Two Words

Zappos.  Outlet.

If you have ever ordered anything from Zappos and returned it, chances are it may have ended up in central Kentucky at the outlet store.  I have never been there until today.  I drove north and friend Gaye drove south, and we met in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, to check it out.  It's not that hard to find, since it's on this street:

Yes, the street is actually called Zappos.Com Boulevard.  I liked the swirly pattern in the front windows.

It is also called the 6pm Outlet, which confused me.  Right inside the front door, there is a huge chair throne where I presume you sit and have your picture taken when you leave.  It says "I received the royal treatment at the 6pm Outlet". 

It's an outlet store - lots of one of a kinds.  No checking to see if they "have it in my size".  What you see is what you get. Everything is at least half price.  I got some new sneakers.  Gaye got some new sandals.  I didn't take any pictures of those.  But now I know where they are and what they have.  And I signed up for their emails about specials in the future.  Great mini-road trip to enjoy some fun and some good company!  We had mini-show and tell too, but I don't have pictures of any of that either.  For sure, I came home wanting to make an altered book like Gaye's!

A Sucker for Sprays

I know I talk a lot about sprays and stencils.  I was fairly certain I now have plenty of each and even if I ran across new stencils and new sprays, I could happily walk away and use what I already have.  Then one day at Michael's (the only craft store in my area), I saw some new sprays.  Apparently there is a whole line of Heidi Swapp scrapbooking materials I didn't know about.

The colors were luscious, but I didn't buy any.  However, I did think about the sprays from time to time.  I finally took my 40% off coupon to Michael's one day, just to buy one bottle to try out.  Somewhere along the way, I had also learned the sprays have more of a metallic sheen to them.  I don't normally go for the glittery shiny look.

Long story short, when I got to Michael's, they had added a bunch of stencils too, and I ended up getting a big 12 x 12 design, plus one bottle of what I thought was gold spray (turns out it is Mustard, but looks like gold sprayed on black).

 I sprayed a very light mist back and forth a couple of times onto black cardstock.  It's important to remember when spraying that less is more.  I took another piece of black cardstock and blotted the wet stencil to get the reverse image.

These are not great pictures, but you get the idea.  It's a very nice gold-ish color.  I would not be surprised if another coupon leads me to try another color in the future....

License to Create

I'm an artist.
I have a license to create.
I can prove it.

I was checking some old web links I had bookmarked and came across this one I forgot about.  Some of the features are free and some are not. The one to create a name badge is free.  Just upload a picture, pick one of the designs, and fill in the blanks.  I couldn't figure out how to make them any color other than blue.  And I don't have that many pictures of myself.  But I had fun anyway. The hardest part was thinking up words to use!  When you are happy with it, save it to your computer and make more.

Have fun with this.  Great projects for the kids.  And a fun thing for the Memorial Day holiday weekend.  Give your guests an ID badge with a license to grill or something!
Here's the link to Big Huge Labs (when you get to the site, scroll down for the Badge Maker).

Ancient Map

I keep looking at the maps in the Timothy Ely book, and something kept nagging at my brain from ancient times (you know, 1999).  I pulled out one of my journals from back then, and saw it was as I remembered - I did try to draw a map in my journal, which represented my life at the time.  I think I might have even had Ely's book in front of me back then for inspiration.

I was not pleased with my drawing back then, but it doesn't look too bad to me right now.  Hard to believe so much time has passed. 

Like anything else, practice makes perfect.  So if I want to get better at it, I guess I should practice more!

Stamp, Paint, Scribble

That's what I did instead of the multiple things on my list that I was supposed to be doing.

Stamp

 Paint

Scribble

 And ended up with this. 

I had to get it out of my system.  I blame Pam Sussman, who noted on her blog she was off to take a workship with Timoth Ely. It prompted me to get out my copy of his book Flight into Egypt (below). 

His writing on the pages is something he made up, and it prompted me to do the same. 

I wish I had the whole week off from work, because if I did, I'd make my own book.  My muse is giving me all kinds of ideas to continue through with this. For now, I can't wait to see what Pam did in the workshop! Hey, Pam, not that I'm putting you on the spot or anything! Check out her blog here.

 

 

Project No. 6,532

In my continuing quest to see how many projects I can start, I have been playing with painting deli paper to be used for collage.  These are all painted with acrylic paint and then stamped with acrylic paint.  I'm loving it.  But it occurred to me that I should take a couple of pictures before I tore them all up.

One of the stamps I used (see the second picture) was one I got on a sale table a few years ago.  Best couple of dollars I have ever spent!

Hope you are having fun with your own projects!

Eagle Eyes

You probably already know this, but the best time to find something is when you are not looking for it. 

In the past, I have passed along the hint that this is a good time of year (spring, with summer on the horizon) to look for cheap plastic goods to use as stencils.  Remember these paper plate holders I got a few years ago:

 

I have not even been looking for more, but when I was at the grocery store this week, my eyes were naturally drawn to a section with said cheap plastic stuff for summer fun. There I found these paper plate holders. Just too good to pass up - especially at 2 for a dollar (at Kroger).

I haven't had time to play properly, but could not resist giving a quick spray when I got them home just to see!

I see some spray fun in my future!

Happy May

Happy May - Spray and Play!

I've been playing with backgrounds again.  These are done with Dylusions sprays.  I put a big piece of freezer paper (shiny side up) on the work table, sprayed two or three colors, then pressed white bristol board into the spray.  Some of the bristol board had gesso on it, some was plain.  The one thing I kept forgetting was to spray water onto the freezer paper before spraying the inks.  Makes for a much nicer blend of color when you remember to do that! 

Freezer paper with spray:

Bristol board blotted onto the spray (forgot to spray water first):

 See how much prettier these are - water was sprayed first:

 I cut some of the bristol board to ATC size.  I stamped birds onto the brighter colors, to be cut out later.  Since the sprays are water soluble, I used a brush to paint water onto the cards to blend and soften the colors:

ATCs are ready to stamp and embellish.  I'm really not loving the birds at all.  They will have to fly away somewhere else, and I will think up a plan B.