Patterns, Stamps, Photography Blog and A Great Shop

On Wednesday I finally drove to Spring Arbor to check out the Scrapbooking/Stamping/Altered Art Supply store called Altered Art Addict. It looks quite small from the outside, but it is jam packed with product plus a work room. I was impressed with the young lady who was in charge that day. Her name was Katelyn and her Mom and Grandmom are co-owners. Katelyn is a senior in high school and is planning on a career in graphic design. We had a great conversation while she showed me around and shared her love for all things art. I will definitely be going back there, perhaps with the two older grandgirls to pick out some supplies and maybe work a bit in their lovely space. They didn't have the cling foam stuff I was looking for and now I am glad they didn't. I've been convinced that would be a mistake and am looking into alternative methods of stamping with or without actually mounting the handmade stamps. And I am happy and surprised to report that I didn't spend any money on supplies that I don't really need, but what a wonderful store - so much more to offer in their area of expertise than the chain stores.


I have cut a few more stamps, none that I am particularly in love with, but I will share them with you.

As you can see, they need some cleaning up. There are two different sized houses and a small plant that started out as pussy willows, but transformed into a more homogeneous group.

While trying to decide on designs for stamping, I played around with Photoshop and tried my hand at a repeating design and came up with one that I really am pleased with.

It's been a really long time since I've wasted time played with Photoshop in this manner. I've missed it!

I have a new (to me) blog to share with you where the photography is so impressive it took my breath away. It is called Et Oyeblikk and I've been given permission to use her photos as references for my sketches. Here is what I've started with. This is just a quick sketch. In the original photo the sky is so big and beautiful with lots of clouds. I think I need to add some clouds and color to try to capture this better.

And, last but not least, I've finally attempted to add a boat to my watercolor work in progress. I think it is pretty basic and should probably be a darker color. It is more dark brown than the blackish I was hoping for. I do think it offers a bit of balance that was missing, though.

Another busy day planned - conditioning class at 9:30 with a stop at Pregitzer's Farm Market for my biweekly produce; followed by a shower and lunch and then a trip into Jackson to the Red Cross to donate a pint of blood. After that I am meeting up with my daughter and her girls to do a bit of school shopping. I think it will be a great day. I hope to fit in some time for artiness later in the day and/or evening.

What do you have planned for the day? Are you finding time to be creative? Do you have a blog to tell me about? Yours or one that belongs to someone else that you think I would love? Do share.....

xoxo