A little dose of much needed inspiration

In case you haven't noticed, I've been bitten by quite a large dose of much needed inspiration.

I've had a little help from two things....one is that fabulous machine under my latest "inspired" creation.  That machine is called the Cricut Expression, and it does some amazing things for me.  It's made my scrapbooking life so much easier since December by allowing me to digitally decide the font or design needed along with the size.  In this case, the font of the word is from a cartridge called Storybook.

The second source of inspiration has been my volunteer work with a California-based agency named Charity Wings.  

Last weekend (pre-Chicago blizzard), I was able to take part in a great weekend webcast from CHA that gave me the chance to interact with some of my favorite designers and manufacturers.  It was a very cool moment.

Anyway, since I've been snowed in, I've had the chance to play around with some of the stuff I received at the webcast, and I was also able to try a few things that I have never done before.

Case in point....see that white block piece that all the scrapbooky stuff is on?  That is actually the leg to an old coffee table I had.  It was one of those cheap dorm room tables that fit perfectly in my teeny tiny apartment.  The table broke a few months ago, and I held on to this one leg with the hope of converting into some sort of art.  Ummm....that was a few months ago, and I was planning on chucking it.

But I finally did it!  I pulled out the cricut and got to work.  

First thing I did was cut out the cute lettering from a Paper Company Studio, 12x12 inch sheet called Spring Break Postcards.  It's a beautiful print and I liked the colors.  I then distressed the edges with my favorite Tim Holtz ink, Pumice Stone.  That's how I got the weathered look.

During the webcast, we also met a great designed named Traci Bautista who does a lot of doodling in her work, so I decided to experiment a little bit.  I didn't go crazy or anything, but I told myself I had to try a little something different, so I did.  Polka dots on my letters is not so much doodling, but I added a little something the wings. Note to self - sign up for a Traci Bautista class so that I can go full force next time without fear!

Now let me explain the wings.  The wings came in my supply packet from the webcast, as they represented the sponsoring organization, Charity Wings.  I volunteered to write for their blog in October 2010, and I cannot believe what an inspirational part of my creative life they have become.  So, of course, I had to add the wings to the piece as my constant reminder.  

I distressed and doodled on the wings to maintain the same feel throughout.  I added a few stamped images from a Hero Arts stamp called Little Dot Circle, and I used a leftover piece of pearls from a Prima Marketing line called e.  It's item #300050.

On the ohter wing, I added a remnant of a piece of ribbon that came in my packet last week, but to age it up a bit, I slabbed some acrylic paint on it.

So I'm pretty happy with my first attempt at altered art.  It wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be.  Next time, I'll be even more fearless and just layer and layer!

Oops!  That picture was taken before I added the bow...but I think you get the picture.