Saturday, February 23, 2008

More Art





Thought I'd share a few other things I've finished lately. I love new techniques. That's why I joined Technique Junkies. The card uses the aged metal technique. Using Shimmer Sheetz, the cuttlebug embossing folders, and black Stazon ink results in a stunning background. I love the little angels stamp from Paper Artsy.
Right now, I think my favorite size art to work on is the 4x4. Both of these pieces were done for swaps. The one was for "birds and their eggs", and the other was for "tasteful nudes".

February Workshop Week 2--Folded atc's






Week 2's project was fun. The challenge was to make folded atc's. They could be single fold, double fold, accordian fold, or whatever, as long as they were folded. I always love to try different techniques, so all three of my atc's utilized a different kind of fold.

On my double fold (Dreams) I used collage sheet images, stamping and stickers. On my accordian fold card (Wonderment) the woman stamp is from Stampland. I stamped her on glossy paper and used a roller to apply rainbow inks. I cropped the image to fit my card. The background stamp on the folded edge is from Stamper's Annonymous. To finish it off I used the definition of wonderment from a dictionary and attached a key embellishment.

The diagonal cut fold atc (Country Bridge) was a little more challenging. I knew that I wanted to use scene stamping and that I wanted the fold over to blend with the main part of the atc. Now, scene stamping isn't my greatest strength, but I figure that you don't improve if you don't try. Well, I got the scene stamped and colored, but it was just too flat. There was nothing to catch your attention. So I let it sit for awhile. I realized that it needed movement. I stamped a few deer and the couple walking. I think that helped liven up the scene.

February Workshop on ATC's Week 1






Here I am again trying to catch up. This month we are working on atc's. I love doing atc's so this has been fun. For week 1 we were to make 5 atc's using only 3 elements. In some ways it was a little challenging to limit my work to 3 elements, but I'm always up to a challenge.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Tag Book pages 9-12





Page 9--Pocket stamped with Chinese characters with coin inside, Chinese character for Fortunate, Chinese coin, with origami paper on background.

Page 10--Koi fish stamped and embossed on origami paper.

Page 11--Stenciled bird on bamboo, jeweled embellishments.

Page 12--Dragonfly with vellum wings, outline sticker butterfly dry embossed on vellum, and dragonfly charm on origami paper.

Tag Book Pages 5-8





Page 5--Mahjong playing pieces, mica covered playing card.


Page 6--Stamped Cat with Chinese word and cat charms.


Page 7--Origami crane and crane stamped and embossed on vellum over stamped Chinese characters.


Page 8--Stamped Chinese dragon on marbled paper, tiled background.


Tag Book pages 1-4





Page 1--stamped face, Japanese ribbon, heart-shaped coin.

Page 2--Transparency of tea set, Chinese tea bag tag, over origami paper.

Page 3--Stamped and embossed gingko leaves, gingko leaf eyelets, and real bamboo strip.

Page 4--Outline sticker fan pocket, flowers, and Oriental flower tag.

Tag Book Pages--cover


The cover of the tag book includes the title, "Asian Assemblage".The flowers are popped and layered. The tag opens. Outside is a tape transfer and inside is a haiku poem which I created for the book.

"Art, the soul of each

Being whose mind opens to

The Spirit within."

This tag has the coffee dyed base with coffee crystals sprinkled over. There is no other coloring.

Tagbook finished



I promised myself that I would complete my tag book before the start of the new workshop in February. I even decided that the theme of my book would be an Asian theme. I had many Asian rubberstamps and Asian related embellishments. I am drawn to the Asian theme, but haven't used my materials in many projects. This was a perfect reason to bring out the Asian supplies. The background tags were completed a few weeks ago; however, it took me until last week to actually sit down and begin work. Once I finally got started, it was easy and a lot of fun. Hopefully you'll enjoy the pictures of my book as much as I enjoyed making the tag book.

Tag Workshop--gessoed tags


Once the color was added to the tags, I drybrushed gesso on all of the tags. This gave all of the tags a unifying look without taking away from the colors.

Tag Workshop Part 2d--Shaving Cream Marbling


The last 3 tags were done using the shaving cream marbling technique. The adirondack colorwash sprays were used for this technique.

Tag Workshop Part 2c--dye inks


I guess it's about time I added the rest of the steps for the tag workshop. In part 2c we were to use dye inks on our background. In all cases I used the distress inks from Ranger.