"The more you trust and rely upon the Spirit,
the greater your capacity to create."
~Dieter F. Uchtdorf
It was time for another scavenging trip to find more steampunk playthings. Above is a photo of what I found today. Stay tuned to (hopefully) see these items featured in some new art soon!
It's been a few years since we did a round robin journal project in our Paper Traders group. They are a lot of fun but it can be heartbreaking when a book goes missing half way around the world =(
After much demand, and setting some very specific rules and guidelines, we finally decided to give it another go. We have two rounds going, each with five artists participating. My journal theme is "Trees"...
 |
| front cover |
 |
| ideas page (written on leaves inside the envelope) |
 |
| sign-in page |
The following spread was made by creating a background using a method loosely based on
Jill Geraghty-Groves' "decaying background" technique as shown in the
Mar/Apr 2011 issue of
Somerset Studio:
 |
| first spread - left side |
 |
| first spread - right side |
I made this second spread completely from scratch... the background was painted by scraping acrylic paints over the paper with a credit card and then sponging inks and paints over that using various stencils and punchinella (sequin scrap). The circles were added by dipping my bottle lids in leftover paint and stamping them on the page. The leaves took me DAYS AND DAYS to cut out! I used japanese washi paper and cut all the tiny sections of leaves out by hand then layered them onto my tree branches. Then I dabbed glue around haphazardly and sprinkled with several colors of
Martha Stewart's vintage leaf glitter (love this stuff!). I think it turned out awesome and looks sooooo much better in person than in this scan (you'll just have to trust me on that =)
 |
| second spread - left side |
 |
| second spread - right side |
We held a really fun swap on Paper Traders this month. It was a "stuff" swap and we sent our swapping partner an envelope full of random ephemera; then their challenge was to make one ATC using some of the items, sending the finished card back to the person who's stuff they used and keeping the extra ephemera for themselves.
Well, I was having so much fun, I couldn't stop... and I ended up making THREE ATCs from the stuff I received. I forwarded the top two shown here back to my swap partner and am entering the card shown below in this month's winner-take-all ATC lottery. (For this last card, I added the picture from my own stash.)
Another fun banner for a swap on Paper Traders. This one is for Summer using half circles which were the perfect shape for some fresh watermelon slices! It's difficult to tell from the photo but these are very sparkly - with glitter accents and generously spritzed with glimmer mist =)
My friends and family are having a chilly Spring but here in San Diego it's mostly sunshiney and getting warmer all the time. Soon the heat of summer will be here (ugh!) but until then, I am enjoying the pretty blooms all around me and the mild weather of the season in Southern California. Happy Spring, everyone!
I am really loving being back in San Diego again and am enjoying the beautiful Spring we've been having. I know that Summer is just around the corner and then I will be complaining about the heat (ugh!) but I will enjoy this cooler season while I can.
Next month, I am hosting an ATC swap on our Paper Traders group. The theme is "By the Seaside" since I am really feeling the love of living in an ocean-side community. I made this ATC as an inspiration for the participating artists. I used my watercolor pencils to paint the background and added some sandy texture at the bottom by combining acrylic paint with some resin sand texture gel.
