Lagging on Posts

 

Sure, I’ve gotten behind iin updating my blog.  Life happens and we all seem to be playing catch up.  I’ve still had a little bit of play time but have also taken in a few rescue dogs with their puppies.  At one point, we had our 3 dogs plus 12 add-ons!  One mama and her 3 pups were transported to a rescue group in Colorado so we only have 8 extras now.

Got this gesso which was significantly discounted but then when I opened it, it was already about 2” down from the top of the bucket.  That’s okay, I think what is left in there will last me a long time as I’m not gesso-crazy like some art journal/mixed media crafters.  I did pages without and then with to see the reaction of the color mediums I work with.

These were the pages without the gesso:

Then a few shots adding gesso to some blanks – and over colors already there:

I just continued to play and have fun.  To me making a mess and enjoying the process is what I like about crafting – losing myself for hours in pure fun:

I believe where the colors are similar above, the first image was without gesso and the second image (where the water beads up a bit more) is with the gesso.  I like both so I can’t say whether I’ll become a gesso maniac or not.

Now onto some cards I made:

I think that’s it for this update.  You may have seen that butterfly in another shot when it was created – but now it’s become a card front.  For a HUGE card, that is.  I had to go buy some A7s and then cut the image down to fit onto it.  The paper on the rooster card was in that same blog post – but I added the rooster stamps and sent it to my boss for his birthday (they have a mini-menagerie including about 8 chickens).

MAXIMIZE Use of Paper #stampofapproval #catherinepooler

 

On Labor Day, I created a green piece of paper on Yupo and I cut an oval out of it to use for a background.  I didn’t want to toss the rest of that paper so I broke out some dies from #StampofApproval’s Beautiul World Collection.  One of the stamp & die sets was floral so there were dies for flower inserts, leaves and sprigs of leaves so I pulled all of those out.  This was the last photo I took showing that I ended up with this batch of yumminess to use later:

I started taking photos to show how many of the dies I could fit onto the sheet in one pass through my Cuttlebug.  That shot is on the left.  Then when I cut as many as I thought I could possibly get, I took a pic of the very little bit of paper that remained.  That shot is on the right.

Labor Day Weekend

We bbqd, we shopped, I bought a couple more things for my giveaway stash and I got to play.  These were pictures of some items I picked up during the week from Tuesday Morning and Hobby Lobby:

Woo hooo!!!

Then I pulled out my Yupo paper and the pack of Mineral Paper (from Hobby Lobby clearance section) with my alcohol inks and made all kinds of backgrounds.  Just played and watched how the inks did or didn’t spread and interact with each other:

This was soooo much fun and easy.  There’s no right or wrong, just enjoy the creative process.

So after I had made these lovely papers, what was I going to do with them?  I pulled out a huge butterfly adhesive stencil and altered 3 of them with it:

(Yupo is the first one, others mineral paper).

I also had my hubby open my jar of Faber Castell Texture Luxe (silver paste), spread that onto cardstock with plastic palette knife thru a metal butterfly stencil I picked up for $1 at a thrift store.  Oops, make that $0.50 as she had everything marked down 50% for Labor Day:

Inks added to backgrounds after the paste dried.

Also to support my rescue friends, I made some dog-themed ATCs for them to giveaway or sell.  Have to make them greeting cards to sell also, but this is a start:

I need to complete the backs with info thanking them for supporting the rescue group by adopting.  I have more “makings” too – a few more dog diecuts and about 4 more doghouses ready.

All in all, it was a very productive weekend for me.  I also scored a hutch that will be used for our music CDs and albums.  Plus a little doodad gadget that I intend to put in my little nook to hold my inkpads.  Here’s a photo of it, not sure what its intended use was.  Anyone know?