Stacked Stones Studio!

I love the new cardstock that Jenni Bowlin has created with Coredinations. It is embossed and is made of two contrasting colors -- this one is red behind black. When you sand it -- the red is revealed in the pattern of some of her papers. It is delightful! I used my cricut to cut out the large label shape -- and then used some temporary tape to tack it onto the page. Then I took some sandpaper and wrapped it around a stamping block so that I would have a fairly large flat surface with which to sand. The die cut kept me from sanding the cardstock where it was sitting so it left a great place to put my photo. I thought the background had a bit of a stamped leather look -- so decided to use it for the picture of Royce when he was headed out to PowWow (Royal Rangers -- camp) -- the men always go as guys from the 1800's -- and the character he has developed over the years is Trader Gray . The boys love to come up with something to "trade" with him for -- so he has amass...

I have had this picture of my niece and nephew for awhile -- but haven't been totally sure how I wanted to scrap it....so it has been sitting on my table for me to look at until I knew. When I finished this background (as part of my techniques class) -- I just knew that this picture would finally find its home! The background was created with Adirondack Color Wash and Sea Salt....I KNOW -- I never would have dreamed that one up -- but Julie (our teacher is FANTABULOUSLY creative! You can still take this class from her -- and I would highly recommend it. You can learn more about her art -- and her class HERE. I wanted you to see a bit closer detail of the "rose" I created for this page. Are you ready for another shocker?!?! That is made from a baby wipe! I bet you are thinking "Is there NOTHING she won't keep and try to use?!?!?" *laughing* The answer is "probably not!" The baby wipe got saturated with color wash during my "technique s...

I am taking the MOST fun class with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer! She is Amazing! You know the kind of artist that just makes you sit and stare at their work...well she is one of those. You need to check out her blog . Anyway -- as I said, I am taking an on-line techniques class with her -- and I am finding I am ending up with lots of yummy bits and pieces. So what do you do with bits and pieces? Well -- they kind inspire me to quilt. Even when they are paper pieces. So this is a layout I created with several of the scraps of paper I have created during my class homework assignments. I love this picture of my sister...it captures the JOYFUL side of her -- and that is just ONE of the many reasons that I think she is PRACTICALLY PERFECT in every way....kind of like Mary Poppins! Have a lovely rest of your week!

This year started out so strong -- so many creative ideas....that needed exploring....and then -- well....then LIFE -- the big ole capital letters version of LIFE stepped in. So much of it it...all at once...and then it felt lie it did a big ole DOG PILE on top of me. Those of you that know me well -- know that being creative is an outlet for the stresses and the strains of life....and the fact that there hasn't been much creativity to show for the past few months should tell you that I have not been in a place to be doing much creativity. But I do truly Believe that is going to begin to change! I have been back in my studio -- bit by bit...and it feels GREAT. I am taking a wonderful on line class from Julie Fen Fan Balzer. She is amazing Check her out here. ..and has gotten my inspirational brain in gear....so hopefully you will be seeing some more creative activity from me soon. One other thing of note...my very favorite camera producer...THE POLOROID...has a new printer/cam...