Thursday, August 25, 2016

Guest Artist Piece - A Vintage Journey

Hello everyone!  I was so excited to be asked as a Guest Creative Guide by A Vintage Journey to be their Guest Artist for the month of August!  What an honor!  Amanda picked their theme for this month which is "Stencil It".  There are so many wonderful stencils on the market - this is a great theme!

It rarely happens, but I actually had an idea almost immediately.


I have always loved this quote by B  Line Designs and knew that I wanted to create a piece around it. I find it so inspiring!

I pulled out an old Cloud stencil by All Night Media and stenciled the clouds using DecoArt Fluid acrylics in Primary Cyan and Titan Buff mixed together and applied the color with a baby wipe to give it a softer look.  I began stenciling the clouds in, at first heavier towards the top of the piece and faded the color as I moved downwards.  Once the color was dry, I added a bit of Quinacridone Gold lightly over the top.

A small stiff brush was used to stipple in some white gesso to accent the clouds and make them look more puffy. (Forgot to take the photo before I laid out the birds)


The words were stenciled in randomly over the top of the sky using the Crafter's Workshop "Mini Art Is" stencil and Vintage Photo Distress Ink applied with a blending tool.



The final stencil used is Tim Holtz's Wildflower.  I think this is one of my favorites!  I once again used Vintage Photo Distress ink to stencil the wildflowers along the lower right side and bottom of the piece.






I stamped "A Bird is Never Afraid" by B Line Designs onto white tissue paper with Ranger Archival
ink and cut out the sentiment, cutting in into two parts.  Using matte medium, I adhered the sentiment to the middle of the piece, leaving enough room to add a die cut branch and a few flowers.  I laid the branch out and a flower so that I could see if there was enough room.

Using dark brown card stock, I die cut the birds from Tim's Sizzix Sizzlets Birds in Flight die and a branch from Memory Box's Woodland Branch die.  They were all adhered to the piece using matte medium.  I added some small die cut flowers cut from scrap paper and Tim Holtz's                  
Tattered Flower Garland die.  Finally,  it was fun to die cut some of Tim's Holtz's Stampers Anonymous Wildflowers from dark brown card stock and add them over the top of the stenciled wildflowers.  How cool is that they they coordinate so well!


I was going to altered a frame so that I could display this piece on my desk, however, I went to my local craft store and found this perfect Shabby Chic frame that I just love!  I didn't want to distract from the piece either, so I decided to leave the frame "as-is'.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing all the fabulous stencil projects by the wonderful ladies at "A Vintage Journey"  If you haven't done so yet, hop on over to their blog here to see them all!

Susan

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

AUGUST CREATIVE CARTE BLANCHE ART ADVENTURE - SUN, MOON AND STARS

Welcome everyone to August's art adventure - Sun, Moon and Stars!  I was so thrilled when our dear Yvonne came up with this theme!  I actually had an idea brewing in my head for quite awhile and I couldn't wait to put it together!  I have a wonderful photo of my mother when she was young (she is 87 this month) sitting on a bench that I couldn't wait to use.



Isn't she adorable?  As you can see, I turned my mother into a little angel sitting on a crescent moon among the stars.  There are several themes going on here - my love for my mother - and also a tribute to her challenges in life that she took on fearlessly. Well, maybe there was some fear there, however, she never let on....

Anyway, I wanted to create a night sky using one of my all time favorite Tim Holtz techniques from his Compendium of Curiosities III book.  I was fortunate to participate in Linda Ledbetter's CCIII Challenges last year and created several projects using this technique.

I started by dabbing some Blueprint Sketch, Faded Jeans and Picket Fence Distress inks onto my craft sheet.  Then I sprayed some water onto the paints on the sheet and swirled a manila tag through the paints.  I was so lucky as the first time was the charm and I got a wonderful night sky with this technique:


I then die cut Tim Holtz's Crescent Moon and Stars from a piece of card stock.  This was originally going to be just a trial run for a moon cut from cardboard to see if I liked the colors, etc., however, I ended up liking this original cut piece, so I die cut two more moons from  black cardstock to layer to the original piece for strength.  I apologize as I got so caught up in the fun of creating this tag that I forgot to take separate photos.  Hopefully, this close-up will give you an idea of the moon.


I began by using some Brilliance Moonlight White pigment ink to the base of the moon and then went over the top of it with Tim Holtz Squeezed Lemonade Distress ink.  I finished it by adding some areas of  Hickory Smoke to the moon.  I was trying to go for a more subdued "glowing" look to the moon.


As you can see, I offset one of the two layers of black card stock just a little to give the moon's face some definition.  I added a Gumdrop from Idea-ology to the top point of the moon along with an embellishment I found years ago at a retail show (I knew all those wonderful embellishments I purchased years ago but didn't know what to do with yet would come in handy!) to create a "hat" for my moon.  

I copied a photo of my mother onto card stock and cut her body out.  I then used Neo Color II crayons with a tiny bit of water to hand color her dress and socks pink, her hair brown and add just a little flesh color to her body.  I adhered some little wings to her back and an oversized little rose with a touch of blue to match the background to her dress. 

I set this aside to dry and then stamped Tim Holtz's "Love You to the Moon and Back" from his Life Quotes stamp set using black archival ink onto the tag.  It was pretty plain, so I used his Ranger white Picket Fence marker to add a bit of color to the letters to make them pop.



Then Mom was able to take her place on the crescent moon just below the words.  

To finish this piece,  I added three star brads to the tag and used another layer of black card stock to the entire piece.


I cut apart the quote from Tim's Idea-ology Small Talk stickers "with brave wings she flies" and backed each word with black card stock, finally adhering the words to the moon.  I also ran a bead of Stardust Stickles around the edge of the moon.

I always thought of my mother as one of the bravest people I knew.  She married my father, a young Navy dentist,  in 1956, had me in 1958 and then got on a ship to the Philippines with a toddler for the first of many adventures.  We moved around quite a bit and Mom always "bloomed where she was planted" and provided a wonderful life for my brother and me.  She and Dad even had the opportunity to travel quite a bit when we were stationed overseas and went to what I thought were such exotic places as Thailand, Hong Kong, India and Vietnam before the war.

So, here's to you, Mom!  Happy Birthday!  I love you to the moon and back!

Susan






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Friday, August 5, 2016

Challenge to Myself - Graphic 45 Mon Amour Paper

The other day I was admiring my beautiful Graphic 45 Mon Amour paper and thinking about a wedding card I wanted to create for my niece's upcoming wedding.  Once I had the idea for the card (Theresa - if you are reading this, don't do any further!), I put it together and mulled over all the pieces that were left.  Normally I would just store it away, but this time I decided I would challenge myself to see how many cards I could create with the paper I had in this line.  I think I had about 6 or 7 sheets and I ended up with 15 cards!

I thought I would share these cards with you to show you that you can add stamps, embellishments, etc. and create a large variety.  I needed birthday, sympathy, wedding and general cards.  The first one I made was a pop up card:



Then some wedding cards:







These could be an anniversary cards too!
Sympathy cards



Birthday Cards





I have posted 12 cards here.  I actually made another three as well, but had to send them off before I had the chance to photograph them.  Fifteen cards from 6 or 7 sheets of paper!  I am pleased!

Thanks Graphic 45 for creating such beautiful paper!

Susan