So we are really starting to find our grove with the school schedule.  The after school activities are in full launch.  The kids are in full swing of the school routine.  And we all understand our parts to play in the mornings… my son is the helper…my middle child the joy who finds positive with everything…my youngest the one who dawdles and can’t find her shoes (today they were on her feet)…and myself, the lunatic running a thousand miles an hour with an un-sipped coffee cup in her hand.  It works.

But as we all fall comfortably into our roles, we find that there is extra time in our schedules.  Case and point…I had extra time to craft and paint a little this weekend, thus the rare Monday morning post.

I have even had some extra time to really dig my hands into some paint.  I have been playing with poured acrylic (using pouring medium).  There are some people who are just so talented with it…please note I am not one of them.  Anyway, I poured out some paint Saturday night and went to bed while it dried…And then came down stairs yesterday to watch anniversary coverage of 9-11.  I was watching and relieving the nightmare from 15 years ago, trying to answer questions from my oldest (who asked very politely not to be shielded from the truth anymore), and found myself sketching over my poured acrylic.  I found myself drawing those fallen towers on that awful day.  I know the painting in the end wasn’t brilliant, but I did find some peace in it.

This year I found to be harder than most, but I am fairly certain that was because my son wanted to understand something that I still don’t understand.  He wanted to know why we all get so sad, and after letting him watch some of the ‘safer’ videos, he too found himself sad and confused.  It is one of those things you want to protect your children from, and yet, one of those things you HAVE to teach regardless of how hard it is.  I am a firm believer that ‘to forget the past is the beginning of relieving it’.

As I finished the weird tower abstract and marathon questioning session, I pulled out a strange little canvas I have been playing with for a while now.  I am doing a bunch of experimenting with canvases these days and thought for fun I would just play with the ‘intuitive’ movement.  I am a big fan of knowing where I am going when I start a painting, but playing with this ‘intuitive’ process has been good for me.  Well, I needed a little soul soothing and found myself finishing this strange little peace.  I didn’t think about it, I just did.  And while I am still not calling the painting done, I can totally see where my emotions were yesterday.

Anyway…that was the art from yesterday…now time for the paper crafting.  Brace yourself… I got some snarky new sentiment stamps.  I have a feeling we all are going to have to endure my snarky sentiments for a while.

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Up first in our list of cards is a color challenge from the gurus of color over at Color Throwdown.  This week they were looking for a design that featured yellow, black and sky blue.

I am still doing a bunch of seasonal cards, and wanted to see if I

could craft a Halloween card in this color scheme.  I pulled out a Sizzix by Tim Holtz embossing folder and embossed the spider web onto some watercolor paper.  Then using some Distress Ink in tumbled glass and mustard seed I loosely watercolored in some challenge colors and dried them with a heat gun. Snagging the black soot Distress Ink pad I gently ran it over the raised edges of the spiderweb.  I then pulled out a random little spider and stamped him on with some black Archival ink.  I flicked a little extra yellow and blue onto the card and dried the whole thing well.  I pulled out some black card stock and die cut the sentiment from another Sizzix by Tim Holtz die and adhered it onto the watercolor paper.  Finally I adhered the paper to a black A2 card.  (I did add some some gray paper inside the card and a few more spider stamps, but I forgot to photograph it).  I know this isn’t traditional Halloween colors, but I do think the card works.

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Next up in the card challenge is a CAS sketch challenge from the queens of clean over at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week they have a very layered sketch, and in a rare moment of insanity, I decided to do a very technical card.

I have recently gotten a new (at least to me) stamp set from Clearly

Besotted, and only after receiving it did I realize that the little figure on it could be combined to make a spinner card.  I have never made a spinner card.  I am still not certain that I have (just kidding).  Anyway, I stamped out the front and back of the little bunnies and colored them in with copics.  Then I started the card assembly.  I pulled two sheets of coordinating printed paper, and backed the window portion with a bit of black card stock.  I adhered both to an A2 card.  I stamped the sun into the window print so that it could look like my little love bunnies were watching a sunset.  Then I snagged some book print and trimmed it up and place it on the card.  Finally I pulled a circle die from Little B, and die cut the whole card (plus a piece of pink card stock for the inside) to create the spinner hole.  I grabbed some clear sting and assembled my little spinners and rigged it to the card.  I stamped a simple sentiment from the same stamp pack to the top in some ink and left it at that.  Not a great job, but a good start to a first try at this style of card.

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The designers over at The Paper Players this week tossed out a fun fall color challenge.  They were looking for a card that had cajun craze, crushed curry, and pear pizzazz.

Now, while these cards are fall-ish, I have a new snarky christmas sentiment that I just had to use, so I decided to make these colors work, period.  I pulled out a fun little stamp from Art Impressions and stamped her out onto some card stock.  I wanted to put a tree into the design, but didn’t have a stamp that fit the gal, so I pulled out a tree die from my stash and traced it.  Then with a pencil I went in and added details to the tree.  I took a copic safe pen and outlined my tree sketch and colored the whole image into with my copics.  I added my snarky sentiment from Riley’s Funny Bones, and added some glossy accents to the blubs and her glasses and some glitter gel pen to the garland.  I added a bit more of the yellow color from the challenge under the focal image.  Now I just keep giggling every time I see this card.  It makes me happy.  And frankly no truer words have ever been spoken.

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Finally today we have another color challenge from the sleuths of design over at Can You Case It.  This week they are searching for designs that unlock the code of the colors chartreuse, gray and Flamingo.

Again, I had a new snarky sentiment from Riley’s Funny Bones that just had to be used, so I worked the colors to make the it work.  I stamped out the sentiment in some Gray Flannel Memento ink, and then found my one and only dog stamp (seriously this needs to be fixed…how do I only have one dog stamp that can be colored) from Art Impressions.  I colored the little guy in using the theme colors and added a bunch of grass around his feet in a chartreuse like tone of color.  I realized the card needed a little more of something, so I pulled out a Darice embossing folder and added embossed clouds to the top half of the card.  I added a bit of pink and gray striped printed paper to the side of the A2 card and thin strip of black card stock.  Then I used some dimensional tape to raise up the focal image.

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That’s it for today.  I am now off for a run and then for a bit of a marathon laundry folding sessions.  Ugh….I hate laundry, but alas it has to be done if my children want to go to school in cloths (something I promise you they want to do ).