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!

Waterfall

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I can certainly relate to the sentiment on this month's 12 Tags of 2014 by Tim Holtz which is, "out of limitations comes creativity." Perhaps that's another way of saying, "necessity is the mother of invention." All I know is I seldom have the products to make an identical tag so I have to improvise and that often gives birth to a whole new level of creativity.

I did use watercolor paper, his bubble stencil and distress inks for the background and enjoyed this relief printing technique.

The butterflies were made using a handmade stamp on book paper and sewing machine stitching provided the accents.

I know I'll use this technique again with other stencils and I think the key is to use good, smooth, heavy watercolor paper.

Best Souvenir

Somerset Studio had a call for artwork, the theme was "Le Cirque," and this piece was published in their Summer 2014 Gallery issue.

As a child, my strongest memory of the circus were rows and rows of Kewpie dolls lined up for sale as souvenirs. They had pretty costumes with sparkles and feathers and I really wanted one. I haven't been to the circus since then and wonder what the best souvenir is now?