Bring On The New Year!

  Happy 2013! I hope you've had the time to catch your breath after all the festivities and are ready for a new and exciting year. Anyone make resolutions? I don't really, although I may set a few new goals for myself. I've already found very quickly that my main words for this year are "action" and "empowerment". The words have appeared to me and came into my thoughts enough that I needed to listen. Have you chosen a word for yourself for this year?

  My new year has begun on a very exciting note and I sure hope that's a good omen. First I received a complimentary issue of Just Cards! Winter 2013 in which one of my cards was published. The next mail day I received a complimentary issue of Somerset Studio Jan./Feb. 2013. They not only published the envie I sent but gave me a whole page showing the cards I submitted for the aqua theme!!! And it's Somerset Studio- a magazine I discovered in about 1989 and have  admired it
ever since, never with the thought that one day I'd be submitting and that something of mine would be in it. This was the first time in many years I actually sent something in for a theme, and there's definitely something to be said for a "feeling" you get when  you're really in the zone of creating  and just knowing it's "right".  I have the recent magazine covers on the sidebar and under the publications title at the top is a list of everything I've been published in. I may not submit often but it still brings me that same joy as the first time I saw something of mine in print. And after all these years I get the same kick out of seeing the names of the many talents I have come to know thru art too-way too many to mention individually!!
Here are the cards that were published:

  On to some gelli plate fun! It's been awhile since I took time to play with my plate and what a better time than now with Carolyn Dube and her wonderful series "A Colorful Gelli Print Party"! Carolyn shares videos and techniques and then allows anyone to link up their gelli print art. It's only a week long celebration but it is loaded with color and fun! Click on the badge on the lower end of the sidebar and check it out!

  You can find my first gelli prints on this post along with some very inspiring links. I chose to combine my gelli print play with the Fall Fearless and Fly Challenge #7. Here are this week's challenge prompts:

Headline Prompt: Future Imperfect: What is different about your life now than what you once expected it to be? How is the way it turned out perfect or imperfect. If your future turns out differently than you imagined in the first prompt, could it still be perfect?
Color Prompt: Yellow
Quote Prompt: "Existence really is an imperfect tense that never becomes a present." Friedrich Nietsche

  I went with the color prompt and decided to create some cards similar to those above. I started with a gelli print I made awhile back and added to it to make this background page:

   I stamped my hand carved stripes stamp and Dylusions Basic Backgrounds alphabet stamp  in black. A scrap of corrugated cardboard and red acrylic paint was then added. I used another Dylusions stamp form the Bordering on the Edge set with white acrylic paint. I then took another print and added to it:

  I used Balzer Designs Pomegranate stencil with Golden's Fluid Acrylic in Diarylide Yellow.
I then photographed both papers then printed them in various sizes. Here are two cards I made with these papers:

 I used one of the prints for the background, stitching around the border with black thread. I drew and cut out some hearts from the other paper, stitched around them and glued them down. Lastly I stamped, cut apart and added the quotes (also from a Dylusions stamp set). I love how these turned out! I definitely want to play with my gelli plate and fabric next!

 Hopefully I'm not late in linking up to these wonderful challenges: Fall Fearless and Fly Challenge #7, Art Journal Everyday, Paint Party Friday, and A Colorful Gelli Print Party. Blogger wouldn't let me upload pics for the last several days thru IE.It wouldn't work thru Firefox either-until today :) If any of these links don't work you can find links via badges on the sidebar.

 I'm happily off to link up and visit some other artists. I hope you'll join  me.

 On a final note I'd like to mention that if you love hearts and Valentine's Day as much as I do, please consider joining Nancy M. James at Sugarlump Studios who will be hosting and sharing a sweet project each day from Feb. 1st thru Feb. 14, 2013. If you have not seen Nancy's art, please check out her beautiful blog. These projects are free and you can be sure you will be completely inspired! See you there :)

"Those who say a thing cannot be done should not stand in the way of those who are doing it". Anonymous