My Weekly Make-It – Come Share!

Hi Fellow Paper Artists!
Frequently I find after making a card or whatever, I’ll say to myself “oh I ought to post this on my blog!” but that’s about as far as I get. So I thought if I made a sharing day (yes, just like back in kindergarten) I would remember! Starting today off with my first ever- Weekly “Make-It” (from this past week). So here is what I’ve been up to this week….

I have been exchanging letters with my granddaughter and this is my latest (Vol 1 No 4). In our letters we will ofter include little extras and here you can see a small book I made that I will write some text from the book she is writing titled “Elementals”. The library pocket and Evidence card I think I’ll save for future letters.

This card is stamped with the Goldilocks by Kraftin Kimmie Stamps, the flowers are from Kaisercraft, brads from Making Memories, bows from Martha Stewart, Viva Pearl Pen dots. The papers are CuttleBug embossed vellum and vintage gift warp paper. The cover of the little book is a watercolor painted doodle on 140lb paper with typical printer paper sewn in with linen thread for the book pages.
And I hope you will come join me each weekend. Leave me a comment- with your blog link of your favorite Make-It from the week; maybe it’s something you made or maybe it’s a link to something you found inspiring.
Join in the FUN! Let’s share our paper arts!

Pay it Forward

This morning while reading one of my blogs I came across a wonderful way to share some kindness, in the form of my cards sprinkled with hope and good cheer.
Kathleen Koch, a former CNN correspondent who covered the Katrina hurricane for the network, has launched “Words of Hope for Japan” – a letter writing campaign to collect a caring letter of support for every man, woman and child in a shelter in Japan, who have been affected by the earthquake. Let us let the Japanese know that they are not forgotten, even though the newsreporting has moved on. As days turn into weeks turn into months, perhaps what the hundreds of thousands Japanese in shelters may need most is hope. The goal is to collect 150,000 letters – one for every man, woman and child in a Japanese shelter. Letters can be mailed to:

Words of Hope for Japan
P.O. Box 636
Fulton, MD 20759
All letters will be hand-delivered to the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C. for shipment to the shelters. Please do not enclose cash or checks. For more information, you can read about it here or contact Kathleen Koch. kathleenlkoch@gmail.com

Portrait Plus a Bit of Red

While in Sweden earlier this summer I was gifted with a workshop with Rimna that was great fun. The gals at Scraptrion organized a small gathering and Rimna showed us a scrapbook technique that I fell in love with…and so here is my first “official” scrap page.

My kids and their families all lived very close to me…but recently they have all moved much further away: Out of Portland, over to Sweden and now across the continent to Massachusetts. So when I came across this photo of the four of us taken in 2002 I thought it perfect to use on my first scrapbook page. I misted a stencil, stamped some flourishes, and accented the page with a few red flowers to lift my mood. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

Colored Image + Ephemera

While making cards, working in my sketchbook, painting, or making collages I frequently spend time looking online at other people’s work.  Especially now while I’m learning to color images with watercolor pencils, Faber-Castell, and Copic pens.   The challenge I’ve given myself is two fold…(1) come up with my own style, which will take a bit of time but I know it will be a melding of the coloring process (which I love) and all the ephemera papers I’ve collected over the years.  And (2) draw my own images, rather than be dependent all the time on stamps (more on this in a future post).

So to get started here is one of my newest cards – a Magnolia image set together with some wonderful scraps of papers I’ve collected:  tempera paint splattered painting from children’s art camp given to me  by a teacher and a tiny bit of Swedish text taken from a  children’s hobby books I recently bought