Birthday Vine

Hello there Peoples!!  I hope you had a wonderful Day of Thanksgiving yesterday!! I actually spread out Thanksgiving over the past week.  Youngest Kiddo and I went back to Colorado and spent 4 days with family.  Got home late Monday night, and have been trying to play catch up since!!

I missed my chance to say "Thanks" to those of you who stop in, browse and comment. But, I believe it is never too late to say "Thanks" so please know that I appreciate each and every one of you who do take the time from your busy schedules to visit this little ol' blog!!

Today's card is the last of the cards I made a few weekends back.  I'd like to say that I got out of my stuck in a rut, stuck in a rut layout, but alas!  I'm afraid that this layout is just a CAS (clean and simple) version of cards One and Two!!

Details:  card base is Gina K's Pure Luxury Ivory, 5.5" square.  Design Paper is My Mind's Eye Madison Avenue that was sponged along the edges with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.  The flourish is Sizzix Flourish 2, that was die cut from SU Chocolate Chip and spritzed with various Glimmer Mists (sorry, it was a grab and spray type of thing and I forgot to note which ones I grabbed and sprayed!!).  The little flower petals were punched from an old SU punch (has 3 little flowers on in).  I sponged slightly in the middle with a Q-tip with Distress Ink Warm Lipstick and shaped with a stylus and mouse pad.  The little 1/2 self adhesive pearls are from my stash. The sentiment is from SU's retired stamp set It's Your Birthday and was stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa. 

That's about it for me today!! I have the goal of starting to put out my Christmas decorations this weekend and need to do some preparation cleaning first!!

'Till next time.............................

Having Hindsight

After completing my Gelli Print Meets Metal Roses card I immediately had to buckle down and start creating another card needed for a birthday celebration.  I pulled out some older paper packs and found inspiration from one of the papers in My Mind's Eye Sunshine 6x6 pack.  I started die cutting, assembling, spritzing, panicking because I spritzed the wrong color, spritzing some more, over spritzing, became frustrated and them almost ruined the whole thing by trying to remove hot glue from a wet petal.

Then I discovered that I had basically re-created my Gelli Print Meets Metal Rose card, but with paper.

Which, would explain why I liked it, but I admit I started to chant stuck in a rut, stuck in a rut, stuckinarut.

Details:  Card size is 5.5" square. Paper: Gina K Ivory, basic black, SU Wild Wasbi. MME's Sunshine. Mustard paper is scrap paper.  Ink: Distress Old Paper, Vintage Photo.  Stamps: Unity Bold Insight. Dies: Spellbinder's Label Two, Rose creations.  SU small flower punch (sorry! I don't recall the name of the punch!). Sizzix Branch w/Leaves.  Other: Tattered Angels Glimmer mists.  Sorry, I don't recall which ones I used!! I was grabbing left and right to try to fix my mistakes!

 A CAS version to be revealed next!! stuck in a rut....stuck in a rut....stuck in a rut........ 

Gelli Prints and Metal Roses

I had a very creative weekend as it seemed everyone and my mother in law celebrated birthdays!!

Okay.  That is a slight exaggeration, but I cranked out 3 cards in one weekend.  And if you have visited this blog much in the past, you know that makes up more creativity than I usually manage in a month!!

I, of course, will only share one card today!! I am going to take advantage of having a "stash" of work to share over the next week or so!! hehe

While I was on the creative endeavor to make my father in law a birthday card a couple of weeks ago, (the card that actually came to be can be seen here ) I actually started out with the idea for a Gelli Print on the sticky side of a self laminating sheet.

Allow me to digress.  Making Gelli Prints on packing tape or the sticky side of a self laminating sheet is probably one of my most favorite Gelli Print techniques.  While I love the "unknown" outcomes with the more traditional methods of making monoprints with the Gelli Plate, I really, really REALLY like the process of planning out what what direction my print will take.

I might have a little issue with control.  Or just letting my art F....L...O....W....

ANYHOOS!!  I made this wonderful turquoise and copper print a couple of weeks ago and for the life of me, could NOT figure out how "finish" the card without taking away from the print.

Sometimes, walking away is the best way to complete a creative project.

So, I started with the background.......

Gelli print made with some turquoise and brown acrylic paint (stash) brayered over the TCW's Mini Gears stencil. Copper Pearl Ex was then applied on the "clear" area of the print. 

And rediscovered my love of working with metal.......

Roses were die cut from Ten Second Studios Dark Chocolate Metal with Spellbinders/Donna Salazar's Rose Creation dies.  The leaves are from Spellbinder's Foliage and the flourish is an old Sizzix die.   

Finished with  a little extra wire and bling ! Who needs a sentiment?! Not this card!!

I will admit that this card ended up being more than what I had envisioned.  But I thoroughly enjoyed working with the metal sheets again and have vowed to pull out that medium more often in the future!!

'Till next time..............

Gelli Circles

Yesterday I was needing to make a card for a 13 y/o boy's birthday.  I had a very CAS (clean and simple) idea floating in my head and was certain that making the card would be quick and easy.

Don't you just hate when reality decides that you need to be brought back down to earth?!

First, I discovered that I didn't have the correct sized sentiment stamp for the visual impact that I was wanting to achieve.  Then I wasted  spent an absurd amount of time going through my stash of junk supplies trying to find something else that might make the original idea still a possibility. 

The good news: I "found" lots of supplies that I had forgotten I had and look forward to pulling them out and playing with them!

The bad news:  I own NO SUPPLIES to make teenage boy cards. 

Okay.  That was a lie.  But, keep in mind that I was on a time deadline to get the card done in just a short amount of time so that the Youngest Kiddo could give it to his friend after school let out. And Fridays are always half days.  Time was a tickin' !!!

I had just come to the conclusion that I had forgotten how to make cards, specifically cards for young teenage boys, when inspiration hit while thumbing through my file of "possibilities" (the file that I keep of technique prints that didn't make the cut for some project, but I liked enough to file for another day). 

Ahhhh!! I so love it when an idea comes together!!

I pulled out a bright "fall" colored Gelli Print and actually garnered up the nerve to cut it into circles using a variety of sizes of Spellbinders Classic Circles.

Then it was a matter of arranging, rearranging and just commit already! 

I debated on the sentiment for quite a while.  I REALLY  liked the card front without it and thought about just stamping the sentiment inside. But, somewhere I got this ridiculous notion that a card HAS to have a sentiment on the outside.  

I need to get over that.

Luckily, the different height of the circle layer on the base layer only caused a little blip with the stamping of the sentiment.  It rather annoys me, but I highly doubt that the birthday boy will even notice it!!

Geometric shapes with the slight patterns of a Gelli Print.  PERFECT combination for those cards needed for teen boys!! 

'Till next time.............. 

Route 66

I must admit that if I were you Peeps, I'd be a TAD BIT AFRAID as to what the world is coming to, as it seems I am posting a mere week later than my last post. 

Be Afraid.  Be Very Afraid!! hehe

Well, in actuality, the world is continuing to spin on it's normal rotational axis.  I just needed to make a card for my FIL's birthday today!

Of course, my creative MoJo started in one direction and ended up completely turned around going in the opposite direction. 

I had this wonderful idea for another Gelli Print. After 3-4 attempts I got the look I was trying to achieve. 

Then, I was totally stumped.  LOVE the background.  I just can't figure out how to add any elements to it. So, I walked away from that gorgeous background and took the next exit on the creative road. 

It dawned on me last night that my FIL is 66.  And the light bulb went off in another creative room.  

The card is 5.5" square on a Chocolate Chip base. The hardest part of this whole "creative trip" was finding a map  that didn't have a million advertisements on it, since The Toad  refused to let me cut up one of his treasured maps.  I finally found a large enough section of an ad free portion of California and printed it off the computer.  I added Distress Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain ink to give it a more vintage look.  The stamp set used is from Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz's Travel Ways.  I stamped the car with VersaMark ink and embossed with fine black embossing powder.  The Route 66 sign was stamped with Distress Fired Brick.  The Road Trip was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and sponged with a combination of Vintage Photo and Fired Brick.  Both the car and sign are adhered with dimensionals.  

*******

Now to figure out what to do with my Gelli Print.  I'm thinking it just might become a page in my "journey" creative journal!! Stay Tuned!!

'Till next time................enjoy where the journey takes you!

  

 

Using Up My Gelli Print Scraps

Hey People!!  Amazing how quickly time flies! I can't believe it has been three weeks since I last posted. I don't know why that surprises me.  One would think that by now I'd realize that posting on a somewhat regular basis is sooo not going to happen!! LOL!  

Oldest Kiddo was invited to spend this long weekend at a friend's house to celebrate said friend's 16th birthday.  Originally, I had an idea that actually came to me while trying to fall asleep one night, but, as the creative karma would have it, I happened to see a scrap of the Gelli Print that I made for the eP Birthday Bash.  

So the dreamland idea went out the window (in favor of just getting the card done) and a somewhat quick card was made from the Gelli Print scrap.

Look familiar?!!  Yeah, I really didn't venture much from the journal cover made in the last post.  But, what can I say?!! I REALLY liked the look and it seemed perfect for a 16 y/o boy!!

Did I mention a "somewhat" quick card? 

The scrap piece of Gelli print did not have any of the black paint accents on it.  Since I had pulled the print using a self adhesive laminating sheet, which, is a slick surface, I had to do a bit of experimenting to see what medium would best "stick" to the slick surface.  I know I could have stamped with Stazon ink, but I confess, I was sooo afraid that I would mess up the stamping and ruin my one little scrap piece!! 

Mediums tried:  A very THICK layer of Wendy Vecchi's black embossing paste.  I was hoping to use a stencil I had for the numbers and it is made of a very thick plastic (more for hand lettering, not actual stenciling).  Then a THIN layer of the black embossing paste.

Then I tried Claudine Hellmuth's black paint.

And a basic sharpie.

The paint won.

I felt that the embossing paste was too easy to scrap off.  While I could scrap off the paint with my fingernail, it took a bit more work. And the sharpie just rubbed right off (which didn't really make sense, but maybe I didn't let it dry enough).

So, using the same TCW stencils as I did on the journal cover, I added some accents with black paint.  I could not find a die cut of numbers that fit the style of this card.  I tried to cut out my own layered numbers from paper, but I did not like the uneven lines I got with fussy cutting.  Finally, I dug through my stash of stuff and found some grunge paper elements. I painted the numbers with Claudine's black paint, smooshed them in a Versa Mark pad and embossed with fine black embossing powder.

That's it for me today!! I actually have another little "scrap" project in the works, so hopefully, I'll be back sooner than later!! And of course, there is still the dreamland idea!! 

'Till next time............have a fabulous and creative week!!

It's a PARRRRTYYYYY!!!

WhootHoo!!  Welcome to eclectic Paperie's Belated Birthday Bash!  Today we're celebrating the (belated) one year anniversary of the store's new ownership! It's been an amazing year, full of inspiring projects, wonderful classes, and many, many new products!!  eclectic Paperie wouldn't be where it is today without the ongoing support of our customers and as a BIG thank you, you'll have an opportunity to lots of great prizes!  You have until midnight, tomorrow(9/20), to comment for your chance to win the following prizes!!!

 A full set of Tim's NEW Distress Paints
6x6 Paper Pad Bundle
Dylusions Stencil Bundle
A set of NEW Wendy Vecchi Archival Inks
Crafter's Workshop Stencil Bundle

 To be entered into the prize drawing, please be sure to comment on the eclectic Paperie blog and on each of the eTeam blogs.  Check out all of the thumbnail links below to view the rest of the eTeam projects!  Enjoy the hop!

I was very excited to be asked by Kim to help eP celebrate it's first year under new ownership!  When Kim started this new journey of ownership, her goals included  offering lots of new products, ideas and inspiration. I have personally been inspired by the current eTeam members and have enjoyed watching them explore new ideas and mediums in their own creative journeys.  It was with that thought in mind that I decided to try a new technique (for me!) in using the Gelli Plate with clear adhesive (in my case, the sticky side to self laminating sheets).

First things first; getting out all the possible supplies that I thought I might use to make my mono prints.  *Note: originally I had thought I would use Distress Paints for this technique.  It just wasn't the look I was going for. While not pictured, I ended up using Claudine Hellmuth's wonderful paints instead.

Supplies:  6x6 Gelli Printing Plate (HIGHLY recommend the 8x10 one.  That will be on my next shopping spree!!), various stencils, masks cut from dies, embossed papers, Paints (see above note) brayer, non-stick craft sheet

Next; lay out masks in various spots on the Gelli Plate.  You will note that this layout is not the actually one I used for my final project.  It took several prints before I came up with the look I wanted!

The next steps are lacking photographic representation.  It would seem that somebody (ahem!) got caught up in the making of prints that she forgot to take pictures of the steps!  OOOPS!! Basically, I placed my masks on the Gelli Plate. Using the brayer, I applied a combination of Claudine's Dab of Yellow and Dash of Red paints onto the Plate and over the masks.  Carefully removing the masks, I then added some stenciling (TCW's Susana'a Arrows and Mini Ledger) and free hand elements, using the end of a paint brush, an old hair pick and a marker cap.  Remember, for this particular technique, what you see on the plate is what you will transfer to your clear adhesive. You also want to keep some areas free of paint.

HELPFUL TIP:  it is important to let the paint dry between layers to avoid making a muddy paint mess!

AFTER THE PAINT HAS DRIED *VERY IMPORTANT*, apply your clear adhesive to the plate.  I used the sticky side of self laminating sheets for my project.  You could also use clear packing tape. Burnish the adhesive onto the plate using a scraper or a bone folder.  Then, carefully, remove the adhesive from the plate.  If you find an spot of paint that didn't stick to the adhesive, roll back the tape and use your fingers or scraper to burnish that spot again, so that the paint sticks.  

After you have removed your tape from the plate, you have several options for the clear areas.  You could apply some printed tissue paper, dictionary pages, fine glitter, foils, or as I did, some Pearl Ex powder. I chose to use some bronze. I sprinkled the powders on the sticky side and used a "glitter" brush to evenly spread the Pearl Ex evenly onto the surface.  

WAH-LAH!! You now have a wonderful piece with shine and texture to add to a project!  

Originally I thought I would use my piece to make a birthday card (as this is a birthday celebration!) but instead, I went a different path.  I dug out a 6x6 chipboard cover (from my stash) and randomly applied a fairly dry brush layer of Claudine's Charcoal Black  paint.  

Using an adhesive spray I adhered my focal image to the center.  Pulled out some old idea-ology Alpha Parts and added them to the image.

Final project is still to be determined.  I am debating on using this as a cover to a small 6x6 mixed media journal (in which case I will decided on whether to use my Bind It All, Jump Rings or some other binding mechanism to put it all together) OR I will leave this as a little art piece for my desk.  

I wish I could have captured the lovely shiny sheen this has!  The Pearl Ex adds a wonderful metallic glimmer and the shiny surface of the laminating sheet give this another depth that catches the eye!!

Congratulations Kim for your first birthday at eP's helm!!  Here is wishing you many, many more creative years!

Using Up Some of Those Hoarded Supplies

Helllllo!! Well, summer is officially over now as the Kiddo's started school this past week. Now, I get the pleasure of trying to figure out three different schedules again!! The sport practices are what throw me for a loop!! All three boys are involved in one or two different sports, so keeping track of who is where and when can get my head a spinnin', LOL!

I needed to come up with yet another masculine teenage birthday card this weekend.  Of course, MoJo decided to throw a little fit since I've neglected her for a while and decided not to cooperate when I needed her most! Go figure!! You would think that by now I'd realize that I am not one of those who can just turn on the "WOW" creative juices on a whim!! I need to keep that line dripping at all times or it takes a while to get the wheels turning again!!

I had a very vague idea floating in my head, but have to admit that the supplies (or lack of) dictated that I forge a different route.  While not the direction I would have preferred to go, given my last minute ahem! deadline and lack of MoJo, I'm thankful that I got a card made and used up a bit of of chipboard pieces that I have had in my stash forevah!!!

I started with some Pure Luxury card stock in Ivory, because much to my dismay, I discovered that I'm out of white!! YIKES!! I dripped a couple of drops of Distress Shabby Shutters and Tumbled Glass on my craft sheet and spritzed with water.

Using an old toothbrush I splattered the watered down ink on the front of my card.

I did a little sponging around the edges of the card with Distress Ink Vintage Photo.  I then decided to keep things simple and adhered some old DCWV chipboard embellishments and idea-ology alpha parts Ransom numbers that I swiped with Distress Paint in Picket Fence.

Not necessarily a WOW card, but it rated a "That's cool" from the Youngest Kiddo, so that must count for something!!

Now I just need to keep that trickle of ideas going!!

'Till next time.................hope you have a creative week!!

Splattered Birthday

One of my goals for this year is to actually use the supplies I already have in my overwhelming stash versus buying the newest version that has come out.  I have to say that overall I have been successful, but it does require some serious pondering when one has an inspiration but lacks the supplies to accomplish the look.

I needed a card for a 12 y/o boy this past weekend and really liked this card by Heather Campbell.   I lack owning any "splattered" stamps or stencils.  I experimented with some alcohol inks and Distress Ink refills and a can of compressed air (the type you use to clean off your computer keyboard).  I finally settled on the Distress Ink splattered look.

I dropped Distress Reinkers in Tumbled Glass, Shabby Shutters and Barn Door onto Pure Luxury card stock and "splattered" by spraying the drops with the compressed air. I then wet a small paint brush with water and dipped it into another drop of Barn Door reinker and tapped it against my hand to get the smaller splatters. Stamped the sentiment (from SU's retired It's Your Birthday) using Archival Jet Black ink. Rounded the corners using a punch and matted onto a scrap of Riding Hood Red paper.  Base is Pure Luxury.

Clean, simple and quick!! Can't complain about that! LOL!

That's about it for me today!! I am seriously behind in my mile challenge with my cousins so I need to crank out the miles this week!  School starts the end of next week and there are about a million little chores to get done before the big day!!  Oh! Some days I seriously need a clone!

'Till next time.................

Epic Failures

This past week creative endeavors were all epic FAILURES.  Not the "I don't like how this turned out" failure. I mean, all out FAIL, as in DID NOT WORK AT ALL FAILURE.

I believe I have mentioned that I was lucky to win a spot in Claudine Hellmuth's Technique Toolbox Class from Big Picture Classes.  Now, even though I have not actually created any projects with the techniques I have learned, I have enjoyed the class immensely! Well, I decided that I wanted to try a couple of the transfer techniques that Claudine shared.

EPIC FAILURE.

Before I explain the EPIC FAILURE let me be perfectly clear that the failure is completely on my end.

I didn't follow the most important step in the directions.

All the transfer techniques require a laser print copy of a picture.  I own an ink jet printer.  And while it has been said again and again that laser prints are easily obtained by visiting your local Kinko's, post office, even grocery store copy machine, the extra steps it would require me to make such copy just did not appeal (or fit into my schedule).

So, I attempted the techniques with ink jet copies that I had sealed with a workable fixative.

Have I mentioned EPIC FAILURE?

I am also apparently a slow learner because I tried not once, but SEVERAL times to get a decent transfer.

Ink jet copy sprayed with fixative and adhered to sticky back canvas.

I actually LOVED this look!!  After peeling off the paper, I left the soaked canvas to dry 

sob, sob!  This is what I came back to a while later!  The wet inks continued to spread and diffuse.  My once cool image was no longer so cool!!

So, I tried this same method AGAIN with the thought that I'd immediately dry the canvas.

Like the picture?!  Uh, the cool thing about transfers is, no two are exactly the same.  And the second transfer totally hit the completely smeared ink level immediately.  

And it went immediately in the trash.

The next transfer technique I tried was into wet gesso.  I heard that sometimes the chalky texture of gesso will allow ink jet copies adhere and work with the transfer.  

Not so much for me!

My next attempt I used a charcoal pencil to outline the darker lines of the image.  I then had a major brain freeze.  I first spread out some distress inks on my surface covered with gesso, BUT didn't think what type of medium I was going to try to have the image transfer into. I placed my copy paper into the wet ink and gave it a rub.  The inks transferred to the paper and this was the result.  Not a transfer, but kind of a cool look!!

So, why did I decide to share all my EPIC FAILURES?

We all know that not every project or idea is a zinger, but yet, all we share are the projects that we deem "presentable" or blog worthy. I decided that I was going to share these EPIC FAILURES because it was time learning.  How can one succeed without the willingness to fail? 

I'm trying to learn to embrace my creative failures.  They might not be blog worthy or "presentable", but they are stepping stones to letting creative ideas flow.  And ideas will eventually lead to success.  It might take several attempts or it might take thousands of attempts, but as long as the ideas keep flowing, one will see creative success.

'Till next time.........don't be afraid to fail!!

Tinting Black and White Photos

Hello People!

I had originally planned on getting this post completed before we left on vacation last week.  Well, it would seem that getting all those little "before you leave on vacation" chores done and trying to get last minute laundry done without a working dryer took up all my time!

Do you have any idea how long it takes to dry a full load of laundry with only air and no heat?!!  I was wishing for a laundry line in the backyard so I could hang up all the clothes!  I'm sure it would have sped that chore up considerably!!!

As I'm sure you didn't drop by to hear my laundry woes, I thought I'd finally share the attempt at tinting the black and white photos I took a couple of weeks ago with acrylic paint.

I'm taking Claudine Hellmuth's Technique Toolbox online class from Big Picture Classes. This particular class may be closed to registration now.  One of the techniques that was taught is to tint black and white photos using acrylic paints and Claudine's Extra Time, slow dry medium.   I don't have this particular medium and as I am really trying to use all the goodies I have accumulated over the years so I tried this technique first with some glaze used for faux painting techniques and with a floating medium from Plaid/FolkArt.

Don't try the glaze. Just sayin'.  The glaze pulled up the ink from my photos rendering a blackish puddle of ick.

The floating medium was more successful as long as I had a light hand applying the paint.  It also pulled up some of the ink from the photos, but I rather liked the effect it created.  I found that the thinner consistency I mixed the paint and floating medium, the better.  If I worked the area too much, I started pulling the ink off the photo.

If you look closely, you can see the petals where the floating medium pulled off some of the ink off the petals.  They would be the ones that have a more blueish tint.  While the faux painting glaze just made a bluish octopus ink smear, I thought the floating medium pulling the ink slightly gave the petals a bit more dimension and shaded look.

This flower I added a bit of a brown tint near the bottom of the petals and along the center. Very faint, but again, adds a bit more dimension and shading.

Oh my!  This is not a success in my book, LOL!!  The streaks that you see on the petals is where the paint and medium just pulled up the print.  I also managed to get a nice black ink smear on one of the petals. By letting the paint dry some, I was able to carefully work out the smudge, but at the expense of pulling up more of the photo base.  This one is NOT a favorite of mine!  Not sure if it is the color, the lack of skill in application or a combination of both!! LOL!

 I am thinking about trying to seal the photos prior to applying the paint and see if I can keep the ink from bleeding. 

Or, I could just take a deep breath and order some of Claudine's Extra Time and see if it makes a difference with my ink jet printer!! HA!

Now to figure out how to use these photos in a project. Or maybe, they will just go in my "possibility" file for a while!

********

Vacation was spent at Flagstaff, AZ and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  I will save all those details for another post! I have decreased the 400+ pictures I took down to 300+, but need to weed out more before posting.  You're welcome! LOL!

'Till next time..............

Experimenting in Black and White

Hello People!  Can you believe that we are already nearing the end of July?!! Summer is just flying by and before I know it, the Kiddos will be back in school!

This summer has not lent itself to a lot of creative time.  In addition to summer league basketball and cross country for the Kiddos, I joined in on a challenge that one of my cousins dangled in front of the rest of us: a goal for exercise miles for the year.  It started out with the goal of 1500 bicycling miles then morphed into a 2000 (or 2013) mile challenge that could be met by biking, walking/hiking, running, tennis (30 min= 1 mile), kayaking or what ever other activity we could convert to miles.

Did I happen to mention that the challenge was given at the END of May?!! And that while I had been walking/running some, I had not been keeping track of any miles prior to that time?!!  So, not only did I accept this challenge in the negative, I started with not having ridden my bike seriously for a couple of years and a nagging chronic plantar fasciitis foot pain.

But, I'm chipping away at it!! The foot pain is now tolerating up to 7 miles of walking with some very short distance jogging started this past week.  I'm slowly getting back my biking legs. Basically, I have to average a minimum of 60 miles a week to reach my goal of 2000 miles by December 31. As of this writing, I have knocked out 673.02 miles, only 1,326.98 to go!!

But, those miles also mean that 2-3 hours a day is spent away from the possibility of any creativity.  And right now, that's okay.  I miss the creating, but I'm starting to feel better physically, which is a plus.

It's a give and take.

On the creativity bright side, I "won" a spot from Linda's (Studio L3)  blog for Claudine Hellmuth's Technique Toolbox Class!  (There is still time to sign up for the class if you are interested!! While the class has officially started, registration does not close until July 24th!!  QUICK!  Go sign up!!).  I was so excited to have the chance to give my creative mojo a swift kick in the rear to get back into gear!! This week one of the techniques is tinting photos with acrylic paint.  While out on one of my walks, I came across some wild sunflowers (weeds) that I immediately thought would be the perfect subject for this technique.  So this morning I dragged the Toad out for a little walk so that I could take some black and white photos of the sunflowers.

Go figure that this morning the wind was blowing in a summer storm!  Despite the flowers literally blowing every which way, I managed to get a few photos (with the Toad literally having to try and hold some of the flower stems still!). This is the first time I actually have set up my camera to take black and white photos.  I'm hoping that this storm system will pass this weekend so that I can experiment some more with this setting.  In the mean time, I had a bit of fun attempting some photo editing (which I have very limited skills in!).

I have to tell you that I was amazed that any of these photos came out somewhat in focus as I was having a hard time just trying to focus on a spot where I hoped the flowers would "blow" into!! LOL!!  Now to get these printed up and photo tinted!!

Stayed tuned!