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.

Ornaments

I made these paper ornaments for our 12 Days of Christmas swap on Paper Traders.   It's hard to tell from the scan, but I hand painted a pearlescent top coat to highlight specific elements before layering on the chipboard and paper punched pieces.

I also made some ornaments for friends and family... these were done by gluing vintage sheet music to wooden forms and then layering the bird images from napkins.  I got the idea for these cute button berries from Sassy & Sweet Notes - aren't they cute?

Water Journal

This is the spread I did for Joanie's "Water" themed round robin journal on Paper Traders. The scan really doesn't show how sparkly this page is... it has received a generous shot of Starburst Stains spray as well as some turquoise art glitter.

Scrapped Out

I just got home from an arts/crafts-filled morning. My friend Stephanie and I stood in line for an hour to get in to the Rubber Stamp & Scrapbook Expo today... I had heard they were giving away tote bags to the first 50 people and my mom said that the last time she went to one of these shows, the bags were filled with goodies... Well, these bags weren't - they were just the cheapo bags that you get everywhere as an eco-friendly alternative to grocery bags, and the free gift was a teeny tiny acrylic stamp worth about 25-cents.

Despite that, we did enjoy the show. There were lots of booths to browse through... many were having free make-&-takes. Several tables had clearance items for super cheap so we did pick a few cute things here and there. But my favorite find was this stuff called "Flower Soft" - oh my heck, it is so cool! It's a kind of fluffy product that you can glue on to give dimension like tiny little leaves or flowers and such. They had tons of colors and varieties to choose from but I only bought one (Heather) to start with. I've never seen this anywhere before. Most of the other booths had products similar to what you can find in other art/craft stores but it was still nice to have so many all in one place.

After that, I took my coupons to some other scrapbooking stores in town and spent more money... yeah, I'm officially broke again until next payday; but at least I have plenty of stuff to play with for now. After all that standing and walking, my feet sure do hurt... I'm looking forward to an afternoon recuperating at my art table =)

Random Observations

I know I haven't taken much time to write here lately... I have been so busy and so tired. But enough with the excuses - here are a few random observations I've had recently:

NATURE
During the last rainstorm, tiny rainbows were following every car ahead of me in traffic...
We had some black storm clouds one day that made it as dark as an hour after sunset...
Today there was a little ladybug resting on my car door...

WORK
Crushing on the handsome (single) soldiers who are transferring here...
Have had some super busy workdays the past couple weeks...
The boss is leaving for a three week cruise...

HOME
Finally put all my luggage away from my trip last month...
Bought new pants that actually fit - I'm down more than 3 sizes from a year ago...
Loving the "Genius" feature on my iPod...

ART
Found my muse - at least long enough to get a couple projects done...
Hosting a "Fun with Maps" ATC swap on Paper Traders...
Planning to attend a rubber stamp & scrapbook expo this weekend...

CHURCH
Dear friend's hubby was recently baptized - and her daughter will be doing so soon...
Attended the temple this month...
Making a personal commitment to go to more Single Adult activities this year...

SPORTS
Reserved my tickets to see the Padres take on the Rockies next month...
Excited for football season to start - Go Broncos!

Going Places

On Paper Traders, I'm hosting a "Fun with Maps" ATC swap. These are the cards I made. I tried to cut the dresses out so that the maps added accents, like a different colored bodice or a ruffled skirt. I started with some travel-themed scrapbook paper for the backgrounds, then used Tim Holtz' mini mask and distress ink in the corners, stamped on an old building image and the word "journey", then added a text background stamp on one side.

Zentangle ATC Swap

Letha is hosting a Zentangle ATC swap on Paper Traders. It's mixed-media so pretty much anything goes. I started with a rubber stamped face image and then just started playing from there. Admittedly, these could be a lot better but they're not too bad for a beginner =)

Update: Thanks, everyone, for the feedback... Yes, I just stamped the face images with permanent ink right in the middle of my plain white ATC's. Then I got out my Micron pens in different widths and started doodling. I didn't really have much of a plan and some of the larger black areas are where I goofed up and just decided to fill in over the top - LOL!

Pink Gone Wild

All I can say about this one is... Whoa! That's a lot of pink! LOL!


This is the second spread I did for the private journal swap I'm in. I think this best represents what it wrong with most of my art... I'm too precise and too hung up on making everything COORDINATE! Don't get me wrong, I think this page is very cute and sweet... but maybe just a little too much. My favorite thing is the glittery swirls I added with my glue pad, a rubber stamp, and some micro-prism glitter.

Beauty's Eye

I have been wanting to practice more techniques out of Bernie Berlin's ATC Workshop book. The background here was made using her Leafing Pen Resist technique. I had a little trouble with my first attempt - the acrylic paint on the stamp just pulled the leafing right off the page... so I tried a new piece with graphite black archival Brilliance ink instead and it did the same thing! But the rest of the stamped image came out nice so I used it anyway =) There is a lot of gold on this card - in the background, on the bottom edge, the circle around her eye, around the words, and the german scrap - but I like the feel of lots of gold on this card... even the lady is wearing gold bangles on her wrist! On the german scrap, I rubbed black acrylic paint over it to give a distressed look... I also used some Tim Holtz Distress ink around the card and the edges after sanding everything down a bit. The only thing I'm not happy with are the word blocks... but once they were glued down, they weren't budging - LOL!

Angels

These are the pages I did for Letha's tip-in journal on Paper Traders. Her theme was "Angels". I also made some charms for her to attach to the binding of her book. For these pages, I used the same technique as I did on the backgrounds for my zetti cards. I didn't originally plan to use these large columns and arch so I probably should have moved the applied music text farther out toward the edges... I also should have stamped the background images a little darker because you can barely see that they're even there. Still, I like the soft effect.

Zetti Newbie

Connie is hosting a zetti ATC swap on Paper Traders. This is my very first attempt at this quirky genre. My mom, her friend, my sister, and I all went in together to buy a couple of grab bags of rubber stamps from zettiology rubber stamps, which I used on these cards.

I really LOVED my backgrounds even though they got pretty covered up by the images and pen art. I took colored card stock and attached some vintage german text and then applied a light coast of gesso, then smeared some watercolors over the top; finally, I distressed everything. I also used some very lightly inked rubber stamp images to add a little depth to the backgrounds. You can't really tell from the scans but the pen lines are opaque, glossy, and raised - I used Souffle pens for them. The images are simply rubber stamped in black ink on white cardstock but I like the contrast between the stark imagery and the other colorful elements.

The most fun thing about zetti is that it seems anything goes... it's just fun and funky!

Birdie! Birdie!

I had a hard time with these chipboard birds. These are for an upcoming Paper Traders swap. Everyone is to decorate both sides of 5 chipboard birds from the Maya Road Bird Coaster Book. The sixth bird is held back to make your own cover (which I haven't done yet).

When I started this project, I used DCWV's Luxury papers and covered each bird, adding a ruff and wings in coordinating paper. They were beautiful - and I hated them! They were way too PRETTY and scrapbook-y... not artsy at all. So I pulled off the accent pieces, painted them with gesso, sanded them down, and started all over again.

I pulled out old issues of Somerset Studios for inspiration and found a beautiful art journal done using this technique... paint with several acrylic colors, apply pictures and text, stamp images and heat emboss in gold, apply gesso, and sand. I inked the edges afterward and added a few touches of gold pigment ink to tone down the whiteness of everything. I LOVE the distressed look and am very happy with the final results. Below is a breakdown of how I utilized this technique:

I utilized a technique from Jana Holstein in the Sep/Oct 2007
issue of Somerset Studio. She used this on her "Treasures of
the Heart" journal. I did something very similar on my sweet
blueberries page for my blue journal, too.

1) First, I laid down a background of old text.
2) Then I dabbed some pink and blue and yellow acrylic paints
over the top.
3) Next, I applied the images and dictionary words (I like
using torn edges for this).
4) I then stamped and heat-embossed the flowers and birds with
gold embossing powder.
5) Finally, I applied a light coat of gesso over the top of
everything with a piece of cardboard - you want to just scrape
it over the top.
I tried painting it on but it didn't work as well.
6) Once this gesso was dried, I started sanding it back off
with a sanding block. I love to use the foam sanding blocks
that you can get in the manicure section - they have different
grits on each side, are perfect to hold in your hand, and the
foam inside cushions it so it doesn't gouge your artwork.

I learned one more important thing with this technique... if
you have an image or text that you want to ensure will be
visible, use clear embossing (which I did on my birds) or
even a few coats of clear acrylic over the top of it before
applying the gesso. Otherwise, you'll have to sand too hard
to get the gesso off and often end up sanding away too much
of what you wanted to save. You can also wipe some of the gesso
off with a TINY bit of water but this tends to smear it around
and doesn't give the same distressed look that the sanding
provides. BEWARE if you do this because the water can break
down the integrity of the paper and if you sand over it again,
the paper can end up breaking apart. (Guess how I know that!)

French Collage

I made this rubber stamp collage using several stamps from a Stampin Up! set I have... plus a few others. I rubbed a Q-tip over my stamp pads and used it to paint the lady's face. The bird shows up darker IRL but it's stamped with a shimmery Pearl-Ex ink that didn't scan well.