art journal adventures

One of the hobbies I've picked up lately from watching YouTube is art journaling.  One of my biggest enablers to date is Tanya McGuire, who made and sent little journals to several of her subscribers last year.  In Sunday afternoon live stream events, she works on hers and many people work along.  Sometimes I'm logged in and working along, but more often I'm working later.  This month I've been additionally inspired by Lost Coast's 31 days of Halloween and their Furry Friends Challenge:

I used Stampin' Up! inks for the background and the Carmen's Veranda Small Witch background.  The rest of my page is various papers and die cuts from mostly unknown sources.  The black cat image came from PixelScrapper - she reminds me of my cat Smudgie.

After this page, we had two pages left, so it was time to think about making new journals if we wanted to continue to play along.  Most people used 6"x9" envelopes from Dollar Tree for their cover, and I intended to.  The local store only had yellow ones, and I didn't really want to paint the whole thing.  Also, the original journal had a wrapped cover that I really liked, and the envelope flap wasn't going to be long enough to wrap around to the front, so I was thinking about alternatives.  One idea was to glue scrapbook paper to the envelope; another was to make a piece of "frankenpaper" out of security envelopes and glue it to the envelope or just use it as is for a cover.  In the back of the box where the security envelopes are stored, I found an old gift bag that was provided instead of a plastic bag when I made a purchase at the local (but since closed) Hallmark and stationery store.  I've always wanted a handled journal, but never had a reason to make one, since I rarely use journals these days.

It's not a full wrap closure, and I still have to decide how to hold the flap down, but I'm really pleased with it.  I went with two signatures of various pieces of paper I just have sitting around.  I attempted to machine-stitch them but the tension was wrong, so they're hand-stitched using the machine punched holes LOL.  

The flowered paper was folded in half like a greeting card and only printed on one of the four sides - I have no idea where it came from!  The music paper is a digital file I printed; I don't even know whether it's from a real piece of music.

This was the penultimate page in the original journal:

I used Stampin' Up! inks again, and the background trees stencil is from the Basic Pattern Decorative masks.  The tree is Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Scary Tree cut from cheap (probably Dollar Tree) construction paper and the quote is something I found online somewhere.  

I'll be working on the last page this evening so I'll be caught up with the group and ready to start in the new journal!

April adventures

The U.S. Postal Service officially designated April National Card and Letter Writing Month in 2001 “to raise awareness of the importance and historical significance of card and letter writing.” A month dedicated to cards sounds like it was just made for me, doesn't it?  Sending and receiving cards makes people feel good, and snail mail deserves a more love.  So far this month I've mailed three or four cards, and today is only the 5th!  I'm not going to attempt one every day, it's just worked out that way so far.  I needed one more for a quick note, and the Atlantic Hearts sketch was perfect:

stamp set - Better Together; ink - Grapefruit Grove; card stock - Daffodil Delight, Grapefruit Grove, Granny Apple Green; designer series paper - Botanical Butterfly (Sale-A-Bration, retired); punch - Sprig

 

I'll use it to mail this Artist Trading Card.  I made a set of four but only needed two.  One will go in my own collection and the other is for an April swap with a Greek mythology theme.  A lovely Facebook friend expressed interest in receiving one of the extras - that made my heart happy!

 I hope something makes your heart happy today!

mixed media adventure

I've recently branched out from making greeting cards to include making post cards, and I've also been learning to work with mixed media.  For inspiration and instruction, I've followed along at both Paper Artsy, where the current topic is tissue paper, and at Sunday Postcard Art, where the current theme is owls.  I knew I could not draw an owl I would be pleased with, so I printed one from the internet onto plain white gift wrap tissue.  I also printed the quote onto the same tissue paper.  The base of my piece is a page from an old book which I colored with ink and acrylic paint.  The tissue bits have been attached with Mod Podge, pounced carefully (not brushed) so as not to cause bleeding, because I used an inkjet printer. 

You can see my first attempt at a post card (also inspired by Sunday Postcard Art) here.  I learned from that card that I need a double thickness of card stock and it should be sealed, so I used a clear acrylic gloss spray that I've had forever. This is now ready to be mailed to another Postcrossing member.

weekend crafting adventures

I saw this on Facebook Friday - how perfect is that? - SOO me!  And yes, I spent the weekend crafting :)  I warmed up by recreating some cards from Pinterest so I could close some open tabs on my PC.

Then I tackled the Curtain Call challenge, and found inspiration in the flowers and colors:

stamp set - Awesomely Artistic; ink - Perfect Plum, Lost Lagoon, Pear Pizzazz; card stock - Vellum, Lost Lagoon, Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz; Wink of Stella - Gold; Big Shot with Brick Wall embossing folder

I really love how the gold Wink of Stella looks green on the vellum layer over the Lost Lagoon layer of the dragonfly's wings!  I can never decide/remember whether dragonflies are green, or blue, or both, so I think it's just perfect (even if I do say so myself).

Today, I worked on ATCs (also know as Pocket Art Cards) for DLP2016™.  Last week's prompt was to use a color I avoid - which obviously would be pink (bleah):

stamp set - Elements of Style (retired); ink - Blushing Bride; card stock - Naturals White (retired); designer series paper - Fan Fare (retired); 1/2" crochet lace - Venetian (retired); broken earring, heart charm and pre-tied bow from my stash of stuff rescued/saved "because it ought to be good for something someday"

While I had the Blushing Bride (least annoying shade of pink) out, I made a card using Libby's Watercooler sketch:

stamp set - Rose Wonder; ink - Blushing Bride, Versamark; card stock - Whisper White, Tip Top Taupe, Blushing Bride; designer series paper - Go Wild; 1" lace - Tip Top Taupe; Big Shot with Ovals Collection framelits

It ended up totally different than my original ideas, which didn't involve turning the sketch sideways and started with using one of the "wild" designs in the designer series paper stack, but this worked out.  And, none of the components are retired - yet!

getting to know you and ICAD adventure

Guess what I found!  More new challenges!  And, the Stamp Ink Paper Challenge is so new, they're still on #SIPC1, which they've cleverly themed Getting to Know You:

If you've been to visit me before, you may have heard how hard it is for me to choose favorites, but at least this week, my favorite colors are the 2015-2017 In Colors.  I don't have one favorite style, either, but I'm currently fascinated by learning to do collage style, so I *had* to order Awesomely Artistic as soon as I saw it in the new catalog.  Yesterday, it was my favorite stamp set.  I once again may be a little overly pleased with myself, as I didn't CASE (remember? Copy And Share Everything? we just talked about that)  this card, and just made it up as I was going along:

stamp set - Awesomely Artistic; ink - Cucumber Crush, Delightful Dijon, Mint Macaron, Tip Top Taupe, Watermelon Wonder; card stock - Very Vanilla, Hello Honey, Mint Macaron

The dragonfly, flowers, and colors all look super summery to me, which oh-so-conveniently happens to be the theme at another challenge I just found, Can You Case It?:

Although I did make up my design as I went along, I didn't just randomly, free-hand stamp on the card stock and like it when I was done.  I decided on the colors and the stamp set but I froze up, looking at the pristine rectangle of Very Vanilla.  Then I thought about ICAD - Index Card a Day (I *know* - another acronym - and not a stamping/card making/scrapbooking one - but we talked about that just the other day, too).  My "practice" piece was free-hand, randomly stamped, and I mostly loved it:

The one thing I didn't love was those red splatters - they kind of look like thousands of mosquitoes that were smashed *after* they attacked an unsuspecting and otherwise non-violent homeowner in the muggy Midwest.