Courage to fly

It's week 3 of my month-long guest designer gig at the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge.

This week's theme is Birds of a Feather.

You probably don't know this about me, but I am petrified of birds! 

Seriously.

So I was a little scared when I saw this challenge. 

Not gonna lie. Lol. 

But I have a feather stencil I like so I decided to use that on a page in my art journal.

I started my background with a text stamp, book pages and washi. I added distress ink in Fossilized Amber, Vintage Photo, and Peacock Feathers.

I used black paint to color my embossing paste and used it with TCW's Feather stencil and Tim Holtz's Chevron stencil. Then I used Concord & 9th's Perfectly Penned stamp set to create the sentiment.

 

As usual, Simon Says Stamp has $50 up for grabs to spend in their store. They'll pick a winner from all the entries in the challenge this week. Come on by and link up to the challenge!

Fear of the Unknown

Today I've got this art journal page:

It's week 2 of my guest designer spot at Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge

and this week's challenge is Winter Blues.

 I focused on the "Blues" part of the challenge for my background.
I used distress crayons in Stormy Sky, Chipped Sapphire and Evergreen Bough plus two blue neocolor wax pastel sticks.

I used the numbers stamp from Perspective randomly. I sprayed ink through the Art Is stencil

and used a baby wipe through the Plus stencil to remove color and leave white pluses.
 I die cut the hearts from the Scribbles and Splat set.

The sentiment and butterflies are also from the Perspective stamp set.

I used a waterbrush and distress inks to color in the butterlies.

 I finished it off by dripping some black ink and edging the pages with a black gelato.

Thanks for stopping by today!

I hope you can participate in the challenge for your chance to win $50 to spend in the SSS store!

GIU Day 5, Be Awesome

It's my last day as a Growing in Unity girl with Unity stamps.

For today's art journal page I got a little messy with paint and ink.

The background was several colors of paint. I used a few backround texture stamps from the set Hello Beautiful and God's Sight. Then I added even more drips to the already drippy flower stamp. And the sentiment is from Do More Awesome.

Since this is not a card, I'm linking up to Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge - Not a Card.

On Sunday, I will choose 2 random commenters from my posts this week who will receive 25 random stamps from Unity!

Thanks for stopping by!

GIU Day 4, Challenges change you

It's day 4 of my Growing in Unity week with Unity stamps.
And I have yet another art journal page.

I used this color challenge as inspiration

I used a Burlap stencil and Old Paper distress ink for the background. Stamped the script stamp from the Hug stamp set. Used Tea Dye and Vintage Photo distress inks to darken the edges. And sprinkled water droplets. Then I used texture paste tinted with fired brick distress reinker and the Mini Brick stencil.

I stamped the leaves from Love never leaves in Orange Blossom archival ink and then heat embossed with Vintage Photo Distress embossing powder. I used dark green paint to stamp leaves from the Wildflowers & wings stamp set.

The sentiment is from You are important. I added a bit more darkness to the edges with Iced Coffee gelato.

I'm linking this up to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Not a Card.

Thanks for stopping by. See you again tomorrow.

Remember that I'll choose 2 random commenters from my posts this week to receive 25 random stamps from Unity. So comment every day here on my blog to maximize your chances to win.

GIU Day 3, Your Own Kind of Beautiful

Welcome to day 3 of my Growing in Unity week!
Every day this week I'm posting a new project using Unity stamps.
At the end of the week, I'll choose 2 random commenters from my posts who will receive 25 random stamps from Unity. So comment every day here on my blog to maximize your chances to win.

Today I have yet another art journal page.

 I stamped the image from Mystical Mermaid. I covered it with masking fluid. Then sprayed a some blue and purple spray inks. After they dried, I sprinkled water and let it dry again. Then I removed the masking fluid and painted the mermaid with a waterbrush and distress inks.

The sentiment is from the imperfection is beauty set.

I finished off the page with white ink splatters on top and black splatters on the bottom.

I'm linking up to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Not a Card.

Thanks for stopping by. See you again tomorrow.

GIU Day 2, Lotus Unfolding

Every day this week I will post a new project using Unity stamps.
At the end of the week, I will choose 2 random commenters from my posts who will receive 25 random stamps from Unity. So comment every day here on my blog to maximize your chances to win.

I have another journal page today:

I love Donna Downey's stamps from Unity. This is one of her faces, called What do you see.

The flowers are from the sets Girl Truly and Imperfection is Beauty. I would love to wear these flowers on my head! 

The sentiment is also from Imperfection is Beauty. Everything on the page is colored with distress inks.

I'm linking up to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Not a Card.

Thanks for stopping by today!

GIU Day1, Something Wonderful

Welcome!
All this week I will be a Growing in Unity girl!
Every day this week I will post a new project using Unity stamps.
At the end of the week, I will choose 2 random commenters from my posts who will receive 25 random stamps from Unity. So comment every day here on my blog to maximize your chances to win.

My first project this week is this art journal page. I painted my background black, added torn book pages, added texture paste with Tim Holtz's Cargo and Ray stencils, added red and yellow paint and ink splatters.

The dragonfly is from the Unity happy stamp set. I heat embossed it on vellum and then glued it to the page. I accidentally broke off one antenna so I cut off the other to make it even!

The sentiment is from the empowered words stamp set:

I'm also linking up to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Not a Card.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope to see you again tomorrow!

GIU Day 5

It's my final day of my Growing in Unity week!

I had planned on making a scrapbooking page today but I had so much fun playing in my art journal yesterday that I had to do it again.

I only had a few minutes, so I quickly spread some paint then washed over it with watered-down gesso to mute it. Stamped a few background stamps and smudged some distress crayons on the edges.

I used Keep Going Anyway for the butterflies and sentiment. Then finally a little black ink splattered finished it off. 

Remember to leave a comment on my GIU posts fromt his week to be entered to win a fabulous prize of stamps from Unity!

Thanks to you all for stopping by this week. I've loved reading all your comments!

GIU Day 4

It's Day 4 of my Growing in Unity week!

Today, I pulled out my art journal for a really simple, but fun page.

I started with the Window to the Soul large stamp. I just love these Donna Downey face stamps from Unity! The sentiment is from another Donna Downey set called She.

Then I just used a few spray inks to spread some color. I dripped the ink and then blew it out. Oh my goodness, I almost passed out from all the blowing. Little tidbit - I couldn't blow up a balloon until I was 37! Anyway, that's just my way of saying it was hard!

Thanks for stopping by today and make sure you comment on my GIU posts this week for your chance to win a prize pack from Unity Stamps.

eyes of gratitude art journal page

I have a second art journal challenge that I am working on this year called Colour Me Positive. There are weekly prompts (so far both are quotes) and I'm hoping to be able to create most of them. Wish me luck! I'm not sure if I can handle two art journal challenges per week or not, but I will try. They may not make it all to the blog, but I plan on adding them all to Instagram. Feel free to find me there if you are interested!

This was week one's entry. I layed down 3 colors of gelato (blues and green) and blended. Over top of that I added a coating of a gesso and clear embossing paste. I blended gray gelato on the edges of the pages. Then came the stamps. And finally the quote was applied with stickers.

This did not end up at all like I anticipated it would. It just kinda took a life of it's own. I'm still not sure if it's done yet. But close enough anyway!

I'm also linking up to:
 Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge to use something new (the flower stamp)
Unity Weekly hop - You Are Important and Dream Big stamp

Thanks for stopping by!

amber journal page

I found a new (to me) art journal prompt group called Embrace Your Art 2016: Journal About Me. There are weekly prompts and they are all to make a journal about yourself. So I am going to try to participate in as many as I can. She is making a round journal so I thought I would try that too. The first prompt of this year is to use your name.

The Monday challenge at Simon Says Stamp is to use something NEW (and try to use Tim Holtz products). It just so happens I shopped their great after Christmas sale and just received my box of goods. Which included Tim's Fossilized Amber distress ink!

Well, since my name is Amber, I thought this was just meant to be :)

Here is the page I created:

I don't have any cool meanings or history behind my name. I saw someone else in the group use the definition of their name so I decided to go that way too. And the background is supposed to look like a piece of amber.

I used Fossilized Amber, as well as several other yellow inks and gelatos, to create the background. The wheat stamp is from CTMH. Vintage Handwritten (script) and Insightful Meadows (flowers) are from Unity. Some black ink splatters and lots of distress ink blending were also used!

I have an old 4-inch round album laying around so I decided to use that size for this. I'm hoping the small size will make it less intimidating to finish a page every week.

I'm linking up to these challenges:

Embrace Your Art: Journal About Me

Unity Stamps weekly blog hop

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Something New

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

GIU, Day 2

Welcome to day 2 of my Growing in Unity week! I'll be posting 5 projects this week using Unity Stamps. You can be 1 of 2 winners at the end of the week to win a bag of 25 stamps from Unity! Just comment on my posts for your entry every day!

Today I have a page in my art jounal to share.

The background was created with dictionary pages, washi tape, Chicken wire stamp, and lots of distress ink and ink splatters. The flowers were stamped in white from the Insightful Meadows set. This is probably my most used Unity stamp set. You must own it. You won't regret it!

The quote was printed on my label maker and I just used a Pitt Big Brush pen to shade around it.

Thanks for stopping by. Remember to come back every day through Saturday for a new chance to enter. I'll announce the winner on Monday.

new beginnings

I don't usually share art journal pages, probably just because I feel like they aren't worth sharing maybe. Idk. But I'm sharing this one since it was for a challenge. Practical Scrappers started an art journaling prompt challenge so I thought I'd play along. The prompt was "new beginnings" and here's what I came up with:

 

 

 The photos are very light so it's hard to see some of the detail on the background. And I intentionally journaled in a color pen that matched the background so it's hard to see too.

 

It still doesn't feel finished and I'm sure I'll go back and add to it more. I just wanted to link up to their linky before it closed! I'm also linking up to Unity's Friends with Flair hop since I used Unity stamps (Growing in Unity) on it.



Left brain, right brain

I've got an art journal page to share today.

 

I took the colors from this inspiration photo over at the Paper Girls challenge

Here's some close-ups:

My writing is hard to read over the circle "stamp" (I used a paint dabber on a mask and stamped it on the page) but it says: analytical, rational, mechanical engineering, computer programmer, detail-oriented, practical, organized, math, science

  

This side says: crafter, scatterbrained, cardmaking, scrapbooking, mixed media, daydreamer, creative, procrastinator, impulsive, easily distracted.

 

Thanks for stopping by today!

 

 

Supplies:

life definition stamp is Unity's Giving it all meaning

book stamp is from Hodge Podge of Happiness

heart with wings stamp is from the Just You kit of the month



GIU 4, Fearfully and wonderfully made, an art journal page

It's day 4 of GIU! You know the drill by now - comment for your chance to win free stamps from Unity Stamp Co!

 

 

I have a confession.

 

I'm a procraftinator.

As much as I love to create and get all messy and inky, I also have guilt about my hobby. It's hard for me to craft when there are dishes and laundry to be done, kids to be bathed and put to bed, etc.

 

So I push off the fun stuff until all the work gets done. The other problem is that I'm a horrible housekeeper too. Ugh. Nothing gets done! :)

 

Anyway, the point is that I don't have a card prepared for today. So last night I made a page in my art journal instead. To me it's much easier than thinking about the layout, colors, etc of a card.

 

I just grabbed whatever paints, inks, and stamps were within reach and started going:

 

I stamped Vintage Handwritten and Tattered Chicken Wire on the background but then muted them out with gesso when I thought it was too bold. So they are hard to see.

 

I stamped some flourishes from Growing in Unity and Learn Discover Grow with a paint dabber.

 

While I'd love to claim that big flower doodle as mine I have to admit that it's Amy Tan's from one of her Sketchbook collection papers. All I did was color it.

 And that fun barcode is from a set called Capture Life that is not available on the Unity website anymore but I found it here if you're interested. It's so much fun. You can pick what word to insert for the code.

*Well, it's just been brought to my attention that Unity has put this set back in the store this week for Nostalgia weekend when they bring back old sets. What are the chances??? Check it out here.*

Anyway.

Thanks for stopping by today!

 

 

I hope you all have an amazing day!!



My first art journal and FWF

It's Friday and time for another Friends with Flair blog hop over at Unity stamps.

Once upon a time I used to love to draw and paint and doodle. It's been much too long. So I made this multimedia art journal in hopes that I would actually use it and start creating again. I wanted it to be all about things that inspire ME. Hence the title and pic. In retrospect it seems kinda silly.

I went through my dusty art drawer and pulled out some drawing paper, watercolor paper, and some canvas. From my craft supplies I pulled printer paper, white cardstock, and some envelopes. I bound it all with my Cinch tool:

So now I can open it up draw or paint or collage. I even have pockets and envelopes to collect little treasures or ideas or some journaling. Theoretically anyway. It's still empty. And I made it a few weeks ago. : \

For the cover I used some old packaging. It's basically just raw chipboard. I think it was the backing that came with a kit or tool or something. I stamped Unity's Up Against a Wall with clear embossing powder. Then I sponged on distress ink in Rusty Hinge all over. The chipboard just soaks up the ink so I had to apply it again a few time to keep the vibrant color. I stamped a sentiment from Unity's Imagine It set in black embossing powder and a flower from the Insightful Meadows set in black ink.

 Then I took the Polaroid stamp from Wilson Designs Everything's Owlright set and created a frame for my pic. I distressed the frame with Old Paper distress ink and the photo with Vintage Photo distress ink. I added some letter stickers, painted over them and them removed them to reveal - kind of the opposite of a stencil I guess. Then two Sassafrass flowers, some twine, and I-rock bling and it was done.

Oh, can't forget that MME pompom trim around the border.

Now it's done.

Except for the art I need to put inside!

So leave a comment and go take a look at the other entries on the blog hop for your chance to win!