Change of Heart

Friday, February 11, 2011

Stitched Memories

It’s release day again at McMahon Five Designs and what fun images we have this week. I chose to work with Fairy Doodler’s adorable sewing images, plus one of the sentiments that Sue created to go with the sewing images.

I colored the image with Copics and used some of the fun Material Girl DP by Cosmo Cricket.

Sorry about the late post but I’m here in Utah because I had to have some minor surgery to remove two things on my face. I’ve been on pain pills ever since and just did not want to get on the computer. I’m taking milder pain pills today so I’m feeling much better!!!

I’ll hopefully post later about the things we have been doing while visiting my sister! Now, I’ll show you the rest of the images that were released this week.

This is a FREEBIE for ONE WEEK ONLY!

For YOU to use in our Natural Elements Challenge!

If You Truly...

On Blackbird Wings

Mother & Child

Sewing Sentiments

For more details on the projects above, visit the Design Team blogs!

Raven
Shelly

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

On the Wings of Love

Hi! It’s my turn to post on the Paper Maniac Inspiration blog today. I used Tim Holtz/Sizzix Heart Wings die. I colored the wings with Ranger Snow Cap Paint Dabber and I colored the crown using gold Alcohol Ink applied with an Alcohol Ink Applicator. The bottom layer of the heart is colored with Victorian Velvet Distress Ink. I colored the top heart with craft paint and then applied Rock Candy Distress Stickles using my finger. The beautiful paper is Basic Grey Curio. As I most always do, I colored some Kaisercraft pearls with Copics.

I’m driving down to Utah today. I have an appointment with my dermatologist to have a couple of things removed. Since I’m on immunosuppressants he wants to do them a week apart so I’ll be gone for a while. I’m taking my mom down with me so we’ll be having some fun mother and two daughters (missing one) time. Mostly, we plan to create. Of course, we’ll have to make some time to hit my favorite thrift stores plus, I really want to hit the Pepperidge Farm cookie store!

That’s all folks! I’m off to bed so I can get up bright and early at 10:00 am!!! Well early for me anyway!

Blessings,

Christine

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Sitting Pretty

It’s new release day again at McMahon Five Designs. We have some gorgeous images today and it was so hard to choose the one that I wanted to work with this week.

For more details on the projects above, visit the Design Team blogs!

Amy, Carolyn, me, Judy, Kristine, Lorie, Michelle, Raven, Shelly,

Sue

We’ve got a lot of other beautiful images coming your way too! I’ll be heading out of town next week but hope to get something done for each week before I leave.

Blessings,

Christine

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Everything Matters

Good Evening!!! I’m a little, or maybe a lot, late today with my post from the Paper Maniac Inspiration blog. I always post on Tuesdays but I forgot to photo and prepare my post last night until 2:00 am (my normal bedtime). Needless to say, I didn’t prepare my personal blog post at 2:30 this morning. Every time I sat down to my computer today, I would think “I’ve got to get my PM post done. I’ll do that next.” while I was blog hopping or catching up on Facebook or whatever else I get involved in on the computer. And I just kept forgetting!

I do have a bit of an excuse however. I was in more pain the normal today and took the big pain pills so my mind has kind of been wandering all day. I have a call into the doc to see if I might need to change my meds up a bit which I think would help out. Plus, it seems I’m a little more talkative (or writative as it were) on the meds as well! Kind of a long post!

Anyway, about my card!!! Our theme this week is Webster’s Pages. I didn’t have much in the way of Webster’s Pages and our February themes are all designer’s choice, so I went with the designer’s choice option with a little WB Bloomers thrown in for style.

I used GCD Studios Artsy Urban papers and Unity Stamps June store kit. Both of these were designed by Melody Ross, my superstar! I also added some Webster’s Pages Bloomers to the top of the card! Aren’t Bloomers gorgeous. I added another sentiment—Live a Good Life--from the set to the inside of the card. The stamps are on the clearance racks in the Paper Maniac store! The clearance is now down to 30% off! Go take a look!

I colored the bird with my Copics and then stamped the sentiment with Palette Black and embossed it with iridescent embossing powder. It kind of matches the sparkles on the floral DP.

A new Soul Restoration lesson started today. I listened to the the videos (Melody does such an awesome job. She’s is a beautiful person.) and reviewed the materials and I just can’t wait to do my lesson this week. It is such a positive a beautiful message. It puts me in a good mood just thinking about.

I hope you have as great a week as I plan to!!!

Blessings,

Christine

The Hotspot Challenge

We have exciting news to share with you! Studio 313 and McMahon Five Designs have joined forces and have a monthly challenge called "The Hotspot Challenge". The First of every month will be a new Hot Challenge based on the Latest Hottest Trends!

For February our theme is Natural Elements. For my card I used some of McMahon Five Designs Real Wood Paper and Shawne’s Studio 313 Bird on a Frail Branch image. It’s such a beautiful sentiment. Also, I went outside and cut a branch off of my sage plant for the birdie to sit on.

Go ahead and find natural elements to add to your card this month! Pull out some of the items you haven't used in a while or haven't even tried yet! We all have hemp cord, raffia, wooden buttons, cotton ribbon and how about really changing it up and using Real Wood Paper? There are hundreds of ideas for it's use in the Idea Gallery! Below is an Inspirational Photo to get your creative minds going!

Now, it wouldn't be a challenge if there wasn't a prize, right? RIGHT! Using our Natural Elements Theme we created a Prize Package filled with Natural Elements!

Prize package includes:

1 sheet of Birds Eye Maple Real Wood Paper

1 sheet of Cherry Real Wood Paper

1 sheet of Maple Real Wood Paper

1 sheet of Walnut Real Wood Paper

1 package Kaisercraft Wood Flourishes Vines

1 assorted package of Real Wood Paper Leaf Die Cuts

15 yards of Hemp Cord

1 foot of 100% Cotton Twill Tape

1 bundle of Raffia

1 Wicker Basket Full of Fibers – White and Multi

1 Wood Trinket Box for Altering

1 7” strand of Freshwater Pearls

2 Vintaj Natural Brass Filigree Butterflies

1 package of 10 Natural Pressed Flowers

4 Mulberry Paper Roses

So, let’s all go create some natural projects using images from Studio 313 or McMahon Five Designs. That’s one great prize!!!

Blessings,

Christine

Sunday, January 30, 2011

One World One Heart

I’ve been talking about it and it’s finally here! The One World One Heart event sponsored by the Whimsical Bohemian.

I stumbled onto One World One Heart when I first started blogging three years ago and I found a LOT of my current blogging buddies by going around and leaving comments on a LOT of blogs!!! Remember, this was when I first started blogging and I had a lot of time on my hands. I don’t remember how many participants there were that year, I’m pretty sure over 500. I even won a few things. This is a wonderful event and I’m hoping to find some time to hit some of the blogs this time as well.

Each participant sponsors a “door prize” of sorts. I have made a beautiful Butterfly Quote Book for my prize.

The book has five pages and I put my favorite quotes about butterflies on each of the pages (9 quotes). I decorate each page with lace, ribbon and trim, as well as some beautiful handmade flowers with hand cut and punched leaves.

I also used some punched butterflies with pearls and some vintage buttons.

I have literally been thinking about making this for years. I have collected my favorite quotes, bought the chipboard album (don’t worry, I have more than one) and even had it all pictured in my head. When I was thinking about what to make for OWOH, this immediately came to mind. Now that it’s finished, it will be so hard to part with. I’ll be making a very similar one for myself!!!

So, there’s just one rule, well two. Please, you must have a blog and you must leave a way for me to contact you. Leave your email address as myemail (at) hotmail (dot) com or you will receive a lot of junk email (trust me, I know).

That’s it! If you didn’t come here from the One World One Heart event post, go take a look. You will see some beautiful art! If you like what you see here, feel free to have a look around. I’d love to have you back!!!

Blessings,

Christine

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Art Journaling

I mentioned before that one of the things I’ve been doing this year is Art Journal Everyday. I’m pleased to say, that I have journaled everyday. I have to admit that I have considered my Soul Restoration class to be journaling but I don’t know how it couldn’t be considered art journaling. You are thinking about your feelings on a subject and then creating art about it. That’s art journaling!!!

So, other than Soul Restoration (which I’ve already shown), this is what I’ve created.

This is the inside cover of my main art journal. I spent the first several days working on this spread to get myself excited about art journaling.

This is a page I’m working on for the Strathmore class. They suggested using your own artwork but since I don’t really have any, I found a picture that would fit with what I was going to journal about. The journaling will be a quote by Marilyn Monroe. This seems to get put aside and hasn’t gotten completed yet.

I completed this spread in preparation for my Soul Restoration class. What I didn’t realize is that this was very similar to our first lesson.

One of the things that I’ve been loving about art journaling is gathering things from around the house and my craft room to express the things that I want. This page didn’t turn out exactly as I wanted but it was a lot of fun to put together!

A couple of weeks ago, I was having a really bad couple of days and just wasn’t feeling very Brave. Are you signed up for the Brave Girls daily emails. If not, you should be. They send out some very inspirational emails each evening. I remembered a particular email where Melody wrote about your good mood being a flower and I decided when I read it that I was a daisy. So the day I wasn’t feeling very brave, I wrote my sad feelings on the right and then drew daisies all over the page. It really did help me feel better.

Another nice things about art journaling is to try out new products. I used two new to me products on this page, watercolor crayons and Pitt pens. As you can see, the pens ran a little bit on the left but not on the right. I did some water coloring before the pens had completely dried on the left. I kind of like that look better!!! It really softened it.

Also, I’m getting a little more comfortable drawing. I know, I was only drawing simple flowers here but I’ve drawn more this month than I have in the last 25 years and that’s definitely a good thing!

The final page I’m sharing this month is a page I did about this week’s Soul Restoration lesson. This week was kind of hard for me and I realized so many things about myself. I needed to write some of the things down about how I was feeling.

I used a painting technique that Melody showed us in the Soul Restoration class. I’ve seen it before but hadn’t tried it yet. You squirt a bit of craft or acrylic paint on the page and then you spread it around with an old credit card. I LOVE this technique and have already used it on other things.

I will share this weeks Soul Restoration project plus a couple of truth cards I have made with you on Monday.

I have finished my project for the One World One Heart giveaway. It’s drying now so I will be photographing and posting it tomorrow. After that, I’m going to work on some DT things for the week so I can get right back to my Soul Restoration when the new lesson is posted on Tuesday!!! I live for Tuesdays lately! I’m not sure what I’ll do when the class is over.

Speaking of Soul Restoration, registration is now open for a new session that will start in April. They also have Soul Restoration II that will begin in June. I’ll be in on that one for sure!!!

I guess that’s enough for now. Have a peaceful Sunday everyone!!!

Blessings,

Christine

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Laugh a Lot

I think that’s what we all need to remember in life—Laugh a Lot. You can’t be sad when your laughing. And little kids that look like this are sure to make you laugh!!! I’m sorry but I don’t know who the stamp manufacturer is.

This is one of several images I have colored and not gotten made into cards. Some of them are several months old. I know the inspiration will come sometime!

How’s your week going? I’ve had a good week. Lots of creating time. I need to take some photos of my art journals so that I can share those with you. Now, I’m back to work on my Soul Restoration assignment for this week.

Happy Friday!!!

Blessings,

Christine

Deets:
Medium-Copics; Image-?; Ink-Momento; Paper-My Minds Eye; Ribbon, buttons-Papertrey Ink.

Challenges:
Creative Card Crew--For men
Allsorts--Male/boy
Card Patterns--sketch
Sentimental Sunday--color inspiration

McMahon Five New Release

It’s release time at McMahon Five Designs again!!! How sweet is that!!! This week I made a card with this beautiful victorian floral banner digital image. Love it! One of my favorite cards ever. I used Basic Grey’s Capella paper, a Hero Arts sentiment and a Wilton doily for my card.