Normally It's Not a GOOD Thing to Reanimate Your Lunch...

It doesn't sound right does it?

Now that I work from home I don't eat lunch out very often. It really has made me realize that lunch in cubicle-ville is more of an escape than a meal. Now I really have no need to get away because my work environment is peaceful, fun and my soundtrack is snoring kittens.

So when I do go get something it's because I really want it.

Last week, I really wanted Chipotle. I can't even remember the last time I ate there - years and years ago probably. And I do love their food.

My fave is the carnitas bowl. No beans, corn salsa, guacamole. MMM.

So I ran out and got this fave meal and brought it home. But I became quite distracted in the car by the bag - it's ADORABLE!!

It has these fun, quirky drawings on it that sort of have the whole circle of life on them.


Some of them are so sweet.

I couldn't bear to throw it away, so I added a few strokes with a white gel pen, a greeting from Perfect Pennants and a little twine and glimmer paper.

It's just sweet. Thanks for the yummy food and the art break, +Chipotle Mexican Grill! :)

Making Faces

I really admire people who can draw. I am not among them. I have taken many classes, but alas, I believe I started too late in life to really be a master.

So any time I can find a way to add at least an element of a drawing with a little trickery, I'm all for it. Maybe that's why I like stamping.

I had been playing around with my Pan Pastels this week, which I LOVE, and I realized a perfect way to get a good face for an art journal page - with my Artograph LightPad and my Pan Pastels!

It took about 7 minutes and an old copy of Smithsonian magazine, saved from the recycle bin, to create a pretty decent, monochromatic faux drawing.

Here's the result.

Here's the "drawing" with the original advert.

And here's the quick video tutorial on how to do it. Hope this helps you create some fun journal pages!

Thanks for stopping by!

Thorougly Modern Millie

I went to a wedding shower for my neighbor's daughter not too long ago, and the shower invitation was SO cute that I've had it sitting on my desk since the shower. And as you know, I don't need anything extra on my desk.

It was on a watercolor texture paper, and the sweet image looked like watercolor as well.

When I saw today's Mix-Ability challenge on Splitcoast to create modern art, I knew exactly what I had been saving her for.

I carefully cut out the cute little girl image and then put it onto one of my FAVORITE reanimations - a piece of paper I use to clean my brayer on while I'm gel printing.

Half the time when I'm printing I think that my brayer cleaning sheet is prettier than my prints! Probably because it's not planned and coordinated - it just happens. I loved this piece because the flame colors so perfectly matched the girl's hair.

Simple & cute - no stamping. Hard to see here but there's glitter in the center of the flowers and on her headband. The original invitation is from Bella Ink Designs.

I decided that she is indeed, thoroughly modern art.

Thanks for stopping by!

You Know My Name (Look Up My Number)

I have that song on my Ipod. Sorry for the earworm. But it's a great song. :)

It's also perfect for today's reanimation, which uses the amazingly archaic phonebooks that continue to be delivered to my door. Yes, in 2013. Phonebooks.

Every time they show up, I recycle them into art. Not garbage. They are a wonderful source of nice, thin, collage-worthy paper with beautiful, finely detailed text.

Today's MIX-Ability challenge on Splitcoast - MIX6 is the keyword if you upload to our gallery - is to use gesso and newsprint - the most perfect combo in the world!

I used Trudy Sjolander's new release - Swirly Bird - since she is having her blog hop today! Her little bird looks so sweet tweeting people's phone numbers! :)

This was actually a really quick project. Here's what I did.

I painted one page of the phonebook with gesso and let it dry. Then I cut a 4 x 4 square to form the background. I rubbed this with Tempting Turquoise, Orchid Opulence and Pacific Point ink from Stampin' Up! I used a sponge to dab white acrylic paint on this after it dried for the clouds.

I cut two more 4" wide strips of the gesso'd paper and hand cut the hills out of them. I sprayed these with Stephanie Barnard Banana and Spearmint sprays and then rubbed Memento Pear Tart ink over them. You just have to experiment until you get the color you like.

Then I dotted red acrylic paint on (I used Golden Fluid Acrylics for this) for flowers onto the hills.

The hardest part is waiting for everything to dry before collaging.

I put it all together with matte ModPodge. Word to the wise - I was using water based mediums so the Mod Podge will transfer those. However, if you just keep a wet paper towel handy you can keep any colors from bleeding permanently.

Want to see the rest of the hop?

Check out all this amazing talent!

Trudy Sjolander

Allie Gower

Sean Fetterman

 >>>>> Lydia Fiedler <<<<<

Leah Lucescu

Linda Lucas

Bev Gerard

Dina Kowal

Colleen Schaan

Carisa Zglobicki

Lisa Lara

Bonnie Garby

Suzanne Dean

Joe Rotella

Judy Rozema

Lori Craig

Trudy Sjolander

Happy reanimating!

Imagine the Possibilities

Imagine the possibilities...

Imagine, for example, if your crafting space was NOT complete chaos, and the first version you made of your card for the Challenge Chicks  March challenge wasn't lost somewhere in it, never to be found.

Then imagine all the laundry and dusting you could have done while you re-made the card for today. 

Well, that's just ridiculous, because I can't imagine choosing laundry or dusting over anything, much less stamping.

Anyway, today's challenge is "It Ain't Easy Being Green," which I took in the reanimated direction.

After creating this project with my stamping class last month, I had many, many sheets that held those gorgeous yellow flower stickers left over, since each student got three flowers. 

Here's where not cleaning your desk very often really comes in handy! As these empty sheets I couldn't throw away hung out in my scrap pile, Anna came up with our green challenge for this month and BOOM - I had an idea. 

I trimmed four of the negative spaces left by the flowers into a square, added some rhinestones and one of the leftover stickers, a greeting and I really, really liked the result!

Still feeling crafty? Avoiding laundry and dusting? Head over to my papercrafting blog for an adorable twist on the All Dressed Up framelits, an awesome video and a big wish!

More From My Retail Church

Remember my last Whole Foods Bag Project?

Well it's the holiday season and I'm back with their new GORGEOUS holiday paper bag.

(photo courtesy of Whole Foods ATX)

It makes stunning, punchy cards I just love.

I did three versions, all from one bag. Just glue, a few rhinestones, punches and on one card a sentiment stamp from Word Play in the shockingly matchy matchy Poppy Parade and I had beautiful, graphic and sharp designs.

Joy to the world - recycling is pretty! :)

Now go forth and reanimate!

Join me on the Titanic

So I'm back with a little more fun from the great CitraSolv experiment of 2011.

I took some of the scraps, smooth 4 x 4 tiles, and some gloss gel medium and I made coasters! I think they're really interesting and pretty. These would make fabulous, unique and inexpensive gifts or craft fair items. 

The blue one I call "Titanic." It looks like a shipwreck at the bottom of the sea to me. 

The second one I'll call "Curiousity" because it looks like the surface of Mars.

This was a super easy and quick process. Try it and let me know what you think!