Art Journal Swap

     I love belonging to internet groups as I get to see lots of wonderful work created by artists from around the world.  I joined a new (to me) group about six months ago and have had fun joining in on the swaps.  By the end of the month a small group of us will be completing art journal pages.  Each person chose both a theme and an orientation (horizontal or vertical) with the goal of binding the pages into a book and adding our own journaling to the pages sent to us by our partners. 

     For the first half of December I created a 5"X7" double sided page with the theme of quotes about words.  Words!!!!!  I love words and quotes, so this was great fun.  I had trouble selecting only two quotes about words ---- there are so many really good ones.  But I settled on the two below.  Of course, one is by Emily Dickenson -- she always could say so much in so few words.  And I had never come across the other quote, but it is something I truly believe in.  

     The page is created on watercolor paper with color added using Distress Inks by Tim Holtz.  I stamped a few images, added some purchased embellishments, and computer generated the quotes.  

     I really like how the pages turned out and was so happy to receive a very nice e-mail from the recipient.

    A while back I was in a year long swap dealing with art quotes, a different quote each month.  I received some lovely pages and am planning on combining them with the six I will have from this swap.  It will be a wonderful handmade book!

Tim Tags - Days #2 & 3

I'm still trying to catch up with Tim's Tags for 2011.  I actually have the pair of deer die so I at least had the central image.  I used some printed music velum over a basic tag for the background and a purchased (!) embellishment for the the deer.  The border is a Spellbinders die.

Day #2

Day #3

I really had to "stretch" on this one as I didn't have a bold sentiment stamp.  I guess the only thing that I did was make some kind of foliage  embellishment.  Onwards and upwards to Days # 4 and 5!!!!

12 Days of Christmas - Day 1

This is my first year of participating in the Tim Holtz's 12 Days of Christmas challenge.  He encourages everyone to do what they can, to improvise if you don't have the exact materials he uses.  I don't have the pine cone die (yet!) so I die cut some green foliage and a brown poinsettia (Spellbinders) and added a purchased embellishment (K&Company.)  I'm half way finished with #2 - I'm only three days behind!!!!!

Wild West ATC's

WILD WEST ATC'S

I recently joined an internet group which offers a variety of swaps. One of the first swaps I completed is a set of ATC's with the theme of Wild West. I already had a few stamps I had purchased in Arizona, but I thought I needed something else. Lo and behold in today's newspaper magazine supplement there was an article about John Wayne! Who else symbolizes the Wild West??? I cut out some text for the background and the little pictures. The other ATC is a part of a landscape which is chalked and cut down to ATC size. Enjoy!

More Projects

Here are some samples of swaps from the last few months.

Alice in Wonderland ATC's

Cards for Troops

These are the cards I made for the "Cards for Troops" project for May. Each month, besides general BD, TY, etc., we are asked to send special seasonal cards such as 4th of July. I really enjoy making these each month - Usually around 30 0r so cards which are sent to a central location and then forwarded to troops stationed around the world for their use. Thanks to my stamping buddy Jan of Redrubberink for linking me up to this project. Of course, it's also a reason to add to my stash!!!!!

Collaborative Calendar for 2011

A few years ago my friend Bonnie and I decided to enlist a few other stampers to create calendars. This is what the six of us made for 2011.

January - Jane

February - Ashley

March - Maggi

April - Karen

May - Jane

June - Billie

July - Maggi

August - Bonnie

September - Billie

October - Bonnie

November - Ashley

December - Maggi

Everyone agreed that this was a fun project, even the two newbies who had never done this before and were a little taken aback that they would make 12 (!) of the same pages for each month!!! The calendars were bound using a Bind-It-All and mailed out to the participants. I hope we can continue this project for 2012.

August Shoebox Challenges

My stamping buddy Bonnie has a wonderful blog - Google Craftiblog to check it out - and a few of her internet friends occasionally send her craft items as a challenge to see what she can do with whatever they send her. One gal sent along an envelope of items which Bonnie shared with us in July. Our challenge was to use the materials and bring the finished item(s) to August Shoebox Night. Here's what I finally finished - I had the basic item stamped for our meeting and made some final changes.

Tri-fold Manilla Tag and Acetate

First I colored the tag with Distress Inks including silver and gold. I stamped the sentiment twice, once on the card base and again on the acetate. I colored the acetate with Sharpie markers, trimmed the acetate and adhered to the center, slightly off side to create some depth. The trees were stamped on either side and embellished with Flower Soft. The metallic leaves were found at Michaels, a package of about 40 for $1!!!

Large Manilla Tag

The tag was colored with inks, then I stamped the central image (one of my favorites!). I masked the image and stamped the top and bottom with a marbelized background stamp and added the embellishments to the bottom and fibers to the top.

(Yet) Another Fall Card

The central image is acetate run through the CB using an embossing folder. I then colored using Alcohol Inks. The tag is from Spellbinders, and I used a $1 stamp for the sentiment, adding gold peel-offs instead of ribbon. Simple and fun to make.

Another Use for a Tag and Acetate

I received an invite to a SU party and really liked one of the cards on the postcard, so I used it as a model for this card. The leaf is acetate inked up and cut with the large CB maple leaf. A scrap of hand decorated paper is used for the background behind the tag.

August Shoebox

August Shoebox Card

A small group of friends has been getting together for an evening of fun - making cards, chatting, and having fabulous dessert! This month we made only three cards (Ashley had to take her dog to the vet, and my stamp scrubber leaked onto the card base!) But we did have fun, celebrated Bonnie's BD with a luscious lemon pie (thanks, Chrissy!) and also shared some challenges (more on this in a later post.) So, here's our new cards - lots of ideas for you stampers.

JANE'S PRETTY IN PINK BD CARD

Jane (who is brand new to stamping!) helped us create this lovely BD card using reversible cardstock, a border punch, and a couple of dollar stamps. The dragonfly has jewels on the body and shimmery highlights on the wings. This will probably be Kada's card for BD #3 (but don't tell her!)

Bonnie's Distress Ink Trees and Beaded Embellishment

Bonnie always comes up with some lovely ideas and combined a tutorial using Distress Inks from GinaK's Stamp TV videos and an idea for a simple but gorgeous embellishment - beads and a long pin. Be sure to check out Stamp TV - lots of wonderful ideas - great videos!!!

Chrissy's Masculine Card

I just love this card - monochromatic cards are so striking. We distressed the white paper used for the stamped images with Distress Inks, then stamped in black. Thank goodness Chrissy cut all the pieces for us!!! I have two BIL's who have BD's coming up - both would like this card. Now I have to decide who gets it!

Next month we will make Ashley's card and mine which didn't get made this month. A special thanks to Chrissy who was hostess and made the delightful lemon pie.

More Metal

I have been enjoying working with metal, especially after taking a class at Artiscape with Cheryl Darrow. While I am still a beginner using the tools, I have been able to use the CuttleBug embossing folders to create a similar effect. I had made a similar item for a swap a week or so ago and wanted to make a present for my sister Juli. I had been frustrated trying to color specific sections of the metal with alcohol inks and was excited to be able to purchase two of the new Tim Holz alcohol ink pens last weekend at a rubber stamp/scrap show here in Waukesha. After coloring the embossed image, I was able to remove some of the ink from the tall grass using a cosmetic sponge and the blending solution. I put Wild Plum in one of the pens and colored the bird. The background is decoupaged paper on a hard canvas and a piece of the original Basic Gray paper which looks like wood. I don't think I'll buy a pen for each of the inks I have (sorry, Tim), but will decide which accent colors I will use the most and buy pens for them. Check out Tim's video for a demo: http://tinyurl.com/q2z8hp

"Morning has Broken"

Artiscape 2009

I have been excited since last year to attend Ariscape 2009 in Columbus, Ohio. I found a Yahoo group associated with this venue, and participated in a fat book swap. Here's the cover of the finished book - forty fat pages. I blogged mine previously. www.tinyurl.com/cau3dj

ARTISCAPE!!!

My good friend Barbara and I attended from April 16-20. We left dreary, rainy Milwaukee and arrived to SPRING! Columbus was warm, the flowers were blooming, and we didn't have to wear coats, hats, or mittens. It turned out to be a perfect weekend with lots of fun, wonderful classes, great opportunities to add to our art stashes. The good weather lasted until Monday morning - it was cool and rainy in Columbus, time for us to return to cool and rainy Milwaukee.


At registration we received our packet of materials including our "Dance Card." It held our list of classes, tickets for events, and other information. The theme for the event was "The Age of Innocence," so this fit in perfectly.

ART CHARMS AND MISCELLANY

I had taken a class last year from this instructor, Mike Meador, so I knew I was in for something fun and just a little "wacky!" Yes, we used recycled soda (or other beverage) cans to make embellishments, charms, or ???? Covering the little wooden cubes was pretty easy, but making the wee frames with inserts was more challenging. I had a lot of trouble with the first one, but by the third time I had figured out how to do this. These are incomplete - they need clip art or something, but they're really practice work. The materials are free and easily found, a bonus. Think I'll try using piece through the CuttleBug.

SEWN IN AND TIED, TOO

This is the front of the book we made with office supplies and other found ephemera. The picture below shows a view of the book open. There is even a cloth bag included as well as coin envelopes, tickets, etc.

BEESWAX COLLAGE

I have been interested in using beeswax as a medium in collage - it creates a beautiful effect. We were told at the beginning of the class that there is a Zen quality to using beeswax - the warmth, the scent, the soothing, repetitive brushing on the beeswax. We were assured that there are no mistakes as what you put on can be taken off. We had lots of papers, ephemera, botanicals, and doo-dads to use. Everyone seemed to enjoy this class. And I am planning to work more with the beeswax.

PAPER MAKING - CANS AND CUTTERS

This was a short class, only an hour, but it was good, messy fun. The previous class had spent the afternoon mixing up batches of pulp and then making sheets of paper. They used all kinds of things as the base: bananas, dried flowers, bark, and even denim jeans! We were kind of the clean up crew, using the leftovers. I didn't have any cookie cutters with me, the open ones without a handle, so I used a can to create the base for some embellishments. I haven't worked with paper pulp for awhile and, now that the weather is better, I think I'll make some pulp in my blender and have some more messy fun.

SOLDERING FOR MAIDENS

I always said that I would NEVER bother with learning to solder. Well, I was wrong! This was an excellent - lots of demonstration of techniques, good instructions to take home, and something that, with some practice, I will be able to do. The charms are double-sided: B/W clip art on one side and the checkerboard paper on the reverse. It was suggested to mix them up the way I did. I added them to a chain I had at home but I can always change my mind and use them in a different way. We left the class with our completed charms and a soldering iron.

I'm ready to go!



METAL ART

This is a portion of what I made in this class. I couldn't get a good picture of the project because it is metal (reflected the flash) and too large for the scanner (cut off 3/4 of the frame.) So, you will have to use your imagination.Or, you can go to Cheryl's website to see another shot of it http://www.tensecondsstudio.com/Gallery/index.html We used a 12X16 canvas as the base as well as a sheet of metal. We used the back side of the canvas as a frame by painting the edges with household caulk tinted with acrylic paint. While that was drying, we embossed (and debossed) the saying using special metal tools and sanding some of the color off the metal. The darkened words were printed on paper, cut out, and glued down. The metal was then set into the "frame" - ready to hang. I learned a lot in the class (Cheryl Darrow - Ten Second Studio) and will work more with this medium. If you are interested, check out Cheryl's website and her videos - they are very interesting, informative, and also a good laugh!!!



NOT YOUR GRANDMA'S QUILTING

The last class - I couldn't believe everything was coming to an end. Cheryl Meador, the instructor, brought kits with all the pieces cut, the batting sewn in, and lots of pearl cotton for us to hand sew a mini-purse. In her instructions, she also showed how to make a pattern for other sizes or how to make book covers or whatever. I haven't down hand work like this for a long time and forgot how much I enjoy doing it. And, I love the fun colors.

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So, that's what I did at Artiscape, well, at least the classes. We had a great time in Columbus, and I plan to go next year. Hope to see some of you there as well. Maybe the Canadian rugby players will be there again (but that's another story!

Check out the website at http://www.europeanpapers.com/

Book Study: Glossy, Alcohol Inks and Mica Powders

My friend Carol Sweeney has been posting demonstrations of the techniques in Nancy Curry's book Texture Effects for Rubber Stamping for the Yahoo group Next Generation. This technique uses glossy card stock, alcohol inks, and mica or interference powder. You can find the directions in the section called "Flights of Fancy."

(Click on the image to see a close up)

If you don't own this book (and I highly recommend it), go to Carol's blog:

http://carol-creative-expressions.blogspot.com/2009/03/book-study-mica-alcohol-inks-3.html

Arrtiscape 2009

Last April my friend Barbara and I attended Artiscape, a wonderful art convention with outstanding workshops in Ohio. We had so much fun that we are going again, this time to Columbus, home of European Papers which sponsors and organizes everything. I discovered this year that there is a Yahoo group associated with Artiscape; members may sign up for various fat books (hand made books whose pages are 4" X 4"). The theme this year is "The Age of Innocence." I made 44 pages, all similar but not ecactly alike. Here is a sample of some of the pages.

For more information on Artiscape, go to www.europeanpapers.com.

Fun Swaps in February

The moderators on CCSwaps are always challenging us to try something new. The box below was for a "Money for a Rainy Day" Swap. We were to create a sealed money box for our partner so she could add a dollar for each swap she participated in during 2009. At the end of the year, she would have a nice stash of money to spend, probably on more art supplies. I used a purchased paper mache "treasure chest," cut a hole in the top, then decoupaged it with printed tissue paper. I added beaded trim, ribbon and two metal embellishments. The one on the top is where I cut the hole.

Money for a Rainy Day

Tiny Book-in-a-Box

The book-in-a-box is quite small, not much larger than a matchbox, but a little deeper. It originally held a piece of jewelry. I created a small accordian book and glued it into the bottom of the box.