March Art Journal Page-You Just Have to Ride

Hello friends! We are at the end of March, and it happens to also be Easter weekend as well this year! So happy Easter and I hope you’re enjoying the beginning of the Spring season! I will be out as this post goes up, but I wanted to get in this month’s AJ page!

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 always has great inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” March prompt of “POSTAL”:

For this month’s theme, I knew I had lots of real postage stamps in my stash and some ephemera pieces as well as some postal tissue wrap from Tim Holtz. I have a huge roll of it and it was time to get it back out and use it up! When looking for my postage stamps, I also found a post card that I previously created and a vintage looking photo that I printed out…which I also turned into a very large postage style stamp.

The top of the page says: “Some days you just have to ride, however difficult it might be!“

For the Background: I used an 8.5″ x 5.5″ piece of acrylic paper with pre-punched holes at the top and blended some media paints over the background which gave me the bright blended colors. I ripped pieces of the Tim Holtz Postale Tissue Wrap and attached with matte medium over the blended paint background. After it was dry, I ripped some more of the pieces and sanded the edges. I also took some ” Rusty Brown” wax and went over the textured areas and around the edges with my finger. Then I splattered some white paint over top.

I popped up the pre-finished postcard and also added some ephemera around it and added that Shetland pony postage stamp. I thought it went well with the vintage photo that I turned into a postage stamp with a die. The quote at the top was printed on my computer, ripped edges and sponged with brown ink.

This is a bit busier in design than what I had planned it to be, but I had fun playing with it and I was glad to use up some more of that piled up ephemera! I hope you got a “KICK” out of it too! 🫏 Thanks so much for stopping by and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – On All Fours
Love to Scrap – Anything Goes
Creative Artiste – Anything Goes Mixed Media
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

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:

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

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:

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