ArtiphyTheHeart

Art It Up!

The third set of signatures in my current art journal is all about art, and making art.  Wednesday Stamper requires the use of the word "art" for this week's theme, and it appears more than once in this 2-page spread.

                                               

Both pages began with multiple washes of acrylic paint.  The background was then repeatedly over-stamped in black VersaFine ink with Stampers Anonymous "lines" from the Tim Holtz collection.  Torn pieces of artist paper from Somerset were glued into place, and the white writing blobs were defined with acrylic paint. Creative Imaginations Art Warehouse Graffiti rub-ons were used on both pages, then the background was seriously doodled  over with Sakura IdentiPens.

David Horvath's Bossy Bear stickers were used on both pages and Cavallini's bird on a branch was stamped onto page 2 with black VersaFine. 

Last, I added my musings with a black Sakura IdentiPen.

Have a great day, Everyone!

Transparency. . .

I'm working my way through the challenges this week that fit with the work I'm doing in my current journal.  Mixed Media Monday's theme for the week is "transparency", and this page, which is part of the section of my journal documenting my daily triad of power-ups including tea, coffee, and sometimes chocolate, does indeed contain a transparency.

The lady in her 1958 Madame Gres evening dress is a Dover image that was printed onto a transparency sheet then modified, first by cutting a piece of Japanese newspaper to fit part of her dress, then gluing it onto the transparency with diamond glaze.  Next, a Cavallini kangaroo image was stamped, colored with prismacolors and sansodor, cut, and glued to the back of the transparency.  The areas that I didn't want to remain transparent, I covered from the back with white liquid paper, then the entire image was glued into place on the collaged page.  The rest of the page includes Paperchase stickers, hand doodles, drawing and lettering, a die-cut "L" from Gwen Stefani's L.A.M.B. fragrance, acrylic paints and acrylic painted papers, torn pieces of scrapbook and art papers, and a label from my favorite roasted coffee beans, roasted, packaged and sold by a friend of mine who owns Greekfest restaurant and Cafestia in Phoenix, AZ.

Have a great day, Everyone!

When We Were Young. . .

So many things were different when I was young.  Bingo was a huge fundraiser for many churches and organizations, and without cable TV, movie rentals, internet access, or video games, a lot of people were available to play.  I can't imagine having fun with Bingo, but a lot of people lived for it!

Birthdays were very important in our house.  My mother made sure that each was celebrated enormously, and cake, ice cream, cards, and gifts were never forgotten.  Today, birthdays are still revered as high holidays in my home.

So, for Skinny Saturday's theme, "When We Were Young", I chose to use Studio Art Stamps with a bingo and birthday theme.  I used black Versafine to stamp "Max", the flower, and the text.  The hat Max is wearing is a foam stamp colored with markers and topped with an orange brad.  Tag, flowers, and stamped image are colored with Nick Bantock inks, Adirondack lights, and Tim Holtz distress inks.  Background paper is hand-colored with acrylics, then mounted onto black cardstock.

Have a wonderful day, Everyone!

Linen. . .

"Linen" is the Saturday's Workout theme for the week, and I made a tea mailer for this challenge.  The inside of the card opens to a pocket on the right which is the perfect size to hold a single tea bag, with "to" and "from" information stamped on the left.  The card folds and ties closed (left).

Substrate for the card is Bazzill cardstock.  The background paper is coated laser printer paper which was treated with marmalade and antique linen distress inks brayered on at right angles, roughed-up, then dried.  Background paper was cut to size, and and a variety of stamps were used with black Versafine ink, including:  Urban Lily's "message area", Crafty Secrets "to" and "from", and several from Rhona Farrer's "swirls V" collection.  Studio G's "just for you" was stamped onto a scrap of Bazzill, cut out and mounted to the front of the card with dimensional tape.  Star brads are from Close to my Heart. 

I'm working my way backward through challenges I missed because of a busy weekend.  Have a great day, Everyone!

Pink. . .

Pink is the theme for TGIF, and I decided to use the entire range of pinks from peach to purple and everything in between.  The first layer of fabric is actually a pale pink, not white or lavender, but other than that, the colors are somewhat true, except maybe a little lighter in reality.

It was a wonderful day!  Two sets of unmounted stamps designed by Hermine Koster came in the mail today.  The girl on the bird is one of them.  Other stamps used are HeroArts manuscript background and JudiKins mod garden.  I used lots of inks, Adirondack lights, Versafine black, and Nick Bantock's magenta.  I also used lots of Marvy markers in various pinks, peaches and flesh tones.  The image was stamped and colored on matte photo paper, torn and sewn to two layers of fabric and one layer of torn scrapbooking paper, "morning in the garden" by Carolyn Holt designs, which I tore and edged with a water based magenta marker.  I stitched on some fibers, ribbon and beads and added a few french knots and cross stitches in pink and lavender, and placed three rhinestones on the ribbon.  The multi-colored hanger is topped in pink and magenta (not shown).

Have a wonderful weekend, Everyone!

Tea. . .

Tea holds such an exalted place in my life that it deserved a two-page journal spread.  The entire "Tea Or Coffee" theme for this week's Theme Thursday deserves a whole journal section of its own, as they are part of my daily triad of power-ups which include tea, coffee and sometimes, chocolate! 

The journal from Kelly Kilmer's workshop has 4 sets of 4 signatures, or 4 - 16pg. sections.  The theme for my first section is Divas.  The second section is Power-ups, or What Gets And Keeps Me Going.  Tea plays a large role in this, not only as an energizer, but also as a tool for calm, center and focus.  I have LOTS of tea in my house!  So much, that a focal point is my huge basket of tea canisters.  If you look closely, there are two close-up photos of items in this basket in my journal pages.

Speaking of close-ups, here is a detail of the first page which has a close-up of my tea stash basket in the background.

And just so you know about this and don't go away empty-handed, the teacups photo album on my left sidebar has some cups of my own making that are yours, free for the taking.  If you do use them in your artwork, please let me know so I can see what you've done!!

Have a great day, Everyone!

Diva. . .

Happy Wednesday, Everyone!  Today's Wednesday Stamper theme is "Diva", and this is perfect for me!  As most of you know, my first love is drawing and painting.  Throw-in some layering, stamping and collage images, and I am in *heaven*.  So I took a workshop from the wonderful Kelly Kilmer last Friday with the idea of jump-starting my leap back into paint, and she had us do a day-by-day book.  Mine, which is still a work in progress, centers around. . .you guessed it. . . Divas!!

Here's the first two-page spread.  I wish I could tell you the name of the stamps used, but I can't remember.  There are three of them:  The raven on a branch, the leaves next to the raven and the flowery-snowflakey thing that is in a couple of places in the background.  The rest is paint, doodles and magazine images.

My second 2-page spread has no stamps, just paper, paint and doodles, but since there's another Diva, I thought I'd throw it in.

The third 2-page spread uses Tim Holtz "X" stamp all around the background.  The eye and lips are my doodles. I used to think, "Who'd buy a stamp of X's, when you can just draw them yourself?",  but then I used it.  Whoa!  An entirely different experience and look than hand-drawn.  The question is not: which is better, drawing or stamping?  The answer is simply: Both are great! - - and even better when combined! 

This is 2-page spread #4, and again, I cannot credit the stamp.  I just picked it up and used it, and if I'd had a brain for anything other than the delight of creating these pages, I would have bought all the stamps I used!  But alas, I was not thinking of shopping at the time!  And digressing just a bit, in case you have DHs who like to count pennies, you can pass along my experience if you like:  Just tell them that art is so fulfilling that it makes you forget to shop!  That should give them the push they need to support your habit!!

And last but not last--because the work is in progress and there are more pages to come--here is 2-page spread #5.  Thank you to Nordstrom's department stores for hiring such a fabulous artist!  This little Diva (actually, just part of her) and the surrounding leaves and berries are from Nordstrom's magazine ads.  If you can get your hands on a current American Vogue magazine, you'll see some truly  inspired  illustration in the Nordstrom ads!  Again, here is that little snowflake/flower stamp, and I wish it was in my collection so I could just read the label (and use it over and over), but it was part of Kelly's collection, as was that great Japanese tape that runs down the spine of this page and makes my "1" in spread #4.

Have a great, artful day!

3-D

                                                      

ArtyGirlz theme for the week is 3-D.  My photography is way off the mark, but the image on the left is a bit closer to the true color of the card than the one on the right, which does help to show the dimension.

Papers are Bazzill cardstock, Kelly Panacci scrapbooking paper, and matte photo paper.  Flowers were punched from papers used.  Stamps used are JudiKins "mod garden", HeroArts "manuscript background", and TJ Designs Vintage Collage Collection.  Image was colored with Adirondack lights and a magenta fine point Sharpie.  Text is from Inkadinkadoo, stamped with mushroom Adirondack ink.

Have a great day, Everyone!

Black and White. . .

This is for TMTA's black and white theme.  After the complex colors I've been mixing and concocting all weekend, this theme was an oasis!  I needed the peaceful haven of monochrome!

This is not the first time I've used this guy from Catherine Moore's Character Constructions in tandem with Cavallini & Co.'s birdcages.  I really think they go together so well!  The floor is also from Catherine Moore's clear, acrylic stamps--the Queen of Tarts series.  The curtain at the top is a snippet of Chinese tissue paper. 

Have a great week, Everyone! 

Gold. . .

Gold is the theme for this week's MM2. 

The background is stamped with the Acanthus stamp with VersaMark, and then colored over with orange and yellow chalks. I stamped Hampton Art's Square Face Frame with black pigment ink, then embossed.  The Egyptian Gold embossing powder by JudiKins really pops in person, but the scan hardly shows the glitter at all.  Too bad.    At this point, the whole thing was cut right down the middle, trimmed to moo size, and mounted onto black cardstock.  Doodles were done by hand with a black gel pen, and a little gel pen was used over the embossing to highlight the face. 

I had a fabulous day at Kelly Kilmer's workshop.  We got all inky and paint-streaked making wonderful bound books.  My book is bound and 1/4 of my pages are finished.  I'll post it to my blog next week when I've completed it and added the finishing touches.  We had tons of fun!  If you ever get the chance to take one of Kelly's workshops, by all means, do it!

Have a great day, Everyone!

Pirates. . .

What a thrill to be the TGIF guest designer!  Thank you for asking me, Sandy and Heike!

Here's my little Pirate.  He's a photo image from Memories Of A Lifetime, printed, cut out, and glued with dimensional tape inside the treasure chest.  The background paper is from DCWV and the assorted embellishments are from Karen Foster Designs, Jolee's Boutique, and Sandylion Essentials.  There are extra beads, gems and gold accents, along with extra glitter, home-made stamps with black Staz-on, Versamark, and gold embossing.

Have a great day, Everyone!  I can't wait to see all your pirate artwork!

Toys. . .

One thing about kids, no matter what the subject, at any moment you can expect them to be thinking about toys! 

In this collage for Theme Thursday, tilted "Bob's Homework",  the toy monkey and Dick and Jane, are central motif retro figures cut from pieces of Michelle Miller fabrics.  Also included are rub-ons from 7Gypsies, black Sharpie pen, K&Company resin reinforcement stickers, Liquitex acrylic paints and gel mediums, and papers and cardstock by K&Company, My Mind's Eye, and Foof*a*La.

It's about time I was playing with paints and mediums again!  They are my first loves, and I have a real treat coming up tomorrow...I'll be in an all-day workshop with the wonderfully talented Kelly Kilmer, who promises some great new techniques to show us, using acrylics and mediums!  I'll share what I learned with you all next week.  I'm so excited!  I can't wait!  It was really all a big surprise, last minute thing.  I stopped by for a visit to Kelly's blog and found that she'll be here this weekend, and there was a space left in her workshop when I called!  Hoooray!  Very lucky me!

And one last thing...I have a new technique of my own in the works!  A really great idea that so far has worked for me every time I've tried it, so keep hanging out at my blog.  One of these days soon I'll get around to sharing that with you, too, just as soon as I have the time to photograph it in-process.

Have a great day, Everyone!

Stripes. . .

For today's Wednesday Stamper I am finally using one of the wonderful unmounted stamps from Stampattack.  He's mounted on striped K&Company scrapbook paper and embellished with a couple of photo corners and some rub-ons from 7 Gypsies and Making Memories. 

Have a great day, Everyone!

Vicki's Bear. . .

Finally, I'm doing another ISMAKI design!  I love the ISMAKI layouts, but often my Mondays are too full to fit them in.  This card is for my cousin Vicki who collects bears.  We're lucky if we get to see each other more than once or twice a year.  She'll be here tomorrow, so this card will accompany a little gift, since we rarely see each other on Christmas or birthdays.

The bear is an older stamp from PSX called "Waving Teddy.  He was stamped with walnut distress ink and colored with Prismacolors and Sansodor. His buttons are gold leaf pen.  Papers are from Creating Keepsakes and My Mind's Eye.  The text is a Studio G design from Hampton Art.  It's stamped in colorbox pink pigment ink and embossed with tattered rose distress embossing powder. 

Have a great week, Everyone!

Embossed. . .

The theme for today's Saturday's Workout is "make it embossed", and I have a new technique to share!!

The dots paper is handmade.  My new technique comes out of a happy mistake.  I meant to color the dots on the stamp individually, using assorted colorbox pigment inks. But by mistake, I inked the entire stamp with VersaMark.  And a thought occurred to me...might the sticky VersaMark provide a good base for the colorbox ink?  So, I left the VersaMark on the stamp and went ahead and inked the dots individually with various colors as originally planned, right on top of the VersaMark.  WOW!  It took much less pigment ink to get full, bright coverage on the stamp, and cleaning the stamp was amazingly easy since the pigment ink was laying on top of the VersaMark!  These were now highly colored and very sticky dots, which made embossing a really easy task, because the powder stuck beautifully!  Better than ever before!  And the color really pops!

All stamps used are from Stampotique Originals:  "Dots", Star Balloon", and "Bunny and Hopscotch Cube".  The background for the bunny is colored with chalks and watercolors.  The ferns are my watercolor doodles.  Flowers are from Close To My Heart, and are colored with a citrus Adirondack acrylic dabber.  Flower centers are decorated with Art Institute glitter.

OK, so why an Easter card now?  Tonight, millions of Orthodox Christians worldwide will celebrate Pascha.  Xristos Anesti! to the Greeks, Xristos Voskrese! to the Russians, and a blessed Easter to all those who speak English.  At midnight tonight, all over the world, candles will be lit in dark churches.  Each in our own languages we will proclaim Christ is risen.  For my mother's family, it was Xristos Voskrese.  For mine it is Xristos Anesti. 

Whether or not you celebrate Easter, may all of you and your loved ones be blessed with health and prosperity!

Acetate. . .

Today's TGIF requires the use of acetate.  I don't know why this is, but every time I use acetate in a piece I also end up using one of the many clear resin manga stickers that I got at the Comicon (comic book and manga convention) I attended with my kids.  And then I bought more of them at the Matsuri celebration in February.  I think it may be because they are clear, and the acetate allows them to retain their clarity.  I really don't know, but I am sure that I love every opportunity to use acetate and the little manga resins.

This figure is called Nana, from the book Nana by Ai Yazawa.  The sheet of acetate is recycled from an acetate container that originally housed three plastic canisters of large paper flowers by Making Memories.  (I'm still green, Rosie!) I'm not sure what I like better, the flowers and canisters or the acetate box that they came in.  I began by sponging around the perimeter with citrus and cloudy blue acrylic Adirondack dabbers.  Next came K&Company die-cut stickers, from both the classic silhouettes and the urban collections.  Then I positioned Nana and glued flowers from Making Memories and Close to My Heart randomly around the piece.  I colored a few of them with the Adirondack dabbers, but the bright aqua flowers came in that color. Some Art Institute glitter in the center of the flowers finished it.

Have a great day, Everyone!  Kali Anastasi to all the Greeks!  Sunday is Orthodox Easter, and we begin celebrating tomorrow night at midnight!  Xristos Anesti!  Xristos Voskrese!

Florals

Here's my offering for today's 4X4 Friday challenge, "florals". 

The little girl is a stamp included in the new "vintage collection" from TJ Designs.  She was stamped onto a 3-1/2" X 3-1/2" piece of glossy cardstock with black Staz-On, then masked, and was overstamped with Tin Can Mail's "hydrangea and text" stamp with mushroom Adirondack ink.  The piece was then colored with an assortment of Adirondack lights and a couple of shades of distress ink, using Ranger's brush tip pen nibs and sponge applicators.  It was mounted onto black cardstock, then floral paper, then a 4X4 piece of black cardstock.

Have a great day, Everyone!

Insects. . .

This week's Wednesday Stamper is all about insects as a sign of the new life brought by spring.   The challenge is to create something that depicts what is felt by the thought of insects.  I chose to focus on the the theme of new life.  Just last week we discovered the beginnings of a Mud Dauber Wasp's nest in the corner of our front door.  Mud Daubers don't make hives, they mold mud into tiny cells, and do it very quickly.  When we left the house early in the morning, there was no nest.  By the time we returned, close to noon, there were the beginnings of two small cells made of mud, and plastered to the bottom corner of the door.  Had we seen this anywhere else, we probably would have left it alone.  But wasps living on the outside of our front door?....That's a little too close, even for Mud Daubers who rarely attack like other wasps, so we cleared it off while the wasps were away.

For this piece, I've made my doorway to spring.  It is a doorway of opportunity:  The opportunity that comes with a life renewed.  My only insect stamps were bees, but that's close enough.  You can imagine the brown of the wasp cells in the color of the door.  The blue-green panel housing the metal flower are the color of grass and trees and the blindingly bright sunshine of a desert spring. 

Bee stamps are from PSX and Artful Illusions.  They were stamped with Staz-On black, colored with Lemonade Adirondack Lights, cut out and adhered with dimensional tape.  The light brown cardstock was stamped in walnut distress ink with Hero Arts manuscript background stamp.  The same stamp was used on the blue-green cardstock, stamped in Tsukineko's Brilliance white pigment ink, and embossed with JudiKins White Diamonds.  I embossed a one inch metal square with a flower template from Paula Hallinan Littleton Co., using the PaperCraft tool kit from the Punch Bunch (I LOVE this set of tools!) and roughed-up the area around the flowers with some cross-hatching and scratches, then touched on some Adirondack alcohol ink in "stream".  The door handle is a brad that I got in a small grab bag last August at Art Unraveled.  I colored it with various alcohol inks several months ago, sealed it with gloss medium and then had no idea what I would do with it until today.

I hope that the doorways of spring open onto renewed energy and beauty in all of your lives!

Colorful Norbert. . .

The theme for Layers of Color's first challenge is "humorous", and ArtyGirlz is asking for "handmade backgrounds".  Colorful Norbert fits both.  I'm breaking my own rule, here.  I require myself to make separate pieces for each challenge and not to "double-up".  I don't care if anyone else does it, it's just that for me, my personal challenge for myself is to make a separate piece for each.  But I'm more than a little tired tonight, and Norbert works both places.

On top of the two aforementioned challenges, there's a personal one, as well.  Rosie Rowe--Altered (t)Art and Stuff wants me to "go green" for earth day.  Believe me, Rosie, I WANT to go green!  Truly!  But I'm afraid that a re-cycled tag is as green as this one gets, unless you count a few of the lines and dots I made with a Sharpie (*ouch* Bad joke).  I'm staying indoors today as I'm allergic to my blooming olive (green) tree.

Norbert is a stamp called "Jolly Guy" from Catslife Press.  I stamped him with Nick Bantock yellow ink on white cardstock and cut him out.  He's glued to a hand-made background of periwinkle acrylic paint and gesso scraped onto a former shipping tag with an old credit card and spread criss-cross with a dry brush.  The tag is overstamped with Paperbag Studios "numbers diagram" and Hero Arts "manuscript background" in mushroom Adirondack ink.  Norbert and the text are decorated with a variety of colored fine line Sharpie pens.  And further "greening it up", the ribbons are recycled from a tossed-out mardi-gras ornament.  The whole thing is sitting on a yellow gingham sheet from Paper Pizazz.  The white stuff around the yellow gingham is a photoshop brush I added for atmosphere...I am tired...

Oh, and one more thing...if you have time, take a peek one post back.  There's some wonderful art from Dani Rogall--Stampingwitch and Crissi and Julie of ArtyGirls to delight the eyes!

Have a good night's sleep Everyone!  I know I will!!

Where To Begin?

This has been an amazing day!  I really don't know where to start, so I'll begin with opening my e-mail this morning and finding that wonderful Rosie had selected and posted my Gypsy Arch on Inspirational!    You really should take a look at the entire Inspirational blog, and stop by often.  Some of the most beautiful things I've seen have been selected and showcased there.

My next e-mail message this morning was from Dani.  She made two wonderful pieces of art for a personal swap that we're in.  First, here's her fabulous ATC triptych...

 

...and this gorgeous house shaped collage, both of which I just received in the post!

Both pieces are incredible!  The texture and beautiful attention to detail is amazing.  I wish you could see them in person!  I'll wait to show you what I have made for Dani until she receives them.

But that's not all...there's still more!  The fabulous set of unmounted stamps that I won in the ArtyGirlz challenge drawing arrived, and Crissi and Julie included this wonderful card that I just had to show!

And I have one more nice surprise to share with you.  I just finished re-arranging and adding some new sidebar items.  If you take a look at the page from SewSomerset, you'll see a FABULOUS quilt at the top of the page...it belongs to the incredibly talented Frieda Oxenham.  I am so honored to share the same page with Frieda's amazing work!

So you can see that it has been quite a wonderful day!  Full of nice surprises!  It's late, but I'm not stopping for the day until I've had a chance to make something for today's ArtyGirlz challenge, so be sure to stop by again later!