Tuesday, October 30, 2012

A Saturday spent art journaling...


This past Saturday I took a class from my friend Catherine Scanlon where we made a spiral bound art journal and learned some fun techniques.  This is the journal cover.  It began with a layer of vintage papers and then using a design traced through a stencil, we embellished our covers with washes of acrylic paint and penwork.


In this close-up view you can see how the underlying text comes through the acrylic paint wash - love it!


My favorite page technique is what Catherine calls 'the art of subtraction' where we started with an entire page filled with random watercolor splotches. You then form your design out of the shapes you see and paint out the rest of the page with gesso which takes on a lovely pastel hue from all the watercolor beneath it. I loved the flowers I saw in my piece and it's just amazing watching them develop as you paint in the background surrounding them. I used a favorite Matisse quote to embellish the page further which fit perfectly....although rather crookedly - oops! I still love the page though :-)

Monday, October 29, 2012

CC2C week 26 collage


This is my project for this week's Compendium of Curiosities Vol.2 Challenge where we were to make Crumpled Kraft Suede following the technique described on page 40 of Tim's book.  An interesting feeling paper results from this process, and I created it in several colors and then used various die-cuts to create my collage on corrugated cardboard.  The wind is howling around my house as I type this because Hurricane Sandy is reaching us here in Maine - not sure if we may lose power, but fairly certain we will have lots of rain all week as the storm makes a turn to the east. I hope everyone in this enormous storm's path remains safe!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

The Whatevers #5: a day in the life of Gunther and Gustav


Another Whatevers picture! (You can get a picture copy to play with and read some more fun stories on the blogs of Catherine Scanlon HERE, Nathalie Kalbach HERE, or Vicki Chrisman HERE.)  I wanted to have a grungy, urban looking page to go along with these two posing in front of their trolley. Because of the German writing on the side of it, I added vintage German book paper, but my tickets are from England and Wales, and my road map is actually of Charlottetown, PEI in Canada - a very mixed up international page I guess!



Here's my story:

Tickets, please! Gunther and Gustav were very proud of their positions as trolley conductors as they were responsible for keeping the population moving through the bustling city. They were also privy to many conversations that they unfortunately couldn’t avoid hearing... dinner plans, complaints about employers and landlords, financial worries, and reprimands to misbehaving children. So many different people passed through their trolley in the course of a day. Just today there was a lawyer going to his downtown office, an author carrying his manuscript tucked firmly under his arm to deliver to his publisher, and even a woman who Gunther was sure was a stage actress. The only part of their job they didn’t particularly enjoy was posing for pictures in front of their trolley for the tourists.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

CC2C week 25 collage


It's week 25 at the Compendium of Curiosities Vol. 2 Challenge (this week sponsored by Simon Says Stamp) and we are challenged to create a Perfect Pearls palette as described on page 53 of Tim's book.  It was lots of fun to create this palette of shimmery colors to paint with and you can see them used in my background.  I then created this simple vintage collage using a fun 7Gypsies frame giving a faux cabinet card look.


Stamp credit: I Brake for Stamps, Image credit: The Graphics Fairy

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Textures on an art journal page

Start with drywall tape and modeling paste through a script stencil...


...add some glimmer mist drips.....

...and finish it off with tags and tape and a fantastic Picasso quote.  It's so true, don't you agree?  I've found that pieces go off in a totally different direction when I'm already playing and start to try out ideas.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

CC2C week 24 tag

This week's technique for Linda's Compendium of Curiosities Vol.2 Challenge is found on page 59 of Tim's book - alcohol ink resist.  I love resists and this is no exception.  I had fun playing with the technique on these acrylic circles, but wasn't sure what to do with them....

I placed them all on a tag stamped with a subtle circles of text background stamp to continue with the circle theme.  I positioned them on the tag kind of balanced on each other and thought adding the stamped word balance was fun. As you can tell, the acrylic circles are sewn onto the tag avoiding the use of adhesive that would interfere with the alcohol ink patterns.

Here's the final tag - not exactly a great tag, but I do think the resist is cool.
 .

Stamp credits: Hero Arts and Unity stamps

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

The Whatevers #4: Wilford's Best Laid Plans


Oh how I love playing along with the Whatevers!  With the picture this month I kept being drawn to the man with the mustache and had to make him the focus of my story.  His wife and daughter have eyes looking off to the side, but there sits Wilford, looking directly at the camera, resolute.


Here's the right side of the spread.


This close-up lets you see my found book text.

And here's the left side and the story:

Wilford finally concluded that he was an utter failure at farming.  He hated being awakened by the rooster, never did like cows; figured the feeling was probably mutual, and kept misplacing his Farmer’s Almanac that his neighbors swore by and subsequently missed all the important planting dates.  To remedy the situation, he decided to sell the farm and with the money move his family to the city and become a shopkeeper.  People would now come to him to meet their needs instead of snicker when he walked by.  His family would be dressed in fine clothes he would import from Europe, and he would finally be a respected member of the community. “Life will be so much better,” he thought to himself.

One last view of all the wonderful texture layers: tissue paper painted with purple and blue acrylic paint, lace also painted with the same paint, ric-rac painted with gold paint, washi tape, and accents with sewing and tiny pearls.

Check out the projects done by Nathalie, Vicki and Catherine this month on their blogs where you can also get the picture to play along, too.

Monday, October 1, 2012

CC2C week 23 tag


It's Distress Markers this week for the featured product on the Compendium of Curiosities Vol.2 Challenge.  Since it's Fall and the leaves are starting to change color in my part of the world, I got out one of my old favorite stamps for this time of year and followed the Distress Marker techniques on page 50 of Tim's book which gave it a fun new look that I like. I placed my background on a kraft tag and added miscellaneous little bits - a 7Gypsies mini tag, metal numbers and charm, a Memory Box flourish die cut, and German scrap creating a simple collage.

Here's a close-up:

Stamp Credits: Rubber Stampede