Artist Trading Cards

These are some atc's I made for a swap over at scrapbook.com. It was a mystery swap so you could make whatever you wanted. This top one is one of my favs. I made a zetti, which is one of my first and I used a story people story with it which I just love that site.




















OK.. I now think I must have been a little off with this little story, it too is a story people story... LOL.. and I think it is sooo hilarious... I think you must either be really deep for these stories or off and sometimes a little of each... but I thought it was a hoot so I used it. The dogs are actually a piece of my art work. It is a color pencil portrait I did and it is one of my favs and thought it would be cool to use it on this atc. and don't you c'ha just love that hat?! LOL.. This card just makes me laugh and smile, I hope who ever gets it thinks the same instead of thinking the artist is just off!! :O) oh well, I am, what can I say!






















This is just a pic of all five designs together... I made a total of five of each design.

House Mouse Challenge #39 - Birthday

Even though I have not posted for a couple of weeks, I have done some things but with my daughter's graduation and open house things have been just crazy crazy around here. I missed uploading these for this challenge even though they were completed during that week. So I thought I would just go ahead and post them. The top one was done for one of my girl friend's that I missed her birthday and the bottom one was done for my nephew who turned 13 just yesterday. I kept that one fairly simple since it was for a teen boy. I colored the top one with my bic mark-its and the sky with chalks. Thanks for looking!

My dinning room wall mural is

FINALLY finished.... ok.. this mural has been in the works WAY too long.. but what can I say... slacker I tell you. With Rachel's Open House coming up next week it really inspired me to just finish it so I can enjoy it. Of course I will look at it and see things I may need to tweak, but hey that is ok and I know it is just me, but I tell you it feels SOOO good to finally have this finished. It's rainy out so trying to get a good picture. Also I can't take a straight on without someone here to lift the light fixture so when I get one of those I will post. This is the best I could do this morning.... This is painted mostly in wall paints with some acrylics. I will seal with a clear sealer. The sky actually has more color in it but why it is not showing it is beyond me, just must be the lighting this morning. My kitchen is a Tuscany style. The one thing you might fine interesting in this mural is that there is actually real terracotta tile on my wall at the front of the mural and then I painted the top part of the wall in paint to look like the top of a wall as if you were standing on the other side looking out over this view. Hope that makes sense to you. I myself am in awe at how well the colors match and look to be all the same , but one is real tile and the top part that is about 3 inches it paint! I would say the second picture down is the one more true to color. SOOO just wanted to celebrate a bit!! Thanks for bloggin by....and leave me a note of cheer and let me know what you think, I sure could use a celebration with others!!

(ok.. if you just read all of that, these pictures are now are all different.. LOL.. but better then what was there before. These are all much more the true color and Morgan held the light fixture up for me to get a more straight on shot!)



















Have an artsie kind of day!

Purse Gift Card Holder

Here is a cute little purse gift card holder that I made. I got the template from Helen's blog. Click here if you would like one too. I found this just at the right time, these little purses are quick and easy and awe soooo fun to make. Just look how cute they are too. I made this one with a matching mini thank you card to slip inside the purse with the gift card. It is for my son's speech teacher. So, blog on over to Helen's blog she has lots of cute things over there and you will love her work. Thanks for stopping by and now back to painting my mural!



Have a great day!

House Mouse Challenge #36 - Gate fold card

This week's challenge was a gate fold card. Well, I kind of did not do the traditional gate fold, but this is kind of a gate fold.... ok.. whatever that is suppose to mean, hope you understand my garble... So.. I did do a the gate fold, but I overlapped it and then I also placed a couple of creases on each side of the gate fold where the pattern paper ends so It would stand while closed. I really like how it turned out though. The white flower holds the gate gold closed and you just really slide and lift to open it. I wish now looking at this on the screen I would have added a tough of yellow to the edges of the flower, but oh well it is in the mail. This is a new stamp I just bought when Hobby Lobby had them 50% off last week. I bought this one and then Bunny Cruise. Since I had many mother day cards to make I decided to make one using this challenge. The sentiment inside says "Soak up this special day!" ok... have ta run... lots to do, little time to do it... so I will catch you later and thanks for bloggin by!

more from the past (PTBD) prior to blog days

Hi all you bloggers, well, I am still super duper busy and it is heading it's way to late at night once more. I have lots to accomplish in the next two weeks with getting the yard and house tidied up for Rachel's open house.... so time is flying by and little time for creativity... So, I hate not having any updated posts, so here are a few more layouts prior to my blogging days....






ok... I am ready to crash and burn. sooo off to bed with me because it is now midnight! Thanks for blogging by!

House Mouse Challenge #35 - wish someone well

This weeks house mouse challenge is to make a card or anything you like to wish someone well! Sooooo, it certainly seems like I have lots of people I can send this too lately... and since I have a mess I thought I would go ahead and make this before I cleaned it up.

You really can't see it in this picture, but I used a liquid glaze on the puddle and the raindrops.





















Thanks for hopping by!

Dream Big

Ok.. so I wanted to complete the challenges for the group that I am a part of over at scrapbook.com, so to do that I had to pull a couple of late nighters to get them accomplished by the due date... LOL... which I might add was today. It was well worth the lack of sleep, well it seemed good at the time! LOL.. but the end result was what I think to be 2 great layouts. This first is for the Eiffel Tower Group - April Technique Challenge In honor of April Fool's, this month's Technique Challenge is to use something on your layout that corresponds with the word FOOL(S) as follows:
F - Flora or Fauna. You must use plants (trees, flowers, etc.) or animals (ladybugs, butterflies, etc., also ok) somewhere on the layout--this could be in your actual picture(s), papers, or as embellishments!
O - Odd. You must use something odd on the layout (the "odd" thing can be something not normally used on a layout, OR--an odd number of a certain supply, such as 3 patterned paper s, or 5 brads, for example.)
O - Oval. You must use something in the shape of an oval on your layout. This can be anything.
L - Light Colors. You must use light colors on at least 50% of the layout. Think Spring! Pastels, muted colors, light colors.

All of these things make the LO worth 25 points.

TWIST:
S - Sewing Or Stitching. For an extra 10 points, you must use sewing or stitching on the layout. This can be freehand and freeform, by machine, or with a template--whatever you like!

You can also use any subject matter for this LO.

SOOO for my lo I chose to use one of Rachel's senior pics. My background cs in real life is a little more creamy/vanilla but doesn't really reflect that here.. grr the rain! LOL..

F: flora or fauna - I have that lovely lollipop flower from Prima and some butterflies.

O: Odd - Well, I actually have 3 pieces of different pp, 3 butterflies, and that green circle thingie in the bottom right corner is a washer with paint and stickles on it.

O: Oval - I made a hidden journaling tag which is to the right of the pic. I made an oval pull with the butterfly on it.

L: Light color - I believe that 50% of my lo is in light color.

S: Stitching - Twist extra 10 points - stitching.. I stitched the "X" and also stitched the washer on the lo.

Renew Me - Challenge

This layout was done for the ETG April BOM Challenge. In honor of Spring, the BOM Challenge theme for this month was Renewal. What is something you do for renewal of your body, mind, soul, environment, etc.? This can be anything--the time you take for yourself, something you do just for you--whether it be daily, weekly, monthly, etc. Or--did you just renew your environment? Possible examples: redecorate a room in your home, plant a garden, or even a new purse or new shoes that make you feel refreshed and renewed, etc.; anything with the Renewal theme! So use your imagination on this one! This challenge is worth 25 points, with a Twist: If you use the word "Renew" or "Renewal" in your LO title, it's an extra 10 points!

So, I truly think the thing that renews me from the inside out, in the depth of my soul daily is truly my relationship with Christ. When I prise him in song, in his word or through lo's such as this. Christ certainly has renewed me in ways that are beyond words and how could I resist not doing my lo on this.

First I just LOVE this pic of Jesus with the lamb and knew as soon as I found it I wanted to use this on my lo. I kept this very simple and let that beautiful pp from K & Company do most of the work for me. I did cut some of the background pp out and let it lay over the pic and then I cut another piece that is to the right with the bluish flowers and glued that down. My title says it all. My journaling are words from the song by Avolon "Renew Me". This was what instantly came to my mine when this challenge was presented. I love these words and what else can I say, this is exactly what he has done for me over the years and still does for me daily, the journaling reads "So renew me, remake me, Undo me, Unbreak me, Come into the empty spaces, Of my broken places, And consume me, Complete me, Pursue me, Redeem me, Let Your Holy Spirit living through me, Renew me, I need you to renew me" just love those words

Wow..

I found this to be soo creative and really just enjoyed the creativity of it and the music. So if you haven't seen it before make sure you watch it, very inventive! It's a great way to start my day! ENJOY



Fun Facts:
* The video was shot all stills - roughly 3225 still photos for the entire video, using one camera, hanging from the ceiling for the main body of the movie.
* It took 4 weeks before shooting to create an animated computer generated storyboard for the video, with 3d dummies for the characters.
* It took only 2 days of shooting for the live actors on set to re-create the 3.5 minutes computer sequence, frame by frame.
* Some of the bed sheets used in the video were taken from Oren’s own bedroom and are now considered collectors items, worth at the moment not very much and therefore used as bed sheets.


XOXO

Did you know.....

that I also do fine art? Well, I don't seem to do much these days (life just seems to busy with other things), but if you have ever taken the time to read my profile you will have read that I paint and draw. My choice of paint is watercolor and I love to draw in color pencil. Plus, people have actually paid me to draw and paint on their walls!! Now, my mom would have never allowed me get away with that while living at home when I was younger, but now a days, she just might allow me to do so! So, since my days are so extra full right now and I have not had much time to paper craft with layouts or too many cards or projects I thought while this was going on I would post some things that I have done PTHAB (prior to having a blog). Sooooo.... I thought I would give you a little art show... or also known as Designs by Nina... aka my fine art. So, let's pretend you have a glass of fine wine in one hand, a small plate of yummy food in the other and you are walking around having fine conversation in this art gallery at one of my shows!! LOL...

I am going to start you off with a commissioned painting of the the top part of a building known as the old Chrysler Building that was down town and closed shortly after I painted this. An employee commissioned me to paint this to be auctioned off at an event for Chrysler, but once he seen it he just paid me for it and kept it for himself, because his whole lively hood was spent there working and now it was no more.



This is a painting I did this past Christmas for a friends daughter that wanted to give it to her parents for Christmas. This is a picture of her and her brother when they were younger. She is now 18 and I am guessing him to be 20. I usually hate to do people, but when you do people that are close to your heart, that is a different story, you feel them as you paint them. Can't really explain it, but that is the best I can say about that.



This painting is quite old, but one of my favorites and not my usual watercolor. It is more about design and color. I just love it.



This here is my all time favorite animal portrait that I have ever done. It is in color pencil, my favorite choice medium to do animal portraits in. This will show all you card makers and stampers how wonderful color pencils can truly be!! I take them quite seriously!! :O)



That was just a sample of some of my picturious things. So now do you wanna see a sample of my murals? Ya, so.. was that a yes?! Well, I am glad so here ya go... this first pic is a knight I did in a little boy's bedroom. He probably stands a good
5'4" would be my guess... isn't he just wonderful!?!



Now, I have done many more murals, but I am going to stop with a few from this one, because it is now 12:49AM and I need to go to bed!! UGH.... These pictures come from a mural that measured 37 feet long and 10 feet high. It was a scene from a jungle. These 2 are my favorite animals in the whole scene. Plus my elephant was awesome and I just loved it and still do and it was BIG which made it even better! These were painted mostly with wall paints and then it was sealed.





Thanks for coming to my art show today and visiting me and having a cyber glass of wine, plate of yummy food and good conversation with me... please come back and visit and I look forward to seeing you then....

Blast from the past... LOL

Well, I am slowly starting to feel back to myself. With Rachel about to graduate there is a lot to plan and to accomplish with the senior stuff and college plans, so my creative flow seems to have come to a halt for the moment. So, I thought since my last few posts have not been paper related, I thought I would post some of my work that I did prior to starting my blog. These are a few of my favorite layout's and are not on my blog, well, maybe in my slide show, but thought I would post something scrappy. So enjoy and hopefully I will get a few challenges done by months end!








Thanks for stopping by and taking a look...