Gel Medium Resist

When I saw the Gel Medium challenge over at Eclectic Paperie  I knew what I wanted to try. I wanted to try a resist using the gel medium.

 I used the scallop flowers stencil from Balzar Designs and a palette knife to apply my gel Medium to the tag. After the medium was dry I applied Salty Ocean, Warn Lipstick, and Dusty Concord Distress Ink to the tag. You can see how the Gel Medium resisted the ink.  The result is subtle, but  creates a pretty neat background.

Next I cut a few flowers out of metal using the Tattered Florals Die. I them used Worn Lipstick, Dusty Concord, Broken China, and Shabby Shutters Distress Embossing powder to add some color and texture to the flowers. 

I then ran the flowers through the swirls embossing folder and sanded off some of the Distress Embossing Powder.

I then added my swirling stem, made out of grunge board and painted with Peeled Paint, Mowed Lawn and Silver Distress Paint.  Thank you so very much for stopping by. Be sure to check out the challenge over at Eclectic Paperie.

One Day at a time

That is how I am dealing with life's crazy, unexpected turns. some are good and some not so good. I am trying hard to express my feelings creatively each day. So here is what today's art journal page looks like.

It is a simple page because I wanted the pictures and verse to speak for themselves. The verse is from a song by Katie Melua.

I used my favorite 2 ink pads for the background: Peeled Paint and Broken China Distress Inks. I am going to submit this to the Simon Says Stamp and Show Favorite Ink Challenge.  I used a stencil I made and smooched the ink through it. I also used the spritz and flick technique and let some drips of ink dribble down the page.

Thank you for stopping by to view my very brief post. I hope you are having a wonderful day and can take some time to create.

Music

I am not sure what I would do without music. Music can evoke an emotion, make me reflect on a past memory, help the time pass, or make a tone-deaf person as myself sing out loud. When I saw the "Music to make housework easier" project I knew I had to join in. This month's song is Breathe Me by Sari. The lyrics are so emotional and beautiful I decided to make an art journal page with an altered picture of myself.

The picture started out as a "normal" color photograph. I then changed the hues in the picture to purple and here is what it looked like before I really altered it.

I decided to try my hand at painting over the picture . This was my first attempt at something like this and I was happy with how my face came out, but I may still go back and do something different to my torso.

I wanted to really get into the background, painting with my hands quite a bit. It just seemed more personal than using a brush. You can see this was messy.

I then used  white and purple colored pencils to write the lyrics onto the page. Last step was to adhere my painted photo to the page.

Thank you for stopping by and be sure to check out the music project and listen to the song. I hope you have a beautiful day!

Beautiful Moments

I started making this tag on Monday. I had a vision of what I wanted it to look like and was happy to be creating, not knowing that life would be changing in just a few hours. I started by cutting a tag from corrugated cardboard that I painted with white and blue acrylic paint.

Over at Simon Says Stamp and Show they are challenging you to use those small 6x6 paper pads. So I decided to use some paper from a 6x6 paper pack that I rarely use. I tore up random pieces and layered it onto the tag.

I then applied several layers of UTEE to a torn piece of black paper. I added several colors of Perfect Pearls to the UTEE. I then heated it up again and stamped into it with a stamp form the Tim Holtz Papillon Stamp set.

 

Next step was to add my butterflies. I stamped the butterflies onto a piece of canvas and then frayed the edges a bit. I fussy cut more butterflies out of that 6x6 paper and layered them on top of the tag.

Now like I said in the middle of all of this my little world got turned upside down. My wonderful fur-baby we have had for 13 years started getting sick. If you follow my blog you know that he had Pancreatic Cancer. Well, after a trip to the vet it was determined that the cancer had spread and there was nothing else we could do for him. So on Monday afternoon we had to let him go.

I was not sure I could create again or finish the tag, but then I found this saying:

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.  ~Rabindranath Tagore

I decide to remember those happy moments he gave us and make that enough.

So I encourage all of you to take the time to cherish the moments today and forever. As always thank you so very much for stopping by.

Time Flies

I don't know where the time goes, but boy does it fly by. This seems especially true when I get creative. Take today for instance, I decided to create my tags for the Creative -Block Stampers Anonymous Yahoo Group. I was up bright and early to get working on them and before I knew it, it was 5:00pm. Don't get me wrong it is wonderful to have the entire day to just sit back and create, I just can't imagine where the time goes.

I started by painting a tag with acrylic black paint. I then stamped the edges of the tag using a stamp from the Tim Holtz Regal Flourish Stamp set and various colors of Gelatos (something that I have had for sometime and had not used).

I then trimmed another tag down slightly and colored it with various colors of Gelatos. I then stamped the tag with Archival Black ink and a stamp form the Tim Holtz Stuff to say Stamp set. I wanted to add a bit of texture to the tag so I used another Tim Holtz Stamp form the French Market set and some Black Soot Distress Embossing powder.

I cut 2 flowers out of watercolor paper using the Tattered Florals die. They are colored with, you guessed it, Gelatos. I went around the edges a bit with some black acrylic paint to give them a grungy look and to make them pop off of the tag a bit.

I wanted the wings to be light and airy, so I used I stamped and embossed a piece of vellum.  I then fussy cut the wings out.

I used gesso, Gelatos, and acrylic paint to give the metal pieces and the clock tucked uder the flower petals a grungy sort of feeling.

I am going to submit this to the Frilly and Funky There's No Time to Waste Challenge.  Thank you so much for stopping by.

Happy Mother's Day

I am just popping in with a quick post to wish all of the Moms out there a very Happy Mother's Day! I am sharing a quick card I made for my Mom.

The background is vellum stamped with a Tim Holtz stamp form the Papillon Set. I then embossed the stamped image.

I cut 5 flowers from vellum using the Tattered Floral die. I stamped the flowers with various stamps and embosses them. I then colored in a few sections of the stamped images with a Soufflé Pink Pen and layered the flowers on top of each other. I pulled out a button form my stash and colored it with Alcohol Ink and added it to the layered flowers.

Lastly I added the metal corner pieces. These are also inked with Alcohol Ink. I am going to Submit this to the Unruly Paper Arts Paper Flower challenge.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day and as always thank you for stopping by!

Inspiring Artists

This week over at Simon Says Stamp and Show they are asking what inspires you? I did not have to think to long on this. I have a few favorite Artists, but Tim Holtz is who I blame for really getting me into more then scrapbooking. I am also a huge fan of Anna Dabrowska , also known as Finnabair. So I decided to make a tag that combines a bit of Tim and a bit of Anna.

I started out by using some Distress Stains in Chipped Sapphire, Broken China, and Gathered Twigs to swipe my tag through.

I then pulled some Tim Holtz stamps and some black archival ink to stamp onto some tissue paper. I then crumbled up the tissue paper and adhered it to my tag. I needed to add a bit more color back in so I went back over the tag with the Distress Stains previously used.

Next step was to add a bit of texture. I used Modeling paste through a piece of plastic canvas and

some UTEE spread around in a few areas using a tooth pick.

I made the faux glass roses using Tim Holtz Tattered Pine cone die, the same Distress Stains, and UTEE. Tim has a great video on how to make the roses here.

I then cut several flower out of felt using the Tattered Floral die. The felt was a bit flimsy to me so I added some fabric stiffener to my craft mat and then mixed in some Distress Stains to color the flowers.

I used Distress Paint in the Chipped Sapphire and Broken China to color some metal embellishments.

Now come the fun part, layering it all together. I added a piece of cheese cloth, some film strip ribbon, and then all of the above mentioned pieces.

Of course I rearranged them several times before I was happy with the final result.

 

Thank you very much for stopping by and be sure to check out the Simon Says Stamp and Show blog for even more inspiring artists!