Thursday, February 27, 2014

Paper Tales

Whenever I come to San Diego to visit my parents, I can't leave without making a trip to Paper Tales! It is such a fun store! I have taught classes here several times and really enjoyed it!




Unfortunately, I missed the wonderful owner of the store, Michelle, when I went in today. however, I still had the opportunity to look around and see all the wonderful items she has in the store.









Isn't the decor wonderful! I love it!

I also LOVE the new classroom. Space was tight before Michelle expanded the store. Now I can't wait to teach classes next time in this beautiful area!





Along with beautiful papers, embellishments, inks and dies, Michelle carries many unique items. Plan to make multiple trips around the store to see everything!




Next time you find yourself in the San Diego area, plan to stop in at Paper Tales!

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Location:Pt. Loma, California

Monday, February 24, 2014

Suffering in San Diego?

Well, I left my family behind in Colorado to come to California for some relaxation, to help my parents if they need it and to work on some new classes at Rocky Mountain Memories. My parents have lived here for over 40 years. The vegetation grew in beautifully many years ago so that now there are beautiful flowers, singing birds, a pool and peace and quiet.



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This is the hillside in Winter. If you look closely you can see the hummingird feeder. There are tons of them!





This is what it looks like in Spring/Summer.
Right now the orange tree is producing tons of oranges!





I will be making a trip to my favorite store close by in Pt. Loma, Paper Tales later this week and hope to blog about it.

Anyone feel sorry for me?

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Friday, February 14, 2014

Thanks for the Lift!

Wow!  My first blog post ever!  I am so excited to start this new adventure and grateful to the wonderful artistic friends I have made over the years who have encouraged me to do this.  There are so many people to thank that I could go on forever, so I decided to make a card to express my gratitude to all for helping me so much.  I hope you all know who you are and how much I love you guys!




All the stamps I used are by B Line Designs.  The paper is by Ruby Rocket, the Mother Nature collection.  I stamped Alexandra, Hot Air Ship, Paris Air, Paris from the Enameled Plate Cube and the car from the On the Road Again cube onto scrap cream cardstock.

I absolutely LOVE to watercolor with Tim Holtz's Distress Inks!  I smudge some color from the ink pad onto a craft sheet and spritz a bit of water next to the ink.  I then pick up the ink along with a bit of water using a small paint brush or water brush.  (The amount of water you will use depends on the intensity of the color desired).  I used this method on Alexandra, the Hot Air Ship, Paris Air and the Paris enameled plate.  Cut all images out, including the car.

I punched two holes for the brads on either side of the enameled plate and then spread Ranger's Glossy Accents over the top, being careful not to put it over the holes and not too thick.  Let dry. 

Finally, I arranged all of the images on top of the Mother Nature paper and adhered them.  I started by laying the Hot Air Ship flat and then I added pop dots to the back of the remaining images and placed them all around the Ship.  Two holes were punched into the enameled plate and brads inserted.  Two small holes were punched into the card and brads attached.  I created the mats to help frame the piece and stamped "Thanks for the Lift" on the inside of the card.

I hope you enjoyed my card creation for this first blog entry.  I am a bit challenged by technology, however, I am learning slowly but surely and hope to eventually include tutorials.  Thanks to all for following along with me on my creative journey!

Susan