Chocolate Covered Goodness

Artful Tourist blog posts may be viewed chronologically and in their entirely by visiting www.artfultourist.blogspot.com .


The Christmas season took over my heart and just about everything else for the past two months. I am so grateful for such a joyful and wonderful time of giving and receiving.

Working Backwards
Just as I teach in my workshops, when you get behind in journaling or scrapbooking, start with the most recent and work backwards as desired. Enjoy the moment you’re in right now. The moment of the last 48 hours has been one of gratitude. I created a new series of cards yesterday that I call “Chocolate Covered Recycling.”

The base for these are card blanks and envelopes given to me at least 4 years ago by my precious friend Bridget as a Christmas gift. They were white and sized 5” by 7”. For some reason, the stark white canvas and/or the size just kept me from opening and using these packs.

Adhering to my commitment to use more of what I have laying around—I pulled out these card blanks to start working on some thank you notes. Also sitting on my table in the studio were some mail catalogs that came in over the holidays.

Tip: I keep these mail catalogs around as a surface for “glue waste” on my projects. You can rub glue off the project and onto the surface of the catalog pages—then just turn the page and get a fresh surface for the next little scrap that needs gluing. Once the catalog pages are all glued together you can still pop it into the recycling bin.



The Godiva™ catalog was just too pretty to use as glue scraps and I started tearing and punching images out of the catalog to play with on the pure white background of the cards. All five cards I completed in about an hour are posted in the recycled project gallery that is new to the web site this week. http://www.nachattin.com/Gallerymain.html

Digital Greetings
Finally, in the interest of the environment this year we also prepared a digital Holiday card. I posted it on Facebook and emailed it to many others, but just in case you didn’t get your copy—here’s a reprint just for you. May your 2010 be filled with wonder and abundance,

Regular Features




Surf stops—web sites I’ve visited recently:


http://www.king.com/ to play the Chuzzle game which is really the old version of Bejeweled.






Mind Map with Mind Meister-- http://www.mindmeister.com/content/product






Touch of color—what color(s) influenced me— Silver sparkles






Pleasing sounds- Children laughing






Studio progress: Creating a mind map of my vision for the studio






In the kitchen— Steam fresh asparagus in the microwave with McCormick’s ™ vegetable seasoning and Promise™ spread






Austerity Plan progress ($15.00 per month for art supplies and tools): It’s all a blur for December, I don’t think I went over budget on my studio, but I did pick up a lot of stuff for gifting.






Points of Interest: (random things I’ve paid attention to lately) Snow fell in south Florida all month. We took the neighbor girls to CityPlace on Christmas Eve, Eve and had a blast.

My opinion and where it may lead: I married the right man for the job.

Speaking of Halloween

Before September 2009 I had never owned a set of Halloween stamps. It always seemed a bit wasteful to buy stamps that can only be used once a year. I've never really seen a lot of Halloween stamps that appeal to me either...

Making Do

Instead of buying specific holidays, I enjoy finding ways to make "regular" stamps work for holidays and special occasions. Pictured here are some of my ideas for using stamps in my current collection for Halloween this year.

Technique on Left: Word Play

I always loved that silly knock-knock joke that ends in "orange you glad I didn't say banana?"

I had a cool citrus theme stamp that was just right for a word play for the holidays. I stamped the collage-style image from Club Scrap onto paper treated with the polished stone ink technique. I scribbled the wording with a fine tip pen on crooked cut scraps and accented with printed papers and a small hand stamp.

Technique on Right: Stamp, sketch, or die cut a holiday shaped accent

The focal image of this card was also stamped on polished stone paper using a Tim Holtz stamp. I sketched a witch's hat onto purple card stock for the little girl to wear. The focal image was matted, accented with a hand die cut and handwritten wording on an orange scrap. The entire front panel was wrapped in metallic bronze thread.

Both cards achieve holiday status with choice of color scheme as well. Just like red and pink say Valentine's Day--orange, green, and purple say Halloween.

Bonus Idea from Halloween 2008

Die cuts and pre-made elements are also great tools for once-a-year greetings. They also qualify for the "flash card" series since this type of card assembles very quickly. The pre-printed element is by Crafty Secrets and the leaf die cut was cut on The Wizard using a Sizzex die. A few inked edges and some fiber complete the card.

Flash Cards for Halloween

Card making is one of the most satisfying forms of paper art for me. I’ve had a busy schedule this fall trying to work part-time at Anton Aesthetics Academy. While I may not qualify yet as one of those “busy people get more done” folks, I have made conscious efforts to keep the creativity in my life as my workload increased.

For all you visuals out there
I’ve been recruited by TVLesson.com to create how-to videos on a variety of topics related to art and crafting. I’ve had a few stumbling blocks in the process because I’m still learning how to edit and resize my videos for publication. http://www.tvlesson.com/NAChattin/videos

This Halloween Flash Card video is one of my projects for TVLesson.com that is being pre-released to blog views on my web site with a slide show of the individual cards.

The Why of it all
Over the years I’ve taught lots of fun card-making workshops but my favorite topic by far is the “Flash Cards” series. There are lots of approaches, but the goal is always to create 6 or more cards in an hour.

Intricate gorgeous cards are a treasure and I make them for very special occasions or when I am struck by a great pattern or design. However, I prefer to create “Flash Cards” the majority of the time for these reasons:
v In about an hour, I can create 6+ cards that can be mailed that day which gives me a wonderful sense of accomplishment along with nurturing my creative spirit.
v Face it, cards are relatively disposable art which means that devoting hours and hours to one card can be a let down when you realize that the card may not be even be cherished for the length of time it took to create it.
v I love to “share the wealth” when it comes to creative projects and the card making allows me to give more away than any other type of project.

Stay tuned Paper Art fans for more footage from the Trailer Park Studios of the Artful Tourist.

Regular Features

Surf stops—web sites I’ve visited recently:

Ten Two Studios for project ideas and supplies to make recycled altered art from matchbooks, tin cans, bottles, and more: http://www.tentwostudios.com/category/projects/

Basic Grey’s newsletter online is amazing and see it easily if you sign up for their mailing list. Here’s October: http://www.basicgrey.com/clientuploads/CNL_1009.pdf

Touch of color—what color(s) influenced me— Orange, green, and purple for Halloween!Media Moments- Just changed this from only music to all media. Ratings are based on a 5 star system.

Media Moments- Just changed this from only music to all media. Ratings are based on a 5 star system.

We watched three movies over the weekend of October 9th:
Duplicity: 3.5 stars
Gran Tornino: 4 stars
Curious Case of Benjamin Button: 3.5 stars from me and 2 from Sir Henry

Just finished a book called “The Reincarnationist” my M.L. Rose: 4 Stars

In the kitchen—

Easy Cheesy Cracker Spread
Henry and I love appetizers and finger foods. We ate this spread this week as an appetizer one night and beside some chicken noodle soup on another night.

Ingredients*:
2/3 (regular) bar of softened cream cheese
2 oz. of shredded sharp cheddar (about a 1/4/ cup) I love using my Pampered Chef™ cheese grater for this.
1.5 teaspoons McCormick ranch seasoning mix (we buy it by the jar)
1 tablespoon of Tastefully Simple™ Sweet Red Pepper seasoning or you can substitute a another spicy type mixed seasoning.

Combine all ingredients in a mini mixer or by hand. Serve on wheat crackers or on celery sticks. To spruce this up for a party you could refrigerate, form into a ball, roll in nuts and serve on a platter.
*I use a cream cheese and sharp cheddar base for lots of different spreads. Play around with it and enjoy the creative process.

Austerity Plan progress ($15.00 per month for art supplies and tools): I combined September budget with some birthday money and spent about $30.00 in my local scrapbook store at the beginning of the month. In keeping with my goals, I used most of the materials right away. I still need to create something with that new collage stamp from Magenta™ and the cool new champagne watermark ink from VersaMark™. See photo.

My opinion and where it may lead: Since the birth of our grandson almost a year ago we have really been focusing on recycling. By my friend’s standards, we’re late to the game here, but we’re on board nonetheless. What I never realized is how satisfied I would feel to try and lighten my global footprint. I can find guilt in just about anything and I had no idea how much guilt I had been carrying around about not recycling.

Lesson 1: Recycle to make a better world for yourselves and our children.
Lesson 2: Find places in your life where you can release guilt and enjoy living.

Fruity Crabs

Back in 2002 or perhaps 2003 Sir Henry and I went to Vegas for a Dream Impressions stamp convention. We had a great time together.

Every hotel in Vegas has to have a theme and our Imperial Hotel set out to be the Asian hot spot on the strip. It looked like a standard strip hotel with some pagodas glued here and there. The hotel had a big polynesian dinner one night and everyone at the convention attended. The food and the show were cheesy but fun. During intermission I walked around and took pictures of all the fruit scuptures.

This crab was one of my favorites. I printed several copies of it a few years later for a scrapbook page I was designing for Spellbinders. There were plenty of crabs left over and I finally used them to make a series of brithday cards.

A. There was a point to this long winded story

B. I used up more of the "stuff" that I have had laying around for years.

So click on the crabby cards and see all the fun ways you can make cards from your extra photos.

For more photo cards check out my web page devoted to the topic.

Enjoy the creative process!

'Tis the Season

Artful Tourist blog posts may be viewed chronologically and in their entirely by visiting www.artfultourist.blogspot.com .


Birthday Season, that is….Unfortunately, it’s also been sinus infection season, I’m currently fumbling in the relapse zone but this go around is destined to be my last.

Timely Gift/Late Blog Posting
I really want to make several posts so I’m skipping the regular features in hopes that I can get a few more up. My philosophy is that if I got the gift/card mailed before the birthday (I’m O for 5 so far this season) then a late blog posting will not receive a penalty flag.

Score with economic paper options
On my July frugal spending budget I bought a DCV paper pad on sale at JoAnn’s. This one was a treasure for me because it was glittered and double sided not to mention a “summer collection” of colors which fits our Florida lifestyle all year around. If you shop the major craft store sales for your scrap papers, I can’t say enough about the value in these DCV paper stacks. They’re coordinated, there is a huge variety for every season and taste, many are double sided and glittered, plus I’m enjoying how fun they are to sand to a white core.

Add new to old and stir well
For my girlfriend’s card I used double sided paper from this new stack to create a 5” square card that practically made itself when I used the pattern on the paper as my base. I added punches and recycled wording to the front and additional punches and strips to the inside. The pop-up element on the inside was also recycled from a birthday card given to me over 8 years ago.

Yes, you heard it right folks, I kept items in my studio intending to recycle them for over 8 years. Truthfully, I’d hate to count how old some of this stuff is—but if I can’t throw it out then I’m determined to put it in. Nice, there’s a new motto, “If I can’t throw it out then I must put it in.

Tool Revival-The Boxmaker
Okay, back to the photos and this short version of a blog post. (wry smile). The bottom photo is a handmade box that I created using K & Co. reversible print card stock on top and ColorMates Textured solids on the bottom. In addition to recycling elements I am on a mission to recycle tools as well. The box was made with a tool called “Aleene’s Creative Box Maker” which I purchased sometime back in the mid-nineties. You can still find it online in Marlene Watson’s site here: http://www.boxcrafting.com/ I was reminded of this tool when I saw a new scoring tool that Stampin’ Up™ is promoting. The great thing about the box maker is that you can create a perfect top and bottom for your box every time just by turning the tool over.

The note cards in the box are pre-made but purchased at a discount because the original box was damaged and one card was damaged. Again, this set has been in my “to make” area for a couple years now.

Hence my studio may not look a lot different, and I’m sure it doesn’t look a lot better; however, I am having an impact on my environment. I’m working more creatively and using fewer new items. Eventually, the results are bound to show up.

So crates…
During my rest periods for this crazy sinus plague I’ve watched more TV than usual. As you may recall, I’m just not a big fan of reality TV unless it comes from a home shopping channel. Tucked between reruns and reality TV this week I caught the 1988 film “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures” starring Sean Penn and Keanu Reeves. I leave you with a flick of my air guitar and their line, “party-on dude.”

Tea Party Birthday

Enjoy this blog post and along with its predecessors at http://www.artfultourist.blogspot.com/.

I’m behind again…I have all these blog posts I want to make and yet the congestion of my mind is rivaled only by the congestion of my sinuses as I fight an infection. …sigh.

So, when all else fails just start one at time and go from there. August-October is birthday season in my world. Many family members and cherished friends were born during this three month period.

While I hope to post many of the birthday cards and gifts I’ve worked on I will just start with Miss Betty’s tea party. My dear and delightful friend Betty invited me to a tea party celebrating her birthday this weekend. Since the party was in Richmond and I couldn’t arrange a trip up there, I decided to mail in my contribution. Now Miss Betty said no gifts, so I decided to send a bit of presence instead of present. I just loving playing with words—grin.

The photos shown here represent the collection of items I mailed off to Miss Betty:

--A vintage navy hat that reminded me of my Aunt Minnie. Miss Betty says she wore it to work on Tuesday for her birthday and she channeled “Aint Bee” from Mayberry all day. I created a digital sign and used a hat pin to attach it so that it might be used as décor for the party too.

--A dozen green tea bags enclosed in print papers with stamped images of women’s faces and ribbon embellishments

--A mini pizza box filled with more little tea bags. I used the same pattern I worked with for Sir Henry’s father’s day gift but enlarged it. Our friends at Split Coast Stampers http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/pizzabox/ I provided the template.

--A 5” square card that coordinated with the tea bags—decorated both inside and out because I’m really in to decorating all of the card lately.

General overview of supplies: Spellbinder’s tea time die set, Ranger Inks, EK Success circle punch, Offray ribbon, Face stamps from Post Modern and Stamper’s Anonymous, sentiment stamp from A Country Welcome, solid cardstock from WorldWin, marbled cardstock from Murphy’s, print papers from scrap pile. I did all the scoring on my EK Success cutter with a stylus.



Regular Features

Surf stops—web sites I’ve visited recently:
If you ever read my newsletter, “Get the kNACk” then you might recall links to a kids’ web site called Making Friends. I visited there again recently thinking about some back-to-school projects for my neighbor girls. Take a look at the traveling swap book for Girl Scouts here: http://www.makingfriends.com/scouts/travel.htm
Wouldn’t that be fun to do with some art friends near and far?

Get five free fonts from Scrap ‘n Fonts by clicking this link: http://www.scrapnfonts.com/searchprod.php?showingonly=Free
I downloaded them this week and used the architect one on the two photo collages of Betty’s birthday. The dot matrix one would be fun for distress stuff, techno game layouts, and maybe even Halloween. Face it, fonts are just fun.

Touch of color—what color(s) influenced me— pink, pink, glorious pink. Miss Betty really isn’t a big fan of pink, but I didn’t have a lot of other colors working for me on this project. Turns out the china she’s using for the party has some pink in it…hurray for pink.

Most played song- “Wait and See” by Brandon Heath. You can hear it and see the lyrics on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJwlmb4V-0Y

Studio progress: Did I mention I’ve been bedridden with a sinus infection?

In the kitchen— Sir Henry went on a quest to find tea bags with Cardamom in them since I had read that this particular spice is good for infections. Turns out there are brands of Chai tea with this valuable spice in them. Whether it was the power of suggestion or the magical ingredient—the tea really seemed to soothe and help.

---Progresso chicken and wild rice soup is good for my pitiful feeling self and good enough for the husband to enjoy too. He fixed some Winn Dixie™ brand whole wheat canned biscuits with it and they were quite tasty too. Best canned biscuits we’ve eaten…Austerity Plan progress ($15.00 per month for art supplies and tools): Well, if I’m sick I can’t exactly get out and about to spend…Wait, before you think it, I also refrained from online spending and shopping channels too—grin.

Points of Interest: (random things I’ve paid attention to lately)
--- I’ve been resting and reading a lot as I heal. If you enjoy fantasy epics I have enjoyed the first two books in Tad Williams’ series “Shadowmarch.”
---I’m creating a book with the working title “Memoir Triggers” about creating your memoirs with word and image. I’m envisioning sort of an advanced “Book of Me’ that scrapbookers sometimes work on with a more edgy and universal appeal.

My opinion and where it may lead: Being kind to yourself makes you strong. It’s time for me to take my own advice, swallow my own medicine, and go back to bed.

Picture Post Overload

It's past time for me to catch up on some phot posts so here they are in no particular order except top to bottom:
1. The decorating for Henry's birthday dinner. one of the digital scrap party decorations I made for Henry's birthday.
2. Henry and I eating our anniversary wedding cake that Henry insisted on freezing...I liked the frozen wedding punch better but the cake did hold up pretty well in the air tight bag...

3. My favorite picture of my beloved Sir Henry at his birthday dinner. Daddy sent him that bandana so he could be a "biker dude."
4. Daddy and me at the gardens in Westminster in July

5. I finally got a photo of the balloon bouquets I keep talking about. Get the sticks from Oriental trading and make instant festivity. Most parties, including this one, include digital scrappy signs too. I'll try to get one of those up too..

But wait, there's more....But I guess I will wait since this is plenty for now. As a reminder to myself I'll put up: newest wedding scrap page (what a pair), more digi Henry decor, four new cards (as soon as I find the scans...sigh), and perhaps even more...grin

Regular Features:

Surf stops: http://www.craigslist.com/ find everything from jobs, to discount services, to curb alerts for freebies you didn't know you needed and much more. If you scrap or do other paper art for money try advertising your services there--it's all free.

Touch of Color: Bronze and glitter showed up in my most recent traditional layout.

My opinion and where it may lead: Or in this case, where it has lead. Last Thursday I had an aspiration performed on two troublesome cysts in my breast. This procedure was preceeded by two years of frequent self-exams, mamograms, and sonograms every 3-5 months. I never felt these cysts until they started to cause me pain in the last 3 months. The point is all the self exams in the world won't catch lumps in your breast--do them, by all means BUT also get your mamograms regularly. Please...your life matters to me and to many.

Now, I'm off to change the ice pack in my bra and give thanks to my great Creator that an aspiration was all I needed done.