Solace Art Journal Page

Good morning everyone. Occasionally, I participate in ongoing swaps. They are fun and I get a chance to accumulate art of all different types and styles. For this swap, we were given the yearly theme of Nature with January's theme being Solace. Here is my page:


Check out How to Create a Lovely Sunset Journal Page by Art Anthology on Snapguide.

I just love this page and have to admit is an all-time favorite.

Until later...................

Through the Heart

So February's Challenge is just about done over at Gauche Alchemy, but I wanted to share what my entry into the challenge was.  At first I thought it might be a little difficult until a snippet of a song went rolling through my head.

Yep, Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love A Bad Name”.  So I rolled with it.

I misted the canvas with several of Art Anthology‘s Colorations mists:  Patience, Heart, Hottie, and Glorious, then flicked Art Anthology Raider Colorations all over the canvas, adding circles with the lid. Next I traced a heart, cut it out, and painted it with Art Anthology Desire Velvet, adding a bullet hole with some Lava Stone Effects and drawing in the cracks with a Micron Pen and Signo White Gel Pen.  Texture was added with more Art Anthology Velvet and their Cracked stencil and since I love glitter, I painted on a later of Art Anthology Splashed Sorbet.

I added more texture with Wendy Vecchi’s Translucent Paste through an Art Anthology’s Retro Tile stencil.  Next I sprinkled the wet paste with Finnabair’s Light Pink Art Sugar so there would be glitter glitter everywhere!  So the saying would have a nice background to it and not be stark white, I sprayed a piece of printer paper with Patience Colorations, let it dry, and then ran it through my ink jet printer.  I cut it out, glued it down, and then outlined each word using a black Micron Pen.  Hearts were added using Brick Stone Effects and Tim Holtz’s Hearts layering stencil.

Well, that’s my little canvas for Gauche Alchemy in a nutshell.  Now I want to see what  YOU can do!  You still have a couple of days to enter!  February Challenge Board

Until later…….

Back for Another Year with Art Anthology

I'm so excited!  I'm back!  Yep, I'm back for another year with Art Anthology's wonderfully talented Dream Team as the Design Team Coordinator.

I feel so blessed to be working with such a great bunch of artists.  The talent on the team is truly amazing.


So, stop by Art Anthology and check out what we are doing and say HI to the new team members.  We added six so there are a lot of new faces.


Until later......................

Just a Few Projects I Completed for CHA 2015

Hi everyone!  I know, I'm a little behind on blogging.  I switched from Windows to Apple and lost my blogging software.  I still haven't found a replacement, but I am looking. Until then, please bear with me.  Blogger isn't the best blogging software out there.

So!  CHA 2015.  What a blast I had.  I worked the Art Anthology booth since I'm their Design Team Coordinator.  I had a lot of fun meeting everyone and helping out with the Make and Takes.  I also did a little demoing while there.  Here is what I came up with in about 15 minutes just using what was at hand:

I used a piece of watercolor paper for the above project.  Taking several different different Colorations (looks like Juicy, Grass, and Timeless), I laid down color and then stamped the background with the Wasted stamp from Palettini for Technique Junkies in black archival ink.  Next I stenciled over the background with our Triangular stencil and Mud texture paste and then added color with Lemon Tart Velvet.  The lady is Let's Face It 2 by Palettini for Technique Junkies.  I stamped her on a separate sheet of watercolor paper using black archival ink, cut her out, and painted her with Art Anthology Lemon Tart, Portobello, and Desire Velvet.  A little glue and voila! it was done.

For this piece, I started with a piece of chipboard, laying down a layer of Art Antholog Blue Topaz Dimensional Gems.  I then stenciled over that using a test color of Art Anthology Mud texture paste and the Art Anthology Morse Code stencil (designed by me!).  I stamped Spykee and a Smitten Mustache Monster (both by Stampotique) with black Versifine ink and then painted them using Art Anthology Velvets in Mardi Gras, Fiji, Lemon Tart, Shamrock, Desire, and Portobello.  The words are stamped using Stampotique's Typewrite Alpha stamps and black Versifine ink.

This is piece of chipboard painted with Art Anthology Lava Stone Effects  and stenciled with the Art Anthology Dot Matrix stencil and Art Anthology Brick Stone Effects.  The cat is from Stampotique's Kitty Squad and the house is Stampotique's Home Sweet Home.  I painted the cat, windows, door, and dots on the roof with Art Anthology Lemon Tart Velvet and the house itself with Desire Velvet. The main surface of the roof was painted with Art Anthology Portobello Velvet.

I also created a journal cover for my art journal that was shown at CHA.  My art journal is a 5x7 by Basically Bare.  The fleur-de-lis is also from Basically Bare.  I painted the background with a mixture of Art Anthology Colorations (unfortunately, I didn't write it down, but it looks like Juicy, Denim, Grass, and Wamai Bay) and then spritzed it with Pearl Fairy Dust.  The fleur-de-lis was painted using Art Anthology Tango Velvet.  I stamped over the paint with Stampotique's Design Cube (star side) using archival ink and then stenciled "Journal" using the Art Anthology Soliloquy stencil (designed by me!) and Lava Stone Effects.  Next, I traced around the outside of the fleur-de-lis with Art Anthology Mermaid Dimensional Crystals.  The wording is Remnant Rubs from Tim Holtz.

And here I am, happily painting away!

Until later.....................

Tag, You're It!

Below are a couple more projects I completed for the Art Anthology/Stampendous Blog Hop we had last week.

While I was creating my I’ll Fly Away journal page for an Art Anthology post, I also pulled a few tags using the paint that was leftover on my Stampendous Creative Palette.  I got three really good pulls off of it and still cleaned quite a bit off the palette when I finished.

Using a couple of the stamps from the Stampendous Grunge stamp set, I created a background on one of the tags.

Next, I stamped the Stampendous Moray Dahlia stamp onto a piece of cardstock using India Ink.

I cut the flower out and colored it with Art Anthology Lemon Tart, Mardi Gras, and Orchid Velvet.

Then I stamped the leaf stem that came with the stamp set, colored it with art Anthology Leaf Sorbet and Kona Velvet.

Then I once again got so involved I forgot to show this next step.  I took a clear embossing pen and dabbed it all over the tag.  I then sprinkled Crystal Embossing Powder from theStampendous White Encrusted Jewel Kit over the tag, tapped off the excess, and heat set.

I followed with some stenciling using our Beehive stencil and a mixture of our soon to be released smooth texture paste (WOOHOO) and Art Anthology Mardi Gras Velvet.  I then stenciled DREAM using the Art Anthology Soliloquy stencil and a Micron Pen.  I then colored the words with Art Anthology Lemon Tart Velvet and the background with Plus Colorations and the Round Brush from our Tool Set.

I couldn’t just stop at once tag, so I created two more.

This time I used the Stampendous Musical Motif stamp set and stamped out the keyboard onto cardstock. I cut it out and adhered it to the right side of my tag.  I whitened the keys with Cotton Velvet and darkened the frets with Art Anthology Tuxedo Velvet, followed up with a coat of Art Anthology Splashed Sorbet for sparkle.  I then added my quote and sprayed the cardstock with Juicy Colorations.

For the final tag, I used the houndstooth stamps from the Stampendous Dress Form stamp set and randomly stamped it over my tag.

Next, I stenciled a measuring tape using a Tim Holtz stencil and Lava Stone Effects (great texture!).  I also added some more interest with our Cracked stencil and Silver Metal Effects.

Finally, I stamped the dress form onto cardstock using India Ink and cut it out.  I thought this tag would look great on one of the Christmas I will be sending out to a swap partner.

Until later....................

I'll Fly Away

Hey everyone.  There is a blog hop going on over at Art Anthology (www.artanthology.com/blog) and Stampendous (http://stampendousblog.wordpress.com/).  Below is a journal page I created for the hop.  Hope you enjoy!

I started with page from my 5x7 watercolor journal.  I didn't remove it from its binding.

I began by putting dabs of Art Anthology Desire, Tango, and Lemon Tart Velvet on a Stampendous Creative Palette and then brayered it until I liked the mixture.

I layered my page over the Stampendous Creative Palette and ran my hands over it, making sure that I covered my entire page.

Next I applied Art Anthology Wineberry Velvet and Evergreen Sorbet to Stamendous's Ranunculus Field stamp and stamped onto a sheet of white tissue paper.

At this point, I got so involved in what I was doing I forgot to take pictures, so I will describe what I did.  I took the circle template found in the Stampendous MIsh Mesh stamp set and stenciled Art Anthology Mint Julep Sorbet through it at the top of the page.  I then used the Round stamp from the same set and stamped over my page with India ink.  Next, I used the Diamond stamp from the Stampendous Wired set with Royal Velvet chalk ink and stamped over the page in random areas.  All this was toned down with Gesso.  I then took my stamped Ranunculus image done on the tissue paper and adhered it to the page using gel medium.  The tissue paper literally disappears, leaving the image.

Next, I took a bunch of Art Anthology Butterfly Embedibles and covered them in Gesso.

I then painted them in a rainbow of Art Anthology colors:  Fiesta, Wineberry, Lemon Tart, Orchid, Shamrock, Fiji, and Reef Velvets and Just Peachy and Viridian Sorbets.

All that was left was to assemble the page and type out my wording. I painted the edges of the page with Tuxedo Velvet to create a border.

Until later....................

BRRRRR It's Cold Outside

Hello everyone!   Here's a wintry tag I created for this month's Challenge over at Gauche Alchemy. I loved the colors and textures we were given and decided to make something as chilly looking as possible. To accomplish this I decided to stick with shades of blue.

I started with an extra large manila tag and painted it with Art Anthology Baby Blue Eyes.  Then I stamped some text across the page using an old Stampers Anonymous stamp I had along with a postmark stamp I found. I then flicked white ink across the page. There is some reflection in the picture because the paint I used has glitter and mica in it, giving it a shimmery effect.

I found an appropriate wintry image in my stash and cut it out using an oval Sizzix die and then circled it with Stampendous Shaved Ice. Using Ice Blue Stickles, I added accents to the lady’s hat and stole.

I then used another Sizzix die to cut out snowflakes from some pretty shiny blue paper I had and adhered them randomly across the page. Next I glued down mica fragments from Stampendous’s Encrusted Jewels Technique Kit to the top of the tag.

If you would like to participate in this month's challenge, click http://www.gauchealchemy.com/2014/12/01/decembers-challenge-wintery-mix-mixed-media/.

Until later....................