Saturday, July 27, 2013

A Little Art Journaling

Hello Bloglandians! Today I have something new to share - an art journal page I made for the Blog-Formerly-Known-as-Simon-Says-Stamp-and-Show challenge. The theme this week was "celebrate". I had to have a bit of a think on this one because the obvious celebration themes - birthdays, graduations, etc... didn't really appeal to me. Then from some dark corner of my brain came the idea of making an art journal page with a theme about celebrating life. So I set out onto the Interwebs to find an inspiring quote. And I found one I liked:




 I liked the idea of splitting this quote into two halves - since it starts out kind of somber but then ends on a happy note - and emphasizing this change in feel with cool tones vs. warm tones across two pages. The backgrounds of both pages were done with Distress Paints. Weathered Wood, Broken China, Salty Ocean, and Chipped Sapphire on one side, and Spun Sugar, Antique Linen, Victorian Velvet and Picked Raspberry on the other. I used a Crafter's Workshop stencil for the starbursts, with Pearl and Gold Adirondack paint dabbers. The birds are from Dylusions stamp sets. I liked the crows on the darker side, because even though they're wearing party hats they still have a bit of an ominous feel, whereas the other birds look so happy and almost seem to be smiling. All of the stamping, including the words, was done with Archival inks in various coordinating colors.

Now for some close-ups:


Please excuse the clips in the corners...this page did not want to lie flat! 




A crow in a party hat...perfectly sensible, yes? =) 
Also you can see the layers of paint, mist and stamping here. 


Happy birdies! 


I love the texture you get from pouncing the paint dabber onto the stencil.  

I think that's all for today. Thanks so much for looking! =)

*~M~*



Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Jingle Belles Cardstock Challenge

Just have a quick card share today. I've been following the Jingle Belles challenge blog for a while now, but haven't managed to make time to make a card for any of the challenges. They always look super fun, and I like the idea of making Christmas cards throughout the year so that it doesn't come down to a rush at Christmas time. This week's challenge was to use just cardstock - no patterned paper - to make a card. I was also inspired by this week's materials over at Online Card Classes. I'm taking the Summer Card Camp class right now and it is AWESOME. Their classes are always great but this one is especially packed with inspiration and cool techniques. One of the ideas for this week was to make a circle card, and I've been meaning to get out my nested dies more often, so I combined that idea with the Jingle Belles challenge to make this card:


(Please excuse the dark photos. It was late in the day when I was taking these.)

I used three different dies to make the two circles and the scalloped base, and the top two circles were embossed with embossing folders. It's hard to see, but one of my favorite tricks with this Swiss dots embossing folder is to put some Stickles on all the little dots, which I did on this card to add a little sparkle. The smallest circle also has some shine - I colored it with Distress inks and then sprayed it with Perfect Pearls mist in Mint.


I have to say I was nervous about making a card with no pre-printed patterns whatsoever, but I am actually pretty happy with the result. I will have to try this again! =) 

Thanks for looking! 

*~M~*

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