Category : Creativity

622 posts

Ok this is one of those crazy days that happens…we have a crossover post.

Honestly its likely a good thing because I have so many things to talk about but have nothing prepared and I’m already late to the party. How does that happen?

Anyway…Mini-me made it back from Costa Rica on Thursday evening…we left for Duluth the next morning. Busy weekend then back to school on Monday. WHEW!! What a crazy few days.

I’ll share more about all that in another post but I thought I’d at least share a bit about the coffee Mini-me brought home the Doka Coffee Plantation.

I borrowed this photo from Twitter of the group tossing the raw beans in the air.

This is one that we’ve opened and tried. It’s very good. It seems to me that the caffeine content might be a bit higher than what we usually drink. We haven’t tried the other kind she brought back yet.

Now on to Second on the 2nd….

I have been attempting to join more challenges lately. Before I rejoined the workforce I participated in challenges regularly and it really kept my creativity flowing. Here’s a post from on of those fun challenges I did way back when.

Take a look….

7/15/2013

 Sage and SepiaThis is the last week of Summer of Color! I can hardly believe it.

This is the color combo I’ve been voting for each week. The strange thing is now that I got it…I had trouble making it work. The photo color is a bit off for the green but my “Photoshop fu” is off this morning.

I painted the background with sage then distressed it a bit.  After adding the sepia elements, I used some white rub-ons for visual interest. The bride and groom are my maternal grandparents circa 1929.

Incidentally, this is my 1000th post! WHOA! That’s a lot of blogging. Thanks to everyone who continues to read. I love it when you leave comments to let me know that you’ve been here.

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Thanks for stopping by my twofer post today!

What are you doing today?

 

We are temporary empty-nesters as my neighbor so perfectly phrased. The boy is off at college and the girl is traveling around Costa Rica. Crazy!

I’ve been keeping up with her through a few random texts and Snapchats…otherwise I’m using social media to see photos from their adventures.

Mini-me sent me this photo she took at the Irazú Volcano.

And this one of the La Fortuna waterfall. They rode horses to get to there then swam at the base. WOW!

Meanwhile in MN…we are watching the snow melt. :)

I am so excited that she has this opportunity..once in a lifetime.

AS far as myself…I’ve been knocking things off a todo list. Feels good. There just haven’t been enough hours in the day or week lately. I’ve been creating and experimenting with my supplies. I think these may become tags….or at least tag backgrounds…or starting pointsAnother thing on my list for this week is to clean up this chaos. I want to streamline and phase out some things that I really never use, are too old and junked to use or lets face it…never liked in the first place but hung on to it anyway.

It’s a big job but I think I’m up for the challenge.

Mini-me comes home on Thursday. Friday we leave for the state archery tournament. Well, at least she gets to sleep one night in her bed.

What are you doing today?

I’m not exactly sure what it is but rick-rack gives me a comforting, nostalgic sort of feel. Almost like an embrace from the past.

After white washing the pages I added a lovely napkin over top then enhanced some of the color with a bit of gelato.

I love how the thin napkin lets the words peek through. Just a hint….not all. I added a Tim Holtz phrase sticker because I can’t seem to make a page without words. At least not very often. 

I thought I might be done with the page when I noticed a scrap of paint chip…perfect for a bit of journal writing. I had to document my feeling of nostalgia from the rick-rack. 

I am in love with this page. I don’t often say that about my work but this one really makes me happy!!!

Linking up with Art Journal Journey for Hello Springtime once again.

Art Journal Journey

Spring comes a bit later here in Minnesota…not by calendar but weather. Its ok…we’ll muddle through. We’ve had rain and snow…fog and sun…shoulder high snow piles and ankle deep puddles. And that was just Thursday.

**Ba da dum…I’ll be here all week.**

The last week was Spring break for J, so he was home for 9 days. Of course, the rest of us were still busy with work and school. The visit felt very brief but the semester will be over before we know it!

Yesterday after returning J to the bus stop at Mall of America, I made a bit of time to do a bit of creating.

Not exactly sure where this page is going but perhaps I’ll know when I sit back down. Sometimes a fresh eye helps.

This week will also brings a big trip for Mini-me. She is heading to Costa Rica on a choir and band trip. Such an amazing experience for her…such a scary cutting of the cord for me. They are preforming 3 times in three separate areas of the country along with a ton of fun activities such as horseback riding, zipline tours, a volcano hike and a beach day. An action packed week.

I may have to give up coffee during the week so my nerves aren’t quite as frayed.

What are you doing today?

This time of year I’m really done with winter. Especially a long, snowy, brutally cold winter. My thoughts turn to warm weather, starting my seedlings and Easter. Pastel colors are everywhere in the springtime. My color palette tends to lean that way as well even when its really one of my least favorites to work with if I’m completely honest. Yet here it is…pastels.

I think the pastels remind me of rebirth, soft and new…like baby clothes and accessories. Or maybe it’s just babies…spring is full of birth and babies! None here…and that’s 100% just fine. :)

As I take this photo this is my view…pouring rain on the mountains of snow…now we are in a flood warning too.

We are lucky enough not to live in the river valley so we just have to deal with local street flooding on occasion. So spring really can’t get here soon enough for me.

Linking up with Art Journal Journey for Hello Springtime

Art Journal Journey

The sun was shining brightly today just daring you to step outside. It looked beautiful. Snow glistening a pristine white. It was all an illusion. Our daytime temperature stayed in the negative°F all day. Did I mention I’m DONE with Winter? I decided to throw some creative energy towards Spring.

I thought of a wild riot of color. Pretty pastels. Flowers in the peak of color sharing their joy of Springtime.

I put together a phrase from my found text stash that reflected my feeling about my wish for spring.

Linking up with Art Journal Journey for Hello Springtime.

Art Journal Journey

Well boys and girls…not sure if we have any boys visiting but I’m all inclusive…it’s story time.

This week was eventful. We had more snow once again. This week we had a 2 hour early release on Thursday afternoon and a 2 hour late start on Friday morning. We never should have had school on Friday. The roads were glare ice. So slippery that I managed to spin out our Jeep across on coming traffic and end up with the back end in the ditch. Thankfully we didn’t hit another car and I was able to put the 4 wheel drive to good use by driving back out of the ditch. With frazzled nerves I continued on to drop the girls off at school and get myself to my school. UGH! So lucky. Could have been a much worse end to that story.

J also came home for the weekend to celebrate his birthday. We had cake…of course it might have been good if i’d remembered to take a before photo.

Whoa…not sure what happened with that image but I’m too far along and too tired to go fix it. One of my custom brushes must have gotten away from me. :)

I have been doing some work in Photoshop over this past week. I’ve been wanting to create some texture backgrounds. I hope to use them as overlays on photos, backgrounds, starting points for digi-art etc. 

I even thought about making some printables with ephemera, photos or even vintage linens for texture.  Do you ever use printables in your art? If so, are they purchased or freebies? I see tons of digital downloads on etsy but I wonder if people actually buy them or use them.

What are you doing today?
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