Kliban Mail art from New Mexico

I received this fun Kliban cat post card a few days ago in the mail. When I posted about how much I loved my Kliban cat rubber stamps, but hadn't used them much lately, I asked if anyone wanted to trade Kliban cat mail art.

Well, Liane wrote that she would and this is the fun post card that arrived in my mail box. Liane...thanks so much for the fun card. Watch your mail box for a Kliban to show up.

Elaine

Cool art from England

Do you remember reading my post about finding old and brittle Friendly Plastic that I found hidden away.  Well, I wrote that if anyone wanted some I would share. Sherry from England wrote and I sent her some of the old FP. Visit  Sherry's blog

Yesterday I found in my mailbox a package from England. Sherry made and sent me the cutest little hand made book with a FP piece with England's flag colors on the front.

    inside of the little book

stamped back cover of the book. I love the stamps that Sherry used. Ever since my trip to England in 1998, I have collected stamps of images from England.

Sherry also included  red/white/blue beads with English themed rubber stamped shrink plastic pieces dangling from the beads. The piece can be hung and I will probably attach it to the little book, as it would go perfectly with it. In the package was also a small clear stamp.

Sherry shared with me some English Rubber stamp companies.

http://www.bladerubberstamps-blog.com/
Some other nice London themed rubber stamps are made by Darkroom Door    http://www.artisttradingpost.com/new-darkroom-door---london-1-6321-p.asp 
http://www.artisttradingpost.com/new-darkroom-door---london-2-6319-p.asp
Finally, another nice website I've seen (although, again I haven't bought off them - yet!) is
http://www.indigoblu.com/

Thanks again Sherry for the awesome mail day. :-)

Elaine

Not much art happening here

Hello my friends. Yes, I know, I haven't posted anything to my blog in several days. No time for art. As you know from reading my blog, that my mom who will soon be 89 has Alzheimer's.

Last Thursday while I was at the hairdresser's getting my haircut, I received a phone call from the visiting nurse that she had called  9-1-1  for an ambulance for my mom. My mother was complaining of chest pressure.  Mom was brought to Jordan Hospital, and there they ran lots of tests and she was kept for a few days. No heart problems were detected, but they changed up her heart medications, found she a UTI and put her on an antibiotic. The doctor also put her on Prilosec for acid reflux.  Anyway, mom came home on Sunday and seems to be doing okay. The stress of all this is taking a toll on my 93 year old dad. Dad remains in denial about my mom's condition.

Saturday night we celebrated our son, Steven's 39th birthday with a nice dinner and birthday cake.

Bella was really interested in her daddy's birthday cake.

waiting patiently

I'm ready for the cake

first tasting

       oh my! That cake and frosting sure tasted good.

Hopefully today I can catch up on some things and have a stress free day.

Elaine

Rainbow ink pads

I bought the Hampton Arts stamp pictured above quite sometime ago at Michael's on sale. Why did I buy it? Well, I liked the face of the woman. After getting the stamp home I had inked it up, stamped it out, and wasn't sure what to do with it.              I wish I hadn't inked it, because that meant I had to keep the stamp. Have you ever bought stamps or other stuff, and then wonder what the heck you were thinking ?                                                                    
Anyway, the stamp just sat in a drawer, and I finally decided that I better use it. I had some old rainbow ink pads and inked up the stamp on them. After I stamped the image onto white paper. I didn't really like the dark colors on the image. I decided to take a wet paint brush and brush over the wet ink so the colors would blurr and run a bit to give it a watercolored look.

When the papers with the image had dried I cut navy and red cardstock to make greeting cards. I added some mulberry and other pieces of paper to the base card and attached the stamped image. I then added  a Tim Holtz word ticket to finish off each card.
Elaine

Winner of 30,000 blog views stamp set

Just used the random number generator to find out the winner of the stamp set. Still had no luck adding the widget to my blog. But, the number that was picked was #4..Marlene. Thanks to all who left a nice comments.
Elaine

Earring Giveaway winner

I went to the random number generator site this morning, and for some reason I kept getting the message invalid code when I tried adding it to my blog. I couldn't copy and paste the generator with the winning number to my blog either. :-(
But, the generator did pick a number, and that number was #12. Congratulations Sandy, you have won the teal earrings. Thanks to all who entered and for taking the time to visit my blog.
Elaine

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

Boston Cream Cupcakes with a thinly drizzled chocolate ganache frosting

Have you ever had a really bad craving for something sweet? I've been really good and haven't eaten any sweets since before Christmas. I've had no candy or pastry in the house so I wouldn't be tempted. I don't have a lot of willpower when there are tempting goodies in the house. If you also have a sweet tooth then you know what I mean. I have a wicked sweet tooth, and for me to go that long eating nothing sweet is a miracle really.
I don't know why, but for the past few days, I've been thinking of a Boston Cream Pie. How the cake ever got the name pie is beyond me. Kind of silly really, don't you think?
Anyway, the more I thought of the yummy cake, I decided I had to make one, but with a twist. I baked my cupcakes in a  jumbo (6) cupcake tin. I made cupcakes instead of  a 2 layer yellow cake. Individual servings with less mess, as there will be no cutting.

baked yellow cupcakes. I took a picture as I started to cut out circles in the centers to put my vanilla pudding into.

vanilla pudding  filled yellow cupcakes with their little tops/hats back on.

I made a thin chocolate ganache to drizzle over the tops of the cupcakes. I should have waited a bit longer for the chocolate to cool a bit to let the chocolate firm up so it wouldn't have been so thin and as drippy. Doesn't matter, because it won't effect the taste.
Now, to go join hubby watching the Patriots game. Score keeps getting tied. I hope the Patriots win.
Elaine

Kliban cat 3 panel card

front of 3 panel card

I mentioned before that I love the Kliban cat, and that I have lots of Kliban cat rubber stamps that I hadn't used in several years. When I found some white, 3 panel cards in a craft drawer I decided to use 3 of my Kliban stamps that would work well with the panel card.

3 panel stamped card

open card

close up of 2nd panel

     close up of 3rd panel

With a brush and ink pads I stippled on a few colors of green ink under the cats on the 3rd panel. I then rubber stamped with a couple colors of green ink- grass. Years ago, I did a lot of scene stamping and it was my favorite kind of stamping.
my well used stencil that I made to look like clouds that I made out of a thin plastic sheet many, many years ago. Also the brush that I use to stipple in clouds. As you can see this handmade stencil is very stained from lots of use. I have dedicated brushes for each ink color that I use to stipple with.
I loved how the card came out. I hope you like it too.

Over the past 2 days we got 9 inches of snow, but today is sunny and it is suppose to be near 30..what strange weather, but I guess I can't complain, because we hadn't had a significant snow storm all winter, just a few dustings of the white stuff. Hopefully this snow won't last long.
I hope you have time to create some art today. Thanks for taking the time to stop by my blog to visit.
Elaine

Domino Flower pin

It has been snowing since I got up this morning and so I decided I would sit at my desk and play with some of my art supplies.  I have been staring at a big box of domino's. In the box I found large, medium, small and wooden double cross domino's that I hadn't used in a very long time. You can view some of the my domino pieces that I created in the past on my picture trail site.Domino art
I inked up my domino with Adirondack Butterscotch ink, heat set it with the heat gun, and then stamped an Acey Duecy stamp with permanent black ink. I stamped the portion of the domino I wanted to use, and again I heat set the ink.
I decided to make another burlap/dryer sheet flower as the base for my pin. After making the flower, I glued my rubber stamped domino onto the flower with Tacky Glue.

I then drizzled glue onto the fabric and around the domino, and I sprinkled on Topaz Treasure Beads, small hole less gold beads, and tiny seed beads to add some Pizzazz and sparkle to finish the piece.
Elaine

30,000 blog views giveaway

My giveaway is this clear stamp set of mini stamps  for all seasons by Inkadinkado. Stamps include....tree branches, tree trunk, flowers, assorted leaves, bird nest, bird, bird house, apple, pine cone, grass
I noticed this morning that I have had over 30,000 views on my blog. So, I thought I would have a little giveaway as a thank you for those of you who stop by to visit. To win this stamp set...Leave a comment and if your name is drawn I will get this stamp set out in the mail to you. This giveaway is open to all. If blogger won't let you leave a message...send me an email and I will add your name.
close up of the tiny stamps
  clear stamps and embellishments
close up of  packaging with card made from using the stamps
I also have this little set and I quickly created a atc with some of the images. I stamped the tree trunk, some branches, the little bird. I also sponged in clouds for the background, added the glittery blue bird stickers, and glitter paper for snow at the bottom.

Elaine

Woke to Snow for our 44th anniversary

January 20, 2012 at 7:15 a.m. the sun coming up was so pretty peeking thru the spruce tree branches

Today, Tom and I are celebrating our 44th wedding anniversary and we woke up to see that it had snowed. There is about 4 inches of the white stuff on the ground. More snow is expected today and tomorrow. I snapped a couple pictures from the kitchen steps and thru the bedroom window.
our 2 stray kitties who were waiting patiently at the bottom of the kitchen steps while I put out food for them. We named the kitties..Jr. who is on left. Jr. looks just like our rescued Tuffy, and the kitty on the right is Muffy. The kitties will come into the house to eat, but are still very skittish. They do stay sheltered and out of the cold/wet as they sleep in the dog house that the dog never used.

Muffy looking into the kitchen hoping my kitties will come out to play. Aren't they cute?

Muffy and Jr meow at me

thru the door and stare at my 2 kitties

 

I thought these snow covered branches were really pretty...looked like white icicles.  

  

pretty male cardinal in my butterfly bush. I had to really zoom in to get this picture, as I was standing inside my kitchen to take the bird photos.

coming to the feeder cardinal in my butterfly bush in the back yard
I can't remember where I found this cookie on the internet, but thought it was adorable. The head is a marshmallow.  The sun is shining brightly right now, and some of the snow is melting.
Check back later today, because I am going to be posting another little giveaway because my blog has had over 30,000 views. Thanks to all of you. :-)
Elaine

Earring Giveaway

I bought some beads the other day and this morning decided I would sit and make a pair of earrings. I  always seem to gravitate towards blues, greens, teals, and turquoise colors when picking out beads.
The above photo isn't the greatest. I always have a hard time getting a good photo of earrings. The beads are a teal color with a dichoric band of color around the middle of the big bead.
If you like these earrings and would like a chance to own them...leave a comment. Make sure I have a way to contact you if your name is drawn. This giveaway is open to all. If blogger/google won't let you leave a comment send me an email and I will add you to the list. Thanks and Good Luck!
If you are just starting out beading click here. Blue Moon basic beading techniques
Thanks for stopping by to visit.
Elaine

Kliban Cat Moveable Parts ATC

eyeballs move
In the group, An Affair with Art, this month I signed up to make 2 ATC's that have some kind of moveable part. I thought long and hard, and clocks kept coming to mind, but then...I came across my boxes of Kliban cat stamps that I haven't used in a good long time. Do you remember the Kliban cat from long ago? The most popular image was the sneaker cat.
I am a long time Kliban cat fan and over the years have bought Kliban cat mugs, pot holders, sheets, note cards, ornaments, key chains, pens, magnets, t- shirts, sweatshirts and many, many rubber stamps.
When I first started stamping in January of 1990, I ordered many of the Kliban cat stamps from advertisers in the RSM magazine. In my travels, I always added more of the cat images to my collection and at that time Rubber Stampede stamp company had the rights to the Kliban cat images. Then after the artists death, American Art Stamps had the rights to the images, but they haven't had the rights now for years.
I use to have a Kliban cat website where we held art swaps after the online group Prodigy went by the wayside. There were many of us who loved the Kliban cat and we did many swaps stamping those black and white striped cat images. We stamped handmade gifts, ornaments, post cards, recipe books, bookmarks, and  wonderful calendars just to name a few things.
I selected the rubber stamp image that I decided would work really well on my ATC. I added moveable eyeballs.
the hearts on the top of ATC isn't crooked, the glue just isn't fully dried and the piece wasn't laying down flat and I didn't get a good photo.
I hope Barbara R. and Kris H. will enjoy my Kliban kitty ATC's.
Do any of you have Kliban cat stamps? Anyone want to do a one for one art swap? It can be a Kliban cat postcard, atc or card swap? If so, send me an email, and I would be happy to ink up my Kliban cat stamps again to create some Kliban cat art. I hope there are some of you who have the stamps and would like to trade some mail art.  :-)
I hope you are enjoying your weekend. I had a busy week taking  my parents to appointments. Friday the 13th, came and went..it is just another day to me, as I am not superstitious, are you? I love black cats, and opening an umbrella in the house doesn't bother me at all. :-) The weather has been frigid and the winds have been howling which makes it seem even colder. I sure wish those 2 stray kitties would decide to come inside for good.
Happy Sunday!
Elaine

Winter Wonderland

I had signed up for a 4 x 4 swap and the theme was Baby it's Cold outside. I have had the little boy stamp from A Stamp in the Hand for ages and had never used it. The snowman kitty is also a stamp I picked  up many years ago, and that stamp is from All Night Media. Winter Wonderland word stamp was a dollar stamp from Hampton Arts that I picked up at Joann Fabrics. I used glitter paper for the snow. I will be mailing out my wintery art to Gloria tomorrow. Now I have to start working on 2 atc's. The atc's have to have something on them that moves.

This morning we woke up to find about 1.5 inches of snow on the ground. I was surprised, because I hadn't heard on the news it was suppose to snow.  The snow was light and fluffy and the sun soon came out and the melting has started. We have been very lucky so far this winter. I believe we have had a light dusting 3 times. I hope that doesn't mean the rest of the winter will be frigid and snowstorms galore.