My first Gel Transfer in almost two years!

This is the first gel medium transfer I've done in almost two years. Once I found Sheer Heaven I threw the Gel Medium aside. This one was printed on a 4x6 piece of G & G digital glossy photo paper. I received several packages of this when I ordered ink. They were freebies. I printed my inkjet image from my Epson & did three coats of the gel medium, letting each dry well. I placed the print on the decorated canvas & heat set. Once that cooled, I applied a little water to work the paper off. This is the FIRST successful transfer I've done from my inkjet. I do not use Durabrite inks. I am not even sure if it's a pigment or a dye ink. Bottom line is....It worked!
I could not believe it!



















One of my new image transfers using Sheer Heaven.
The center image is a transfer & the rest is rubber
stamping Pic is 5x7 & I love her!

New Image Transfer

This is an image transfer I did this weekend. It is 12x12. This one is a regular canvas & not the flat one. I really do NOT like working with this type of canvas. I always have a terrible time pressing everything down. I had so many wrinkles in the paper it was ridiculous. Once the top coat dried you couldn't really see it too much. From now on...it's flat canvas for me!
My mind was running a little wild & I believe this pic is evidence of that. Very busy! Even though...I am still pretty happy with it. I did a lot more rubber stamping & only the one image transfer in the middle. The image transfer was done with my favorite, Sheer Heaven.
Have a wonderful week everyone!

Happy Friday with Zoo Pictures

Good morning with Santa Barbara Zoo pictures from last week. I love the Giraffe. They are so sleek looking & beautiful. I could just kiss their cute little faces! It was a great day in Santa Barbara with wonderful, cool weather.

How about this? An origami fractal.

Made with five, one dollar bills. No tape

& no glue. Cute huh!

NowPublic requests one of my photos for news story

I received an email last night from http://www.nowpublic.com/asking if they could post one of my Zoo pictures on their site for a news story they're doing on a Lion hunt in Belfast. I was more than happy to share my photo with them.
The photo was taken at the Santa Barbara Zoo last week. See the link below to read the story.


NowPublic says:Thank you for sharing your photo! This photograph appears in a NowPublic news story: 'Lion sightings' spark big cat hunt in Belfast.

Printing mistake = Psychedelic Transfer Of Dexter

I did this image transfer yesterday (using Sheer Heaven, of course) but my printer was running out of ink. Because Sheer Heaven IS pricey....I hate to lose even one piece of it. I thought I would just go for it & attempt a transfer anyway. It turned out a little different looking..almost psychedelic! The image was transferred to a decorative paper with light silver swirls in it. It was too bland! I took out the expensive crayons I bought 2 years ago & used them for the 1st time to add a little color to the paper. I placed it on a 5x7 canvas which I first painted gold & then added a coat of red. I rubberstamped the edges into the wet red paint which brought the gold back to the surface. I placed the paper with the image over that. After all, how unattractive can it be with such a beautiful subject?

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!

New collage/image transfer Ozzybird

This is a picture I completed last week of my Yellow Nape Amazon Parrot. I did an image transfer of Ozzy using Sheer Heaven paper & collaged the rest with various bird items etc. We acquired Ozzybird in 1984 & he passed away in 2001. He was a wonderful little bird that just talked all the time! We still miss him very much!

Pay it Forward

Time for me to reciprocate for the lovely award I received from Chaska Peacock.

The Arte y Pico Award is meant to be paid forward to five bloggers who you want to recognize for their creative talents, interesting material, and overall contribution to the blogger community...helping to make the world a better place, one blog pots at a time!Now it's your turn...If you have been selected for the award, please pay it forward, following the steps below:1) Choose 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award based on creativity, design, interesting material, and overall contribution to the blogger community, regardless of the language.2) Post the name of the author and a link to his or her blog so everyone can view it.3) Each award-winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award.4) The award-winner and the presenter should post the link of the "Arte y pico" blog so everyone will know the origin of this award.5) Please post these rules! - Be my guest to copy and paste from here..The Arte y Pico blog is in Spanish.To read it in English, click here. The translation is not perfect.

The blogs I have selected are:

Heather Robinson at: http://creativesolace.blogspot.com/

Elaine Barr at: http://elainebarrdesigns.blogspot.com/

Jodi at: http://artfromthehart.blogspot.com/

Annette Husband at: http://goannafive.blogspot.com/

Minnie Helvey at: http://herminnie.blogspot.com/

I hope you are all as pleased to receive this award as I was!

My First Blog Award!

How about this?? I received my first Blog award which was bestowed upon me by Chaska Peacock at http://innerbalanceintegration.com/. Mine was one of five awarded for creative talents, interesting material & overall contributions to the blogger community. In the next few days I will pass on awards to 5 other bloggers to keep this wonderful feeling going. The award is actually titled Arte y Pico Award. The Arte y Pico blog is in Spanish.To read it in English, click here. The translation is not perfect. I'll go into a little more detail when I send my awards. If you have a chance, check out Chaska's website above. She has some great inspirational thoughts listed. It really does make you stop & think about yourself & how truly important it is to just simply love yourself! This whole award has been very moving & inspires me even more. Thanks to all of you that stop by and visit my blog!

Wooden Dolls

Since I have no new art to post I am posting some dolls that my husband, Vic & I made a while back. The doll with the extraordinary headdress was one I did in a class about 1 1/2 years ago. She has 2 sides & I was quite happy with the way she turned out. It was the first art class I had taken & it was a birthday gift from my sister. Well......Vic didn't really like the design of my doll so he found a pattern in Somerset Studios magazine & made his own doll. She turned out so very cute. The actual pattern was for a cardboard doll but he went the extra mile & cut it all out of wood. This girl can DO the splits!!!! Love her!

Working with some new rubber stamps

It's going to be another blazing day in So. California! I am going to stay inside today & hopefully start something new. I ordered another bunch of stamps from http://www.addictedtorubberstamps.com/ which came a few days ago. They have a great selection with new ones coming all the time. I really love working with rubber stamps and I am gearing up for the big stamp show next weekend in Carson, Ca. I can't wait!
I believe I have enough pictures done now to cover an entire Memories Mist wall!

The Memories Mist was applied a little differently on this one. I sprayed the ink on a rag & blotted it on the stampboard.

Teapots from the de Young museum

Since I don't have any new projects to post I thought I would show more pictures from the de Young museum. These really were amazing teapots. What people don't come up with....I love it!All in all, it was a grand trip. The weather was too warm but that's a small price to pay for all the adventure that comes with the beautiful city of San Francisco. I did manage to hit Flax, my favorite paper store, again this trip. I believe I could spend an entire day in that store but I set limits for myself this trip. I didn't want to haul too much home with me.
I loved seeing my sister, Gail; my niece, Alexis and her friend, Alicia. Alexis & Alicia know their way around the city very well so that really helped us. I'm looking forward to another trip in a few months.

Flower shop in San Francisco