making cards...

I hope your holidays have been great!  I can't believe we're already into January.  I took down my Christmas tree today, 'cause I really stretch out the Christmas season as long as I can get away with it.  I've done a few scrapbook projects these last few weeks, but it seems like they were all done in a whirlwind, and I needed to wrap them up before I could even photograph and post them!  Deedee and I are in serious need of a crafting day together, and now that the holidays have past, we're looking forward to getting together and throwing ideas back and forth.

With my Memory Bound gift card, I picked up a new Tim Holtz die cut.  It's a lot of fun.  Aeva modeled it for me before I decided to put it on a card.  Here are photos of both Aeva and the thank you card she inspired.  :-)

Happy New Year!

Flower Emma...

Resources:  12x12 inch canvas with gallery edges, acrylic paints and mediums, pages from vintage magazine, personal drawings, packing material,  Cottagearts photo filters, Tim Holtz flower die cut, K&Company Studio K Round Word Brads

What a wonderful rainy day... the perfect day to scrappage.  On my first visit to the scrapbook store here in Ankeny, I picked up a book on photo transfers.  It shows all kinds of ways to tranfer your photos on other materials.  Here is my first attempt at combining, photography, painting, and scrapbook on canvas.  It's so much fun.

This portrait canvas has gallery edges, so it's ready to hand on the wall.  My big plan is to put together some canvas transfer kits with all the supplies with a how-to (I want to make a video how-to tutorial too!), so I can do workshops and people can make their own canvas photo portraits.  Let me know if you'd be interested in a workshop.  I'm also making Custom Portrait Canvases available at my gallery.  (click here to visit my goodnewsart gallery)

New scrapbook pages - Journey

I made up some new product packages called, "God so loved the world" that I will post soon to my etsy shop. There are fun magnified words from my mom's bible, and a church, and other fun embellishments that have handwriting on them. Angela came over, and we played with the product to make two scrapbook pages with photos of my dad and my grandfather. We used scrapbook paper by Heidi Swapp with punch out letters - journey. We also used some die cuts by Tim Holtz, which were so much fun with the nostalgic pictures and theme.

If you click on the photos - you can see them up close.

let your imagination soar...

Today, I got to play with my new Gingerbread die cuts by Quickutz, and my gorgeous new scrapbook paper - Que Sera Sera by K&Company.  It's double-sided and so rich in texture.  I found a few images in an old antiques magazine from 1964, and put those in.... plus the beautiful birds that Deedee cut out for me with from her Cricut - Heritage Cartridge - from the glossy paper with alcohol inks (you can see them in progress a few posts back.).  My oldest daughter worked on her own scrapbook, while I cut and played.  The twins played with their doll house and played lots of hide and seek.  It's been a rainy, thunder storm, crazy - stay inside if at all possible - kind of days.  Those are the perfect kind of days to let your imagination soar.

New tools in my red bag...

This morning I'm going to Deedee's house for our weekly creative get together.  I can't wait.  Deedee's been working with polymer clay, and I've been learning about all the die cut options, machines, and embossing powders.  Adriaan took me to Archivers this weekend, and told me to feel free to buy a die cut machine, so he watched the girls and I was able to demo their die cut machines.  I ended up coming home with a Big Shot Express, and a few die cuts to get me started.  The lady who helped me bought the other one they had in stock.  We were both sold.  I bought a few Tim Holtz dies and a Sizzix tag die cut.  So, here are the experiments I made last night, trying out my new die cuts, some of the color copies of the collages I've made, and my new embossing powders.  So, all my new tools are packed in this red bag, filled to the brim with my tools, papers, and new machinery.  I told Adriaan yesterday, that I was so excited about all the ideas swarming around my brain, that I was on the verge of tears.  I don't know if too much coffee was playing a role there, but either way... I'm excited.  I'll post some of the highlights of me and Deedee's day later!