What's Black and Sepia and......

.....gorgeous all over?  Sox's World of Color journal (from the Kindred Souls group), that's what.  It arrived from Stephen's talented hands just two days ago, and I've already finished my page.  I was inspired by the journal itself (lace and fabric and paper and bling), as well as the pages already done.  I think that black and sepia is one of the most elegant color palettes, and I just dove right in.

First I filled my work table with everything (well, that's an exaggeration, so let's just say a lot) in my stash that supported Sox's colors, and gradually came up with a plan.  It began by covering both the front and back with different 7Gypsies tissue paper, because the patterns are printed in black on sepia paper.  Or so I thought.  It became clear that the sepia was really more like a gold, and that annoyed me.  I solved that problem by concocting a mixture of glaze medium and tan paint which toned down the gold and brought the background to a more sepia-ish look.  After that it was just a matter of layering papers, sewing them down, and adding some stenciling, stamping, and a tag as the focal point.

 

 

The tag itself is made of kraft cardstock.  The background was done by first layering on some tan, cream, and beige paints, letting that dry, then stamping (a Hero Arts background stamp) with black archival ink.  When that was good and dry a very thin layer of rock candy clear stickles was applied with a fingertip, which is what gives it a subtle sparkle.

 

The dress form was cut with Tim Holtz's Sewing Room die.  The phrase is a Wendy Vecchi stamp, and the dress form is covered with Claudine Hellmuth's sticky back canvas.

 

 

 

The buttons were sewn onto fabric that had been stamped with a tape measure stamp.  As for the thimble and scissors charms.....they dangle from Tim's memo pin.  They began life as a very cheap and garish looking gold, which was toned down by tapping them with a black archival ink pad.

 

The back of the page is much simpler, but there was just too much good stuff left on my table, so it was decorated a bit more than I had to.

 

 

 

Again, the tissue paper was treated with that glaze/paint mixture.  On top of that, archival ink (black and coffee) through two different Prima stencils.  Then I sewed on the fabric and paper that would hold a little tag.

 

 

 

The tag was created from some Graphic 45 embellishments, and on it, my information.

 

While searching for items to use, I came upon some Heidi Swapp designs printed on acrylic.  They must have been in my stash for years; she called them "clear extras".  I used a few of them.  I love it when something I bought and never used finally gets its chance.

 

 

 

I look forward to the next journal arriving at my door.















Follow Your Own Path

One of my most interesting collaborative journal groups is Artistic Evolution, in which each artist's pages must evolve in some way from the pages that came before.  What inspires the evolution is up to the artist and it can be anything; color, theme, image.  The other unique thing about this journal is that the pages step up and down in size, so bits of prior or later pages can be seen behind your own.  Makes for a fun creative challenge.

I've been working on Inge's book, and I am the next to last person to do so.  Which means I get to see all the glorious pages that came before.  Very cool. 

Inge's preferred colors are blues in the aqua/teal family, greens and purples.  The person who went before me was Elena, and her pages had some bird images and a quote: "you are right where you should be."  This is what her work inspired me to do:

 

 

Two of the birds (the second one on the left page and the one on the right page) were done by spreading fiber paste through a stencil.  The others were cut (using the same stencils as a template) from some papers left over from the Lynne Perrella/Anne Bagby workshop I did last May.  They were collages done on deli wrap paper.

 

I didn't plan this out ahead of time, but when I started attaching the birds, I realized that the one done with the fiber paste on the right page was the only one facing in that direction.  At first I thought I'd cut a few more from the collage to put on that page, also facing towards the left.  Then I had a little "aha" moment. The majority heading in one direction, but one going its own way.  So I left it as is, and that's how "follow your own path" evolved.

 

 

 

 

The background began by applying a crumbled decorative napkin (blue and green) to the chipboard substrate, then adding MANY stencil designs using regular acrylics, metallic paint, and fluid acrylics.  There is also quite a bit of splattering.

 

The decorative edge you see on the right page was cut from cardboard using Tim Holtz's Distressed Doily die.  It was colored with blue and green ink, covered with clear embossing powder and heat set.  Afterwards some french script was stamped across it with deep purple archival ink.

 

The letters are actually Heidi Swapp rub-ons, and I love the fact that they are already distressed looking, so I didn't have to mess with them too much to make them look like they aren't rub-ons.  I did ink over them a little so they aren't as starkly white as they started out.

 

Just one more person to do their thing and this beauty of a book will head back to Inge in Belgium!

 





Distressing Over Tags

No, that's not a description of my current mental state, just a shortcut title combining the Grungy Monday and Simon Says challenges this week.  For GM, Linda L. says go at it with your distress inks, and at SS, Linda E. says stamp and show a tag.  Actually, this is going to be a threefer, because I need some tags for a swap that showcases masking.  So I threw some of that in too.  LOTS of distress inks found their way onto my tags, my fingers, my clothes, and probably some other places I haven't looked at yet.

I started with one of Tim's most basic distress ink techniques.....wrinkle free distressing, and used dusty concord, milled lavender, worn lipstick and tattered rose.  I then stamped the dress (I won that Impression Obsession stamp in a raffle on the Ink Pad bus trip to the W. Springfield stamp expo last Saturday.  Yea!), covered it with a mask I made of it, and restamped it so it looks like one is behind the other.  I used black archival ink for that.

Next, I covered both dresses with masks and stamped over the whole tag with a Wendy Vecchi background stamp, using one of the newest archival ink colors.....sepia.  Which is one of the (many) things I purchased at that stamp show.   To continue with the masking theme, I put two Heidi Swapp mini butterfly masks on the piece (with the dress masks still in place), and using the blending tool, covered everything with some dusty concord.  After removing the masks I decided there was too much contrast and went over the lighter areas with a little broken china.

A little rose just under the waistline was part of the stamp, and I covered it with a tiny Prima flower to add a bit of dimension.  The sentiment is another Wendy stamp and it was cut with a Stampin' Up punch.  The final touch was the beaded trim, a ton of which I scored at a very good price at the stamp show.  Thanks to my friend Heidi for pointing me in the right direction or I would have missed it.

You know, if I had one ounce of patience I would have waited until Wednesday to see what Lori's Making Art challenge theme is going to be at Everything Wendy Vecchi this week.  Maybe I could have had a fourfer.  Or should we call that a quadfer?  No matter.  I lack patience.  I couldn't wait.  So I guess I'll be making something else on Wednesday.  Hey, another excuse to ignore the growing mountain that is my laundry basket.  A good thing.



A Masking Triple Challenge

Oh, lucky me....this week both Simon and Linda say:  show me some masking.  Well, Linda actually says to do the distress misting masks technique, but you see my point.  Two challenges, one technique.  Hence, the oh lucky me comment.  And what does the word triple refer to in my blog title?  Both challenges are posted by 8am my time, and at 10 I have to leave for the airport.  So, the third challenge is a personal one.  Create something and blog about it in time to finish packing and get out of town.

I had fun with this one, because a) I love masking and b) I love spraying and c) I love greens and blues, my chosen colors and d) I love embossing, not that anyone told me to emboss, but I threw that in anyway.

If it looks a bit unfinished, two reasons for that....I just didn't want to cover up the masking on the bottom.  I think it looks too cool to hide.  Also, at some point I plan to add a small sentiment down there and send this off as a card.  It has NOTHING to do with my time constraints.  NOTHING.

What did I do?   First I put some color (wild honey and broken china) on a piece of cardstock.  Then, I placed a Heidi Swapp mask down and followed Tim's technique.   A bit more color was added with the blending tool, then another mask (Tim's flourish) went down, and more misting (with different colors). 

When all that goodness dried (OK, I rushed that along with my heat tool), I cut the tag shape and then ran it through the regal flourishes embossing folder.  Last step on the background.....highlighting the raised area with some forest moss.

I went through my box of semi-finished projects and found the rosette and grungepaper flower (made with some of Wendy Vecchi's stamps) and added those to the top, since the colors went well with the tag.  (There are some scallops behind the rosette).

Phew....now I can enjoy my visit with my mom without wondering if I'll be able to do this week's challenges.  I know what you're thinking, but I admit it....I'm addicted to these challenges and hate the thought of missing any.

See ya in about a week!

Frida, Dominos, and a Blog Birthday Bash

Sox selected "Frida in Paris" as the theme for her journal in my Frida Kahlo collaborative art journal group.  I didn't know, until I read the handy reference sheet Sox included, that Frida was a very unhappy camper when she was in Paris.  I probably would have done some very different pages had I not learned that.
So, I had this vision of Paris through Frida's eyes.....cold, gray, totally lacking the warmth and vibrancy of her native Mexico.   And the only color would come from Frida's memories.

All the Parisian scenes are images from the Stampsmith Paris sheet.

The Eiffel Tower was cut from a Sizzix die, and the wonderful lizard....I'm having a brain freeze and can't recall where I found that stamp, but I sure had fun coloring (and altering) it.  There are also some Heidi Swap transparencies on the pages.

Speaking of altering, I joined an altered domino pin swap at ATT and here they are. (sorry how dark they photographed)  These are the pins I'm swapping:

 And this is the one I made to keep for myself:

My friend Stephen is celebrating his blog's 1st birthday, and he's having a fantastic giveaway.  Besides the freebies, you'll find some really cool art there, so check it out.

Another Tag

First of all THANK YOU for the great comments both here and on FB about the bird tag.  I almost never actually go to FB, but really do appreciate your taking the time to leave a note.  I'm not ignoring anyone, but if I start hanging out there I'll never get anything done!

I got into another tag today, in between trips to the laundry room.  I HATE doing laundry.  Well, you probably don't need to know that, or come here to learn such things.

I recently bought a gorgeous new color (peacock) of Ten Seconds Studio metal, and covered the whole tag with it.  Look how yummy it is.

The metal was embossed with one of their plates (don't know the name, but it is a new one and full of clocks).  I have all the tools, but don't do the embossing manually, as I lack that kind of patience.  I just fiddled around with my Big Kick until I found the right sandwich to do it with the machine.  The embossed areas were lightly sanded and I went over the entire thing with some Stazon black ink (inked and rubbed off with a paper towel immediately) to tone the color down just a little.  It is VERY bright.

The clocks of course made me think of The Mad Hatter, and dug up an Alice in Wonderland sheet I'd bought (and never used) back in November at the stamp expo I attended.  It's from The Stamping Ground, and included this great image of the crazed rabbit.  I stamped it with black pigment ink and embossed it with black EP.  The coloring was done with plain old water based markers.  The large pocket watch he's holding is also a stamp from that company, and I covered it with Glossy Accents.  I blasted it a bit with my heat gun to make the GA bubble up a little, thinking (hoping) it would make it look more like older glass.

The other clock I added (on the top of the tag) is a Heidi Swapp ghost, and on top of it are some Tim Holtz sprockets and a spinner.

What Is A Fat Book?

No, it is not a journal of every bad thing that has gone into my mouth! A fat book swap is a wonderful thing.....a group is formed, a theme established, and everyone creates a page for each participant. Fat books may be of techniques or they may be themed. At the Paper Imagery Designs yahoo group, we couldn't make up our minds, so we combined the two: each of us selected a background technique and then embellished the pages (4x4") we made with vintage Valentine images (our theme).
Sadly, only 13 people signed up, so I guess it is more of a chubby book than a fat book, but I am still very excited about this project.
I am only posting the one sample of my pages so it will be more of a surprise when everyone receives their books.
My background technique is masking with Glimmer Mist. First I applied some distress inks to my paper, then I put down the mask (I mostly used Tim Holtz's or Heidi Swapp's masks) and sprayed with the Glimmer Mist. Very soft and sparkly in person. Then I decorated each page with some of the vintage Valentine images from the PID shop.
Melissa is the host. When she gets all the pages she is going to use her new Zutter Bind-It-All to make each of us a book. Mel is even doing the cover and back pages for us!
I think (hope) when everyone sees what we have done we will have a truly big FAT book the next time we do this!

Celebrate The Season

Well, after all my ranting about wanting spring, I guess I really am still into the holiday spirit. I've been following Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas (http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/), and was inspired today to make a card based on the Day 2 tag. I used Tim's alcohol ink background technique, and a piece of his grungeboard for the title on the bottom. The little bird is glass, and is from Heidi Swapp. The image is from Paper Imagery Designs. (http://www.paperimagerydesigns.com/) Click on the first link to go to Tim's blog and see how the master does it!