Monday, November 13, 2017

Sunshine in Her Hair and Thanksgiving Wishes with LeighSBDesigns!

What an adorable face Sunshine in Her Hair has and coloring her makes you smile no matter what mood you are in at the time!  I wanted to do a Thanksgiving tag and she fits a tag so well that I teamed her up with the Tangled Maple Leaf both from the fantabulous LeighSBDesigns!  If you want some show stopping digital stamps then click that little linky and go check out her Etsy Store!  Really superb images!



I won't lie to you, this almost got the best of me!  I colored her up with Spectrum Noir Markers for her hair and Prisma colored pencils for her face just ever so nicely.  The leaf is the colored pencils but for some reason almost every project I have made in the last two weeks has taken a yellow/weird tint to them.  I have used yellow more than I usually do so maybe my eye is just not seeing it right or something!  Plus, although I now have Photoshop on this computer, I am having trouble with the screen going light and dark so editing a pic is a toss up of whether it is going to come out super light or not light enough....sigh!  But back to the deets!  Nuance Powders were sprinkled on in fall colors: yellow and some orange for her hair area, reds for the sun burst she holds, and yellow, green and orange for the bottom portion.  I cut out her face from the other one I printed (I always print two of any image in case I make a mistake!) and held it tightly over her face while sprinkling powders with the other hand and spraying them then dabbing them to keep them from running under my mask.  I looked like a contortionist performing that task!  The sentiment was made in Photoshop as all of my sentiments and words stamps have vanished because I took them out of a box that I felt wasn't secure enough and put them in just the right box!  That is my great move....if I put something away for it to be super safe I usually never see it again or at least not for months and months ;)  I wet the cardstock to make a multicolored fall color sentiment but alas cardstock and watercolors do not play well together.  So I ended up just coloring over all the mismash with red watercolor from my 6 piece set I bought in Japan for a dollar!   Some cords through the hole at the top after attaching her at some point in the process to designer paper.  Told ya!  It almost whooped me!  But do we let those times stop us?  No way! Onward and forward!

We would love to have you in our Facebook Fan Group where everyone share's their LeighSBDesign projects!  And of course do check out the store and look out for those sales Leigh tosses out so regularly for more goodies!

Uh, Santa, You Over Slept!

Santa, Santa?  Did you forget your calendar and smart phone???  Well, Santa went to the Grand Caymans because of his tiring journey last December 24th and kicked off his shoes and fur and ordered a rum punch!  I am playing at Ike's World Challenge #101 Anything Goes with a twist of Let it Snow (Winter, Christmas) and I went with Christmas a little island style!  This awesome image is a freebie that Ike of Ike's Art so nicely just gives to you to play with!  


I used Spectrum Noir markers for the scene and tried some really terrible watercolor pencils for the sky that is best just not talked about ;)   I embossed the blue paper with technically tiny flowers but in my world last night they were snowflakes.  I die cut three ornaments from glitter paper...yep, I am still sparkling!  The sentiment was made in Photoshop.

Hope Santa gets a move on or it might be a blue Christmas for sure!

SUYP Challenge #24 Furrything Goes!

I have missed playing at the SUYP Challenge way to many times so new resolution starts now!  The challenge is all about kitties so if you love cats and fur balls then this is the place to play!  I used a freebie image so graciously given by the talented Ike of Ike's Art because as you know my computer went kerplunk and my external hard drive which has a TON of Ike's images is still lost in my parent's apartment.  Tomorrow maybe I will go on a full blown hunt of it as I am missing a lot of stuff to play with because it is hard to download anything anywhere from a smashed screen computer!  On to the scene now!


You know how some folks are hard to buy gifts for?  Not KookyKat!  He simply wants it all and just knows that box is holding far more than it's size would lead him to believe!  I used Dylusions paint to make a very loose version of a Christmas tree and then I made the mistake!  NEVER put glitter on a project first even if you think sprinkling it on the wet paint is smart!  I finally had to use my handy dandy bathroom silicone in white to stick stuff down and while it was out I snowed up the tree!  Ornaments punched from some colorful paper and stuck in said to ground this little guy's feet down.  Then my toothbrush (an old one, please) and some water downed acrylic white paint and some flicks on the bristles and it began to snow.  If you use craft paint it is just about the right consistency to use straight out of the bottle, I had to water mine down a bit because it was heavy bodied paint. Last step was to paint a little star on top of his tree.  And first step was to color him up first using Spectrum Noir markers but he was very flat so I went over again with some darker gray Prisma colored pencils.  Oh, and his hat and present I just drew and stuck on his head and between his paws.  The sentiment is just made in Photoshop.

Hope all the kitties out there are happy and waiting on Santa with their very nonchalant look!

Friday, November 10, 2017

A Second Chance to Try to Be on Ike's Design Team Again

I have had the ultimate pleasure of being on all of Ike's challenge blog design teams except for SUYP!  I was on her Quoth the Raven DT which I adored and miss so much!  I also made her Ike's World Challenge DT but both my parent's were fighting cancer and I had to resign with much regret.  I am now only on one other design team, LeighSBDesigns, and knocking about a house by myself that once had four other people coming in and out all the time for 7 days every other week when my son works.  So I do have time now although it saddens me the reason why I do after loosing both parents last year within 8 months of each other.

But to cheery things, I do adore Ike's images so and have quiet a collection from serving on her teams before ....some of those are hiding in my external hard drive in my parent's apartment but I will find it eventually I am quiet sure!  I enjoy the type of team Ike runs; they run smoothly and quiet drama free which is very important to me.  So I will show a few projects and I have only a few to show as my darling grandpup who outweighs me almost knocked my trusty old knock about work computer over and smashed the screen effectively loosing me a bunch of projects but good old Blogger (how many times can we say that?) has them all so hoping the new laptop and Blogger both cooperate with me tonight.





I can follow directions but wanted those three of Ike's but felt I needed to show my work on another company's images so I wouldn't look to desperate :)

Seriously, thanks for looking and the opportunity to show you my work.  As for my information, Ike pretty much knows me.  I am a widow, disabled, mom to two adult children and have 4 grandpups and a cat and a horse.  Sorta a zoo around here at times!

My Facebook page is Murphy Nan and my Instagram which I love posting on is Nan Murphy I have 129 posts and 134 followers since starting on it around last April? I am Nan590 on Twitter which I can only use through Instagram LOL and Tumblr and I are negotiating on how it works!

Long post sorry, but that is about it I think.  Thanks for stopping by!

Can't Stop Playing with Miss Oddleigh Catrina!

I colored up Miss Oddleigh Catrina by LeighSBDesigns again; I felt compelled to put her in a new background scene....does she have the powers to compel?  Hmmm, anyway seeing a YouTube video of the Art Sherpa painting a sugar skull combined with Vincent Van Gogh's famous starry night and sunflowers style it all seem to fit.  Miss Oddleigh  Catrina had found a new background!




She is colored with Prisma colored pencils and still no Photoshop so her colors are soooo not right, sob!  Picmonkey hates me I think.  I painted the background in my mixed media book with acrylic paints then glued her down.  I edged her with a Pitt Big Black Brush Marker to keep her from fading too much into the background.  I decided instead of using her fabulous Day of the Dead  sentiment that she comes with to give a nod to the night.  So she is celebrating the Day of the Dead and the night all at once.  The little gal will be popping up celebrating in all sorts of places I do believe!

Check out the Etsy Store and of course our Facebook Fan Group and give those using LeighSBDesigns in their projects some love!  Also a great treat is our own Leigh (yep the Leigh of LeighSBDesigns!) has a YouTube channel where she does some fantabulous coloring and some unique cool videos of her images!  All these linkys are right here next line!




Thursday, November 9, 2017

Getting a Head Start on the Holidays

I have a lovely friend who has helped me through so much over the last 9 years; I treasure and love her like a second mom.  So when I saw Angela Anderson's YouTube tutorial on this glowing snowy tree I knew I wanted to add a cross and paint it for my friend.


I didn't follow Angela's suggestion to not overdo any one or all of the colors!  She suggest limiting brush strokes if you had a tendency to over do it and obviously I did not!  But my friend will love the glowyness (made up word) and that is what counts!

Thanks Angela and Mark for a great program!  And thanks to my dear friend who I won't mention her name because she is so modest.

Have an awesome night, everyone!

Monday, November 6, 2017

New Released Tangled Pumpkins by LeighSBDesigns!

I love the "Tangled" images LeighSBDesigns has and the pumpkins are simply gorgeous!  I started coloring them with Spectrum Noir markers, well, totally colored them and then wasn't really happy so I used Distress Inks watered down as a watercolor and redid them.  They are appropriately called the Tangled Pumpkins!




I had some fab free papers from Somerset Gallery in oranges and leaves so with some Tim Holtz's die cuts bought at Tuesday morning at great prices, it came all together as a Happy Fall Card!  I used orange sparkly spray and some tea dye by Heidi Swapp.  My letters for the sentiment are from a fabtastic alphabet stamp set on wood blocks from Japan's 100 yen store that has some 2 and 3 dollar things also and it coSst 2 dollars.  Worked great with some green permanent ink.  Loved the little heart it had with it!


Still no Photoshop trying desperately to make Picmonkey work and loosing the battle!  Hopefully by Monday!

This is the second new release from last week and the Etsy store is getting full of spectacular digital stamps!  Give yourself an early holiday gift and go grab a few and keep watching us as Leigh is getting holiday stamps ready daily!  And please share your work with us on our Facebook Fan page with our images!  All linkys below ...of course!

Happy Fall, ya'll!

Sunday, November 5, 2017

New! Miss Oddleigh Catrina Celebrates the Day of the Dead with LeighSBDesigns!

What a fabulous time I  had with all the colors for this lovely Day of the Dead Catrina named Miss Oddleigh Catrina by LeighSBDesigns!  I  love color and started going for a tag but my acrylics called at the last moment and since I am a bit late with the Day of the Dead, I decided to give her a lovely fall background night and day!  And some kitties among the chrysanthemums at the foot of the tree!

Now following along with my spectacular run of good luck as of late including another pulled/cracked rib....eeoww! I toppled my old reliable laptop with ALL my absolute necessary stuff to do my job here cracking the screen all to  😭!  So no Photoshop Elements because I do not know how to put it on the new computer Noel gave me plus it got a great virus and has to be wiped clean before going to all out transferring things.  So long and short...photo is as is!  Sorry!




She is colored with Spectrum Noir markers fussy cut and glued onto an acrylic canvas paper.  The sign comes with her and I colored it red and used orange Nuance Powders on it.  I also inked all edges with Distress Inks in Carved Pumpkin.  I sadly did a poor job mimicking the chrysanthemums that Leigh drew!  It is much harder than it looks, folks!

Hope you will go see our new releases at the Etsy Store!  And show us your projects with the stamps on our Facebook page...all links right below!

The Last Two Winners from the 31 Days of Halloween!

Wow! It is over and even though a lot happened during the 31 days for me personally, a good time was had by most of us I think!  I want to thank the loyal lovelies who commented on myThan projects even though I had such a messed up time!! UGH!  So let's see who the winner's are!

For Monday, the 23rd, the winner is:  TINK!  Congrats, Tink, and thanks!





For Monday, the 30th, the winner is:  MARY!  And also sending you the witch hat bookmark :)   Congrats, Mary, and thank you, too!


And for kicks LOL here is a Art Sherpa taught painting of the Witch Sisters!


Sorry no editing software...the good luck continues as I knocked the table over with my old laptop that has everything on it!!! and broke the screen!  Double UGH!

Thanks again for putting up with Ghost Nan and the real pain in the rear, Real Nan, and a really messed up month!  It was great to read your comments and don't forget to come back and visit when you can! 

OH! Tink and Mary, please email me your addresses or pm me on FB. My email is murphy2162@yahoo.com and Murphy Nan on FB....friend me!