Paperbag Studios August Challenge

Paperbag Studios (my fav rubber stamps ever!) is hosting another challenge for August. Details are here. The challenge is called Mix and Match: choose two stamp sheets and choose two stamps from each set and merge them into one piece that creates a definite message or feel!

Here is my interpretation of the challenge.


I've been cleaning and packing for my move tomorrow (eeep - so much to do yet! lol) and I came across an old favorite collection of papers from K & Company, Ancestry. The first PP is an image of a family tree which sparked my imagination. I was inspired to stamp a bunch of the girl images from the PBS sheets and then put them in the family tree frames to represent not my family of origin, but my family of choice - my art girlfriends! So that was the inspiration for this art journal page.

I used images from the Imagined and Flourish PBS um stamp sheets.

Stamps and Process:
I used just the edge of The Heart (Imagined) to create a torn notebook border around the whole piece.
I stamped Belle, Companionship and Being There from the Flourish set and Ace from the Imagined set onto white-washed vintage text pages and cut the faces out. I adhered each of the faces to a frame from the Ancestry PP.
I stamped Star Scallop (Flourish) in Shabby Shutters randomly on the whole B/G.
I finished by stamping the Flourish (Flourish) in opposite corners in Timber Brown Stazon.


There you go - my tribute to my true family, my art BFFs.

~

Art Journal Page - Books

The ladies over at Opus Gluei have done it again. They've come up with a freakin' cool theme for this weeks challenge - books! Get the details here.

I created a journal page to document a love story with books that spans a lifetime.

• One of my earliest memories is of going to the li-bary and struggling to carry out a load of books to read. To this day I go to the li-bary a minimum of once per week.
  
• I haven't owned a television for more than 15 years. Who needs TV when you have books?
  
• When I was in graduate school, I could read up to 400 pages per day. I can still read a book per day now.
  

I am so grateful that I love to read because it has opened up whole new worlds to me of personal interests and academic studies. I {heart} books! :)


Supplies and Process: The base layer is vintage book pages white-washed with gesso. On top of that are decorated images of classic, Renaissance book plates. Using stencils, I cut letters from a printed a pic of books in a bookcase for the word books. The rest of the title is made from stickers and doodling. Some hand made flowers and corner stamping finishes the page.


Enjoy!

~

Phinny Prompt #6 – Reflections

Create art on the topic of: REFLECTIONS
Phinny Prompt Guidelines are here.

I will be moving a week from today so this is a good time to reflect on this past, really hard and painful year as I get ready for a new chapter in my life. I'm sure this art journal page is symbolic, but I didn't really think about it as I was creating it. I just let the process flow... and this is what I came up with.

Supplies and Process: First I created a BG using Distress Inks and two sizes of punchinella my good friend Theresa sent me (thank you!!). The next layer is Bo Bunny dotted paper punched with an EK Success border punch (I love these new ones!). Over that I layered squares and rectangles of kraft paper and Jenni Bolin, the European Collection, and other papers with some punched Stampers Anonomous stamped images, images from my stash of collage sheets and a magazine ad image. Ribbon and alpha stickers from my stash.


What will your Reflections piece look like? Be sure to add a link the the comments here if you make anything with this prompt.


~

Heavy Metal

The challenge over at Opus Gluei this week is Metal! Here is my contribution.

Supplies and Process: kraft card base, metal sheet by Pixie Press as BG (from my sweet friend Karen!), metal flowers (from Roni!), Basic Grey PP from the Motifica collection, Crackle Accents by Ranger, ribbon and mesh from my stash and the focal image is a glass slide transfer tile that I made using a toner-based copy of art postage stamps and Glossy Accents. I edged the glass tile and card with a gold Krylon paint pen.

You can check out the challenge or the gals over at Opus Gluei here.

Have a safe and happy weekend, all!

~

Phinny Prompt #5 – What's Next?

Create art on the topic of: WHAT’S NEXT?
Phinny Prompt Guidelines are here.

As always, the Prompts can be interpreted any way you like. I chose to focus on the next stage of my life as I just had a milestone birthday and I am moving in less than 2 weeks. The next chapter of my life is starting very soon so that's what I decided to focus on for this art journal page.

You can go as deep or symbolic as you like, too. I take some prompts at face value and with some I go deeper. On the B/G for this journal page, for example, I thumbed through an old dictionary and ripped out the definitions for some ideas or concepts I want to take with me on my journey to a new life, such as faith, faithful, new, god, goddess, prosper, prosperity, miracle, glorious, good, etc. These became my background.

Supplies and Process: Stamp border around all 4 edges with Timber Brown Stazon solvent ink. Glue down vintage sewing pattern and dictionary torn pages with Collage Pauge. Apply watered down gesso to white-wash B/G. Once dry, affix Basic Grey letters, crepe paper, ribbon, flowers and image of butterfly from my stash. (if anyone recognizes the butterfly, please let me know in the comments so I can give credit. I found this on a blog, I believe.)

Thanks for stopping by!

~

Happy Birthday to Meeeee!

Yup. Today is my birthday... and it's one of those really big milestones, too. Wah! [sour face]

I got some fun goodies and an absolutely amazing, decadent charm bracelet from my art BFFs along with some cashola from mom which I already spent at my LSS. lol

My mom is also a Leo and her birthday is coming up on the 18th of August. I've already made her gifts and wanted to post a pic of her birthday card here (she's really into roosters at the moment... don't ask.... lol):

Process and Supplies: card base unknown, PP and butterflies from the European Collection that I mentioned in a previous post, brown seam binding and butterfly antennae from my stash and Hero Arts stamp.

I am loving the technique of cutting out the butterflies, attaching them to my card with dimensional glue dots and then covering parts with Ranger's Glossy Accents. I sprinkle a tiny bit of chunky diamond glitter on when the adhesive is still wet to give a touch of sparkle. When dry, these butterflies look like glass, so delicate and shiny. (click on the image to make it larger for detail) These elements are so simple to create, but they really make the card, if ya kwim.

I'm off to play with my new goodies. Take care!


~

Art Journal Page - Home

(click to enlarge)
I discovered a fun July Stamp Challenge over at the Paperbag Studios blog on the topic of home. You can check out the details here. I love this topic for art journaling so I decided to have a go and this is what I came up with.

Unique to Paperbag Studios: I incorporated several Paperbag images in this piece. First, I stamped the sky / clouds and the roof line with stamps from the Flourish set. (One of my very favs of all time!) Next I used the baby girl image and texture images of the peeling paint and the wood as the roof and body of my house. These are all free downloads from Robin Marie's blog / site so I thought they'd be especially fun to use here.

When I trimmed the Flourish um stamp sheet, I had some nice, long left over rubber edges. I kept them and since they were on ezmount foam, it was super easy to line them up on my block and stamp them as uneven and distressed lines around the page as a frame or border. I think that added a nice touch to the page, too. You can see those best in the upper right hand corner.

Other Process and Supplies: My first layer is a V-shape cutting from a vintage pattern adhered with Collage Pauge. All other layers are built on top of this one so it's a bit hard to see. The door on the house is a snippet of the gorgeous European Collection of Scrapbook and Collage papers by TweetyJill Publications. (I splurdged and bought this for myself for my birthday, which is Sunday. And oh-my-gosh is this ever worth it! Stunning papers. You just have to see for yourself, but I highly recommend.) The doorknob, brads and cat image are all from my stash 'o' stuff. I used lots of Ranger paint dabbers in Pool, Lettuce, Pitch Black and Snow Cap. Also, Inkadinkadoo clear alpha stamps - which are not easy to clean when you using lots of thick, black paint! (lol). I stamped with Stazon black and Colorbox Chestnut Roan chaulk inks. I used gesso and Golden glaze as layers.


That's it. And no, I am not sure what lead me to put a big, giant cat behind the house. All I can say is that I allowed myself to follow my impulses and just let it happen when creating this page. Hence the big, giant cat. lol [grin] H/she kinda fits on the page, though, huh? In some, strange way....

Enjoy!



~

It's All in the Details

Hello again! Here is a card I made for two challenges, this time: Opus Gluei (music) and Simon Says (distress)! Two of the punched squares are of a musical score and, as always, I use lots of my wonderful Distress Ink by Ranger, this time in Brushed Corduroy.

The flowers are from a silk plant tossed in the trash; I rescued a few blossoms for this project. The PP is Memory Box and Creative Imaginations with ribbon by Making Memories. The card base is some luscious faux suede paper I got at Joann's. Brads and butterfly image from my stash.

The details: I coated the little butterfly with Glossy Accents (which dried in like 8 minutes in this crazy heat!!) and used my tweezers to pick up some chunky Diamond Dust glitter and drop it only on the butterfly's mid-section. (It's hard to see in the pic, but it really sparkles!) I also decorated the inside of the card and the envelop. I cut down a vintage book page white-washed with gesso and added a strip of the same but stamped with circles (Adirondack pigment ink in Butterscotch) and permanent black pen doodles. For the envelope, I simply used my glue stick to adhere several of the 1" square punched pieces of various PP left over from the card up the side.

Taking the time to do just a few more steps elevates a nice card into one that is extraordinary, IMO.


Oh - and like this one, I've been making more cards without sentiments lately because I will be moving in August and, unfortunately, won't have my studio for a few months. I am stock piling lots of blank cards and notebooks and such to take with me. This way I can quickly and easily stamp a sentiment on the cards as I need them.

Thanks for stopping by!



~

Phinny Prompt #4 – The Color Red

Create art featuring THE COLOR RED.
Phinny Prompt Guidelines are here.

I created an art journal page for this prompt. First I stenciled the whole page spraying candy apple red Glimmer Mist (yum!) over a brass stencil. Then I stamped lots of butterflies in black Stazon all over the page. I used vellum for the main focal image.

Here red to me means vibrancy and transformation. It is a passionate, vital color and I tried to go with that as I created this spread in my art journal.


Now it's your turn. What does red mean to you? How does it come alive in your artwork?
Jump in and play along anytime. Everyone is welcome!


~

Phinny Prompt #3 – Postage Stamps

Create art using or featuring POSTAGE STAMPS

Phinny Prompt Guidelines are here.

This is an ATC made from a collaged postage stamp BG. It's super easy to do. I have a bag of canceled postage stamps that I got off of eBay some time ago and I just sifted through them to find a bunch I liked and that seemed to coordinate well together. Using a glue stick I simply adhered the stamps onto plain white cs in a grid pattern. I made a large masterboard (mb) collage, approx. 6"x8". For this piece, I cut the mb down to ATC size (2.5"x3.5") and spread Sepia Accents by Ranger on top and let it dry overnight. Easy peasy BG!

I came back and edged the sides with a Krylon gold leafing pen and added the CI mat and image from my stash. The finishing touch was the tiny, single rose silk flower, also from my stash, that I first stapled and then glued on with Tacky Glue to make sure it stays in place.

Now it's your turn. What will you come up with using postage stamps?

~