lunar eclipse

Photo by Frank Blau www.frankblauphotography.com

Did you see it?

I was up early Saturday and drove up to the Highlands Park and Ride, which happens to have one of the best views in Issaquah, and watched it out in the cold. It was beautiful, stunning, ....leaves you speechless to know that this is something I did with a lot of the rest of the world....

yes, it teared me up with it's silent, humongous beauty....

Huge thanksgiving sale on now!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Stop by and enjoy 30 - 40% off almost everything on our web site...

www.motherrubber.com

http://shop.motherrubber.com

Tim Holtz Limited Edition Winter Distress Inks

..........are here!
From Ranger's press release:

Tim Holtz® Winter Seasonal Distress Ink
• Limited edition seasonal colors
• Acid free, non-toxic dye inks
• Stylish vintage color palette
• Unique ink ideal for water techniques

Get them while you can! :)

-Dawn

JournalFest 2011

Home again after an enchanting time in Port Townsend. This was my first JournalFest and it was just incredible. I feel as though another creative part of me has been opened up and opened wide.

After unloading my car into my dorm room look what gift appeared outside for all of us:

My first class was Orly Avineri's Face Lift. We were treated to some very disarming exercises and revisited the meaning of true beauty....and being human. Thank you Orly and my fellow travelers...My friend Gwen was in this class too!

Here are is a shot from the back of the classroom and a couple of my journal spreads from that class:

My Friday class was with the fabulous Juliana Coles. I didn't take any photos in the class but here are a couple of my spreads from that class which are in a different journal - a large history book I bought at Value Village especially for this class:

This book is surprisingly lightweight for it's size, about 9" x 12"

Finally, Saturday was Learning to See with the warm and wonderful Lisa Cheney-Jorgensen. We drew with our pens and learned how to slow down, quiet the left side of our brains, and really draw what we see:

first we did some symbolic (from memory), contour, blind contour, and modified blind contour drawings of a coffee cup.

We also did an upside down contour drawing of a drawing Lisa provided. Drawing upside down forces you to focus on lines and shapes instead of the whole picture. This helped us not get so anxious and wound-up about what we were drawing. It worked well for me. Some people were smart and turned their journals upside down before starting so that once they were done their image would be right side up in their journal. I didn't do that but I'm ok with that - it reminds me of the lesson and the learning.

The drawing on the right is of my personal object, a leaf I picked up while enjoying the grounds at Fort Worden. I am not done painting it yet - watercolors....but like how the drawing turned out :)

Here's the leaf for your reference:

Finally, I had time to draw my iPod in it's case while others were completing their drawings of their personal objects

AND, Lisa had us all do the coolest collaborative drawing. She took a photo of Tracy, cut it up into a bunch of squares and then we all drew 2 or more squares onto post-its without knowing what we were drawing. This again focussed us on shapes and lines - and turned out great!

I loved doing this with my fellow travelers.....this will always connect us together and connect us to JournalFest, and Teesha and Tracy

Here are the wonderful trades I came home with too:

What a great time I had -here's my new friend Connie:

we went out to dinner at the Fountain Cafe Saturday night with Josie and her mom Nancy (who was in my Learning To See class) and it was so much fun - great food and great company...what more could you ask for?

Connie and Nancy in their party garb:

good times were had by all!

Namaste,

Dawn

Journal Fest trades....

For once I have actually finished some trades BEFORE heading off to the retreat! :)

I wasn't sure what to make but knew I wanted to use what I had already -not go buy a bunch of stuff. Amongst my piles of paper and supplies I came across these cool pre-cut pieces of card stock.

I inherited these from my sister after she bought them, along with several other wonderful things, to make my bridal shower invitations. These are 4.5" X 6.5" so that set the size.

Next, I searched online to find a free calendar template that I could shrink and customize.

Cut the pages - ugh....I somehow decided to make 52 of these....how did I come up with that number....unknown. So here's some math for you: 52 of these little guys X 15 pages per = 780. Since I could get two 4.5" X 6.5" per sheet of paper, that resulted in 390 sheets of paper to cut up. zoinks!

I then made a prototype....

and decided the back wasn't as stiff as I would like.....gee, do I have any chipboard in my piles of paper? I remembered buying some 12" x 12" sheets a while ago but, the eternal question: WHERE did I put them? :D

Found!

Cut, punched and stacked!

The final product:

What a relief to have these completed

Woo hoo!! - day after tomorrow I'm heading to Port Townsend :)

Namaste,

Dawn

Tim Holtz Seasonal Distress Inks -Autumn 2011

Great news!

I was able to order some of these fantastic ink pad sets from Ranger from there second run!

These are a limited edition collection of Distress Inks in harvest hues and like the changing of the seasons, this Autumn set is only available for a limited time, so collect them now before they’re gone.

Watch for an update next week when I hope to receive them and add them to my online store. I will have a VERY LIMITED QUANTITY so if you are interested stay tuned and asked to be added to my email list at info at motherrubber dot com.

Cheers!

Dawn

Distress Ink Pad Labels

Hey bloggers - Ranger has done something really cool -again!

They have provided labels for their Distress Ink Pads! You can print them onto the small address labels (Avery 5167, 1/2" X 1 3/4") and do what I did: peel the label off of the backing sheet, rub it over the ink pad a bit so it picks up some of the color, then apply it to the edge of the ink pad case...easy organization - I love it!

I added a new page on our web site for downloads such as these labels; check that page out here: Downloads

Check it out here: I lined up all of my Distress Ink Pads in one of my Ink Pad Palaces:

Happy Stamping!

-Dawn

Birth-versay Weekend!

My hubby's birthday was last-last Thursday, and our anniversary was last Monday (2 years already!! woo hoo!!) so we took extra time off from work and made it a long weekend....very relaxing.

giggling at a birthday card...

My two fellow sun-soaking companions

My sister let us stay at her Oregon Coast condo - right on the beach.....we had perfect summer weather and total relaxation....we didn't cook one meal!

My Mom lives just 10 minutes away so we met up with her before venturing out.

This is a yummy Italian Soda from the Pizza Garden in Nehalem...pizza was good too!

We ate out, did a tad bit of shopping (it's a mecca for thrift and antique stores), napped, and just enjoyed each other's company...

We traveled home through Portland, stopping at Bunk Sandwiches (of Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" fame).

They serve a version of Banh Mi (Vietnamese sub sandwiches) which was delicious!

They also have Mexican Coke on the menu - yummy!

This was Collin's Italian Cured Meats sandwich....it was a bit on the sour side for him-pickled peppers on top along with vinegar I'm guessing....I thought it was delicious. :)

Is it too early for this? Haunted House Halloween Card - Instructions

Here's how I made this card:

To create the background, I crumpled my card slightly then flattened it out again and then applied Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink by rubbing the ink pad over the card. I then spritzed with a bit of water and used my heat gun to dry it - this allows the orange color to spread out randomly. I then went over this with Black Soot Distress Ink in the same manner - applying the ink pad to the paper lightly and a bit randomly. I did make sure I got the edges of the card because that gives it a bit of a finished look.
I stamped the Haunted House onto glossy white card stock using Black Onyx VersaFine Ink then I colored it in using markers - I think I used the Marvy Matchables Brush tip markers. I then cut out the haunted house and traced around it adding about 1/8" onto glossy black cardstock, cut that out, and set it aside with the haunted house.
Next, I stamped my Moon Solid image onto some orange holographic sticker paper using Jet Black Staz-On ink and cut that out, then applied it to the card (making sure the card was thoroughly dry).
Finally, I stamped the Scary Dead Tree onto vellum and cut it out; I also tore a random piece of vellum to make the fog and then stamped my Tiny Bat stamp in several spots using the Jet Black Staz-On ink. I adhered that to the card so it slightly overlapped the moon.
Next, I adhered the black haunted house outline directly to the card, and then using black foam dimensional tape, mounted the haunted house on top of the black outline. Finally, using a tiny bit of the black foam dimensional tape, I mounted the Scary Dead Tree in front of the house-overlapping slightly to give the card some depth.
Viola! A Haunted House Halloween Card for you!

What do you think? comments are welcome :)

Dawn

New Gallery and cool pop-dot tutorial

New Gallery of Samples

I have added this card to my new gallery of stamped samples to my web site!

As I grow my gallery I am planning to link each card to instructions for completing it along with a supplies list.

If you have cards, tags, scrapbook pages or anything else where you have used Mother Rubber Art Stamps send them in and I'll add them to the gallery!

You can email your images to info "at" motherrubber dot com.

If you prefer to send me the actual card, tag or sample, mail them to P.O. Box 1526, Issaquah, WA 98029. Include a note, your address and return postage if you would like it returned to you.

Homemade Pop-Dots

Here's a great demo for making your own dimensional foam tape in any color for cheap:
http://happilyeverpapercrafter.blogspot.com/2011/06/homemade-pop-dots.html

Comments welcome!
Enjoy your day,

Dawn

Photo Crawl Journal

Here's the front cover-in work:

here's the cover finished - I added black masking tape along the edges so there's an outline around the whole book....I thought that looked cool

first page...

another page in the middle...

Photo Crawl - Seattle International District

I spent a beautiful Sunday with my art friends Gwen, Paula, Jan, Lynne and Louie walking around the international district taking photos in another Photo Crawl organized by Gwen.


We started in Kobe Gardens-which I never even knew was there....









there's a pea patch where the residents can grow their vegetables and flowers...





there were little brightly colored stone walkways peaking out from under thegrass...sometimes the path is hidden and you have to keep your eyes wide open...

...and Chickens!!






then we wandered around the streets packed with people -they were having their annual SeaFair Dragon Festival and several streets were closed off and booths set up with goods for sale, crafts, learning activities and food...















After the crawl, we met up at the Panama Hotel to journal and enjoy a late lunch.


Gwen had made each of us these cool little books out of sheets of folded and gesso'd newspaper -here athey are as we were wrapping up to go home


From the left: Gwen, Louie, and Jan - on the right is Paula and Lynne in front in the green :)





I'll show you my book once I get it all finished.


Thank you friends!









Love,
Dawn