2014 Journal52 - Week 4 - Character Building

This page started out with a coat of gesso. Then I took a magazine image of a girl and lightly traced the shape and features. I took an oak leaf stamp and covered it with two colours of gelatos, spritzed it with a mist of water and stamped it several times on the background.  Then I painted with some acrylic paint and put a stencil over the wet paint and rubbed off the paint in the design of the stencil. This is called reduction stenciling.  Then I took another stencil and sponged some ink through it. After that I drew in the girl's face with a stabilo pencil, which is water soluble, and took a paint brush and painted in those black lines. Then I used watercolour paints to paint in the face and hair. I wrote the message in black marker.
This page was a lot of fun and is my entry for week 4 of Journal52.
I hope you're having fun too! :D

2014 Journal52 - Week 3 - You Make Me Smile

My page for week 3 of the Journal52 series has a lot of collage and a picture of my husband. I started by gessoing the page, and then I added lots of different types of papers which I collaged to the background. I painted some diluted white paint over all the collage to tone it down and unify it. I stenciled some spackling to the page for texture. I also added some washi tape. Then I added some LuminArte spray paints and let them drip down the page. I also added some colour with some Silks acrylic glaze. I did some stamping in the background too.
I framed the picture of my husband and added it to the page. Then I wrote the text in marker.
Keep smiling!!! :D

2014 Journal52 - Week 2 - Somewhere, A Simple Place

My page for week 2 of the Journal52 series is about the joy and peace I find while walking on the walking trails by the river. I love to be out in nature. This is a mixed media piece. I first drew the scene with pencil, then I painted it with watercolours and added some details with pencil crayons and markers. I wrote the words with a straight pen and ink.
Where is a simple place that you like to go?
:D

2014 Journal52 -Week 1 - Up, Up and Away

Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2014 will be a great year for all of us!!!  It's been a while since I last posted , but I am back after a busy holiday and visiting season.
I joined a group on Facebook called Jouranl52. We are being given an art journal prompt every week for the year 2014. This mixed media page is my week 1 page for the prompt Up, Up and Away. I have used paints, stencils, tag, stamps, markers, mesh tape, ink sprays, and some bling.
Why don't you come and join us? I hope to see you there. Let me know if you join. :D

Christmas Tag - 2013

This is the Christmas Tag that I made for my friend Linda. I heat embossed the stamped frame and cut it out and then coloured Santa and glued it under the frame. I added a patterned paper background to the tag and popped up the framed Santa. I then added several embellishments - lace, flowers, stickers, ribbon. punched branches. I used distress ink in vintage photo to sponge each piece to give it the vintage look.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season.  :D

Christmas Cards - 2013

My friend Linda brought over some of her patterned papers and we designed some Christmas cards. These are three of the designs I made. We stamped the snowflakes and I added some glimmer paint to make them shine. There was also one paper filled with sentiments so we cut some out and added them. We used shiny grey-blue cards to match the patterned papers. It was fun and challenging finding different ways to use the patterned papers.
I would like to wish you all a wonderful holiday season and Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it!
Much love. :D

Christmas Cards - 2013

Here is one of the Christmas cards that I made this year.  The main image was mounted with patterned paper and the tree and sentiment were stamped and decorated with stickles.
Here is another one with a different tree stamp.

I hope your Christmas creations are almost finished! :D

Business Card Art - Smile!

I had a lot of fun creating this tiny art card. I used some of the little pieces of scraps that were sitting on my art table. I collaged them on and then added some doodling, glitter, bling, stickles and one foam letter. It's just amazing what you can do with your garbage!!! *LOL*
I had to add the word smile because that's what I was doing as I created this. :D
Have a wonderful day!

Business Card Art - Laugh

I'm having fun with the tiny art cards I'm doing on my old business cards. This one is really recycled! Not only is it on the old business card, but I covered it with some wrapping paper that was on a gift I received. Then I doodled and wrote the word laugh and added some sparkle with glitter pens. Unfortunately the glitter doesn't show in the photo.
I'm trying to come up with an idea of what to do with these tiny creations. I'd love to hear from you if you have any good ideas for me. :D Thanks!

Business Card Art - Oak Leaves and Acorns

Here is another small art piece done on a business card. The card was first painted with gesso. Then when the gesso was dry I made the crackle background by applying white glue to the card and then green acrylic paint over the wet glue. Then I let it dry and it crackles. I stamped, coloured and cut out the leaves and acorns and glued them to the card. I outlined the leaves with a white PITT pen.
Thanks for looking. Let me know if you try some tiny art.  :D

Halloween Bookmark - Spooky

This is a bookmark that I made for Halloween with stamping, sponging and markers. So much fun! Then I laminated it and added ribbons and fibers tied at the top. I just love Halloween images!
I hope you have a fun, spooky Halloween!  :D

Business Card Art - Halloween

I have a large amount of old business cards. I decided that I would use some of them for some small art cards. For the background on this card I crinkled up some foil wrap and then smoothed it out and glued it to the card base. I painted over the foil with purple acrylic paint and when it was dry, I sanded off some of the paint. I sanded more off around the moon to give it a glow. I stamped and coloured the cute Halloween characters and cut them out and glued them to the card base.
Happy Halloween!!!! :D

Art Journal inspired by Finnabair

I went to a workshop at The Art House Studio in Cambridge. The teacher was Ania Dabowska (aka Finnabair or just Finn) who is from Poland, but now lives in Ireland. She taught us her method and style of creating the front cover for this art journal. It was a fun and interesting class.
We also decorated the back cover. I made mine with less dimension so that it could lay flat. Here is the back cover for my journal.

We did 4 pages on the inside and after working all day, we ran out of time and energy! We went home tired and happy. I thoroughly enjoyed this workshop. It's fun to learn new techniques and styles.

Nativity Christmas Card - Side Step Card

This Christmas card is folded in the side step way and will sit up on its own. The angel stamp is from Anita's. The nativity stamp is from Serendipity Stamps. The candles stamps is from Inkadinkado. The sentiment stamp is from Stampin Up's Come to Bethlehem set.
The images were stamped in black archival ink and then coloured with pencil crayons and then adhered to the side step card base.
Are you getting any Christmas cards made yet? I have a few done.
Take care! :D

Stampscapes - Tri-fold Card - Lakeside View

This is a tri-fold shutter card that I made for my friend a while ago. The instructions for this style of card can be found on Splitcoaststampers or you tube. I decided to make a scene for this type of card using my stampscapes stamps. I cut all the pieces of white glossy cardstock to fit each space of the card and then I laid them down in place like a puzzle and stamped my scene using black archival ink. When the ink was dry, I then added colour using stipple brushes and dye inks.

Below is the card stretched out so that you can see the scene.

And below here is the card folded up and ready to go into an envelope.

These cards are intricate to do but look great when they are standing up in 3-D. Some people make the scene first and then cut it up into the correct size pieces. I chose to do it differently to make each element fit into each space.
Take care! :D