A new toy

I bought myself a new toy a few weeks back. So far I haven't had much time to play with it. Either I don't have the time, or the energy or when I do have time Mr Gibbs is demanding attention.

A few days ago when I showed you the ATC's I made I said I would show what I used to make the backgrounds.  The top left corner is the picture of the 3 ATC backgrounds  and the big picture is my new gel printing plate from Gelli Arts. You roll the paint on to the gel plate and then you can use stencils, or assorted textures pieces to create one of a kind prints. I'm not very good at explaining how to use it but I can tell you that after seeing several videos on this I was fascinated and wanted to try it out.

My first attempt didn't work the way I thought it was supposed to and I thought that maybe it was going to require some practice Then I realized that I had forgotten to peel off the plastic protective sheet before I rolled on the paint.. OOPS!

Oh well, I now have a very pretty plastic sheet to lay back on my gel plate when I'm not using it.

Here were a couple tests I did. I used a flower stencil. I rolled the paint on and then the stencil was laid on top of the paint.  I made my print and then removed the stencil and made one more print.

Hopefully one of these days real soon I'll have all the planets aligned right and I'll get to spend lots of time playing.

Project 365 week 12

3/22 I took Sunday off so I could have a long weekend for my birthday. Wade and I went out for breakfast and I didn't think to take a picture until I was all done eating. It was so good

3/23 My day off was spent playing and making ATC's

3/24 Early morning stop to take a church sign picture

3/25 Pickled eggs for a snack at work. YUM

3/26 You can't see it in the picture but there were snow flakes flying around.

3/27 I love watching old episodes of Murder She Wrote. They just don't make shows like they used to

3/28 I finally got around to getting my hair cut.

The Gibbs Report

Happy Sunday blogging peeps. I'm so happy to see you today. I'm hoping that maybe you can help me with something.
I'm on a quest. Would you like to join me?

As you can see I don't look very happy here. That's because spring time showed up and then it disappeared again. We have no idea where it went or when it will be back. I'm going off to look for it.
I don't have time for any other news right now. It's very important that I find spring time. Do you have any ideas where I should look?

Better late than never

I almost always write my posts and schedule them to post at 12:30 a.m. Last night I just didn't feel like it. I'll blame it on the fact that it was snowing and we now have over an inch of snow on the ground again.

I could blame the snow for me not getting my journal page finished too but I think that one has more to do with procrastination. It could also have something to do with the fact that I was making more ATC's

Here' is card #2. This one started by gluing strips of book page on the card and then painting the top red and the bottom blue. Then I dug in my stash of stickers and found some patriotic stickers. I chose the "brave" sticker to become part of the text.

In a future post I'll be showing you how I made the backgrounds for the next two cards. Again I dug in the stickers and found some flowers to go with this cheery colored card. The saying was printed on paper then cut out and glued to the card and outlined with a black sharpie.

No stickers on this one but the same method for the text. It doesn't show well but the center of the flower in the lower left corner is a yellow gem that I glued on

Funny Stuff

Yesterday Grace asked "What do people do for laughs if they don't have cats" and she posted a video of cats stealing pizza. It made me think of a video I had seen on Facebook. Try as I might to post it here I could not get it to work so I went in search of another one that would be equally as funny





Gibbs says that he  better not ever see a cat around his bed.

Before and After

Just a quick post today to show you a before and after

Here's a picture I took while sitting behind a school bus that was letting kids out. Not really much to look at but the sky was a pretty blue.

The after picture with it's vintage look

Doodle all the day

I sometimes think that it would be rather fun to spend my days doodling. Of course I might get bored with that so  maybe it's better that I only do it now and then.

I found this picture of a doodle on my cell phone.

Who wants black and white flowers though. Flowers require color so I gave these blooms their very own color job.

With blue skies to boot.

The Documented Life Project.

Finally I've got the latest art journal page ready to show you. Hopefully I won't be so late with the next one.

March Theme
Making Your Mark (Doodles & Mark Making)
March 14
Art Challenge:  Borders
Journal Prompt:  "Borderline feels like I'm going to lose my mind."

So originally because of the journal prompt I was thinking crazy, coo-coo and it made me think of a funky looking bird so I doodled one and then for the border I wrote out the entire journal prompt around the page with swirls and very loose letters.

I hated it and it sat while I did some more thinking. I had absolutely no ideas whatsoever so I covered it lightly with gesso and went from there. The quirky bird was totally hidden when I was done and I had background and border I could live with but still had no clues.

I finally went in search of a quote  and found one that I liked. Then I called it done.

Now I need to get started on the next challenge page. 

Project 365 week 11

3/15 The bread I made next to the bread that someone else made.

3/16 Taking advantage of some warmer weather and sunshine. We enjoyed a morning walk

3/17 Happy St. Patrick's Day

3/18 Took this shot of an empty field while I was stopped behind a school bus

3/19 I must be quakers. This was the only picture I took all day.

3/20  Break time with my kindle that was in need of a charge and my carrots.

3/21 For my birthday I took some time in my craft room and worked on an art journal page

The Gibbs report

Hello blogger peeps. Do you feel spring in the air?

A certain person, who shall remain nameless, almost didn't post my report today.  I really must do something about her. Good help is hard to find these days.

The calendar says it's spring time but it is still cold here. It was rainy yesterday and my paws got all muddy every time I had to attend to business.

Mom left me home alone yesterday and when she came back she had this dreadful wire box. She made me sleep in it last night. I cried and cried but she wouldn't let me out. She's really not as nice as I thought she was.

Well that is all the news I have for this week. Have a woof woof day.

Not what you might have expected

Today is supposed to be my Documented Life Project day. The page is still blank. Because I've been staying out of the craft room it never got done.

So today you get Gibbs with one of his favorite things to chase around the living room (a plastic pop bottle)

When I opened up the google home page so I could get this post ready this is what I saw.

Google remembered my birthday. I'm thankful it didn't point out to me just how old I am.

Pint size art

I've been sort of fascinated with all the ATC's that I see all over the internet. ATC stands for artist trading card.  They are a 2.5" x 3.5" little piece of artwork.

I've read that many people use playing cards as the base for their ATC's. Since I had an old deck of cards that wasn't being used I gave it a try.

The back of the card generally gives information such as title, card number and date, artists name and any other relevant information. One blog I visited the woman used hers as random act of kindness cards. The fronts all had motivational quotes and the back explained that it was a Random act of kindness and it belonged to whoever found it. She would then leave them in various places for people to find and keep.

What's on the back of mine? Right now nothing. It still looks like a playing card. The pretty side is done though.

Happy First day of spring everyone.

Don't feel like it

I'm taking an "I don't feel like blogging" day. The only reason I'm here to let you know is because I haven't missed posting yet this year and I don't want to break my streak. I should be back tomorrow unless of course I still don't feel like it.
I'm giving you the day off too and comments are off.

Take advantage when you can

Around here it is starting to warm up but the cold weather isn't quite done with us yet so you take advantage of  a warmer when you can.

Monday was almost 60 and although it wasn't sunny it sure felt warm compared to what we've had. It was nice enough that I could go out with a light jacket instead of a winter coat.

Gibbs and I took a nice morning stroll. It was only 42 then but even that felt warm.

Due to some behavioral issues (thinking the carpet upstairs is for soaking up pee spots) I stayed out of my craft room all day. I so wanted to go play and work on my next art journal page but I can't leave him downstairs by himself and I can't take him upstairs where he's going to pee on the carpet the minute my back is turned.  I don't know what the deal is other than I apparently have lost my ability to house train a dog.

Happy St. Patty's Day

Why do people wear shamrocks on St. Patrick's Day?
(Real rocks are too heavy!)

Why did St. Patrick drive the snakes out of Ireland?

(He couldn't afford plane fare.)

Why can't you iron a four-leaf clover?
(Because you shouldn't press your luck!)

Since I was unprepared for St. Patrick's Day I dug in the archives and found an old one. I'm sure no one will mind a green Duke for today.

St. Patrick's Day is an enchanted time -- a day to begin transforming winter's dreams into summer's magic.
         Adrienne Cook

Project 365 week 10

3/8 Time to spring ahead. I hate this time of year

3/9 Someone is peeking at me over the table while I work on my art journal

3/10 Some days just require chocolate. This was one of those days

3/11 This church comes up with the best sayings for their sign. I had to stop and get another picture

3/12 Now that it's started to warm up and the snow is melting the back yard is a combination of mud and ugly grass

3/13 52 degrees has never felt so good

3/14 A very gray looking Saturday. Rainy and gloomy and perfect for napping on a day off

The Gibbs Report

Nothing worth woofing about today.

The Documented Life Project

Another week, another page. I had planned on posting pictures that would have shown more of a start to finish process for this weeks page but my cell phone didn't want to send me those pictures. I don't get the best signal at home for sending emails and I didn't feel like doing it through the wi-fi  so you get what you get.

March Theme
Making Your Mark (Doodles & Mark Making)
March 7
Art Challenge:  As A Layer Element
Journal Prompt:  Surviving the Elements

It started out by drawing/doodling on the page with pencil. Next I started coloring things in with markers and pens. After that I glued on some yellow tissue paper for the sun. Then it was a combination of stamps, paint, markers, and glued on paper.

The tissue paper wrinkled a bit when I was gluing it down and I'm glad that it did because it gives it an interesting texture.

And here is the finished page

The hill that the tulips are on isn't what I was going for but no matter how much I played around with it I could not get the look I wanted. Overall I was pretty happy with the way it turned out.

FYI and TGIF

Hello blog peeps. Mom wanted me to let you all know that she'll be way behind in emails and blog reading. She was just too tired to sit in front of the computer and I insisted she lay down while I ran circles to make sure nothing disturbed her.

Aren't you glad it's Friday? I am. That means tomorrow both mom and dad stay home with me all day long.

Catch ya later.

Boo Hiss

Nestles may make the very best chocolate but I wasn't real happy with the stuffed peppers.

Honestly I prefer my own homemade stuffed peppers but Mr picky eater likes the Stouffers stuffed peppers and since I'm not picky we buy them and have them for dinner on nights when neither of us wants to do much cooking.

The last purchase looked like this

Have a closer look at the unstuffed pepper

So I'm annoyed with the purchase and I go to the Nestle USA website to lodge a complaint. I made three attempts to send my complaint with attached photos and each time I got an error message saying my message could not be sent please try again. Now I'm not only annoyed with the product I'm annoyed with their website.

I wait several days and make another attempt but this time send it as a general comment without pictures. It goes through and says give them 24 hours to respond to your message. Guess what? Haven't heard a thing. 

Now in all fairness to them, this is the only package that we ever bought that has been like this but still. When I buy stuffed peppers I expect them to be stuffed. It's a good thing I wasn't real hungry that night.

Interesting. Maybe, maybe not.

I was born in March of 1962. Today is post number 1962. Who knew I would ever make it this far with my blog. I think Duke had a lot to do with the success.

I sometimes wonder if the blog friends I have would like me if they knew me in person. Here you don't see my attitude (the bad side of it). You also don't experience my wall of silence that goes up from time to time. It was built after years of trusting too much. Here I try to be positive and happy. If I say something wrong I can backspace out of it and it's never said. Here I don't say four letter words,

As I'm typing this I wonder what Gibbs is doing.

Gibbs, what have I told you about playing with my shoes?

What shoes? I wasn't playing with any shoes.

If you want your blog friends to keep liking you, you better stop blaming me for playing with your shoes.

Just random stuff

This is that picture I took of the back of the building where I work. I did a bit of an edit in the phone with it and thought it looked pretty cool. Hopefully we won't be seeing too much more of this.

Yesterday the temperature was up to 54 and it was sunny. It's supposed to be in the 40's all week. Maybe spring really is right around the corner.

I came across my first dead skunk in the road yesterday. Another sign that spring is on it's way.

Even though Monday was warm and sunny and I had the day off, I spent most of it napping. This spring ahead time change is killing me. I dragged through the day on Sunday and then when I tried to go to bed at my regular time I was wide awake and couldn't fall asleep. Napping was a necessity on Monday.

It's a shame  I have to go to work today. I wouldn't mind another day on the couch and I'm sure Gibbs wouldn't mind either

Project 365 week 9

3/1 As I was leaving work I snapped this picture of the back of the building. It's covered with icicles that go from the roof to the ground. I wouldn't want to be standing next to one of those things if it decided to break free from the roof

3/2 I hate hiccups and the only thing that will cure them for me is a big old spoonful of peanut butter.

3/3 Those are raindrops on the sliding glass door. With all the snow we have out there now this rain is not going to help. Especially since it's turning everything to ice

3/4 Rush hour traffic in my little town

3/5 When nothing else inspires you, take a picture of soap suds in the sink.

3/6 The big beautiful moon was following me to work. I pulled over in a safe spot to take picture of it through a very dirty windshield

3/7 A little retail therapy. I went to A.C. Moore and finally spent the $20 gift card that I got for Christmas.

The Gibbs Report

Hello and welcome to another edition of the Gibbs Report. The only report you need to read. If I don't woof about it it's not worth hearing about.

Believe it or not we had more snow again yesterday. If this keeps up I'm going to be needing some longer legs or my peeps are going to have to shovel more of the yard.

Yesterday mom went off and left me. She said she had to go to therapy. Whatever that is they must give you presents because she came home with some bags of stuff. Most of it was artsy fartsy stuff that's barely worth chewing on but one bag had a really cool ball just for me. I think she kind of likes me cuz she's always bringing me home stuff like that.

I guess today I'll be hanging on the couch with dad and seeing how many times I can make him take me outside. He really enjoys going out and watching  me sniff the snow.

That's it for now. Have a woof woof day

The Documented Life Project

Here it is March already and I'm still keeping up with not one but two projects. I must admit that this past week has been a struggle to keep up with them though.

Not only was I finding it difficult to get myself to remember to take my daily picture but I struggled with this weeks document life project art journal page.

February Theme
Layers You Will Love!
February 28
Art Challenge:  Using at Least Five Layers
Journal Prompt:  Give Me a  High Five

 
Getting started with the page wasn't a problem. I had a plan to make my first layer gesso and then I wanted to glue gauze (yes, like the gauze pads you find next to the band aids) to the page and then paint over that. After that I was getting stuck. Maybe it was the journal prompt that had me stumped but debated on what to do. I ended up tracing my hand on a book page and I copied it on my printer but reduced the size so it wouldn't take up the whole page. I wrote the words "give me a high 5" repeatedly around the edge of the hand and then stamped the number 5 in the middle.

For texture this page really takes the prize thanks to the gauze. It did make it a bit harder to paint but it was doable. I also used modeling paste for the stenciled flowers and puff paint for the dots on the book page ovals.

Since I had an edited picture  of a sunset to share today I went in search of something to put with it and found the poem The Day Is Done by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Day Is Done

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807 - 1882

The day is done, and the darkness
   Falls from the wings of Night,
As a feather is wafted downward
   From an eagle in his flight.

I see the lights of the village
   Gleam through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling of sadness comes o’er me,
   That my soul cannot resist:
   
A feeling of sadness and longing,
   That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
   As the mist resembles the rain.
   
Come, read to me some poem,
   Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling,
   And banish the thoughts of day.

Not from the grand old masters,
   Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
   Through the corridors of Time. 

For, like strains of martial music,
   Their mighty thoughts suggest
Life’s endless toil and endeavor;
   And to-night I long for rest.
   
Read from some humbler poet,
   Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
   Or tears from the eyelids start;

Who, through long days of labor,
   And nights devoid of ease,
Still heard in his soul the music
   Of wonderful melodies.

Such songs have power to quiet
   The restless pulse of care,
And come like the benediction
   That follows after prayer.

Then read from the treasured volume
   The poem of thy choice,
And lend to the rhyme of the poet
   The beauty of thy voice.

And the night shall be filled with music
   And the cares that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
   And as silently steal away.

This, that but not the other thing

In order for this post to be this, that AND the other thing I would need to have 3 things to talk about and I only have two.

First I have to show you the pile of snow sitting next to our deck. This pile had some help getting this big. When Wade shoveled off the deck a couple time this is where he threw half the snow. The other half would be on the other side of the deck.

Now a completely different subject. Remember the straw wrapper from my project 365 post?

I couldn't help doing a little cell phone edit to it.

We're getting real close to the weekend and I'm more than ready for my Saturday off.

Church wisdom

I have another church sign for you today.

This one has a different saying on each side
The one side says this...

The other side says "Most smiles start with another smile". I'll buy that since I do agree that smiles are contagious. The problem is that there had to be one to start it all off with. So my question is "What started that first smile?"

Can you stand more Gibbs?

What a silly question. Of course you can stand more of me.

So yesterday was mom's day off and she spent all afternoon in Sparta Mississippi. What that really means is that she parked her butt on the couch and watched In the heat of the night all afternoon.
I seriously considered striking out on my own.

The snow is a little deep though and I didn't know how far I would get. Don't let the picture above fool you. The snow is way deeper than it looks I'm just really light so I don't sink down too far. when I walk on it.

This picture my mom took standing in the back  yard looking up towards the driveway. You can just see the top of the car on the other side of that pile of snow. We have another pile just as high if not higher on the side of the driveway.

Project 365 week 8

2/22 When I walked in the door after work a certain someone was right there on the couch wagging his whole body to greet me.

2/23 The doctors office behind our house put in some seriously bright lights. I liked the way the light beams were shining across the snow

2/24 Wade shoveled the deck off and the pile of snow is now as high as the deck is.

2/25 After work I grabbed a cup of coffee and my kindle as did some reading.

2/26 The pattern on the top of these bags of sugar caught my eye as I was waiting to punch in for the day.

2/27 I've been really good about cutting back on the coke so I splurged at lunch and hand one.

2/28 Wade and I went out for lunch and while we were waiting for our food I played with a straw wrapper

The Gibbs Report

Not only is today the day that I get to do the blog post but it's also the first day of a brand new month.

Yesterday it was sunny and 30 degrees outside but today we are supposed to get another snow storm that could give us up to 10 more inches of snow. For a little guy like me that's a lot of snow and we already have mountains of snow in our yard now. I've instructed mom to post a picture later in the week of the snow pile sitting next to our deck.

Today mom is working, dad will probably nap in front of the tv and I think I'll see if I can find any paper laying around that I can chew on. If I can't find paper anything will do. I really hope someone leaves that box of tissues on the coffee table again. Those are really fun to pull out of the box.

Have a woof woof kind of day.