One of the best days of my life!!

Good Morning everybody!

 

I had the BEST day yesterday! 

 

One of our sons called and wanted to know I wanted to go with them to the pumpkin patch we used to take them to almost 20 years ago!  Him and his wife...my sweet daughter in law named Jacquelyn...have a new baby and they wanted Grandma along! YES Hugo is going to be a BUMBLE BEE for Halloween!!

 

 

It's a cheesy little farm about 45 minutes from Portland and you have to ride the ferry to get there!  The ferry only holds about 6 cards and it literally only takes about 2 minutes to get across the "river"!

 

It was a GORGEOUS day!  Crisp and clear and cold BUT sunny!  Just PERFECT!

 

There's a little "train" to ride to go see some farm animals and then ON TO THE PUMPKIN PATCH!  Hugo is just about the sweetest baby any Grandma ever had and of course he is ADORABLE too!  I've lost my heart to him!!!  Here's a picture of Grandma "stealin some sugar!"

 

When we got there we saw my sister and her family.....just by accident and hung around with them for the rest of the day!  What a blessing the entire day was!

 

 

 

I begrudgingly (not really) let my sister hold him after she gave him a teensy tiny pumpkin she bought for him before we got there!  (take a look at Hugo....I'm pretty sure he's thinking....I WISH GRANDMA WAS HOLDING ME!) tee hee!

 

This last one is of Hugo amongst the pumpkins!  I miss him already!

 

******HUGE sigh******What a WONDERFUL day that was!  One for the memory books!

 

Ok here are a few more art tips! 

 

GROOVY MOD PODGE BABY!

 

I have lots of people ask me what kind of collage medium I use.  I LOVE plain old mod podge! 

 Remember it from the 1970’s? Well it is available in any craft store.  I like the matte finish and I HATE the gloss but try both and see what works for you!   I know a lot of my fellow artists use “Goldens” and I HAD tried it several times without much luck. I recently tried Golden’s again and realized it works much better for gluing images on. It’s much thicker and doesn’t make your paper wavy like mod podge does. Now I use Golden’s to glue the image on and then seal them with Mod Podge.  I tend to use my finger as a “paint brush”.  Since we’re dealing with such small spaces a finger full of collage medium that has been rubbed on the card works better for me than fiddling with a paint brush. 

 

I hope you all have a WONDERFUL artful day!

 

MUCH LOVE!

Becky

 

 

Ebay

My Website

Etsy

I NEED TO GO TO BED BUT....

.......I just can't!

Partly because I'm feeling so creative and partly because I had 2 or 3 DIET COKES!




Before I get my butt to bed I thought I'd share a few more atc tips with you!



GLUE then CUT?

After you’ve initially cut out the image you want to use try NOT to cut it any further before you glue it on (UNLESS your already begun design requires you to!) Sometimes just putting part of an image on is more effective. When we’re working with such small sizes it’s important to make the most of every little bit and if you can convey your thought with ¾ of a Victorian lady then all the better! What I do is cut the image out completely out and lay it on the card (don’t glue yet) judging as I place my image on how much I need for it to still look “right”. I either use my hand to simulate where the border is or just lightly run my finger over the edge of the card and the little bend on the paper will show me where the edge is. That way I can judge just exactly where I want it. Sometimes you have to sacrifice an arm or part of a dress so that you can have more room for more STUFF! Also that little bend tells you exactly where to cut IF you need to cut part of it off to fit into your design! BE BRAVE and glue it down! When it’s dry I trim off the edges that are lapping over (from the BACK) with some sharp scissors. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell exactly how much you want on there so positioning it, gluing it, and THEN cutting it later works better for me! Remember to wait until your glue is DRY!

Nitey nite!

Becky

Ebay

My Website

Etsy

Monday is a great day for ART!

Good Morning everybody!

I've found that Monday is a GREAT day for art!

It raises my spirits and gets my creative juices going for the rest of the week!

Just tell yourself "I don't have to get anything done right now....I'm just playing...

You might just find that art will help your Monday Blues too!

In the meantime here are more great art tips for YOU!

GLUE then CUT?

After you’ve initially cut out the image you want to use try NOT to cut it any further before you glue it on (UNLESS your already begun design requires you to!) Sometimes just putting part of an image on is more effective. When we’re working with such small sizes it’s important to make the most of every little bit and if you can convey your thought with ¾ of a Victorian lady then all the better!

What I do is cut my image completely out and lay it on the card (don’t glue yet) judging as I place my image on how much I need for it to still look “right”.

I either use my hand to simulate where the border is or just lightly run my finger over the edge of the card and the little bend on the paper will show me where the edge is. That way I can judge just exactly where I want it.

Sometimes you have to sacrifice an arm or part of a dress so that you can have more room for more STUFF! Also that little bend tells you exactly where to cut IF you need to cut part of it off to fit into your design!

BE BRAVE AND GLUE IT DOWN!!!

When it’s dry I trim off the edges that are lapping over (FROM THE BACK) with some sharp scissors.

Sometimes it’s difficult to tell exactly how much you want on there so positioning it, gluing it, and THEN cutting it later works better for me! Remember to wait until your glue is DRY!

Take a peek at what I did this weekend for EBAY!

I hope you all have a wonderful artful Monday!

Much Love....Becky

Come visit me at my website for more FUN!

AND

My ETSY shop!

Artist Trading Cards ROCK!

Happy Sunday everyone!

I can't believe how much FUN I'm having with my new ORIGINAL artist trading cards!!

I especially like the freedom I feel in just "playing" and not having the art feel too serious!

You need to give these little gems a try

If you'd like to take a look at what I've been creating lately click HERE

In the meantime here's MORE atc tips for YOU!!

CHECKERBOARDS ANYONE?

I love black and white checkerboard borders but for some reason I couldn’t find black and white checkerboard art paper. Then I happened upon some black and white striped paper. I realized that was actually better because when I cut off strips it looks like checkerboards AND I can cut them as skinny or as wide as I want without worrying about staying right on the line of actual checkerboards! If you want a double row just cut two strips about the same width and glue them on side by side staggering the colors to form your checkerboards!

Brilliant huh?!?!?

Here's a couple more links JUST FOR FUN!

My website

AND

My Etsy Store!

Have a BEAUTIFUL Sunday

love you all!

Becky

Friday is a great day for MORE ATC TIPS!

Good Morning everyone!

Here are a few more artist trading card tips for YOU!

WHO THOUGHT SKINNY WOULD BE SO HORRIBLE!

I like skinny little borders around the edges of my cards but they are murder to glue on. I just use regular art paper and cut a strip off and use that as a border BUT I cut the border twice as wide as I actually need and just glue “half” of it to the edge to my card. It’s a lot easier to deal with that a tiny ¼” wide strip! Don’t worry if it’s not perfectly straight! Sometimes that makes the card more interesting and when someone comments on “how cool it was that you used that slanted border” you can just act like you meant to! Then I can just trim off the excess with some sharp scissors (from the BACK of the card) and it’s a lot easier to handle.

My hubbie and I are starting NutriSystems today! (notice the artist trading card above!) I've lost 40+ pounds this last year but need to lose more and am sort of stalled! Hopefully this will get me going again!

Wish us luck!

Love to all!

Becky

More FUN art tips!

Happy Wednesday Everybody!

As promised here a few more FUN artist trading card tips for you!

CUTTING UP IN THE CAR?

I have a basket of little images that I cut out when I’m watching TV or waiting in the car for a few minutes. It’s amazing what you can get done in a few minutes. I usually try and keep a pair of scissors and some magazines in my car for those precious few minutes I am waiting for one of my dear children. (copyright issues will be addressed later) That way I have some wonderful images all ready to go. I tend to put my “people” in one pile and all other images in another pile. Since I usually begin with a person (but not always!) I like to keep those separate.

ANYTHING can inspire you....just keep your eyes open and you will be surprised how many ideas are just waiting to jump into your brain!

Speaking of getting things done in a few minutes I'm reminded of a story our mother always told us!

This is a true story about a bus driver who had 5 minutes between the end of one of his shifts and before he began his second shift one. He just parked his bus and waited for those few minutes until his other shift began. One day as he was waiting he noticed he was parked beside an abandoned lot. He decided that he would spend those few minutes just "cleaning the lot up a bit". He only had 5 minutes a day so somedays he would move a few rocks and other days he would pull a few weeds.

In about a year he had built a beautiful park for all the neighborhood children!

I love that story and it is soo true!

Happy Happy day to you all!

MORE TOMORROW!

Love Becky

Hey everybody!

I decided to start trying to blog more often so be sure to check back regularly in case I say something earth-shattering!

I'd like to start sharing some of my art tips with you each time I post! Creating Art can be healing, relaxing, encouraging, fulfilling and among lots of other things....just plain FUN! My art has given me more joy than anyone should ever have! I've been fortunate enough to be able to make enough money to justify all the time I spend doing it AND the rewards have been unmeasurable!

I've noticed that people who collect my art eventually want to try their hand at it too, so over the years I've done a bit of shifting and have been offering more "art supplies" and "kits" for all of you! There is nothing more satisfying than hearing from someone who thought they weren't creative and being able to feel the excitement in their email! I LOVE IT!

So in hopes that maybe you...yes YOU...who doesn't think they are artistic will have the courage to begin, I'm offering you some fun little ideas!

I hope you enjoy them!

BECKY'S ARTIST TRADING CARD TIPS!

Try starting with those tiny little gems....ARTIST TRADING CARDS! They are small....2 1/2" by 3 1/2" and I've found that the size allows me more freedom to play and "make mistakes" because it's not just one big project that HAS TO TURN OUT! I can also have sooooo many going at once that it's fun just to glue a bit here, stick another bit there and just have fun without the worry of "failure"! If I don't like the way one turns out I just recycle it and begin again! More often than not though I end up with pieces that would never have happened had I not felt so free to experiment!

The things you need to begin you probably already have!

1) heavy cardstock or mat board cut into 2 1/2" by 3 1/2" pieces (sometimes I use the heavy backing from note pads etc)

2) pretty paper for backgrounds (Pretty sacks from stores, leftover scrapbooking paper, or wrapping paper works GREAT!)

3) small images.....start with pics cut from magazines. Because of copyright issues the end product won't be able to be sold but using images from magazines is a great way to experiment and get started!

4) collage medium...I usually use golden's or mod podge(or elmers glue works great!)

If you're using elmers water it down just a bit and brush a thin even coat onto your card. Apply a piece of art paper that's been cut a wee bit bigger than your card. Use your hand or a brayer (a small rolling pin) to smooth it out. Wait until it's dry and trim around the edges!

I usually start with a "person" image so that comes next and then just cut, paste and glue to your heart's content! The ART POLICE won't be coming around judging you so if you think it looks good...IT LOOKS GOOD! Have the courage to JUST GLUE IT DOWN! PLAY ahd have FUN and you will be amazed at what you can create!

MORE TOMORROW but in the meantime look at some of the atc's I've created this week!

Three are on ebay right now and the other 6 WILL BE SOON!

LOVE Becky