My Paradise

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When I was a kid, my family spent every weekend in the summer camping in the mountains of Colorado. But I married a man who doesn't share my love of the outdoors and roughing-it so, that is that.

But when prompted by the Monday blog challenge at Simon Says Stamp to create a piece of paradise, I just couldn't help but paint a journal page about my ideal.

Nothing would make me happier than to pack up a home on wheels and spend the rest of my days traveling round the countryside.

I gessoed a two-page spread in my large Dylusions journal, penciled-in a sketch, went over it with magic marker, and used plain old craft paint for tint.

The only rule I followed regarding color choices is one I always keep in mind--warm colors appear closer than cool colors:

• The moon is white (cool)
• The windows in the camper are yellow (warm)
• The mountains are blue-ish purple (cool)
• The grass is olive green (warm)

It was more than the usual amount of fun to make because it struck such an emotional chord. I have to thank the Design Team at SSS for a great prompt this week!

Cultivate

I've made a lot of nature-inspired tags lately so why stop now? Prompted by this week's SSS Monday blog challenge "family" theme, I found this excellent photo from my great aunt's collection.

I don't know their names but my relatives lived on a farm in Nebraska and I think it's fun that all the boys are barefoot and wearing bib overalls. In the original photo they were standing on a front porch.

With stalks of corn and advice taken from a gardening manual, this tag was made by creating a background with distress inks, cutting and pasting a copy of the photo, drawing and painting the plants, and hand-lettering the text.

Sun Tarot

Design team member Dan has proposed a magic theme for the Monday blog challenge at Simon Says Stamp this week. Dan uses a lot of face stamps in his work so, to honor his theme, I've made a tarot card that was inspired by this image.

The background came from the Idea-ology Destinations paper stash, the borders were cut from French Industrial. The face stamp is by La Blanche. I used a fine-tipped marker, acrylic paint and colored pencils to draw and tint the sun rays.

Possible meanings associated with this fortune-telling card are:

Optimism—Expansion—Being radiant—Positive feelings

Enlightenment—Vitality—Innocence—Non-criticism

Assurance—Energy—Personal power—Happiness

Splendor—Brilliance—Joy—Enthusiasm

And so, since you are here -

My tarot tag has now predicted all of this for you!

Ice Ice Baby

The Wednesday blog challenge at Simon Says Stamp is "ice inspiration."

So I made this tag.

The ice cube faces were stamped (Hampton Art, Paris Moments) as well as the table top (Inkadinkado, News Print) and the rest was drawn by hand using a permanent fine-tipped marker.

For color, I used Dusty Concord, Faded Jeans, Spun Sugar, Vintage Photo, and Black Soot Distress inks.

The bubbles were made with the Simon Says Stamp Falling Snow stencil.

Cocktails anyone?