SPA - Vintage Glamour

Yea ME!  The last day to turn in a postcard to Sunday Postcard Art and I got one done AND took the grandson to Big Bear (California) for the day.
The prompt was Vintage Glamour.  The wonderful example has a turn of the century woman on it.  Me?  I really like the Vargas (and faux Vargas) girls.  They have a wonderful, playful, sexuality that has me collecting more and more images.  This too, for me, is Vintage Glamour.
For this card I have used the following items -
Createwings - the background paper from her kit Creation 23
Far Far Hill - the lovely pin up.  She provides some wonderful freebies nearly every day.
Paula Kesselring - You may not be able to tell it, but this is a photoshop brush placed around the boarder of the paper.  I then put it on overlay mode to darken the edges of the paper.
The corner boarders and the writing are also photoshop brushes that I got from free sources.  I apologize if these are yours and I have forgotten who you are.  I am humbly sorry and grateful for your wonderful work.
This postcard will go into my folder and into my rotation of postcards that I send out at Postcrossing.com.  

Hats and Crowns - SPA

Sunday Postcard Art strikes again!  This weeks prompt was Hats and Crowns.   While there are many in the altered art community that would say that crowns and wings are WAY overdone, I couldn't help myself.    For this postcard I used the elements from the following digital kits...

Twinkle Toes - Tumble Fish Studios

Spunky Explosion - Tangie Baxter @ Scrapbook Graphics

Create Wings by Catherine

Zetti Revisited by Fine Crafted Designs @ Deviant Scrap

I added a sparkle brush for a highlight or two and Viola!  This will actually be turned into a postcard and mailed out via Postcrossings.  I have sent out several of my digital cards that I have created thanks  to Sunday Postcard Art.  

Thanks Ladies!!

My Immortal - Sunday Postcard Art

The prompt for SPA is "TIME".  Since Valentine's Day is around the corner I chose to use the words "Forever" and Eternity" along with the symbols of love, red roses, in with the collage artist favorite, a watch and/or clock face.
Since my favorite medium right now is digital I used the kit "Her Lullaby" from Irene Alexeeva (check her out at Scrap Orchard) and the border overlay is from Elizabeth Weaver from her Backstage Guitar add-on pack available at Digital Scrapbook place.  Ladies, thank you so much!

And thank YOU for peaking in.

A Journey Begins

This has not been a stellar year for creativity for me.  Marriage, family, work, and school have done their best to eat up what free time and energy that I have.  I have diddled around the internet and admired wonderful art journal pages, digital scrapbooking wonders, postcard art that I would love to receive in the mail, listened to great music that has me sighing at the singer/songwriters that seem to pull out lyrics and melodies that can take my mind to wonderful places.  And I  have been sitting in my chair looking at the piles of papers, boxes and books ( not to mention the orphaned kitten that we adopted) hoping that the organizing fairy would stop by one night and wave the magic wand and POOF! I have my studio back!  Yeah, not so much.......
Over at Scrapbooking Graphics there is a wonderful designer by the name of Tangie Baxter that is conducting at 52 week "journey".  Yep, its a full year into the world of art journaling.  Digitally.  I paid for my "ticket" and I have boarded the Art Journal Caravan.  My idea is to create the pages digitally, print them out, and mount them into a watercolor/drawing journal (after I have colored and altered the background a bit.)  Another designer there, Ruby Rhyne, threw out the idea of creating a matching ATC and by the end of the year you could have a full deck (I'll never have a full deck.....insert stupid grin here) of artist trading cards.   I like that idea.  A lot.
So here is my first page.  It was based on the word "accept"  For me, and many others, I am accepting the fact that I'm flawed.  And those flaws aren't just patches on a personality that is lacking.  They are what make me what I am for all of my "glory".  At my age, and thats 50 by the way, I am starting to recognize the "gift of age" that is part of an "I don't care what you think of me" mentality.  And I for one really like that!  It really is the confidence to be just who you are without the temptation to change for the sake of someone else.

I will be putting up the links to the Art Journal Caravan site for anyone who wants to join.  I will do my best to add the pages as I make them, but just remember, I AM part of the Blogging without Obligation crowd!

Steampunk Chick - SPA

I am having a lot of fun with the 4x6 format when I get the time to sit down and play.  This is for Sunday Postcard Art...the subject matter was Vintage Children.  

The child image was a freebie found on the internet, the Victorian Steampunk images were created by Lauren Bavin, Erica Belton, and Teresa Loman designers for Digital Scrapbook Place.  The kits can be found at the Digital Scrapbook Place store.  If you type in the word "Steampunk" in the store search engine, you can find all of the kits and MORE. (Who doesn't like more?)

Sunday Postcard Art - Butterflies

Woo-Hoo!  I finally sat down and got a web challenge done!  This one is for Sunday Postcard Art - Butterflies.  I also had a personal challenge to use some of the elements that I have been collecting around the web.  I used Photoshop Elements 6 to do a digital creation.  Although I really do have to get back to getting my hands dirty! 

I have used papers from Retro Diva - Birds of a Feather.  The butterflies are from DD Elements. Both were downloaded from the DigiFree.com web site which finds those wonderful places that are offering free digital scrapbooking elements and makes them available to the rest of us. (With the maker's permission of course!)

I have also used elements from Nicole Young (Angel Whispers, Storybook Dreams), Lauren Bavin (Antiquing Pack), and Tina Chambers (Oscar Wilde word art) all from Digital Scrapbooking Place. 

Sunday Postcard Art

Finally!  I finally have a web challenge done!  This is a digital postcard featuring my cat Raider. Thanks for peeking in !

  

I see the World softly

This layout has been done for my friend Diane Rulliere.   She is one of those people that has the gift of using words to paint pictures in your heart and soul.  She also has a wonderful ability to see beauty in the world and can capture that vision with her photographs.   While she isn't a musician per se, she inspires in others the music that makes her lyrics dance.  There is a link to her music here on my blog.  Please visit her and tell her I said Hi!

I see the World softly by Diane Rulliere 

(with some minor changes by me)

I'm not living in a bubble...in spite of what you've heard

I've had my share of troubles..and I'm talking more than just cross words.

I've spent some time in bedlam...been to purgatory too

But when I look at the sky, I'm still searching for the blue.

I try...yes, I try

and you laugh...yes, you laugh at me

You say I'm too naive to see

(Have I lost touch with reality?)

What's there right in front of me

I see the world softly.

I've wandered with the homeless...and I've lost my own way home

I've ease an old man's loneliness...as I watched him turn to stone

I've listened to the broken hearts...in so many midnight bars

But even in the darkest night, I'm still looking for the stars

I try...yes I try

You can laugh...you can laugh at me

You can say I'm too dumb to see

You can say I'm too blind to see

What's there right in front of me

I see the world softly

(c) Diane Rulliere 2008

The Love of Parents

This was my final entry for the New Kids on the Block contest for Digital Scrapbook Place.  The photos are of my parents, both deceased, my daughters, son-in-law, the grandkids, and me.  

Some of the elements in the layout have been altered either by re-coloring them or de-saturating the colors, whatever I needed to do to make it work. 

The contest started out with over 100 beginning digital scrapbookers and ended up with 50 or so who made it through all 3 rounds.  

I am very proud to say...I placed 7th.

My Girls - 1984

One of the reasons that I create stuff, is that I want a tangible record that I lived.  It is very important to me that I give to my children and grandchildren a record of life, not only of mine but of the family that they have never met.  I suppose part of that comes from not having much of an extended family myself.  I grew up an only child; awkward, shy, overweight, alone and very lonely.  I didn't excel at anything.  I was the one that you really didn't know was in class.  My parents worked hard and had their own issues that I stayed far away from.  My extended family I barely knew and rarely saw, except for my paternal Grandmother who lived with each of her children at one time or another.  

Family is so important to me.  I am now an "orphan", both of my parents have passed away.  I have tried to instill in my daughters the bonds of family and loyalty, even though I was a very poor role model. 

We all have survived, and in a sense thrived.  My daughters are very good women.  I have two grandchildren that are adored and sheltered by us.  I have a son-in-law that is the best.  He has served his country in Iraq, and has paid a price for that service.  He is a loving, caring, man.  I am a blessed woman to have such a family.

This picture is from 1984.  My youngest is on the left, oldest on the right.  They truly are best of friends and worst of enemies.  But despite all of that, they are family.  They fight each other but unite to take on the world together.  I am blessed.

The Kissy Fairy

Grandma and Jayna

My first digital page without any assistance, and of course, it is all about my Grandchildren.  I miss them more than I can say.  Just that thought can move me to tears.  

With all of the uncertainty in the world right now, at least our families and friends can be a shelter in the storm...if we let them.  Hug time a little tighter, smile longer, laugh freely, listen patiently, and know in your heart and soul that you are not alone.

Another lesson completed

I am working hard to get through the lessons that I signed up for learning to scrap with Photoshop Elements.  This graphic is the last in the 4 lessons.  I haven't completed #3 yet.  During this lesson I found that I could crash the program without really trying.  I am working on a Mac, and the lessons are really for a Window format.  Oh yeah, I'm a techno-dork.

I have been enjoying my mornings with my coffee and computer before work.  Its been quiet, I have some feral kittens that come to the door every morning while I am scrapping and look for food. (Yes, I feed them and pet them while they eat.)  I listen for the sound of the early birds singing the sun up, and prepare myself for the day ahead.  This is one of the best parts of my day.  I will have to start adding some yoga to this routine, I know.  I have had back pain everyday for the last 6 months.  The best I felt was the day after the belly dancing workshops, I woke up with no pain at all.  Those workshops were so much fun!  I'll tell you about it later.

Digi-Scrapping

I am sharing with you my first digital scrapbooking layout.  I am taking a class though Digital Scrapbook Place using Photoshop Elements 6.   While there is no muss, no fuss in making the layout, there is quite a learning curve using a new program.

Each week, the homework gets a little more involved, using more of the tools that come with the program.  I am proud that I got this first one done.  

This smiling little boy is my grandson Ian.  He and his sister Jayna are true joys in my life.  (And I miss them terribly).