I'll tell yah, it sure is hard crafting and blogging "on the road." 

The difficult thing about having a two-month vacation (well, there are a lot of things hard about it), is not being able to hunker down and get some "work" done. My family likes to go on road trips so we are literally on the road for much of the summer too, but it's also that go-go-go feeling when you're on vacation... There never seems to be that down-time I need to craft. 

BUT... This past weekend before we left for our roadtrip to California I was able to make a couple of cards for people I'm meeting up with along the way, and this is one of them: 

I finally got my hands on some Reverse Confetti stamps so I inked them up just in time for the current Sketch For You To Try: 

 

I've been playing with my new set of Zig Clean Color Brush pens and this image was a great way to test out some colour combos. It's interesting what happens when you add water to them... Sometimes the colours do things you wouldn't expect- but that's the fun part about learning. 

 

White embossing was definitely the right way to go with this card and I really love how soft and pretty it ended up looking. 

 

Over the holidays (when I went home to Canada) I picked up a whole bunch of mixed media supplies with the intention of getting busy in the new year. I feel like art journaling has really been pushed to the back-burner and WHY? I mean, I really like it, I have tonnes of stuff, I just feel like I go through these phases and it's hard for me to do everything.  (Card-making, art journaling, scrapbooking...ha!) 

But anyway. One of the things I purchased was a Dyan Reveley BLACK journal.. I was kind of scared to get started but once I slapped some gesso on the paper the ideas started flowing! 

Before doing anything I slapped a coat of clear gesso onto the paper just to give it some strength (I felt it was a little thin) and then I got down to business. I sprayed it with Dylusions mists then scraped white gesso all over. The gesso kind of sucks up the inks to give some subtle colouring. 

Then I sketched the flowers with the Stabilo "all" pencil and painted the petals in. The rainbow colours are Gelatos! I applied them straight from the tube, then rubbed them with my fingers, then I sprayed them with water. I LOVE how the colours faded away... 

The stamp (Stampendous!), and the dotty stencil (TCW Stencils) completed the piece and I was happy! 

This month's Greenhouse Society stamp set is a stunner. 

Maybe it's just that I have a soft-spot for crocuses, but nah.. It's a beautiful stamp. 

Check it out: 

I used the no-line technique and stamped the flowers in a pale brown so the colouring would stand out more. Additionally, after I was done colouring I added shadows and light with chalk pencils to enhance the colours. 

Oh! And that butterfly? I was determined to use it. It had been taking up valuable real-estate on my desk and it needed to get coloured and go live on a card. Operation: Tobi use your stuff was a total success. 

Thanks for stopping by!