More Inchies!

I finished my inchies for the most recent Frenzy Stamper swap. I can hardly believe I had time! I got two sets done before I started working and had three to finish up after. I realize that most people work full time, so I'm not trying to whine by any means. It's just quite a bit of an adjustment for me. I worked 106 hours in the first two weeks, so I was bushed! Anyway, these three sets are the last of them. One set is circles and polka dots. Another is metal. I punched a fleur de lis, mounted it on the inchie, covered it with aluminum tape, coated it with india ink, then lightly sanded the raised edges. The last set is the 'anything goes' set. I cut the hearts from the leftover phone book pages from my last journal swap. I really like this one.

New Job!

Well, I started a new job about two weeks ago. I'm now the Administrative Assistant at my kids' old elementary school. I've put in a ton of hours the last two weeks trying to learn the job and my responsibilities. It's really quite a bit, but I'm looking forward to it. It's been quite some time since I've had to get up and go to a job every morning, but I like it. It's still hard to get anything done when I get home, but that will come with time - and necessity! The schedule works really well for our family. I have close to the same schedule as the kids with the exception of about 4 weeks in the summer that they have off that I don't. They're old enough now that that's not a huge problem. Other than that, I have pretty much the same time off as they do - not too many jobs can give me that! My consulting and window covering business takes place almost exclusively on the weekends and evenings, so it doesn't conflict with KCK Designs either. So it's a win, win for everyone! The only thing that I think may suffer is time for art - BOO! I just have to make the time becasue it makes me happy. And when Mom's happy - everybody's happy!!!!!!

Inchies!

Inchies are all the rage right now and I've just jumped into the fray! I've got to get 5 sets done by the first of August - no sweat! These are the neatest little pieces of art going! Each one is a 1" square and must be original - no copies - and have at least two layers to them. I thought it would be a PITA to work this small, but it's actually really fun! Here are my first two sets - Black and White and 'Word.' For B&W I used a zettiology stamp - Maddie calls this one "Fat Little Bee Man." The dots are done with a Sharpie poster paint pen. For Inspire, I did a Simple Solution background with pink and yellow pear ex, stamped the word and added a square brad. It's simple, but pretty.

Fabric 2 x 2's

This is my first foray into anything art related using fabric. It was a real stretch for me which is odd considering the amount of time I've spent sewing during my life. I've made all kinds of clothes - including jeans, suits & heavy coats! I spent the beginning of the summer making new cushions for all of my patio furniture, and there's a lot of it! I've sewed intricate window coverings for myself and clients. Yet these little 2 x 2 pieces of fabric had me on the run. I have no idea why I was so intimidated. They aren't fantastic by any means, but it got me using my machine for something other than a utilitarian purpose and I LOVED it! I have 6 sewing machines ( yes, six!) - they are mostly vintage Singers. But I've borrowed the whole set of decorative stitch cams from my brother - we have a sewing machine thing in our family! - and I'm planning on playing with those as soon as I can. I already have a wall hanging design in mind for my next fabric project!

4th of July

Well, we headed up to the Stoneman Lake area for the 4th. This is my favorite place to camp in the state. It's not too far and the forest is fantastic! We had a bit of light rain a few days, HAIL on one - but I loved it! - and general good camping weather the rest of the time. The rain is no issue since it soaks in pretty quickly and goes a long way toward keeping the dust down. We went on some great Ranger rides, but we broke the other strut - the first one went on the last trip to Crown King! Luckily, Chris took a jaunt down to Prescott Valley and picked up a new one so we weren't without our 4-wheeling for the rest of the trip.



Things were pretty low-key, but I couldn't go without my art bag! I just got a new order of Zettiology stamps so I had to take them along to trim and get them in my binders. Well, if you're going to take stamps, you'd better bring along the rest of the acoutrements! So I played with some post cards. I'm sure the letter carriers like to have some eye candy pass through their hands every now and then! I only took a black pad, my prismacolor pencils and my peerless watercolor leaves. It was actually nice not to have too much to choose from! I love the bright colors of the peerless watercolors and I'm digging how easy it is to shade with them. I really like the Dr. Ph Martins, too, but didn't bring those along. So here are a few of my playthings. I didn't finish the background on one yet, but that's coming. The kids (5 of them!) all got into the fray and made more postcards than I ever would have thought! My stamp binders sure got a workout! But if they're respectful of my things, I have no problems with the kids diving in, too. They had a ball and were very proud of their creations. After looking at these, I'm not so sure they will actually make it into the mail. I might just have to put together a Zetti Journal. I just love the artful oddness of it all...