Doodles Unleashed Alphabets

On the ArtVentures group I am participating in a Doodles Unleashed Alphabet swap, based on Traci Bautista's style of doodling.

I am not sure I am doing these right as I think I need to be more "free' in creating the letters, but I went ahead with the first four and hope that the other participants won't be disappointed with my efforts.

The A is on a colour wash background and coloured with Tombow markers, B is a Fresco ink background and the letter coloured with Twinkling H2O's, C is a shaving cream marbled background on matte cardstock - the letter coloured with Tombow markers and Galaxy Gel Pens, D is on an acrylic paint background.

Calendar Pages-Prototype #1

I joined a calendar swap and started working on my prototype for the month of November.

Where I live we quite often have snow in November, so I was thinking of a cold or snowy picture when I started creating this page.


I started by taking some 80Lb cream cardstock and Clearsnap fluid chalks inks and did a background using alabaster, ice blue and lavender using the Stamp Smoosh technique I learned from the wonderful Cathie Allan. You load a solid stamp with ink and smoosh it around on the card stock until all the ink is gone and keep repeating this until you are happy with it.
 
Using Tsukineko Versafine Imperial Purple ink,  I stamped the church stamp and added the large tree at the left, both from Stampscapes Since we have a lot of Birch trees here I decided to add a few using a stamp (Stampendous) stamping the first image, masking it off and then adding more to make a grove of trees.
 
It looked a bit naked so I took a stamp with a road, hills and trees (A stamp in the Hand), masked off part of it and stamped it below the church. 
 

I also decided to add a moon using a negative image of a punched circle. I started by colouring it with a grey coloured pencil, added some Twinkling H2O buttercup. then Pearl-ex express white pearl and iridescent violet. This stuck out like a sore thumb so I took the fluid chalk alabaster and dabbed it over the moon with a stylus and white applicator, which toned it down.  

 

Since this is a prototype the calendar grid is only taped on till I decide whether or not I am completely happy with what I created.  

Inchie Swap

I signed up for an Inchie Swap on CCSwaps. I first thought of making a little notebook but Carol is doing that for her swap so thought I would do something different.

I have a stash of beautiful embossed papers and decided to use them instead of hoarding them. I started by punching circles from the various papers and punched small holes for them to be used as tags.

Two of the white ones I coloured with Twinkling H2O's then sprayed with Glimmer Mists. Another one, I coloured with Fluid Chalks and sprayed with the Glimmer Mists. The other two white ones were coloured with Fluid Chalk inks.

One black piece was coloured with Fresco chalk inks the second with Versamagic inks then sprayed with silver Glimmer Mists.

The final piece is a Pinata~ ink background stamped with a snowflake stamp in gold. Thought this one was appropriate for the little girl that I used on the inchie who looks rather angelic.

The inchies were made from scraps of my homemade background papers and various freebie images. The Dragonfly was a scrap of plumbers tape that I had embossed in the Cuttlebug that I punched then coloured with Adirondack pens.

I may add something to the binder ring that I attached to make it a bit more attractive.

Dream Vacation

One of the current swaps on CCSwaps is Dream Vacation, where we make an item based on a country chosen by the swap hostess; this month it is France.

I had an extra address book so thought I would alter it for this swap.

I started by covering the book with some scrapbook paper,  then stamped some text (Tim Holtz) postage franques (Hero Arts). I stamped on a piece of cream cardstock using an Inkadinkadoo stamp by Jill Meyer and lightly covered it with distress inks. I added a tag that I bought at my local scrapbook store. I stamped the Eiffel Tower stamp (Inkadinkadoo) twice and embossed the second one, cut them out and layered them. I then applied distress ink over the top and coloured the Paris part with twinkling H2O's.

I colourwd some Fleur-de-Lis chipboard pieces with ink and Perfect Pearls and attached them to the side. I was worred that the hinge part of the book might start to crack with use, so I inked a piece of self-adhesive hinge tape with distress inks and covered the edge of the book.

Artist of the Month

This month on CCSwaps we are having another Artist of the Month swap. This time around it is in the style of Zana Clark of Stamp Zia. As usual, I jumped in with both feet with no clue as to what I am doing.

For this swap I had to improvise as I do not own any Stamp Zia products. She uses her own line of sprays on watercolour paper and I don't have any bright ones. I did do one piece using some sprays on watercolour paper but it was a disaster.

I decided to use glossy cardstock and dye inks, which is one of the techniques she uses. My first two attempts were also disasters, but at least I can salvage some of the backgrounds for future use as ATC's.

I used Vivids (Clearsnap) and Seabrights (Rangers) for the background swirling them on with cotton buds. Then I stamped some ferns (Hero Arts) with Stazon white. I used a gingo stamp from (See-D's from Sugarloaf) with Ancient Page Coal and stamped it around the background.

On an extra piece of background paper, I stamped the dragonfly/waterlily (Pedlars Pack) in permanent ink and coloured the lilies and dragonflies with twinkling H2O's, then edged it with a black marker.

I stamped some waterlilies (Sunshine Designs) on some scrap pieces and coloured them with the H2O's. Stamped "magic"(Stamp Oasis) on another scrap and layered it on black glossy cardstock.

This one I was finally happy with, although wondering if I should have forgot about stamping the ginkgos. Unfortunately, when scanning the intensity of the colours does not show up well.

Mini Memories

I belong to a small group DCI comprised mostly of Australians, but there are few of us from North America. The current swap is to make Mini items that can all be placed into a larger frame. Each participant has chosen a theme and a colour scheme. Some have stipulated a certain size and others have just left it up to the artist.

For the month of August Trizzy is the chosen recipient to receive a creation from 10 other people. Her theme is "Wings" and the colours blue and/or green with silver, with no specific size.

I recently bought a couple of stretched canvases at the dollar store and decided to use one for this project, but using the back instead of the front.

I covered the whole piece in gesso, then painted the inside with 3 different tones of blue acrylic paint. Still thought it needed "something" so went over it with blue H2O's - still not happy. So I took some silver fabric glue paint and slapped over the top portion and ran an old comb through it and rather like the effect as it looks like rain or a waterfall.

With my Cuttlebug I embossed some plumbers tape using the bird embossing folder (keeping the wings theme) and cut it to fit around the outside of the frame. I coloured the embossed parts with Adirondack pens then sprayed it with a setting agent.

I painted the inside edge in green but it did not seem finished so I tried several different things...stamping, lace, beads and even some green cording, however, none of them appealed to me. Into my stash!! I found some sea glass but it was too bulky; then I discovered some little plastic mosaic pieces and there were enough blue and green ones to fit around the edge. I adhered these with some of the wonderful Sookwang tape (Picture and giveaway on this blog) then used silver seed beads as the grout.

I stamped and coloured a cattails stamp by Hero Arts with Prismacolor pencils and and H2O's, and cut it out. I did not like it with the brown cattail head so cut them off and attached the rest of the image to the inside background. I had some little icicle embellishments in my stash and added them as more fauna. I added a jewell to a round paper clip and attached it to simulate the sun.

I have had the dragonfly ornament thing for years and this was the perfect opportunity to use it. I added some bead chain to the body and some beads on the tail, then attached a butterfly charm. I glued this to the frame with some super glue. However it would not stick. So I revised the piece. This was the original.

I took off the bird and replaced it with the butterfly. I cut off a piece of the dragonfly's tail and screwed it to the frame, then added a green jewell to hide the screw head. Much happier with it now and will mailing to Trizzy this week!!