May AJ Page-Start a New Beginning

Hello friends!  I feel like the time keeps moving whether or not I do!  At the last minute before getting something done, I finally started this page! Once I got going, it was fun to just play around to see what happens!

It’s time for the monthly Art Journal Page collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper)! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month.  I know she will have some wonderful inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” May prompt of “FLOWERS”.

I noticed looking back on my AJ pages that I rarely use flowers on them unless it’s already apart of some papers that I’m using.  So this was a good challenge for me and it was fun to pull out these Tim Holtz “Flower Garden” stamps and dies from my collection to use for this one.

For the background:  I started with my 9″x6″ pre-punched holes of Canson 140# cold press watercolor and used a brick stencil and model paste.  I covered the entire page with some linen and umber paints mixed together.  I dabbed a bit of orange and spritzed it with water for a rust look.  I then went over that with a dry brush effect with some light ivory paint to bring out the texture of the brick pattern.

The flowers and stems were stamped over a watercolor Bristol that I previously made and splattered with chocolate paint.  I also covered the die cut flowers with shimmer spray. (Not sure if you can catch that in the photo.)  All of the stems were glued, and the flowers were glued with some being popped with foam tape.  I covered the bottom area over the stems with grit paste and then went over it with brown paint to give the appearance of dirt.

I took a Dylusions stamp and white heat embossed it over chocolate cardstock for the sentiment, hand cut it and popped up with foam tape at the top of the page.  I added a butterfly from a Tim Holtz ephemera pack.

 

Hope you’ve enjoyed my AJ page today!  Thanks for dropping in and checking it out!

Challenges:

  1. Art Journal Journey – Flowers
  2. Creative Artiste – Anything Goes Mixed Media
  3. Simon Says Stamp Monday – Watercolor (I watercolored the flowers/stems)
  4. Arty Divas – Anything Goes

*Vicki*23 Comments

Creative Artiste Guest Designer with Altered Mixed Media Frame

Hello friends and welcome to May!  I’m happy to see this month come with all of the beautiful Spring things that pop out like the flowers and sun with the warmer temps!  I look forward to going out and working in the yard soon!  Hope that you’ve had a wonderful week and look forward to a great weekend!  I’m getting ready for a fun crafty retreat and I’m really looking forward to crafting with friends!

5 May 2023

I’m super excited to be a guest for this month’s challenge over at the Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge!  If you’ve been around, then you know how I enjoy creating a few mixed media projects once in a while besides my Art Journaling that I do each month.  The theme is always “Anything Goes” with Mixed Media, so this time, I decided to make some altered art with an old frame:

I thought this would be a perfect item to alter with a Spring theme in mind.  I know the frame “looks old”, but it was actually a really old wooden frame that was stained/varnished about 30 years ago!  I’ve sanded, painted, added some crackling paste, and painted over it some more to give it a Vintage “falling apart” look.  I like the texture and the crackling from the paste that came out in it. The total frame size is about 9″x13″ and it’s shown hanging on my wall.

The center of the frame was done using a piece of cardboard sized to fit inside the frame.  (I threw out the glass front as I didn’t have a need for it.)  I had some papers that I thought was so pretty along with the sentiment.  The sentiment was way too large for a card and I thought it would work great for this project.  Of course, the size of the paper wasn’t quite large enough, so I worked on collaging some musical papers around the edges for a border.  I also went over it with a floral stencil and paste, paint splatters and waterproof ink before inserting behind the frame.

Here’s a closer look at the top of the frame where you can see that I’ve added a butterfly ephemera that was painted with some clear glitter paint and attached next to the sentiment with glue and foam dots on the wings.

I have tons of flowers in my stash, so I’ve created an arrangement along the frame with a vine and different sized flowers that I’ve added with twirled vines.  I’ve used more paint and even some art stones around the flowers as well as various places over the background for texture and interest.  More paints and metallic wax was used over all of these places to keep the Vintage feel to the design.  I tried to keep them coordinated with the papers in the background.  (It’s weird how the colors vary so much when you take a photo compared to what it looks in person.  The top frame photo looks more blue, but it’s actually more this muted green color.)

And as you scroll down to the bottom of the frame, you see I have this 3D arrangement with the painted chicken wire against the back panel with the papers.  (the flowers were added on top of that.)  On the bottom left you see I’ve made a “nest” for my bird with Spanish moss and even added a couple of twigs from my backyard underneath it.  I’ve also added a pinch of green moss in there which is also what I’ve used over top of the white picket fence section to the bottom right.  It actually sticks out in front of the flowers.

You can also see where I’ve added some more art stones and paints.  I’ve finished the whole design with some Finnabair white gold metallic wax.  This is hard to capture unless you get really close, but it adds a wonderful detail that brings out lots of the texture in your finished piece.

I really enjoyed creating this altered frame while I was thinking about Spring coming to life outside!  It was also fun to be able to find something I’ve had for so many years and give it some new life!  I hope you’ve enjoyed it as well and I look forward to seeing what mixed media art you make this month for the challenge! 

Thanks for dropping in today!

Challenges:

  1. Crafting From the Heart – Anything Goes (NO CARDS) challenges are back after 4 years!
  2. Crafting Happiness – Flowers
  3. Pearly Sparkles – Anything BUT a card
  4. Simon Says Stamp Monday – Paint It!
  5. Love to Craft – Anything Goes

*Vicki*25 Comments

April AJ Page Sparkle and Shine

Hello friends!  I can’t believe that it’s already at the end of the month!  I feel like this month went by very quickly, but as the weather gets warmer, it seems the more I want to be out.  Spring is always a great time to start seeing those pretty flowers which also means more weeds to pull too!

It’s time for the monthly Art Journal Page collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper)! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month.  I know she will have some wonderful inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” April prompt of “SHINNY/SPARKLY” :

I am a sucker for anything that shines or sparkles!  So of course I had so many things to choose from in my stash to play with!  I really had loads of fun making this one and the photos do not look quite as “wow” as it does in person of course, but you can probably guess what it may seem like once you know all what I’ve done.

For the background:  I used my normal pre-punched holes on a 6″x9″ watercolor paper and covered it with water spritzing and Brushos Crystal Color media in lemon, orange and brilliant red.  Once dried, I went around the edges with a scrapper and white gesso.  (I didn’t use a ton of it, just enough to make a scant frame.  Once that was dried, I took a leafy stencil with coordinating colored Distress Oxide inks and sponged over the page randomly.  I then spritzed with large water drops, once dry, I sprayed the whole page with shimmer spray.

On the dragonfly, you can see directly on the page a bit of a shinny gold shadow under the wings.  I have this dragonfly stencil that I used Deco Stencil Paste over that when dry, you can foil over it.  I did that directly on the page where I wanted the dragonfly and then again on a black piece of cardstock that was cut out.  I added some black string (This was a stray piece of string from a project that I did not use, so I decided to re-use it for this project) around the dragonfly, glued the center down over top the one on the page and then used black foam tape over the wings to give them a bit of a lift.  Before gluing down the cut out dragonfly, I used a gray Big Brush marker to create more shadows around it.  I also used a white Big Brush marker to create the dash lines around the page.

The sentiment was a piece that was cut out from a magazine that I recycled to use for this page and attached it with media paste.  I used the grey Big Brush marker to add some shadows around it as well.

On the left side of the page, you can see some gold sparkles which were created with another Tim Holtz Christmas stencil that I had which looked like fun sparkle images.  I used some gold glitter paste to go over that and then I took some gold Stickles glue to add some details with dots in various places.

And this is just one more photo of trying to capture that shine and sparkle:

Perhaps you can see more of the shine and sparkles in there.  I just had to move the page around in the light to get it in just the “right spot” to capture it better, so pardon my fingers in there.

Really hope you’ve enjoyed my AJ page today and gotten some inspiration!  Thanks so much for stopping in!  I’ll be seeing you again soon!

Challenges:

  1. Country View – Things with Wings
  2. Art Journal Journey – Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose (black string & sentiment)
  3. Creative Moments – Wings and Things
  4. Arty Divas – Anything Goes
  5. Crafting From the Heart – Anything Goes-no cards *First challenge*

*Vicki*24 Comments

March AJ Page-FLY

Hello friends!  Officially Spring has sprung, but I’m seeing some possible snow still in the forecast!  BLAH!  I sure how as we finish up this month, that April will be a little kinder to us over here.  With all of this weird weather in all different directions, I do hope that you’re staying safe and enjoying some craft time!

Speaking of craft time- If you’re not familiar, I post an AJ page each month along with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper), as we get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles!  We use a prompt each month and post them.  I know she will have wonderful inspiration to share, so please check out her blog for an AJ page too! Here’s my AJ page for this month with the “SMASH OUR STASH” March prompt of “Find something/anything GREEN to use on your page” :

Thinking that I was REALLY in the mood to start seeing some green, I started digging through my stash and found SO MANY green things!  I didn’t realize that all you really need is a color to have so many different items to pull from!  I’m happy with all of the green items I found as I used several of them for my layout here.  I’ve got green paint, texture paste, metallic spray, flowers, lace, button, butterfly ephemera and green glitter Stickles!  I’m thinking I don’t use green enough, so I went with a monochromatic page.

For the background:  I started with some printed vellum attached with collage medium and went over top with a soft green layer.  I used an old stencil and went over the two corners with green paste. I then sprayed some green metallic over those two colors and moved it around with water until dry.  I splattered some white ink over top and set to dry.

Vicki-AJpageMar-Flybottom

I added green lace on the right bottom along with my scallop chipboard square that I painted white and added some papers behind it.  I used those same papers to die cut a tag at the top and glued the fairy along with butterfly wings behind her over it.  I added the sentiment sticker that was lined out with a black marker and button over it and attached a string to the hole.  This was popped up with foam tape as well as the “FLY” die cut letters inside the white frame.  The ripped sentiment was computer generated and sponged with grey ink and tucked behind the white frame.  I added some green Stickles glitter to each scallop and tucked some green flowers with gold enamel dots in the center.  I also tucked more of those behind the fairy too.

Vicki-AJpageMar-Flytop

I covered the butterfly wings with a glitter brush pen and then splattered some grey ink over top of the wings before attaching them to the page with glue and foam tape… and before attaching the butterflies to the page, I covered up the fairy with a piece of scrap paper and used some gold paint to splatter over the page…and I called it done!

I enjoyed making this page with all of those GREEN things from my stash!  I hope you’ve enjoyed it too!  Thanks so much for dropping in and have a great weekend!

Challenges:

  1. Art Journal Journey – Anything Goes Art Journal
  2. Creative Artiste – Anything Goes Mixed Media
  3. Challenge Up Your Life – Monochrome
  4. Beyond the Blue – Green
  5. Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
  6. A Place to Start – Anything Goes
  7. Through the Purple Haze – Anything Goes

*Vicki*28 Comments

February AJ Page-Relaxation

Hello friends!  It seems like this month went by really fast!  Hope you’re having a great and productive month!  It’s now time for this month’s Art Journal page…really fun one today!

If you’re not familiar, I post an AJ page each month along with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper), as we get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles!  We use a prompt each month and post them.  I know she will have some great inspiration, so please check out her blog for an AJ page too!🥰  Here’s my AJ page for this month with the “SMASH OUR STASH” February prompt of “Wooden Pieces/Chipboard” :

Do you have tons of chipboard pieces laying around?  I have several stacks of them that have been around for quite a while and I thought that I would just pull them out to start using some up here with this month’s prompt.  These are old Stampin’ Up! chipboard pieces that they used to sell and I was taught that you don’t throw any of them away…well I think they meant that you should use them, though!😆

For the background:  I started with my usual 6″x9″ watercolor paper with the holes pre-punched at the top.  I used some torn pieces of scraps and vellum that I had laying around and randomly covered the blank page using collage medium. I took the chipboard pieces and glued them in random areas too.  I then covered it over with some white gesso paint that was slightly watered down so that some of the background elements still showed through.

The next step was to add some colors with some Finnebair Impasto paint in Mediterranean and Lemon Peel. When these two colors mix together, they make a beautiful green.  They are actually really bright colors, so I toned it down a bit with more white paint until I got the look I wanted.  I finished it with black paint splattering.

Here’s a closer view of the top of the page with the collage and chipboard texture.  After painting up the background, I also took a few pieces of chipboard along with a wooden butterfly and painted those elements in red.  I thought it would be fun to give the page a pop of bright red to contrast the muted background.  The red painted elements were added after the background was finished.

The sentiment at the top was computer generated and sponged over with some Pumice Stone Distress Oxide ink and layered over a piece of black cardstock and then attached to the page.

Then here’s a closer view of the bottom of the page.  The “Reserved” is from a Tim Holtz sticker book.  

Behind the red chipboard ‘R’, I added some black string.  You will also notice that I’ve used some Finnebair Aged Gold metallic wax to go around the edges of the raised up edges to give them a bit of dimension.  I finished it up with a few red enamel dots.

I had fun with this one and I hope you’ve enjoyed it as well!  Thanks for dropping in today!

Challenges:

  1. Art Journal Journey – Seeing Red 
  2. Country View – Sentiment/Inspiring Words
  3. Creative Artiste – Anything Goes Mixed Media
  4. Try it On Tuesday – Let’s Get Messy (painting)
  5. Arty Divas – Anything Goes

*Vicki*28 Comments

Lots of Love and Commissioned Wolves

Happy weekend friends!  It’s almost time for Valentine’s Day which means we share our appreciation to those that we love!  I like to make cards that are great for any time of year and hearts are versatile enough to do this without being specifically Valentines.  Here are a few cards that I’ve made with this in mind:

I actually participated in last week’s Craft Roulette #149 and the perimeters were: 1. tissue/vellum 2. collage 3. far away 4. three pops of red.  So…while watching, I had decided that I was going for the Tim Holtz Postale Tissue Wrap that was already collaged with images.  I decided because of the collage images, that I was going to find an airplane image to use with it and my thoughts turned to an older Simon Says Stamp card kit I had with the “Home Sweet Home” stamp set.  I white heat embossed the airplane, the long building strip and the sentiment over black cardstock. It seemed to lend itself to a slimline card design, so that’s what I went with and used collage medium to attach the tissue to the background.  Once it dried, I glued the die cut buildings strip and went around it with a Big Brush marker that I smudged to create the shadow effect.

I made a banner with the sentiment and attached a white string to the back and tied a bow with it to the airplane and popped up the plane with foam tape.  The collage background panel was layered over a black piece that was attached to a standard slimline top folding card base.

Here’s a closer view of the details so that you can see them a bit better.  My “three pops of red” came from 3 hearts that I cut out with red cardstock.  The die was from the coordinating set with the stamps.  I attached them around the airplane and covered them with a glitter brush pen.

If you’re interested in seeing what the Craft Roulette is all about, you can check them out live every Friday night around 6:00 pm CST.  I will be doing this tonight as well!  It’s just something fun to get your crafting thinking and I love that I can pull out my stash and use it up!

 

And of course I couldn’t help but follow along with the Lawn Fawn Create With Us “Wood You Be Mine?” class!  There’s a little inside joke about Woodchucks chuckin’ wood with my son and I couldn’t resist sending him one of these cards. (CLICK ON THE PHOTOS ABOVE TO SEE THEM LARGER IF YOU’RE ON MY WEBSITE)

I just pretty much followed along with the same design as they shared in class with the exception of the background stencil.  I didn’t have the same one they used, so I pulled out one from Taylored Expressions that is no longer available.  but if you’d like to follow along with the class, you can check it out here.

And lastly, I wanted to share a commissioned card that I made for someone that requested a card to give to their partner.  Not really too specific other than they liked wolves and the “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong lyrics somewhere displayed on the design.  So here’s what I came up with:

I did not own any stamps with wolves on them, so I turned to my Cricut machine to cut out a silhouette wolf and then I flipped it to cut another one so that they faced each other.  I wanted to give the appearance of the wolf couple howling together. LOL  I also had some digital map paper that I could print out to use for the hearts as well as making an envelope with it too.

The background was ink blended with the center being lighter toned in blue and then I splattered some white over top for a night sky or an “outer space” looking sky…however you’d like to interpret it, I suppose.  I cut a large heart with the map paper and arranged the two wolves over it so that, although it’s the same image flipped, I can make them look like different wolves and then cut off the bottom portions. I popped up the large heart with foam.  I also used the same papers to cut smaller hearts above them and added some glitter and covered them with crystal effects to make them shinny.  I printed out the lyrics on my computer and cut it out in a banner shape to attach below the wolves.

  • Hope you’ve enjoyed my “love” creations today and have been inspired in some way!  Thanks for stopping by!

Challenges:

  1. Sweet Stampin’– LOVE (Beavers)
  2. Simon Says Stamp Monday – Love is in the Air (slimline)
  3. Everybody Art – #529 Heart/Love
  4. Cardz 4 Guyz – Valentine for a Guy (wolves)
  5. Try it On Tuesday – All You Need is Love
  6. Fab ‘N’ Funky – Valentines or Hearts
  7. Little Red Wagon – Somebody to Love
  8. The Sisterhood of Crafters – Hearts
  9. Crafty Gals Corner – Add a Heart

*Vicki*32 Comments

Jan 2023 Art Journal Page-TIME

Hello there friends!  Hope that you’ve been having a great month so far to start off your year! I’m so relieved that I’ve gotten my sound up and running on the computer now!  Also…today I’m very happy to be continuing on with making my monthly art journal pages (plus using my stash!) and to be continuing the partnership with my sweet crafty friend, Carol!  I always love to see how each of us interprets the monthly stash themes.

If you’re not familiar, I post an AJ page each month along with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper), as we get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles!  We use a prompt each month and post them.  I know she will have some great inspiration, so please check out her blog for an AJ page too!🥰  Here’s my first Art Journal inspiration for 2023 with the “SMASH OUR STASH” January prompt of “Sprays/Stains/Paints” :

So this one is a bit different for me, but I wanted to try out a “minimalistic” style and very soft with the colors that’s almost pale.  Not sure I achieved what I was thinking, but fun to try anyway.

Background:  With the prompt in mind, I had no problem pulling out a few Distress Spray Stains that I have so many of but hardly use.  So I started the background with a stencil and added some texture paste to the two opposite corners over a gesso painted 6″x9″ 140# cold press paper pre-punched with holes for book.  I then took the spray stains and went over the two opposite corners with them.

I found a cool photo online of the eye with the clock.  The outside of the eye has repetitive “tick tock” wording over it.  Before attaching this photo and the wording elements, I stamped a very large pocket watch image (Whimsy Stamps retired) with Speckled Egg Distress Oxide ink.  Since the sprays and ink are water based media, I covered the page with Distress Micro Glaze to make it permanent before adding some collage medium to attach the other elements. I also used a Big Brush marker to go around the edges for shadows. The pocket watch detail is a laser cut chipboard that was sprayed with black distress spray.

I took some more paint to add to the colored sprayed edges along with some black and white paints to randomly splatter over the entire page. Lastly I took some silver metallic rub to go over the raised areas and make them stand out a bit. The page has a sheen to it because I went over it with a coat of collage medium.

I hope you’ve gotten some inspiration today and thank you for stopping in!

Challenges:

  1. Art Journal Journey – Use a photo (eyeball)
  2. More Than Words – It’s About Time
  3. Country View – Time
  4. Love to Craft – Anything Goes
  5. Love to Scrap – Anything Goes
  6. Arty Divas – Anything Goes

*Vicki*21 Comments

End of the Year-Dec AJ Page-SNOW+Book

It is here!  The end of 2022 has arrived weather you are ready for it or not!  I know as I’ve gotten older the time seems to pass more and more quickly.  Each year I usually go through all of the things that I didn’t have time to do.  This year I’m going to look at all of things that I DID do instead!  I look forward to a wonderful year ahead and I hope you are as well!

  • For this entire year, I’ve had such a wonderful time creating my AJ pages at the end of each month with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper)!  Thanks SO MUCH to her for the wonderful inspiration and joining in the venture with me!  I know she’ll have something wonderful, so please check out her blog for an AJ page too!🥰  We’ve gotten creative by using up our never-ending stash piles! (I look forward to doing this for another year each month in 2023 and I’ll hope you’ll be here too!)  Here’s my final Art Journal inspiration for 2022 with the “SMASH OUR STASH” December prompt of “Oldest Stash” :

It’s a bit challenging for me to FIND my “oldest stash” as I’ve been a bit of a collector over the years.  So I’ve pulled out a very old, but favorite stamp set of mine from Stampin’ Up! called “Lovely as a Tree” from 2001.  The container broke when I opened it up to take a stamp out! LOL  I’ve also pulled out my Pearl Ex powders and some gilding flakes from my older media stash.  It’s a good thing that powders don’t go bad otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to use them!🙄

For the Background – I’ve used some mix of paints and splattered some white paint over it for the snow.  The trees at the bottom were stamped over vellum and then I cut it out and attached that to the bottom of the page so that they were a nice vibrant black as I didn’t think they would stamp over the paint very well.  I did take a snowflake stamp (not too old) and stamped a few randomly over the background in teal ink. (water-proof)

For the Pearl Ex Powders – I mixed some Misty Lavender Pearl Ex with embossing paste and used a snowflake stencil to randomly add this to the background.

For the Gilding Flakes – I die cut some snowflakes with double sided adhesive sheets will make the front sticky.  This made it so I could rub in the gilding flakes over them.  They did turn out very pretty!

The “SNOW” letters were die cut and I found a neat winter clipping from my sentiment stash to add below it after I sponged some teal ink around it.  I also die cut another tiny snowflake in the center of the ‘O’ with glitter cardstock and attached a tiny teal rhinestone in the center of it.  I rubbed some silver wax around the letters and around the edges of the page.  Lastly, I’ve added some star sequins and filled the centers of those and the gilded snowflakes with some silver Stickles.  I covered the bottom of the page under the trees with glue and covered it with sparkly glitter.

So I thought that since I’ve done an AJ page every month this year that not only did I need to close up the year, but I also needed to close the book to all the AJ pages I made from 2022 by finally finishing up a book to put them all in!

I made the covers with some chipboard along with some “old” chipboard pieces from my stash and did some painting with a bit of mixed media gold wax and stenciling.  I wanted to be sure to add the year to the front and a little quote from my sticker book that says:  “happy in her heart where only the imagination can go”

I fit all of the AJ pages completed this year along with a few extras that were created from before with unknown dates, added the front and back covers and used my Zutter Bind-it-All machine to add the spiral wire for a book.  (This was the reason all of my pages had the pre-punched holes in them when I posted each month.)

That finishes up the 2022 year on my blog.  I hope you’ve enjoyed my posts weather it’s for inspiration or just a smile.  Either way, I’m so thankful that you have joined me this past year and your friendships.  I look forward to a productive and crafty year ahead in 2023!

  • Have a safe, happy and healthy New Year!🎊

Challenges:

  1. Art Journal Journey – Snowy Winter
  2. Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
  3. Creative Knockouts – Anything Goes

*Vicki*19 Comments

November AJ Page-Peace Love and Hope

Hello friends!  Hope that you’re having a wonderful weekend and I can’t believe we’re looking at the end of November already as well as almost the end of the year too!  Since I’ve been doing most of my post this month with guesting for Inky Stamper, it’s time to change it up a bit.

At the end of the month, I do an Art Journal page and collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper), so please check out her blog for her AJ page too!🥰  We’re trying to get creative by using up our never-ending stash piles!  So here’s my Art Journal inspiration with the “SMASH OUR STASH” November prompt of “washi tape/stickers/border stickers, etc” :

So with the Smash our stash theme, I went through and pulled out so many stickers in my collection…and then realized that I’ve had some of these things for such a long time!  I couldn’t use them all, but I made something work with a fun Christmas theme in mind.

For the background:  I started out with my pre-punched holes at the top of my 140# cold press paper sized 6″x9″ and covered the bottom portion of the page with some Tim Holtz Christmas themed washi tape.  I thought it was a bit too bright and went over it with some white paint and a brayer.  I also took a collage paper of Christmas music sheet paper and stamped a couple of different images over it to further the collaged background.  I also covered this area with a thin layer of mixed media silver paint.

I die cut a pine tree and sponged some inks around the edges and turned that as well as the die cut sparkle snowflakes into stickers using my Xron machine.  I stamped the two deer in black ink and heat embossed over it a clear EP.  I then took a Tim Holtz stencil and used some sparkle texture paste over it for snow. (Before I attached the larger snowflake stickers.)  I also splattered the page with some white paint too…lots of snowfall going on!

For the wording:  I had some black thickers (as they call them, which are thick foam letter stickers) for the “PEACE” and then the other words are stickers from my stash.  The heart is from the thicker sheet too.  I took some silver rubbing paste with my finger and went along the edges of the page as well as the thicker letters to add some interest.  Lastly: I made a “snow ground” for the deer by applying some glue and covering it with some glitter crystals.  I also added some black gem stickers to the center of each snowflake sticker.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my art journal page today and have been inspired in some way.  Thanks for much for stopping in and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

  1.  Art Journal Journey – Collage Fodder and/or Food and Drink (collage fodder here)
  2. Mixed Media Lovers – Letters/text/quote 
  3. Creative Artiste – Anything Mixed Media
  4. Creative Moments – Winter
  5. Arty Divas – Anything Goes
  6. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – NOT a card

*Vicki*25 Comments

October AJ Page-Believe in Fairytales

Hello friends!  It’s almost Halloween, can you believe?!  Today is actually hubby & my 23rd wedding anniversary that we are out celebrating and hanging out having fun right now.  So the theme of my page was designed to fit with this in mind today.

Hard to believe that the end of the month is here and also time for a monthly Art Journal page and collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper), so please check out her blog for more inspiration too!🥰  We’re trying to get creative by using up our never-ending stash piles!  So here’s my Art Journal inspiration with the “SMASH OUR STASH” October prompt of “UNUSED MEDIA from stash” :

As I was thinking of this month’s prompt, I was checking through my media to see if there was something that I had NOT used at all yet, but for the most part, I have. So then my thoughts turned to what I haven’t used in quite a while.  So after going through bottles and bottles of liquid watercolor…and throwing several away that were no good…I used some colors to create the background on my page using a 6″x9″ sheet of Bristol Smooth Watercolor paper with pre-punched holes.  I added drops of the watercolor on my glass mat, sprayed with water and “smooshed” the paper to create the look I wanted and let dry.  I wanted the smooth texture because I knew I was going to stamp over top.

Another media I haven’t used in a while is the Faber Castel Gelatos, which was used to create the moon.  I took a circle scrap, traced around it and then scribbled on a white and shimmer white gelato with my finger and rubbed into the areas I wanted.  I also pulled out several of the Lavina Stamps which were all used to create the scene over my watercolor background.  I had these stamps for quite some time, but have never used any of these images.  So I stamped stars at the top, the moon, the castle, the stage coach and the tall grasses.  BEFORE all the stamping, I did use some gold paint to create splatters at the top.

After stamping the images, I took some torn scrap paper and sponged in the “ground” areas for my images.

For the quote, I printed out the “in fairytales” on my computer, added a die cut “Believe” sentiment cut from some gold glitter cardstock and attached it above the computer generated wording.  I tore around this sentiment and sponged in some dark blue around it.  I finished off the page with some gold Stickles around the edges and drops randomly over the star areas.  I also took a glitter brush pen to add some sparkly highlights to the castle, ground areas and stage coach.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my AJ page today & been inspired in some way.  Please check out Carol’s page for more inspiring fun!  Thanks so much for dropping in!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – Fairytales, Folklore and Fables (Mine is based on the Fairytale Cinderella)

*Vicki*18 Comments