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

Sympathy card set - Tree Scenes

This is a set of sympathy cards I made. I tried to make them have a subdued and quiet look.  I used the Sizzix Bigz Top Note die to cut the white cardstock.  Then I heat embossed the tree images on the die cut shapes and used torn paper for masks and sponged on colour for the backgrounds.
Thanks to my friend Linda for two of the stamps for the tree images.
Peace to you all. :D

Cards - Flowers and designer paper

For these cards I used a stamp set by Inkadinkado called Doodle Flowers. The sentiment is a set by Stampin Up called Happy Harmony. The flowers were coloured with markers.

I used the same stamp set and papers for this card. This photo also shows one of the matching envelopes I made for the cards using chalks for the colour. I also chalked the background on the main image on the card.

This is the third card of the set I made. I outlined the papers with a gold metallic pen and used gold edged ribbon for this card.
Have fun with your stamp sets and designer papers. Dig out something from your stash and get creative! :D
Have fun!