Saturday, September 23, 2023

Life's Uncertain Voyage

Hello, hope everyone is dandy .
I'm still flaring and feel pretty awful, but a bit better.
This one's gonna take a while to get through.
😭
Today I have a 4x6 Piece of art based on the book, Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. (The link is to a pdf where it can be read for free if you want and haven't yet.)
I read it in school but re-read it recently. It's still not one of my faves, but this one scene is a nice passage in the novel and shows Holden exhibiting a little maturity.
 This is my depiction of the carrousel scene with Holden and his sister Phoebe.

I stenciled the background with Scattered Straw and Lost Shadow Distress Inks. Also did a little colored penciling on her coat to try to make it blue. I added the die cut top to the carrousel horse and the red and white swirl die cuts. The 3 diamond-y shapes at bottom right could be from a die or from a punch. They were leftover bits and bobs from another project. I used glitter gel pens and glitter markers also. I used colored pencils on the stenciled raindrops, then added some glaze pen and drops to each.

This is the digitally framed 4x6 card I printed out to begin with. I used pre-colored Free Dearie Dolls images and text I created in PSE.
I printed this out twice. Did the stenciling over the images. Then I fussy-cut the images from the second print and glued them on the first one.

The stencils I used.

The dies I used.

 
Detail shots to show the gel penning, glitter and shiny and foiled die cut card stock.

 
And last look, with the illustrated cover from the 1950's.
Funny because it's true: I'd already made my card before finding this cover, so mine is truly from my reading imagination, which is why Holden looks more nerdy as he was a prep school student, plus he's holding Phoebe's suitcase.
😊
Have a great weekend
and
Thanks for visiting.
XXO

CHALLENGE LINK-UPS:
BOOK
Book and dies used listed in above post
Carrousel
Scene in book takes place in NYC's Central Park
Pink and Sparkle
WDW Prince Charming Regal Carrousel
Bottom row: Vintage / Masculine / Die cuts or Punches
 
Happy Little Stampers September Stencil
Paper Dragonfly Creative #21 AG
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Sunday, September 17, 2023

Autumn Meadow Magic

 Happy Sunday, hope all is well.
The deadline for Tag Tuesday (Animals theme) is tonight. I could only muster up the energy to do one this time. I'm in the middle of an arthritis flare and I'm just dragging, feel burned out on art but I employed mind over matter and finally finished this.
In addition to Animals, I also wanted to hit Fantasy and In the Meadow themes. That meant Lavinia and inks, lol. All the stamps I used are Lavinia, except for the Crafters Companion hanging vines. 
For the tag base I cut some heavyweight white card stock with a Spellbinders Labels 17 die. I sponged on Distress Ink Spun Sugar and Victorian Velvet for the sky and DI Tea Dye for the Autumnal meadow floor. I stamped the stone path with VF Clair Morning Mist, the 3 tall trees in the distance with VF Clair Acorn. The tree hedge, the hare, the fairy buttercups in the foreground, the fairies and orb and the hanging vines were all stamped with Nocturne VF Clair. 
I next went to town with glitter markers and gel pens. I used a couple of grey Tombow watercolor markers on the path and a brown one on the outlines around it. Finally, I smoodged some white colored pencil on the tops of each path stone and ink-distressed the tag perimeter edge with some Purple Hydrangea VersaMagic chalk ink. At that point, I threw caution to the wind and handwrote "Autumn Meadow Magic" with my Carbon Fountain Pen and even signed my initials at the bottom! 
😎
I stuck to a simple layout with no masking and the black ink in front of lighter colors. 
I'm always soooo intimidated by this style of art and greatly relieved when I get done with no major mistakes. 
🙏😌🙏
Close-up of the fairies and their magic orb.
Angled view to show you all the glitter & shine.
Happy week ahead to you.
Thanks for visiting.
XOX

CHALLENGE LINK-UPS:
Like the saying goes, Autumn is my favorite color. All the leaves, the ground, even the sky, especially when the air is cool and crisp.
I used the leaves and the colors pink, yellow, orange, grey, black
Media: Paper, Watercolor makers, inks, colored pencil, glitter
Lots of glitter marker and pen dots
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Friday, September 15, 2023

Back to School Measurements

 Happy Friday, hope you have a nice weekend planned.
We finally got rain! Cumulative this week for us is a little over 3 inches!
Temps are nice, too. We had storms, of course, and power was knocked out but our generator saved us from that. Only problem has been cable internet. If Honey and I could figure out how to keep that on, life would be pretty perfect. I've been waiting all afternoon and evening to post, so hopefully now it's back on for good as the front causing the storms has largely blown through.
So, my challenge requirements for this 4x6 art piece were: ruler or measuring tape, back to school and either books, tea or cats. I found this awesome quote online and then found this Bugaboo boy sitting on a ruler in my computer files. I knew I had the apple and cat dies, so this is what I came up with.
Here's a close-up of the quote I snagged off the internet, printed, cut with a circle punch, edged with a red pencil and matted onto a larger punched circle of scrap paper edged with a dark brown pencil.
I love this and think it's a great piece of advice for everyone, not just students!
 
Also wanted to show the before and after: the originally printed piece after resizing and layering the Bugaboo digi onto my matted PSE file. I used Polychromos colored pencils to color the boy and the ruler. Then I scribbled the background with watercolor pencils and used a damp brush to activate and let that dry under a large acrylic block. Then, I added the die cuts: a Sizzix apple that I colored with the pencils, and 2 cats cut with Art Impression mini-dies out of brown scrap card. 
Last look.
I've ordered a nice linen covered 4x6 photo album to keep these art pieces in, so I plan to do lots more. They are fun and don't take all that long to do. I can also print out and add any that I do digitally as well.
Thanks for visiting and have a good one!
XXO

CHALLENGE LINK-UPS:
Whittington and Dick Whittington and His Cat
Bugaboo digi no longer in business
One of the things I like about Autumn is starting back to school for the kids. Even though we are empty nesters, it brings memories of my own first-day-of-school years as well as our daughter's, making for a sentimental familiarity and yearning for turning leaves and cooler temps.
I've used Art Impressions Cats Mini Dies
2 Cats and Apple
Mixed media: Printer ink, water, watercolor pencils, wax pencils, paper
Crafty Animals #76
Crazy for Cats #11: Cats Being Cats
Simply Create Too #194: Use Stamps (Digis OK)
Worldwide Crafters and Colorists #9
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Time for a New Beautiful Blossoms Challenge!

 Hello and Happy FriYay!
It's the 15th and that means a new monthly challenge at Beautiful Blossoms Challenge!
Here's our optional inspiration board. It's not required that you use it, but you must feature flowers/floral as the focus of your project. 
And here is my design team inspiration project. After looking at the inspiration board, I decided to go with the poppies and the colors red and navy blue with some bright white contrast. I pulled a sheet of SU navy card stock and made the base from it, using the leftover strips for the sentiment and little squares on each side of it.
I chose to make a slimline card and found this Splitcoaststampers sketch, following it pretty faithfully.
Since I was making a slimline, I pulled out my LDRS Slimline die cut set to use. I cut the white bottom mat, the next layer of Prima patterned paper and the navy and white squares. I used an old Sweet n Sassy stamp set for the poppies, which I stamped with VFClair Morning Mist grey ink and clear heat-embossed, then colored with Promarkers. There is also a small individual poppy in the set, so I stamped and colored 2 of those in the same way to layer onto the squares in the bottom corners. I cut the focal with a Spellbinders circle die and then ran a Promarker around the edge with the chisel point. (I only have a few sheets of the navy left and didn't want to cut into one of them for the circle mat, so I colored a faux mat. I also colored little red flowers on the patterned paper to accent the red of the poppies and used a gold glitter marker to dot the poppy centers and the little flowers in the paper. The Avery Elle sentiment was stamped in Versamark and white heat-embossed.
Inside are stamped Avery Elle sentiment on a sheet of white card.
The back has another sheet of the die cut Prima as I used on front, along with my usual stamped and punched siggie. You may notice, no red flowers like on front. I didn't color them on the back.
😏
Close-up of the focal poppies.
Last look.
I was going for a masculine vintage floral look, I hope I pulled it off!
And, I hope you find time to play in our challenge!
Have a great day and
Thanks for visiting.
XXO



CHALLENGE LINK-UPS:
Diagonal Right to Left Down: Floral / Add Dimension or Texture / Vintage
 
Simply Create Too #194: Use Stamps
Friendship Challenge #91: Special Card Shape
Slimline
Blooms
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