Catching Up

  Greetings! I hope those of you who celebrated had a beautiful Mother's Day. I had every intention to post and share new art last week but unexpected circumstances changed that. My mom (who lives in her home with her dog and is VERY active and independent) hadn't been feeling very well so the Dr. ordered a repeat of lab work done a few weeks ago. She had some concerns over a repeatedly low platelet count. Long story short-within the last week I took her to a  gastroenterology/ liver specialist for a consult,  for a spleen/liver scan, and a consult with a hematology specialist besides my own appts.  Good news is that the scan was negative and although the specialist wants more testing done to rule out some causes she is not otherwise concerned as this has been a chronic problem over the years.

 I did manage to also take my mom to a local garden center to buy our annuals. Oh how I love all the colors in my yard now!!! And not only that , look at what visited for the first time on Thursday the 9th:

   Finally our hummers have arrived!!! It looks like we have one pair but I'm hoping for more. We've gotten about 4 or so in previous years-not very many but I will be watching :) I did have to cover, move and even take in some of my plantings because for two nights we had frost warnings and temps down to 32 F- in May? Really?

  Now for the art. I decided to play with the  paper towels and napkins I had laying on my table. They were used for wiping  excess paints and inks off my stencils.

 Sections were cut out, then I carefully peeled apart the plies. This is a paper towel. Diluted Collage Pauge was brushed on to my watercolor journal pages to glue the paper towel down and a brayer was used to remove any air bubbles. Once dry any excess was trimmed away.

  But don't throw away those colorful excess strips!!!  Glue them onto a watercolor ATC for a great background:

  Here's a really cool paper towel I'm saving for another page-hmm... I think I see  pair of eyes on an owl :)

  Here are pages and ATCs  from an ink spray blotted napkin:

  Although I didn't finish any of the journal pages yet I did finish the ATCs:

  Products used: flowers-Paper Whimsy , tag stamp- Collage Stuff . The little green strips of grass are from a gelli plate print.

  And here are two cards I made for two of my friends birthdays this week-happy birthday to LuAnn and Lynn!!!

  For LuAnn's card I used the new die and Flower Soft products I bought at a convention which I shared about in this post. I think this stuff would make for great texture mixed into gesso or paint don't you?

  I chose a different approach for Lynn's card:

  

  I put a dot of olive green, baby pink and gold acrylic paints next to each other on one edge of a credit card then swiped it over the card . The excess paint was picked up on bubble wrap and "stamped" on. A butterfly sticker was added and I stamped the words (Papertrey Ink) with Jet Black Staz-On ink. A gemstone was added to dot the i. I've made both masculine and feminine cards like this for some years now and like that you never quite know how the swipe will appear on the cards. It's a quick and easy go to idea for something a little different than my usual style.

  Linking up to Art Journal Every Day, Paint Party Friday, Creative Every Day, Mandarin Orange Monday. Please take some time to visit the talented artists linking up to these challenges-definitely worth your time!

  Have a wonderful, creative weekend!

  "The bud of a rose is just as beautiful as the full bloom. Appreciate what you have at the moment."   
                                                                                                                    Anonymous