Sean Patrick checking out his hands. He's very interested in what's going on around him.



















Yeah, he's about as thrilled about having his picture taken as my kids are. He may as well get over it though, between his Nana and his Auntie he's gonna have lots of pictures taken.

Rainy Day Tuesday

Well we are getting the rain from one of the tropical storms. Fortunately we only get rain and little bit of rain, nothing too bad. I was surprised so many of my little visitors were out but the rain had slowed down to a drizzle when I took these. Please pardon any fuzziness, I wasn't sure how well these would come out through the window panes and there is some glare on some of the pictures.

My little squirrel was safely tucked away in the birdfeeder and out of the rain.














The baby cardinals are starting to look more and more like their adult counterparts.














































The sweet autumn clematis has started to bloom and it so pretty both on the deck and up in the trees where it has vined.














There were two of the little sparrows but I was only able to get a picture of this one. Cute little buggers aren't they??

Almost Done!!

I've added the words to the picture for Misty.















All that's left is to seal it.



















I guess I will have to find a tube to mail it in because I didn't fold it beforehand and now I don't want to.

Final Try of Kylie Pictures

I truly truly love my little sister! I say that especially after working on this project for her. As you will notice, the background is different once again.





The tar gelled water color paper would not allow the transfers to transfer with the matt medium which I usually use. At that point I was truly about to pull out my hair...believe it or not, no vulgar language was used but I was tempted to cry.











Instead I printed out another set of pictures, this time on plain paper...oh did I say the printer didn't want to work....so, I had to uninstall and reinstall both Epson printers...argh!! But it now works.












I painted another sheet of the watercolor paper and cut out the pictures of Kylie and attached them with the matt medium. It was followed with a watered down application of the medium over the entire paper. It isn't finished yet. It will need more protective coats after I've written on it. Hopefully this will go without a glitch....

Sara & Gloria

Gloria and her daughter, Sara, came over last night to visit.



















Sara is about to deliver Sean Patrick any day now. Since I rarely get to buy new baby stuff, it was a real treat to go shopping. Little boy stuff is so much cuter now than it was when my boys were little guys.




















Gloria chilling out on the sofa.



















Wilbur looking sad because he had to stay outside. Gloria is just his size and he's never been around a pregnant person before but still tried to get into Sara's lap....which is pretty full right now.

Background for Misty

Well I've finally watercolored a background for the Kylie pictures for Misty. I've put 3 coats of Clear Tar Gel overtop so hopefully the transfers will be better with the slightly less bumpy background. I like the extra sheen it gives to the background too.

Redo for Damon

I hate the glare of glass but here are closeups of the redone pictures for Damon.





















I finally found the black vellum cardstock and replaced the white vellum with it.
















I like how it looks much better so now I think I can finally mail it to him. Here's a pic before I put the glass back on and the original 'finished product'. I definetely like the black with it and used a gold gel pen to write on it. Now to get to the post office to mail it......

Finished Picture for Damon

Ah yes you may say, but Kim, your sister's birthday was LAST month so how is it that you have finished your brother's birthday present first??? Well the answer to that question is easy, his project was less 'let's try this technique out' and more 'this technique has been proven to work'. So that is why Damon's present is only a matter of a mere week+ late where Misty's is....well, just add a month to that......I hope he likes this.












I took color pictures I had taken at Christmas and settled on the sepia (much warmer looking than the black and white copies were).
I wound up using the excess that I had cut off for framing each individual picture and added it to the other pic for an inside border. I'm pleased with the effect. I wanted to use a cork background (saw it in a Quilting Arts or Stampington magazine) and used the original vellum sheets I had chosen for each and cut them down. All of this was placed in an all glass frame. I had thought about a black frame and I'm sure that would look good too but the only ones I liked were way too small for what i wanted to do. The little scrolls are paper doodles that are covered in pearlex and then embossed and set with the heatgun. I printed out each of their names and their meanings along with short memo about each on vellum paper. The only thing I may possibly change is the vellum if I can find a white or gold vellum pen and use black vellum instead.

pics of Tim

I'm working on pictures of Tim and Damon and have been trying different layout designs. I think I will go with the 3rd one which is the background in 1 & 2 only copied onto vellum and then layed over a orangy art paper.























It used the gold cardboard mat and I've added some papers in orange and yellow to it.




















The vellum will be trimmed down to alleviate the white and a small portion of the underlying paper will show as a small border.

pics of Damon

Okay, I've tried different backgrounds and am going with the darker background printed on vellum and over a yellow background. The vellum will be trimmed and a small portion of the art paper should show as a tiny border.



















I like the leopard print for the mat as the vellum is pretty much the same color all over with only a slight difference in tones which is pretty negligible to see.

















The black mat was pretty but the overall effect was pretty monotone. I like the orange and white textured papers with it.



















I'm still planning to do some sort of embossed cut outs for both pictures before framing them in plain glass frame. I hope they like them!!