Art Journal: Summer Night Sky

In between everything that was happening last month, I made sure I spent some time in my art studio to help me lift the heavy stuff I was going through. This is an art journal page I created during that time and it definitely was a breath of fresh air and let me release some tension I was carrying.

I started off on a double spread in my art journal which already had some paint on and I glued on (with deco arts decoupage glue) a gelli print made on deli paper. It is made with a gorgeous star stencil from 101 stencils. After it was glued down I blended the edges in with finnabair blue metallic and highlighted it with spark paints.

Close up shot of the highlights.

Then I went to work on the main image, which is Hera from Carabelle Studio. I stamped her on tissue paper and adhered with Decoart Decoupage napkin glue. The glue also works as a sealant so I could work over the image with my paints. It was a labor of love using acrylics (I used distress paints) but with some help of technique tricks and tutorials on You Tube By Karen Cambell, I managed to get the color and sharing in the face and hair done. The bright yellow swirls in the hair is inspired by Van Gogh's Starry night. And I added more stars on the pages with the same stencil and a pale light blue paint for more contrast.

To finish off the page I added some white and gold paint splatters and the quote of Van Gogh :

"I dream my painting and then I paint my dream"

I absolutely loved making this page and was very cathartic to do.  And these past few days we have been having gorgeous summer like nights... may the be plentiful and hope you will enjoy them as well.

I would like to enter this art journal page in the following challenges: 

Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge - Lets Doodle 

Had fun doodling the swirly hair!

MMMC #47 - complimentary color scheme

Try it on Tuesday - nature's beauty 

I absolutely love the sky, day or night, it is one of nature's exquisite beauty

Creative Artiste MixedMedia Challenge #37 - Anything MM goes

More Mixed Media World - Anything MM goes - optional Yellow

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day.

Art Journal: Soular Eclipse

Today  am sharing an art journal page I had started during the Solar Eclipse in August and recently finished. This was a page that I had added random papers and imagery to that resulted into this finished journal page.

I used various gelli prints with stencils combined to the background collage to emulate a galaxy. Ecoline and Neocolor Crayons to pop some color off it, Moon stamp from VLVS!, text stamp from Stampotique, face stamp from Carabelle and written text with Wink of Luna pen and white gel pen.

Sharing this desk shot at my friends at WOYWW this week - glad to finally have the time to share again with Julia and the rest :)

And of course the complete journal page must be shown in full glory.

It says "we are spiritual beings on a human journey" a quote by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and is also a stamp by Stampotique Originals.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:

Art Journal Journey - October theme : Landscapes of the soul 

Beautiful theme by Elke!

Craft Stamper Take it make it Challenge for october 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Art Journal: Enlighten we are on a spiritual journey

Today I would like to show you an experiment in my art journal using heat embossing over modeling paste. I've used the enlighten stencil from Donna Downey Studio's as my focal point in combination with this amazing Journey Collage stamp from Stampotique Originals.

I started off by prepping an A5 page with black and gold gesso from The Crafter's Workshop. Then I took my pallet knife and scraped some light and fluffy modeling paste (also from TCW)  through the stencil. I let this dry really well.

To add some color I sprayed some Dylusions sprays in yellow and red over it and some perfect pearl glimmer mist too. It gives the gesso's background also a really beautiful shimmery shine.

Sadly I don't have a in between photo of the embossed parts, because I had to work quickly but patiently not to over heat anything. I first stamped Carabelle Studio effervescence stamp and the Journey Collage stamp by Stampotique Originals with versamark and interference violet  WOW embossing powder over it. I heat set everything with my heating tool in parts making sure things didn't bubble up.  Then I took the effervescence stamp and stamped with versamark again on the corners and embossed with Opaque white embossing powder. I did the same thing with the words "we are on a spiritual journey" to emphasize that sentiment. When everything was heat set I spayed more sunshine yellow dylusions spray on the bulb and added neocolor in back for outline and shading. The word enlighten is outlines with a black posca marker. It's a gorgeous shimmery page in real life and I just love this mindful art journal page. 

I would love to enter this art journal page in the following challenges: 

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #37 - A year of choices

Combining #32 and #36 of this past year's challenges

WOW Embossing June Challenge

Stampotique Designer's Challenge "Stencil It"

And my last entry for the Stamps and Stencils' Challenge Words with meaning

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

Mixed Media Mermaid (+ process video)

This piece I am sharing with you today, is a special one to me. And for some reason, it happens to be again with the Héra XXL stamp from Carabelle Studio. She helped me to release my inner mermaid while working on this piece. I've got a few more pics to share and the process video is below as well as a list of supplies and stamps I used.

She was made on an A5 piece of vintage paper which had saved from work. I have used many different materials to get her to GLOW the way she does.

So before I direct you to the process video, I did not record the beginning and the end fell off due to battery outage... I am still very new to making video's (this is only my 3rd) so I am learning new things, all the time, like make sure you actually press record and not pause, LOL! And keep your camera charger nearby! Well, I was doubting to actually show you the process video because it's incomplete but I can tell you what I didn't record is how I got the background color and her hair color. All is done with the Sennelier Aquarell pallet you see in the above picture. I just played around with the water colors until I was satisfied with how she looks. 

The video starts from this point on, I hope you will enjoy watching this :) 

In the end I wasn't totally satisfied with how the skin looked and wanted a more realistic look and skin tone. I used a mixture of distress crayons to give her that creamy soft look. Gave her left shoulder also more definition and over all more contour in the body. The crayons are really soft and easy to smooth out over different media and they worked like a charm over Sennelier watercolors. 

It's now framed and hung in the hallway next to this piece. They make quite the pair.

List of supplies:

Carabelle Studio; 

Background avec des taches

Une plume sur mon carnet 

Effervescence by Ana Bondu 

Tampon A6 : Doodl'Art by Zorrotte 

Héra XXL   

Others:

Sennelier watercolors

Memento ink pads 

Liquitex Inks

DecoART Traditions paint

Distress Crayons 

Washitape

I would like to enter this piece in the following challenges:

May 2017 Anything Goes Challenge

 

Mixed Media monthly #36 - put a stamp on it

Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge #26 - Anything Goes 

Anything goes with optional Pink

HLS Mixed Media may 2017 Splats

HLS Watercolour Challenge May 2017 Anything goes

Thanks so much for stopping by and have an awesome day!

Today, I believe in the power of me

 

Over at Mixed Media Monthly Challenge this month we have been challenged to discover our super power or convey a super power you wish you would have. I have thought about it and while I am a fan of all the super heroes comics and movies (my faves being X-men and fave character would be Phoenix), I decided not to portrait a Sci-Fi wish like telekinesis or being able to fly with my own wings (of which either would be cool!) but rather something very human and real but sometimes quite a challenge to obtain, so much so that when you have it, it's a super power on its own. I am talking about confidence which leads to having the power of believing in yourself. And I made a 7x7 cotton art panel to help me remind myself of this fact.

 

I started off my gluing down left over pieces I have on my desk and in junk boxes (or as Lynn aptly calls then 'TOVERS - which in Dutch actually means 'to make something appear out of nothing- magic' so I really love the words she uses for her super power ability and will borrow her word for this post :) And when the 'tovers are all glued down, I put in a light wash of gesso over it to prime it for the next stage and dull out the back ground tones.

I then placed the stencil from Clarity over it, seedling pods, got some Liquitex muted acrylics in violet and turquoise and dabbed that through it with a make up sponge. When I took the stencil off I traced the lines with a white posca marker to get sharper edges and stamped Hera from Carabelle studio on it for placement.

I had stamped Hera on marker paper and colored her in with Letraset Promarkers, cut her out and adhered her to the piece with soft matte gel medium. Hera was chosen because of the style she is made, a comic book line drawing, also to give an hommage to the comic book artists out there, like Brett Weldele :)

The process after that was fairly organic, I drew in more hair lines with posca black marker and a home made liquitex gold marker (I used a Dahler and Rowney empty mixed media pen and filled it with liquitex gold ink) and black and white splatter with post posca pens.

You can see how the gold strands of hair a lot better here. Now the whole piece comes together with the following stamp from Vivs las VegaStamps! and is the title of this post.

 

Today I believe in the power of me stamp is designed by cat Kerr. Such a beautiful and inspiring sentiment that is! I did something bold and directly stamped this sentiment on the neck/shoulder of Hera (instead of using other papers and placing over what I usually do) and it succeeded in looking like a tattoo! I colored it in with some alcohol markers and left it like that.

This is how the final piece looks after I edged it with a black marker. 

And now it hangs in our hallway where I can look upon this reminder every time I walk past it. 

Thanks for the inspiration MMMC!

I would also like to enter this in the following challenges:

STAMPlorations April Mixed Media Challenge

Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge 25 Anything Mixed media goes

Moo Mania - Faces Challenge

Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

MailART Monday: Every day, be true. Be you.

Slowly but surely I am working on that huge stack of postcards I showed you last a few weeks ago in WIP wednesday. This is the first card I finished from the pile and hopefully I can show you finished cards here on a weekly basis. This message that came about spontaneously has a special ring to my heart. Every day, be courageous and be true to yourself. I absolutely love how this turned out and I am hoping my partner for a swapbot swap whom I sent it to will appreciate it as well. 

About the materials I used: the moth is from Paper Artsy, the days stamps is from Carabelle studios, Be true sentiment is from VLVS! The rest I filled in with a Hema typewriter font alphabetbet stamp. Spatters are done with Liquitex and Daler and Rowney INKS and a Uniposca white paint marker.

By the way this is what it looked like cut from the masterboard

Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful day! 

The Here and Now

This mixed media card has a collage base with various scrap pieces from my large "junk box" filled with scrap papers. The dandelions are from Carabelle Studio's as well as the sentiment. The bird stamp is from Stamper's Anonymous.

Being in the here and now is what I always strive to do... but today well, this past week actually, I have been very much looking forward to this weekend! It's Art Specially 2017 convention and I am really looking forward to see some of CHA's products in real life, getting to know more techniques through workshops and just having a grand old time! If you're planning on going as well, I'll maybe see you there! 

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Try it on Tuesday for the Botanical Challenge
Craft Cardmakers - Spring into spring challenge
Create and makes - Anything goes opt. springtime 
Stamps and Stencils - Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep Birds

Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by!

MailART Monday: Just be happy!

On this week's mail art monday a colorful explosion with Brusho's and combining some awesome stamps from Visible Image. Something happy and bright in anticipation to springtime!

The envelope I worked on already had a dotted background made with this Carabelle Studio's Stencil and some light and fluffy modeling paste. I stamped the jumping woman from Tomorrow Doesn't Exist stamp set with Colorbox navy blue and embossed with clear embossing powder. I did the same thing with the Just be Happy sentiment, though I used two colors ink. The embossed parts and modeling paste will work as a resist with the brusho.

Working with Brusho's is always such a happy fun messy time :) I had sprinkled some Rose, Gambodge and olive Brusho's on the envelope and spritzed water all over it. Dabbed some color/water away from the embossed and stencilled aria's and just let it dry. I repeated this process until I was satisfied with the color splash on the envelope. When you do this make sure you let previous layers dry well, as not to get the colors too muddy. When dried the colors are permanent, so no need for an extra sealer. 

By the way I had placed a address label between Just be and Happy to get the right placing of the words. I added a fresh label when the envelope dried and put some some masking tape around it. I also stamped some great Visometry stamps on the edges (also with colorbox and then just heat set) for a happy and vibrant look. And the envelope is now ready to mail!

Entering this mail art envelope in the following challenges
The Three Muses - Mail Art
Everybody Art - Envelope
As you like it - what do you make other than cards 
Well mail art has been my fave thing to make and love it more so than making cards :) 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!