Art Journal (Kraft paper) - Experimental stash

I have lots of pieces of art that I have done when trying a new technique or a new tool or medium or stamp etc. I call it my experimental stash.
I gessoed this page in my journal that has kraft coloured paper and did some painting and stamping layers for the background. I chose several things from my experimental stash to create this page. I then did some shading to make the objects stand out from the page.
Have fun experimenting with your stash! :D

Art Journal - Celery Stamped Roses

What fun! Stamping with celery!

Celery Roses? Sure!
 I cut off the bottom 3 inches of a bunch of celery and applied paint to the cut end and stamped on a prepared background. After the images dried, I drew in some details with a black marker. I then added some stickles glitter to the flowers and drew and painted the stems and leaves.
I added the border details with paint, ink  and stamping and also doodling with a paint marker.

I have many beautiful stamps, but sometimes it's great fun to use things you have around the house for stamping and background textures. It makes you look around your world with a new creative eye.
So go ahead.....play with your food!  :D

Savanna Stamping Retreat - Home on the Range

At the Savanna Stamping Retreat there were hundreds of stamps to use, mostly belonging to our hostess Karen Wallace. Everyone shared their stamps as well. Unfortunately, I don't know the companies that made these stamps. I just chose these to make the scene and didn't write down who made them. The bottom part of the scene was all one stamp and the mountain range was one stamped twice and the clouds and birds were two different stamps.
On this scene I used markers, stippling, and pencil crayons to add the colour.
I hope you have a creative day! :D

Savanna Stamping Retreat - Northwoods Stamps

These are two more scenes that I did at the Savanna Stamping retreat. I borrowed some Northwoods stamps from my friend Cheryl there. I coloured the barn scene with prismacolor pencil crayons and blended them with OMS and a paper stump. The house/skating scene was coloured with markers and I stippled dye inks around the frame. I added glitter to the snow on each scene.
These Northwoods stamps are fun to colour and the whole scene comes on one stamp. Thanks to Cheryl for letting me try her stamps.
Happy stamping!!!! :D

Savanna Stamping Retreat - Peaceful Meadow

I did this scene at the Savanna, Illinois Stamping Retreat. I was trying a new method of making the clouds that I had been thinking about for a while. I first stamped the images using Stampscapes stamps. Then I tore the sticky part of post-it notes into cloud shapes and adhered them onto the sky to mask the cloud shapes. I stippled dye inks with stipple brushes onto the sky and grassy area. I added colour to the trees with markers. Then I removed the cloud masks and added a little grey colour to the bottom of the clouds.
I had such a great time at the retreat!  :D

Savanna Stamping Retreat - Rocky River

This is another scene that I did at the Savanna Stamping retreat. It is a mixed media scene. I used the copics air brush system to paint the sky blue and then used a new technique, taught by Lynette at the retreat, to make the clouds. She showed us how to use a small felt square to tap opaque white ink onto the sky area to make the clouds. It was a fun way to try. Thanks to Lynette for showing us this new way of making clouds. Then I coloured the rest of the scene with Tombow markers.
I love learning and trying new techniques in all of my artwork!
Keep creating. It is so good for the soul!
:D

Stamping Retreat in Savanna, Illinois May 2012

Last week I attended a wonderful stamping retreat in Savanna, Illinois in the United States. The retreat was hosted by Karen Wallace and stampers from the Stampscapes Yahoo groups were invited. Kevin Nakagawa, the owner and creator of the Stampscapes line of stamps, also attended. It was so great to watch him create! His work is amazing!!!!
Here is a picture of Kevin and I at the retreat and another two showing Kevin at work.

We did mostly scenic stamping and as we finished a scene, we would put it on the piano for display. After several days we had more scenes and they were being displayed around the room.

This was the second year that I was able to go to this stamping retreat and I had a fabulous time! It was great to see friends I had met last year and meet some new ones this year.
Here is one of my scenes from the retreat called "Swans on the Pond".

Many thanks to Karen for all her work and to everyone for such a fun time! I hope to see you all again.
Happy stamping!!!!  :D

Magazine Art Journal - Graffiti Wall

I did another page in my big 12x8.5" magazine journal. The pages were first covered with gesso, then layers of painting and stamping and stencilling were added. The lettering was added with a paint marker.
What would you like to write on a big, old wall?
Have a great day! :D

Magazine Art Journal - Garden of Dreams

I am using a magazine from the University of Waterloo for this art journal. It measures 12x8.5 inches. I gessoed all the pages and collaged book pages to the front and back covers and then covered that with gesso to make them stronger.
For this 2-page spread, I first made the flowers by spraying white coffee filters with Adirondack ink sprays and then  making three different styles of flowers with them. Then I made the mixed media background using acrylic paints, stamps, inks, and various household items such as plastic canvas to paint and add texture to the page. I painted the stems and added doodling around the stems and leaves with a white gel pen.
Here are a couple of close ups of some of the details...

I took the next photo from a side angle so that you could see the dimension of the flowers.

I would love to hear your thoughts. How about leaving me a comment? I'd love to hear from you. Thanks! Have a fabulous day!
:D

Small Red Art Journal - Creative Freedom

This is a mixed media 2-page spread I did with gesso, paints, stencils, inks, markers, glitter paint and paint markers. I love the creative freedom of working in an art journal and just playing with your supplies. Too much fun!
Have a wonderful day and take some time to just play!
:D

File Folder Journal - Positive Affirmations

I made a journal from a file folder. It has pockets inside to put your artwork or anything else you would want to do. I chose to do positive affirmations with some Zentangle inspired art and stamps to decorate each tag for inside the pockets. The journal folds out into four sections. There are several you tube videos you can find that show you how to make these.

I decorated the inside and outside with coordinating vintage style design papers. I also added some stickers and bling. All the edges were distressed by sponging ink. This is still a work in progress.

I have made some of the tags to go inside. I used vanilla cardstock, then rubbed three colours of ink onto my craft mat , spritzed the ink with water, then rubbed the tags into the inks to colour the backgrounds. Then I wrote the positive affirmations and did some zentangling or stamping to decorate the tag. Here are four that I have made so far.

I'm working at keeping all my thoughts positive and I contemplate each affirmation as I tangle.
Happy Tangling! :D

Sympathy Card - Birch trees

This sympathy card was made with black ink and coloured with chalks. The chalks give a soft, muted colour. The moon was masked with a circle punched out from a post-it note and then I chalked over the circle mask. The mask was then removed and wispy clouds were sponged over the white moon.
 My friend Linda and I made these cards one day and we decided to decorate the inside with much the same scene but in a much more muted way so that the sentiment could be stamped on top of it.
Here is the inside of the card.

Next we decorated the envelope to match. Here is the envelope.

We made a similar card using different colours. We did this one with shades of blue and purple. We also decorated the inside and envelope as well.

It's never easy to have to send sympathy cards, but hopefully they help bring comfort to the family.
Take care. :)

Big Art Journal - Enjoy Who You Are

I made this two page spread in my big art journal. Each page measures 8.5"x11". I did the wax paper technique that I saw on GinaK's Stamp TV video for the background. I had done this technique on glossy cardstock before, but never on matte cardstock, so I wanted to try it out. For this you take a piece of wax paper and crumple it up real tight and then spread it back out and smoothe it down. You then place the wax paper between two pages and iron it on the top of the matte paper. The wax transfers onto the pages in awesome patterns. Then you take ink pads in the colours that you want and rub them all over the pages. When you do this step, the wax patterns appear.
I then stamped some background images, added the text and hearts and some stickers, acrylic paint and more ink for distressing. I stamped some edge stamps that I had made with acrylic paint on some parts of the borders.
I saw the text on a post on Facebook. I liked what it said so I printed it and added it to this journal page.

Here are the two pages in more of a close-up. You can click on them to see them even more close-up to see the great texture that the wax paper made in the background. The colours are more vibrant irl, but my camera doesn't seem to pick that up too well.

Have a go at the wax paper technique. It's really fun to see the patterns emerge like magic!
Take care and have a creative day! :D

Art Journal - Eagles' Nest

I stamped this page with images from Sutter and Stampscapes while I was at a retreat in May 2011 in Savanna, Illinois. I coloured the scene with coloured pencil crayons and blended them with odorless mineral spirits and a paper stump.
This is the time of year that I like to watch the live webcams that show the eagles laying their eggs and carefully sitting on them for weeks until the babies hatch. The webcams stay until the babies are grown and have left the nest. It is amazing to watch! There are several webcams that do this and I like the one from Decorah, Iowa. Check it out!
Happy eagle watching! :D

Art Journal - Vintage Memories

This is a two page spread I did about lots of old fashioned memorabilia. I did several layers of painting and stamping and collage on the background.  I also did lots of doodling and shading and distressing on the page and on some of the images.
I was following a tutorial by Pam Carriker on how to do a journal page in her style. It was called "Visual Journalism 101 Tutorial" on You Tube. I'm not sure yet what my style is, so it's fun to try techniques that other artists use.
Enjoy your day and maybe try a new technique or style today. Above all else......have fun with your art!  :D