October 13th Weekly Post

 Happy Sunday...on Monday!

I'm a day late posting and I apologize, but I had a horrible Saturday night, couldn't sleep at all because of pain. I finally fell asleep at 9 a.m. Sunday and woke up at 6 a.m. today! I lost a day and a good Sunday night meal, our usual steak and baked potato, but Honey saved mine so I'll be able to reheat it to eat today.

I am feeling better today even though my hip pain's still there.

I guess I just needed to sleep. Pain can be exhausting!

😳

I have 10 open spots in my 4x6 Art Journal Album that I want to fill and SPA's theme this week is Ravens & Crows, hosted by Sabine. So I quickly made this to include in my post. I stamped the bird, book and sentiment from Visible Image's Free Your Imagination set with Nocturne Versafine Clair ink. The sentiment stamped beautifully but the bird and book ink did not want to completely transfer. I used a Cracked stencil from A Colorful Life with Mustard Seed Distress Ink and a blending brush on the background, then stamped the bird and book again over the original stamping. Still not total coverage, so I resorted to coloring the bird with a black Posca. I colored the book and the card edge with a Lipstick Orange Copic (looks red!). I edged the card with the black Posca. I also ran a red Spectrum Noir glitter marker over the red of the card edge but you cannot really see any glitter (maybe at top right corner). 

***************

I also have a birthday card made for a dear friend.

I wanted to show this alcohol ink piece I did a while back when Group of Seven was doing an alcohol ink with guilding flakes technique. I saved this one because it looked like flowers to me. 

Then I added gold to the lines that I saw in it. No guilding flakes, just gold paint and marker, which I also lined the edge with after cutting it with a Spellbinders label die. I used die cuts of flowers with similar stamens. You can barely see the one at top, it's a Lapoo  outlined border die cut from gold glitter card, but it adds some nice texture. I also used a strip of the gold card across the width where the 2 Prima Moulin Rouge designer papers met. The die cut flower at bottom left is from a Momenta die set. On a smaller label die cut I stamped the sentiment with Versamark and heat embossed with gold powder. Card base is black SU card. I messy-edged the Prima papers with a gold marker as well.

 

And here is the sketch I used, stretched to 6x6.

****************

And here's another birthday card for another dear friend.

I stamped the Rubbernecker flowers with Nocturne VM Clair ink on watercolor paper, then colored with watercolor markers and outlined the leaf lines with a green Pitt artist pen. I stamped the WPlus9 "birthday wishes" and cut the Stamplorations "beautiful" die from white card twice, layered and added to the card. The designer papers are very very old Urban Lily 12x12 scrapbook papers.

And here is the sketch I used, stretching it to an an A9 size.

That's all for this week.

Thanks for visiting, have a great week and see you next Sunday, I hope on time, lol.

XOX

October 6th Weekly Post

 Happy Sunday!

I've been praying for and donating to the people in North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and Virginia who lost everything from Hurricane Helene. I also pray for the people of Florida who are set to get hammered again from the Milton storm which is expected to become another hurricane and pass over almost the entire state.
🙏🙏🙏

This week I'm sharing a New Home card and 2 sympathy cards I made quite a while back and recently mailed off. 

For this New Home card, I've used yellow SU card stock for the base and sentiment strip, Jane Davenport patterned papers and stamps by Avery Elle and October Afternoon. I used an AE signature seal die cut from the yellow card stock scraps and added red 2 punched hearts from stash.

And here's the sketch I used.

Here's my first sympathy card. I used a white card stock base, Webster's Pages patterned papers, 2 Stamps of Life stitched rectangle dies and a Stamplorations sentiment die.

And here's the sketch I used.

My second sympathy card uses a green SU card stock base, Webster's Pages patterned paper, stitched rectangle and heart dies and a Stamplorations sentiment die cut from the green card stock scraps. I drew the lines the hearts hang from with a gel pen.

 

And here's the sketch I used. I switched it to a landscape orientation in PSE.

Well, that's it for me this week.

Thanks for the visit, enjoy your day and have a great week coming up!

XOX

September 29th Weekly Post

 Happy Sunday!

I'm posting a wee bit early on Saturday night my time, because I'm guest hosting Sunday Postcard Art this week with a Robots theme. I signed up for these back in January and will be guest hosting in November and December as well.

Here is my sample for SPA. I used Tim's Robotics dies along with Impression Obsession hat, mustache and bow tie dies. I added some Sizzix gears dies all around too and gave him some googly eyes. I named him Mister Roboto with some Making Memories alpha stickers.

 

The background is a sheet of sticky back mulberry paper embossed with a Sizzix/Tim Riveted Metal embossing folder and accented with a brown Big Brush Artist pen. 

****************************

And this is my last week to host Art Journal Journey with my Anything Goes theme, so here is my last weekly page for that. This is in my Little Book of Wisdom journal. The quote is a little affirmation card goodie I received in a recent stencil order and as I love CS Lewis, I decided to use it. It's one of my favorite quotes of his and it says "There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind."

Here's what I started with: a gesso'd page with some offloaded cadminium red paint from another project.

I added a few pieces of printed tissue and some Quinachridone Gold paint to fill out the page with color. I then used black paint and a filbert brush to make marks all around the page. I outlined the marks with Posca paint pens and added a green Spellbinders frame die cut and the quote card.

Well, that's it for me this week.

My thanks to AJJ for having me as guest host again this year,

I've enjoyed it!

My prayers are with everyone in the path of Hurricane Helene.

I hope everyone has a blessed week and thanks for visiting!

XOX

September 22 Weekly Post

 Happy Sunday!

Hope your week went well.

We had a few days of great weather but then the heat came back and I've kind of withered. 

Still feeling poorly. Taking it day by day.

I have another art journal page for you and some 4x6 art.

I'm guest hosting Art Journal Journey this month with an Anything Goes theme. 

Check it out and join us!

This art journal page is in my Little Book of Wisdom journal. It was created earlier this year while  and after watching watercolor artist Liz Chaderton's YouTube video "How to Paint Watercolour on Tissue Paper".

I basically tried my hand at her lesson, with a few of my own differences.

 

I started out with a page (first photo above) that I'd previously done hidden journaling on, then covered with torn pieces of masking tape, then gesso'd. 

So, using my Inktense blocks, I laid color down on the page: blue on top for the sky and below that bands of earthy colors for the ground. I wet a large brush and activated the Inktense colors, which behave like watercolor with enough water, but then they dry permanent because they are india ink.

Next I cut a piece of wet-strength menu tissue large enough to cover the ground and a little bigger. I wadded/crinkled it up, spread it back out carefully, covered the ground area on my page with matte medium and lay the tissue on it, smoothing it out gently while trying to keep as many crinkled veins as possible, then let it dry overnight. The second photo was taken the next morning.

Liz didn't have bands of color under her tissue. I did that after looking at the Inktense tin and seeing this painting on the front:

I was like, oh my gosh, that is so similar to the lesson! So that is why I did my own version of the colored bands, lol.

 

It was then time to apply watercolors to the tissue. Using supplies I had that were a bit different than what Liz used, I began tracing the veins with a few different black and brown artist brush pens and charcoal pencils, laying down a stroke on a vein and quickly adding water with a small brush to spread it out and keep it from looking like harsh lines. I also used my cheap brown, black and grey watercolors here and there. This was done over and over and over until I got an earthy feel to it. I then drew the tree freehand with the brush pens and added colored fall leaves with a very small stencil brush and distress inks. I also drew the fence with a brush pen. (I used the brush pens/pencils for this part of the lesson while Liz used a rigger brush and paint.)

The scene reminded me of an old African proverb I always have liked, so I created the words in PSE and printed out, cutting and edging each word with a blue brush pen before gluing down.

****************************

Next is my 4x6 art. I have 10 or so more pieces to create to fill up my 4x6 Art Journal, so while Hurricane Francine was still deciding whether to hit us or move east a few weeks ago, I calmed my nerves by making this. It qualifies for Marion's Sing theme this week at Sunday Postcard Art because the theme was posted ahead of time. I got additional inspiration by watching another You Tube video (this time though, I cannot remember whose). She was demonstrating how stamped and heat-embossed silhouette images can act as resist for stenciling with Distress Inks. People tend to stencil the background first but here you do it after stamping and heat embossing.

 I used the singer and musical staff stamps from Visible Image's Sing set and the sentiment is from Impression Obsession Wonka collection stamps.I used Warm Breeze and Morning Mist Versafine Clair inks to stamp and clear embossing powder. Over all of that I ink-blended the entire surface using Squeezed Lemonade DI and a foam tool and then rubbed the DI off the embossing with a soft rag.

Next, I laid this cool Sheena Douglass 7x7 stencil over my 4x6 piece and stenciled using Mustard Seed, Wild Honey and Crackling Campfire DI inks with blending brushes. I positioned the stencil to suggest rock concert stage lights. After removing the stencil I rubbed the ink off the embossing again. Lastly, I brushed Hickory Smoke DI along the bottom for grounding and also all around the edges to add a bit of grunge.

And that is it for me this time. 

These projects were fun and freeing for me. I got to try new techniques, practice old ones and use supplies that were gathering dust or had not been used yet.

Thanks for visiting me and have a great week ahead!

XOX

September 15th Weekly Post

 Happy Sunday!

Hope you've had a good week and weekend.

Fortunately we were spared being hit by Hurricane Francine, all we got were outer rain bands.

Big sigh of relief, but not until she had actually passed by in the Gulf.

Prayers to Louisiana, Mississippi and everywhere she did hit.

I'll keep this post short because I'm not feeling well.

My Arthurs are acting up and I just feel blah, achy, painy, sleepy and not really into thinking straight, lol.

This is a scan of a mixed media art journal page I made in a new Ranger 6x6 canvas journal.

I made it during the hurricane in July.
Acrylic paint base/background, lots of collage, some washi tape, tissue paper and a doodle border.

Adding to the entries at Art Journal Journey's Anything Goes theme, which I'm hosting this month.

Come join us with an art journal page or spread.

Well, that does it for me today.

Hopefully I'll be more enthused and chipper next week!

Thanks for the visit and have a good week ahead.