Beautiful RAK From Linda K.

This dreamy card is a RAK (Random Act of Kindness) from Linda K. who is a member of the Artchix community. It is called "Listen To Your Heart" and the colors are even more amazing in person! This card is so "deep" and touching and makes me cry - in a good way! It came in an amazing hand stamped envelope (which I am going to use in further art endeavors because it is as amazing as this card!) and with a paper napkin that also begs to be made into art!

RAK's are one of my favorite things about this art community! The fact that people want to share their art with others always makes me cry! It makes the world feel a little less mean and gives me hope! Thank you Linda for making my day!!

Fantasy Swap for Vintage ATC Group Swap

I was feeling all pink and girly when I did these and the nudie cutie cards. When I first signed up for this Fantasy swap I imagined doing more sci-fi images, but they just didn't gel with me at the time. I guess art really is affected by your moods...

On both these and the nudes, I played with a gold metallic paint pen that I had never used and had been sitting in a drawer for years (originally bought to do christmas stuff - but didn't!). I really love the look, so I'm definitely going to play with it some more!

Nudie Cuties Swap For Vintage ATC Group

Bookmark For My Friend Kathy

This is a bookmark I made for my friend Kathy who is visiting today. She loves books like I do so I thought this would be the perfect giftie! The words are a stamped image from Brenda B. Thanks so much Brenda! I love this quote and knew I had to use it for this as soon as I opened your wonderful package! :)

I've Been RAKed!

This came in the mail yesterday from Beth Moran - completely unexpectedly! I was RAKed! Hurah! This card is AMAZING and has two of my very favorite papers in it - the black and silver star paper, and the blue and silver star paper. The image is beautiful and I'll certainly find out her technique and share it! Thanks so much Beth!

What's a RAK? Well, RAK is short for Random Act of Kindness and it is something that is a beautiful part of Artchix and other Art Groups! Never before have I seen people with more kindness towards others and a willingness to share their beautiful art! It gives a person a little faith in the humankind! I highly reccommend sharing a little kindness today - it's awesome!

Bmuse HEAT WAVE Challenge

The name of these cards, from left to right are: "It's Killing Me!", "The Devil's Sauna", and "Hot Enough Yet?!" and are my "Hotter Than Hades" series. So why did I create these skellirific, macabre cards? Well....

In one of the groups I belong to, Bmuse, there was a challenge to create cards in the theme of "Heat Wave". This was of course brought on by the recent heat wave this country has been having! I know it's been going on here with 110 degrees each day! I wasn't going to do this challenge because the cards in the photos file were JUST AMAZING! Sometimes I'm a little intimidated by the talent flying around in these groups since I'm still technically a newbie! Anyways, I overheard someone saying something in a store recently that just had me laughing out loud! It was one of those REALLY HOT DAYS and this store had NO air conditioning! Ugh! A woman in another isle said "It's hotter than the devil's sauna in here!". Well, because I'm completely addicted to art now, I KNEW I had to make a card around that quote, so I made these and decided to enter them in the contest.

And guess what?!? There were three winners out of the group chosen by all group members through a poll, and I won for "BEST ILLUSTRATION OF THE THEME - HEAT WAVE" !! Whooooo Hoooooo! I've never won an art contest before and I am absolutely thrilled beyond words!! An humbled and maybe just a tad, wee little bit more confident in my artwork! Wow! It's so cool! Or should I say HOT?!? Hee Hee! The prize was choosing three collage sheets from the Bmuse store, which is one of my favorite art supply places! I use Vickie's pre-cut atc blanks all the time because cutting those strait lines is kind of difficult for me with my goofy hands! Anyways, it was awesome to pick out some beautiful collage sheets to use in my artwork! Thank you so much Bmuse members and Vicki and the universe for leading me towards the amazing world of collage art! It's awesome!

Note on process used for these cards: The skeletons are from the Bmuse Black and Tan sheet called "Skeletons". The skeletons on "It's Killing Me" and "Hot Enough Yet?!" were both covered with a fire/flames illustration printed out on waxed studio transfer paper to get that rosy/fires of hell glow! hee hee! The suns are adorable charms from Judy's Vintage Treasures. Hades is the one holding the skeleton on the pitchfork and the background paper is from a photograph of some planet I believe, digitally altered with a color filter then printed out. "Hot Enough" has flames cut out of the same paper which are much more apparent on the actual card. The bathtub, flames, and sun in "The Devil's Sauna" were also done with the waxed studio paper. The skeleton was added last and a notch cut into the bathtub to tuck the little guy into it. I made this collage on a stark white background on purpose to illustrate the "white hot" aspect of fire.

Vintage Vamps Swap for Vintage ATC's Group

All those beauties in their vampiest poses! I made these cards by searching for old movie covers that each one did and then pasted them all together to make the background. I then added the pics of each acctress and found this cool film strip clip art and added a quote from each gal. Then I added those stars, which just seemed so appropriate!

Vintage Vamps Swap for Vintage ATC's Group

These were the first 3 cards I made for the vintage vamps swap. I loved working with the classic actresses in this one! It really is true that they "gave great face" back then!