Tuesday's Tip

In my quest to find some creative inspiration, I found a fun little tip involving children's art work. I had saved my kids art for many years until I hit upon the idea to photograph it. Easier to have the photographs - they take up less space - and I could scrap them projects in the school albums.
I came across a fun idea while taking an on-line class by Claudine Helmuth. You could create a collage of your children's art. Cool idea for a playroom or child's bedroom wall. Plus, you can rotate the projects. I thought it might be neat to (first photograph the complete project) cut it up and use it in your own art journals or collage.

Under the Sea

I was running behind in my art journal exchange with my friend, Kate. I have been attempting to have a vision of a completed page, but it has not really been working. So, I am going with the flow!
This page started with a variety of spray mists - Dylusions (LOVE these), Perfect Pearls Mists, and Glimmer Mists. After each layere dried, I attempted more spraying over stencils - circles and trees. When all was dry, it seemed to me that I was working toward a water scene! For the little mermaids on the left, I stamped small fish and added the tails to Art Chix mini gals. The depth and shimmer of the pages does not really show in the photo.
Do you plan out your pages or go with the flow?

Tuesday's Tip

While you are reading this, I am most likely wandering Monet's garden or the streets of Paris. With vacation time upon us, there are many items you can save and use in your art. One of my planned stops is an antique book store for collage fodder. Remember, you can save and use maps, ticket stubs, business cards of locations visited, wrappers, etc. Not only are you recycling, but you will have some unique fodder for creating!

She...

Finally completed my art journal pages for the swap in which I am participating. I sort of had a vision of rainy days as a theme since we are experiencing our winter rains now. Since I just unpacked some new sprays, I thought now was as good a time as any to play. I did not give it much thought, and just started spraying, stenciling, painting the pages. I used a combination of Glimmer Mist, Smooch, and Dylusions. Love the Dylusions sprays - bright, transparent and reacts with water for some neat effects!
After the pages were dry, I went in with rubber stamps and inks and added some more texture and images. Finally, pulled out the images for the final layer.

It did not turn into the vague idea I had in my head. I actually like it better - and changed the theme somewhat. The page started with strips of old book and music book pages. I added some details with Faber Castel Pitt Big Brush markers. The word stamp is from Unity.

FInally Done

A while back, I took a free on-line class at Strathmore. I started a couple of background pages but was sidelined with real life and injury. I have finally finished it. Not sure how happy I am about it. I lost my original thought as to how the pages would go. Here's the link to the original post on January 7th.  Below is the final product:

I decided I wanted to go with primitive and circular flowers. I happen to have several dies for flowers, but like this idea better. The background butterflies were stamped with Adirondak ink and Claudine Helmuth's paints. The die cut was sponged with a couple of colors of Adirondak blues. The stamps used were all Club Scrap. Now, I can send my journal onto my friend, Kate, with whom I am doing a journal exchange.

CHA - Pink Paislee

I was in the Pink Paislee booth at CHA looking at the new paper lines. For a soft travel look, they are coming out with London Calling. This line would work for almost any travel photos - including most of Europe.
However, the line I was excited to see was Christy Tomlinson. Christy owns Scarlet Lime on-line store and does wonderful texture-y work. I have been following her blog for awhile now. What I love about her - free style, the fact that she uses her fingers a lot! No neatly manicured nails in her videos - she is keeping it real! I am not the only one with paint and ink all over! She was demo-ing with her new line of papers and rubber stamps (made by Unity).

She made a canvas using papers, paints, mediums, stamps, etc. She was fun to watch and was great at giving people ideas on how to use and teach with her lines. Very refreshing from watching many demonstrations with designers who simple made things. Below is one of her finished canvases:

The images are from her paper line. And, below are the papers...

You can check her out here. Congratulations to Christy - what a great adventure!

Tag Team

I have busy working on Christmas art - cards and tags, specifically! The cards are almost done and I am in desperate need to gift tags (especially since I need to get several packages in the mail!) I guess you can figure out what I will be doing today!
Earlier this week, a couple of my friends and I had our annual Christmas lunch and gift exchange. We call it "Christmakkah" - it was so christened many years before the TV show (The OC?) ever used it. I made a couple of tags early for Nancy and Tracy.

For this tag, I gathered together some small Christmas images and made my own Holiday collage. The background was colored with Distress Inks. The little charm is actually a green plastic disc game piece. The mini tree was stamped, the disc glued to the image and the then trimmed. I added foil tape around the edges. With all the fervor over Tim tags and his collage background, I thought I would make my own and save a few bucks! The greeting was stamped on a die cut ticket.

Mr Bill

When I work in my Art Journal, I tend to use magazine page images. I have a couple of quirky magazines that I specifically buy to pillage-Juxtapose and High Fructose. These are not for everyone, but I do love the interesting graphics. I found a page of Bill Murray paintings that I could not resist. I turned them into a couple of Retro pages using Washi tape, transparencies, and patterned paper.

Fall Pages

I have decided that I really like to add color to my pages with inks and paints - as well as papers and ephemera. Again, a fairly normal page I created. There are layers of stamping and Gelato water colors on the right page - it is difficult to see all the layers in the photo. I really loved the image on the left. I cut it from a Juxtapose magazine.

Completed Journal

I have many handmade books and journals. Actually, I have a drawer full of them. They all have some pages done - but none are fully complete. Until now! Finally, I have finished an art journal! Feels pretty good - only umpteen more to go!

This is the final 2 page spread - although I may eventually go back and add some words.

Transparency Fun

Another one of the journal pages I made recently. I love Hambly transparencies - they really work well to add a little something to art. The chicken wire was a favorite this particular weekend!

Art Journal Page

I know - it took me long enough to take photos of some of the pages from last weekend. I have been busy unpacking, cleaning and completing a few things.  The above  are 2 pages from yet another newly made book. I generally work on 2 pages at once as I like them to be somewhat complimentary and cohesive. I also used Faber Castell Gelato watercolors to add some color around the doll images. I like to add paint/ink to my pages and these are very easy to transport.

The images were taken from a Cloth Paper Scissors magazine. I find I cannot keep all my magazines, so I pull images that might be useful in collage and place them in a storage container. The butterfly overlay swings both ways so it can also go over the house. Yes, this was a somewhat sedate (and normal) page for me. Do not be discouraged - the unusual ones will come.

Done!

A couple of weeks ago, I completed some projects that were laying around awaiting the finishing touches. (I posted the Shadow box a couple of days ago.) Back at the end of July, I took a couple of Tim Holtz's classes when he was teaching in the San Jose area. Well, the largest of the projects has finally been completed. The great thing about this class and project was the variety of techniques it showcased. We used tapes, paints, alcohol inks, stains, embossing, chipboard, and metals. Most of the techniques were not new, but the class was a great reminder of using your materials!

We even added a cute (or so my friends think "creepy") little porcelain doll, and some fun gears and watch parts. If you have a chance to take this class, I highly recommend it!

A New Journal

I have entered into a journal exchange with someone I met at a Kelly Kilmer class. Kate and I were chatting about exchanges - she had some bad luck in swap recently. It had been awhile since I participated in an art journal exchange, so I suggested we give it a try. Our first pages were to tell a bit about ourselves.  I am not a writer. I do not diary/journal like that. I do use visual imagery. Sometimes, I add words or quotes. That is the closest I get to writing. So, of course, I went the visual route with my exchange page. The first page:

This page represents how most people probably see me. My family is a big part of my life - particularly since I retired from my profession when we began relocating with my husband's company. The page opens to:

This is my inner little devil - the one who loves the quirky, the odd, the dark....

Canvas Class

During Scramp Camp, we were lucky to have Maryjo McGraw teach a couple of classes. The canvas class ended up being a big hit with all those who took part. I decided to make something more mainstream (if you have seen some of my art journaling, you know I am not really a mainstream type of person!)  This graphic design was really tough for me. But, I am happy with the way it turned out! The images are from Helga Strauss of Art Chix , and the gate stamp from Club Scrap.

I mixed a couple of colors as a base coat of red. Then mixed a couple of different greys, adding a little green to the darker bottom color. The images were added next. I ended up keeping them linear. I finished by embellishing with gold pearl string, gold rhinestones, and a little sponging of gold paint!

Under the Sea

The last of the houses...The background paper has a variety of iridescent images that cannot be seen in the photo. I used bead gel along the bottom. Once it was dry, I colored/tinted it to look like sand.

This is the back side - inked up some raffia to look like seaweed!

She Flew....

A little bit of mail art love! I was very pleased with the watery sky - a thorough soaking of the paper helped!

Journal Pages...

 I spent last weekend working in my Art Journal (and making a new one) in classes with my friend, Kelly Kilmer. I am pretty pleased with most of the pages - and the big plus is that I almost have one of the journals completed! Just 2 more pages and it will be done. The pages above are done - I will not be adding to them (more than likely...)

These 2 pages still need a little something. Most likely, I will add some form of text or a quote...

A Little Journal Page

I was going through some magazines, pulling out information and tossing the rest. I came across a card with circles and butterflies. Pretty simple - so it came to mind to do a journal page. I love being able to take ideas from one medium to another. I had a partially completed page next to a blank and thought I would use the blank side. Well...it ended up a bit different than I originally planned. And, it became a 2 page layout.
Below is the left side - I added the circles, saying and flower cut out today:

The image below is the right side that I completed today. I used watercolor crayons and stencils on the background. I stamped the circles with Distress Inks. The images are from Helga Strauss (the Art Chick) - they were in a Stampington publication.

And, the two pages together:

Both pages came together quickly. What have you used for inspiration?

Tuesday's Tip

Since the start of the new year, there have been a plethora of new patterned paper. Sometimes, the larger papers are a collage of images. I always hate to cover them up entirely. So, I cut them up to use some of the images as embellishments. One 12 x 12 can go a long way. It is a bonus if the paper is double sided.  That is exactly what I did in the blog post "A Little Keepsake".