An Art Journey

This is going to be my Art Journal. I purchased the spiral bound book at Michaels several weeks ago and just got around today to working on the covers. It's a mixed media paper by Strathmore so I hope it will perform well with all the inks, paints, glues, art mediums etc that I plan to use. This will be a place to explore new techniques and just "go with the flow." You can paste up ideas or glue in ephemera that you collect. Sketch. Draw (or try to in my case!). Experiment with new mediums, sprays, paints, pigments, etc that you want to try. I'm looking forward to dabbling around in it and hope that some of it will be worthy of sharing with you, my readers.

She Art 3

Here she is in all her angelic glory. I named her "the angel of "just get it done." The background is kind of a light rust with tones of green and gold. I used a lot of white highlights in the background. Each one of these I do teaches me something else....another technique....a different way to embellish. I thought with the name she needed to be a woman wearing the pants so to speak. The wings I first stencilled then used paint and a paint pen to color them in more then outlined them here and there with a Faber Castell art pen. Quite a few random stamps used on this one too. This is so much fun! And I'm getting some more mileage out of all those little 2 oz. bottles of paint I had from when I used to do a lot of tole painting. Canvases are on sale at all the craft stores right now (Mike's, JoAnns, Hobby Lobby). Give it a try!

Some Valentine Love

With Valentine's day fast upon us I thought I'd offer you this little card today. The fun thing that makes it special is that I used the same embossing on the envelope flap as I used on the background. It was quick and easy and adds so much. I used a Provocraft embossing folder on the envie and on the Whisper White cardstock. The ribbon was one I bought ages ago at Mike's but never used because it was one sided and didn't make such a pretty bow but pleated this way it's a winner. Across the ribbon is a row of Recollections adhesive pearls and the stamp is from SU. I hope you and your valentine have a super loving day on Tuesday. Oh, and happy birthday Mr. Lincoln!

I finished She Art Girl #2. Much happier with the background and the girl in general. Still thinking I can improve on the hair! I was a little more deliberate on this one. Christy Tomlinson works sooo fast and I wasn't happy when I did that so I went about this one a little differently. I also used 3D butterflies on this one, some Perfect Pearls, Adirondack color washes and Paint Dabbers and designer papers. This background was made entirely from art mediums....no paper or ephemera was used. Her little journaling strips say "All she wanted was visions of wonderful little treasures." I think I was thinking of all the new products that came out at CHA last week. There were so many fantastic new goodies......I think I need to get a job to support my habit! This process is like eating peanuts--you can't do just one! Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

She Art

Well I finally got around to doing one of the She Art canvas creations. I think it's just OK for my first effort. The hair is wrong and I made her a little bottom heavy but I'm happy with the texture I created and the second photo might help you see that a little better. It's all about layering. I used texture paste on the sun, bubble wrap, stamps, ink, paint, doilies (can you see it???) and scrapbook paper just to name a few. I hope my next one will be better because I sure learned a lot on the first one. It's somewhat messy but a lot of fun. I hope you'll give it a try. Christy Tomlinson is such an excellent teacher and so talented. Her logo is on the left sidebar. Have a great week everyone!

See the new gadget!!!

Over on the left sidebar, you'll see a new gadget (that's what Blogger calls them.) It's the logo for the She Art workshop. If you click on it, it will take you to Christy Tomlinson's website and store. She is the fabulous artist behind She Art. I am signed up to take She Art 1 in the next 3 weeks, although I actually have up to 3 months to access all the pdfs and videos involved. I am really excited about this because one of my New Year's resolutions was to start an art journal and a good friend, Diane in Michigan, hooked me up with She Art. It's quite a phenomonon going around in the mixed media art world. It's called She Art because one of the core images used in this art is a simple shape of a girl. But oh boy, what you can do with her!! I hope to have some finished work to show here soon but I thought I'd let you all know in case you want to join in the fun. She Art 2 is also being offered but you should take 1 first as it addresses all the basics of mixed media art. I don't consider myself an artistic person but I've seen some of the work that beginners have done and it's soooo cool! Think about it!

In Honor of Ravens Purple Mania!

As I said in the previous post, I'm not a Raven's fan but this is my part of participating in "purple mania!" One quarter of a square doily at the top, Spellbinders Labels 4 and the saying is from SU. MS leaf punch and some little flowers from Michaels. Ta da!

I think I really must like this color.....

....because the last post used the same robin's egg blue or light teal, whatever you want to call it. This was done with scraps from my overflowing box. I used some SU paper and the seam binding is vintage. Found it in my MIL's when we cleaned her house out. I used Spellbinders Nested Pennants and Lacy Pennants dies and a Sizzix Flourish. The fact that the flourishes are mirror imaged was a happy accident. I turned the die to the blue one time through the machine and to brown (on the backside) on the other pass through. Used a Copic marker to color the little flower and both that and the sentiment are from SU stamps. My card box got quite empty last year so I have been trying to fill it up with this year's creations! Enjoy your weekend. I know lots of you are experiencing snow and this is a big football weekend too, especially for the Baltimore Ravens. Not a fan myself but Baltimore is painting the town purple for sure! Stay snug and warm and make art.

First Creation of 2012

I made a pair of these cards with the idea in mind of using texture, white and one color. The white paper is Stampin Up and the lace medallion, cut with Spellbinders Lace Doily Motifs is a paper that came with my Cricut. This is the first time I've ever had a problem with a Spellbinders die. The diecut would not release from the die. I had to use several pokey tools to get it out and ruined a couple in the process. I think the problem was the paper was too thick. SU papers are heavy and I think a thinner weight paper would be better. The small medallion is a Spellbinders die also, Fleur de Lis Rectangles. The saying is also from SU, "Blessings from Heaven." The flower is Prima and I used the texture folder also from SU. The ribbon I had on hand. No clue where I got it. I also used a couple dots of" Bottle" Perfect Pearls. Hope everyone has a great weekend and stay warm wherever you are!

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Belated Blogger and Happy New Year

I think this must be the longest I have ever gone and not posted. I have even considered doing away with my blog but I love doing it. It's just that lately with various health issues and the holidays I have been unable to find the time. However, I hope to remedy that in the New Year! Speaking of which I want to wish everyone who visits a happy, healthy, peace filled and stress free New Year. I hope the world becomes a better place in 2012, at least in small ways. This country especially needs our prayers to turn around the problems facing us so if you have a moment once a week or so, offer a small prayer for that reason. I am a firm believer in the power of prayer and lately I feel it is the ONLY way to remedy our problems. I thank you for that and hope you have a happy new year weekend!

The Newest Member of the Family

I would like you to meet Grace, the newest member of our family. I have wanted an old vintage dress form for as long as I can remember. I was finally successful in securing one and she's a beauty. The petticoat she is wearing, which hides her metal cage, belonged to my husband's grandmother and the pocket watch was my great grandfather's. She arrived just in time for Christmas. I don't know what her permanent spot will be yet but right now I am enjoying her here next to my desk. Sigh!

A night time photographer I'm not but it looks nice nonetheless. I took this the other night after my husband had finished with the lights. I am recovering nicely from the rotator cuff surgery. First couple of days were rough but I'm relatively pain free now. Now comes rehab! Hope you are finding time for yourself during this busy season to create a little something and stop to remember what it's really all about. Enjoy!

A few more houses......

Well I decided to try my hand at some larger paper mache houses. These are available at your local craft store. I used PTI's Home Made stamps for the doors, windows etc and some bottle brush trees, K&Co tags, glittered snow flakes, stars and mini candy canes and a little vintage reindeer I had. My studio is covered in glitter. I love the effect but I hate the mess! Yuk! I wanted to get these finished as I am going in for out patient surgery on Monday. I have a partial tear of my right rotator cuff. But I'm hoping to at least get on my blog and Pinterest after the first couple days. Don't know for sure. Have to wait and see. Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for don't we?

Christmas and Cereal???

I bet you're wondering what this post is all about. Well as you can see I have been busy making small christmas garden type houses which have a rather vintage feel and I made them from the cardboard cereal boxes. The houses themselves are made from the small individual serving size cereal box. The corners of the buidings correspond to the folds of the box. If you try this make sure you open them carefully. The roof and other extra pieces are made from full size cereal box chipboard. Here are the patterns and directions: http://www.issuu.com/inspired-ideas/docs/christmas?AID=10752329&PID=3872207&SID=skim1847X546955Xe8230083fd7fcaea3b6d7068c8ed0bc5

This is an online magazine. Just click on and page through. At the end you click on the Index for the patterns which you can print on your copier. You may have to adjust the patterns slightly for your cereal boxes as I found they weren't quite true but no biggie! A little paint, a lot of glitter and some mini trees etc. and you have a little village in no time. Enjoy!

I forgot!!!

I forgot to tell you that the Flower Shoppe cartridge also has ten different shapes of leaves for your flowers. I added a leaf or two to the first flower I showed you in the last post and then made a different flower /center/leaf for the other photo. The white in the center is glue which hadn't dried! Can you tell I get excited over this stuff!! Enjoy!

Don't you love flowers???

Don't you just love flowers? I do and I love making them. This little flower I am holding is from the Cricut cartridge Flower Shoppe. Check out the center! This is why I held it close to the camera for you to see. This cartridge has dozens of flower layers and you can choose how you wish to put your flowers together. The centers are cut then rolled around a dowel or chopstick. Then you glue the layers together. But the fun is choosing how you want the petals to look. This is only one of many combinations. I added a bead for the center and then sprayed with Perfect Pearls Mist in Forever Red (a Ranger product). Click on the picture to see it larger and you'll see the effect of the Mist. And if course you can make them in any size you want. You can use graduated sizes as I did here or you can make many layers of one size for a very full three dimensional flower. This is one cartridge that is going to get a lot of use in my studio. Have a great week everyone.

Punch Tricks

Hi everyone! It's a beautiful fall day here in north east Maryland, sunny and cool! I just got back from a shopping trip to JA's and Mike's and have something really fun to share with you. Martha Stewart has a Christmas deep edge border punch out called Skyland Snowflake. The magic comes in that you can use it for a double edge border punch as well as a single snowflake in addition to being a deep edge punch. I hope the picture demonstrates this.

I began with a strip of paper cut 2 and 1/4 wide and used the punch in the typical way to go down the edge of the strip. That strip is on the far left in the picture. You can actually begin with any width and then trim to exactly 1 and 1/8 from the inside edge of the punched strip to the trimmed edge. I hope that's clear! Then line up the punch along the opposite edge so that the very center mark of the snowflake is lined up with that mark on the punch--this is on the end snowflake and punch again. This will give you your full round center snowflake. Move the strip and do the same again for each complete circle on your strip, however long it is. If it doesn't come out the first time, fudge on the width of your strip a little. Luckily mine came out the first time but I can see where you might have to adjust depending on your paper cutter, your eyes, etc.

Then to get one complete snowflake, use sharp paper scissors and just trim one out from the row, clipping carefully around the tiny scallop edges where necessary. This really expands the use you will get from this punch. It was $18 at JoAnn's and I used a fifty off coupon which made it $9 plus tax so I'm a happy camper. If all of this isn't clear to you, just drop me an email and I'll help you through it or post more photos if necessary. Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Sorry I haven't posted as frequently lately. I've been so busy just with projects around the house and doctor's appointments, etc. I really had nothing to share today so I thought I'd put up a picture of a small bulletin board I have on one wall. Things change there seasonally. You can click on the picture to enlarge. Mostly fall and halloween things (older stuff), a few small dolls and other inspirational things. I also took note that the number of my followers has shot up quite a bit and I want to thank everyone who signed up. That's very flattering and I'm so grateful. I wish each and every one of you a fantastic fall season and lots of mojo and inspiration to keep creating!

Happy Fall Y'All

I'm so happy fall is here. I love the cooler temps, the falling leaves and comfort food type meals. I also love fall crafting. This is a little tree I did. The glittery black tree is from JoAnn's. I made the decorations from the Tim Holtz Rosette die, Spellbinders scalloped and round dies, and halloween stamps, buttons, flowers etc. Adds a nice little accent to the jelly cabinet in my kitchen. I think I originally found this on Pinterest. Hope you are enjoying the season too!