Beautiful Butterflies, Sisters, Friends Art Journal Spread

Hello and Happy Friday!!!  It's a cloudy, dreary day here in Southern Iowa but at least it's not raining.  We had a lot of rain this week!!  We needed it but it's nice to have a break also.

I'm sharing an art journal spread in a small Dylusions journal today with my inspiration being a few challenges.  I might add some flowers to this later but right now I'm out of time and I'm calling it good.  We are soon headed to MN to visit family for the weekend.

I did do some step outs for the background.  First I stenciled the fabulous PaperArtsy - Lin Brown stencil (PS044) onto the pages using Grunge Paste.  Once the paste was dry then I painted.

Next up, some Infusions, a fair amount of water, let it sit, do some tipping and dry it.

Stenciling with a Tim Holtz stencil and Glass Blue paint.  Dry It.  Then sand the Grunge Paste to bring the flowers back out.

More stenciling with another Lin Brown stencil.  I dabbed with Vanilla first and then Zesty Zing to help the color pop as Zesty Zing is a translucent.

Stamping with paint.

As I worked on the background I knew I wanted to use the die cut word, Beautiful (Elizabeth Craft Designs, Suzanne Cannon) along with a Tim Holtz Idea-ology Paper Doll and I wanted to include butterflies, but I didn't really have a plan.  As I worked at putting all this together I was not liking all the brown from the Infusions and after trying to make it all come together trying different things I decided to see about taking the Infusions off.  With acrylic paint under them the chances were good it'd come off.  I sprayed the pages heavily with water and then wiped them down with paper towels.  As you can see, it mostly came off.  I liked this better. 

I used various pieces of Tim Holtz printed paper, distressing or tearing edges.  The strip of numbers is a new design tape from Tim - this one came from the Chatter pack.  There is a paper doily.  Chit Chat stickers for sisters and friends. The girls are from the Paper Dolls pack.  The butterflies are from Tim's Botanical Layers pack.  I did some cutting on the butterflies by the antennas and at the bottom so there was less white border in those areas. 

I had die cut Beautiful from white cardstock and decided it needed to be colored.  Instead of cutting a new one I just sprayed it with Distress Spray Stain.  First Mustard Seed as I thought yellow might work but it didn't so sprayed again with gathered twigs, blotted and dried it.  Then gave it a little spray with Perfect Pearls Mist Heirloom Gold.  Love how it catches the light.  The word is glued down with Ranger's Collage Medium Matte being sure to press into the fold area so there wouldn't be any trouble when opening and closing the book.

Finally I stenciled around the edges with The Crafter's Workshop stencil Mini Tiny Circles using Fresco Finish Paints, a mix of Chocolate Pudding and French Roast.

This was fun!!!  I hope you like the spread!!  

I'm entering into the following challenges.

Simon Says Monday Challenge - Things With Wings.

More Than Words - March Main Challenge - Beautiful & Butterfly.

A Vintage Journey - All Aboard, Happy Birthday AVJ - Anything Goes

Sweet Create

Hey!!  So I was going to make an atc but then it morphed into a card.  The center piece started with the cut off from another project that had some spray on it.  I stamped the Quietfire Music image multiple times to fill the paper.  Next I stenciled the Tim Holtz flowers using the new Ranger Opaque Crackle Paste.  After it was dry and cracked I put the stencil back on and added Distress Ink over the crackle.  The panel was edged with ink and layered to a white panel.  Tim Holtz Craft thread was wrapped around the piece and then the Quietfire, Elizabeth Craft Designs "Sweet" die cut was adhered.  I had the green colored Sweet left from another project.  I also cut a white one and layered them together slightly off-set.  

The next layer started with Distress Spray Stain Cracked Pistachio sprayed on, blotted and dried.  I then used just part of the the new A Way With Stencils, Flourished Frame,  to stencil the top and bottom (Cracked Pistachio Distress Ink).  The Quietfire Quote stamp was stamped with Archival Ink Jet Black.  I covered the area where the quote was stamped and then splattered Distress Paint Rusty Hinge over the piece, dried it, and then edged the panel with the Rusty Hinge Paint. 

I'm entering this in the More Than Words Mini Challenge - Sweet - on Facebook.

Circle Journal #12

The circle journal swap has come full circle.  This was the 12th journal I worked in and I just received my book back which I'll share pictures of soon.

This journal belongs to Gabrielle and we were to do both sides of one page.  I have some process pictures of the first side but not so many of the second.  I guess I must of been having too much fun to remember to grab the camera.

I painted the page with Taupe.  While the paint was still wet, I sprinkled on some embossing powder and then heated it to dry the paint and melt the embossing powder.  Next I stamped circles in Bubble Gum.  The circles are the plastic rings that come on Wink of Stella pens that get removed to start using the pen.  I glued 3 of these to a piece of heavy plastic packaging - it's like cardboard with a corrugated center except it's plastic.  

Some stenciling.

More stenciling using GrungePaste mixed with a bit of Tango.

Washi Tape.  Mat Mini bird with it's matching stamp colored with Distress Ink. 

Words from Lin's stamp set. 

Dots with Enamel Accents and with paint.  White gel pen doodling. Ink on the stenciled Grunge Paste. 

The flip side starts a layer of Chalk paint, then Crackle Glaze, then Antarctic. Leave to dry and crackle. 

Paint on Infusions with Matte Glaze.  While it is still wet, drip on some water, let sit just a bit, blot and dry. 

More stamping with Archival Inks. Some paint splatters. Some doodling.  The leaf is stamped with clear ink, embossed with Sticky Powder and foil (iCraft Deco Foil, Pink Melon) added.   

Epic Monkey Man

Hello from rainy Southern Iowa!!  The rain is good as it's been very dry here.  

Tomorrow our grandson turns 17 and this is the card I've made him.  I created it not only with him in mind but also this weeks Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge which is Layer It Up.  

My background is created on Tim's Mixed Media Heavy Stock.  I cut my panel 4" x 5 1/4".  Next I have lots of layers of Distress Oxide Ink.  Once happy with that I inked up the embossing folder and put my paper through my Vagabond.  I actually embossed it first with Fired Brick Oxide ink but things didn't pop enough so I did it again with Black Soot Distress Ink.  There is Distress Paint Tarnished Brass around the edges. 

A pic of just the background. 

The panel behind monkey man is also Mixed Media Heavy Stock, inked with Fossilized Amber Oxide, sprayed with water while drying - dry, spray, dry, spray - and then I added some spots of Cracked Pistacchio Oxide - spray, dry, etc.  Over it I've stenciled Tim's tread stencil with Distress Ink, first Fossilized Amber and then some Iced Spruce.  Around the edges I first put white Distress Paint and then decided I'd like Brushed Pewter better.  The paint did pick up some of the Distress color from below it.  This is attached to white cardstock leaving a small border.  Monkey Man is stamped onto the smooth side of Ranger Watercolor Paper with Archival Ink Jet Black, colored with Distress Ink using a water brush (a few browns and blues), dried and lastly I added Glossy Accents over the lenses.   

I altered the Idea-ology Number Token with Enamel Accents and Distress Paint and used Idea-ology links and brads to attach it to the card.  It swings free.

A few gears, the word Epic, and Enamel Accent dots finish it up.  

Smiles

Hello on this beautiful Monday!!!  I hope you had a good weekend.  We went over to the Chicago area (Bolingbrook to be exact) to visit our daughter and the hubs had a philatelic show he wanted to attend in Lombard.  We had a good time!!!

This card was actually started a week ago and I finally got it finished yesterday afternoon.  Not only was last week really busy but my work area was covered with a sheet most of the week because the week before in the oldest part of the house that we've been remodeling, the mudding of the sheetrock was finished up, the walls sprayed with primer and the texturing done.  Even though there was plastic hanging between the areas I still had a layer of fine white dust covering my whole creating area.  I moved everything and dusted my main work counter and die cutting spot (I still have the rest of my creating area to finish cleaning up).  This past week was spraying all the paint and, as I didn't want the dust again, besides the plastic closed, I also covered these two areas with old sheets.  Probably more information than you wanted....  However it is exciting to be this far!!!  

The background of the card is black cardstock.  I put Golden's bead gel through Suzanne's new Elizabeth Craft Designs stencil, Dotty, and let it dry. (stencil on QF or ECD)  The edges were distressed and a light spray of Ranger's Perfect Pearls Mist, Heirloom Gold, was spritzed on. (the mists are discontinued)  The black cardstock is really black (not a light black) but the shimmer throws the camera off.  

The flowers are from Elizabeth Craft Designs, ModaScrap Lacy Poppies.  I cut them from white cardstock, inked them with Distress Inks, sprayed just the flower area with Perfect Pearls Mist, Forever Red, dried them, and inked the edges of the flowers again. 

I used pressed corrugated packaging for the strip across. The strip was cut and then sprayed well with Heirloom Gold.  It looks fabulous!!!!  It's attached to the panel with Tim Holtz Idea-ology Tiny Attacher. 

Smiles is a Suzanne Cannon, Elizabeth Craft Designs die (QF or ECD websites).  It was cut from both white cardstock and a red, speckled cardstock.  The same red cardstock was used for the red layer.  Everything is attached to a white folded card. Finally black pen sketches and a black flower button were added to the largest flower.

I'm entering this mixed media card into the following challenges.  

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - Buttons

A Vintage Journey - All Aboard, Anything Goes

Circle Journal #11

Hi!!!  I'm sharing the eleventh journal I worked in for this Circle Journal Swap and it belongs to Tracy.  As you can tell I was still very focused on infusions when I worked on this.  

I seem to of only taken one process picture but it shows the colors of infusions used in the background and then I stamped the leaf image with paint.  Lin Brown stamps used. 

I also used the leaf image over an infusion stamped small background again using sticky embossing powder and foil - this time green foil.  Shading was added with pencil and smudging. 

There is lots of stamping in the background with both paint and ink using a variety of stamps.  Inked corrugated cardboard and a scrap of fibers are behind the foiled leaf piece.

I had an "infusions mixed with paint" stamped leaf left from an earlier play.  I've trimmed it with a border and added it to the pages.