She Was Beautiful Art Journal Page

There is a big stack of gelli prints sitting on my desk waiting to be used.  I grabbed one of them to start this art journal page.

I thought I was going to use the print as the skin for my girlie (and then black out the rest) but it didn't work out that way.  I don't typically 'do' drawing and painting so it was good to stretch the ol' comfort zone and try my hand at it.  I found the quote on my Well Said pinterest board.  I love going there for inspiration.

Happy Arting!

Gettin' Jiggy with my Gelli

Last week I saw some cool post in my blog wanderings that inspired me to get my gelli plate out.  The Muse has been a bit quiet and I haven't been 'feeling it' so it was fun to just get messy.

I don't love all of these. In fact I don't love MOST of these.  They will go into my stash though to be reworked at a later date. 

However some of the papers insisted on being reworked immediately.  Inspired by a recent post on Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's blog, I got out my watercolor crayons, some paint and found objects and got to work further embellishing some gelli'd papers.

And now for some close-ups:

I don't use metallics very often but I thought these needed the oomph.  Bronze and gold paints and markers did the trick.

Back into the stash they go until I figure out what the next step on their adventure is.  Have a fabulously creative day!

Tuesday Morning Strikes Again

Today on the way home from work I decided to make a quick stop at Tuesday Morning 'just to see' what they had.  Ai yai yai...good day.  I picked up quite a few little crafty treats.  The first one that caught my eye was the Compass Blueprint stamp & die combo by Sizzix/Tim Holtz.  I've been wanting this for a while.  I got right to work when I got home.

It was perfect for a swap I'm doing that requires a map background.  I'll be pulling this set out a lot!

Happy Crafting!

An ATC with an Unusual Surface

Yep.  Another interesting challenge.  I  looked all over the house and one afternoon I was staring blankly into the corner whilst sitting at my desk and I noticed a USPS Express envelope sitting there.  "Hmmmm..." I said to myself.  I cut an ATC-sized chunk out of it and got to work with alcohol inks.

What do you think? Kinda different, yes?

30-Minute Challenge

Holy moly.  Really?  That's the challenge this week over at the Stampotique Designers Challenge blog.  Lesson learned....it's trickier than it sounds.  I just don't work that way.  Then again, that's what challenges are all about, right?  Inspired by the fabulously talented Karen Hayselden I pulled out Roger and got to work on an ATC.

To color him I used Distress inks and stains.  A bag of lovely blue sequins has been sitting on my desk for a few months.  Ripped that open too.  :)  It's a good day.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Art Journal Page

The other day I received an amazing swap package that included items wrapped in sewing pattern bits.  Never one to waste such valuable arting material (and eager to find a place to store it) I decided to just get busy and I whipped out an art journal.  You see, my journals have been collecting dust for quite a while; The Muse gets quite distracted by making ATCs.  I shooshed her though and having no clue where I was going just glued down the sewing pattern tissue onto the page.  She quickly got on board with the whole journaling thing and I ended up with this:

 I did lots of stuff to add layers.  I gesso'd the sewing pattern tissue after it was dry and then added yellow, pink and orange acrylic paint.  After that came stenciling and stamping and scribbles (white charcoal pencil).  I finished up the background with black paint splatters and a watercolor crayon border

I can always find some Daniel Torrente images to use.  Here are some of my faves with their grungy halos.  (I added some gold Liquid Pearls to the 'clean' spots).  They're standing on some stenciled and grunged up book text.

I found the saying on my Pinterest 'Well Said' board.  I always go there for a handy saying or quote.  After I painted the words I really tried to dirty up 'DIRTY' with scribbles and charcoal pencil.

The blue squares are from book text and I colored them with watercolor crayons, black and white charcoal pencil and black pen.  When all was said and done I scribbled some ideas for dirtying halos in each box.  :)

My own halo is often askew, dirtied up or missing completely.  I think life is more fun that way.  :)

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Mixed Media Inspiration Deck Challenge

It's not really an official challenge, but I've challenged myself to make my own inspiration deck of mixed media techniques.

You see, odd as it is since I have older kids, there doesn't seem to be a deck of cards in the house that is intact.  This perplexes me to no end and drives me a little nuts quite honestly (I'm one of those types who can't stand it when a game piece or puzzle piece is missing.  Very challenging as a preschool teacher.)  I decided to gather up the remains of several card decks and get creative with them. Oddly enough, I have 51 cards...figures.

I finished up a swap last week that was SO fun.  The hostess made a list of techniques, prompts, etc. and randomly assigned us 3 numbers to use on each card.  I borrowed many of her ideas for my inspiration deck list.  I also found many of them in a book I have Surface Treatment Workshop: Mixed Media Techniques.  Cool book.

The first card was finished last night.  It didn't really turn out as I had envisioned - can't say I love it - but perhaps it will offer some inspiration down the road.

Inspiration Deck Checklist: 

#1: Layers of holes

#32: Use a gelli print

#47: Make it dimensional (add foam dots, etc.)

I really just started out with #1 but the second two fell into place.  9 more cards are on my desk all gesso'd and ready to go.  :)

Have a great weekend!