Seahorse Carousel

Wow, I can’t believe summer is almost over and I can’t believe how busy this summer has been!  I took a long camping trip over the 4th of July week.  So much fun spending time with my cousins.  I don’t get to see them often so it was great to spend the entire week camping of the farm.  My mom lived in a cabin in a grove of trees where we set up our camp.  I even got to rummage through the old cabin and find some old rusty bits to put in  my garden!

Now, it’s another release week at McMahon Five Designs.  Well, it was last week but I was too busy to get my post up (I got to go to an out of town workshop taught by the awesome Wendy Vechhi) and once I got home, I had a migraine.  Three days worth but I think it’s over!!!  Yay!!!

Now, on to my card.  I wasn’t really happy with how it turned out.  I watercolored the background and then used Distress Markers for the seahorses.  It’s okay but my original  plan was to make it soft and shabby!  Not so much!!!  I used paper and flowers from Prima.  Love me some Prima!

Let’s see the rest of the release, shall we?

 

Domino JPG and PNG

Original Design Link

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Johnny JPG and PNG

 

 

 

Til' Summer Comes Around JPG and PNG

 

 

Sentiments of Faith JPG and PNG

 

 

Please take a minute and visit the Design Team blogs!  The links are in my sidebar.

 

 

Blessings,

Christine

My Living Art Journal

I’ve mentioned that I’ve been taking a lot of artsy online classes but I haven’t been sharing much of the art that I’ve been creating.  Today, I’m going to share a project I made for Christy Tomlinson’s Living Canvas class.

I am loving this class.  Remember the She Art class that I took last year (my artwork here).  Once again, I’ve made other pieces for this class that I haven’t shared!  I have learned so much from Christy about collage art that when I heard about this class I jumped in with both feet.

I truly believe that ART HEALS and this is what the Living Canvas class is all about.  Christy has teamed up with Art McCracken.  I’m not sure what is official title is but he’s a kind of life/business coach.  Each week, Art shares an exercise dealing with specific things in your life.  I’ve only worked on the first week, but Christy shared some art journaling (3 different pages) using at least one technique that she has never shared in one of her other classes.  The first exercise was to create your art journal cover.  This is mine.

I have made a couple of small changes since this picture.  I’ll share it again with you when I share my first page.  It’s currently in a drying stage with more stages to go.  I’ll be sharing it sometime this week.

The journal is a Visual Art Journal from Strathmore.  I love these because the have nice thick paper and are spiral bound so I don’t have to worry to much about adding bulk.  I used a lot of stuff laying around my room.  I used Studio Calico dp (from the Scarlet Lime mixed media kit) for the background.  The Embracing Change image is a card from GCD by Melody Ross.  The tassel and the loop fringe is from my friend Nancy from Linens and Laurels.  She has some beautiful trims on her site.  The flowers are Prima and most of the rubons are from Chatterbox, Melody Ross’ previous company.  Everything else is just from my stash, including the vintage bingo number!

Also, I didn’t mention on my McMahon Five Designs post last week that we are taking somewhat of a break this summer.  We will only be having two releases each month—the Breast Cancer Awareness image on the 26th of each month and a new image release the last Friday of the month.  That’s to give the design team and the illustrators a bit of a break for the summer.  The store will still be open and orders will be processed but we will not be releasing as many images.

Thanks for stopping by.  I’ll be tending my mom’s doggy this week.  Let’s hope that I don’t have fur flying around here!!!  Chloe and Cutie (mom’s pup) see each other twice a week when mom and I get together for art days so I don’t think there will be a problem.  Chloe will just probably eat all the food so Cutie starves to death!

Now, back to my art journal I go!

Blessings,

Christine

Annalise Lane

I made another card with one of Jess’ beautiful girls! Isn’t she a cutie. Her dress reminded me of a dress I had when I was younger so I colored it like that one. I used the Prima Songbird Paper and Prima Songbird Wood Buttons. As I’ve said before, I like to look at Jess’ original artwork (Link to Original Artwork) after I color my own version.  To my surprise, Annalise has strawberry blossoms in her hair.  Ha!  I love her both ways though, so that’s fine!!!

Now, on to the rest of the release.

 

Annalise Lane JPG and PNG

 

Shelly also made a card with this lovely!

 

 

Just Ducky JPG and PNG

 Shawne made a couple of cards using Just Ducky!

 

 

No Time To Stop - Must Shop! 

 

 Fran made a really cute card with this girl!

 

 

 

 

I Will Give Unto Him JPG

 

Sue made a simple but beautiful card with this inspiring image.

 

 

 

 

Growing An Old Friend  JPG and PNG

 

Paige and Michelle A use this thoughtful image.

 

Please visit the Design Team blogs to see their stunning!

I have been taking a lot of online art classes lately but haven’t shared much.  I’m going to start sharing (and catching up with) some of my artwork so expect some more posts soon!!!

Blessings,

Christine

Uma Fiddler!

No, Uma not a fiddler but I couldn’t resist the pun. This sweet girl’s name is Uma and she’s playing a fiddle/violin! I knew my mom would love this image when I saw it and just had to color her up.

My mom plays the fiddle and also love’s Jess’ girls. Yes, she took that card with her when she was over yesterday. I’m sure it will go to one of her fiddling friends. Or maybe it will be one of them that she holds on to for herself!

I used some pretty Prima flowers from the McMahon Five Designs store. The dp is Basic Grey and the flower ribbon is American Crafts.

Challenges:
Card Patterns—sketch
Basic Grey Challenge—anything goes

 

Let’s take a look at what else is in the release!

 

Uma JPG and PNG

LINK TO ORIGINAL WORK

 Fran and Kristine also made cards with this cutie!

 

 

 

Patched Up Friends JPG and PNG

 

 Paige made a card using this cute set.

 

 

 

Arianna's Roses JPG

 

Sue made a card with the beautiful Arianna.

 

 

 

 

A River Runs Through It

Sue also made a card with this one!

 

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Blessings,

Christine

Young Pianist

I chose to work with another of Jess’ beautiful images.  A lot of times I look at Jess’s original artwork before I start one of her images but I didn’t think to do that this time.  Go over here (Link to Original Artwork) and take a look.  My interpretation of this beautiful girl couldn’t be more different from hers!  I used Prima’s Songbird paper and flowers that you can get at the McMahon Five Designs store.  I also used some Zva Pearls that I colored with my Copics.

Here’s a close up as well!

Now on to the rest of the release!

 

 

Why Dream JPG and PNG

Link to Original Artwork

 

 

 

Home Tweet Home JPG and PNG

 

 Fran and Kelly made cards with this cutie!

 

 

 

The Bride JPG

 

You’ve got to see the beautiful card that Shelly made with this bride!

 

 

 

Keeping Busy JPG and PNG

 

Sue made a wonderful card with this one!

 

 

Floral Greetings JPG

 

 Sue and Paige made cards with this versatile set.

Thanks for visiting!  See you again soon!!!

Blessings,

Christine

Last Dance, Last Chance…

…for love!  I’m dating myself quoting a Donna Summer disco song but yes, I danced to that back in the day!!!  I was definitely a disco diva!!!

 

But when I saw this beautiful couple dancing that’s the song that came to mind.  It was rolling around in my head the whole time I was making this card!

 

Now for the rest of the McMahon Five Designs digi images being released this week!

 

Couples Dance JPG and PNG

Paige also made a card with this one!

 

 

Amelie JPG and PNG

Link to Original Artwork

You can check out Fran and Shelly’s beautiful cards using this image!

 

 

Pointe JPG

 Sue made a gorgeous card with this one.

 

 

Birds of Paradise JPG and PNG

Sue and Michelle A. made cards using this one.

 

Thanks for dropping by!  See ya soon!!!

Blessings,

Christine

One Petunia, Two Petunia, Three Petunia, Four

That’s the way it goes in my garden anyway!!!  I plant so many petunias each year.  I have lots and lots of pots full of flowers around my garden and petunias are one of my favorite flowers to put in them.  Last year I actually found (and bought) some petunias that were yellow and black.  They were gorgeous!!!

So, you’re asking “Why is she talking about petunias?”

This is why!!!  Sue, of McMahon Five Designs has drawn a beautiful petunia image for us this week!  Isn’t it lovely!!!

There are a couple of other images being released this week.  Sue has had a busy week and doesn’t have them in the store as of bedtime Thursday but she’s getting up early so they will probably be in the What’s New section by the time you get up!

I have a very busy weekend planned with my sister.  It’s quilt shop hop time again.  I’ve been to several quilt shop hops, seeing beautiful quilts and getting lots of ideas.  I’ve even purchased an entire quilt kit and the kits to make all the blocks for another quilt.  That doesn’t even count all of the quilting fabric and patterns I have purchased along the way.  And, many of the shops give a fat quarter away as a gift during the hop!!!  However, I’m kind of embarrassed to say that I’ve never made a quilt!!!  One of these days, huh?

I hope you have  great plans for this weekend as well!

Blessings,

Christine

Bright Blue Eyes

Hi! I’m finally back to my DT work after a long break for my trip to Utah; plus, I had to take an extra week off because I had a horrible migraine with lots of nausea last week. I think I willed it away all while I was in Utah and the day after I got home—bammo!!! Worst I’ve had but I’m all better now and ready to get back in the swing of things.

It’s a very small release this week.  Just two images but they are beautiful!

 

 

Bright Eyes JPG and PNG

Don’t you just love this beautiful girl!  She was so easy to color but just beautiful.  I colored her face and eyes withy my Copics.  The black hair is part of the image.  I tied a bow with some ribbon from my stash and attached a beautiful cameo button from the Girls Paperie.  I got a really good deal on some Girls Paperie goodies when I went to Spark last fall.

 

Now, we have one more image released this week as well.  I really wanted to make a card with this one too.  It’s such a beautiful I butterfly!  Love the combo of  butterflies and music.  It makes my heart sings!!!

 

 

 

Harmony JPG and PNG

 

Check out these design team sisters to see some more projects made with these beautiful images—Paige, Shelly.

Blessings,

Christine

Near and Dear to My Heart

This is a subject that is near and dear to my “heart”.  A lot of you know that I am a heart transplant recipient (thanks so much to Ashley and her family).  You can check out my story if you would like here.  Scroll down to see the whole story!

April is Donate Life month and I wanted to join in the effort to get 20 million people registered in 2012.  If you are not already an organ donor, please consider being one.  You can get all the info here or by clicking on the graphic above.  I am eternally grateful for Donate Life and my donor’s family for giving me an extension on my life!!!

Blessings,

Christine