Tuesday, May 15, 2012

New Art Markers & A Mad Flower Child

Since I can't afford the Prismacolor or other expensive art markers I found that Dick Blick Art Materials had a set of 24 "Art Markers" for like dirt cheap.  I usually use permanent markers and I'm not sure that I'm sold on these new art markers just yet.  For one thing they are super bright, which could just be that I'm used to the subdued colors of the permanent markers.  Or, they are just super bright!

I made several cards tonight, but my favorite out of all of them was the Mad Flower Child.  I'm not quite sure what she is mad about, but by the look on her face I don't think I want to know.


Sunday, May 13, 2012

3 Blind Cats Swap

I seldom get out of my comfort zone, but I did try this "Blind Draw" swap for cats.  My first two turned out to have long necks and the second two looked more normal.  I am kind of bummed that my white gel pens went dry and I couldn't accent them, but I have remedied that with the purchase of five new white gel pens; I just have to wait for them to come in the mail.

Smoky & Bob

Jersey & Morris

Friday, May 11, 2012

Mixed Media Collage

Wow, it's been a while since I've done any collage work and I have this box sitting next to me of stuff that was just asking to be put together.  Last night I was able to make four cards and I was really happy with how they turned out.  They all incorporated a piece of a sheet I put together from a YouTube video I watched like over a year ago. 

Basically, you take all of your scrap paper and start gluing, with gel medium, down to a piece of 8.5 x 11 paper.  You can tear the extra paper, cut it, do whatever you want, but you have to fill up the entire piece of paper.  Then when that is dry, you take out large stamps, preferably ones with wording, and start stamp all over the sheet.

When all is said and done, you then cut the sheet down to 2.5 x 3.5 pieces to use as the background for ATCs.  I kept the "extras" and this is what I used on the cards I made last night.

Follow Your Heart

Sweet Child of Mine

Hearts Flutter

Flower Vine

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

KID Friendly Swap: Summer

I get so excited when ATCs for All! has KID friendly swaps and so does my 9 year old.  This particular swap is going to be awesome as the participation includes an elementary class.  My daughter thought really hard as to what she wanted to do on each card and I printed her out some "Summer" type images to help encourage her imagination.  The end result was the following and I am so proud of her.

1) Catching Butterflies, 2) Summer Picnic, 3) Summer Time, and 4) Moonlight Camping

Saturday, May 5, 2012

It's an Unnaturally Colored Face World Swap

Orange, Green, Blue, and Purple
Wow, talk about out of the comfort zone.  I have gotten much better at faces, but I feel I am still not where I want to be.  So, I joined the It's an Unnaturally Colored Face World Swap and came up with orange, green, blue, and purple faces.  Hmmm, wonder what kind of prejudice problems they have.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

3-2-1 Microwave Cup Cake


Since I love cake, but am diabetic, I was excited to learn about making cupcakes in the microwave using a coffee cup.  How clever is that? Well, I found a recipe online and have since tweaked it to come up with my own version of this tasty little treat!

Ingredients:
1 Box of Angel Food Cake Mix
1 Box of Cake Mix (Any Flavor)
Water
1/2 tbsp. Apple Sauce

Directions:
1. Mix the two boxes of cake mix in a air tight container. (MIX WELL)
2. Put 3 tbsps. of the mixture in a regular sized coffee cup.
3. Mix 2 tbsps. water and 1/2 tbsp. applesauce in cake mix.
4. Microwave for one (1) minute.
5. Turn cupcake onto a plate and let cool.
6. Frost with your favorite frosting or eat it plain.

Creativity Combo Swap: Pick One from One and One from Two

So, the key to this particular swap was to pick something from the first column of words and then pick something from the second column of words.  I used the Random Integer Set Generator at RANDOM.ORG to pick out my combos.  There were 64 options in each column, so I did 4 sets of 2 numbers and then went to my spreadsheet that I created out of the lists and put the two words together.  What I got were the following:

Surreal Prune, Cracked Cat, Dog in Drag, & Flaming Hot Dog Vendor
What was really funny was that I wasn't paying attention and created the following card, which should have been the "Surreal Prune"!

Surreal Pear
I really like this one and as soon as I put it up for trade it was gone.  I can't wait to see what the other players come up.  I think I'm going to keep the list and work from it once in a while too!

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