My Bumble Bee Found A Home!

Remember this little bee that I made a couple posts back?  He is from the Cricut "Art Nouveau" cartridge.  I think he is adorable but I didn't know what I was going to do with him.

 This is what I ended up doing....

I LOVE it!  I started by covering the page with a sheet of scrapbook paper from "Vintage Essentials"  The paper is like tissue paper.  It is very thin and fragile.  I used Matte medium to stick it to the page.  If you look close you can see in the bottom left corner, that the paper tore.  I figured this would be added texture and kept on going.  In the past, this would have made me think the page was ruined and I would have torn it out of the book.  So I am learning that sometimes mistakes add to the beauty of the finished picture.

Next, I used some stencils and distress inks to the background.  The stenciling was very subtle and you have to look close to see it.  I found the poem on Pinterest and typed it up.  I tore it out and used the same colors of distress inks on it.  I went around the edge with Walnut stain.

 I used  Sizzix Honeycomb die to cut a couple from cardboard.  Then I cut sections off of one of the die cuts and glued the two pieces together to give it this shape.  I added a couple of the punchout pieces of the die to the top.  I randomly coated the Honey come with Perfect Medium embossing ink.  Then I used a mixture of Antique Linen" and "Vintage Photo" distress embossing powder.  One I heated the embossing powder, I thought it looked like a pale yellow, which wasn't the look that I was going for.  So I went over it with Spiced Marmalade.  I glued the honeycomb to the page and added the bee using foam tape to make him pop on the page.  I added the flowers that I made using the Tattered Flower Garland Die.  I cute them from scrapbook paper and distressed them with a little Vintage Photo.  They are held together with a brad that I added a little bling to.  The leaves are from my Martha Stewart edge punch below. I use this a lot too.

So my cute little bee has found a home in my art journal.  Love him.

Would love to read your comments

Blocking Out The World For Just A Little While

This week has been filled with a lot of emotional turmoil and stress, both at home and work.  It seems to have really taken a toll on me.  So I blocked out the world by turning off my phone and shutting myself in my craft room to play for a while.

I have  had Dina Wakely's "Scribbly Birds" Stamps for a while and I have been dying to play with them.  They are so adorable! 

I inked the background with Peacock Feathers and Peeled Paint distress inks using a blender tool.  Then I splashed water on it, let it sit for a minute and blotted it with a paper towel.  I went over the pages again with Peacock Feathers ink. Then I stamped the birds on white card stock.  I colored them with Tombow markers and blended the colors with a water brush. I used my white Signo pen to go around the eyes and to define the highlight of the eye.  Then I cut the Sizzix  Die "Branch w/Leaves" out of white card stock.  I cut three of these.  I used one for each page and the third one I cut in pieces to add more leaves and berries to the branches.  Notice the page with the bird facing front has more leaves behind the bird.

I colored the Branch's, leaves and berries with my Tombow markers.  Then I turned

the branches over on a piece of Fun Foam and used an embossing stylus to create lines in the leaves.  Afterwards I used a blending tool with "Tea Dye" ink over the leaves, berries and branches.  This was to give definition to the leaves and to tone down the bright color of the markers.  I glued the sections of branches and berries together and added the highlight to each berry with a white paint pen.

I cut my little birdies out and glued them on the branches.  I cut two tags using my trusty tag punch.

 

I LOVE this punch and use it ALL the time.  For the first tag, I glued a piece of scrapbook paper to some white card stock.  The second one, I cut the word "HOPE" from white card stock, using the Tim Holtz "Movers and Shapers" die.  Then I used the tag punch, centered it over the word and cut the second tag.  The one shown in this picture wasn't centered very well....oops.

I used Wild Honey and Spiced Marmalade Distress inks to color the "Hope" tag.  I distressed the newsprint tag with Vintage Photo and glued the two tags together.  I used a black Pitt Pen to outline the word Hope and give it a little more definition.  I distressed the edges of the tag, added an eyelet and a ribbon and glued it in my journal. I added the quote "Hope is the only thing stronger than fear" from the movie "The Hunger Games".  To finish I went around the edges of each page with Vintage photo" using a blending tool.

I would love to read your thoughts and comments.

A Few Pages From My Art Journal

 I did this page specifically because I wanted to use the water droplet stamp by Ryn.  I used Dylusion spray inks for the background and then stamped the water droplet in archival ink.  I went over the center of each water droplet with a water brush and then blotted with a paper towel as shown in the "Ryn" link above.  I then put a dot of white paint on each water droplet.  I would normally use my Signo white pen for this but Ryn suggested using white paint for a crisper look.

  I stamped a butterfly and a dragon fly and colored them in with distress markers.  Then I painted over the image with Rock Candy Crackle paint and set it aside to dry.  I had the violet in my stash.  I believe it was made using a Sizzix Die and was colored with Distress Markers.  I punched a border with a Martha Steward edge punch and colored it with....you guessed it....Distress Markers.  I LOVE them.  Then I cut out the butterfly and dragon fly.  I stamped them on the page where I wanted them and glued the center of each cut image on top.  This way the wings curl up and the stamped image below creates a shadow.

I didn't have a flat surface when I was stamping the water droplets and didn't get a clear image on the bottom. Something to watch out for in the future.

 I wanted to use my Cricut Expressions "Folk Art" Cartridge and made these whimsical little farm animals and the birdhouse.  The birdhouse is actually a house but I cut it an inch big and thought that it would make a great bird house.

I used the Tim Holtz Lamp Post die and cut two of them.  I cut the light off and turned one upside down and glued them together.

 To cover the mark where they are glued together I made a flowery vine. The flowers are from Tattered Flower Garland die,colored with distress markers and a little bling dot added to the center.

I glued the flowers in place first, then used the leafy vine, Martha Steward edge punch.  I had to snip off a few branches to get it to wind around the flowers.

While I had my Cricut up and running I also decided to cut this bee from the Art Nouveau cartridge.  The gray part on the wings were cut from white card stock.  I then used Copic markers (C3 Cool Gray) to color the wings.  After that, I gave them a good coating of Rock Candy Crackle Paint. The picture doesn't show it very well but the wings look really cool.  After I assembled the bee, I thought the yellow and orange card sock that I used was way to bright for my taste.  So I went over it with Vintage Photo Distress ink and a blending tool.  I added some bling to his eyes and whala he is done.  I love, love, love him and can't wait to find a project to add him to.

Wow, what can I say about this except that it didn't work out the way I had hoped.

I started out with a page that I had used to clean my stencil from another project.  Then I used Crackle Paste through the card stock remanent from the Moon and Stars Die cut. 

 The paste didn't crackle like I thought it would.  But, I decided to persevere.  I colored the moon and stars by squeezing distress ink daubers to my craft mat and used a paint brush to apply it to the paste.  This way I had a little control while applying the ink.  I used a Copic Marker (Y35) to add dimension to the moon and give the appearance of craters.  I used a gold pen to outline the moon and the stars to try to give it some definition.

Then I thought the moon and the stars looked too much alike.  I covered each of the stars with gesso and let it dy.  Then I went back and colored each star using Copic marker (Y11).  I added various stencils and then wrote the When you wish upon a star.....with a black Pitt pen and outlined this with my gold pen.

The page doesn't look as bad and jumbled as this picture makes it look.  It isn't one of my favorite pages but I had fun experimenting with different products.

This one........welllllllllllllll.  it is the opposite page of the Moon and Stars above and was also started from a page that was used to clean off a stencil from a previous project.  I then used this set of stamps from Hero Arts to fill the background using different color inks.

Then I used various mini stamps to fill each of the shapes.  I used a black pen and outlined each of the squares.  I used an Inktense water color pencil to fill in the background and then went over this with a water brush.

The original stencil in the background hides some of the stamping and makes the whole thing look too busy.  But, again,  I had fun doing it and I used some stamps that I hadn't even tried before so that was fun.

So Much Done Today!

I found the picture of this little boy through Pinterest and as soon as I saw him I thought of this childhood rhyme.  You can find the picture HERE.

I used Tim Holtz Distress Paint Daubers (Peeled Paint and Broken China) to start the background.  I added various stencils using TH Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain distress Ink.  The wrought Iron fence was done by using an edge stamp and adding lines for the fence using a Pitt pen.  I don't know the name of the stamp because I misplaced the packaging but this is the set below.

Sorry there is a glare on it but you can see the stamp that I used at the very bottom of the set.  I used TH Hanging Sign Die for the sign.  I colored it using Scattered Straw, then went over that lightly with Vintage Photo.  I sprinkled it with water, let it dry and then went over it again with Vintage Photo.  I printed the saying on computer paper, tore it to fit the sign and distressed it the same way I did the sign itself. I used a black Gelato to edge the sign.  I added eyelets to the sign and then did this.....

 

I put my trinket case back on the shelf and it slid off, hit the floor and spread all my brads. eyelets, buttons, keys, etc. ALL over the floor.  So I swept them up and dumped them back in to be sorted at a later date.  UGH!

Lastly I drew music notes using a Pitt Pen.  I also drew circles at the top of the sign for chains.

NEXT CAME THIS LITTLE CUTIE!

 

 

 I did the background using TH Scattered Straw, Broken China and Stormy Sky. I used TH Moon and Stars Die and colored them using TH Distress Paint, Scattered Straw and Wild Honey.  Then I used TH Splatters stencil, an Embossing Pen and Stampendous Pirate Gold Embossing Powder to add some dimension to the moon.  I also randomly outlined the stars with the embossing pen and used Stampendous Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder.  I drew some dangley lines from the moon to the stars and added some bling stars that I had in my stash.  The sweet little girl was also a Pinterest find,which can be found HERE.  I colorized her using water color crayons, added a paper crown cut from an old Thesaurus.  I managed to cut the word Moony, which I thought fit nicely.  I added some bling to the crown and pearl buttons for the dress.

I am very happy with both pages BUT, I am finding that Little Tommy Tucker is getting gold glitter all over himself because these pages are opposite each other in my journal!

Affirmation Tags!

I have seen a lot of personal affirmations posted on Facebook and Pinterest.  That gave me an idea of how to use some of the tags that I have made while trying new inking techniques.  Below are my first three tags.  This is fantastic because now I have a place to practice techniques, lettering, Zentangling, doodling and collaging on a smaller scale.  I had a lot of fun and can't wait to make more of these.  You could even make a small journal with pockets and add these.

Anyway, for now I am off to babysit my grand kids while another one comes into this world!  So much excitement!

This page started as a big mess...but it turned out pretty good.

I love how this turned out,especially since I thought I was just going to rip this page out of my journal.  I don't even remember what my first attempt was, but it wasn't good!  So I gessoed the page to start over but then that looked terrible.  So I left it for a while contemplating whether I should give up on it or not.  Then I started playing with my Gelli plate and started thinking, what am I going to do with these beautiful prints. So I started by collaging some torn pieces to the background.

I also used modeling paste through a stencil and when it dried I rubbed over it with Inka Gold.  Then I used one of my Gelli prints and die cut it with the Sizzex Branch w/leaves.

 I used Tim Holts distress paints to color the berries on the branches.

 

I lightly touched the dauber of each color to the berry until I got the look I wanted. I punched two of the leaf branch die and cut and glued them to make the long stem.

 Then I used these two Martha Stewart edge punches to make the flower trim above the lace and for the leafy stems for the orange flowers.

I used Tim Holtz distress markers to color them.













I made the flowers using TH Tattered Flowers die and TH Tattered Flower Garland dies.  I secured them with a brad.  The butterfly was in my stash.  I made it a while ago.  My sentiment was hand lettered on a card I punched from the tag punch below.  I LOVE this punch and use it ALL the time.

I wrote the word Bliss using my Pitt pens and then I colored the tag by dragging it through Distress ink sprayed with water that I applied to my craft mat.  When it dried, I flicked it with water, stamped it with brown ink and a circle stamp.  I crumpled it up to distress it a little more then went over it with TH Distress Tea Dye and a blending tool so that the wrinkles would show a little better.  I went around the edge with TH Distress Walnut Stain.  I added a ribbon that I rubbed with TH Tea Dye.

The little girl with the bird is a picture I found on the Internet that I colorized using watercolor pencils and a water brush.  I edged the page with TH Tumbled Glass.

All in all, the page was saved and I like it!

Another Try With The Gelli Plate. I Like It!

Last week when I did my Gelli Prints I was frustrated with it. It was more that I wasn't organized with items that I would use while printing and I wasn't sure how to add more layers to a print without totally messing it up.

Once I became a little more daring and just "tried" things, without worrying about the results, that is when the magic happened.

I  love the dandelion stencil in these prints.

 Notice the tan background is one of the prints I did last week.  I used my brick wall stencil on it.  It looks great.

   

This is the same print as in the picture above it but I wanted a closer shot so that you could see the detail. I used the method where you let the paint dry from a previous print.  Then cover the plate with another layer of paint (off white).  I used pieces of torn paper across the plate for the white space. You can see the video of the technique HERE. I love how it turned out.

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 The colors are a little muddied on these but they are still very pretty.  The bottom line is that I DO like my Gelli Plate and have had fun playing with it.  I see more experimenting in my future.