I went to Hobby Lobby recently where I found a set of Dr. Ph. Martin's liquid watercolors on clearance for $21 or $22 (of course, i threw away the packaging already). Even though Id already spent way too much, I had to get them.

  Experimenting with them, I created a cool tone and a warm tone piece. On the cool paper I tried blowing with a straw. That looks pretty cool even though, as suspected, I have like no lung capacity.  And, for the warm page  I sprinkled on some sea salt and flicked a little rubbing alcohol on with my fingers. The effect is subtle but pretty cool.

 
  Also, from Hobby Lobby I picked up some clearance embossing powder. I so didn't need them but the neon colors were very cool.

   I'm not entirely sure they turned out as smooth and opaque as the containers say, but I still like them. Especially for $1.79 each. I just tested the colors out on a few random stamps on a piece of watercolor paper. Which, of course, may have affected the result.

  A few day later, I got some spray paints from the dollar spot at target. I chose a purple and a blue. I love them. The color is intense, it sprays really well and was easier to vary the flow/mist then any other spray I have tried. I spritzed them through a couple of stencils and randomly across a sheet of water color paper.

                                                              (sorry, blurry photos)

 
  After playing around a bit with each new supply, I decided to put them all together.

   I dripped some water colors and spritzed and splattered the spray paints. Then, when I was satisfied, I tore out two of the embossed stamps and glued those on.

  Not really sure what I am going to do with it next. Perhaps I will collage bits of my clean up rags. They're almost art pieces in themselves.

    This weekend was a lazy one:
 
    Today, my mom and I went for a stroll in a nearby cemetery.
       
( I like how the cross, once topping the stone, ended up on its side on top of the stone. I would have thought it would have fallen to the ground.)

 (My mom decided she needed a coffin shaped headstone for the family plot, too.)

(This guy was 105 when he died.)

(Talk about a scary and pretentious headstone.)

     Before the stroll my mom and I went shopping and spent way too much.

(I LOVE these shoes. And the box is pretty too.)

Yesterday, I worked to catch up on my DLP (still way behind BTW), started designing a necklace for one of the pendants I created the other day, and painted a brass D-ring to use on a bracelet I made.

     I took my last opportunity to go to Artist and Display before they close for good after 79 years selling art supplies to the community. I got a large marker pad (for use with my new Spectrum Noirs), a few NeoColor 2s, a couple art stix, a metallic gel pen, a few watercolor pencils, several sheets of various papers and a plexi glass pen storage box.

    Friday was a lazy day spent watching PackerDi and Claudia Rossi.

Been feeling jewelry the last couple of days. These are the pieces I created tonight.

 These two started as leather scraps. Both had the angle already, but it didn't work to make earrings. So I used each as the template to cut a new mate, pressing right sides together before cutting. I punched one of the holes too close to the edge on the second pair so I had to cut the bottom off just above the hole and start again. Both beads are glass.

 This pair was inspired by the wing charms. For some reason the red and turquoise seemed to go perfectly.  The red beads are glass, the blue are both acrylic and the charm is silver coated copper.

 These are glass pearls I happened to find while rummaging for other supplies. I also happened to find the ring base lying at the bottom of my bead drawer and decided to slap a ring together between earrings. I wasn't overly neat with this wrap job, but I think that only adds to the design. I like the way the messy, industrial wire intertwines with the glass pearl. Its sort of rustic and elegant.

This is an acrylic, flat backed pearl I bought yesterday. The flat ring base I already had in my stash. I bonded them with E6000.

  

    Sketched out my girl with charcoal on charcoal paper. Blended a little with a stump. Then I decided I wanted color. So I went over it with chalk pastels, blending with either the stump or my finger.

Awhile back I bought an embossing kit on clearance. It came with 6 powders and inks in different colors, a heat gun, and a little tray all in a pretty and fairly sturdy box. After playing with the kit for a little while it occurred to me that the plastic box it came in would make a good gelli plate substitute. When I got around to experimenting I only had about 15 min so I just grabbed some printer paper and a couple of bottles of craft paint and got to playing.

Nothing special, but I had fun and discovered that yes in fact a smooth plastic surface does make for good monoprinting. I totally need to pull it out and have another go, but in the meantime I think I'm going to make copies of my prints and see how many ways I can use them and how many different looks I can get out of the same sheet. Maybe I'll make stickers  with my new sticker maker.

   I started my afternoon prepping my planner. A little late I know, but I figure better late then never. First, I searched online for a free calendar template. I downloaded and printed the first one I saw. If I spent too much time searching for the perfect one I would never have gotten it done at all. After, I printed the pages I marked my holes and punched them with adjustable three hole punch. I decided rather than make half sheets for my little binder I would make full sized sheets and simply fold them in half. This way I have a whole sheet to make extra notes on the back if I need to. So far I just have the monthly calender pages. But, I plan to add weekly and daily to do lists and a section for blog ideas and planning, I haven't decided what else to add yet, but as you can see in the photo below I have plenty of sections to fill out. I figure I will fill in the planner as I go. Better to create what I need then guess.