This is a technique that I saw a while ago on this link (http://kayskreativekorner.blogspot.com/2011/04/brick-texture-chipboard-tutorial.html) and I wanted to try it myself.  I finally found the materials and the time and here are my results.

I used more Stickles than it called for, as I covered the whole thing and the directions said to add it randomly.  I find that I'm not good at random.  It never seems to be enough.  As I dabbed it here and there, I kept thinking that it didn't look evenly random. LOL. So before I knew it, the whole thing was covered.  I took two pictures at slightly different angles, because I wasn't sure how well it would show up using a flash.  In the end, I really like it. It has the rustic, leathery look that I wanted and I can't wait to think of how I'm going to use this??????

A Bit Of This And That

A few journal pages I have worked on.....

 When I was finished with this page I was covered in gold embossing powder and pearlex.  I don't think the page is impressive at all but I had fun doing it. I stamped the page with embossing ink and covered it in gold embossing powder, then  heated it with the heat tool.  I stamped more feathers with perfect medium and then covered it with blue and green Pearlex.  I went back to the gold embossed feathers and colored the centers with colored pencils. Lastly, I wrote a border around with my Signo pen.

This was my attempt at using color pencils on black paper.  All the images were stamped using various stamps and a white ink pad.  Then I used colored pencils to color everything.  Then my intention was to add highlights using my Signo pen.  However, once I started  I realized, I don't know how to do that and rather than totally mess the page up, I decided to outline everything in white. When I was finished I glued the page into my journal.  As I was gluing it, I noticed some air bubbles were forming.  So I got my credit card and decided to smooth the bubbles out by scraping the card across the paper.  A method I have seen on several tutorials.  What I didn't realize is the ink from the white pen was not completely dry and it spread across the image, which sort of dulled the colors.  However, using the theory that there are no mistakes in art journaling, I continued the process by adding a doodled frame around it.  The blue green in the bottom right corner is the ink that bled through from the page below.

 I love the way this background turned out.  This was done by spraying Dylusions "Cut Grass" and "Vibrant Turquoise" directly on the page (no water).  Then I used Crafter's Workshop stencil "chicken wire" and a leaf stencil (not sure who makes it) and randomly stenciled the page.  I used Freyed Burlap Distress Ink and a blending tool.  Then I stenciled using Crafter's Workshop "The Cubist" and Faded Blue Jean Distress ink.  I added the large circles by using a plastic lid that I inked with a white ink pad.  The smaller circles were stamped with a toothpaste cap and Frayed Burlap Distress Ink. I put Washi tape on in various spots.  Then I used a black Micron pen and outlined the squares from the stencil. (Just the bigger ones.  Some were too small to worry about)  I went back with a white Signo pen and drew a square on the inside of the squares and the Washi Tape.  I also used the white pen to outline the "chicken wire" stencil, and the veins of some of the leaves.  The final step was to stamp an old handwriting stamp over the page using Sepia Archival Ink.

  In the spirit of the holidays!  I stamped the image on the page but when I tried to color it, I didn't like how it looked.  So I stamped it again on another sheet of paper and tried coloring it in again using water color pencils.  I was happy with the results so I cut the image out an glued it on top of the original stamp, which is why the yellow doesn't extend down through the hay.  I drew the main star using a trick that I was taught when I was little.  (You draw a big pus sign, the a small X in the middle and connect the lines as shown above.)  I drew asterisks for the other stars.  I wrote the saying and when it dried....I outlined it with a black Micron pen.  I finished the page with silver glimmer mist.

 I put two pictures of this one because I think you can see the picture better in one and the other shows the glimmer of the glimmer mist on the page.

 

This is my sweet baby granddaughter Bella.  All dressed up and ready to go.  It was inspired by my daughter who called to tell me about Bella's latest events.  She put on her sunglasses, grabbed her purse and went up to her daddy and said "See ya later"

The first step was drawing lil' Bella.  I colored her in using watercolor pencils.  Then I used my water brush and went over everything.  I added the border, which is a stamp from Dylusions.  I totally blew it putting the border on.  I started out thinking that I would use the edge of the stamp as my frame.  If you look at the left edge of the picture you can see what I was planning.  Then I had an interruption and when I came back to finish, I didn't even think about how I was stamping it.  I didn't even realize my mistake until I was coloring the border.  I used Distress markers to color the border.  I used "Victorian Velvet" Distress ink with a blending tool to go over the outside of the border and "Tumbled Glass to blend the inside background.  I wrote the quote with a pink metallic pen

This is Bella's watercolor artwork.  I thought it deserved a page in my journal. I'm not sure what inspired her or what methods she used but it is beautiful!  I see a budding artist.

Art

A doodle page from my Art Journal and a couple of backgrounds.  I have no idea what I will put on the two backgrounds but I sure do like how they turned out.

Working With What You Have.

I did the background on this page a few weeks ago and I hated it.  I was trying a method that I saw on the Internet and for some reason I chose gray as my main color and added barn red highlights.  It reminded me of a big boring ugly battleship.  So I decided to leave it for a few days and come back to see if I changed my mind..... I didn't.  Since I had some time today, I thought I would play with it and see if I could save the page.  I really wish I had taken a "before" picture.  It looks completely different from where it started.

I had no idea where I was going with it.  I started by adding some more colors of acrylic paint (turquoise and Ivory).  I tried some stenciling with spray inks but they seemed to just sit on top of the paint.  They didn't absorb. I finally sprayed some Dylusion ink and it took.  I stamped the bird because I thought he was cool and I was going to do some layering with other stamps (that didn't happen).  I added the lace down the side because...well, lace makes everything look prettier.  Next I stamped the lady on a scrap piece of card stock and colored her with water color pencils.  I stamped a crackle stamp with Sepia Archival Ink over the image.  I used a stencil  template and drew an oval around her and cut her out.  I distressed it using Tea Dye ink.  I placed her on the page and decided that more was needed.  So, I tore some newsprint scrapbook paper to frame her in.  I used Vintage Photo distress ink on it.  Next, I added the flower that I made a few days ago.  I tore paper for leaves and distressed them with Vintage Photo ink.  I doodled around the frame and the flower.  I hot glued the feathers using a piece of paper that I punched with a half inch punch.  Then I was looking for some type of quote or saying to put on the page.  I found this quote from Jane Eyre, "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will."  I thought "perfect, this makes the page look like it was well thought out", when in fact it just evolved!

Relaxing, Peaceful Day

I tried to get bolder with layering.

 Not so sure I like it.  I think I need to come back and look at it tomorrow.  My first thought is that it needs "something".  I just don't know what that something is.

I was playing with lettering and did the word "Faith" and left it for a while.  Today, I looked at it and added some flowers and colored them with Distress markers.  I colored the background with a yellow water color pencil.  I'm not sure how well it shows up.  I like it and it is a good reminder for me.

A Little Organization.

I decided that I needed to do a little organizing of my stash.  So I pulled out a shelf that my husband made for my son, to store his DVD's.  My son has since moved out and the shelf has been sitting in the garage collecting dust.  The original plan (for me) was to paint it white to match the other accessories in my room, but I just can't get myself to paint over the beautifully stained oak.  So, instead of staying in procrastination mode, I decided to use it "as is" and set it on top of an antique table in my craft room.

The table top is a little warped.  If you look real close, you can see the cardboard that I used to shim the bottom right side of the shelf, to stop it from wobbling.  Also, you can see the carpet squares that are intended to be used for the room (more procrastination).

 This is a close up of the top two shelves.  You can see my Tim Holtz dies on the left and some of my embossing folders on the right.

This is a picture of the bottom two selves.  The bottom shelf holds my cricut cartridges and the DVD cases that I use to store my loose stamps in.  I love it.  Now I can see all my stamps, which will help when I am working on projects.  I didn't realize I had as many stamps as I did!

Several Things I Have Been Playing With...

I have worked on a few things over the last couple of weeks and decided to post them all at once.

 First are the magnets that I made for my Dry Erase Board. You can find all kinds of tutorials for these on the Web.  They are the half marbles that you buy in the flower section of Michel's.  You use a 1/2 inch circle punch to cut out any picture or design paper that you like, glue it to the back of the marble with Glossy Accents, wait for it to dry and glue a magnet on the back.  You can use a glue gun for this.  I used the Glossy Accents since I had it out.  The marbles magnify the picture and give them a real cute look.  For these, I used the 1/2 inch punch as a template and drew circles, then drew a simple picture and colored them in with Sharpie markers. After they were colored in, I punched them, glued them and there you have it. It was very hard to get a good picture due to the reflection from the glass.

 Next a couple Photo Art Projects:

This probably looks familiar because I used this same lady and bird to do an ATC.  Here she is glued to chipboard and is a stand up decoration.

This just tickled my fancy.  I thought the little girl was adorable and I thought it was funny to have her holding fish.  I don't know about anyone else but it makes ME laugh every time I look at it.

Onto Some ATC'S:

I did the background on this with the Dylusion inks (Love them).  Then I stamped the image of the house and colored it in using sharpie markers.

 These are to finish out my ATC shelf from 7 Gypsies that I posted a couple posts back. In the one above, I was playing with embossing resist and layering.   I think it's cute but wish I had gone with a different background color.

 You can't see it but this is the word "Dream" from an old Dictionary page.  I did some doodling and used some old lace that I distressed with Tim Holtz "Vintage Photo" distress ink. I glued some black lace and some punched flowers and stuck a bow made of baker's twine.

This was inspired because my sister likes owls. So what better than a whole collage of owls?  Then I used Washi Tape to finish off the sides and give it a border.

While I was doing Google searches for owls, I came across this guy and he just looked like he had bed head and wasn't happy about it.
 

 I love the vintage feel of this one.  I cut out an image that I had of some violets and glued it to a background of some old newsprint scrapbook paper.  I used "Vintage Photo" distress ink around the edges and glued some blue lace down.  The flowers were from some white trim that I had.  I used Tim Holtz distress ink daubers and colored them "Victorian Velvet".

Next Are A Hodge Podge Of Items:

I was simply playing with some new stencils that I had just bought and thought that this came out beautiful.  Unfortunately the photograph doesn't show the gorgeous richness of the colors.

I made this because I watched the following YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP2kGHQGTjU.  It is amazing.  I didn't use the Tim Holtz "Artful Dwellings" die cut, but I did use the brick embossing folder and the Martha Stewart lace border punch for the roof. I cut my own house and roof by hand.  Then embossed it with the brick embossing folder and inked it using the Tim Holtz blending tool and vintage photo distress ink.  I cut the windows and door from some tags that I had inked previously.  I used a black marker to go around the edges and frame in the windows and then a white paint pen to go around the outside of each.  I had a spider web stamp that I used in the bottom two windows.  I love how it turned out.  Now I just have to figure out what project to use it in.

 This is an ATC where I folded aluminum foil around the card and then embossed it in my Cuttle Bug.  I then painted it with black acrylic paint and wiped it off with a paper towel before it dried. This is actually the wrong side of the card.  If you look real close you can see the folds of the aluminum foil.  BUT, the numbers in the upper right corner are embossed correctly.  Below shows my mistake.....

This is the front of the card. Notice the numbers at the top left.  They are the mirror image because I didn't pay attention to which side was going to receive the embossing when I put it in the folder.  Oh well, I still love the metal look to it.

Playing in my journal:

I was practicing drawing eyes and this is what the page turned into.  The eyes are colored with Distress markers and sharpies (the sharpies bled through the back of the paper).  I colored the background in with water color pencils and then used my water brush.

 

 This journal page was inspired by a picture I saw from Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/repacheco/5508119472/in/set-72157614255985873/ and thought that I would try to draw the flowers.  Although it doesn't look much like the original, I do like how it turned out.

 This is a new Tim Holtz Alterations die cut that I bought.  I just can't seem to put the bird in the cage.  He NEEDS to fly free.  Anyway ,I embossed his wing with a Cuttlebug folder. and then distressed it with distress inks and a blending tool.

Making Flowers:

These are two flowers that I made after watching this video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51xEsr5HtEg  My flowers didn't come out anything like hers but I am still happy with them.  I obviously did not have the same flower punch that she used.  I tried her method with two different punches that I did have and put a button in the center of the bigger one and a brad in the center of the smaller one.  I am sure that I can find a fun project to use these in.

I Found A Nice Little Surprise In My Tim Holtz Embossing Folder!

 I bought a Tim Holtz Embossing Folder from Sizzix to try in my Cuddle Bug.  When I opened the package I found a nice surprise inside (besides the wonderful folders).

Sorry, I couldn't prevent the glare, but hidden in the packaging is this little foam block.  It doesn't look like much and if you have bought any of these embossing folders in the past, you probably threw it away not knowing the possibilities that it holds.

This is a better picture of what the block looks like.

The magic happens when you heat the block with a heat tool. You don't have to heat it long.  Just a little bit to warm the foam.

After the foam is warm, press the heated side on anything that leaves an impression.  In this case, I chose the numbers on the Bingo embossing folder.

 This is what it looks like after pressing it to the folder.

Then, ink it up and press it.  I applied it several times to show the ink fading.

 After your done stamping with it, simply clean it with a wet wipe or wet paper towel.

Now here is the really magical part, when you reapply heat to the impression on the foam it disappears.

Now you can use it again and again, using anything that leaves an impression.  How cool is that?

These are a few samples of the things that I tried stamping.  The top stamp is the impression from the lid to my Golden's Gel Medium.  The next impressions were using the long side of the block, and are  are from two different shaped paper clips.  The next is ribbon, and lastly, I stamped from one of my rubber stamps.  I can't wait to use these in my Art Journal and ATC's.

ATC's For My New 7 Gypsies Artist Printers Tray

I saw this tray in the background when I watched a "How To" Video from Michael's Craft store.  The video was explaining a masking technique with rubber stamps. After the video was over it displayed other videos to watch and they had one showing this tray.  I watched it and the video explained that the tray was from 7 Gypsies.  Of course I had to have one because I thought it was a great way to display ATC's.  This also inspired me to make some new ATC's and try some new techniques with inking, layering, and collaging.  I managed to create eight ATC's and I have four more to do.

Even though the tray isn't complete, I am loving it.  I had so much fun and can't wait to finish it.

I collaged the background using various scrapbook papers.  The Marble Yard advertisement came from a bag that I had from an antique store.  I cut the  little girl from a vintage photo I found on Google.  I printed the saying from my computer and colored it with Butterscotch alcohol ink.  I used the Tim Holtz Distress tool to grunge up the edges of the card.  I then used distress inks over the edges of the card.  I added the ribbon, which was originally cream color and sprayed it with some walnut ink. I added the lace at the bottom to finish it off.

I used scrapbook paper and covered the whole card.  I stamped the background with a tea cup stamp using the masking technique that was in the Michael's video.  The stamp had three tea cups and it was too big to fit on the 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 card.  I inked one cup and covered two of the cups with scotch tape, then stamped it on the card.  I added Washi tape with music notes. Then I wrote the word "Tea" and filled it in with stripes using a fine point pen and colored it in with a Copic marker.  I found the Tea pot and the Tea cup through Google.  Again, I distressed the edges with "Tea Dye" Distress ink.

The idea for this came simply because I wanted to use one of the vintage keys in my stash.  I did a search on Google looking for antique doors and found this wonderful vintage lock.  I collaged the door lock and some scrapbook paper of old newspaper.  I stamped the top with a number stamp, distressed the edges with distress inks, added the key and the saying was printed from my computer that was inked with Alcohol ink.

This card just evolved.  I didn't have any idea what I wanted to make.  I started by using the resist technique with embossing.  First, I used a the flourish stamp with embossing ink. Then covered it with green embossing powder and heated it with my heat tool.  Then I repeated the process using blue embossing powder and heated it.  I added pictures of a bird nest, a bird and a butterfly from my stash and covered the card with walnut distress ink.  I added a the flower and leaf that was distressed  with Vintage Photo distress ink.

This card is very simple. I distressed the card with "Tea Dye" distress ink. I used a pumpkin stamp and a crow stamp.  The harvest moon is alcohol ink and outlined with a black marker.  I added the words from my computer and covered it with "Faded Blue Jean" ink.

I wanted to use one of my Marie Antoinette pictures and again kept it simple.  I added Washi Tape at the bottom, added some feathers and used a button after I cut the shank off.

The inspiration for this one came from a freebie sheet of dresses that was posted from Pinterest.  I searched Google images for a torquoise shoe.  I sprayed the card with dylusion ink sprays and added a strip of scrapbook paper of old newsprint and distressed the edges of the card.  I feel like this card needs more but I have no idea what.  Any ideas?

I love this one.  I collaged a paper background and was very messy with the glue (completely unintentional).  Then I distressed the card using "Tea Dye" distress ink.  The glue worked as a resist and added to the distressed look of the card.  It was a happy surprise.  You can really see it in the upper left corner.  The pictures were from my stash.  I added the quote and the bronze flower that was a necklace.

I can't wait to make more.  I wish I had more free time  to play.