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Daily Mixed Media Project Days 1 thru 4

I am posting days 1-4 together since I am finished with those layers. I will add links to some online places where you can buy the supplies I used, but PLEASE check your locally owned art store in your city first - ours here in Des Moines,IA recently closed and I MISS IT!!!!  If I could I would open one over in the East Village where many artists reside and work, but sadly not an option for me - but someone should.
I end up buying alot of my stuff at our local Michaels with the 40% off coupon and whenever I go visit my sister in Madison,Wi  I drop a few dollars at the Artist and Craftsman Supply store - they have pretty fantastic prices.
So far I like it and am MAYBE forming an idea in my head for the focal image. Comments, questions and suggestions are welcomed and appreciated.

Day 1
I am just using a bi piece of poster board, since this is kind of an experiment and I do not have any big canvases. First thing I did was I put on a couple coats of Golden White Gesso -love that brand of gesso!  Next I decided to kind of do a purple gradient from right to left. I started with some Liquitex heavy body acrylic in Brilliant Purple and mixed in some Golden Regular Gel Matte medium, white craft paint and Golden Acrylic Glazing Medium in Satin finish. As I created darker shade I reduced the white and eventually added in some acrylic paint Neopaque by Jacquard in Violet. For the most part I was happy with the blending except from   the first to second shade, but decided to embrace the imperfections ...haha.

Day 2

I wanted to add some script as a  layer so I used my Speedball  pen and nib with Bombay black India ink and wrote some words pertaining to family and love and some hearts.

Day 3

Now to cover it all up! I toned down the purple and script by using some watered down white craft paint. Then I had some bubble wrap that has big bubbles and I put some white paint on that and pounced it in random places.

Day 4

Time to add color back in. I used FW Pearlescent Inks in Sundown Magenta and Waterfall Green with a stencil I had created using Make the Cut Software and my Cricut Expression. I make most of my stencils this way rather than buying them. I do own a few Crafter's Workshop stencils in designs that are more intricate than my Cricut can cut neatly or that I can't do in MTC, but I enjoy designing my own. 

I am thinking that today will be more stenciling in different pattern and colors or maybe some stamping in black. Decisions, decisions...

 Thanks for checking it out!

Daily Mixed Media Project

I have not been blogging and am going to remedy that and get my self into the habit of posting more often and showing my work. I decided the best way for me to get in the habit was to start a project and post my progress everyday. So begins the Daily Mixed Media Project.....
My idea is that I will start a large scale project and post my progress and pictures everyday. My thought is that this piece of art will have many layers and take around 10-14 days to finish by adding maybe 1-2 layers or elements a day, I have no idea what the finished project will be at this point. I plan to get up each day, cruise around the internet for some inspiration( I would also welcome any ideas my followers have!) then once inspired add on to my project.
Here is a list of just some of the mediums I have available to use:

• gesso
• Absorbant Ground
• acrylic paint - fluid and heavy body
• molding paste
• masks, templates and stencils
• fabric
• patterened paper
• rubber stamps
• alpha stickers
• Winsor Newton Drawing Inks
• India Ink
• rub ons
• tissue paper

 I in no way consider myself a professional artist and have NO art schooling at all, this is all just my own thing - which will probably be obvious to any professional - but that's OK - I LOVE IT! I have never been good at following the "rules", I just like to get my hands in there and get messy, doing whatever comes into my head or my heart and out through my fingers. 

I have the first 4 days completed  before I posted this because I was not sure I was going to do it because I am a chicken. In my next post I will show you what I did the first 4 days.

Art-full Horizons

I so want to attend this! I love Donna. 

Hellooooo Scrapbookers!!!!

Registration for Art-Full Horizons is now OPEN to the public!!!

We are so excited to offer this event to you – there will be 6 fabulously talented instructors presenting cutting edge classes, deminars from your favorite manufacturers, fun, friendship, gourmet food, resort hotel accommodations and more!

To register, go to:http://art-fullhorizons.blogspot.com/p/register.html

Here’s the details:

Date: May 27-29, 2011 in Palm Springs, CA
Location:  Renaissance Resort Palm Springs
Included: Hotel Accommodations, Food, Drinks, Prizes, Exclusive Tammy I Tote Bag filled with Goodies and much more!

Cost:

Triple - $469

Double - $549

Single - $769

Sign up today! Space is limited!

Create, Play Laugh, Love, Dream Layout

Here is a layout of my daughter and my sister in 1998. We were visiting my sister Mindy  in Seattle and Tysa was playing dress-up. Aunt Mindy is pretending to be her hand maid and fanning the Red Queen. Tysa spent a great deal of her childhood playing dress up, probably about 80% of her childhood was spent as one character or another - almost always a beautiful princess or queen. I think this explains her love of "the process" of getting ready for school dances - which is also playing dress up. I will be sharing a layout of this kind of dress up - hopefully next week.

I apologize for the picture quality, just could not get a good one today. The paper is a Prima Paintable - I love , love these papers, so much fun!! I used Twinkling H2O's for the lettering,, except PLAY with is gold Stickles. the roses are Tattered Angels Candy Apple Red and the Red Mahogany Distress Reinker, water and Sunflower Sparkle Perfect Pearls. The Love is cut form the Lost and Found collection by My Minds Eye. 

I clipped through the Prima Paper so the picture would set behind the flower and leaves, it just did not look right sitting on top of the flowers.  I still feel this layout needs something, I am not super happy with it, but not sure what else to do so I will leave it. 

Thanks for looking..so far I have been keeping  up with my one layout a week, we will see if it continues.....lol.

Whats on Your Workdesk Wednesday, Spring Canvas and Fleece Socks

I have been itching to do something with fabric and something on these 11 x 14 thin canvas boards I have had FOREVER. I was browsing the Tattered Angels blog and saw a piece that inspired me. So I have spent the last week working on this fabric project. I took a piece of canvas fabric and ripped it into maybe 1 and 2 in wide strips. I sprayed it with Tattered Angels, then decided that was not vibrant enough so I painted the strips with Twinkling H20's -  the colors popped much better.I then used Claudine Hellmuth's Matte medium to glue down the strips for the sky and the grass. I rolled up the strips for the sun, flowers, leaves and stems and used Fabri-Tac to glue them down. I cut a piece of Claudine's stickey back Canvas in neutral and      sprayed it with Spiced Marmalade reinker and water, then used my cropadile to punch out little tiny dots of canvas painted pink with Twinkling H2O's and stuck them to the kite. The kite ribbons are leftovers form the kite and dots. The string is a white fiber from Close to My Heart. I am fairly happy with it, my gluing could have been neater, there are a few spots where you can see the adhesive through the canvas. My biggest dislike is the grass - the color, I wish I had a more vibrant green for the grass but I did not want the grass and the flower stems and leaves to be the same color and that was the best green I have. I used about 4 different green products on the grass trying to get it right, to no avail. Also, I wish I would have used thinner strips of fabric for the grass and the flower petals and finally - I should have added some white puffy clouds...which I still may, or I might make a new version - fixing all my I wish I hads. Let me know if you have any questions about this project, I will be happy to answer them.

I have been coloring with my markers. I have a few Copics,  in basic colors as little as I use them these work just fine for me. I often pair them with my Bic Mark-its, they blend together quite nicely. IF there were more images I liked for Copic coloring, I would do it more. I just am not a cutesy kinda girl..Magnolia's are not for me. The Pure Innocence are Ok and some of the Greeting Farm images are ok, but that is as cute as I get. I do have some monsters and some robots and I love the Daniel Torrente stamps from Stampotique, and I really like these digitals from The Octopode Factory on etsy(which she said she is hoping to have more sets made into rubber this year! She does not have allow for an Angel Policy for her digital stamps and I sell on Etsy so I am holding out for her rubber). I wish there were more rubber or clear stamps along these lines.

I have found some digitals that are ok, but I really really like to ink it up and press it down and hold it in my hand - you know something tangible. I am still searching, so if you know of any funky offbeat stamps that would be good for Copic coloring please let me know. 

Fleece socks are the greatest thing ever. An Iowa winter is cold (7 inches of snow last night -yuck!). These keep my toes wonderfully warm and cozy. 

Thanks for reading my blog and have a great weekend!

WOYWW and some Layouts

I decided I needed to start scrapbooking, I am so far behind - the images I scrapped this week are from 1998!!!
My goal is at least 1 layout a week, I am pretty sure I can do that. My scrapbooking style is more fun, funky, with bright colors. This style just works, since most of the pictures I scrap are of my daughter. They only time I have done a vintage looking layout is when I have scrapped pictures from when my grandparents were young. I am not sure if its unusual or not, but my scrapbooking style is one way, I am all over the style board when it comes to cards - but mainly I like what I call a whimsical retro feel card, but I also like to make pretty florals, watercolor, clean and simple, some cutsie - mainly Pure Innocence(I do not care for Magnolia's 0 just too much) and of course I do some grunge and vintage cards. My altered art is pretty strictly grunge, vintage. Tim Holtz or Wendy Vecchi style. I just love everything I guess!

Here is a picture of my desk and a couple of layouts I did this week.

I'm Back.....

with a vengeance...lol. I can not believe it has been so long since I posted...way too long. I (an everyone) get so busy during the holidays that it seems like it takes the whole month of January to get back to some kind of normalcy.
New Years resolutions....I do not make them becsuse I always fail to keep them. I do however set some goal for myself at the beginning of every year - last year it was to start a blog and an Etsy store - DONE!  I achieved both of those goals, though not quite at the level I had wanted. Which brings me to this years goals...
1. Keep Shrimpy Sue Designs blog updated every week, if not more. I am setting Wednesday as a regular post day. That way I can do the Whats On Your Work Desk Wednesday and post the crafty projects I created over the past week. This gives me Monday and Tuesday to photograph the projects and get them edited and uploaded.
2. Keep the store Shrimpy Sue Designs up to date with new and different projects - besides cards I would also like to sell a few jewelry pieces, headbands and some home decor.
3. Join Weight Watchers. My daughter and I are going to join Weight Watchers and do some water aerobics. I am not setting a goal for a certain # of pounds, just to be more active and eat healthy. Hoping the weight loss should follow suit. My daughter is not 100 pounds overweight like I am, but we don;t want her to be either, so I think WW can help her to learn how to eat healthy and help us both be accountable for what we eat.

So those are my goals for the year - I can do it!!!

Now on to crafty things:
So many wonderful CHA sneak peeks going on. Tim Holtz is taking my breath away - every single day -Charlottes!!!. Wendy Vecchi isn't far behind. I am loving all the good stuff at Maya Road - including an awesome giveaway. I have been getting into using labels and such alot and Spellbinders is releasing some fantastic new dies - cannot wait to get my hands on the Banner Basics 1 set.  I can't wait to get my hands on some of this stuff, wish I would win the lottery.

I will be posting my WOYWW later this evening along with some pictures of some new cards I will selling on Etsy.

Thanks for reading!

12 Tags of Christmas

I have been playing along with Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas - so much fun! Last year was my first year and I built a simple wooden stick tree to hang the tags from. When I get them all done I will post a picture.  I love that he does not give out a supply list and that it is all on a whim for him - whatever he feels like that night. This also challenges me to use supplies is other ways and to come up with other products to substitute when I do not have what he uses - that is one of my favorite parts. SO much creativity that man has, I wish I had half as much so when doing the tags sometimes I make the tags exactly like Tim's, other times I mix it up and just do his main technique and sometimes they are similar but not exact. So far I have not done one too different - but I am just warming up. Here are pictures of my first four tags - I will post more as the series goes. Thanks for looking!


Day one: I do not have any of Tims Holiday dies, so I cut the house out of grungepaper using the Joy of Seasons Cartridge for the Cricut. The fence is handcut and the tree is stamped on grungepaper with a pine tree from Stampin Ups Living Trees stamp set. I also do not have any tickets or ticket stamps, so I hand cut this one and stamped it with a stamp from one of Tim's mini Christmas sets. I used liquid Applique for the snow and the paint Blingz over it for shimmer and shine. I really like how this one turned out considering I did not have mnay of the same supplies Tim used for this tag.

Day Two I did pretty much exactly like Tim's tag. The pearly bling is just some I had in my bead box. I have so many pearls and jewel beads that I can;t justify buying his Baubles - I just use what I already have. I liked the simplicity of this tag, especially after the complexity of day 1!

This tag is also similar to Tim's, but I do not have the tree stamp(yet!!) so I used a branch from on of his stamps that is a bird on a branch and just stamped the branch part over and over. I also used some mini pinecones and berries I picked up at Michaels over the Thanksgiving holiday.  I also used Martha Stewart's tinsel glitter in place of tinsel ribbon. I love that stuff.

Again very similar to Tim's(hmmm I really do end up with at least one that is quite different - I swear). I used different bling at the bottom and put together my own "baubles" using my stash. I am happy that I purchased the facets a while ago - I had not used any yet and now that I have I will be using the rest of them for holiday gifts.

TodaysMama and Gamestop -$1000 ++++ giveaway

Here is an amazing giveaway from TodaysMama and GameStop. 

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama  and GameStop are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family?                                                                                                                  My holiday wish for my family is health, several members are having health issues now and I want nothing more than everyone to be healthy!!

2. What is your Christmas morning tradition?                                                                                                          My niece and nephew wake us all(my parents, their parents, me, my daughter, my aunt, my cousin and her partner) around 7 and they hand out presents to everyone. Then we go around in a circle and take turns opening - letting the two little ones open more often as they have way more presents than everyone else,. After presents we do our stockings, my mom and dad still fill stockings for my sister and myself:)

3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be?                     My own home! Currently my daughter and I live with my mom and dad until my disability is approved(hopefully soon and hopefully I will not have to appeal). I am so grateful for them taking us in. 

4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?                                                                         We play board games, do christmas baking and make crafts. 

5. What games did you play with your family growing up?                                                                                         We played ALOT of Yhatzee and Rummy. My sister got so she refused to play with me because I would ALWAYS win...lol. Not so much anymore though. 

6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?                                             Opening one present on Christmas Eve(usually a robe or PJs)   and having Pillsbury Orange rolls for breakfast Christmas morning. If Pillsbury ever quit making these, we may have to cancel Christmas. 

7. Where would you go for a Christmas-away-from-home trip?                                                                            I would love to have Christmas in a fancy lodge-type home in the snowy mountains of Colorado.

8. Check out GameStop  and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year?   A Super Mario Bros. Bundle Wii w/DSi XL - ours, along with all of the games and gear was stolen in a home robbery :(, Just Dance for Wii, and Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock Super Bundle!!

Whats on Your Work Desk Wednesday and the Butt Nipping Cat

I have not posted a Whats on Your Workdesk in forever. Seems like every time I remember - it's Thursday.
Anyway you can tell by the pictures I am in full force Holiday crafting mode = my desk is sooo messy, but thats how I thrive. The black ball of fur is Dea, she loves to sleep in my craft chair and when I am sitting in the chair she stands up on her back paws and gives my butt a nip in hopes I will get out of the chair -too funny :-).
Hope you all are enjoying your holiday crafting and getting lots done. Thanks for looking at my mess!

Haul and Review of the One of a Kind Rubber Stamp and Scrap Show in Madison, Wi

I spent the weekend in Madison, Wi  at the One of A kind Rubber Stamp and Scrap Show. This was my second year attending, and I really had a nice time. This show is definitely more focused on the stamper than the scrapper - which fits me perfectly.  I passed on classes this year, just nothing that sounded fun and also I felt they were a little pricey for what was offered. Last year I took a class from Wendy Vecchi, this year she demoed for Stampers Anonymous but did not have a class -bummer but she said the show producers wanted to much and it would have made the cost of the class prohibitive and she did not want to rip off her fans and customers - yeah Wendy!
I found plenty to spend my money on - including a Netflix type service for rubber stamps which I am so gonna try - Raisin Boat! They have tons of great quality stamps(I purchased one!) and big variety. When I get my first stamps from the rental program I will do a post all about it.

Here is my video of all the goodies...thanks for watching!

Bombshell Stamps New Blog Contest

Bombshell Stamps has a new blog and is giving away 2 stamp sets to celebrate. Check them out, they have the most fantastic pin up girl stamps and vintage car rubber stamps, rocka billy, cowgirl - all high quality red rubber and great customer service. Here is a card I made using one of thier stamp sets.

Compendium of Curiosities Week 21 - Perfect Distress

Here is my entry for the CCC Week 21  -Perfect Distress. My trees are inspired by Wendy Vecchi's tree she  made for a configurations project here. 

Thanks for looking!

One of a Kind Rubber Stamp and Scrap Show - Madison, WI

Just wondering if anyone is going to this show? I went last year and it was cool - it was my first convention, it;s not to big but still some neat stuff and good deals (also an excuse for a long weekend in Madison with my sister and her family). They had Wendy Vecchi there and I was able to take a class from her. This year there does not appear to be any "BIG" names and Stampers Anonymous doesn't have anyone doing any classes for them - but at least they will have a booth., Last year there were quite a few vendors with some really good deals on unmounted red rubber stamps, so I will hit those up for sure. I am thinking about taking a class from Stamp Zia, her work is just beautiful and by watching her demo last year it looks like she uses alot of techniques that could be applied to many styles of papercrafting. Anyone ever took her class?
I took my neice one day last year and will again this year - she is really excited, shes my craft buddy as my daughter does not enjoy crafftig at all :(

CCC Challenge 20 - Extreme Sport Canvas grouping for Sam

Boys are hard to craft for. I have a nephew who is 9 and his sister is 7 - niece loves all things crafty and made by Auntie - nephew, well he liked the Star Wars box I made for him, but probably could care less about the frilly girlly name banner I made his sister. When I go up I always have something I have made for my niece and try to come up with something for nephew - struggle! struggle! struggle!. This time I think I nailed it - I had found these vinyl silhouettes by Little Yellow Bicycle that were boys skateboarding, biking and other extreme sports and some canvas tags with cool sayings on them and knew it would all be perfect. Then I painted up some 5 x 5 canvas's to match his room  and went to work making them look well, grungy. I but the vinyl cutouts on cardboard or sturdiness and popped them up from the canvas's.  I used the Industrial Grunge technique on his name. I really think he will like it.

Simon Says Stamp and Show Vintage Challenge - Anything but a Card

Here is my very very last minute got it done just in the nick of time entry for Simon Says Stamps Vintage Challenge. The base is Wendy Vecchi's new Art Parts - Love them! The rest is  all Tim Holtz -  Seasonal grungeboard, stickers, paperpack, then also his grungepaper , dies and ink.
Here it is and thanks for looking!

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge Week #18

Here is my entry for the Compendium Of Curiosities Challenge Week 18 hosted by Linda on her blog L3 Studio. Every week she hosts a challenge based on the techniques in Tim Holtz's book, this weeks techniques is paint dabber resist. I am really enjoying these weekly challenges, I do them every week, but don't always get done in time to enter becasue I always seem to forget or mix up the time zone difference! I have been thinking about setting up a spreadsheet of all the challenges I like to participate in - yes I am addicted to paper crafting...

Here is my entry, the card base is SU Baja Blue, the Many Thanks stamp is by American Craft I think, The label around the sentiments is SU's Vintage Label and matching punch. I used Willow and Denim paint dabbers for the butterflies and vine stamp (Tim Holtz). I used the following Distress Inks: Stormy Sky, Faded Jeans, Peeled Paint,Shabby Shutters and Brushed Corduroy. The big blue butterfly is grungpaper. Bling is Recollections. I sprayed the grunge butterfly and the the sentiment with a Faded Jeans/ Silver Perfect Pearls spray.
For technique instructions pick up a copy of Tim Holtz's Compendium of Curiosities book, it is a must have resource!
Thanks for looking!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Challenge Entry for Celebrating Women

Gaal Creative is holding a challenge to celebrate women this month. She has a very moving and interesting post about an organization called Women for Women International.  The Celebrating Women challenge is to create a project for a girl or woman and send to them. My card was given to a special young friend Delila who just turned 12, it just so happend she had on a swimsuit with pink cherries on it when I gave it to her...lol.
Thanks for looking and be sure to check out Gaal Creative blog.

Simon Says Stamp Vintage Numbers Challenge

Here is my entry for the Simon Says Stamp Vintage Challenge. The frame is from the dollar store and covered with Salvage stickers. One flower is made with grunge numbers and stem the other is made using Tim Holtz's Tattered Florals die. The saying is from Tim Holtz also.

Thanks for looking!