A Stormy Day - A Creative Day

Well, it was quite a stormy day here in Atlanta. The city had a tornado hit last night and then there were several more today both North of Atlanta and then again in the city.

I spent most of my Saturday down in my basement while the storm sirens were going off. Lucky for me my craft room is also in the basement so some "playing" helped me get through the day (tee hee). This is my workspace - pretty cluttered, huh?

The electricity did not go out here so I was able to watch my Mary Jo McGraw DVD and get some inspiration.

Using one of Mary Jo's techniques for quick cards I started playing with some ink pads. The technique is to just press each ink pad directly onto some cardstock. Working with 2-3 ink pads and then a mix of rubber stamps created some quick cards.

Here's another one using a Stamper's Anonymous "king" stamp and another one using one of my favorite Character Constructions stamps - "nest". The "nest" one I completed and mounted on a card using a background of torn decorative napkin, some stamped tissue paper and some paper ephemera elements.

Another of of Mary Jo's quick card techniques uses Lyra Watercolor Crayons. Once I found them amongst my mound of "stuff". I dug them out of hiding and went to work. You first stamp several images using permanent dye based ink. You then scribble the watercolor crayons around the images - I used 3 colors. Then using lots of water and a brush you "smoosh" the colors around. I finished up by finding my Pearl-Ex watercolor palette and added some shimmery splotches around the page.

The weather finally started clearing up around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. So, JoAnn's 40% off coupon in hand I ventured out. I wanted to try another of Mary Jo's techniques that required some watercolor tube paints so I picked up a set. While there, I also couldn't resist the "Artful Blogging" magazine (used my coupon) and then the rubber stamps and cardstock were 40% off. I found a stamp I had been looking for for months - the "friend" dictionary definition stamp. My friend Marie used it nicely on a project she sent to me a while ago and I just had to have it. I also got another cool dictionary definition stamp and some cards/envelopes (can never have enough of these).

The final Mary Jo technique I tried today is called faux Fresco. You first stamp some images on cardstock using permanent ink. You then squeeze a few drops of watercolor paints directly onto the paper. Using your finger you smoosh the paint about covering the entire surface. In fact, you can almost no longer see your stamped images...scary.




























You then drop some water on the covered surface. Using a paintbrush try to work down to a stamped image. Then you blot up the excess water. The images start popping through the paint.
I then finished up by adding some gold metallic stamped scrolls and I was done.