at my desk. So I started thinking about creative challenges. These can take many forms, but I landed on a hybrid of a playing cards challenge and the Index Card A Day (ICAD) challenge. There's not a chance in... well, you know, that I can complete a card a day. But a card a week? That's doable. So isn't it very convenient that there are 52 cards in a deck of playing cards?

Without further ado or descriptions of supplies or techniques (maybe next time), here is week 1's finished card.