Monday, March 8, 2010

An Artful Weekend

This weekend was the perfect balance between me being my usual hermit self, spending hours alone making some creative messes, and getting out to a) breathe some fresh and much warmer air and b) spend a few hours with two of my dearest friends in art.
Saturday was hermit day, and I worked on another Journal of Dreams....Sarah's, which arrived on Thursday after making several stops in North America after leaving home in Australia.
As usual with me, I sat down not knowing where I was headed, but looked around at what was on my work table.  I made good use of my new Tim Holtz stamps and some of the new distress ink colors.
 
I start out with a collage of many papers, some music, some text, some leftovers from other projects.  I bring them all together as a background with color.  This time some oil pastels and distress inks in blues and greens.
Then stamping, more color, more stamping, and the addition of the Eiffel Tower....cut from a die on grungeboard,  and embellished with KAT's awesome drunken scotch technique, which I also used on the real key sitting atop the tower (more about drunken scotch later).
We're only doing one page in this journal group, so I did minimal work on the back:


More Tim Holtz stamps, and I used the grungeboard from which I cut the Eiffel Tower as a stencil to make the tower shadows on the right.
Sunday was my day to share art with friends.  Once a month I get together with whoever is available, usually Heidi and Pat, and we each bring a project or two to share with the others, and all the supplies needed for them to make their own.  

I brought this card:


And I showed Heidi and Pat how to do KAT's fabulous drunken scotch technique.   These keys are grungeboard, but don't they look like real rusted metal?   Thanks, KAT!


These are the cards I made from Heidi's designs:


  
Pat, also sometimes known as the Queen of Tools or the Guru of Gadgets, is not only a wonderful artist, but a woman with a wicked sense of humor.  She claims she bought the Stampin' Up chocolate bunny stamp with the thought in mind of creating this card:


When we were finished laughing, we tried our hands at decorating some actual eggs that Pat brought (empty and cleaned out, of course) with paint, ink, rubons, etc.  I have not finished mine, but wanted to show you the cute little holders Pat fashioned for us out of pieces of toilet paper rolls.


Pretty good weekend, huh?

19 comments:

Sherri Auld said...

Eileen, the journal page is beautiful. All the cards are great, but the bunny card is too funny! did you use alcohol inks on the eggs? They look incredible - that would be a fun project to try.

Thanks for sharing.

Tami Putvin said...

Eileen, Love the projects, sharing the drunken scotch technique is so appreciated. Hmmm if only I had that much talent. Love love love the easter bunny card humor.. Such a fun update..

SusanK said...

Great stuff! Wish my Drunken Scotch turned out more like this. Must keep playing - practice makes perfect.

Barbara Mason said...

What a hoot -that chocolate bunny!!!
I really loved your collage...great use of all those scraps and yes color is the grand unifier...very nice...what did you use to get the mustardy color in the drunken scotch???

Anonymous said...

Eileen, I love everything you did. Thanks for sharing so much of your talents with us all.
Your grunge keys with Kats teck is so real. I love using it. However, your keys look much nicer and more real then mine do. What colors of AI did you use?
Liz

Anonymous said...

Hey Eileen....Pretty Good Weekend???? Nope I'd say you had a FANTASTIC weekend girl!!! Your pieces are AWESOME girl!!!

ShellyRaeWood said...

EIleen....WOw....gorgeous. I LOVE the tower shadows you repurposed....very nice. I'm off to check out that technique.
Oh, and the bunnies.....hilarious

helen said...

What a great weekend! Fantastic projects all of thm.

Carol's Crafts said...

You did have a busy weekend, Eileen. I love all your projects,
and I can't wait to see the egg
when you get it done.

Elaine A said...

Hi Eileen -

I think you had a superb weekend! I had plans to create this weekend also, but my family had other plans - sigh. Although late last night I was in my studio for an hour creating, so not too bad - LOL! I love the things you ladies created, just wonderful.
Yes, I remember Pat's humor, we used to have so much fun when we took watercolor classes.
Keep on creating Eileen, cause what you make keeps me smiling!

Elaine

Lori said...

What a great weekend you had. sigh. The journal page is awesome, as usual, the cards fab, the scotch technique, love it, what a post full of art goodness! Love the chocolate bunny card, too freakin' funny! LMAO. Great stuff!

Dorothy said...

What a fine productive weekend Eileen!!!

Tammy D said...

Oh my goodness that is all awesome, but those keys are amazing. And the bunny card. ROFL.

Elaine Akers said...

Wonderful stuff. Love the collage, and the bunny card made me laugh out loud. Great job!

Angie Hall Haviland said...

FABULOUS new ART, Eileen!! I about feel out of my chair I was laughing so hard when I came upon your nibbled bunnies ROFL!!!! Those are TOO CUTE!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Absolutely beautiful art. I have to say I love visiting your blog. Your art is wonderful.

Diann said...

OMGosh...your journal page is wonderful - front & back..love the way you used the shadow of the tower! You are the Journal Queen to me! I loved your card using the DS technique and looked at Pat's directions and copied them down to try later. I have lots of your ideas on my to do list! The chocolate bunny stamp and saying are the best of the season - too funny! What a great visit I had!
Diann

Pat T said...

I love the journal page--and the shadow of the Eifel Tower is absolutely brilliant! What an amazing creation. As for the Drunken Scotch technique, it does take a bit of practice. What Eileen didn't reveal is that she, Heidi, and I became like little children when we thought to experiment with re-inkers, glitter, embossing powder, and chipboard. The resulting object was a psychedelic delight with substantial heft. It's so much fun to craft with people willing to experiment. Add a bunch of talent and creativity and you have set the stage for magic.

teri said...

Those keys look incredibly real!! I love reading about all your projects and the journal page turned out fantastic!