GPP Street Team Crusade #12: Crushes

After a long and laborious thought process, I came to realize that I've got a crush on Michelle Ward! Yes, Michelle, I have a crush on you. (In a respectible way) I love her style. I feel as though I can relate to her. Her rubber stamp imagery really reaches me! Like, every sheet of rubber is something I surely cannot live without!! I admire her achievements as an artist, and she is so inspirational to me. Her influences are similar to mine. She's my idol I suppose! A little while ago I bought 3 sheets of her unmounted rubber stamps - and they are too cool for school!! I have been exploring all the different images, and using the hell out of them. I have shown you above a selection of my stuff using the Green Pepper Press stamps. All of them are from the last couple of weeks.

And oh yeah - I thought of another obsession of mine: ADHESIVES. My grandmother would be proud of my prowess in the ways of sticking one thing to another thing. I've got an adhesive for any occasion. You name it. If I had to name a favorite, I'd have to say Diamond Glaze - that stuff is amazing! Crafter's Pick "The Ultimate" is in close second.

GPP Crusade #12: OBSESSIONS

I've been thinking about the Crusade - the subject is obsession / infatuation / crushes. This one is very thought provoking, to say the least. I've been obsessing about my obsessions all month long. I realized that what DON'T I obsess on? I suppose I am an obsessive person. I am definitley that way with my food. I'll have a few things I love at the moment, and that's pretty much all I want to eat. Like for a while it was Lucky Charms...Instant Oatmeal...then there was those disgustingly fattening frosted sugar cookies (20 pounds later I got over them)...Creme Brulee Haagen Dazs...Tiramisu Haagen Dazs...and lately it's been the Krusteaz cinnamon crumb coffee cake mix. I can't get enough of them. Sometimes I will only be hungry for that. Thank goodness I cook for the fam, or else I'm sure I'd be so malnourished!

One thing for sure, I have always had an ifatuation with Jagermeister. It's the only alcoholic beverage I actually like the taste of. And I have definitely had a few love affairs with it over the years!

I would have to say that my current obsession, artistically, is TRANSPARENCIES. I can barely do a project without using something you can see through. I love the depth and layers. For a while it was chipboard - you should see my collection of chipboard thisses and thats! I think before that it must have been ribbon. I remmeber the ladies at Michael's would say to me, "see you tomorrow!" - when I'd stop in to look at the dollar ribbon rack to find that perefectly matching colored ribbon for the scrapbook layout I'd be working on. I've got so many spools of ribbon that storage is a serious issue for me. Let's see, what else....Ranger Distress Inks...buttons...the list goes on and on...oh yeah - ALPHABETS!! I've got like a zillion alphabets of one kind or another. Rubber stamps, chipboard, stickers - you name it.

One obsession that deserves it's own paragraph is my love for paper. I could just browse and browse through any selection of patterned paper! I love it so much that they are each in themselves a work of art - for under a dollar (usually) - all the styles and textures - I'm like a kid in a candy store. When I buy paper I really like, I'll always get an extra piece so I'll never run out of it! Needless to say, I've got piles of paper all over the place.

Another obsession of mine is magazines. I'm such a sucker for them. I have a zillion of them, in piles all over the place: upstairs, downstairs, by my bed, in the car...I have art mags, tattoo mags, scrapbooking mags, Stampington mags (my fave), gardening mags, food mags, Martha Stewart mags, and several miscellaneous ones as well.

Yes, I am very obsessive. But I embrace it. It makes me who I am. I have been known to obsess on things that may or may not be the best thing to get hung up on...but as I get older and know myself better, I am able to recognize these things before they get the best of me. Most of the time anyways...

Haunted House ATCs

A set of atcs for the In This House group - Haunted House Tryptych cards. They had to be attatched - a new thing for me. Nice little challenge. The group seems like it could be very enriching. I'm involved with so many other things right now, I don't have the time I'd like to devote to getting to know everyone there. All in good time. I've got another project going there as well - a haunted house collage, like the ones in the book except smaller. I've goten out all my creepy Halloween goodies to use - very fun indeed. I want to make something exceptional, but I'm trying not to be too influenced by the artists in the book. Although, that too is okay - being influenced by artists you admire - I think there is a fine line between that and losing your own personal style though. So I'm going to have fun with it.

New ATCs for Art Chix

Here are some new lovelies for Art Chix swaps: Mysterious Women and Sepia themes. I used the ladies from the Peek-A-Boo collage sheet. Very fun indeed. I especially like the effect of the Mysterious Women set. I used the new Marah Johnson (she is SO COOL) Intention papers for backgrounds. They are fabuluos to say the least!