Art Room Part 3

This is the back of the entrance door. I placed least used tools and items here. The door is rarely closed. Usually up against the wall behind the door is where I tuck the display board for the Cards for Troops events.

Here is the very narrow space in front of the desk. 2 of the iris drawer units sit here. You can see the one in front of the desk and the edge of the one by the door. My trolley cart is also sitting there. It will move closer to my desk as I get more organized. It houses most reached for items.

This is the wall opposite the desk next to the entry door. The cart you see will be leaving the room and most likely end up on craigs list for sale. There is a second one in the garage. This is the space where the paper organizer will go. Everything has been measured and remeasured to make sure it will fit.
This is the floor and corner by the closet across from the desk. There is a book shelf hiding behind all this stuff under the window with art books and magazines on it. The 3rd metal shelving unit here houses most of my 20+ year collection of rubber stamps. The unmounteds and my Stampin' Up stamps are in other units outside of this room. All the junk on the floor is awaiting shorting and either a new location or out the door for good.
This is the junk on the floor in front of the rolling cart that's leaving. The cart and this stuff is more items that need sorted and either given a new home or it's out the door.

More pictures in a day or two. This has been a lot of work so far. But I am seeing great progress to making this a room to hide out and create in.

Art Room Part 2

This is the current view of the desk piled high with stuff that needs a home. I couldn't resist the fluffy ribbon board from a craft vendor. The blue wall unit I got on clearance at the BX for $10 and houses some of my favorite oriental stamps. The small 2ft wide bookcase is perfect for often reached for items. It is just so much fun to live in semi organized, completely disarrayed chaos. LOL!

This is the shelving unit you saw in the first post. It was flipped to the opposite wall from it's original position. The items on the third shelf down will be moved to make space for more often reached for items. One of the iris drawer units sits behind my chair and a stack of hat boxes that hold the majority of my ribbons.
Here is how I utilized the closet. I already owned all these drawers and figured this was the best new location for them and best use of the closet space.
Here you can see that I have sorted all the drawers and labeled them and there are 12 empty ones now awaiting new supplies. All 3 iris drawer units have been sorted and labeled too and 2 of those drawers are empty also. I labeled a lot of things previously but as interests change it was necessary to re-evaluate and resort some items. I have one big box of unloved supplies ready for a new home and a thrift shop bag started so far. Slow and steady.

Art Room Part 1

This is the beginnings of my new art room after my oldest son moved out nearly a year ago. You will see as the photos progress that hubby is not a patient man and most of my stuff got shoved in the room. Although you will see piles all over the house awaiting sorting. This room is 11 x11, it is the smallest bedroom in the house. It received a fresh coat of paint and then I started to add shelving about 8 months ago, one payday at a time.

Picture one shows the fresh paint and the first set of shelves by the closet door.
Remember the paper organizer? Here it is in the garage half painted. A lot of work but it's looking a whole lot better.
Here is the entrance to the room today. My big desk has been moved in, along with a whole lot of art supplies that need sorting. There are now 3 big steel shelving units, a taller skinny shelving unit, 2 smaller bookcases, my triple set of black iris drawers, my rolling trolley and a couple of other assorted pieces. All overflowing. The sorting has begun in earnest.
This is the view as you turn right upon entering. The big shelving unit is nearly organized. The middle 2 shelves need a bit of clean-up from moving everything around for about the 3rd time but house the supplies and materials for the Cards for the Troops events I host. It was essential to create a spot just for these supplies.

Back up and running

Well I would like to say I have some awesome things to post but unfortunately right after my last entry my computer took ill with a virus or two. My son the computer wizard was able to save my pictures and files but the rest of the computer had to be wiped. I am now trying to get used to several newer programs and reorganize my computer. It's amazing how convoluted these companies can make a perfectly good program by upgrading it, LOL! They just couldn't leave all the "buttons" in the same place now I have to hunt for them. Also after much consideration and since I have a new paper shelf, I am reorganizing the art room. It's getting a major purge. If I don't think it's useful or beneficial, it will need to find a new home. Hopefully I'll have pictures soon of the remodel. My goal is to be able to go in, shut the door and create undisturbed for short periods of time. This picture is the before shot of the paper shelf. It is in the middle of being repainted. My daughter found this on Craigslist for $50. It's solid wood, almost 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide and has 80 paper slots for 8 1/2 by 11 paper. Just perfect for all 48 Stampin' Up cardstock color families plus a few more.

Serene Snowflake case

I am sometimes pressed for time when designing for club. Last month at our local demo meeting card samples were shared from Wichita Regionals. The card on the bottom is from that regional event (if this is your swap card, let me know so I can add proper credit). The card on the top is my version for club. Since I had my Christmas cocoa Specialty paper bulk pack handy, I turned the card red for club. I also wanted to show off the flocked paper. Supplies: Whisper white cardstock, Real red cardstock, ribbon and ink, Christmas Cocoa Specialty DSP, Serene Snowflakes and A Cardinal Christmas stamp sets. All supplies Stampin' Up except rhinestone center. A big thank-you to the original designer for an elegant, quick and easy card.

A New Direction

"Sometimes life happens while making other plans." Or in my case life's twists and turns are directed by studying God's Word and listening to the Spirit. I usually quietly share my faith. No blaring bells, whistles and buzzers, tons of scripture verses or other spiritual language. Just a quiet sharing of life. But I have been searching this year for service projects. I am greatly enjoying setting up events for From Our Hearts
and wouldn't mind a few other service type projects. So after much prayer and consideration, I'm talking with hubby and he says make what you love to do a complete ministry. View any art I do as a ministry and he's right. I have been blessed with the gift of encouragement. My greatest joy is bringing a smile to someone's day to brighten their life a bit. So I'm refocusing, redirecting and reviewing my art in light of this new direction. All the resources God has blessed me with should be used to bless others. He gave me the gifts and talents and they should be used for His Glory. So the next time you receive a card from me or see a project posted here, it will have been prayed over during it's construction. My prayer is that my gift will touch your life in some small way to brighten up your day. One small kindness can make a difference.

Cardmaking for the Troops First Event

I had my first official event for From Our Hearts on Thursday. We had a steady stream of moms and children show up to help make cards for the troops. As you can see from the photos we made a lot of reindeer cards. We had a sweet little girl about 23 months sit on mom's lap and handle a stamp for a card. We also had a couple of 3 year olds make cards with mom's help. Everyone had a great time from toddler, to teen, to parent making cards. A special thank-you to Margaret and Stephanie for their help at the event, it was greatly appreciated. These pictures show the display board I made for the events I'm hosting, thanks so much to Susan for the pictures and letters and Leslie at a Whole Lotta Scrap for donated materials for the board. The second picture shows the card that Drake, a 3 year old, made with mom's help and the last picture is all the cards from the library event plus a few from my stamp club members. These cards will be off to From Our Hearts this week to be sorted and readied to head overseas to our military members. If you have the opportunity to make even just one card for the troops please do and send it in. It will make a world of difference in a military family's life.

Published Again

Imagine my surprise when I picked up the summer issue of Just Cards magazine, was flipping through it in the waiting room at the dermatologists with my 15 yo son and let out a yelp when I saw my Haiku Bunny card. My son promptly informed me that everyone in the waiting room thought I was crazy. That's OK, let 'em think I'm crazy, you don't get published everyday. My card is on page 48 and I happen to have a slightly better picture since it's a clear card. I happen to have a copy of it still because (A) it's the first acetate card I made and (B) the kitty cat decided to teeth on the corner of this one. No longer suitable for a swap card with kitty teethmarks but still nice enough for my portfolio. I created this card for last year's annual OSA Haiku Bunny swap featuring the retired Haiku Bunny stamp from Hero Arts. I saw the video on Prima Marketing about painting in alcohol inks and that's exactly what I did on this card. I stamped the image on the front in Staz-on and painted with alcohol inks on the reverse side. A huge thank-you to our wonderful swap hostesses on OSA who continually submit artwork for publication. It's how both my cards got published in Just Cards magazine. I rarely submit anything myself.

Rescued Love

Here is our newest member of the family, Reilly. The top picture is just after his first grooming and the bottom while he was still scruffy and in foster care, both are cute. We adopted him a couple of months ago and hopefully he's on the road to full recovery. He is about 2 years old and we will probably never know why someone gave him up. We do know he came complete with several different types of worm infestations including heartworms. If you have a dog or even a cat don't ever let them go off their heart worm medicine. Reilly had a really hard time with the treatments given at the vets. They give deep injections of a form of arsenic and who knows what else to kill the adult heartworms, then you have to keep them really quiet for quite awhile. Unfortunately for Reilly his little body tried forcing the dead heartworms out instead of absorbing them, so he formed embollisms in his lungs and spent almost 3 weeks at the vets between his treatment and his recovery time. He's on the mend and goes back in a couple of weeks to get a final check-up from the doc. We are ever so thankful that Second Chance, where we adopted Reilly, paid for his treatments. In the meantime he's become momma's baby boy. I have my own furry escort. Reilly is happiest when I'm in the house and nearby. It took us 5 weeks to move his crate from our bedroom to just outside our bedroom door. Both hubby and I are just in love with the little darling. I'm getting outside regularly now for long walks as I wouldn't go by myself. Reilly is a terrific walking companion. If you have the option, rescue a pet and make sure they are spayed or neutered. There are so many animals that need good loving homes. Be sure to support rescue organizations like Bernie Berlin's A Place to Bark. Bernie does such amazing work rescuing dogs and cats and finding them loving homes. God gave us beautiful animals to love and care for. We are very thankful for Reilly and our two cats Midnight and Shadow, they fill our lives with furry love.

One Card Two Ways

I have been dabbling in stamping for over 20 years. If you are a fellow Stampin' Up demo, it means I have a lot of "contraband" LOL! I have never been an artist who conforms to any standard. I enjoy all my art supplies and use a variety of companies items. I happen to love Stampin' Up stamps and quality of paper, but I will never use them exclusively in my artwork. So for my clubs and such I decided that when I create a card I like then I would try to duplicate it. So if it's all Stampin' Up, I can use other items to recreate it and vice versa. These cards aren't too far apart on the scale. The top card has a Basic Grey patterned background and Archival Sepia Ink for the brown. The cardstock is Old Olive. The bottom card is all Stampin' Up. With a Tea Party DSP background, basic black and certainly celery cardstock. with basic black, close to cocoa and garden green inks. Since I'm still a relatively new demo, I didn't own a Stampin' Up brown until I ordered one. I'm slowly building up my Stampin' Up products so I can create more all Stampin' Up designs. Both cards use the Forest Friends stamp set, one of my favorites, and the eyelet border punch. Stretch yourself creatively by recreating some of your creations in different papers and inks. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Sneak Peek Kind of Sorta'

Today there is a tiny, tiny peek at one of the new Stampin' Up sets coming out July 1st. This is a wedding card I made Friday night for a wedding yesterday. I love how this card turned out. I specialize in simple elegance and this card has it in spades. I picked up all the paper from Whole Lotta Scrap at Friday night's crop. I'm sure the scan doesn't show the sparkly glitter in the silver swirls or the metallic sheen of the pink and white papers. I used the sentiments in the new Stampin' Up hostess set "Kind & Caring Thoughts". I smuggled in my new order items and kept them under wraps while creating cards. It was like having a delicious secret no one else could share, LOL! I think this is going to be one of my favorite sets from the new catalog. I didn't take a photo of the inside but the verse says "May today be the beginning of a love that lasts forever." Perfect for a wedding card. I picked up a package of Swarovski crystals and the velvet flower is from Prima. I changed out the regular rhinestone on the flower and placed one of the Swarovski crystals there to match the others on the card. Simply beautiful, just the way I like it! Stay tuned for more cards. I'm making lots of samples to display at my Cardmaking for the Troops events.

Late Night Stampers

I feel like I have found one of the greatest groups on the internet! The talent and inspiration is just amazing! I have been inspired to create more, share and give back more and spruce up my blog too!

Check Out the Talent of the LNS Designers:

1.Gretchen Barron gbarron56@comcast.net http://gretchenbarron.typepad.com/
2. Barbara Dondero barbaradondero@gmail.com http://BarbsStampingSpot.blogspot.com
3. Tammy Fite stampinmama@comcast.net www.stampwithtammy.com
4. Judy Jackson JudyStamper@verizon.net
5. Mary Brown mary@stampercamper.com http://stampercamper.com/
6.Sarah Wills sarahwills@austin.rr.com http://sarahsinkspot.blogspot.com/
7.Selene Kempton e.selene@verizon.net http://stampinfunwithselene.blogspot.com/
8.Virginia Killmore vkillmore@gmail.com http://virginias-website.blogspot.com/
9. Elizabeth Sloman sloman4100@bellsouth.net www.mamastamper.com
10.Marisol Gutierrez atouchof_sol@yahoo.com http://atouchofsol.blogspot.com/
11. Dawn Bullock Dbullock28@comcast.net www.stampincreations.blogspot.com
12.Sandi MacIver sandi_maciver@comcast.net http://www.sandimaciver.com/sandi_maciver/
13.Stephanie Sullins stephenandsteph@earthlink.net http://owlwhimsy.blogspot.com
14.Susan Shields blestmomof6@cox.net http://createdwithlovebysusan.blogspot.com/
15. Rebekah "Becky" Jens en www.stampthat.com
16. Heidi Michel heartfeltblessings@gmail.com www.heartfeltblessings.blogspot.com
17. Barb Slaughter stamper0910@yahoo.com
18. Lisa Milliron uniquedesignsbylisa@windstream.net http://www.uniquedesignsbylisa.typepad.com/
19 Connie Babbert iluvstamping@columbus.rr.com http://inkspiredtreasures.com/
20 Nancy Dawson nancy@centralva.net http://creativewishes.blogspot.com
21 Bethany Keeney bethanykeeney@hotmail.com http://keeneyfarm.blogspot.com/
22 Kirsten Brown stampinsilly@gmail.com http://imstampinsilly.blogspot.com/
23. Mary Jo Price-Williams technostamper@roadrunner.com http://technostamper.blogspot.com/

24. Elizabeth Hurst stampwithelizabeth@gmail.com www.animalscraps.blogspot.com
25. Vivian Swain florida_scrapper@earthlink.net http://floridastampinwithvivian.blogspot.com/

Big Hugs,
Ruth
Angelartistok

Birthday Greetings

Let's see if I can get to posting more often. It has been whispered to my heart to reach out and touch more lives, something I very much enjoy doing. I am looking forward to the Cards for the Troops events I have scheduled for this summer. As a retired Air Force wife, those who serve in our military and our civilian protection forces will always have a special place in my heart. If you live nearby, please join us for these events. If you don't, make a card and send it to From Our Hearts and help a service member stay in touch with family and friends. Now on to my card share. I had fun making this card. It was for a Whole Lotta Scraps' first birthday bash. I used images from Verve, Prima paper and flowers, Bazzill cardstock rhinestones and a button.



Be Inspired!

Ruth

Published and other news

Okay. Three months and no posts is pitiful. My mojo ran away with my muse. Partly because I had a major asthmatic episode, something that hasn't happened in some time. I forgot how much time it takes to recover and how much my energy gets zapped. I have decided that 1. I need to publish on my blog more frequently 2. I need to save $$ for a blog makeover. One of the great artist's who can do the design so much better than me. 3. I need to develop a habit of scanning and resizing everytime I create something instead of telling myself I'll get to it because I never do. I am greatly enjoying being a Stampin Up demo. My little monthly club is great inspiration. The ladies love the projects and I enjoy creating them for them. Plus it's like a breath of fresh air because I've moved out of my "oriental" bubble. I t hink I got tunnel vision for awhile because I was immersed in one basic style of creating. Now it's fun to take an oriental card and try duplicating it in Stampin Up and vice versa. My fantastic news is I was published in the Spring 2009 issue of Just Cards Magazine, yippee! The surprise was it wasn't the card they queried me on. Our dear list mom Annette on OSA sent in the birthday card I had sent her a couple of years ago. It uses a retired Stampin Up stamp and Commotion stamp. Anyway I can't find my original scan since it's been so long so this copy is from the magazine, sorry if it's fuzzy. You can find the card on page 59.

His Holy Name Challenge -- Sovereign

Boy time flies when you are busy. I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I've posted. I'll see if I can get a few posts of cards caught up on in the next few days. I loved the pattern in this paper and didn't want to cover it all up. So I got the idea to layer a transparency sheet over the paper. Works great in theory, not so much when I went to put it into the album. I ended up "unpopping" the transparency sheet. I put the patterned paper into the album sleeve and then layered the transparency over the top of the sleeve. Presto, all the dimension I could possibly ask for. I also went back to my Holy page and cut a small slit in the protector to pop the red and black flower through. Guess I'll do the same to my attribute page. Blame it on the class I took with SEI last year at a CK convention. Materials used: DCWV Blossoms and Butterflies paper, Me and My Big Ideas for the butterflies, transparency, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Prima flowers, purple rhinestones and sharpie.

His Holy Name Challenge -- Holy

Here is my page for Holy the first challenge/study word for this year. On Monday morning after Sunday's post I woke up with the hymn Holy, Holy, Holy playing in my mind. I am very musically inclined, I would much rather have the radio on than the TV. It's not unusual to have music playing in my mind all the time. So since I haven't heard or sung this hymn in ages, I figured it was meant for this page. I found several scriptures in my study but this one spoke to me the most. I also knew I wanted to use this paper once the song manifested itself. I fell in love with it when Leslie got it into the store and bought a few sheets. It's the new Melody Collection by Christine Adolph for Creative Imaginations. The hymn is printed on vellum and attached with musical note brads. I used a journaling tag from the set to write the verse on and added a layered flower embellishment.

His Holy Name Challenge God's Attributes

Yeah, finally a minute to upload. I finished my Attributes of God page and my Holy page last Friday night but haven't had a chance to get them scanned and uploaded. I'm really tickled that these came out so well and I'm off to a good start with the His Holy Name Challenge. For the attribute page I used some pretty paper I bought years ago and unearthed while sorting out my papers better. These attributes were posted by Patter at the beginning of our challenge so I printed them off for the first page of my album. I've chosen to do the 6 x 6 album pages for my challenge pages. Hopefully I'll find some time to decorate my cover soon.

Jazzed

How cool! I found out today that I won 2 new release stamp sets in Verve's sneak peek preview. I took the opportunity to order a couple of sets from them to send with my win. I can't wait to play with my new stamps when they arrive! In other news I finished a few things this past week, finally. The first card showcases the card challenge from OSA's first card challenge of the year along with my second Friday challenge posting on cherry blossoms. Stamp is from Stonehouse Stamps, background paper is Stemma and cherry blossom circles are EK Success stickers. The second card is from my first Friday challenge on Zen. Stamp is from Post Modern Design, the background paper is hand sprayed with Radiant Rains and the stickers are from my stash.

Winter Birthday

Well I'm not posting everyday but I'm posting. I've been busy getting the painting finished in the bedroom my oldest son moved out of and starting to move some of my stash in. I have a lot of sorting to do but maybe I can clear more of the clutter that you see in a previous post. I'm actually considering having a lot of it walk out the door. I'm seriously am out of space and there's stuff I'm never going to use. The bedroom will still host guests so I can't completely take it over and it still has some of Matthew's stuff in it but it's a great start. A small bit of space to truly call my own and get away from the guys in. Speaking of Matthew, he has a winter birthday and this is his card. I don't have a lot of stamps that can be used for masculine cards so I decided on snowy trees. The tree stamp is Hero Arts, birthday wishes CC Rubber stamps. The trees were stamped in Ultramarine Staz-on and covered in Frosted Lace stickles.

Happy New Year!

I'm excited about the fresh start a new year offers. The past 2 years have been filled with a lot of medical challenges for me and I'm hoping the majority of that is behind me. I'm also excited to be designing more this year. Yipee! I love to design, it's like a puzzle that needs to be solved and I LOVE puzzles so the more creative the better. I signed up a couple of months ago to be a Stampin' Up demo. No you won't find endless banners, blinkies and ads here but hopefully you'll find some inspiration. We have a small stamp club here that meets monthly, likes Stampin' Up products and the chance to visit and create together. I'm also participating in a couple of challenges. His Holy Name Challenge is an awesome idea to combine studying the scriptures with my artwork. I'm the kid who used rainbow colored markers all through high school on my study notes and then could visualize those notes at test time based on the colors I used. I live and breath color and it will be wonderful to combine it with my Bible study. Then I'm designing challenges for OSA's 10th anniversary year. My home on the web is OSA. I love the beauty of oriental style artwork. And since I "blog without obligation" LOL, I won't promise to post everyday but I will try to post more frequently. Here's is today's piece. I saw a piece that was similar while blog surfing, (sorry I don't remember where), and this became my daughter and SIL's anniversary card celebrating their 7th year together. The patterned paper is from Me and My Big Ideas, I used Prima flowers, a Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Stampin' Up's Baroque Motifs and Stampabilities Amour stamps.