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Four little ATC’s, ink and watercolor.
Matilda lives in a palace of cupcakes, ruling with a pure heart and sweet tooth!
When she dreams, she rests upon her throne of fluffiness and dreams of nothing but cupcakes!
Queen Matilda’s best friend, Princess Ana, lives under the sea near Cupcake Palace.
(Top left: Apple Cinnamon Latte; Top right: Chocolate Rum Sprinkle; Bottom Left: Coconut; Bottom Right: Mexican Chocolate with Chili pepper)
Truffles Truffles Truffles! What an adventure this was, and one that I hope to repeat soon! Q brought home a large quantity of chocolate, and it just so happened I was reading a couple articles on tempering chocolate, which resulted in these lovelies. Lessons learned: Do not overheat chocolate! Do not forget to dip in another chocolate for hard shell! I made lots of little batches to add flavorings, and then rolled them in coatings. Yum Yum Yum.
(Top left: Almond; Top right: Japanese Panko; Bottom Left: Bitter and Sweet Chocolate; Bottom Right: Mocha Latte)
Milk and Cookies, not for me. I’ll have Cookies and Champagne please! Okay well that might be a little much, but I am not a huge milk fan (I know, I know). I don’t know what it is, but something about a tall glass of milk just doesn’t do anything for me. Soy milk on the other hand, I’m all for it….as long as it’s flavored with vanilla! Maybe I should flavor diary milk with vanilla…hmm.
I wanted to bake something different today; I wasn’t in a cake or cookie mood. Ice cream sounded nice, but I didn’t want to deal with all the eggs and clean up. Something without eggs sounded really nice, so I played around with some shortbread recipes to see what I could come up with. I played with extracts, zests, flours, and flavorings until I came up with chocolate mocha shortbread! Not really a breakthrough, hah. I love shortbread, but this didn’t taste like traditional shortbread and it looked bare, so I ended up with a cookie after all, a nutella sandwich cookie.
Happy Easter Everyone!
Had lots of fun dyeing 7 eggs today, I used some pastel food coloring I had on hand, and I really like the colors they produced! The fun lasted for about an hour, then the colorful Easter Eggs turned into egg salad sandwhiches! ^___^
It has been some time since I have made ice cream (the last time was during Christmas, Eggnog Ice Cream), and a close friends birthday was the perfect chance to make some again! It wasn’t until mid day that I found out about his birthday (I know I know, I’m a bad friend!), so I was in scatter mode trying to think of a gift. With a little hint from his wife and 6 cups of flour later, I had dozens of chocolate chip cookies ready, but I still wanted to make something else. What is a birthday without ice cream!? To me this tasted more like a breath mint (I melted one too many mint chips!) than a sweet choco treat, but it (seemed to, anyway) went over well! Happy Birthday!
Transparent Image Tape Transfer Tutorial for ATC, Collage, and Altered Art
After an exhausting search for good quality yet low priced transparency sheets, I pulled out my Mixed Media binder and found a clipping I made of a technique a lot of collage artists use called “tape transfer”. I am obsessed! It is quite simple and fun, and it’s always a surprise to see the finished transfer! Using this method you can make any laser printed image into a transparent one to use in your art! *I have only tried this with a laser printer so far!
Continue reading "Transparent Image Tape Transfer Tutorial for ATC, Collage, and Altered Art" »
What a gorgeous day! This morning I awoke to the sights and sounds of spring, finally! Out my window the Robins were out early looking for food, while the resident birds in a tree nearby sang songs of the coming season. The weather was too perfect to stay inside, so I was finally able to take my new bike out for a spin! What a treat!
ATC made for Project Spectrum: FIRE - orange, red, pink.
There seems to be something about cutting up little pieces of paper and then arranging them into a house that is fun to me. I joined in a theme swap on the new ATCsforALL site to try and spark some creativity and trade some techniques. Little did I know the simple house theme would prove to be a big ordeal, I had pages and pages of house ideas sketched in my notepad. What looks good on paper doesn’t always look good in real life, which I found out many times. I need to work on my finishing techniques and find the right adhesive, but I believe I am improving from my earlier pieces.
Visitors might notice a change going on; I have updated my site design! I loved my little birdhouse but felt it was time for a change, this design better reflects my hobbies (baking, crafting, and pastries!). Working on projects on and off the site are such fun to work with, I just wish I had the motivation to upkeep this site more than I do. Hopefully a fresh design with bring fresh ideas!
Ah my dear sweet croissant, how I love you so! I will turn a town upside down to try and find a perfect, flaky croissant hidden beneath strip malls and corner shops. I don’t know what it is about these modest crescent breads that drive me mad, but I can’t stop myself!
What better way to pay homage to my dear bread than to bake some myself? What a treat it was, but I am not sure if I can do this every weekend (or even every month!), a lot of work and ingredients go into my sweet delight. I was surprisingly shocked at the amount of butter, but what did I expect?! A treat indeed.
Cake and Café Artist Trading Cards in watercolor and ink. Created for a swap, my first time attempting watercolor!
Ah Marie Antoinette! The Queen of “_____”! I love working on things inspired by MA, and these ATCs were so much fun! This one is “Queen of France”, a very simple, pretty collage for the deposed Queen.
This one is “Queen of Lace”, the picture I used had lace all over the dress, so I figured she needed real lace!
This one is “Queen on Cupcakes”, I couldn’t resist making a crazt high hairdo out of cupcakes, MA would be proud!
I've gone ATC crazy! I love crafting this little things, they are alot of fun to create! ATC stands for "Artist Trading Card", a 2.5" x 3.5" card made from whatever medium you choose, working with whatever technique you like! I have been working on mixed media collage and really enjoy it! The one above is one of my favorites, but putting together all the little stamps to make one big stamp was a pain, even on photoshop!
Another card in the same 'vintage wild bird' theme, a little song bird! I need to learn to not hear the xacto blade!
Who doesn't love Frida? She inspires me so much, and it was a joy to work on this collage.
The second I saw this painting, I knew I wanted to collage it. The flowers are my favorite. I gave her a locket to put around her neck, when you open it inside is Diego.
I wanted this to have a dark feel to it, as the quote is from Frida about why she always painted herself she said "Because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best." The antler is a hand carved stamp by my loving husband!
I really had a hard time with this ATC, and I remade it many times. The end product is just what I wanted! The background is a vintage ad for ladies undergarments, hehe.
A fabric base card with a vintage feel! I really wanted to make this feel old and worn out, so its all ragged and stained.
These cards are made from fabric. The brid is an iron on transfer.
This ATC has my first carved rubber stamp, an umbrella! It's stamped on linen with fabric waterdrops and the sun shining!
Did you know that San Fran is named the foggy city? I didn't, but I found out today along with a whole airport full of people with delayed flights. A few hours after our flight time we finally took off and landed in Las Vegas for a transfer...well...you know where this is going...we missed the transfer by about 45min. -_- Next flight out is not too sure at this time, so we found a hotel and are now staying the night in this crazy, crazy city! Too bad my luggage is somewhere far away.....
At least I can find a neat bakery somewhere...^_^
