Stencil Tote Video

 Click Here for a recap of my Stencil Tote Video This makes a great gift idea for birthdays 
and Christmas!


Artistic Inspirations to help you create! 

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

First Official Picture!

 
I'm so excited, we have received our 
first official grand baby picture!


Just in case you didn't know we're going to be 
grandparents come April and we are thrilled 
to pieces :-)

It's so doggone hard to resist buying baby 
things, yet, but I'm resisting until we know 
what sex it is. It seems like baby things are 
much more gender specific then they were 
17 years ago when I had my youngest son.


Artistic Inspirations to help you create!
 

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

Crafty Blogger Blurbs

 Time once again for Blogger Blurb Links 
so get comfy and ride the wave of linky love!

 Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
Confidence is sexy. Madge muses about the power of embracing uniquely wonderful you.

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
Many artists and crafters find it helpful to set goals for their art but do so in different ways. How about you? Do you have any goals or methods for improving in your art?
 

Mixed Media Artist
What did you name your business? Cyndi is betting that there's a good story behind it!

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
See how I took a bite out of a sweater with inspiration from the new book Vampire Knits by Genevieve Miller.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Tammy asks about your creative muse and shares some information about hers.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
At Craftside this week there are tutorials on how to purl stitch with beads, embellish a softie with a heart, a recipe for a stop chewing spray for dogs, and how to eliminate a side seam on a pants pattern.

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi has some great samples working with paper that has a white core.

About Family Crafts
Did you know that September is National Sewing Month? Sherri has some fun and simple ways you can celebrate with the entire family.
     

Artistic Inspirations to help you create!
 

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

My Front Door Redesign

 

 As promised here is another picture
of my front door.  I chalked out
my design and then filled it in 
with gesso.


Click Here to read previous 
Front Door Posts


Artistic Inspirations to help you create!
 

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

Pictures of the Day 9-10-10

 

I rescued this little guy out of the 
pool yesterday.  He was so cold he 
could barely move but once 
I set him in the sun he warmed 
up and sat on my finger until 
he flew off.

 Cupcake in a Cup, mmmm!


Artistic Inspirations to help you create!
 

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

Motivating Cool Weather

 

 With the cooler weather we're having I've been inspired and motivated to finally paint our front door, it's been a long time coming.  First I had to wait for hubby to fix it and prime it and then I had to wait for the motivation to move me to do it....summer weather is definitely not motivating weather for me!  Above is what the door originally looked like and below is a picture with the primer....it's been that way for the last year!

 Here it is now with my base color which is a mixture of Teal, white and a light blue to give it a sky look.

This picture doesn't really do the colors justice its more vibrant then it's showing.  I originally had sketched out a design (click HERE to view it) I wanted to paint but I'm not so sure now I'm still mulling things over.

 As I further paint I'll post more pictures so stay tuned.

You can click HERE to view door updates!


Artistic Inspirations to help
 

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

September is Ovarian Cancer Month

  Did you know September is Ovarian Cancer month? I feel that Breast cancer tends to overshadow ovarian cancer a bit, unfortunately.

Last year at this time I put together a book full of beautiful pictures, inspiration and hope to help raise money for ovarian cancer all proceeds for the purchase of the book go entirely to OCRF (Ovarian Cancer Research Fund).

Ties That Bind

A Collaboration of...

By Aileen Roberts

Book Preview

Please take a moment to read about the project and purchase a book for yourself or for a friend or relative you might have that is suffering from ovarian cancer.

Click HERE to read more about 

the past Ties That Bind project.

Artistic Inspirations to help you create!

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

Crafty Blogger Blurbs

  Looking for a bit of inspiration 
crafty blogger blurbs are just the ticket!

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi has a new sewn paper sample to share.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
This week at Craftside there are tutorials on how to make a perfect placement template when die cutting, how to paint a Pop Art cow with a free downloadable pattern, how to combine drawing and collage and 7 pastel drawing techniques from the book The Art of Pastel.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Creative Publishing International, the publisher of my latest book, has a new web site, and it is full of amazing book information.

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
Are you looking for ribbon weaving or Homecoming Mum Chain directions? Look no further.

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
Madge shares another post in her series on How to Write and Publish a Craft Book. This time we're looking at PR and Marketing.

Mixed Media Artist
Do you like making altered books? Or have you always wanted to try it out? Cyndi's got a series going right now that looks at altered books techniques and altered book artists!

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery See how I restyled a little dress with a bit of inspiration from the pretty book- Sew Serendipity

Artistic Inspirations to help you create!
 

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

Gouache Painted Sunflower Tutorial

  SUNFLOWERS
Sunflower, sunflower, standing straight and tall,
Sunflower, sunflower, you're the tallest flower of them all!
Sunflower, sunflower, when your seeds fall to the ground,
Sunflower, sunflower, by the squirrels they'll be found! 

 We recently harvested our sunflowers,
and I just loved the look of them 
lying there with a kind of shabby 
chic look to them.

 I'd like to try preserving one of them.

One of the pictures I turned to greyscale 
so that I could paint it with Gouache paints 
which are opaque watercolors. 
See my below:

 Click HERE to follow my tutorial


Artistic Inspirations to help you create!
 

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

Teesha Moore Inspired Fabric Panel Swap

 I received my pillow squares from the fabric panel swap I participated in today, and they all look fabulous together! I'm so pleased with this swap each fabric panel is a treasure!  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with mine, yet.  After laying them out I had thought of sewing them to a small canvas tote like this one  here, but I would definitely have to make more, though more then likely I will have to anyway.  Hmm... decisions... I think I'll  re watch Teesha Moore's videos and then decide what I'll do with them.

You can click HERE to view my previous 
post showing my fabric panels.


Artistic Inspirations to help you create!
 

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

Pictures of the Day 9-3-10

 

 I drive by this sign everyday and couldn't 
resist taking a picture...Just in case it's not 
obvious enough for you here's a sign 
to tell you! LOL

 Our vibrant blue morning glories 
are in full bloom right now :-)


Artistic Inspirations to help you create!
 

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

Eye Candy and Free EcoEnclose Sample

Here's a couple of things I recently worked on, 3x3s for an accordion book swap.
I don't think you can see the background well enough but I love how it turned out! I used punchinella as a stencil and dabbed on Golden's interference blue over a light blue background which when viewed from different perspectives, the interference colors flip between a bright opalescent color and its complement. When applied over white or lighter surfaces, the Interference color is less obvious and the "flip" effect is more obvious. The theme for this is BIRDS & BEES and the punchinella and paint gave the background a honeycomb effect.

  Here's a couple of ATCs I also recently did.

And on another note...
~~~~~~~~


I also wanted to share a link for free samples for
EcoEnclose Poly Mailers:

• Will completely biodegrade within 5-60 months.
• Returns to the earth as humus and biomass.
• Will break down in home and commercial composting or in LANDFILLS!
• Features a handy tear strip for easy opening.
• Includes a double adhesive strip that allows reuse before disposal.
• Are manufactured in the USA

 click below HERE for a free sample:

Artistic Inspirations to help you create!
 

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

The Anatomy of an Epiphany....

 I love it when I have an epiphany and it turns out! 

I'm actually surprised it did turn out since I was having a pretty weird night and morning...it felt like a Monday to be honest!  

About 10:30 pm last night I decided to cut my hair...not a bad thing normally...I use to be a Cosmetology instructor I cut my hair all the time...though not normally at this time of night--What the heck was I thinking!?! As I was using, what I thought were the thinning shears, actually turned out to be my regular shears!! Horrors just as I made the cut I knew it cr** it was too late!  I am thankful I have enough hair for at least 3 people because I now have short pieces that just don't blend in and are gonna have to grow out unless I want to have a mullet or cut my hair short which is a no on both counts!


Next I woke up at 3am and couldn't go back to sleep, try as I do I'm awake and my mind wanders and BAM! :::insert epiphany music here::: an idea for my Torso Challenge popped into my head!


Then about 5 am  I hear a sudden gush of water spilling over outside by our above ground pool....a gasket had blown off one of the hoses and the pump was pumping water by the gallons.....I run and shut off the pump then yelled for my sons since hubby works graveyard right now...thankfully they are very handy young men and they managed to get it fixed.

I'm thinking about this time I should just go back to bed and start the day over, but can't I'm awake and its time to get up! So instead I work on my idea see below:

 I began by heating up a metal 
ice pick and burned holes 
though the paper torso

 Next I adhered some metal washer 
thingies over a couple of the holes. Then 
I ran the torso though my Xyron and 
adhered it to some copper foil

Girls Just Wanna 
Have Fun 
Torso!

What I used to finish the torso were bits and pieces of things I've collected: rusty chains hubby brings home to me, the head and charms I believe came from a swap, but I can't remember who created them, so my apologies for not giving credit. The brass tag is another goody brought home from hubby. 

Click HERE to download your 
own torso and enter in my 
Creative Challenge!


Artistic Inspirations to help you create! 

www.OutsideTheMargins.com