More Organizing

 Hello and Welcome...and a wonderful Memorial Day to you!

Although I am not sure that's I how I should say it since

this weekend is in Memory of the Men and Women 

that gave their lives for all of us in United States 

to continue to live life as we know it.

Even though we may have some crazy times here in the U.S.,

I wouldn't trade living here for anywhere else in the world.

I am proud to be American and am grateful and feel blessed 

for all that I have in my life and owe it all to those Men and Women 

that gave us all their most precious gift.

Thank you!

I had the pleasure of having a long weekend off of work and was able to not only create, but organize!

Yes, for some reason, it makes me happy to organize...

I know, I'm crazy, but that's ok!  LOL!!!

I made a marker organizer a few months back with my grape drink canisters.

And although I loved that organizer, 

my collection grew and wanted them all in one place.

I also wanted to have it so that I could just use my watercolor markers,

or just use my alcohol markers since I use various desks to create on.

So I kept my alcohol markers in the canisters 

and made a separate part for my watercolor markers.

 On top of where my alcohol markers are,

I am able to keep my watercolor paints, and if my collection grows,

there is enough room for another layer of canisters.

 I then made a whole box out of foam board that fits both organizers...

all of my markers and watercolor paints, on my back desk.

 I then wanted to fix up the organizer I made for my pencils.

I had extra foam board and decided to make it a bit bigger 

so I can disperse my pencils more than they were.

I added chalkboard paper I had in my stash for the longest time

and was able to write on each side what I have.

 That was just an added bonus...

but I kept the toilet tissue rolls inside to separate my colors

and was actually able to add another roll to each row.

 In the middle I have my stumps, gamsol, sharpener, twinkling H2Os,

brushes and other various items that I use with my pencils.

Now I just pick the box up off my back desk and can move it 

around to wherever I am working.

 It totally works for me and I am loving it so far.

It's great to see everyone's different ways of organizing...

I was looking at store bought organizers, 

but they were either too pricey (would rather spend that on supplies),

or too stationary...and as I have stated, I need to have the portability.

Thanks so much for visiting and 

I hope you enjoy your weekend as much as I have!

I hope you enjoyed these creations...
and as always with all of the pictures on my blog...
you can always click on the pictures for bigger, detailed pictures.

Also...I would love to know if there is anything you would like to see on my blog.  Let me know if there is a specific item you would like to see used, or a theme...or any suggestions you may have about what you have seen.
I would love any feedback you may have whatsoever, just comment below.
I'd LOVE to hear from you!!!

Thank you so much for visiting and take care!!!

Something Old and Something New

Hello and Welcome!!!

As the name of this blog states...
Something Old and Something New!

The Something Old is something I found while cleaning up my studio.

My Portfolio.

 
I totally forgot about it and tucked it away in my closet a long time ago.

Opening it up, I found a couple of items I made way back in the day.

Yes, those were my former initials...CM and the year - 1989!

Almost 30 years ago!  ACK!

Another from 1989...as you can see I was into the whole 80's type of artwork.

This one I know is from College.

I did take a lettering class then and this is one of my favorite quotes

from Emily Dickinson.

Here is actually the oldest thing I found in my portfolio.

It is from my High School lettering class.

(Yes, they did have lettering classes back then! LOL!!!)

We were to make a banner of our favorite quotes, plus one of our own, 

and do them in various style lettering.

The front panel is my own quote.

I cut the banner so I could put it in my portfolio, but kept all of the panels.

 Wild to find and see...especially since I have been wanting to get back into lettering lately.

Now on to the Something New...

Here are a couple of panels I have been doing lately 

after immersing myself in Lettering on Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest.

These are all done on Bristol board and I pencil them out first.

Then with this one I colored it in with alcohol markers and my white gel pen.

This one is actually the first one I have done recently.

I just love the saying and I believe we all need to realize this every once in a while when we think our life is just being difficult.

I colored this one in with just my multi-liners and white gel pen.

 

This one was so much fun to do since I was able to incorporate

some cute pictures in it as well.

I used my multi-liners and Prismacolor pencils.

I hope you enjoyed going down memory lane with me as well as seeing some of the items that I have been working on.

I think it is just crazy that 30 years later I have found myself wanting to get back into lettering...and seeing where I was 30 years ago as well.

I hope you enjoyed these creations...

and as always with all of the pictures on my blog...

you can always click on the pictures for bigger, detailed pictures.

Also...I would love to know if there is anything you would like to see on my blog.  Let me know if there is a specific item you would like to see used, or a theme...or any suggestions you may have about what you have seen.

I would love any feedback you may have whatsoever, just comment below.

I'd LOVE to hear from you!!!

Thank you so much for visiting and take care!!!

May Flowers

Hello and Welcome!!!

This weeks theme was watercolors and flowers.
I am still having so much fun practicing with watercolors!

This first one I stamped with Weathered Wood Distress Ink.
I wanted to use distress ink since it reacts with water and kind of disappears as you use watercolors with the image.

I painted this image with Sakura Koi Watercolor Pan Paints.
I loved the pigment you get from these paints.
I also noticed that I had to use them quite differently than pencils.
I put water down in each section before putting pigment down and it made the paint flow much better.

Here the image is totally painted.
As you can see, the distress inks do look as if they disappeared.

I then die cut the image with a scalloped circle and added it to a larger pink scalloped circle, then to a dark purple card base.
I also added some pink rhinestones.

On this image I stamped it with Versafine Black ink to watercolor paper.

I also used the Watercolor paints with this image, but since the various flowers were smaller, it was harder to get the shadows working.

I die cut this image and added it to a red embossed panel with rounded corners and then to a white card base with rounded corners.
I also added some pearls at each corner.

For this next image, the rose, I used the distress inks again on watercolor paper.

When done with this image,
I thought there was way too much white to the panel so I circle cut the image,
added it to a red panel, then to a black card base.

I hope you enjoyed the week of flowers...I am still having so much fun learning about all the various mediums out there.
I figure...may as well try them out and keep practicing!!!

Oh...just wanted to share...while in my studio I sometimes have two visitors.
This one here is Bella...relaxing as I am creating.

Next is Marley...laying asleep on her back as I am creating.

Sometimes they both are here, sometimes its just one or the other...
but can't seem to get away from these two, nor would I want to!!!

I hope you enjoyed these creations...
and as always with all of the pictures on my blog...
you can always click on the pictures for bigger, detailed pictures.

Also...I would love to know if there is anything you would like to see on my blog.  Let me know if there is a specific item you would like to see used, or a theme...or any suggestions you may have about what you have seen.
I would love any feedback you may have whatsoever, just comment below.
I'd LOVE to hear from you!!!

Thank you so much for visiting and take care!!!

Loca Bokeh

Hello and Welcome!!!

I wanted to share with you a technique that I know is up and around,

but it's my first time to play with it, so I have a step by step of what I did.

The technique is called Bokeh,

which the definition of this word is as follows:

'the visual quality of the out-of-focus areas of a photographic image, especially as rendered by a particular lens'

So here's my take on this, and of course I had to use my watercolors!

First I taped down two pieces of watercolor paper 

so I could get two done at the same time.

Yes, sometimes I actually do think ahead! LOL!!!

 I use the blue masking tape and it is for delicate surfaces.

I have not had a problem with this ripping my paper...yet.

So I then wet the two pieces of paper with clean water

and one I used a purple and orange watercolor paint,

and the other I used two different colors of blue.

I also took the colors and hit my brush on top of the paper so it would splatter.

I then waited for them to dry...

who am I kidding, I am way too impatient and used my heating tool to dry them!  LOL!!!

I then took a piece of acetate and ran it through my die cutting machine

with various sized circle dies to make a stencil for the next step.

I took my white ink pad and a dauber and inked the stencil all over the page.

There is the bokeh technique...use it often it is a great background.

Saying that...I decided to use it as a background.

This little Wild Rose bunny and butterfly stamp was colored

in watercolor pencils.

I then rounded the corners and added it to the bokeh background.

Then I added both to a blue cardstock base and there you have it!

I think it came out very cute...what do you think?

Have you tried this technique...share with me!!!

I hope you enjoyed these creations...
and as always with all of the pictures on my blog...
you can always click on the pictures for bigger, detailed pictures.

Also...I would love to know if there is anything you would like to see on my blog.  Let me know if there is a specific item you would like to see used, or a theme...or any suggestions you may have about what you have seen.
I would love any feedback you may have whatsoever, just comment below.
I'd LOVE to hear from you!!!

Thank you so much for visiting and take care!!!

A Month of Cards

Hello, Welcome and Happy Mother's Day!!!

So I may have been gone from my blog for a month...
but that doesn't mean I have not been creating!

I have been having a lot of fun using watercolor pencils, watercolor paints
...and yeah, watercolors in general I guess you can say! LOL!!!

I am just going to make this post short and sweet and hope you
enjoy the following cards that I have made recently.

I promise to have more of a blog post next week...more detailed,
but I really wanted to let my cards do the talking on this post.

Art Impressions Stamp

Art Impressions Stamp

Art Impressions Stamp

Art Impressions Stamp - This one is with Alcohol Markers

Wild Rose Stamp

MFT Stamp

Art Impressions Stamp

Art Impressions Stamp

Lawn Fawn Stamp

Wild Rose Stamp

Art Impressions Stamp

I hope you enjoyed these creations...
and as always with all of the pictures on my blog...
you can always click on the pictures for bigger, detailed pictures.

Also...I would love to know if there is anything you would like to see on my blog.  Let me know if there is a specific item you would like to see used, or a theme...or any suggestions you may have about what you have seen.
I would love any feedback you may have whatsoever, just comment below.
I'd LOVE to hear from you!!!

Thank you so much for visiting and take care!!!