More photos from Las Vegas CHA!

My computer has been acting up so I hope this goes smoothly!  I wanted to post a few more photos of all the cool stuff we saw at CHA.  When I say "we" I'm referring to my daughter Holly who loves to come with me to all things like this.

Those look like wings sprouting out of her head but they are one of the sets of wings at the Charity Wings booth.  They have the most amazing creations there.  Last time it was bras, this time giant wings.

Now those fit much better than the first pair!  I'll add some more photos tomorrow.  How about some G45?  See you soon!

CHA show in Las Vegas!

Hello everyone!  Sorry I seemed to be AWOL for the past week.  I thought I'd be able to blog from Las Vegas but it didn't work out that way.  I was able to attend the CHA show last week and it was amazing.  So many new products and fun things to play with.  I thought I'd share some of our photos.

The show was so much smaller than the one in January held in Anaheim, Calif.  Smaller to me was better since it gave me time to absorb things around me.  It also gives everyone time to not only meet the different artists but get close enough to actually see what they're making and how they make it.  We were able to spend time with Dyan Reaveley, always one of my favorite people!

We were able to see her new stamps and ink pad that will soon be available.

Lots of new characters we can all stamp with!

New journaling options too; Dyan is releasing a smaller art journal book.  We can carry this one around in our purses!

Of course Tim Holtz was there.

 The booths by Ranger were absolutely gorgeous.  So much detail involved I think you could look at them for hours and not see everything.

These are the new stencils being released by Tim.

Wendy Vecchi with her new archival ink pads in fabulous colors.

I just wanted to share a few of the things we saw last week.  I'll try to post some more of the photos tomorrow.  It is nice to be home.  Talk to you soon ~ Renee

AIRs Project/Artists Choice

My third project for IMAGINE Crafts®/Tsukineko® Artists in Residence this month is my Choice!  I’ve been working with IMAGINE Crafts®/Tsukineko® Brilliance™ Pigment Inks this month and have really come to love them!  So this card is made from scraps of my own paper made with their inks and some stencils.  First I made the paper using a Julie Fei-Fan Balzer stencil that has some stars on it.  I love the blue of IMAGINE Crafts®/Tsukineko® Brilliance™ Pigment ink in the Pearlescent Sky Blue color.  It has a beautiful sheen to it.  I used that and a sponge from my little bag of IMAGINE Crafts® InkBlushers™ to lay down the blue color on some water color paper.

 

I heat set the blue ink and then took a Balzer stencil that looks like lace and sprayed IMAGINE Crafts®Fireworks!™ Craft Spray in the Tangelo color very liberally on to the paper.  I allowed this to dry and then I cut off pieces of the paper to make ATCs and cards.  This is my favorite card that I’d like to share.

   

The sentiment is by Northwoods Rubber Stamps and the tiny flowers are from StampCow.  I added some of the newest G45 paper and a few rhinestones to finish it off.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today; I always appreciate your visits.  I hope you had a terrific weekend.  Talk to you soon~ Renée

100 Faces in 100 Days using StampCow

When I am drawing my faces each day I try to make the hair out of different things.  At times I just use Distress Stain, Zentangle techniques are always a fast and fun option, too.  Today I decided to use a couple of different stamps from StampCow so it looked more "organic".  I ended up with a face of a Wood Nymph. 

Even her necklace has a little fairy on it!  I drew her using a Jane Davenport stencil as a guide.  The background is a piece of paper made with my Gelli Plate and acrylic paints.  All of the stamps are by StampCow.  We are heading into the weekend and hopefully some cooler weather!  Have a great weekend, thanks for stopping by. ~ Renee



Stampotique Challenge::SDC 109 Clean and Simple

Gez is the hostess this week at the Stampotique Challenge and her theme is Clean and Simple.  I came up with a card that is a little more clean and simple than I would normally do.  The stamp is called "Relaxin".

I hope you're managing to stay cool this summer!  Our weather today is part of the continuing heatwave, it'll be over 90F with high humidity.  Yesterday was a real scorcher too.  I just manage to run outside, water my garden, run back inside. Take care, talk to you soon.  Have a great day! ~ Renee

100 Faces in 100 Days~Day 40

I continue on my self imposed journey of 100 faces in 100 days!  Day 40.....every day is different.  Some days I just do a quick sketch with my "magic" pencil, other days I pull out the paints.  Today I decided to do a sketch with the magic pencil, Stabilo Aquarellable, and some Gelatos for color.  I drew my face on water color paper.  The color is all just scribbles with the Gelatos by Faber-Castell.  Then I sprayed the Gelatos with water and blasted it with my computer Power Duster can of air.  I should really try cleaning my keyboard with this stuff, I use it up on art work.....go figure.  I sprayed more water on the Gelatos and air dried the image with my heat gun, allowing the water to run down her face.

A close up of her face

"Splat" seems to be a good name for her!

I hope this finds you all well.  Have a great week, thanks for stopping by, I always appreciate the visit.  Take care~Renee

Stampotique Challenge!

My second challenge for this month as a member of the IMAGINE Crafts/Tsukineko AIRs group (Artists in Residence) is to develop a project with a theme using Stampotique stamps.  My theme for this project is aptly named “Summertime”.  As most people know I am a HUGE fan of any and all Stampotique stamps so this project was a delight.

I decided to use my IMAGINE Crafts®/Tsukineko® Brilliance™ Pigment Ink full-size ink pads  for this project.  The summery colors are perfect for a group of all occasion cards to keep on hand for emergency card giving.  Here is the group of Brilliance™ colors that I’ll be working with:   Victorian Violet, Mediterranean Blue, Pearlescent Sky Blue, Gamma Green, Sunflower Yellow, Rocket Red, and Pearlescent Orange.

I stamped the images with IMAGINE Crafts®/Tsukineko® Memento ™ Dye Ink full-size ink pad in Tuxedo Black and heat set them.  Each card was colored in with Brilliance™ Ink using IMAGINE Crafts®/Tsukineko® Fantastix™ Multi-Purpose Applicators

I used scrap paper for all of the background papers that the stamped panels are mounted on.  In the end I have a lovely collection of all-occasion cards using warm summer colors.

"Twinkie" with balloons by Stampendous

"Hunk" with balloons by Stampendous

"Smile"

"Girl with Heart Purse" and flowers by Stampland

It has been my pleasure to team up with Tsukineko and Stampotique for this week.  I appreciate the adorable stamp that they gifted me called "Smile".  Always nice to add a new member to my Stampotique family .  If you get a chance to check out their website, they have all types of stamps and challenges there for you to take a look at, not to mention a fantastic design team full of amazing artists!

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by my blog today.  If you get a chance please leave a comment, I love to hear from you.  Take care and I hope you are having a lovely weekend! ~ Renee

Stampendous Shoes!

I am teaching a class at Ink About It in Westford,  MA on August 10 between 10 am and noon.  The class will be a card making class using the Stampendous stamp called "Click Heels".  We will be making the following three cards so if this interests you please give them a call and sign up for the class.

I am including their link so you can check out some of the great classes they have going on now and some of the future ones that I've already signed up for! 

Have a great day, talk to you soon~Renee
Ink About It

The Challenge of using Brillliance Inks for "summer" creations

Just like everyone else, cards are something I need all year round.  You never know when someone needs a “hug” by way of a card or just to say a quick hello.  My AIRs (Artists in Residence) challenge with Tsukineko/Imagine Crafts today is using Brilliance Inks with summery colors.

If you haven’t used these inks before this is a quick explanation of what they are and what you can use them for:  IMAGINE Crafts/Tsukineko Brilliance Pigment Ink Pads are excellent for most glossy surfaces, including vellum, photos and coated papers. Brilliance Ink is also perfect for stamping on or applying directly to ordinary paper, tissue, wood and other porous surfaces. Most colors are pearlescent.  Brilliance Ink is acid-free, fade-resistant, non-toxic and child-safe, great to know since the colors are so pretty.

Here is a photo of some of the product I received to work with this month.

The IMAGINE Crafts®/Tsukineko® Brilliance™ Pigment Inks full-size ink pads are absolutely gorgeous and rich.  I had seven colors to choose from:  Victorian Violet, Mediterranean Blue, Pearlescent Sky Blue, Gamma Green, Rocket Red, Sunflower Yellow and Pearlescent Orange.  In some cases I laid two colors onto my craft mat, sprayed the ink with water and blended them together on the mat.  This way I had even more colors to work with.

I used the inks for rubber stamping and for coloring in the images.  To use them like paint I have IMAGINE Crafts®/Tsukineko® Fantastix™ Multi-Purpose Applicators dedicated to each color.  It makes it simple to get into the tiny close areas in the image and lay down the exact color that I want.  I also used a stenciling type paint brush to help create my backgrounds for each card.  The sponges called IMAGINE Crafts® Inkblushers™ are also very helpful in applying the background colors.

I tore paper and laid down lines of ink with the paint brush and the Inkblushers to get an almost marbleized effect.  This is set aside to dry, which with this product doesn’t  long.  I did about three sheets of background paper all different colors this way.

Now that I have background paper I started stamping my images with IMGAINE Crafts/Tsukineko Memento Dye Ink full-size ink pad in Tuxedo Black.  I decided to use all Stampotique images for this project so I had some real characters to choose from and quirky sentiments.  I used the same ink pad with the Fantastix applicators to apply color to them.

"Prom Queen" by Daniel Torrente is my favorite

 

"Prom Queen" by Daniel Torrente and Stampotique phrase by Carol's Collection

Now I ask you, who wouldn't be cheered by these happy little faces and sentiments?  My 87 year old mother loves them.  Go figure.

"Moth Fab" by artist Daniel Torrente

"Girl with Lunchbox" by Daniel Torrente and Stampotique phrase by Carol's Collection

For the background paper on the last one I used a cube stamp by Invoke Arts and applied each of the different colors on a piece of white card stock then put my glossy paper panel with the image and phrase on top of that.  Then the entire panel is glued to a folded white card.  Another great thing about the Brilliance Inks is that they work well with Copics; just heat set the inks before applying the Copics.  Copics provide the perfect red for an embarrassed look.  :-)

I hope you enjoyed my quirky cards today.  These are always my favorite stamps to work with, they just make me smile or laugh the whole time I'm working with them.

Thanks for stopping by, I always appreciate the visit.  If you have time to leave a comment I would love to hear what you think.  Have a great upcoming LONG weekend, I hope it allows you some creative time.  Take care ~ Renee

The Art of Zentangle and 100 Faces

I just got a new book and I love playing with it!  It is called The Art of Zentangle by Walter Foster and is a sort of work book. 

One of my all time favorite Zentangle Inspired Artists is named Norma J. Burnell.  She is a CZT and one of the most amazing artists I've ever seen.  The morning before I bought this book I was looking at her work and wondering "how does she do this?!"  I found the book at the bookstore and guess what?  She has a whole section, pages 56 to 89, showing how she does her gorgeous "fantasy" drawings.  I need to spend some time doing the tangles step by step but first of all I had to jump right in and try to do it.  Not the best results but that is why it is a workbook and has it broken down step by step.  Here is the first face I did using this book.

Now I'll calm down, go back and learn how to do it right.  This rough sketch can count for one of my 100 Faces so it is not a  total waste.  If you have a chance to check out the book please do so.  It has many fantastic artists showing simple directions to inspire each of us to relax, breathe and enjoy the Zentangle process.

Have a great day, thanks for stopping by!  Talk to you soon~Renee