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 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.

Creative Chemistry 103, Day 1 tags

Creative Chemistry 103 kicked off last week at Online Card Classes.

These are all my technique tags just from day 1:

I made this DIY Ombre tag for the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge using Hero Arts Etched Medallion and distress inks.

This next tag uses the Highlight Stamping technique and I've linked it up to Unity's color challenge.

Off-set Stamping technique:

 Washed Watercolor Technique

 Micro Glaze Resist Technique:

These were so fun to make. I can't wait to get to the rest of the days!

trust your heart

I'm hosting challenge #101 over at The Paper Girls. It's a mixed media challenge. Here's the card I created:

On my background I collaged a dictionary page and shaded the edges with a charcoal pencil. Flicked some black india ink, and dripped some yellow spray stain. Stamped several flowers. Used a stencil to apply translucent embossing paste and Perfect Pearls. I distressed the edges and added aqua gelato.

Then for the main image, I stamped this flower in distress ink and then painted it with a waterbrush. Sentiment is from this kit.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you'll come enter our challenge!

Today is a Good Day canvas

It's week 3 of my month as a guest designer for the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge! 

The challenge this week is Food and/or Drink.

I decided to get a little messy and pull out some paints and a 6x6 wooden canvas.

I used teal and gray acrylic paints on the background. I like to apply the paint (both colors at a time) with an old gift card or piece of heavy cardstock instead of a brush. No brush strokes and lots of cool blending. Then I tinted embossing paste with Vintage Photo distress paint and applied it using the Moroccan stencil. 

After that was dry, I used Watering Can ink with the Dot Fade stencil and Orange Blossom ink with the Cargo stencil. Then I flicked and dripped black ink and Antique Bronze, Tarnished Brass, and Fossilized Amber spray stains. Black Licorice gelato is smudged along the edges. I stamped a Simon Says Stamp/Tim Holtz Stamptember exclusive coffee stamp, which is slightly smaller than this one, on watercolor paper. I colored it with a waterbrush and Tea Dye, Gathered Twigs, Peacock Feathers, and Fossilized Amber distress ink.  Then used foam tape to put it on the canvas.

Now the hard part is deciding whether to put this in my kitchen or leave it in my craft room!

Thanks for stopping by and come link up your projects for a chance to win $50 to the Simon Says Stamp store!

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!

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.

beautiful soul

I've been in the mood to paint so I pulled out this new-to-me Unity girl stamp and stamped it onto a 6"x6"-ish piece of wood. And then painted it with acrylic paints.

The sides are all painted a dark grey and the front edges are smudged with a gelato.

This was so fun that I've already started my second.

 piece!

Thanks for stopping by today and have a great weekend!

Linking up to:

Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes

Unity Stamps Friends with Flair hop

January 12 Tags of 2015

I LOVE playing along with Tim Holtz' 12 Tags series! But wouldn't you know I never manage to get linked up in time.:(

So this is my January tag inspired by his:

I don't have very many of Tim's embellishments so I have to create my own. His tag was collaged with his tissue paper. I stamped images onto tissue paper to make my own. I used a combo of Tim's stamps and some Unity. I forgot to take a before photo but here is what was left after I cut out what I glued onto the tag:

On top of the tissue was lots of layers of spray ink and distress paint. I don't have his chit-chat words so I created my own using my label maker! It worked out better because I got to choose the words that I wanted to represent my year.

I also didn't have his Alpha Parts so I painted and grunged up some really old chipboard:

Linking up to:
Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge
Unity Friends with Flair

Thanks for stopping by today and wish me luck getting February's tag linked up in time!

kind of a hot mess up in here

This is my 2nd post of the day. For my Day 5 GIU post click here.

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So I saw a background page in my art journal that I really liked and tried to replicate it on this 6x6 canvas. It sorta worked. I sprayed some dark navy, lime, and teal inks and sprays on it. I stamped some background stamps (Classified Newsprint and Quatrefoil).

Then I wanted to use this sentiment stamp (that I still can't find the name of) so I smeared on some gesso to make a spot for it. And then proceeded to smudged the sucker when I stmaped it. So I had to go over it with my fine tipped Pitt Pen to fill it back in. Then it was getting lost in the messy background and I decided to spray some yellow paint and spread some yellow gelato around it. Hmm. See what I meant when I titled this post a hot mess?

I liked the stars and wanted to add some more yellow. So I tinted some modeling paste with my yellow and gold gelatos and and applied it over a star stencil from Heidi Swapp up in the left corner. After they dried I added a little glaze to shiny them  up.

It was still a bit bright and busy so I smudged some grey gelato around the edges to soften it up a bit.

Then I walked away from it not thinking I would even share this baby on the blog. I even thought about painting over it and starting over. But then my son said it was cool. I love that kid.

So I am trying to agree and see it from his eyes.

It's growing on me!

the golden thread

Today I've got a little 6"x6" canvas I made for a friend. It's 1 of 3 - hopefully I'll have the other 3 ready to share soon.

I collaged some paper, painted some yellow, and stamped some Unity ( Classified Newsprint).

 

I used the Moroccan stencil from Simon says Stamp and some embossing paste for cool texture. I inked over it with gold ink for some color.

 

I added some washi tape, die cuts, flair, and a fussy-cut stamped image (Grow Yourself Extraordinary).

 I created the quote on my label maker (love that thing!).

 

This was so fun to make. I think I need to make some artwork to hang in my own house now!

 

ETA: I'm linking up to the Moxie Fab World challenge to use stencils.

 

Thanks for stopping by today.

:)