Listen...Spring is coming.

Each day more birds come to my bird feeders ...I know spring must be near.

I enjoyed a little creative play tonight altering a spice tin to play in Heather's challenge. I created my own version of a bird's nest.

Try a little canvas

If you a haven't tried stamping on canvas I gotta tell you, you are missing a lot of fun!! For my first canvas adventure I tried my hand at making a little ATC traveling case for my swaps. I used Claudine Hellmuth's sticky back canvas that was introduced by Ranger Industries last fall. I had bought a package but with all my Christmas projects I didn't have an opportunity to think about where to start with this product. Then recently I found a similar project with directions on Ranger's website. Of course I had to make it my own LOL!

I began with Claudine's resist technique. I dipped foam stamps into gesso to stamp the polka dots and swirls in the center. I sponged over the gesso dots and swirls with fire brick distress ink. I then added a few flourishes in black archival ink. I cut material to cover the entire inside but left a side seam allowance of 1/4" on both sides. Yeah, sticky back canvas makes projects fast and easy. I zipped off the backing and on went the fabric. Folded up the bottom and hand pressed the side edges together for a good seal. I added a little checkered ribbon trim on the inside to cover the side edges.


I used gold metallic dabber acrylic paint to add interest to the outside opening edge and black dabber acrylic paint for the sides. Embellished with plain white Prima paper flowers that I inked and stamped and finished with some final pearls. This whole project took less that 1 hour including drying times...and most of my time was spent selecting the combination of stamps, inks, and material.

Painting with Alcohol inks

I love swishing my aquabrush with pretty alcohol inks across acetate. I find this technique not to be a precision painting style but rather lends itself to relaxing and playful creative time. This one I had fun experimenting by adding playful dots.

I used parts of background stamps for both of these images. I had fun adding stickles behind the alcohol ink for a set of ATCs.

Christmas card recycling

I participated in a swap at the Shack that asked for Christmas cards to be recycled into cards that could be used for other purposes. This is what I came up with...

I recycled the gold frame and used some lovely holiday red paper for the background.

This original background behind the fern was a painting like Christmas card front. I prepared a base piece of cardstock by running it through the xyron. I laid out the pieces as I cut them into strips. The burgundy background is sprayed with Radiant Rain. The fern is stamped on a transparency and dabber gold acrylic paint is on the back.

For this final card I used the back of a card for the background of this new one. The stamped images are made with shrink plastic.