Blog Hop Winner..

 What a wonderful Blog Hop this weekend with Paper Traders. Thank you all for the nice comments and visiting my blog. And as shown, the prize is all wrapped and ready to go for the lucky winner!

And the Winner is Jo Murray!

Thanks and I will put this in the mail this week.

Take Care, Amanda

Sunday Treasures

 Yesterday was so much fun! My sister and I went to a vintage antique show.

There were lots of vendors with wonderful items. Many vendors created very artistic displays. I am so inspired!

The icing of the cake was this amazing hand craved St. Francis statue. It was love at first sight! The birds are hand craved and added on the statue. I do not know the artist name as they wrote on the bottom in ink and it has rubbed off mostly. This little statue has a new home and it just made a wonderful day yesterday, perfect.

 This was another little jewel that I got. Have other pieces of this set from mine and my husband's family. This little dish is a fun addition.

Another simple item that I found yesterday is this vintage box of greeting cards. They each have a little sparkle. Love the box they came in, too. Can't wait to use one on a project.

Don't forget the Paper Traders blog hop, check the link on my sidebar or here


I am so thankful for my little treasures and such a wonderful day with my sister. My top 5 this week are

1. Learning to handle work frustrations
2. The spring sun
3. The artist I do not know that created such a beautiful St. Francis statue
4. Blessings from someone I need understand differently
5. Knowing that art gives me such great peace and joy

Have a wonderful week, Amanda

Blog Hop at PT

 

Welcome to my blog and hope you enjoy strolling through. My name is Amanda and since I was very little I have a great love of Pandas. This guy has been many places, even the children's hospital once. My other love is Paper, lots of scrap paper. The rest is blog history. But now as my two girls are grown up I am spending more time learning the wonderful world of mixed media. I have done paper art for many years and now branching into much more. I have learned a lot from a wonderful group Paper Traders. All weekend they are having a fun blog hop. Here are the details Blog Hop. Below is the details of my giveaway!

 

 

First is a handmade art journal. It is a variation of the one from Teesha Moore. It is 6 x 5.5 was hand bound like her video shows.

Some pages fold out on a side or other. It has a total of 8 pages. It just waiting for your creative art to make it complete. In other Teesha videos she has great ideas for how to paint and create art journal pages.

I will also include other fun items like ribbons, buttons and fun embellishment.

Of course there would have to be some scrap papers too.

 



And lastly a few fun postcards.

 

To be included in the random drawing on Monday for this prize, please leave a comment on this post or the original blog hop post here.

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon, Amanda

Paper Trader Blog Hop

I am excited to participate the First Paper Traders Blog Hop. I hope it will be a way for you to get to know me and a few of the other group members better, see our art, and get a chance to win some nice prizes that are being offered along the way. Maybe you'll even be inspired by what you see and want to join the group.

The Blog Hop will be open the entire weekend of April 19-21, 2013. Be sure to start at the Paper Traders Art Blog here http://papertraders-art.blogspot.com/ and follow the blog hop list of participating members below:

Paper Traders Art Blog

Bockel24
Art and Soul
Sunshine,Lollipops and Butterflies
Creative Solace
Art Beckons
Scrap Panda
Creative Musings
A Surcee Life
Textile Delights
Stamp Gram’s
Glenda’s Art Escapes
Fairy Rocks

Each member will share a little bit about herself and offer either a handmade art piece or other quality prize that will be randomly awarded to blog readers who leave a warm, fuzzy comment. Just comment below and provide a way for me to contact you and I will pick a randomly drawn name from those who leave a comment. One entry per person, please.

Have fun on your journey and I hope you'll come back to visit soon!

Another Art Page

 

I was behind getting my page done this month for the Word Prompt Journal. Check out the sidebar link to see all the great pages created by members and others who have joined in.

I did want to try some new techniques for this page, so used a dollie and gesso for the first layer of my page.

 This is the dollie. It had four corners so I decided to use each one on each corner of my page. I see that this technique is tricky to know how much gesso to use. It is a fun surprise each time to see what would show up.

Next I blended some alcohol ink on the page to add more color. The theme for the page was to use some symbols of time. I used my stamps with clock faces and clock hands.

I am trying to practice my art lettering. It is a work in progress. I stamped letters and then tried to add to it. I need to let it be.. I will keep trying.

Then I wanted to add this little bird. I created a nest using strips of paper and layered to create the effect.

Here is the final page.

Keep Going Sunday

There seems to be a list of To Do longer than time this weekend. Last week I was able to do some creative work. These were two cards created for a coworker.

Both cards used scrap papers that I love. I liked the colors and details in each card. Both have a vintage feel. I reused an old button for the center of the flowers and then created the cardboard heart added gold paint with a splash of gesso for the other card.

One day I hope to be more of the art but until I am thankful for the time I get to do little bits. I am truly blessed and my top 5 blessings this week..

1. A beautiful homily at Mass today.

2. Music

3. Time with family

4. Paint pens

5. Yummy bakery items

Have a wonderful week, Amanda

Learn and grow

 

I had fun creating this page for a swap on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Paper_Traders. The theme for Connie was Steampunk so I had to do some research to know what to do. There is a lot of cool sites and information on this genre.  This is my interpretation of it. I LOVE now  steampunk.

For this page, the background is torn paper and alcohol ink. I found the Victorian women image on Graphics Fairy. Added the top hat and the metal brads. Used lots of layers on the pages and image.

Have you every been looking for something and found out you really like it? This was a fun project.

Challenging myself more

 

 There is a lot of things that I want to learn and do. Being part of a wonderful art group has helped to push me in that direction. I belong to Paper Traders. This is a art journal we are doing with the group. We are given a monthly word prompt to create with. This is my Follow Your Heart for February.

 

This was a magazine collage swap with the group. I love to create and use new techniques. To make the shoreline and cliff. I used many magazine pages. Cut the pictures into slices and then reassembled them to create the page.

 

This was another swap to take an old photo and create "oddball Ancestors". I used stamped butterfly wings and embelished them with lots of stickle. The hat was from an stamp with the mad hatter. It was fun to think outside the normal way of using stamps. I created the background blending the background with paint and alcohol ink.

I want to create more, this was fun.