Books Blog Hop at Artistic Outpost

The February blog hop theme is "Books" at Artistic Outpost and with so many lovely stamps sets that fit the theme, I decided to add to my newly started Travel Journal with a couple of pages! For more inspiration and great art, be sure to visit all of the talented DT.

Terry (me), Shari, Tracy, Gerrie, Kate, Lisa

I have already admitted that I am on shaky ground where journaling is concerned and am not sure what I am doing. For this being my journal with my life, I decided to go with the flow and make it mine and in my style. Over Valentine's Day we went to Portland, OR where my daughter and grandson now live. Not that February is the time of year to visit the City of Roses (and lots of rain), but Holly's birthday is also in that month and that weekend worked out for all of us. As it turned out, the weather was totally gorgeous with no rain at all!

The background started with painting on  Distress Stains (Broken China, Peeled Paint, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain) and spritzing water to blend. Next I added texture using modeling paste and also Distress inks through various stencils.

Using the Airplane from Industrial Backgrounds our flight begins and using various words from Huck Finn, so appropriate for traveling, where stamped in Black Archival.

I cut apart the Alpha block stamp letters from the Secretary Pool for PORTLAND. Next to finish the on route page, I painted the Alpha Part, added some rubs, colored and cracked my world!

The next page was designed for our arrival.

The roses were cut from Tim's Wallflower paper, fussy cut and crackled as after all Portland is the City of Roses.

The tickets were cut, inked and I added some Broken China through a stencil. The sentiment is from the Typography collection.

When in Portland there are many wonderful restaurants and using the new release The Baker, I stamped her on a 7 Gypsies tag, which of course was inked first and stamped in Coffee Archival. I water colored in some of pans for interest. I wanted her to pop a little, so kept ink away from her and the bread dough. 

On the back I will note the restaurants we did visit. 

Finished it off with a few butterflies and a lattice trim stained and crackled. 

Hope you enjoyed my little travel journal piece and I do thank you for stopping by. Have a wonderful day!

Tim's February Tag of 2015

Had almost forgot that I had not done Tim's February Tag, but here it is! As always I stuck pretty much with Tim's guidelines and just changed it up a bit to be a little less for Valentine's Day. Wanting to play along with Inspiration Journal's "Love Is In The Air," I added some travel ephemera elements as well as a red heart!

Using various bits for the background, my paint choice was Antique Linen for the shabby look. I did also flick on some paint using a toothbrush.

I did have some felt, but remembered I had this piece of red crackled grunge paper and decided to use something I had been saving! You know I wanted to use a flash card for the background and could not find the pack! It is so sad I tell you!

When all was finished I decided to use a crackle stamp (or I think) from Tim's Joyful Song to add a little extra interest. That was the extent of any stamping! This was another fun tag!

I sure hope you are having a wonderful weekend or ending of the weekend. Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment!

Holly and the Ivy

Hope you all are doing well and enjoying the last week in February. I am always quite amazed how quickly time goes by, but really fast in a short month!

Today I am sharing this lovely Holly and the Ivy card at Artistic Outpost. If you would like to read about all the details, please click right here! This is still a little time left to join in the monthly "Show Us Your AO Art" challenge for a chance to win!!

Sorry I have been MIA, but we actually took a mini vacation and went to see my Holly over Valentine's Day and her birthday a few days later. It was so nice to get away.

Thank you so much for stopping by and have a lovely weekend!

Skating Sweethearts!

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you and I hope regardless of what you do or with who, that your weekend is full of love and beauty! "Love is in the Air" at Inspiration Journal and this literally is just that!

This little wooden heart was altered seriously, just to wish you all a day of love and the belief that friendship never does melt, but I know there are a few of you that want that snow to melt! To begin with I spackled on some gesso , as I see Astrid do with her gorgeous creations, which when dried, I painted with a mix of white acrylic paint and Dylusions London Bus spray. When this was dry, I added some stenciled hearts using white paint. The little cuties from Artist Outpost's "Skating Emporium," were stamped directly on the heart using black Archival and heat set. Next was some watercoloring using Brushed Corduroy, Antique Linen, Vintage Photo and Tattered Rose. I did give their little faces a little wash with white paint, but noticed some of the blue came through anyway. Oh such is life.

The snow is a mix of white paint, gloss varnish and Rock Candy glitter. Stamped and cut apart the sentiment and all was sealed with a spray and gel medium. Added a little bouquet of roses to finish.

Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

The Baker!

Hope you all are doing well! It is fast approaching Valentine's Day and this little cutie, "The Baker," is cooking up some sweetness over at Artistic Outpost! If you have the time and would like all the details and some extra photos just click HERE.

We actually have some plans for the Valentine's Day weekend and I hope you all are doing something wonderful with someone you love! Thank you so much for stopping by to visit!

Central Park Skate Emporium

Good Friday to you all and thank you for stopping by for my little skate party! The Skate Emporium stamp set from Artistic Outpost, reminds me of my days in Upstate New York. Now that is talking about cold and snow and tons of it. One year my Dad picked me up from work. I was about 16/17 and he had also picked up my half-brother from the train station. On the attempted way home, we got stuck in the worse snow storm and the car was on the side of the road in a snow drift. It was terrible and we had a good 1/2 hour drive to make it home. Well that was not going to happen and we all sat in the car for awhile and then a huge snowplow truck came towards us and honestly we thought that was it. He missed us, but sadly did not see us! So my Dad decides that his cousin was not too far away and we better walk. Oh I kid you not, it got to the point where I could go no further. I was so cold and so weak and my poor Dad thought I was going to die and he carried me the rest of the way through waist high snow and I am not exaggerating. We ended up spending the entire weekend at relatives house and as scary as that night was, it became one of those talked about and fond memories. So now onto my tag!

Using a jumbo tag, as I wanted to get all of these goodies without cramping their style, I stamped the snowflake using VersaMark and clear embossed. My inky colors of choice were Antique Linen, Gathered Twigs, Vintage Photo and then splattered on some white paint. Ironed off the EP and then shaded in Walnut Stain, Black Soot and then distressed the edges.

These two are just so sweet and were stamped in Black Archival and water colored using Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, Tattered Rose and then inked over with Antique Linen and of course fussy cut! The background skating ring was stamped in Black Archival and I inked over the skyline portion using Gathered Twigs.

Finally the ticket was cut and stamped as the tag background and then the Advertisement was stamped in Black Archival and clear embossed for a raised effect. Added a few stars and a little bow to finish.

With the start of February, the new "Show Us Your AO Art" challenge is in full swing and remember you can win a store gift card! Hope you enjoyed my rather long story and have a lovely weekend!

Tic Tac Toe at AVJ!

I am so glad you have stopped by today and hope your week is going well. Tic Tac Toe is the current and what a fun challenge at AVJ and chosen by the wonderful Annie. For a chance to win a prize from Country View Crafts, please share your Tim inspired projects with us and for more inspiration and a feast for the eyes, you will want to see what the rest of the team has for you! There are going to be some exciting changes with AVJ's challenges, so be sure to check out the main challenge blog for all the details.

For this challenge I went on the diagonal with Idea-ology, Ephemera and Stains. No stamps or ink this time around and that was a challenge for me! Now you can incorporate those items, but I wanted to just stick with the TTT! The tag was cut from Tim's Wallflower paper and edged and splattered with Stains of Barn Door and Walnut Stain. I also carried that onto the Ephemera pieces as well. A Sharpie marker was used to color the Industrious Stickers.

We are flying to see our Holly for her birthday, so this tag has lots of elements in celebration of being together on a special day and over Valentine's Day! "Love Is In The Air" at Inspiration Journal and so we go there for a visit! What a great excuse this challenge of Tic Tac Toe was to use up some of those items just sitting around. I did have fun just layering them up and playing!

Have a lovely weekend and thank you again for taking the time to stop by.