A Documented Life - 4 Weeks in a Flash

While I've been keeping up with my Documented Life Project prompts, I've been neglecting this blog. So, here we go, the last four weeks in a flash......

Week 32, use a fortune cookie. I know I have an envelope of them somewhere, but couldn't find it, so faked it with a download. My total inspiration for this was a workshop given by DLP administrator Roben-Marie Smith. I used the insides of security envelopes and gelli print scraps, and a whole lot of doodling.

Week 33, use the underpaper (you know, the paper under your work that collects all the inks, paints and sprays). In my case, the underpaper is the deli wrap paper I used to blot off excess paint on my gelli prints. Over top, some stamping, lettering, doodling, and stitching.

Week 34, use numbers in some way to indicate how the week went. This one really speaks for itself. All in all, a pretty good week.

Week 35, draw, paint, sketch, photograph, alter a face. In other words, do something to get a face on the page. No mention of stencil, but that is exactly what I used.....a very cool one from Artistcellar, which is actually a stencil and mask in one. I started out with a background which was created during a wonderful stencil workshop I took a couple of weeks ago with Michelle Ward. (Haven't blogged about it yet. Like I said before....poor neglected blog). It was the red rosin paper used to protect the table, and while cleaning up, I just had to cut out the section by my seat. This page started out completely covered with this paper. I placed the mask section on the right hand side and covered everything else with black paint. Then I used the stencil section to trace the smaller face on whatever was left of the paint smeared red rosin paper. It was cut out and glued to the left hand side of the page. Some faux stitching and writing with a white pen finished it off.

I know many of you signed up for the DLP. Are you still doing it? 

A Tag, A Pendant, and A Question

I've been pretty much MIA in the Wendy Vecchi group, but this weekend I did manage to complete a piece for the current challenge over there.  If you're not yet a member, now would be a GREAT time to join, because Wendy is giving away NEW stuff from the latest CHA, both to folks who commented on her blog, and to some random members of the yahoo group.    Anyway, this week's inspiration comes from page 38 of Wendy's second book, and the directions from Lori, our fearless leader, are to include at least one of Wendy's stamps, and a bird.

I came up with this tag:

The background is some old text and a crumpled up piece of Tim's glasseine paper. The text was colored with two of the new distress stains, mustard seed and shabby shutters.  A stencil was laid on top and the whole piece was sprayed with Adirondack Color Wash, in lettuce and sunset orange.  On the glasseine side, one of Wendy's leaf stamps was done in olive archival ink.

As for the bird, it (and the leaves) are from a Stampin' Up! punch, and I punched them from some of the scrap paper that lines my spray booth.  Now doesn't that sound professional?  It's actually just a cardboard carton from a UPS delivery, but it does contain the sprays.  And by always having an assortment of scraps on the bottom, there is a never ending and always changing supply of sprayed paper in very cool (sometimes) color combinations.

After I finished, I decided that the deep pink of the bird was a bit overwhelming, but I liked the color.  My solution this time was not to alter it, but to add some more of it elsewhere on the tag.  Hence the three pink stones on the bottom.  That's an old decorating trick, sprinkling a bold color in more than one area of a room.  It works on tags too.

The next bit of art I played with this weekend is a pendant.  I used one of Tim's facets.



Can you guess what that black and white patterned paper is?  OK, I won't make you guess.  It's from the inside of a security envelope.  Are we green, or what?  The black and white dots were done with Ranger's Enamel Accents.  The dangly thingies on the top are just some baubles I made with some of the many beads in my stash of discarded, unwanted, unloved costume jewelry.  Friends, relatives and neighbors all contribute regularly to that stash and I welcome and appreciate all donations.

And now for a question:   Do you queue?  I'm in several art journal groups, I participate in many swaps and try to make something for favorite challenges every week.  There are also other things like birthday cards, presents, etc.  Often when someone in one of my groups receives a journal to work on, they mention that it has been added to the queue.  In other words, they work on things in the order in which they are received.  Others have calendars and work on projects in the order of their due dates.

I have trouble with that.  For example, there are some things that are due by the end of August.  But I've been working on the ATCs I'm making to swap on the Tim cruise in late September.  Why?  Because I got an idea and just had to go with it. 

So, I was wondering.....do you work on projects in some orderly fashion, either by date received or date due?  Or do you work on what you're inspired to work on regardless?  Do you queue?

Having said that.....I am pretty obsessive about never being late for anything, so even though I may not do things in any logical order, I do get them all done before the due date.  Just thought I should mention that, because inspiration or not, being late for something you signed up for is not a good thing.



Still Inspired.....

......by all I learned/experienced at the Lynne Perrella workshop I attended a little over a week ago.  The asian theme found its way into this altered game piece pin:

First the piece was colored with alcohol inks, then the chinese "love" was stamped with archival ink.  The dragonfly was stamped with clear ink and embossed with a bright green powder (Zing's leaf).  On the right, a blue mix of micro beads was adhered with multi medium.  For the danglie....I wrapped some colored wire tightly around the piece (I say this casually as though it just took seconds to do.  NOT!  It took some effort and more coordination than I normally possess, but finally succeeded), and then attached the beads, doing some twisting and curling of the wire.  Here's a closer look:

This is the back.  I don't know what game this piece is associated with, but it's roughly the size of a domino, just a little wider and shorter.

I later did a quick collage on a large sheet of paper and decided to cut it up and make some tags.



After a gorgeous sunny Saturday, the rains returned yesterday, and I took this as a sign that I should stay indoors and create something just for me.  Not for a swap or a challenge or a gift.  So I pulled out the red rosin paper, the gesso, the odds and ends of collage art, and worked on it, on and off, all day.  Note to Self: buy more stencils IMMEDIATELY!

It's a medium sized piece, a little under 12x18" and I made it using all the layering/texturing/stenciling techniques we learned from Lynne.





From Casa Azul to The Golden Gate Bridge

This week brought me not one, but THREE Frida Kahlo journals, and I've managed to complete pages for two of them.  As themes go, Frida can be a challenge.  Much as I admire the artist and the woman, her work can be disturbing and her life was no fiesta.  Having said that, the colors that evoke the spirit of Mexico found in Frida's paintings are brilliant, and the folkloric images are vivid and full of life.  Contradictions. 

Kate's journal has a sub-theme of Frida in San Francisco, and she requested that we all include some iconic image in our work.  I used two:  the Golden Gate Bridge and a cable car.

I did a simple background on watercolor paper with color washes, pastels, inks and mica sprays.  I then did a very loose sketch of the bridge and went over the pencil lines with an embossing ink pen.  Copper perfect pearls was brushed over that to give the bridge a kind of vague, through the fog look.  At least that's what I'm telling myself.

The cable car is a photo I found in google images, printed it out on plain copy paper, did some fussy cutting and a lot of pencil work to add some shading.  Diego and Frida were cut from a copy of one of her paintings.  I recall that Frida's father referred to the couple as "the elephant and the dove," so I decided to place that particular bird on Diego's head.  The cactus is a stamp.  Because Frida often included roots, vines, leaves, etc. in her work, I added those, and die cut them from a variety of papers.  Now, off to Casa Azul.

Janet created a portfolio style book, and asked that we include anything we think would have been found in Casa Azul, the home Frida and Diego shared in Mexico.  Well, I know Frida loved her elaborate folkloric dresses, and there had to be many in her closet, so that gave me the idea for my pages.

The title page:



 The blue strip was created by spraying denim color wash over a prima border stencil.  After it dried I went over the whole thing with faded jeans distress ink.  Then, of all things, I used a Stampin' Up wheel stamp of skulls over the top of it.  The area next to it is a collage of spanish text and sewing pattern paper, covered with a light wash of gesso and then peeled paint distress stain.  The wonderful letters are from an out of production stamp set, designed by Tim Holtz.  I love that set and am lucky to have snagged it when I did.

Whenever I'm starting a new round robin journal project I begin by gathering together materials I think I may use.....papers, collage sheets, charms, postcards, etc.  In my Frida box I found a strand of beads, handmade and of very colorful fabric.  I have no memory of where they came from, though I think someone sent them to me with a swap.  There is something very folksy about them and I thought they looked great highlighting the switch from the border to the rest of the page.  Plus, they echo the colors in the dress on the next page (that's me being arful and design conscious, LOL).   Speaking of which:

So, this is what is in Frida's closet.  For this background I did a series of the border stencils, each in a different color, by doing one at a time, masking off the surrounding areas.  Then I stuck some spanish text in between the border strips, and gave everything except the dark blue border a light wash of gesso.

The dress was created entirely from scraps from one of my many boxes of leftover pieces from previous projects.  The top is actually very fragile vintage wallpaper that I received as a RAK from my friend Angie.  I love that paper and have used it many times before.  The ruffle right below it was made from some paper towel that had been used to clean up after some spraying.  The bottom of the dress went through a few stages before I was happy with it.  It started out as a piece of sticky back canvas.  I covered it with a collage of text and then a coat of fired brick distress stain.  Then, using sharpie poster paint markers I drew a design similar to the one on the wallpaper top.  Some pom pom and bead trims finished it off.

The dress in on a wire hanger (with apologies to Joan Crawford, wherever she may be), and it is on a rod cut from a chop stick.  The lizard is a shrink plastic piece I did a while back, and I just knew it would eventually find its way onto one of these pages.  It was rubbed with embossing ink, then covered with gold UTEE before shrinking with a heat gun.  While it was still hot I sprinkled some beadazzles (a Suze Weinberg product that is a combination of micro beads and glitter) over top.

Now, I'm off to work on Maxine's Frida book.....with a theme of Day of the Dead.  Awesome!







An Artistic Evolution Begins

We're getting ready to embark on yet another collaborative art journal project.  And by we, I mean the usual suspects, who gladly hop on board any and every artistic adventure that our friend and ringleader Elena dreams up.

This one is called Artistic Evolution, and each of us starts with a chipboard journal that looks like this (these three photos courtesy of Val):

You can see that the pages look like steps, each an inch larger than the one that came before. (All are 6" high and the longest is just under 11" long).  There are 3 sets of these steps, so that each of the 15 participants will get a two page spread in everyone else's book, plus two single pages in their own.  Here's a top view:



And in this shot, you can really see the size progression.  You can also see Val's hand with the colorful fingernails.  Val, in her usual generous way, cut and assembled the books for all of us!

We each had the option to pick a color theme, which I did.  Here's why.....because of the nature of the differently sized pages, parts of artist #1's work will peek through when you're looking at artist #2's pages, and so on.  I figured though the content and style would evolve (evolve....evolution....get it?  understand the name now?) at least the colors would remain the same and give the book a cohesive look.  Having said that, a few brave souls have opted to allow everyone to use any and all colors, and you know what?  I'll bet those books will be spectacular.  But in all cases, the evolution from artist to artist is key, and everyone will have to be mindful of what came before. 

I'm really looking forward to the February launch, and have completed my covers, my opening page and sign in page.  I selected turquoise, olive green, and chocolate brown for my color scheme, and once I started I realized I'd made the right decision for myself.  I LOVE how these colors work together.

So, without further blah blah blah, here is my contribution to Eileen's Artistic Evolution:


                                                                          Front Cover

The Inside of the Front Cover

My Art Page (right after the front cover)

View of the inside front cover along side my art page. You can

see a bit of the blank page behind my art page.  The next artist will

have to keep that in mind while creating.  Fun!

These are the two blank pages the next artist will work on. You

can see a bit of my inside front cover on the left.  The artist will

have to incorporate that into her work.  Cool!

This is the very last page in the book, and I'm using it as my artist sign in page.

The inside back cover

The outside back cover (don't know why this came out so blurry, and I retook it

several times with the same result).

I incorporated lots and lots of techniques in my covers and pages.  I inked, painted, embossed and otherwise altered plain and patterned paper.  Colored paper towels were used, as were scraps from previous projects.  There is colorwash and perfect pearls mists, rubber stamping (I'm sure you die hards recognize some of Tim's and Wendy's stamps), die cutting, rub-ons, ribbons, machine stitching, doodling, stenciling, masking.........

When I started, I did not have a theme (besides the colors) in mind, but suddenly there were birds everywhere.  I can't wait to see what evolves.  Maybe my birds will become horses or houses or people or flowers or........whatever my wonderful artist friends want.  Doesn't this sound like the best journey????!!!!!!  Can you tell I'm excited? 

The 12 Tags of Christmas -- Day 8

Masks And Wire

No, not part of a robber's kit or a bondage outfit, but two of the cool techniques in Tim's day #8 tag.  This was a challenging tag for me to make.  While I loved the one Tim did, I'm less than thrilled with the two I came up with.  Part of it might be my stubborn determination not to copy; the mask Tim used is just perfect in size and shape for the tag.  Well, it is what it is, and I learned new techniques, so what am I complaining about?

Tim used the outside of his santa sleigh mask (the part we usually discard) as a stencil, positioning it on the tag and inking it and stamping over it.  I cut my own mask from the pine tree die instead, working vertically on the tag instead of horizontally.  I added some extra trees with a Stampin' Up stamp (one of my favorites, BTW).  Love the technique, not wild about my execution.  I think I should have positioned it lower on the tag and eliminated the trunk.  Also, my stamping over the stencil was a bit sloppy imperfect. (I'm embracing my imperfection, honestly, I am!)

I didn't have the distress stickles that Tim used to give the look of snow on the rooftops, so I substituted a regular stickles called stardust.  Not quite as effective and it took forever to dry. 

Also loved using wire to create the look of smoke coming out of the chimneys.  I didn't have the same gauge wire Tim used, and I would have liked to have the thicker wire.

I also like using my retro Dymo label maker to create the look of a banner, and that's a technique I'll use again for sure.

The last technique Tim used was dabbing metal with white paint, then rubbing it with a finger tip for a nice shabby look.  Tim's metal pieces included corners, a clock face and a spinner.  Because of my tag's orientation I really had no place for the corners, and though I tried a clock face on mine, I didn't care for it.  I opted for a grommet with a brad that fit inside the hole, trying for the look of the moon in the sky.  Hey, I said trying, not succeeding, LOL.

And now, my Wendy version:

I think this one works a little better, but I guess I just have to admit that today's attempts are not my favorites. 

This one obviously doesn't have a Christmas theme.  I started by making a mask from the Sizzix lovebird die.  After inking the stencil part of it on the tag with different shades of green, I over stamped with one of Wendy's stamps, using olive archival ink. The leaves in the background (done with coffee archival ink) are also from a Wendy stamp.   Since I opted not to use the townscape on the bottom, instead of using wire for smoke, I used it for tail feathers, pretty much following the curves of the tail on the die.  Again, I wish I had thicker wire for this technique.

My whitewashed metal includes corners (smaller ones than Tim's), a funky little piece I had in my stash that fit perfectly on the bird's head, a tiny brad for the eye, and a larger brad which is keeping all the wires in place.

Instead of a Christmas sentiment, my label has one of Wendy's favorite sayings, make art every day.



Atlantis Lives! (In My Dreams)

One of my favorite collaborative art journal groups is JOD (Journal of Dreams) because it is the least restrictive.  No particular theme or color combination.....just whatever the artist dreams up.  And that dream can be a literal night time dream or a wish, or whatever.
I received Gina's journal a while ago and it has taken me this long to come up with an idea.
I can't even put my finger on why I thought of Atlantis (no, not the resort in the Bahamas; I'm talking about the lost city of mythology).
In my head, however, Atlantis did not sink into oblivion.  Nope, my Atlantis is a thriving city where the people just learned to ADAPT.
So, maybe adaptation has been on my mind.  Who knows?  Like I've said before, I really don't like to spend too much time on interpretation or explanation.  So, without further psychoanalysis, here is my Atlantis:

Sadly, much of the texture and dimension doesn't show up in photographs, and there is a lot of both on the page.  The stylized city on the bottom was done with modeling paste and a cityscape stencil. The upper part of the background received texture with gesso, tissue paper, bubble wrap and some scratch tools.
Color came from some of the new Perfect Pearls mists, distress inks, and of course, my favorite, Portfolio water soluble oil pastels.
Most of the images are courtesy of my pal Val and her amazing collection of graphics.  I did a bit of work on them with pencils.
The cool steampunk looking lady with the binoculars was a freebie from someplace on the internet....sorry I don't remember where.

This is the journaling page: 

What I'd like to share about this page is what I did with a very cheap and (IMO) tacky charm.  That fish.  It was bright.  It was gaudy.  It was cheap and tacky.  First I dabbed some green paint on it, wiped most of it off, and added some white paint, also wiping most of it off.  That toned down the glare but wasn't quite enough.

So, I made some marks on it with an embossing pen and sprinkled some Ranger verdigris embossing powder (from their Antiquities line) on it and heat set.  I'm not sure if it shows up, but there is also a dot of purple embossing in the eye. 

Of Dreams and Art Angels

Another JOD (Journal of Dreams) arrived  recently, and I finished my pages this week.  Jacquie's journal is a bit larger than most (don't remember the exact measurements, but it was about 9x12).  Dreams of flying are common, and it's a theme I've used many times, though differently in each journal.  I generally prefer to work on a smaller page, but the great thing about one this size, is the ability it gives to use really big images.  

I started with applying inks to the watercolor paper.....I swiped the pads directly on the paper, sprayed water on top, then blended with a paper towel.  I kept doing this until I was happy, and added a torn strip of beautiful paper from the Mariposa stack (DCWV).   That paper suddenly looked a little bright to me, so I toned down some of its glitziness with more ink.  (Don't you love how you can alter patterned paper to suit your needs?)

I drew the bird head on cardstock, cut it out, and covered it with bits of old dress pattern paper (thank you Sherry, for sending my necklace wrapped in this wonderful paper!).  More ink (black and  several browns), and then the whole thing coated with some gel medium to seal it and give it a nice glossy finish.

I had some leftover crayon paper made with a used dryer sheet (click here for a tutorial on that), and tore some wisps of that for the birdie's head feathers.  Since most self-respecting birds in my dreams are regal, I gave this one a nice big crown.

Texture is hard to see in photographs, but the bird and cage on the left have it (texture, that is).

I used the negative left over after cutting Tim's caged bird die as a stencil, and applied some modeling paste.  This left a raised image of  the cage and bird, which dries hard and is firmly attached to the paper.   More ink, some random stamping and doodling, and side one is done.

On the back....the same sort of inking and spraying, and another piece of Mariposa paper, also toned down with ink.   The "fly away home" stamp is ATC-sized, and is from Red Lead.  Dangling from it is a (very distorted) little bird cage, cut from Tim's die on black shrink plastic, shrunk down with my heat tool, and embellished with some beads.  I'll go on record here as saying that the distortion was carefully planned and came out exactly as I wanted.  Well, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

The journaling was done with my much beloved Sakura glaze pens.

I started making art angels a while back, and have shown you some in the past.  This is one of my favorites, and was sent to my friend Sherry to look over her and protect her while she deals with a serious health issue.  Sherry just blogged about this, so click here to get the info from the source.  Love you, Sherry!

Made with LOVE, a key, a crushed bottlecap, some wings, a stamped image, resistors, and did I say, LOVE? 

Journal of Dreams -- Words/Art

I've been thinking a lot lately about the way I journal, wondering if relying mostly on visual images is a cop-out, a way to avoid writing about feelings.  Well, maybe I'm kidding myself, but I've come to the conclusion that the opposite might be true.  I'm actually very comfortable with words and writing and maybe in journals I choose my words a bit too carefully.
When I work in journals, my own or any of the collaborative ones I'm involved with, I don't over think....until it's time to add the words.  My art, I believe, is more emotional and more honest than my words. 
And this little debate I've been having with myself is what has led to the pages I just completed for Tracy's Journal of Dreams. 

Page One:

Page Two:

What I did:   the backgrounds are very layered.  I started with some Adirondack Color Washes (stream and lettuce) on watercolor paper, then bits of color-stained paper towels, ledger paper, old dictionary pages.  More color added with Portfolio water soluble oil pastels and some copper and green glazes.

The head and class picture in the corners of page one are transfers done with stamps and clear contact paper (head) and clear packing tape (class picture).  The head is a Tim Holtz stamp, the class picture is from Red Lead. 

I stamped Wendy Vecchi's artchick head on white tissue paper with black Archival ink (which is what I also did with the kimono), cut it out and attached it to the page with gel medium.  Works a lot like a transfer but minus the heartache transfers often cause (for me).  

Some bling, lots of glaze pen doodling, some more stamping, even a few subtle stencils, and done.  LOL!  That makes it sound like instant art, but actually this was one of the few things I've done that I actually worked on for several days.

With two page spreads, the second page is where my journaling usually goes, and that's when I started thinking the thoughts voiced at the start of this post.  Normally I'll google a theme and search for quotes, or (rarely) just write a few sentences about what I've just created.  

This time, if you read between the (sparse) lines, my journaling is just telling me to shut up and let the art speak for itself.  And that really tickles me.

Journal of Dreams -- Thinking of Days Long Gone

I received Heather's JOD last week and as sometimes happens, had an immediate idea for my pages, so got right to it.  I've been using old family photos in my altered book, and continued that theme on these pages.

This is the front.  The background is watercolor paper with distress inks and colorwash, then stamped with clear ink on a fabulous flourish stamp, embossed with clear EP, then inked some more.

The vintage pens are from a Graphic 45 sheet.

The gate is a die cut I found in my stash; the leaves are also cut from a die.....but this one I can identify.  It's on Tim's Regal Crest die.

The photo is of (in order of appearance), me and two cousins, Jack and Sandi.  It was taken one summer in the yard of my grandmother's beach house, and I have VERY fond memories of those times.  I highlighted the little faces with tiny grommets.  

And, on the flip side:

The background is a used dryer sheet, sprayed with homemade mica spray and glued to a previously colorwashed piece of watercolor paper.  You can see a few sprays of leaves peeking out from behind the journaling tag.....they were made with what was left when I cut the leaves from the TH die.  I used this negative as a stencil and pounced some Vintage Photo distress ink over them.

The strip on the left is made of bits of leftover papers from a page in the TH Lost and Found stack.

The photo is of my father and his two younger brothers.  I get a kick out of it.....they all look so solemn, and I can't help wondering how the photographer got three little guys to stay so still and appear so serious.

Marie's Closet and My Escape

When I got home late on Saturday, there was a package waiting for me.....Val's Marie Antoinette journal.  Val chose the theme of Marie's Closet, and we're to create an outfit for Marie to wear for any occasion we could imagine.  A few days before, I'd been messing around with the stencils left behind after cutting butterflies with my Big Kick.  I used them along with some color washes, inks, mica powder mists, etc. to make a background.  This inspired me to give Marie a "casual" dress for an afternoon spent catching butterflies in the gardens of Versailles.   Do I have any idea if people actually did that in those times?  No.  But it does seem like the sort of genteel activity that a queen might indulge in.

For this page, I took a sheet from Tim's Vintage Shabby paper stack (a blue one) and added some greens and purples, the other colors that appear in my butterfly background paper (which you'll see next). The paper butterflies were cut from a Cuttlebug embosslit.  I added tiers of lace for Marie's dress.  Her hat is just an oval of vellum with some tiny flowers and other bling.  The challenge was the butterfly net.  That I did with some jewelry wire, and attached the tulle with some sticky strip.  The bejeweled butterflies were part of the stash of Marie-inspired goodies that Daisy had sent along with her journal.  I've used a lot of what she sent in the pages I've done so far.  

What tickled me the most......I discovered that I actually own a stamp (from Quietfire) that says "papillon," which is French for.......you guessed it, butterfly!  I think you can see it stamped in gold in a few places.

For my journaling page, I took that background paper, added some vellum butterflies (which I inked, sprayed with a mica powder mist, and added stickles to), and attached my journaling (which was printed on parchment paper).

Val included patterns for little slippers to be used as her sign-in tags.  (Val is super organized and thinks of EVERYTHING!).  We were to decorate our shoe in the style of our pages, and this is what I came up with:

I'm very happy with these pages, and hope Val is too.

Now, over at PID, the weekly challenge theme is "My Favorite Escape."   For me, that has always been books.  This is a tag I did.  All images are from the PID shop.

If you're at all curious about the background, it will be featured on the PID blog tomorrow for Technique Tuesday.

It's only noon.  You have time.   Go make some art!

Self Portrait Stencil

The miserable weather the northeast has had this weekend kept me indoors for most of it.  I had the chance to catch up on some favorite blogs and was happy to visit Jennifer's.  She is one of my co-collaborators in the art journals, and I love her art.   Her blog post was all about creating a self portrait stencil.
First, go to this site where you can transform a photograph of yourself into one that can easily become a stencil.   Jennifer used the cartoon feature, but I opted for the one called stencil.  (There are a ton of other options that have nothing to do with making a stencil, but look like a whole lot of fun.  You can change a photo to give it a grunge look, or an impressionistic look, or......well, go there and see for yourself).
I used the photo that you see right here on the blog (though I left out the cosmo in the finished stencil).
This is what the stencilized version looks like:

Take the print and lay it under some acetate.  Color in all the black areas with a sharpie, directly on the acetate.  Then using a craft knife (TIP:  use a brand new VERY sharp blade for the best results), and working on a self healing cutting mat,  cut away all the areas you've blackened.

You're left with a stencil and that's where the fun comes in.  I did just a few samples, but definitely plan to make some more and incorporate them into my art.

This was done with distress ink and a blending tool.  Very easy and neat.

The next one was done by spraying with Adirondack Color Wash.  Not as crisp, maybe, but I like it.

The last one I did today was with acrylic paints...I used two colors and just dabbed them over the stencil with a stiff brush.

Next I'll try combining some materials and see how that works.  I'm thinking about dabbing versamark over the stencil, removing it, and then sprinkling embossing powder and heat setting it.  I also think ink and perfect pearls would be nice.

Well, thanks Jennifer for the inspiration!

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?