Hurricane Matthew~the view from Myrtle Beach, SC

Just a short posting to let you know the storm came through and left, we're still here, we didn't blow away! Hurricane Matthew hit parts of the Caribbean and Florida very hard, we were expecting a Category 2 hurricane here in South Carolina but fortunately it was downgraded by the time it arrived here.  It still did tremendous damage in Charleston and north of here in North Carolina.  Our house is just far enough inland that we were not ordered to evacuate.  We did lose power for parts of three days, the Internet was down even longer.  The worst day was Saturday with that terrible wind and rain that blew sideways.  I felt like a little dog running from window to window watching the storm rage.  Siding was blowing off of houses in our neighborhood. What an amazing display of power!  We ventured out the next day and took a few pictures of the surrounding area.  After driving around the block I'd seen enough and just wanted to go home.

This is the entry to our complex

Many homes suffered flooding in their yards

A lot of windows were boarded up

At least these poles were still standing, even though a little crooked, many had snapped off.

A lot of the fences were blown apart.

We had our grill in the garage so I made all our meals, including our morning coffee, on that.  Everything in the fridge and freezer was on ice.  My daughter, Holly, was visiting from California for the week so she felt like she was on a glorified camping trip.  Now she said she can check off "survived a hurricane" from her bucket list even though it was never there.  We're all Southern Californians so we know earthquakes, not hurricanes, it was a little unnerving to say the least.

It was such a beautiful day on Sunday and has continued to be lovely weather ever since.  The cleanup here began as soon as the storm passed and I'm sure by next week it will look as if nothing ever happened.

We did get a new neighbor who now lives in our pond, we noticed her/him the next day...an alligator.  Our very own Nessie.  It is about 5 feet long, I'm just hoping it doesn't eat all my sweet turtles that live in that pond.  I call "breakfast" and about 4 of the turtles come swimming down to be fed.  I just hope they're not breakfast any time soon.  My next door neighbor warned me today to be careful when I go out the back door since we don't have a fence around the yard as yet.  I don't want to be "breakfast" or worse, a snack.

I'll share some of my artful creations done during that down time in another blog posting.  I'm grateful for so many things right now and just glad the storm has left.  I'm so sorry that so many others are suffering from the immense power of Matthew.  My thoughts and prayers are with them.  I do want to thank so many of my friends, relatives and  art sisters from around the world that checked up on me during those dark days. Thank you all.
Hugs~ Renee

A Coloring Studio Project using a page from Volume III

When Stampington was looking for coloring book pages for Vol. 3 of the Coloring Studio,  I thought of a page I had done about a year ago that combined Stampotique rubber stamped images with Zentangle designs.  Here is the uncolored page and how I colored it in with Brushos and Memento markers.

While I might not have been thrilled with the end results of the colored in page, I could see opportunities to use it in the future.  I used it to create the colorful and funky top of a small storage box.

Color in a page out of the Coloring Studio coloring book.  Photocopy the colored in page onto heavy cardstock.    Choose a part of the page that measures the same dimensions as the top of the box and cut it to fit the top of the painted box.  Save the scraps to make cards.

Supplies:

Inks:  Permanent inks to distress edges of paper panel chosen to fit the top

Other:

Cardboard box, Chalkboard Paint (black), strong adhesive such as: E6000, Idea-o-logy metal feet

DIRECTIONS:

1.     Choose a card board box, new or recycled and paint it inside and out with black Chalkboard paint.  When dry attach metal feet to the bottom of box with a strong adhesive and begin working on the lid.  Allow paint to dry completely.

2.     Cut a piece of background paper, this one is from a coloring book page that has been colored and photocopied onto heavy cardstock and is a “master board”.

3.     Adhere panel to a piece of card board cardstock, glue with a strong adhesive to the box.  The inside of the box can be further decorated.

So tell me...what do you do with your coloring book pages when you're done?  I'd love to hear about it.
Thanks for stopping by ~ Renee