Crop on the Cape has come and gone. This year was very different for me. I didn’t have to work 125 hours. I got to sit and create with my chosen family. I still got to teach. I had the best of both worlds really! LOTS of “uncontrollable laughter”, and just good ol’ silly times. My friend Matt came and spoiled us.. making lemondrops for the table – very cool! Steph and I were the last ones left in a crop room of 280 peeps… 4am :) Yummy food was had, yes we were the table with the crock pot cooking and HUGE cooler stocked! I fell in love with a typewriter, and just enjoyed USING MY STUFF! Here are the layouts I accomplished, doesn’t look like a lot when you think of the hours that went into them, but part of the fun is discussing every little detail and over analyzing the creation. Thanks to the peeps who came to my classes, a fun time was had by all!! Hopefully I will see you all next year :)
(i’m playing with my new-to-me 55m lens.. so, no judging the photos! ALSO the photos on the actual layouts were all taken with my iphone, and most printed with postalpix)
I love going to work everyday, and the building I get to work in. It is one of the oldest buildings on the Providence College campus, and it is beautiful. I found a quote by Steve Job’s and the layout seemed to come together. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking, don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. – Steve Jobs”
This isn’t the best picture, but it’s one I wanted to remember. I snapped this with my iphone at Stacy’s 30th birthday. Happy I could be there to celebrate with my “galaxy girl” as she hit this milestone.
These are a couple pictures I snapped with my iphone for the #febphotoaday challenge on instagram. “Self portrait” and “Hands”. Again I found a quote that I was enjoying and felt it was fitting for a layout about me: “Today isn’t just another day, today I’ll create something beautiful.” I also threw in a little “be brave” sticker I stole from steph, since it is my One Little Word for this year.
“I’m Artsy Fartsy, and proud of it” – This was just a fun layout inspired by my painty cup. I created this cup a zillion years ago at a paint your own pottery near college. I don’t really drink coffee or tea, so it is only fitting that it has become my water cup in my studio. I played with some new Tim Holtz background stamps that I loved the second I saw he was releasing them, a few sequins, use of my edge distresser. I found this quote on a sticker sheet I bought from ink About It’s satellite store at the crop and felt it was fitting: ” One must be brave to be an artist”
I know sometimes I take life too seriously. So i was super happy to see that Steph created this silly moment. The fact that i threw on this goofy hat she wanted me to wear, and not care how i looked… the fact that i was just living in the moment. I knew I wanted to scrap this pic at some point over the weekend. I suck at coming up with titles for my layouts, so I think it was around 2am when i put a shout out on FB asking for ideas. Matty B actually came up with this one. The kinda funny story about this layout is how much anguish the layout gave me. I always put my thickers on with glossy accents. I LOVE LOVE love thickers, but they just aren’t sticky enough and eventually fall off… so I fix that problem by putting them on with glossy accents. I layout out my letters without sticking them too much and see if it will work then when i have the placement figured out I put them on permanetly. So i did that with this layout, which was a bit more tricky because of the cursive font… i was impressed with how it came out, it was my fave layout thus far, and i eagerly posted it to instagram, pushing it to twitter and facebook. My friend gina responded on instagram letting me know i misspelled “thousand” I forgot the S!!! So i had to rip the letters off, paint in some gold and reapply- ahhhhh !!! anyways, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I love the little cameras which are from a echo park pattern paper, I cut them out and added 2 layers of glossy accents to the lenses.
Tori Amos- these photos prove how AWESOME the camera is on the iphone 4s. I absolutely LOVE them. This year I was fortunate enough to be able to see tori in Philly with melyssa, we had a blast! She toured with a string quartet which was unique and beautiful, but the one song that stood out to me was her cover of a joni mitchell song, “a case of you”. It was just so beautiful, so that is what i quoted here: “oh i am a lonely painter, i live in a box of paints. I’m frightened by the devil, and i’m drawn to those ones that ain’t afraid. ‘love is touching souls’ surley you touched mine, ’cause part of you pours out of me, in these lines from time to time. my blood, my holy wine – tastes so bitter and so sweet. well i could drink a case of you, darling, and i would still be on my feet… i would still be on my feet”
Just a fun layout from a pic i snapped last spring, when mister harley picked a winner from his birthday cards that were sent in for his 3rd birthday (it’s almost time for his birthday again- april 12th!) – if you click the link above you can see the video of the ACTUAL picking of a winner ;)
And, lastly I found this article Scrapbook Retailer magazine did on Colorful Creations back in 2007. I just wanted to get it out of the magazine and on a layout so I would have it to remember.
weird
I wanted to spend Valentine’s Day spreading the {love} to my blog readers. I know I left you hanging a little in 2011, but i AM BACK!!! (and hopefully better then before) I also fixed my email subscription, it wasn’t working correctly. If you signed up for email notifications before friday.. then please take a minute to sign up again in the column to the right. This is the easiest way to keep tabs on me… you will get an email each time i update my blog, and you won’t have to remember to peek at shurkus.com
First… here is a lil {love} from mister harley
And now, I have a lil {love} for you! I have some blog candy to give away… I found some super cute Valentine themed papers and embellishments when i was cleaning out. Leave me a comment about something you {love}- share a link with me: It could be a link to a pic of your {loved} one, or a link to a product you love, or a link to something on pinterest you fell in {love} with.. whatever you would like! I can’t wait to see!! I will choose one lucky winner sunday (8pmET) and they will get all the goodies below! Thanks again for being a blog reader ;) I really appreciate it!
I have 12 packed full medium sized priority boxes… filled with pattern papers and embellishments- needing a good home.
I needed to clean out my crafty space.. it was just getting out of control! These boxes have at LEAST 100 pattern papers and 15 embellishments- thats over an $85 value! I am selling them for only $20!
I also have some Basic Grey ornament kits for sale as well. Pop on over to my etsy shop and get these deals while there are some left
(the picture below is just an example of one of the boxes contents, they are all different, a grab bag of sorts!)
so, this year was the first where I didn’t have much role in CHA… I wasn’t doing any ordering for the store, and I didn’t need to keep up on what everyone was releasing… it was definitely weird!
I do still follow some people and companies on fb and twitter, so I thought I would share with you some of the fun things I saw that are coming out, that get my creative juices flowing! (Hoping Ink About It has ordered some of these goodies!)
My Minds Eye: On the Bright Side - I love all the wood textures and the teal and orange combos!!
Basic Grey: PB&J – I am absolutely LOVING this color scheme… and the hint of nautical theme there is
Hero Arts & Studio Calico: Abroad stamps – looks like I better plan some more travels for 2012 because i NEED a reason to get these stamps!
Creative Imaginations – of course I got a good look at all the lines they were releasing before the show, lucky me… i do have a few faves!
Oceanside - Christine Adolph always creates the most beautiful lines!!
Nautical Collection – The name says it all… Samantha Walker created this wicked fun line!
Tea Party - Samantha Walker also designed this line. I just love the color scheme and the patterns
Tim Holtz: Ideology “chit chat stamps” – I love, love love these!! Those of you who take my class know I am always making up my own “word fetti” and I love that tim explains in the catalog that we can create our own “banter with them” when I teased him about it on fb he gave it right back to me haha (TIP: also i heard him explain in an interview that these are white and kraft AND matte finish so they will take to inks really well… any color you want!!)
Those are just a few of the new goodies I am loving. I also saw a lot of wash tape and trims that make me drool… now to just get my studio organized so i can get some new goods in my stash!
I did get to design some fun projects for Creative Imaginations… they have been doing a lot of fun sneak peeks over on their blog… but I thought now that CHA is over I would share my designs here.
Samantha Walker, Nautical
IOD Preposterous
Songbird
I have a few more projects as well, but they haven’t been showcased on the Creative Imaginations blog.. so you will have to just wait to see!
Before I started my post I wanted to let you know I have an email subscribe through feed burner to the right, so submit your email address and you will get an email notification when I update my blog.
I have participated in the One Little Word journey for the past few years.. last year was possibilities, the year before that was appreciate….. Most of you know on some level, last year was not an easy year for me. I came out standing, but barely. So honestly, my heart just hasn’t been into most things it is normally. It has taken a TON of effort to get back in my studio creating again, i think i burnt myself out a little bit with my hectic fall. I’m looking towards 2012 with a positive outlook. I try to remind myself that although 2011 was a tough one, it could’ve been a lot worse. I have started jotting down my daily thoughts in my “one line a day” book again- this is a good place for me to post what I am grateful for, or even to jot down my frustrations.
I chose “brave” for my word this year. Ali Edwards had posted on twitter late December, asking us if we had in mind what our word was going to be. I replied that after having the word “possibilities” last year, I’m afraid to come up with a word for 2012. Ali responded that maybe my word should be “brave” then. I took that word and, lived with it for a few days… I thought about it, slept with it.. lived with it. It seemed to fit. I needed to remind myself that whatever life throws at me, i am brave enough to deal…
I plan on following my prompts from Ali’s class, that I collected last year.. i really hope to embrace this word this year- and i’m starting to get excited about what it may bring to me :)
To honor my One Little Word, and Yours- I have added in my easy shop the option to get your One Little Word done on a custom canvas by lil ol me!! Here are some examples, but be sure to hop on over to my shop to see more details!
I am so excited to have finally launched my Etsy shop!! This is something I have had on my To-Do list since this summer, but in all reality it was most likely in the back of my mind for a few years now.
I have listed a bunch of my canvases. I even uploaded some without words, you can tell me what you would like on them!
Let me know what you think, and I hope you will pass the word on for me!!
I had some other things I wanted to post on the blog here, after the crash. but then Hero Arts posted how this adorable stamp was on SALE… so I figured i would give you some inspiration to treat yourself ;) to another fabulous owl stamp!! (you can click the pic to see it larger)
I created 2 of these cards.. for 2 very special people, who I am truly grateful for.. now let’s just see if they make it into the mailbox! One step at a time, one step at a time!!
Supplies Used: (listing the supplies is a new thing for me that takes quite a bit of time, let me know if it is helpful for you with or without the links )
- Hero Arts Big Eyes (sale ends jan 23rd!)
- Hero Arts Background Leaf and Floral
- Hero Arts Truly Grateful Clear Set
- Luminarte Twinkling H2o’s Kiwi
- Versafine Vintage Sepia
- Distress Ink Iced Spruce (this was a limited edition color, not sure if it is for sale anymore)
- May Arts Ribbon
- Ranger Cinnamon Stickles
- Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher (is there any other way to adhere ribbon anymore?)
- Memory Box Lagoon Notecard
Almost 12 years ago I purchased shurkus.com as a grad gift to myself… I’ve actively used it for my email address, but thats about it. Life happened, there never seemed time to build my own page- and even though i have been blogging since 2005, it was just easier to use typepad.com. Well folks… that is all changing! With my new position at Providence College.. one of my “tasks” is to learn wordpress, which in return has helped bring shurkus.com alive! I am SO excited to finally be using my little space on the net. Excited to have gotten the site this far, but I can promise you… more is to come! So… hold on, sit back… and enjoy, shurkus.com (would love to hear what you think :) )
I have updated my class page- you can see it in the tab above. I have some fun card classes coming up, and hop to see some of my “peeps” soon!!
I have spent the last few long weekends getting a lot done in my studio space. I love working in there, it’s just finding the motivation and time to get in there. I am also happy to announce I finally have opened my etsy shop! I have quite a few completed canvases posted, and some waiting for your unique quote. I also take custom orders – you get to choose the size, colors, and quote… just contact me. I hope you will spread the word on my fun new shop :)
More creative posts coming soon, I have a TON to share… i’m so excited!!!
Note: be sure to update your bookmarks, and blog readers, this is where my blog is going to live from now on!!
big things are coming to shurkus.com in 2012… just testing, playing creating and figuring all of this out.
for now you can continue to find me at: {creative chick}
Sunday October 2 10a-4p the Crop Shop- Art Journal class
I am so excited to be teaching at the crop shop again.. and i LOVE teaching this class!! We will be creating this art journal from scratch!! The first 1/2 of the class we will build the structure of the book… then we will break for lunch.. come back and create the interior pages with many different techniques using paints, washes, stencils, stamps and more!! We will then put the whole book together!!
I hope to see you there, call the store to sign up!
