Hello again

{{Hey.}} I'm back posting again I guess. Thank you for all of the condolences. I don't feel like myself...yet? Ever? Don't know, I may end up changed. I was gone so long for apparent family reasons, but also because I've been going through some emotional changes that I really don't know where they will lead. So, while I wanted to stay away even longer, this is an art blog and I had art to show from before my mother's death. Plus a few things since. So, as they say, on with the show.

This is my dad's birthday card. He turned 83 4 days after my mom passed. And I'd made this card 2 weeks before. I got the image in this Episcopal diocese magazine I get and I scanned it in and made an image transfer with OmniGel from a laserjet printout. I then adhered it to patterned paper. It came out really neat, and I'm glad my dad found it comforting given the unforseen circumstances.

I had also made these two 4.5" square decos for a Home Sweet Home mingle swap. Both the doors and the ladies are images from Altered Pages collage sheets.

I used coasters for the house bases and stamped a brick background stamp by I Brake for Stamps. I used a stamp by Scrollswork Stamps for the roofs. Letter stickers by Making Memories.

I cut out the windows with a Tim Holtz knife and it was perfect for the job. I had previously been disappointed by the knife when using it on thinner materials, and luckily I thought it might have been created more for the grunge paper and chipboard of his, so I gave it a try on the coaster. The small pointed blade cuts freehand and corners well.

This atc was made for the May ATC of the Month in my stamping group. I had started out trying to do a Technique Junkies technique with pigment ink and brayered dye ink, but I think my paper wasn't as glossy as it needed to be, so the second I saw it going south I dumped gold embossing powder over the whole background and blasted it with the heat gun. Saved! Plus, it has a really cool two-tone-and-textured finish that shows the imprint of the stamp I used from Leave Memories. The green strip is a stamp from Ma Vinci and the lady is a stamp from Third Coast Stamps.

Next time, I will upload my white on white atcs and also my Asian triptych and envelope. Maybe even more if I've finished anything new. I've been trying to do some major cleaning and organization, though. We'll see...