Butterfly and Stars Journal Page

It may look like this page is upside down. And that's because it is! I had made it the other way around, but when I closed my journal, I realized i had made it upside down. Oh well. I don't think it looks bad this way. Now for how I made it:

🌀 The first thing I did was paint the butterfly on a separate piece of card stock using craft acrylics. I have been trying to do more of my own image painting.

🌀 While the butterfly was drying, I started my background.

🌀 I smeared a ton of gesso all over my page. Then, before it dries, I take a heat gun to it. It makes the gesso all bubbly and after you're done, it leaves you with a cool textured look.

🌀 I painted my page a couple different shades of yellow. 

🌀 Next, I glued on some black doilies.

🌀 I cut out my butterfly and glued it on also.

🌀 Then I glued on my fibers.

🌀 I was looking for something to do next to my page and I found those stars connected to each other by some floral wire. So I glued them on.

🌀 It still needed something. So I went to my chipboard drawer and found a wooden star.

🌀 I painted it pearlescent white and threw some gold and clear glitter to match the other stars.

So even though it's upside down, I like the way it turned out. Plus I got to use a found "thing" in my art (the stars).

Butterflies #1

I have a mini binder. It holds 3x5 note cards. I thought it would be fun to make it into a tiny art journal for ATC sized work. So when I did my butterfly ATC for a swap on swapbot. I made another piece using the same techniques for my mini journal.

🌀 For the background, I put gobs of paint on my cardstock in two colors. I covered the thick paint with Saran wrap. I smushed it around a little and let it dry.

🌀 The butterflies are some cool lacey stickers that I got at the dollar store. I attached them to my cards.

🌀 I punched out some small flowers using a punch and glued them in place.

🌀 I put a bead in the middle of each one.

🌀 Next, I painted the body of the butterfly and some of the wings with metallic paint.

🌀 When all that was dry, I ran the edge of my card against a clear stamp pad and then sprinkled metallic embossing powder over and embossed it with my heat gun.

🌀 After all that, I thought the flowers needed something. So I took a gel pen to all of them.

I like the way they both turned out and I'm happy I got to use those dollar store stickers. 

Unique, Crazy, Beautiful ATC

I made this ATC for an alphabet pocket letter swap on swapbot. What is a pocket letter? I had to ask the same question. This is my first pocket letter swap. Apparently you fill a nine pocket baseball card sleeve with goodies that start with the letter of the alphabet that you're working on. I chose an ATC for the letter "A". I'll tell you how I made it:

🌀 The base of the ATC is a piece of chipboard that I painted a dark blue.

🌀 In front of the chipboard is a background I made awhile back but I'll tell you how I made it;

    🔸 I painted a piece of card stock with gold metallic paint. 

    🔸 When it dried, I dabbed it with alcohol ink using a piece of felt. I followed the ink with             alcohol blending solution.

🌀 I cut the background in a rectangle and ripped two sides.

🌀 I glued it to my chipboard.

🌀 Then I gessoed a tag someone had mailed to me.

🌀 When it was dry, I painted the flowers on it.

🌀 I attached it to my card.

🌀 Then I glued the green ric ran into place.

🌀 for whatever reason, it took me awhile to choose which brad to use, but when I finally decided, I poked it through the card and attached it. 

🌀 To finish, I chose some words I liked, typed them and then printed them.

🌀 I cut them out and glued them in place.

🌀 Lastly, I went around the cut words with gel pen.

I am excited about my first pocket letter. I plan on putting ephemera and such things in the other pockets. Looking forward to what I receive as well.

Beautiful Bird Atc

This ATC was done for a "Beautiful Bird ATC" swap on swapbot. It did not turn out exactly how I wanted. I'll take you through the steps and tell you why:

🌀 First, I knew that I wanted to use a frame on myATC. So I picked out the sparkly white one I had. (Btw, does anyone know what sort of "thing" I need to cut chipboard into shapes?)

🌀 Next I picked my image and printed it out. I have an iPad and it makes it very easy to get the right size I need.

🌀 I made the background by dropping two different shades of red metallic paint on my card stock. I then took a brayer and rolled over the drops till the card was covered with the paint.

🌀 I glued the image and frame into place.

🌀 Here's where things got messed up. I had wanted use puffy paint with glitter added over it to my card. My original thought was for it to be white puffy paint. But when I went to apply it, I realized it had dried up. So I used clear puffy paint to make the lines in the corners.

🌀 I had really hoped that when I put my white glitter over the puffy paint, it would give me the look I wanted. But, I think my glitter may have been too fine. So it is, what it is. 

🌀 I thought about adding some rhinestones, but instead decided to add a little design with acrylic paints.

I still think puffy paint and glitter is a fun idea. Next time, I'll use a different color. 

Vintage Romantic Couple Rolo

I still have a few swaps to make up on swapbot from a year ago. This rolo is one of them. The theme was "vintage romantic couple". 

Here is how I put it together:

🌀 I usually make my back ground by painting cardstock and then folding and cutting it to the right size and shape.

🌀 For this background I sponge painted it.

🌀 I picked the image I did, because the people took on the correct shape I wanted when cut out.

🌀 After I glued them on, I still had a big space in the corner I needed to fill. I originally wanted to use some flower ephemera but I didn't have any the right size and shape and I did not want to print any out. So I decided to use the bird sticker.

🌀 Next I got out my embossing stamp pad and embossing powder. I gently stamped the whole thing, making sure some spaces didn't get stamped. Then I covered it with clear embossing powder. I heated it with my heat gun.

🌀 After it was cool, I ran my stamp pad around the edges and used a red embossing powder for that.

🌀 It still needed a little more, so I used a couple small mulberry flowers. The smaller one already had a heart sequin in the middle but I figured it went with the theme.

🌀 The image below shows you an item I bought awhile ago. It is sort of a rhinestone belt, attached by plastic. I wasn't sure how to describe it, so I'm showing it to you. I have been cutting off the little rhinestones individually and using them that way. I used two of them for the centers of my flowers. 

🌀 On the back of the card, I attached a sticker with my name and address, along with a few flower stickers that came with the bird sticker on the front.

🌀 I also embossed the back with clear powder as well as red along the edges. 

A couple of years ago, I bought two Rolodexes. Here is the one I am filling with other artists work:

I still have room for more! 

Autumn Inchies

I am so excited to be making inchies again! Two or three years ago I started a project using the inchies I received from other folks and I can't wait to continue it. I'll be sharing it with you soon.

These inchies are for a swap on Swapbot.com. The theme, as you can tell (I hope) is autumn. I'll give you a little run down on each one:

🌀 First off, I use box packaging as my base. My base for these inchies was a graham cracker box.
🌀 I used my 1 inch square punch to cut out the base and paper.
🌀 For each of these inchies I used some autumn scrapbook paper I had. 

🌀 I'll go over what embellishments I used for each one:

1~ I cut out a leaf shape that was on some scrapbook paper I had - Some yellow lace - Outlined with metallic gel pen.

2~ The tree comes from the same paper as #1 - tiny leaf punches painted with sparkle podge.

3~A sequin turkey - a rhinestone - I glittered the edge of the inchie.

4~A cut out flower from scrapbook paper - A flat back pearl in the middle - Dazzle borders.

5~ A pumpkin sticker - A plastic flower embellishment I bought on Amazon - Metallic string.

6~Leaf punches in 2 sizes - rhinestones - And underneath is a lace sticker I bought at the dollar store.

7~The dollar store lace sticker - A sunflower sticker - Rhinestone - German scrap border.

8~A pumpkin sticker painted with sparkle podge - Leaf punch - Rhinestone.

9~ Sparkling border from the dollar store - A two tiered flower sticker.

10~A sequin leaf - A sequin flower - a flat back pearl.

Cher ATC

A year ago, my family and I went through a series of horrific events. I am not going to get into it, but because of them, I was unable to send some art swaps that I owed through the website Swapbot.  Now, things in my life are finally starting to get back to the way they should. And with that being so, I can finally make good on my past swaps.

The above atc I owed from a Cher themed ATC swap. I have always really liked Cher. The movie "Mermaids" was a favorite of mine in high school. So I had a good time making this card. Here's how I did it:

⭐ For the background, I smeared my card with gesso. I let it harden just a touch (5 minutes or so) and then I made marks in the still wet gesso using a butter knife.

⭐ After it dried completely, I painted it black.

⭐ When the black was dry, I smeared gold metallic paint over it with my fingers. I wanted the gold to get in the nooks and crannies but still have a lot of the black show.

⭐ I searched google images until I found the right picture of Cher got my card. I wanted something a bit glamorous because I had the black sparkly star in mind to use for an embellishment.

⭐ After I printed, cut, and glued Cher onto my card, I grabbed the black sparkly star. I tried a couple different other embellishments to put on the star and ended up using a "dazzle" star sticker.

⭐ Since I had them out, I used another straight border "dazzle" sticker for the top of my card.

⭐ My final embellishment was some gold German scrap border that I put on the bottom.

⭐ My last touch was to put "sparkle podge" on Cher's dress. I like how it matches the star.

I hope my swap partner enjoys my card and forgives me for my lateness. 

Forest

I used the "Forest" prompt from Embrace Your Art 365 for my page. I like how it turned out. 

🌀 I decided to make my forest more of a "Dr. Suess" type forest. I started by painting my trees to my gessoed page. 

🌀 I cut strips of the patterned paper and ripped them into segments. I added them around my trees in places.

🌀 I smeared glass bead gel around the border where the patterned paper where there was no patterned paper.

🌀 After the gel dried, I painted it with pearlescent paint and then added some metallic gold with my finger.

🌀 I added purple metallic string around the inside border.

🌀 Lastly, I added the flowers in the corner using sequin leaves and a sequin center for the mulberry flower.