Glassy Art Journal Page

So I'm really very proud of this one. The picture doesn't give it justice. I like it because it turned out looking pretty cool and got to try new things while making it.

I made it for Avenue 613 challenge blog. Their challenge this week was to include music notes/lyrics/sheet music in the project. I like how I incorporated mine.

🎵 I started by painting my page yellow. (I had also stenciled some pearlescent white on top also, but you can't really see it)

🎵 While the paint was still wet, I laid the musical tissue paper on top.

🎵 While all that was drying, I found the image I wanted to use and ripped around the edges.

🎵 Next is the fun part. I stamped my page all over with a clear embossing stamp pad.

🎵 I poured clear, fine embossing powder all over it, shook it off, and put it under my heat gun. I did this three times until it got that glassy look.

🎵 Next I stamped around the edges of my page with the clear stamp again.

🎵 But this last time, I added iridescent embossing powder. It is really cool stuff. It makes your page sort of glow when you turn it in the light.

🎵 When the page was cool and set, I added the metal bird so it hung off the edges.

🎵 I also added the mulberry flowers with a copper flat back pearl in the middle and there you go!

Someone told me not too long ago that I should post some step by step pictures in my posts. Would any of you enjoy that?

Metallic Art Journal Cover

This was a fairly simple piece. I wanted to join the Use Your Stuff Challenge Blogs current challenge. The challenge was "metallic". I had remembered I had some cool metal words I had gotten off a scrapbooking lot on eBay.

And from there I came up with the idea to make the cover for one of my art journals.

Here is how I did it:

🐛 I first covered the chipboard cover with a layer of gesso.

🐛 After the gesso was dry, I painted it with white pearlescent paint.

🐛 Next, I got out my alcohol inks. I grabbed a dark blue and dark purple, along with a silver.

🐛 I cut a piece of felt and squirted a color on it and dabbed my cover all over. I did this with all three of my colors.

🐛 Next I did the same thing, but with an alcohol inks blending solution. This makes the colors run together.

🐛 After that was done, I turned to my chipboard butterfly and painted it metallic silver.

🐛 When everything was dry I glued it all in place.

My materials:

I still have a few journals without done covers. I'd love any suggestions for something fun to try.

Lucky Journal Page

There was once a time in my life that I tried to learn the Irish tenor banjo. If anything, it deepened my love for all things Irish, including St. Patrick's day. That's why I was excited to do Creative Corner's Challenge. The theme is "good luck", so I gave my entry a St paddy's day flare.

There's not much to it, but here's how I put it together:

🍀 You can't see it too well, but I made my background by sticking strips of masking tape to my card stock.

🍀 Once the page was covered with tape, I mixed some metallic gold, light green, and gloss Modge Podge. I painted the mixture on my page.

🍀 The rest of the page just involves gluing the elements to the page. I used a "luck o' the Irish" sticker, along with some Pom Pom ribbon and mulberry flowers.

🍀 I had printed the leprechaun image from my iPad. And I punched four leaf clovers out of sparkly paper and glued green pearls in the center.

I have a tendency to forget to dress my kids in green on St. Patrick's day. So when the holiday nears, I would appreciate any reminders😜

Vintage Christmas Journal page

I hope everyone had some happy holidays! I made this art journal page for a challenge at Dragons Lair Design Challenge site. The theme was vintage Christmas.

Here is how I made it:

🎄 I smeared my background with a kelly green and let it dry.

🎄 I placed some mesh over the green and sponge painted metallic gold over the top.

🎄 I cut off some red lace, and glued it about an inch in from the left.

🎄 I placed some Christmas ribbon down and atop the lace edge.

🎄 I recently bought some craft supplies off eBay and in one of the packages came those gold dots. I spread them about an inch apart on the ribbon.

🎄 Next I printed my vintage Santa to the size I needed.

🎄 I placed the Santa and my "surprise" piece to see where I would want my snowflakes.

🎄 The snowflakes are sparkly foam stickers I got from the "Dollar Tree" this year. I stuck them down.

🎄 I decided I wanted my Santa to stick out a little bit. So I used foam pieces that were sticky on both sides to attach my Santa to the page.

It surprised me a little that I didnt do more holiday art. What about you? Was this a crafty Christmas?

Gothic Arch ATC

This is for a group swap on swapbot. All cards are to made in the Gothic arch style of ATC. I took a simple approach to this card but I loved how it turned out and so therefore, wanted to share it with you.

Here's how I made her:

🌀 First off, I wasn't sure the exact dimensions of a Gothic arch and so had to guess a little. I hope I got it right.

🌀 I decided to use one of my bubble wrap methods for background technique.

🌀 I first painted the cut shape purple.

🌀 When that dried, I painted bubble wrap with another purple and let that dry too.

🌀 My last layer of bubble wrap paint was a purple glitter paint.

🌀 I had printed the image of the woman several weeks before because I liked it and knew I'd want to use it eventually. I thought it would go well with this card.

🌀 All that was left was placing the pieces; I glued the girl image first. Followed by the word love. Next came the rhinestone and flowers.

🌀 I decided to glue the sparkly blue string on before the German scrap so the scrap would cover the string.

🌀 All that was left was to outline thee word love.

I rarely save images for later but what about you? Do any of you mixed media artists out there hoard images to be used later?

Thankful ATC

Here is an ATC I did for swapbot. The rules of the swap were to include five things you are thankful for on your card. Choosing mine was easy.

Here is how I made it:

🌀 I cut an orange piece of card stock to atc size and ran it through my Sizzix embossing machine. I used a floral design.

🌀 Using a pink color, I gently ran a pigment ink pad across the raised parts of my card.

🌀 Next, I printed out the things I was thankful for. I used a text app on my iPad to get the font I wanted.

🌀 To make the glittery leaves, I started by punching out the leaf shape with little punches I have.

🌀 Then, I painted them with glue and sprinkled a different color of glitter on each of them and let them dry.

🌀 Just to make sure the glitter would stick, I painted them with sparkle podge.

🌀 I glued my words and leaves in place.

🌀 I added gold string around the edges.

🌀 Lastly, I outlined the words with glitter glue.

This one was fun to do because it made me think about what and who I'm thankful for. 

Art Nouveau Altered Book Page

I have a pretty bad tendency to overdo things. Why do or make 1, when you can do or make 5!

So when I got on my altered book kick, I prepared several books for altering.

I shared my "love" book with you in my last post. Today's book I have dedicated completely to art nouveau.

Here's how I made my first pages:

🌀 First of all, when you prepare a book for altering you rip out pages throughout the book to make room for the altering. I ripped out about a third.

🌀 Then you must glue several pages together to make them strong enough to withstand the art.

🌀 So after I did all that and had two sturdy pages, I glopped two shades of green on them and smushed it around.

🌀 When that dried, I used plastic mesh from the dollar store as a stencil using gold metallic paint.

🌀 Then I picked my images from online. I google searched "art nouveau seasons". I picked which set I liked best and printed and cut them out.

🌀 I thought it might be cool to add a layer of clear plastic over the images. I cut out plastic rectangles in the same shape from the packaging of some gel pens I recently purchased. 

🌀 I attached the plastic to my images using brads in the corners.

🌀 I then picked some silk flowers that I thought would match the colors

best and cut them in half.

🌀 I placed my images around where I wanted them and glued the flower halves accordingly.

🌀 When the flowers were dry, I glued my plastic covered images in place.

I realize you can't really see the plastic in the picture and in all honesty, it's hard to tell the plastics there when the pages are right in front of you too. I think perhaps if I had used a thicker plastic, I would have gotten a cooler effect.