Colour Perceptions - White

In ArtVentures the next colour perception is white. To me this colour is cool and pristine.

I started with white cardstock and using a stencil and Viva Decor Mother of Pearl modelling cream I embossed part of the base. I added some white lace to the right-hand side. I cut out a die from a cuttlebug embossing folder from 120LB cardstock and adhered it to the centre of the ATC.

I punched a circle from some lighter weight cardstock and coloured it with Moonlight Smooch ink by Clearsnap. I embossed the back and attached it to the centre of the die with some Scrap Dots (3-D glue) to allow it to keep it's shape, then placed it on the centre of the die.

To add a bit more interest, I covered a piece of white scrap cardstock with Sookwang tape and covered it with Glitter Ritz white glitter, then punched out some little flower shapes with a hand punch. These were adhered to the ATC in a few areas using glue dots. To complete the card I added a little paper holder brad to the bottom.

  

Doodles Unleashed Alphabets

The next series for this swap on ArtVentures is E to H.

The background for E is done on watercolour paper with Dylusions sprays and the ghosting technique using a stencil. I got a bit silly with this one and added some googly eyes to the top to go with the saying I wrote on the letter.

The F background is newspaper that I had under some other projects so it is covered with sprays and paints. I coloured the letter with Lyra pencils and some markers then cut them out and attached them to the background. added some transfer foil to the one edge and a paper flower.

G was done with fluid chalks and a text stamp for the background. The letter is coloured with Tombow markers.

H is a distress ink background and the H is fairly simple as I was running out of ideas for the doodling. I drew lines around the edge with Tombow Markers to give it a more finished look.

Canvas ATC"S

In my Art-Ventures group, Carol S proposed a swap for ATC's on canvas. Luckily I had a couple of canvas ATC bases and joined the swap. As it turns out only 3 of us joined in so I had sufficient to complete the swap.

I decided to do the same technique but in different colours.

I painted the bases with gesso and let it dry. I coloured the first one with green paint, let it dry then added blue over the top. I let it dry a bit then spritzed it with rubbing alcohol and then dabbed over it with a cloth, allowing some of the green to show through. For the second one, I painted the base with orange, let it dry then added a burgandy red over it and followed the same procedure as the first, allowing some of the orange to show.

After they dried completely, I embossed them with a dreamweavers stencil and embossing paste and set them aside. When they were dry I used leafing on both. On the the orange/red one I applied a variagated orange colour, then I added some green apple smooch ink to the vines and to cover some of the areas missed by the leafing I coloured with Pumpkin Smooch ink.

On the blue one I  coloured the vines with the Green Apple Smooch, but the silver on the flowers was a bit glaring so I coloured over them with some Ocean Soul Smooch ink, let it sit for a few seconds then gently wiped them with a kleenex.

To complete the cards I printed and cut out two images from Moonlight Journey and placed some little frames over them. Both were coloured with some metallic rub-ons in coordinating colours to match the backgrounds.

I have stencils ......

The latest technique we are doing in CCSwaps is using stencils. I had all kinds of ideas, but decided to use them in the traditional way.

I took a piece of cardstock and placed a large wall stencil over the top and applied Brilliance inks. I then stamped a word stamp with Brilliance Pearlescent Beige. The butterfly is a rub-on.

I took  a 12'x12" piece of cardstock and folded it to make a stationery holder. With another stencil I stenciled some pansies on small pieces of cardstock and again stamped the word stamp with the Brilllinace ink and added some punched circles for the centre of the flowers. I attached these to the bottom folds

I added some cording to close the folder and placed the large stenciled cardstock piece on the front cover. Unfortunately, I was not thinking and the cover piece started to rip from the pressure of the cord. Rather than starting all over again, I tried various thing to reinforce the area, and finally settled on cutting a little light weight key in half and gluing it on with the cording coming through it.

On the inside, I placed some stationery and some envelopes. Some of the envelopes are decorated, but I can't take credit for them as they were some I received many years ago in swap.

Mini Memory for Jackie

Jackie is the February recipient for the Mini Memory swap in the DCI group and she chose vintage with earthy tones and gold as her theme.

I took a canvas and gessoed it then added scrunched up foil, cheesecloth and added some embossing paste with a stencil. I painted over the whole piece with various colours of acrylic paints to attain the vintage look.

I printed off  a vintage picture of a woman from digitalcollagesheets.com and glued it to the canvas. In my stash I found an old picture frame, which I touched up with paint. I cut out a piece of acetate and covered the picture, then attached the frame.

Added some vintage buttons that my friend Annie sent me awhile ago, a piece of paper tape and some book corners to finish the piece off.

Christmas Gift

I am participating in a swap on CCSwaps were we are exchanging Christmas gifts. I made several items but was not completely happy with them. Today I received a newsletter from Stampington and Company and they featured a little bird made using a small chipboard box with a clear lid. This inspired me to try something similar.

Of course I have no little boxes like that so had to improvise as usual!!! I had a small circular tin from some hand cream so decided to use the lid as the body. I covered it with moulding paste using an old plastic doily as a stencil to give it some texture. After it dried I sprayed it with Memories and Tattered Angels spray then added some Posh Impressions metallic ink in the same color family.

I took an embellishment that I bought at the dollar store and added a pearl to the centre and some little gems around the perimeter. Glued this to the body then attached the little letters to spell out "Fly".

For the head I printed off a bird picture, adhered it to some 130LB cardstock, cut it out and then covered it with some modge podge.

The wings were cut out of some silver embossing metal. I covered them with some Pinata`inks, then stamped a Magenta stamp on them. With my metal stylus I embossed the stamped portion. I felt it was too monochromatic and removed some of the red & orange, and added some yellow alcohol ink.

The legs are some coloured wire that I twisted to make feet. I covered the back with some cardstock to hide all the bits and pieces and attached a piece of ribbon as a hanger.

I think it might be a bit quirky for some people and am hoping the Debra will like it.

Board Book Project

On NGS Trish has challenged us to do a board book project. I could not find one that was just plain with no cut outs, but Melissa very kindly sent me one all the way from Australia.
The instructions for this project can be found at

http://artbuzz.wordpress.com/2008/08/10/12-altered-board-book-project/

I have been busy with other projects and have been away a couple of times, but finally got started on this project and am thoroughly enjoying it. We are only to use items we have on hand; no buying new stuff for this project.

The first thing we had to do was sand or gesso the pages. I opted for sanding as I have only a small amount of gesso left.



Spread one, step one was to paint the page with cobalt blue paint or whatever blue we had on hand. When that dried we were to dip a credit card in black paint and make lines criss-crossing around both pages. Next we added white cloud-like pieces over the pages by dabbing gesso on with a damp sponge. We then added a white line in gesso, (anywhere we wanted) on one of the pages and then a bold magazine image was torn out, applied and gessoed over.
The next step was to stamp an image with a mettalic paint along one edge. I chose a turquoise paint and a Fleur-de-lis foam stamp. Next, we added a piece of paper torn from a cheap pocketbook on on the opposite page from the magazine portion. We then were to stencil a letter of the alphabet on the magazine side with black paint and draw around it with white ink/pen or paint.
Last and final steps.

1. We had to find a quotation that started with the letter we chose, and also an image to go along with it. I am an avid reader and found lots of quotes about reading but chose this one, because I truly believe we can travel anywhere in a book, only limited by our imagination.


2. I searched for a picture to go along with the quote and stumbled upon one which really "spoke" to me on the Morgue Files site taken by Clara Natoli of Rome. I downloaded the picture and then matted it with black cardtsock as instructed by Trish.


3. Final step was to add 3 silver embellishments wherever we chose.

Challenge Number 3!

The latest challenge was to use handmade stencils and create a page representing graffiti. I have no handmade stencils, nor the supplies to make them, so of course I barged ahead using what I had on hand.

The background was a piece of cardstock, where I had just rubbed off excess paints and other mediums that I had used at various times. I then took some cardboard stencils that I had bought eons ago at a hardware store and stenciled them on the background using acrylic paints and dimensional paints. I outlined them with markers and added some other handwritten words and doodles to the page.  So I broke the rules, but isn’t that what Art and individuality is all about?