Studio Friday: Favorite Art Supply/ies

There is just no way to do this week's Studio Friday topic in one, easy picture. At least there was the option to explore the plural form of the word!

Favorite art supplies...let me count the ways. Um, no...perhaps not. Would take too long. The thing is, it gets complicated. There are my basic, all-time favorites from the standpoint that I use them, well, all the time. And then there are my favorites because of the technique they're a part of. And there is my ever-changing list of fun, new, trendy goodies that I can't get enough of. So the collage above represents a little of all of that.

Basic, all-time favorites: I'd have to start with cardstock. Love the vast array of colors and textures. I could easily scrap using nothing but cardstock...think how much money I'd save on patterned paper! LOL (Right...don't see that happening. But theoretically, I could do it.) Add to that my Fiskars paper cutter and scissors and my supply of various adhesives (love Hermafix dots for temporary, Tombow mono-adhesive for permanent, foam dots for dimension and glue dots -- which I just discovered recently, believe it or not -- for sticking the heavy, hard-to-stick things) and, if pressed, I could scrap my pictures using just these items. No other decorative elements necessary. Well, maybe a pen so I could journal and add dates, but that's it.

Techniques: This would mainly consist of my markers (love Stampin' Up's), pens (Zig Millenium set; a variety of Sakura GellyRoll pens), ink pads and rubber stamps, as well as things like sponge-tipped daubers, sponges, brushes, etc. that I can also use to apply ink to a page. There are so many different techniques I can do with ink and stamps that I really would never need to buy a rub-on or sticker. (Not that I don't buy these things... :} )

Trendy Goodies: Right now, that would be flowers. Oh, how I love me my flowers! Big (Heidi Swapp) or small (Prima) or in between....love, love, love all the things I can do with these beauties! The other goodies that I absolutely adore (and have for a long time, so they're more tried-and-true than they are trendy) are all things metal and/or things that give an aged look to a layout. (If it's made by 7Gypsies, so much the better. Truly.) Out of all the metal I use, brads are a staple item in my stash...especially antique copper and pewter. I go through these like water.

What are your favorite art supplies that you just couldn't live without?

[Edited: As I repost this from my old blog, I just have to note that I'm not including it here because it has any great written merit...I just love the collage I put together to go with the entry! LOL]

Favorites...

I've been going through boxes and envelopes and drawers full of picture lately in preparation for a project. It's taking way longer than it would otherwise if I didn't feel the need to stop and pause over so many pictures, wade through the memories and get all reflecty about life. But that's part of the process, isn't it? I'm enjoying it.

I love looking at our family pictures, they're all important, but some speak to me in really poignant and significant ways. I've collected a little pile of what are without a doubt some of my most favorite pictures of all time.

Me when I was three, playing at my mom's old portable typewriter...a definite foreshadowing for my love of writing that would emerge throughout the years that followed. I'm so glad one of my parents took the time to take this picture.

A self-taken picture of me just a couple years ago on what I believe to be the most perfect hair day I've ever had in my adult life.

Me with my dad on his 70th birthday. I'm sitting on his lap in this picture, and to me that is such a sweet juxtaposition to where we were emotionally with one another just a few years before that when I had been going through a really rebellious time in my life, hurting everyone I loved along the way.

Four generations...me, my mom, her mom and her grandmother. I love photos like that, that capture in one moment a breadth of life that spans more than ninety years. I love looking for pieces of myself in these women. So cool.

My son and two of his best friends from high school. My son had a lot of friends in school, but these two were the ones who were over here the most, who did the silliest (and some of the dumbest) things together (plus some things I probably still don't know about...probably don't want to!). They're the boys I'll always think of when I think of the good times in my son's high school years. Because there were some definite not-so-good times then, it's important to me to have a tangible reminder that there was good then, too. That's what I want to remember.

Thank God for pictures...and memories.