Cartographer Card

Posted on by Melissa Samuels · 2 Comments

Today I wanted to share with you a card that I have had sitting on my desk for weeks driving me nuts.  One beautiful afternoon I decide to make a quick and easy card with the new Prima Cartographer goodies I just got.  Within minutes I had cut out the papers I wanted, picked out the tags and flower, inked the edges, and put it all together ready for glue.  However, I felt like it was missing a white doily to layer with the black clear one.  It HAD to have a doily.  I searched and searched but there wasn’t a doily to be found in the studio.  So, it sat there and every few days I would search again for the elusive doily.  I KNOW  I certainly have scores of them somewhere.  Apparently, the same monster that eats socks in the washing machine also has a penchant for doilies.  I finally came across one, lone doily in a stack of the kids’ stuff.  Yes!  My card was complete!  Sheeeew!  Please tell me you can see the doily?! :)

Card-cartographer-1  Card-cartographer-1-2Card-cartographer-1-3Card-cartographer-1-5Card-cartographer-1-4Despite the pain of finding a doily, I think it turned out very pretty.  I am glad I didn’t throw it in my discard pile.

This weekend was Mother’s Day!  I hope everyone had a wonderful day celebrating the amazing mothers out there!  I was fortunate enough to spend Sunday with my beautiful Mom.  As I grow older, I appreciate everything she has done for me more and more.  I recognize the sacrifices and challenges of being a mother, and commend her for raising three rowdy kids.   She is such an amazing woman with such strength and courage.  If I can do half as good a job, I will be pleased with myself.

For Mother’s Day, Bob treated me to my favorite meal on Saturday.  He spent hours in the kitchen, which made me feel pretty guilty, but it also felt nice to be pampered.  We had shrimp cocktail, caprese salad, Prime rib-eye, and lobster mac & cheese served on the deck.  I felt like a queen with a man with mad cooking skills :)  I owe a BIG, GIANT thank you to Mr. Wonderful!

Mothersday3 Mothersday4Mothersday5If I didn’t already feel special enough, here are the darling cards my girls made for me.

MothersDayMothersday2I could not be more fortunate to have such a loving and caring family.  My husband and my three children are truly a gift that I am thankful for everyday.

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Art Journal Happiness

Posted on by Melissa Samuels · 2 Comments

Happy Friday Everyone!  I spent the morning in the studio listening to iTunes’ Top 50 Alternative Music on my iPhone with my new wireless headset Bob surprised me with.  You are probably thinking he was trying to give me a subtle hint, but he actually got them for me after an “incident” with the phone and the treadmill.  Just a word of advice, if you drop your phone with earbuds on the treadmill just let it go.  It’s just better for everyone involved :) I felt like Lucy in the chocolate factory, only I was the chocolate.  You have to be an I Love Lucy fan to get my joke.  To me, it was yet another reason to never get on the treadmill.

Anywho, the music got my creative juices flowing.  I was able to get an art journaling page done, which really felt good.  It has been an extremely busy month, so it was nice to get some time in the studio.  Unfortunately, the colors are much more vibrant than they photographed.  I still think it is cute, and I hope you like it.  I used my Graphic 45 Botanical Tea paper pad.  It is such a beautiful line.  It is an obvious choice for cards, minis, or layouts.  However, I thought it might be more interesting and challenging to use it in my art journal.  Enjoy!

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Special Family Moments

Posted on by Melissa Samuels · Leave a comment

May 5th was a very special day at our house.  My little Maddie turned 8 years old!  I can hardly believe it has been that long since I brought her home from the hospital.  It had been 14 years since Bob and I had our first child, so of course until she was able to walk, there was a lot of fighting over who was going to get to hold her.  It has been an amazing journey to watch her grow into the creative, witty, funny, smart, and loving  little girl that she is today.  When I look at her I am constantly reminded of how wonderful and fortunate my life is.  I feel that way about all of my children.

As part of our family tradition, we turn our breakfast room nook into party central on birthdays (regardless of the day of week), eat cake for breakfast, and then shop until we drop.  This year we had our cake for dinner, but it was still just as yummy.  It was very strange to shop at Game Stop and the electronics store instead of Toys R Us.  Yet another reminder that my baby is growing up and I need to savor each and every moment.

maddiebday5-5-14-1-4maddiebday5-5-14-1-3maddiebday5-5-14-1maddiebday5-5-14-1-11maddiebday5-5-14-1-10To add to the already special day, my Lily was treated to a special breakfast followed by a  ceremony for being the Core Value Student of the Year for her kindergarten class.  It is an honor to be chosen.  It means she is a role model to other students and exemplifies the core values of her school such as honesty, respect, responsibility, and accountability on a daily basis.  She received a certificate and metal as recognition. I am so very proud of her!

She is extremely shy, so I wasn’t sure if she was excited or going to throw up :).  Afterwards, she told me it was the best day ever, so I guess her fright was overshadowed by excitement.

lily-corevaluestudent-1-4 lily-corevaluestudent-1-3 lily-corevaluestudent-1-2This was her first time trying a powdered doughnut.  She took one bit, and said she would stick to her favorite, fruit…baffling :).  Otherwise, it was a wonderful day to be remembered!!

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Happiness is…

Posted on by Melissa Samuels · 2 Comments

Over the weekend, the weather was absolute perfection here in Virginia.  It seemed like a great opportunity to grab my art journal and head outdoors.  I spent the evening on the deck sketching in my journal, and listening to the girls play on the playground-heaven!

aj-deck-1 aj-deck-1-2Art journaling outside is one of my favorite things to do.  There is something magical about sitting in the middle of Mother Nature’s sanctuary while creating.  It is so inspiring and serene.

aj-deck-1-3I have been working in my larger mixed media art journals for the last several years.  I have a smaller journal that I used to take with me on road trips or outings to the park.  It is great because it easily fits in my bag, and all I have have to have is my journal and a graphite pencil.  I have to admit, I was a little nervous since it had been so long since I sketched anything.  I wasn’t sure my hand would cooperate with my brain.  Not perfect, but neither am I, however I am pleased with the outcome.

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Art Journal – Basics about Modeling Paste

Posted on by Melissa Samuels · 4 Comments

Hi Everyone!!  Long time no post, I know.  It is that time of year when there are a million projects going on around the house, so I have had my hands full.  The weather is finally warming up, leaves are budding, flowers are blooming, and there is much work to be done outside.

believebutterfly-1Between spring cleaning and gardening, I managed to slip in a little art journaling time this weekend.  I bought some new stencils (which will be going up in the store soon), and wanted to play around with them.  I love using stencils and modeling/molding paste to create texture in my art journal.  I ink sprayed, stenciled, and stamped my pages.  I added rub-on butterflies, and a painted craft pocket left over from some other projects.  I really love the texture of using the paste, and the added dimension from the multiple colors of ink sprays.

A little basics about pastes.  They are opaque gel mediums made from marble dust used to create texture, three dimension, and building surfaces.  They are generally the consistency of thick pudding or cake frosting, and are spreadable with a pallet knife.  Once dry they have a matte finish and are paintable.  You can also mix acrylic paint to it while wet to change the color.  The Liquitex brand is called modeling paste, and the Golden brand is called molding paste.  Be sure when purchasing pastes to use in an art journal or on paper that it is flexible, as some pastes are made for canvas or rigid surfaces and will crack and come off of paper.  Pastes come in light to hard, measured by peak, dry time, ability to sand/carve, etc., but for our purposes let’s just stick to plain flexible paste.  I just want to give you the basics, as each manufacture offers an array of products.  If you feel overwhelmed by the choices, hopefully this information will make it a little easier for you to get started.  believebutterfly-1-5believebutterfly-1-2believebutterfly-1-4believebutterfly-1-7believebutterfly-1-3believebutterfly-1-6Thanks for stopping by!

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