Another Bad Ass Art Journal page - Sisters

Hello crafty friends.

I'm popping in before the next line of thunderstorms hit, and knock out my

cable service again.

I'm very slowly working on my Bad Ass Art Journal classes.

I'm on week 6 now. Check it:

 I used Magenta Nuance powder dyes to water color my background. For the next layer I 

used white ink and a few stencils for a subtle pattern. (I'm not sure if it was that 

particular ink pad, or stenciling onto the first layer, but that ink took

3 DAYS to finally dry! Even hitting it many times with

my heat gun! Holy crow!)

You can see some of the patterns in the next couple of pics:

My people bodies were made using spray inks.

 (Don't do what I did and use water reactive sprays for this, as they are, well,

reactivated with any liquid. Or if you lean your hand on them whilst painting the heads.

Ask me how I know)

I painted the head and shoulders. In the class, these were left as is, but

I felt compelled to add hair to mine. Personal choice)

Stamped some grungy thatched marks, and went over them with the edge of an old credit card

and black paint where the stamp didn't touch the paper. Also stamped and fussy cut the flower.

Some scribbling and doodling, and it was all finished!

I did spray this (carefully) outside with a sealer, in the hopes

that it won't smear, if someone were to touch it. LOL!

Thanks for visiting!

I'd like to enter this at:

Craft Stamper Magazine - Take It Make It July Challenge - use stamps

STAMPlorations - never ending ATG

Supplies:

Golden Gesso;

Magenta Nuance powder dyes - Hot Pink, Orange, Bright Yellow; 

Colorbox/Susan K. Weckesser - Snow ink pad; 

STAMPlorations - Dragonfly Waltz, Delicate Lines, Dots All Over stencils; 

STAMPlorations - Mixed Media Grunge, Big Bloom Factory stamps; 

DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics - Titanium White, Carbon Black, English Red Oxide Antiquing Cream; 

Dylusions Spray Inks - London Blue, Vibrant Turquoise

Maya Road - Eggplant Purple spray ink;

DecoArt Americana Acrylics - Warm Beige, Dark Chocolate, Natural Buff;

General's - multi pastel pencils - Van Dyke Brown, Black;

Faber Castell - Sm black artist PITT pen;

Sakura - Gelly Roll pens - white & silver;

StazOn - Jet Black ink; VersaMark ink; Stampendous - black embossing powder; 

heat gun; baby wipes

DecoArt Americana sealer

SISTERHOOD OF SNARKY STAMPERS #87- A is for Arty

Hello snarky peeps. I'm back. Somewhat.

It's been over a month since I've blogged. We took our annual vacation to

the beach towards the end of May, and while we were driving down, one of my sisters

called to say that my Dad was being moved into hospice care.

I've mentioned this a few times before, but my Dad had Dementia. We knew

this was going to be happening, as his health really started taking a nose dive in March.

The day we left the beach, my sister called again to let us know that his health was

failing, and that he had stopped eating and drinking the Thursday before. On May 30th,

my Dad passed away peacefully in his sleep. The amazing staff at the

 VA hospital/Alzheimer's Unit in Manteno, Illinois has taken such good care of my Dad 

for the past year, and I'm so grateful for all they've done to make him feel safe and comfortable.

Needless to say, we flew home later that day, and I stayed for almost two weeks

with my Mom, for the memorial service, and just to make sure she was ok. 

As weird as this sounds, she did well, perhaps because she had already been living 

on her own for the past year. 

I know he's in a better place now, with his family and friends who've gone

before him, laughing and joking and dancing. I miss him so much.

And now that I've made you cry, I want to make you smile.

One of the things that I inherited from my Dad was his arty gene. He played drums

in a jazz trio at one point in his life. (I play air drums like nobody's business) He loved to dance. 

(I love to dance too. I'm no good at it, but I still dance. (wink)) He also liked to draw and doodle.

That more than anything keeps him close to my heart, since I'm an artsy fartsy gal.

And speaking of Arty, 

it's time for the next challenge at the SISTERHOOD OF SNARKY STAMPERS.

A is for ARTY

We want to see your mixed media creations!

I just started to come back to my craft room, from lack of mojo, and really

I just wasn't ready to come back to it. In early May, I started an art journal page

for week 5 of the One Badass Art Journal class I signed up for.

(yes, it's finished now, 19 weeks of arty goodness, but I'm slowly catching up)

This week's class was taught by Cristin Stevenson, and it was fun to finish this

page finally. The main tutorial was to use a transfer technique using a printed 

picture and matte medium to transfer it.

It was an epic failure for me. The lady above was not the image I tried

transferring. Luckily, I had foresight to print out a backup image, you know,

in case it didn't work, which it didn't for me.

first layers: gesso; stencils spritzed using black and turquoise sprays; torn up library

card applied with matte medium. The library cards are a gift from Mimi!

(Check me out. I actually used one! LOL!)

This was the image I tried to transfer. 

And this is how it turned out. Epic failure.

At this point I covered it up with gesso, dried, and glued the other image to my

page using matte medium.

This was as far as I got before I came back to it last week.

added paint and moon phases, using a toilet paper tube to trace the circles!

Ta-dah!

used a chevron stamp and bubble wrap for the next layer

found a cool quote to use and wrote it on

added some doodling around the moon phases and it was done!

So now it's your turn to get inky/messy/painty and have fun! We'd love to see what you

come up with. Just add your project at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers so we

can admire it! Need more ideas? Then do yourself a favor and check out what my Sisters and

our Guest Designer, Toni Maddox, have created for your viewing pleasure. 

You won't be disappointed!

This page is dedicated to my Dad. 

I love you to the moon and back,

to infinity and beyond, 

for ever and ever.

My Bad Ass Art Journal - a WIP

Hello crafty peeps!

I want to share the beginnings of my Bad Ass Art Journal that I made from scratch,

as part of the online class I'm taking.

That's right, I made my own art journal!

Book binding and all!

Who knew!

I'm not going into detail, but here's a few shots of my art journal:

The book was made from Strathmore Mixed Media paper 90 lb with the vellum overlay. (It's what I already had on hand.) I have some 140 lb water color paper that I will try using for my next book. Oh, and that cord? It's dental floss!

My cover is made from canvas that I ripped to size, to purposely have the frayed edges. I used Magenta Nuance dye powders to color the fabric. Once it was dry, I stenciled over it with Titanium White acrylic paint. My neighbor had an eyelet setter (luckily) so I was able to use one to make my closure. (colored hemp cord with beads I added on the end)

That was lesson one.

For lesson two, we got to create something in our journal-

our dream girl:

I can't begin to tell you how much fun this was to create! My picture taking

skills are so lacking. The vibrancy of this page is incredible.

Oh, and her hair? It's a couple paper napkins that I've torn into strands.

So. Freakin. Cool.

I'm looking forward to the next lesson, but will probably fall behind the next few weeks. I've been commissioned to make bridal shower invites for one of my nieces, and I just received final approval on my sample to go ahead and start them. It will take a little time to make them, so my art journal will have to wait until I'm done with the invites.  

Thanks for popping by. Have a wonderful day!