Trees Tip-In pages

I am participating in the Tip-In Journal project over at Paper Traders.  This month, my assignment was to do a spread for Heather's "Trees" journal.  My first attempt was nice but just not quite 'artsy' enough for me:

This is one of my favorite quotes and the page is much prettier in person - metallic gold background with lots of texture and color variation, multi-hued glitter on the tree, etc.  Still, I felt that Heather deserved something better (as she is a very accomplished artist) so I went back to the table and created this:

It's very simple in style but I think the overall effect is gorgeous.  The background was made by reconstructing paper from little torn bits using Aleene's matte decoupage medium.  The colors are so rich - I love it!  I hope Heather will too.  But I'm sending her both sets of pages, just in case she wants the first set also.

My Home is my Castle

Marion is hosting her annual blog ATC swap and I have been wanting to participate for several years but always seem to be too busy to fit it in.  This year, I finally managed to get my cards done but I still need to mail them to Germany so hopefully they will arrive in time!

Her theme is "My Home is my Castle" using part of a building for the person's body or clothing, etc.  You can read all about it on her blog here and be sure to check out all the other terrific entries.

I'm a Trader Treasure!

I know my blog has been a bit neglected lately but I just wanted to pop in to say that my Word Prompt Journal page last month was chosen as the Paper Traders' Trader Treasure!  The prompt was "Choose Love" and the challenge was to use tissue paper or napkins in your art.  This vintage film tissue paper was an RAK from another artist quite some time ago and I was excited to have this project to use it on (I'm also in love with the tiny film strip craft tape I found at Michael's recently!):

There's a new prompt and challenge each month so hop on over to the Paper Traders blog and play along!

Magazine Collage Canvas

Cathy is hosting a magazine collage canvas swap in our Paper Traders group this month.  The challenge was to use a magazine image in your work.  I had saved this image of a silhouetted girl with an umbrella and applied her to my painted and stamped canvas.  I used flower-shaped die cuts to mask the paint and used a stencil for the green vines.  I added details with my white, green, and gold paint pens.

Ribbon Dolls

This month, I hosted a ribbon dolls swap in our Paper Traders group.  These dolls were inspired by a project seen on Ten Two Studios.  For this swap, I only needed to make two but they were so cute, I couldn't stop myself and I had to make a couple of extras.  I'm keeping the orange gypsy for myself and her sister in pale pink will be an RAK for someone special.  =)

From the Heart - a color swap

I recently hosted an ATC swap in our Paper Traders group that included a color challenge - pink, brown, & white.  The theme was "From the Heart" in honor of Valentine's Day.  I've been itching to do something with corrogated cardboard and came up with these cute painted hearts.

Follow Your Heart

In our Paper Traders group, we are doing a word prompt journal challenge this year.

For January, the prompt was "Live Simply" and had to include some kind of rubber stamping... here's my page:

This month, the prompt is "Follow Your Heart" and the challenge is to include some hearts on your page... so here's what I came up with:

The lavender is actually a printed napkin layered over the torn text... one of my favorite techniques!

White-on-White

I know my blog posts lately have been sporadic at best.  I really have been working on several things recently so I will try to get them updated here soon to show you.

This past week, I finished my spread for Cathy's tip-in journal in our Paper Traders group.  Her theme is White-on-White so this is what I came up with... let me just say that it was somewhat challenging to place that tulle on the page using gel medium!

Snowflake Tags

Recently in our Paper Traders group, Pam hosted a snowflake tag swap.  I was having so much fun with Cat Kerr's technique that I decided to try it with white paint instead of a dark color.  The result isn't quite as striking, but still pretty...

New Year Inspiration

I'm hosting a tag swap over at Paper Traders this month and the theme is to use an inspirational quote for the new year.  After reading my latest issue of Somerset Studio, I loved the technique used by Cat Kerr on her mini canvas necklace (page 52) so I decided to try applying this method to my paper tags.

I started with a plain manila tag to which I added a light coat of gesso.  Then I used gel medium to adhere different textured items to my tags - some tulle, a piece of woven straw ribbon, some extra chunky mulberry paper, and a few paper flower cutouts.  I covered everything with a layer of green acrylic paint and let it dry.  At this point I was thinking the green was way too ugly and I didn't know if the textures were pronounced enough, but I added a coat of Mod Podge and braved on with the next step...

I adhered my chipboard quotes and then, following Cat's instructions in the magazine, I watered down some dark acrylic paint (I used navy blue) and spread it over the top of everything.  I crossed my fingers, waited a few minutes, and started wiping the dark paint off again.  Cat recommended using a baby wipe but I found this took too much of the paint off (probably because I was working on paper with very thin textures) so I just rubbed with my fingers, cleaning them often so I could pick up more paint as I went.

Once everything was dry again, I used some colored buffing wax to highlight the textured areas.  Cat recommends Rub 'n Buff but I used my Metallic Rub-Ons by Craf-T in brass.  I added some random bright blue accents using my oil pastels and then spattered everything with some off-white acrylic paint.  Lastly, I added white accents with my Sharpie paint pen.

As a final touch, I added the brass butterflies and some glitter accents on my drawn flowers.  Finally, I used a little extra colored buffing wax (in golden white) to lighten the edges of my tags for more dimension.  I sprayed everything with a coat of fixative when I was done.  I also mounted printed cardstock to the back of my tags to reinforce them.

About half-way through this project, I thought I was going to have to scrap the whole thing because it looked u-g-l-y ("you ain't got no alibi!")... but I am so grateful I followed all the steps all the way through because I think the end results are phenomenal - there's so much color and texture and I really learned a lot about how to combine different mediums for a beautiful finale.

Imagination Takes Flight

Even though I did not participate in this year's round robin project, I had the honor of being able to do a spread in Lucy's awesome steampunk-themed journal.  I really struggled to come up with an idea for this spread but I think it finally all came together nicely...  I hope she likes it!

Altered Rusted Tin

Over at Paper Traders, Cathy hosted an altered rusted tin swap inspired by her recent tutorial on various rusting techniques.  I used my own variation of these to rust my tin...

First, I sanded ALL of the paint off of my Altoids tin lid, then sprayed it down with straight vinegar and let it dry in the sun (I did this about 3 times on each side)... it was already starting to rust with just the vinegar.

Then (wearing rubber gloves and a face mask, just in case), I mixed 4oz of 3% hydrogen peroxide with 2oz of the vinegar and about 1 tsp of salt, stirring carefully to dissolve completely; then I carefully poured it into my spray bottle. I sprayed the tin and left outside to dry, turning and repeating about 3 times on each side... I got lots of rust coating the entire tin. In the areas where the solution pooled because I sprayed a little too much, it took longer to dry but turned out really textured and dark in those spots.

Finally, I sprayed the whole thing with a coat of matte acrylic sealer and let it dry before creating my collage.

I have been wanting to try this for so long and am surprised at how quick and easy it was to do!

Your Stuff / My Stuff

Our Paper Traders group did another Your Stuff / My Stuff swap this year.  I sent an envelope full of extra stuff from my studio and received back an envelope from Sue in Canada.  Above is a photo of all the terrific stuff she sent to me.  We only had to make one ATC to send back but I sent her two because she gave me so much good stuff... and then I just kept right on creating!  Below are all the ATCs I made from this stash - and there are still a lot of goodies left over.  =)

Poetry Found

My second attempt for this Found Poetry swap was a bit more difficult but much more successful.  This time, I used pieces of Post-It Notes to cover my words and only had a tiny little tear which I was able to fix.  The hard part was trying to find the right words for my poetry.  In the end, I had to change the word "ignorant" to "ignore" and then it all came together.  The image for this piece was re-purposed from a postcard I received and I want to give credit to the original artist Wendy Paula Patterson for her beautiful imagery.

art

like

a party-colored dress

promiscuous

and hard

to

ignore.

Lost Poetry

Occasionally things don't always turn out in my studio.  This week's epic Fail came while working on my Found Poetry canvas for an upcoming swap at Paper Traders.

I have seen this technique gaining popularity and was anxious to try it myself.  I had read online that another artist used MasquePen to block out her words so she could paint over the rest of the page and then remove the masque when she was done.  Sounded perfect!

The paper I was using was quite old so I tested the MasquePen in several methods: straight paper, over clear gesso, over clear acrylic sealant, and over clear gesso covered with clear sealant.  The last seemed to work wonderfully so I prepped my pages and went to work.

Below is what happened to me when I tried to remove the masque...  Two section of masque pulled the paper right off the page and my words with it.  So sad!

I decided I will salvage this piece by reprinting my poem and gluing new words over the top.  But will have to start from scratch on a new piece for this particular swap.  Live and learn.  (For my next piece, I'm going to try using Post-It Notes to cover my words...  I'll let you know how it turns out.)

mourning

love,

thrown aside,

and

Haunted forever by

all

which is not to be

Beachy Love

Cathy is hosting a paper mache heart swap over at Paper Traders this month.  Once I got over the initial messy gross-ness of the paper mache process, I found it to be a relaxing task to do while watching movies.  It took me about a week to make these hearts because I had to let it dry in between the many layers.  I learned a few things doing this project which I'll share...

I loosely based my technique on Crafy Cupid's tutorial here: http://www.craftycupid.com/index.php/cc/entry/mache-mixed-media-heart-tutorial/

For working with the messy paste, I employed this Martha Stewart tip using a rubber band to create a scraper which easily removed the excess paste from my paper strips:

http://www.marthastewart.com/272867/paint-can-tip

When they were completely dry, I applied a layer of gesso and then a coat of acrylic paint to each heart.  Both of my hearts were crackled using Ranger's Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint.  Here's something interesting that I discovered...  The gold heart was painted with a glossy metallic acrylic paint underneath the crackle.  When dry, the crackle still appeared very shiny and crystal clear.  The blue heart, however, was painted with a matte acrylic paint under the crackle.  This one ended up looking much more opaque (sort of like sea glass) as the crackle coat seemed to take on some of the aspects of the underlying paint.  Both results looked terrific but were notably different.  For this project, I topped off the blue heart with an extra coat of glossy glazing medium to bring back that high shine finish I had anticipated.

The "sand" for my beach scene came from a pre-packaged bead mix and I just love the way this looks!  I used Glossy Accents to adhere the beads, shells, and charms.

So here are my finished results... I hope you like them as much as I enjoyed making them:

I also made an extra heart which I covered with distress doilies and pretty printed napkins layered over a bronze crackle finish:

In Stitches

We're doing a stitched canvas technique swap in our Paper Traders group this week.  This was a bit of a challenge for me because I really hate to sew.  My stitches on this piece are not very good but the overall effect is nice and the loose threads give it a shabby chic look.

Tangle Garden

At Paper Traders, I am hosting a colored Zentangle® art swap. Zentangle art was created by Rick Roberts & Maria Thomas. You can discover more about this method on their website: Zentangle.com.  Below are the cards that I created for this swap... a relaxing way to catch up on my DVR recordings!

Graven Angels

Over at Paper Traders, I am managing the current round robin journal project but was disappointed that I couldn't commit to actually participating this year.  Working 50-60 hours per week at my two jobs has left precious little time for making actual art.  What time I do have is spent doing more management type work for the group, although I have been trying to host the occasional ATC swap.

Even though I did not participate in this year's round robin, I did make a spread in my mom's journal which has the theme of Graven Angels.  Everyone's work so far has been lovely but they tend to be dark and somber - no surprise, really, given that it's all about cemetery statues!  Yet, death has never felt like a dark spectre to me so I wanted to make a page that was lighter and more introspective...

...in fond memory of George, Grandma Betty, Jennifer, Grandpa Holso, Alyssa, Uncle Ronny, Danny, and Aunt Joyce.  I love and miss you all and I'll see you someday soon!

Eye for Color

I'm hosting an ATC swap in our Paper Traders group.  I've been loving Pinterest  and one of the things that caught my eye were all of these beautiful color palettes that people are pinning.  This lead me to a really cool website Design-Seeds.com  where I found my inspiration for this swap:

It's been fun to see all the different creations everyone is coming up with using this color scheme.  Below are the cards I made.  The blue flowers are glittery and the butterflies' wings are lifted up off the cards: