Art Journal Flowers Continue

I will be entering today’s post into the Lindy’s Stamp Gang color challenge for October.

I have been collecting Lindy’s awesome sprays for some time now, but I have never really explored the possibilities of the Magicals, until recently.  I only own a handful, so I don’t have the exact colors shown above, but I do have; Mountain Lavendar Gold (which, unfortunately, I could not find on their website and I think it may be discontinued), Bachelor Button Blue, Autumn Maple Crimson, Ponderosa Pines Olive and Golden Sleigh Bells, all of which I used to color the Penny Black flower stamps in this art journal page.

The quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of my favorites.  The large alphabet stamps are sold by Stamp Craft and the small set is sold by Studio G.  The background was done with Starburst Spays in the colors of Rusty Latern Lime and Tune Travel Teal.  The camera does not do these colors justice, as the shimmer is stunning.  I used the technique of letting the inks dry under plastic wrap, so it pools the pigment and mica as it dries, adding lots of depth and texture to the color.  Believe it or not, the same green color (Rusty Lantern Lime) was used on the quote, as was used in the background.  The same color of Magical was used for all the red flowers (Autumn Maple Crimson), the color variation is simply due to how much water was added.  I love that there are little pops of surprise colors mixed in the pigments, notice the purple in the red flower below, I did not add that, it was in the powder. I used heavy weight watercolor paper for all the flowers, which gave the piece some dimension.  

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Rusty Inspiration

A quick post to share one of my very favorite Inspiration Wednesday art journal pages.  I absolutely love how this page turned out!  I love everything about it.  The numbers, the letters, the tag, the patina, and that rust!  Yum!  Here are a few more pictures: A special thank you goes out to my brother-in-law for salvaging out of the garbage the beautiful tag included here.  Thanks for stopping by!

Altered Cigar Box

I love altering cigar boxes.  Recently I was looking for a new container for my Distress Ink Pens, because my collection had outgrown their current home, when I discovered that the pens fit perfectly in a cigar box.  I will be playing along with the good people over at The Mixed Media Month Challenge Blog and also with the Altered Eclectics group.

I started with some pages out of an old book, tissue paper, washi tape and modeling paste for some texture.  After the modeling paste was dry I layered on a few images and a green glazing for some patina.The next layer was alphabet stickers and super heavy gesso, followed by another layer of glazing (brown this time) for more depth.  While the gesso was still wet, I added some embossing powder to it and then heated it to give more color and texture.After everything dried I added just a hint of silver highlight to random areas so that the feet of the box would tie into the whole piece. I altered some chipboard for the label on the top using some heat embossing.I also altered some wooden letters for the front and added some ink splats for interest.

Here are several pictures of the final product.

From above.From the side.The back.Front.Here are a few close ups. If you have any questions regarding what products I used or how I did any of the techniques pictured here, please don’t hesitate to drop me a note.  Hope you get inspired to alter a cigar box.  Thanks for stopping by.

 

Another Altered Art Journal Page

I can’t believe the summer is coming to an end already in my neck of the woods, and it is high time that I started sharing what has been happening in my little workspace all summer long.  This page was made in my altered art journal.  The book is actually a very old text-book that I’ve turned into an art journal.  Since this month is Anything Goes over at the Altered Eclectics blog, I’ll be sharing it there – pop on over and check out all the talent!

  The background stencil used is by Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz collection (Mesh THS041).  The washi tape came from Michael’s.  The leaves stamp is by Inkadinkado and is one of my all time favorite stamp sets.  The flowers are also by Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz collection (Flower Garden CMS215) as well as the saying (Perspective CMS213).  I painted the flowers using Inklingz (Pink-A-Boo).  The gold inside was done with Smooch (Gold Lame). 

The leaves and the words were colored using Glaze pens by Sakura.

I hope everyone had a great past couple of months!  Thank for stopping by!

Inspiration Catch Up

I have fallen behind on sharing my Inspiration Wednesday art journal pages.  If you don’t know about Donna Downey’s wonderful workshop, I encourage you to at least follow us on Facebook, where you can see all the lovely work of those of us who play along.  Here are some photos of what I’ve created over the last month.

I have so many alphabets and a ton of chip board, it felt good to use some of both here.

This next one was using Absorbent Ground, of which I’ve had sitting on a shelf for a year.  I think I’ll be reaching for it more often now.Love that script stencil!

I had difficulty leaving the color out of this one.  But I do love the collage aspect with all the numbers and letters.

I hope you come play along.  Thanks for stopping by!

 

May Tim Holtz Tag

A quick post this morning to share my Tim Holtz May tag.  Tim shares  his process each month on his blog.  I’m not a fan of working on a burlap substrate, it is something about the texture.  This piece of burlap was in my stash and was added to the tag with matt medium.

I love how the ribbon turned out on this project.  Adding color directly to the ribbon with the pens gives a much richer color saturation and better control when using different colors.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

May Flowers – Vicky Style

I love spring.  It is my favorite time of year because it amazes me.  So when I saw that this months challenge over at Our Creative Corner was “April Showers Bring May Flowers”, there was no doubt that I would have to play along.I was originally inspired by Vicky Papaioannou’s recent You Tube post.  I have been hoarding these stamps for years, with the intention of using them on a card, but I decided to make them a spread in my art journal instead.  I’m sorry I don’t know who they are by.The tissue paper background and the sentiment are both Tim Holtz. The stencil for the circle texture is by Kite.Believe it or not, I used watercolors to color the flowers, Twinkling H2O Poppy Red to be exact.I hope everyone has a great week and if it is spring in your neck of the woods, get out there and enjoy the flowers!  Thanks for stopping by.

Inspiration Wednesday 3.4.2015

I’m playing along with Donna Downey’s Inspiration Wednesday art journal online “classes”.  This is my creation for the March 4th journal entry.  Although I have several art journals, I chose to use a canvas this time.  Donna has what she refers to as an “inclusion” in her art journals and I do not have those in mine.  Since I had to create the flap to adhere the little butterfly to, I thought I might as well do that on a canvas.I love all the texture and the colors!  So yummy!  I was apprehensive about it at first and afraid of the mess, but once I got over it, I was all in!  Everything took forever to dry, but it was well worth the wait.  Can’t wait to start on the next one.  Thanks for stopping by everyone.  Have a great week.

 

 

April Showers for Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #11

The art journal entry I made for the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Blog was a challenge in more ways than one!  I made this spread early in the month, and had to wait all month for a sunny day in order to photograph it (so I had a very fitting subject).  Meanwhile, I upgraded to a different photo software on my computer and needless to say, it has been a challenge to bring this post to the masses.  While I was creating the layout I was repeating to myself, “April showers, brings May flowers”, so I had to add a few tiny flowers, but most of my colors and shapes were chosen with only rain in mind.  This particular art journal is an old book and therefore the book pages serve as my starting point.  I then covered the pages with a paper doily and some torn patterned paper and pushed the combination to the background with a light coat of gesso.  I then added modeling paste with several stencils to get the little rain drops and topped with some paint.  I added the Sizzix die cut of Rainman and shading with a marker and a little paint.  I stamped a few little tress and added some little blossoms, since May is on the way.I decided to use the challenge title as my title as well, since I couldn’t get the saying out of my head.

I hear California could use some rain these days, I wish rainman could send them some.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

April 2015 Tim Tag

Just a quick post today to share my version of Tim Holtz’s April tag.  I decided to make a card and keep it simple.  I only use four colors on this card; one for the flowers, two for the stems and one for the drop shadow.  

I punched holes instead of dragging out my sewing machine for the border.  

I couldn’t find a store that had any of the die cuts in stock, either on-line or brick and mortar (which I find infuriating) so I used a stamp by Stampers Anonymous instead. I have been resisting the urge to invest in the Spitzer, but I finally took the plunge and I confess:  I am in love.  There really is no other way to get that fine mist of ink.  The mechanism to hold the pen in place seems flimsy and I bet this will be the first thing that fails.   Sorry, the flower stamps have been in my stash for years and I’m not sure who they are by.  Thanks for stopping by!