I promised you some photos of the donkey bombing...

...and here they are:

Tammy made individual poppies for each of the fallen
soldiers from WWI for the ground beneath the donkey's feet.

Tammy Bradford (Museum Manager Extraordinaire), Lynne Mizera and me (missing from the photo is my John,
who was taking it - he did all the research for the project, as well as some stapling to boot!)

Donkey Bombing complete

And on another note, I was fondling ribbons in my ribbon stash this past week, and was inspired to create this video using a particularly lovely patterned ribbon, brayer, gel plate and some paints.  

As always, when I get going with the gel plate it's really hard to stop.  And you know I have a very large stash of ribbons, right?  This could get crazy!!!

And if I've got a large stash of ribbons right now, what's going to happen when I start looking/shopping for patterned ones?  Heaven help us!

Pattern, pattern, pattern...

I showed you the start of these fun foam prints a couple of weeks ago, and thought you might like a view of the plate after the first print:

Of course, one can't do just one print with fun foam plates, especially given they pair so nicely with  gel plates.  The prints on the left are done with Golden Open paints on the gel plates with the ones on the right done from there directly onto white cardstock.  I can see there will be more of these in my printing future on both counts.

Blaming another recurring addiction directly on Lynne Mizera, I have to tell you we got stencil burning this past week...she'd taken a class a couple of years ago with me, but hadn't done her own since.  

We were so into the whole thing;  I used her Natalie Kolbach stamp to create paper mask and stencil and soon there were flying elephants all over the place.

The first elephant materialized when I used the mask portion over a gel print...yummy colour, don't you think?

Of course, I had to go back in with some gel pens and play some more - a whole lot more, in fact.

Then I used the paper stencil to create an outline on the house wrap, and started burning.

I was going a little bit googly-eyed, so I put a colourful print underneath the glass so I could actually see what I was doing.

It showed up really well, I thought.

Pretty soon there were elephants everywhere; they seemed to multiply faster than I could corral them.

I used the burned stencil portion over another gel print, and then the paper mask to pounce back into it for the background.  More gel pen play, and this happy, heart-ful elephant is well on it's way.  I think she looks like she's going on an adventure, don't you?

What have you been up to this week?  I love hearing about your own adventures during these hot summer days!

Wham, bam...

...I'm Studio Sam (or Samette?), back in the thick of it.

My first guests in the new studio brought it on in style.  It started with Lynne Mizera making this fantabulous 3D new studio card complete with an extensive array of fussy-cut items on the walls including photos of me, and in-progress works on the table.  Call me gob-smacked!

When you realize the whole card is about 8 inches in width, 4 inches high and 2 inches deep your eyes will cross and head roll when you imagine doing all those teeny, tiny, itsy, bitsy cuts!  Accompanying a lovely little art journal (more play time coming up), it is a stupendous gift.  

She brought it when she joined three others here for a play date.  While we normally have a theme for our playtimes, this particular morning was a free-for-all.

Maureen worked on this fabulous collage - Here's to Hue! indeed.  Could it get any more colour-full?!

Eileen finished this watercolour she'd been working on,

and then started another one in her dog series.  She was on a roll, and so intent that I'm not sure she even heard the conversation around her.

 Deni was tearing into the Gelli plate, making prints and turning them into cards.

Lynne worked in a journal, and was delighted with the bits and pieces she found in the scrap box - why is it that they always look better when they're in someone else' box?!

Those of you who know of my struggle when it comes to spatial relationships will laugh when I tell you it took near three hours to figure out how to make an envelope for a booklet I'd created (more on that later).  Had there been a photo of me, it would have shown me staring stupidly into space as I faced the task with confuddled bemusement.

While still in progress, it's likely to get done today or tomorrow, delivery will happen soon, and I can do a post for you on the envelope contents.

I did have 20 minutes or so at the end of the morning, where I was able to toss all thought aside and play with the Gelli plate. 

As always, I enjoy the look of the newly-painted stencils, too.

I'd love to hear about your week - catch me up in the comments below, and feel free to add a link!  

You know how much fun we have...

in the studio when guests come to play, and this time we really overdosed.  You know what can happen when there's alcohol involved, and this time was no exception.

Alcohol inks are a versatile medium, as you can see here:

Gay got right into blowing through a straw
on the white-on-white wallpaper.

Eileen loves to draw, so she worked a great deal
on the plastic coated paper.

Lynne went a wee bit drop crazy for a while.

Linda went to Paris on a colourful rainy day.

There was so much lusciousness going, I'm just going to zip it up, unlock my jaw and let you take a look.

See the star in this piece of Lynne's?  She used a crayon as resist.

Here water was spritzed on the wallpaper first to create a unique look.

Inks dropped on paper and spritzed with a fine spray of 99% alcohol.

Linda's dripping and spritzing for the rainy Paris look.

Gay's luscious colour.

One of my subtle pieces on the plasticised paper.

Eileen's woodpecker looks fabulous...

...as do her landscapes.

Look at this blue/green mouth-watering piece by Lynne.

Love the look on Gay's face here - hardly having any fun at all!  😉😉😉

Truly, we couldn't have had more fun if there had been drinking alcohol in play...the colour was yummy, and the experimentation was wild, wild, WILD.

In case you think I'm doing nothing but purging and playing, I have a couple of finished paintings for you this week...remember I said a while back that I was working on a stack of twenty or so?

'I'll Meet You at the Crossroads'
12" x 9" mixed media on cradled wood panel
© Win Dinn

'A Notable Woman
12" x 6" mixed media on cradled wood panel
© Win Dinn

That's it for this week!  Do tell me what you've been up to this past week - how are you getting your joy on?