Dahlias & Smooshing

This is a Dahlia pic that I shot yesterday. Once a year, the Love House Dahlias in Ventura, Ca. open the gates to their 4 acre ranch for the public to come in & look at the 300+ varieties of Dahlias. I chased this butterfly over all 4 acres I think, trying to catch this picture.












To Bee or not to be......















These are 3x5 stampboard pieces that I have done the "smoosh" technique on the background with Memories Mist. Again I spray the background with a light color (gold or yellow) then drizzle or splatter a little more ink about. Then, I put the two pieces together. The colors run together & you can even slide it around a bit for a little more variation. Memories Mist is one of my favorites. I love the different looks you can achieve with it.

More Stamping with Stampsmith

Meet Maude! I am so enjoying all my new stamps from: http://stampsmith.net/. In these two photos I did a Memories Mist background. First I sprayed with a light color on the stampboard
(gold is nice.) Then I did the "drip" thing & kind of splattered a little. I put the two stampboards together & did the SMOOSH. The smoosh is rubbing the two pieces of stampboard together smearing the colors. You can see the effect better on the Bling image below as I did no additional stamping on that one. I learned this SMOOSH technique from Elaine Barr at elainebarrdesigns.blogspot.com.
Elaine is my Memories Mist Guru!

This is another new stamp from Stampsmith. This particular stamp is called "Bling." I Love her!

Image transfers with Sheer Heaven & Stampsmith rubber stamps

This is a lovely image I purchased at Flax in San Francisco. I buy almost all my decorative paper from Makin Memories Scrapbook Store in Newbury Park. Their website is http://makinmemories.org/. They get new products all the time & they have the best paper around. I transferred this image using the Sheer Heaven again right on to this gorgeous paper. I finalized it with a little rubber stamping.

This is another Stampsmith rubber stamp titled "Butterfly Kiss." It's done on stampboard with a Memories Mist background.

New Rubber Stamps from Stampsmith

I am taking a little break from image transfers & now I'm going to show off some new rubber stamps I just purchased. I saw http://stampsmith.net/ referenced on another blog & loved their stamps. I was in such a buying frenzy that I actually double ordered one stamp. Estelle at Stampsmith, who was far more on the ball than I, caught the error. I don't believe I've ever had a better buying experience. Estelle was just wonderful. I was so impressed I joined their Yahoo group also. I'm enjoying that group also. Please check out Estelle's website...as you can see below, her rubber stamps are of excellent quality & she is fabulous! Thank you, Estelle!
All pics are done on stampboard from http://stampscapes.com/
and sprayed with Memories Mist background (mixed colors) from http://amstamps.com/.



Opening Night



























The Bellydancer

Halo & Laurel

Another Sheer Heaven Transfer

This is another Sheer Heaven image transfer. I found the image on line & everything is image transferred with the exception of a little rubber stamping on the background. I transferred a free Dover design under what was her white dress so the print would peek through the image.
I used a piece of brick wall on the side & some flower petals (Lilies, I think) at the top of the picture. I'm really enjoying the transfer of several images to one background rather than just one like I've done in the past. I find myself experimenting more now. I hope you enjoy.

Sunday Morning Art

Finally, something on a bit larger scale. Some have been urging me to go larger on my transfers.
This one is 9x12 & probably my very favorite. It is such a great feeling to create something that you feel very satisfied with. I can almost always find little things I wish I had done different but this one , I was pretty darn happy with! I have been an image transferring maniac lately! I believe I could do it everyday!!

This is a little 4x6 image transfer "Bath Time" I did using Sheer Heaven paper again. For me, I just can't see messing with the gel mediums, layer after layer, when I can spritz this paper with a little alcohol & get a transfer that looks like this. I have found only one place that sells this & you can see details at: http://www.dotcalmvillage.net/cre8it/sheerheaven.html. There's so many things you can do with this stuff & the image transferring just scratches the surface. There is also a Youtube video on it also at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAbuuIzCt1w. Don't you love her little blue shoes?

Inkjet transfer of Mother Teresa using Sheer Heaven paper.

The pic is 5x7.

Waffles anyone?

Good Saturday morning! I don't usually take pictures of food but......I could not pass up this adorable little waffle. My husband just purchased this waffle iron at an antique store in Paso Robles. We will take it camping with us next month. As you can see it makes beautiful little heart shaped waffles. You just hold it over the open flame or set it on the Coleman stove. I should have added a big strawberry & a dollop of whipped cream...yum yum! Reminds me of the days (only Fridays) that my Grandmother used to make us homemade waffles topped with strawberries & whipped cream. Those were the days for sure! The best Grandma around & I still miss her!

The open iron.












Waffle Iron

A Blog Award........Lucky Me

I was very pleasantly surprised yesterday morning when I received this very nice blog award from Diana Evans. Diana is a wonderful artist & illustrator with some of her work published in Children's Literature Magazines. Please check out her blog at http://dianaevans.blogspot.com/. You won't be disappointed!Thank you so much, Diana!

I have to now pick 7 of my favourite blogs and the rules are:

1. The winner can put the logo on their blog

2. Link the person you received your award from

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4.Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls or boys you’ve nominatedI'm passing this award on to these wonderful and talented blog friends. My 7 picks are:

Stephi http://nightowldesigns.blogspot.com/

Lisa http://tatteredtiara.blogspot.com/

Danielle http://dansnark.blogspot.com/

Lorri http://auslorri.blogspot.com/

Marilyn http://hrt2hrt4mike.blogspot.com/

Kristy http://kristychristopherson.blogspot.com/

Karin http://creativechaos.typepad.com/creative_chaos/

New Image Transfers

This was my second free image from abovethemark.com. The image was transferred with Sheer Heaven paper. I transferred quite a few images this weekend as they seemed to be coming out pretty nice. Once I'm on a roll, I could go for days! The only extras added to this one was a little rubber stamping. Picture is 5x7.










This is an image transfer using Sheer Heaven paper that takes on a bit of a different look. I started with transferring a rock wall. Once that transferred I placed another Sheer Heaven image of a white car crashing through a blue wall.
This is my first attempt at transferring over another transferred image. Picture is 5x7.

New Collage/image transfer

This is a new collage I just completed. I am very pleased with the image on the left which is an image transfer done with Sheer Heaven (I love that stuff!!) The image was free from
http://abovethemark.com/. They have great rubber stamps as well as art tutorials & free images. I think I'm going to do one more collage with another free image from them which is a pair of hands holding a small bouquet of flowers. It's very pretty. After that, I think I'll start a book. So many cool things to do! I love retirement!