The Art of Crystal Newton

  Good Morning Friends :)  I am doing something a little different today.  I love to color and rubber stamp.  I love the blank pictures that  stamping offers ~ the absolute unlimited possibilities of colors and combinations.


I also am a cheerleader for the small business person ~ I love to support individuals or families who have the gumption to compete with corporate giants! 


So today I am excited to share the art of Crystal Newton.   We live in the same little cow town and until recently I never knew that she was such a great artist! 



Let Your Light Shine  ~ Wow!  How many of us are brushing shoulders with artistic talent like this and never know it? !!   I wanted to be sure lots of you could appreciate her art, so thank you for looking and thank you for sharing with your friends!!


Swallowtail on Lavender



The White Team  When I saw this one on the screen I just fell in love!
Crystal has originals & prints for sale.  I especially love her horses although she has a great variety including still life, wildlife & inspirational. Go check it all out!!!
Links appear in a different color ~ just click for a direct connection !

PIP Challenge # 1728 ~ Enter to Win!!

Hello Loyal PIP Challenge Fans and Newbies alike!!! Welcome to DT inspiration card for the ANYTHING GOES Challenge #1728 sponsored by

 Fabrika Fantasy.

 Follow the link and enter your card for a chance to win a great prize from Fabrika Fantasy who generously provided the digital Fantasy Pet that I used on this fun card.

What a great image! So rich with personality and detail.  I think next time I use it I will make it larger because it was a little difficult coloring the tiny details in.

It's a perfect stamp for a thank you card, with all of that pampering going on!! I used a sentiment from Hot off the Press,  "ThankYou!" I thought this card would make a great party invitation for a little girl too!! 

Simple & straight forward, I just printed, cut & colored, but here are a couple of highlights.  Her stylish shell hat was shimmered up with Iridescent Smooch, Stampin' Dazzle was used for gold accents and I mostly used colored pencils with blender pen for coloring.  Since this image was sprayed with workable fixative, the blender pen performed poorly (I thought) so be aware that there is a difference!! I also used NUVO Crystal Drops for accents like the necklaces, jewels and drawer pulls.

For whatever reason I could not get a great

picture of this card!!!  Her skin and hair always looked washed out!!! I thought the shell turned out really pretty though :)

 

Jar Labels

Recently I've decided to start keeping all of my bulk kitchen items in glass jars, Mostly Ball Jars, but I also keep my eyes out for interesting glass jars, I tend to lean towards the tall skinny types.  I just think that they look neat!!!

I decided to make my own labels for the jars after I got 2 similar spices mixed up!!!  Plus it was just plain fun for me to get out my dies and inks ;) My dear friend, who I can attribute my appreciation for all things rustic, saw them and wanted a set for herself.  I made them to match the colors in her 1950's kitchen.  

I thought it would be fun to share what I did with you and I would love to hear if you have ideas or have done something similar and how you did it :)

   I started with 2 die cut shapes that I liked when layered and stamped them with herbal/classic images that I thought went well in a rustic or traditional flavor!  To further the antique look I used tea stain ink from Stampin' Up! and gently rubbed the edges. 

Extra points if you can figure

what spice will go behind this label!

   Once again, after choosing a font to die cut I aged the letters with the tea stain ink.

   It is important to gently bend and curve the labels to conform to the shape of your jars.  If they dry flat after being glued together it is really difficult to make them stick to a glass or plastic jar - they resist the flexing & want to pop off.

            

                                   
Cris sent me photos of how they looked on her awesome jar collection.  I knew you'd want me to share them with you!!

                         

                                         My kitchen is more browns, burgundy and green. After making Cris hers, I'm thinking I like the beautiful brightness of the turquoise and red. . . .hmmm, maybe I'll be blogging a kitchen color overhaul next!

Products used: Tim Holtz Upon a Time letter die, Framelits dies from Apothecary Accents, Stampin' Up! stamps~ Flora & Fauna, Rue Des Fleurs, Notably Ornate

An Up-Lifting Day ~ PIP Challenge 1726

Hello! Hope you are having a lovely day!!

I am so happy to be sharing this water color card with you!!  The images are from Unity Stamp Co. and is named "Sending Up Something Beautiful" 

The sentiment is part of a kit from Paper Trey Ink called Stylish Birthday Sentiments

I like to pile shapes, layers and colors before I commit to a card's design. I loved these colors together but it still seemed to fall flat.  Solution: customizing the papers!!

What a rewarding task!  I love the whole process of choosing color and pattern!  I hope you are feeling inspired as well! Then head over to the PIP Challenge (ANYTHING GOES) this week sponsored by Di's Digis.  You can earn a great prize from Di's Digis and I know you'll have fun playing along!!

Thanks for stopping by :)


Please leave order requests at "HI!" notes on Facebook! I will be in touch right away!!

MHK & Coloring Digitals BEFORE PRINTING!!

Welcome to another fun Inspiration card for PIP Challenges!!  Our sponsor is MHK Designs & wow, do they ever have some great digital images!!  Stop by & check them out, they have great prices and you can get started within minutes, no waiting for the mail!!!

MHK generously provides the digis for our design team to use and I am in LOVE with their butterflies. 

As I have said in the past, I am kinda new at digis and I enjoy experimenting so I decided to  try coloring them before I printed them!!

Wow, it is really fun and addictive! I also used a "colored pencil" filter to change it up a little.  I really can say that I had a lot of fun with this!! Click the selection tool and select the areas that you will have reflect the same color/hue. 

I used a sliding scale to change the colors in the adjust colors tab of my Microsoft Digital Image Standard editing tool. 

If I want something very intense and can't get it there, the trick for me is to "finish" and then reselect adjust color and continue to max out the scale until I get the intensity I am looking for. 

I colored each butterfly separately & blown up large so I could easily see what I was selecting.  When each was finished I copied them to a clean doc - sizing & spacing them to match each other.  Then it was just a matter of printing them (make sure they are far enough off the edge to use your selected die, etc.)

For the label shapes I used matching dies in different sizes. To make the oblong ribbon of paper I first cut the rectangle and then poked each end into the area of the smaller die to make the side accents. 

ANOTHER incident worth noting: I scribbled in the background stripes based on another card I made but the color turned out more intense and the marker left overlap marks instead of the smooth look on the previous card. 

       

The difference?  The kitty card was sprayed with Workable Fixatif which must give the paper a smoother texture that doesn't absorb color as quickly.  I think I may start using it just for that property (I originally got it just to "set" the ink on digis).

To finish  I thought I would make the inside reusable, so I added a note card for my sentiment and/or handwritten note. I put it there with adjustable adhesive on the note card only, then the recipient could reuse the card if she chooses (& who wouldn't !!!!!)

Don't forget, click here to make any order requests on the "HI!" notes Facebook page!!

Graduation Memories

✮Graduation season is upon us and waning fast!  My 1st nephew just completed his commencement!  I thought I would share a special memory book I made for my sister to add her favorite photos to.

I love the idea of putting captions and quotes because they lead down the road of memories before the perfect photo or written memory is added in.  I picture photos of childhood friends and events in these pages, as well as things from the actual graduation night and celebrations.

I made each card to insert into the pocket pages and left a little tab on most of them.  This way the cards can be moved around and configured the way the recipient wants.

Unity Stamp Company came out with a great graduation poem.  I took a line from it to top the page of each section of the book, kind of a way to lead you through the book and inspire more photos and journaling.

An ornate envelope is in the back of the book and poked inside are lots of little stamped embellishments to use on top of the pockets or slip inside.  Things like fussy cut tassels, cameras, various frames, a couple of sayings and lots of stars (that's part of the school's symbols) ~ to hold text, frame a photo, accent etc.  I place a couple on top of the plastic throughout the book just as an example to inspire personalization.

 

              

What a blessed season of excitement and hope! Good Luck grads, & parents, God Bless  💖                                        All stamped images are available at Unity Stamp Company except for the following:  USA Map & sentiment,  Matthew & Jeremiah quotes from PaperTrey Ink --Say cheese camera, & tassel from  Inkadinkado -- Diploma, "Class of" & grad cap from Stampin' Up! Dies are from many various manufacturers! If you really want to know message me & I'll get you the info!!!!