My Garden and Other Pages

I started this page with a piece of gelli printed paper.  The shapes on the right were a big rectangular piece.  Then I added the turquoise and red paint and the rest evolved as pages often due.

I bought myself a Dylusions Art Journal awhile back and had not used it yet.  I thought I would try some spray inks in it.  The paper is supposed to be good for that. So I sprayed through a stencil, some pink, yellow, orange and red dylusion inks. Then I thought what to do next. I painted around the stencil with black gesso.  Black gesso makes such a nice surface for writing on. I added the silhouette which I cut out of red cardstock. I looked through my stash of collage items for the rest of the page. the I added some journaling. My gelli roll white pen just flowed over the black gessoed surface.  It made the finishing touches on the page such fun.

Are you often surprised on how a page turns out? I always seem to get to a point where I don't like what I have done but sticking with it always brings me out the other end to a sense of satisfaction. That is how this page went.

What have your experiences been like?

A New Find - At Last

I have been looking for one of these for years.  Its just a plastic doily but alas so hard to find.  I have a friend who works at a thrift store and she saved this for me.  The best 25 cents I have ever spent.

I used it in this background.  This was one of those pages that I hated so I kept putting things on top.  The last use of spray ink using the plastic canvas made the page look great. I am so excited to be able to use this.

Here is the tag I made for this week.  The theme was weather, so I just used raindrop paper. This was fun to put together.  It was the third tag I tried, sometimes things just don't flow. Art is like that sometimes you just have to keep going.

Lady Violet's Dinner Gauntlets

Here are the Lady Violet's Dinner gauntlets all finished. All ready to wear for the last episode of Downton Abbey.
















This show a close up of the lace cuff



Here is the lacing that is at the outside. These gloves are really fun and comfortable to wear.

I really love these Dylusion Ink Sprays, so much that I now have every color.  They just came out with 6 new colors and the neatest one is the white linen.  It has pigment in it so you have to shake it before using it.

I used the White Dylusions spray on this page in the left corner, see how it lets different colors of the background come through. It is pretty cool stuff.

Here I used painted newspaper for the background and the birds I painted on old book pages a little while ago.  Writing was done with India Ink and a dip pen.

Tomorrow I go in for surgery to have the trigger finger fixed on my right hand.  There won't be much blogging for awhile.  I will check in here to let you know how I am doing.

 UPDATE- The Dylusian inks are the brian child of Dyan Reavely. She is a Ranger designer from the UK. You can find her videos on Youtube. I bought some of my sprays at Hobby Lobby when I was in Phoenix this past summer. The new sprays I got online at the franticstamper.com here is a link to the new colors. Other online sources that I have used that carry the inks are http://bluemoonscrapbooking.comand http://scrapbook.com  Blue moon scrapbooking also has a great supply of Crafters Workshop Stencils. Now that I have enabled you all to go spend money, have fun.

BOOK SALE

Hey I have put my e-book on sale.  Is only 4.99 this week. If you have been creatively stuck or just need some inspiration take advantage of this great offer.  Regular price  9.95. Click on the buttons on the sidebar to purchase. Or the tab at the top of the page.

List Making And Where it Will Take You

I love lists, I like making them and then crossing each item off.  I will even add items later just so I can cross them off the list.  Often I will use different colors to cross things off just cause its fun.

Todays list led me to organizing my studio. No it not an item on the list. I was vacuuming my office/sewing room and looked at a storage container. It was half empty and I thought I would switch it out with some containers from the art room.

Now its in the art room and holds all my paints, spray ink,etc. I think its going to work great having it all in one place. I need to add some labels but its pretty functional right now. I won't show the rest of the room since its still in disaster mode.

I have always loved stencils and am just a bit annoyed that no one around here carries the good ones. So I have taken matters into my own hands and did some online shopping. I bought a whole slew of stencils by Crafters Workshop, Primarily Balzer designs.  Julie Fei fan Balzer has fantastic style and great stencils.  Check some of them out here.  I ordered from Blue Moon Scrapbooking.  They are fabulous to work with and got me my supplies fast. The pic is of a few that I purchased.

This is my first play with the stencils. I am still adding things to this background.   I do love to keep adding layer after layer.

I think this side may be the reverse of the stencil. when using spray ink I turn the stencil over and get the background too.  It gives different and interesting marks.

I am also doing a fairy swap with some friends on line.  This was my first try, I think she is a little chubby for a fairy. I am trying out a few poses to see which one I would like to use. Doing swaps is always a fun thing for me.  Trying to do something you have never done before helps you grow and stretch as an artist.

Have you done anything out of your comfort zone lately?

Painting Papers

During the time I have been sick I spent some time watching videos on Youtube.  I really liked this person's videos. Her channel  is called littlecanvasses. I am sharing two of them today but I recommend all of her videos. I knew I had to try some of the techniques right away.

I only had 2 sheets of white tissue paper on hand so I painted both of them.

I used the same color palette so they could go together in a project if needed.  The color was added using a gelli plate with stencils and then layers of stamping.

With a close up you can see some of the layers of color.

These pages are so big I can get about 4 journal pages out of them, or many cards. The papers turn out really rich. They photos don't do them justice.



This video is by the same woman and is about painting on newspaper.  I loved this technique.

Here are four pages of newspaper, they were made with gesso, spray inks, paint and stamping ink. I used stencils, foam rubber stamps and regular rubber stamps.

A close up shows some of the layers and texture.

This one is really more blue and green than the photo shows.

Here is a  journal page I did with some of the tissue paper.  It says "She was surrounded by grey skies and winter; but she craved color. I loved  both of these techniques and will be using them often.