Lost Art Creations

A2Z3 Art Journal RR ~ Diane H

This month I had Diane H's book to work in. Her theme is Celestial/Angels. For her pages I tried a new technique and revisited an old technique using a new product. I used Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Inks to create the backgrounds for the first spread: It's called a Galaxy Background and it's from Jennifer McGuire. She has a video on her YouTube on how to do it.

The moons & stars are die cut from Grungebord using a Bigz die from Sizzix/Tim Holtz. I painted them then coated them. The stars with Glossy Accents. The moons with Tim's Crazing Medium.  The quote base is also die cut and painted to look like enameling. After stamping the quote I applied 3 layers of UTEE, but found that it was cracking so I coated that with Glossy Accents as well so none of the 'bits' would fall off. I added a few more tiny silver star stickers to the pages all around the bigger stars to (hopefully) give some depth.

For the second spread I used German scrap that I bought in Barcelona Spain last year. As soon as I knew Diane's theme I put them aside to use in her book! For the background I collaged vintage foreign text with Matte Medium. The images are stamped on Tim Holtz's new collage paper using archival inks. The problem in the past with this technique is finding tissue paper thin enough so it won't create a 'ghost edge'. This paper worked BEAUTIFULLY! No ghosting here!  I finished the spread with gold German Dresden trims.

The stamps are from Red Lead Paperworks, Impression Obsession and the church I'm not sure who it's by but it reminded me of Notre Dame in Paris. Oh! And I did rub some metallic Distress Crayons around a bit so the background wouldn't be so Beige!

That's it for this month. The next book I get to work in is Diane S's and her theme is Trees! Hmmmmm.....

 

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A2Z3 Art Journal Round Robin ~ Anne's Book

This month I got to work in Anne's book, who's theme is Houses. I love this theme and couldn't wait to get started. So I worked in it almost as soon as I got it! I have had these laser cut thin Basswood windows and doors from Navel Jelly (unfortunately they are not in biz anymore, but boy they had some cool & different stuff!) that I had been dying to use as I knew they would be PERFECT!

For the first spread I used a piece of vintage ledger paper I had inked and stamped for the background on the left and Tim Holtz woodgrain cardstock on the right. I layered different paints over the surface of the woodgrain cardstock to bring out the grain. I wanted it to look like an exterior wall. I painted the laser cut window with matte acrylic paint in a navy blue. I had a pediment die left over from a previous project which I painted & inked, then flipped it upside down to create a window box for the window.

To create all the tiny flowers (an Impression Obsession die) I first colored small pieces of manila cardstock with distress stains and mica sprays BEFORE putting them through the Vagabond. MUCH easier than coloring them after die-cutting them! The window is in two parts, a front and a back. Because it's basswood I wanted to give it a bit more support so in between I placed a piece of thick plastic (packaging from a Bigz die). I attached the pediment/windowbox with foam tape, then went to town gluing the flowers in place.

For the very first page with the altered ledger paper I stenciled the branch/birds/ birdcage with distress inks. The black diamonds, eggs and tree were already on the paper when I pulled it from my stash. I cut the house from scrap pieces of cardstock and the prepared woodgrain cardstock, using Mini Mover & Shaper dies to die cut the door and windows. Finished it with a tiny brad for the doorknob and the quote: "Live simply...Give generously".

For the next spread I over-stamped a subtly patterned scrapbook paper with a damask design (B-Line Designs) in a soft grey ink for the wallpaper background and used more patterned cardstock for the black and white floor. The left side is pretty simple and clean. I just used another leftover diecut from another project - the vellum doily at the top that I lightly inked, plus a bit of black Dresden trim.

The right side I wanted to create a vintage parlor look. Using stamps from Darcie I stamped and embossed the table, chair, clock and vase of flowers, which I then used distress markers to watercolor/paint the pieces after I had fussy-cut them out. Of course I had to include things I love in my parlor; my two kitties and flowers/my love of gardening. The page is finished with a fancy chandelier that I stamped and heat embossed with a detail black EP and another quote: "It's always the small pieces that make the big picture."

Lastly, Anne wanted us to do a sign-in tag and to include photos of our home or studio and things in it that have special meaning.

As you can see I love my kitties, studio, cooking and art. I just moved to a new place last July so I'm having a blast decorating it with things I love, creating art and cooking! The stamps I used on the tag are also from Tim Holtz and the inks are more distress and archival. The front of the tag is a series of pockets to hold pics of things that I love.

That's it for now. I sure hope Anne likes her pages!

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A2z3 Art Journal Round Robin ~ Wendy's Book

I hope you all had a wonderful & magical holiday season! It was a bit different for me this year, but still wonderful having spent 3 days up at my brothers in Marblehead MA, experiencing a snowy 3 days with family.  All I can say is thank God for Winter tires because Salem Ma apparently doesn't plow their streets!

In sticking with the Winter theme I got to work in Wendy's book this month. Her theme is Birds with an Inspirational Quote.

Here are the two spreads:

All pages started out with the same watercolored paper. I used a combination of traditional watercolor and dry watercolor pigments. The first spread I applied silver stencil paste through a stencil (Tim Holtz), sprinkled it with a sparkly embossing powder then let it dry before heating it to melt the powder. The second spread is more traditional using Distress Inks and I finished off that background with a spritz of Mica Mist.

For the 'snow' I used collage medium on torn watercolor paper and covered it with Clear Rock Candy Distress Glitter. I love this glitter because it's especially sparkly due to the glitter bits being different sizes.

For the deer, birds and trees I colored Manila card stock with various Distress Spray Inks and Perfect Pearls Mist, THEN diecut all the pieces. SO much easier!

For the second spread I used a variety of snowflake die cuts (coated with embossing powder - White Diamonds by Judikins I believe) and silver German Dresden elements and borders. I just knocked down the shine and brought up the details with black paint applied like a stain. Apply. Wait a minute. Then carefully wipe away most of the paint.

I finished up the pages with brads, pearl and rhinestone snowflake stickers. That's it for now! Can't wait to see who's book I work in next!

 

 

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A2z3 Art Journal Round Robin ~ Linda's Book

This month I had Linda's book. Her theme is Children's Fairy-tales. Something she can share with her grandchildren who are young. She also required that we use paper from the paper stack she included because it has special meaning to her. Because it has special meaning I copuldn't really alter it or cover it up because she wants to be able to see it. The fairy-tale could be existing or write your own. Since I'm not much of a writer I searched for a lesser known tale to tell. I found a fairy-tale from the early 1700's written by a famous (for the time) French author who also happened to be a woman. It is the tale of Starlight a slave girl and a prince who was so besotted with her that he defied his parents to be with her and their fantastical journey to happiness.

Now from some close-ups and detail pics:

On the last page of my spreads I attached a tiny book that has the story of Starlight enclosed within it.

That's it for now! Wendy's book is next and it's all about Birds! Can't wait - I have SO many ideas!

See ya!

T

I'm Back!

Wow! I haven't posted since mid-May. SO much has happened since then! From my trip to France and Spain in May/June, selling my house, buying my condo and moving in July. Decorating and setting up my new place - which I absolutely LOVE! In between I have barely had time to work on Art swaps and round robins, never mind just create for the fun of it - but that's OK! I'm getting back in the groove. What better time to start that than now, since it's too dark to do anything outside after work, I can start playing inside instead. Eventually I'll put together my travel journal from my trip. It's a good thing I took notes! It's gonna be at least 6 months after I'm back before I can work on it. That will be a series of posts later - WAY to much to do all in one post. It was a two week trip of a lifetime with my mom and two cousins, starting in Paris and concluding in Barcelona. Stay tuned!

I thought I would share my two most recent art projects; a tiny house swap and an art journal round robin - both local groups.

For the tiny house swap we used the Sizzix/ Tim Holtz Tiny House die which has two different sized houses. It was a 5 for 5 swap but i went a teensy bit crazy and made 12! You'll be seeing more of these all next year as everyone had so much fun creating them that they decided they want to do tiny houses for all the swaps in 2018. These are all Christmas/Winter themed. I made 6 of each size using the kit for all of the images, some of the embellishments and raided my stash for the rest. The next set for the January swap will be strictly Winter.

 

Now for some close-up pics:








Next up are images from my pages for my book. This is an art journal round robin. Every player has a theme for their book, plus any requirements. My theme is Holidays and Seasons. Each player picks a holiday and/or season for the time frame they have my book. For instance I prepared my book and created my pages in September & October so I went with a Fall/Halloween theme. Lots of Tim Holtz dies and stamps here! I got the new woodcut owl die for this project. LOVE this die! It's SO incredibly detailed! I cut out 3 of them, stacked them so it was nice and thick then coated it with my own custom heat embossing powder mix. Love how it came out!

Well that's it for now! I'll upload the next set of pages on Tuesday. I got to work in Linda's book which was quite a challenge because of what I felt I couldn't do. I'll explain on Tuesday.

See ya!

T

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A2Z2 Mixed Media Group RR ~ Diane H Pages

I've managed to complete my pages for Diane H's book, which are due Tuesday. Talk about down to the wire! But I have a great excuse - really! My house is under contract. Woohoo! The past month has been a flurry of showings and open houses, until, finally, a buyer! So then it became all about appraisals, inspections, applying for my own mortgage because, oh yeah, I had to also go and find a place to live. Found a great condo that checked all my boxes and God willing I will close and move on the 13th of June. The amount of paperwork just to apply for the loan is staggering! I can't imagine how big the pile will be for the actual closing!

Anyway - back to art!

This month I got Diane H's book to work in. Her theme is Native American Plains tribes. Until I found a beautiful piece of golden leather in my stash and a new stencil from Gwen LeFleur I had no idea what I was going to do. I also love the paintings of Susan Seddon Boulet and featured a couple in my spreads. She specialized in painting mythological figures from all cultures, but especially Native American. I was going to do some bead-work on the leather until I discovered I would have to pre-punch the holes for my needle to pass through. Eek! So I just decided to stick with the whip stitched edge with artificial sinew and skip the beading.

For the definition pages for each god I transferred the script onto handmade paper using gel medium and stenciled a design with paint onto Lokta paper. The images are from an all-over new stencil by Gwen LaFleur. It is supposed to be an Art Deco design but I thought elements had a Native American vibe so I used it to create the borders.

And last but not least my sign in tag:

A2Z2 Mixed Media Group RR ~ Diane S Pages

This round I had Diane S's book to work in. Her theme was relatively general: The 1800's. She loves the Primitive style so I tried to work with that. Not really in my comfort zone but that's a big reason why I love doing swaps and round robins, to stretch me creatively. It keeps things interesting & fresh. You know what I mean? My whole life I have had a deep abiding love of textiles - especially antique textiles. So I decided to combine her love of the primitive and my love of textiles.

I dug deep through my (embarrassingly large) stash of antique laces and trims and found several from the 1800's - all handmade - including the eyelet ruffle! The one element that is not antique is the ribbon trim which I stained using Tattered Rose, Scattered Straw & Victorian Velvet Distress Spray Stains from Tim Holtz.  For the background I painted either canvas or watercolor paper with matte black craft paint. I wanted the laces and 'paintings' to be the stars of the spreads. Black pages really highlight the patterns of the laces.

For the 'paintings' I did image transfers onto watercolor paper (above) and a thin birch panel (below). To give them an old world appearance I coated them with Tim Holtz's Crazing Medium - a much finer crackling pattern that Crackle Medium. To bring out the patterns I rubbed distress crayons over the crazing then lightly wiped away the excess with a slightly damp cloth. The 'painting' above is framed with metal trims from the mid-late 1800's. These are super special to me (and highly prized) because they are rare and made from real metal filaments and silk. The patina and depth these trims have just can't be found in modern trims.

For the second spread I made a lace pocket to hold the birch panel 'painting'. I also decided to do a little rubber stamping with paint and some Toile stamps from Stamp Camp (now Technique Junkies). The black was just TOO plain for my liking. For the other page I made a little Log Cabin style quilt using reproduction fabrics of the period and appliqued a little wool felt heart in the center. This was a nod to the 'Soldier Quilts' during the Civil War which was how so many women (from both sides) did their part for the war effort. Very few of these quilts exist today because they were well used and then re-purposed when they could no longer serve as quilts.

Here are a few more detail pics of my pages:

That's it for now! Can't wait to see who's book I get next!

Happy Creating!  T

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The Roaring 20's AB Pages

This is my first set of pages for the new (to me) art group I recently joined. We are working in each others altered book and we each have our own theme which we outline in a 'Brief', talking about our theme, providing research sources, inspiration and a few rules for our book (ie thickness of pages, imagery that can and can't be used - like nudity). I made these pages for Linda N and her theme is The Roaring 20's in America.

It's funny how things work out. Initially I was going to do a roaring 20's Valentines Day theme, but then I found clip-art of the 'Ideal 1920's Female; hair, make-up and body image'. As an ex-Beauty Advisor & Business Manager for Estee Lauder I couldn't resist just going with it!

Two of the pages are painted with a mixture of fluid acrylics, glazing medium and Ken Oliver Liquid Metals. I stenciled (using all Gwen LaFleur/Stencil Girl stencils) the designs with regular body metallic acrylic paint. The other two pages are Lokta paper that has an allover stitched design. I stenciled those pages as well using left over paint from the other two pages and more metallic acrylic. I also fashioned a mini Concertina book to attach to one of the pages using the same paint and stencils. Then I just went to town collaging on the pages with images, washi tape, brads, etc.

Another thing the group does is we teach each other how to do different techniques and structures that we can (if we choose) use in our work. At the January meeting we learned how to do a lattice page. It looks SO easy. It's SO NOT easy! I goofed up the one at the meeting but managed to do it correctly for one of Linda's pages. For the lattice I used heavily embossed paper with a metallic print and some pretty brads.

I had so much fun working in Linda's book! I can't wait to see who's book I get to work in next! And I can't wait to see what Deborah does for my book! The theme for my book is The Lost Generation in Post WWI Paris. Essentially a roaring 20's in Paris theme with a literary & artistic twist!

That's all for now!

Happy Creating!

T

 

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