Air Travel

Well, you don't know what
We can find
Why don't you come with me little girl
On a magic carpet ride

 

 

The lyrics from that Steppenwolf classic stayed in my head the entire time I was working on this page.  Dating myself, aren't I?

 

I had the entire weekend to do my page for Sox's book in the Kindred Souls round robin.  Her theme is air travel, the time period, late nineteenth century, and her preference is steampunk.  Naturally, images of zeppelins, hot air balloons and the like immediately came to mind, but I wanted to do something a little different.  So I put Sox's heroine, Magdalena, on a magic carpet as she comes in for a landing in Persia.

 

 

 

The background was mainly done with stencils that I thought supported my location.  I found the carpet image and buildings online.  My Magdalena is from Graphic 45's Steampunk Debutante collection, and I enhanced her hair with some tiny watch parts.

 

 

 

 

The satchel was constructed from grungepaper, inked with walnut stain distress ink.  Some faux stitching, the strap, the slide and the "hardware" made with dots from a glaze pen, finish it off.  I think it looks like leather.  Oh, and that's an old map of Persia peeking out of the outside pocket.

 

That same map, only larger, covers the back of the page.  I stenciled over part of it with black and gold paint, and used that area for my information.

 

 

 

Let's see......according to the artists that preceded me, Magdalena has also been to Cuba, London, Paris, and the far east.  I wonder where she'll turn up next......and how she'll get there.

 

On an unrelated note, I may be missing for a few days.  On Wednesday I'm flying down to North Carolina where I'm meeting up with my pals Elena and Jacquie for a long weekend workshop with DJ Petit at Donna Downey's studio.  I have wanted to take a class with DJ for ages, and to be able to AND hang with my Florida peeps.....priceless!



 





The 12 Tags of 2013

January

 

I actually did my January tag at the start of the month, put it aside to think about adding more to it, and then promptly forgot all about it.  I found it this morning and realized I'd never posted it.  Duh!

 

Well, first of all, click HERE to be taken to Tim's blog so you can see his January tag.  As usual, I don't like to copy his work exactly, but I do like to incorporate as many of his techniques as possible.  Don't ask me why, but for some reason I was inspired to do a very Valentine kind of tag, quite a departure for me, and not a bit like Tim's beautiful time themed tag.  Hey, I've said it before, and I'm saying it again.....it doesn't pay to argue with your muse.  So, here it is:

 

 

 

The techniques that Tim demoed, that I also used:

 

An embossed background, inked with distress inks, then splattered with water.....check!

 

Grungepaper/board, covered with metallic stains and then distressed with inks (seen here on the  bow and arrow; also on some of the hearts).......check!  {NOTE:  I tried every which way to include the cupid that was holding this bow, but he just didn't fit no matter what I did.  I kind of like having to imagine him instead.}

 

 

 

Stamping on ribbon with archival ink......check!

 

 

 

Coloring ribbon with distress stains (I actually did a bit of stamping on these ribbons too, but it barely shows up in the photo)......check!

 

 

 

Finishing the tag with metal embellishments.......check!

 

 

 

It's almost time for Tim to post his February tag, and I'm guessing it will have a Valentine theme.  Wonder what I'll come up with for that.











A Compendium of Curiosities 2 -- The Final Challenge

First of all, I want to thank Linda Ledbetter for being the creative force behind both the first and second Compendium of Curiosities challenges.  A weekly challenge often gave me just the boost I needed to get the juices flowing.  I participated in all of the first set, but this past year life often got in the way, and I didn't get as many challenge pieces done as I'd have liked.  But, as in all aspects of living, it's best if you just deal with what you've been given, make the best of it, and carry on with as little guilt and fewest "what ifs" as possible.

For the final CCC2, Linda challenged us to use any of Tim's techniques from either Volume 1 or 2, and make a birthday card for Tim.  Great timing, as his birthday is next week.  And I have been itching to use my new Sizzix Pop N Cut die to create something.  Because the focus of this card is the inside, I kept the front fairly simple. 

I used paper from Tim's Vintage Shabby stack and embossed it with his Damask folder, and highlighted the embossing with various distress ink browns and blues.  The banners and leaves are both from his Regal Crest die.  The greeting is an old Stampin' Up stamp which I love and use all the time on birthday cards. It was stamped on some scrap from Vintage Shabby and cut with a scallop oval punch, and layered on a larger plain oval.  That, and the Regal Crest die cuts were done on kraft cardstock, which is what I also used as the card base.

And now for the inside.  I have not done many pop up cards and I think I'm in love!  I need to get more inserts for the base die, but there are plenty of things that can be done with the one that comes with it.







The skyline is a stamp from Tim's Rock Star set.  The balloons, floating above the city are from one of the very first Sizzix dies I ever bought, about a hundred years ago (or so it feels), back when I had that heavy, unwieldly red machine that you had to crank.  That made way for my Big Kick, which, after many years of service, retired (to the back of a closet) to make room for my Vagabond.  I can't imagine having to crank out a die cut anymore!  Spoiled?  You bet I am.  But back to the card.
Except for the skyline, which was stamped on Ranger's Specialty Paper, everything else was cut from various papers from the Vintage Shabby stack, and inked with different distress inks in blues and browns.

Here is a sideways view so you can see the "pop."

 

 

The balloons and the skyline were attached with pop dots, so there was popping on top of popping.

 

The card is in the mail (in one of my handmade envelopes, by the way), and I hope Tim enjoys receiving it even half as much as I enjoyed making it.

 

 





House Rules

Last year, while working on a totally unrelated project, I cut some extras from Tim Holtz's Artful Dwellings die.  I was playing around with them, and put them together to create a little three dimensional birdhouse.  And there it sat, always on or near my work table in it's unfinished state.  Until this week, when Simon Says Stamp and Show announced their latest challenge......house rules. Create a house, alter a house, stamp a house, do anything related to a house.  Also, on the Wendy Vecchi yahoo group we have an ongoing challenge to use Wendy's products on a holiday project, so this qualifies for that as well.

I'm happy I waited a year because now I have Wendy Vecchi's yummy embossing paste and Tim's equally yummy rock candy dry glitter, and I used  both to make the snow.

 

I love the texture of the embossing paste and the sparkle that the dry glitter adds.  The shingled roof was made from strips of different shades of brown cardstock.

 

 

 

The house was covered with some of Tim's tissue wrap, which was distressed with a few brown distress inks.  Before assembling, I cut the circle on the front piece and attached a stick (it goes through the opening and is glued to the back wall) to form the perch. 

 

The bird, the nest, the wreath and the pinecones were all found in various places that specialize in scaled down objects for doll houses.  That bird, by the way, was a horrid purple color, but a tiny bit of paint fixed that problem.

 

 

 

This is a bit blurry, but it's the only photo I have that shows what's in the bird's nest (besides the bird, of course).

 

 

Yep, my faux cardinal is sitting on some faux eggs.  Never toss your broken jewelry is all I'm saying.









Great Technique From Wendy Vecchi

Wendy Vecchi is an artist/designer I really admire for many reasons, not the least of which is how she is always coming up with new ways to use the supplies I already own.  Check out her video here for a great technique involving white pigment ink, distress inks, stains, and markers, and black paper.

Meanwhile, over at the EWV (Everything Wendy Vecchi for those who don't know) yahoo group, list mom  (and my good friend) Lori  has been motivating us with various challenges for quite some time, and the current challenge is to use the technique that Wendy demonstrates in the video.

I'll give you a minute to check out the video.  OK, time's up.  You saw what Wendy did, now here is my entry for the challenge:

 

 

For the background I really followed Wendy's directions pretty much exactly.  I used the fish and the flourish from the Art For Men set.  The tiny letters are from the Art Inspiration set.  The "seaweed" is actually the stem from the Funky Flower Art set, and now that I'm looking at it, I think it would also make great octopus tentacles.  Not that I imagine myself needing an octopus in my art, but hey, you never know.

 

As for the fish that is NOT part of the background, I used the variation of the technique, stamping the fish on kraft instead of black paper.  I also did one other thing a bit differently.  While the white ink (Ranger's Adirondack snowcap) was still wet I sprinkled it with clear embossing powder and heat set it.  After coloring it with distress markers and inks I decided to add a little color to the embossed parts.  Distress inks won't stick there, so I used some archival inks.  The fish was then cut out and adhered with pop dots for dimension. 

 







Chunky ATC, Wendified

NOTE: I thought I had found a way to insert the photos after each description, but it seems that mobile blogger has outwitted me again. Sigh. Sorry to give you another Sunday puzzle.

I signed up for another chunky ATC swap, this one in the Wendy Vecchi yahoo group. (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/everythingwendyvecchi)
I was assigned the very talented Anita Houston to receive mine, so I went over to her blog to get some inspiration. I was intrigued by her tutorial for perfect pearls faux leather and used it for the backgrounds on the two largest surfaces. It's wonderful!

Check out the tutorial: http://theartfulmaven.blogspot.com/2012/07/faux-leather-video-tutorial.html

Here are those two sides. Lots of Wendy's art parts, all inked with the spring and summer distress inks, and each stamped with a different Wendy background stamp.

Next, the two sides, covered with embossed copper.

The top (Wendy's flowers and leaves on grungepaper), the bottom, showing half pearls for feet, and some close ups.

Spritzin' and Flickin'

Before I explain the title of this post, I just want to say that tomorrow I am leaving the Empire State for the Garden State.....yep, I'm heading to Jersey with my pals Pat and Cheryl for six days at CREATE.  It's the first time being held on the east coast, and I am so excited.  I'm taking six classes with some fabulous instructors, so in a week or so you can expect to hear all about it.  Classes will be held Wednesday through Sunday and it is my understanding that there are still some openings, so if you're interested, click on the link and maybe I'll see you there.

Now, back to spritzing and flicking.  That is the technique for this week's Compendium of Curiosities 2 challenge.  It's an oldie but goodie from Tim, and just the right thing to add to my fishy tag.  My wonderful friend Elena sent me the LaBlanche stamp as a present because she thought it looked like me.  No, not that I look like a fish, but that the stamp looked like my style.  And right she was.  I absolutely love it and had a wonderful time working with it.

I stamped the fish on the tag (it's a smallish tag, to give you an idea of the size of the stamp, the tag is 2 9/16" x 5 1/4") with clear embossing ink and embossed it with fine black powder.  Next step, coloring the fish with distress markers.  Here's a close up, and I hope you can see a bit of sparkle on some of the fish's scales.

This is how I did that:  I reheated the embossing and scattered bits of two different powders on the areas where I wanted a little bling.  I used the tip of a craft stick and very little powder, so I did have some control.  The powders were a blend of Ranger's verdigris from the Antiquities line, and goddess gold from the Ancient Gold line.  Then I reheated again and the newly added powders melted into the image.

The last thing I did was apply the background inks (salty ocean, peacock feathers, and mowed lawn) and do the spritz and flick distress technique (which can be found on page 42 of Compendium of Curiosities, Volume 2).

I enjoyed this process so much, I did a "few" more.  Looks like I have enough to share with some friends.

This week Simon Says Stamp is offering a $25 gift certificate for one randomly selected participant, so there's another good reason (besides the fun of getting inky) for jumping on the CCC train.

Art Journal Marathon

You know that expression, "when you're hot you're hot.....," well nowhere does that apply more than in what we do in the mixed media world.  Sometimes you stare at blank paper for hours without a bit of inspiration, and sometimes you just can't stop creating.

When I sat down at my work space Saturday afternoon my intention was to work on one of the three asian themed collaborative journals I had in my to-do pile (along with other stuff).  Saturday rolled into Sunday into Monday, and I had finished all three, plus one Artistic Evolution journal as well.  When the muse is so willing, the body just better cooperate.

First up, the pages I did for Sox.



Golden fluid acrylics and Dylusions sprays on text for the background, then lots of stenciling and some stamping.  The fish are from Wendy Vecchi's Art For Men set, and were stamped with black archival ink and colored with distress markers.

The next two pages are for Val's journal.

Some paper collage and stencils over text for the background.  The female figure on the left is a stamp, colored with a variety of things, not all of which I remember.  I know I used watercolors and distress markers.  I also did some stenciling on top of the clothing.

The male figure on the right was cut from a Japanese catalog my pal Kyoko gave me on the last Tim cruise.  I've been using it lots in these journals as it is a treasure trove of beautiful images.  The little pocket sewn onto the page is actually fabric, and it was part of a gift from Naomi, another cruise pal, this one given to me on the New England Tim cruise.  I love being able to incorporate things I've received from one friend in something for another friend.  It just feels good.

Sue's book was created with signatures of four pages.  We were only obliged to work in the center two, but if we wanted, we could do something on the first and last pages of the signature as well.  Sue said she has plenty of beautiful paper to fill in the blank pages, so no worries.  As I was definitely on a roll, I did all four pages.  The first was a no brainer.  Ever since I did this tag I knew it would find its way into someone's asian journal.  All I did for the background was spray some color on a page of text, then stamp the grass with pigment ink and add some embossing powder.

This is the two page spread followed by each page individually.

The stones were created by scraping gesso through a stencil.  When dry they were inked with a variety of brown, gray, and black.  The seated woman is a stamp.  The bamboo was done with a cuttlebug embossing folder, colored with distress inks and carefully cut out.  Other stamping (the foliage) was heat embossed.

The last page in the signature was done with another embossing folder.  On this one I applied broken china ink directly to the folder before running it through my machine to create the water.  The koi were colored with distress markers.  The piece was matted on a piece of decorative paper.

The last journal I worked in was Sue's Artistic Evolution journal.  Her colors are the colors of Provence, green, amber and purple.    I was thinking of fields of flowers, and did a lot of stamping, added texture by applying fiber paste through stencils, sprayed, doodled, and created some flowers with bits of canvas.  The decorative edge on the right was done with Tim's tissue paper,which I first inked with dusty concord and chipped sapphire.

It's good I'm finished, because I just heard that two more asian journals are heading my way!



Layers Without Lumps

I love texture and layers and layers of embellishments as much as the next person, but sometimes (like when I want to send a birthday card without the extra cost of a padded envelope and additional postage) flat works best.  But it should only be flat, not look flat.

Just the other day I bought some masking fluid.  I know I made that purchase for a particular reason, but for the life of me can't remember exactly what the project was or where I saw it.  Sigh, story of my life.  Anyway, the universe decided to be nice to me today, and Splitcoast Stampers has a new tutorial on layering with masking fluid.  Bingo!  Rather than me trying to explain the technique, click on the link above and see for yourself.  It really is an easy way to create a richly layered look without adding a whole lot of bulk.

I was in the middle of working on a birthday card using this technique when I decided to take a break and check my email.  And once again, the universe was kind to me.  I'd been using rather bright colors on my card, and there, in my inbox, was a note from Lori, list mom of Everything Wendy Vecchi, announcing the new challenge......create something, use Wendy's stamps, and bright colors.  Bingo again.

Here's what my background looked like, after following the tutorial directions.

Except for the old wood background (a Stampin' Up stamp, stamped with coffee archival ink) all the stamping up to this point was done with one Wendy stamp (the leafy border stamp from It's Face Art) and several distress ink colors (broken china, faded jeans, peacock feathers and weathered wood).

Next step, some additional stamping.

The flower is from Wendy's Botanical Art set (I just stamped the flower, eliminating the leaves) stamped with magenta hue archival ink.  I decided to add leaves from another set (Nature's Art), and used olive archival ink.

Last step, adding the birthday wishes and just a tiny bit of bling.  Couldn't resist, but the sparklies don't add any real bulk, so I still consider this to be a flat piece.  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

I recently received an order from one of the very best stores in the world, Absolutely Everything.  Patti, who fills all the orders always includes some extras, and not any cheapo ones either.  In that order I received this wonderful LaBlanche stamp:

These stamps are like no others.  They aren't rubber or acrylic, but are made of silicone.  They are definitely odd looking, but they stamp like a dream.  Here's what the stamping side looks like.

I used this stamp to make a birthday card for a musician friend.  All I had to do was add a bit of color, which I did with distress inks and markers.  Again, not a bit of bulk, but the stamp is so detailed and beautiful I think it doesn't really need any extra embellishing.

In addition to these two cards today I did something I've been wanting to do for some time.  I removed my large Stampin' Up background stamps from their wood mounts.  They were just taking up too much space.  I definitely feel I've accomplished a lot, so it is time to reward myself with some time on the couch and a few NCIS reruns.  What can I tell you?  Love me some Mark Harmon.