Mail Art Monday: You're awesome! - VLVS!

Hey you all, it's my turn at the VLVS! blog today and I'm sharing a tutorial for this mail art envelope I have made, based on out inspiration challenge photo. We want to inspire you with fall colors and themes this month. So hop on over to my blog post, to see the steps on how to make this cute foxy envelope for your snail mail friends :) 

Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Her Sparkly Star Shaped Self - VLVS!

Hi all, it's my turn over at the VLVS! blog and I made a little something for you to inspire you for our August Challenge. I have made an index sized art card inspired by the colors and imagery from our mood board below

Isn't it gorgeous and don't you just long for a summer sunset at the beach? 

It has inspired me to make the following

I am just absolutely in love with that Fancy Mermaid, the large moon and all the mixed media journaling stamps from the latest release. I've mixed a few oldies too, like the sentiment which is is a part of Tired of trying to cram stamp, which I LOVE! A full list of stamps and materials used is (including a time to stamp process video!!) is to be seen at the VLVS! blog post.

Hope this will inspire you to play along with out monthly challenge where you could win some great quality rubber stamps!

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

Wish You were Here - VLVS! July challenge Inspiration

Hi everyone! I have a post over at Viva Las VegaStamps! blog as a bit of inspiration for our July challenge. I have made the above ICAD (index card a day is a challenge that runs every summer in June and July) and while I am not participating this year, our challenge inspiration prompt is summer and the ICAD is always a summer activity so I thought it would be fitting to make one :) 

I have also filmed the process, so be sure to check out that video as well to see how I created this piece. 

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

ATC: Be True

 

This is an ATC I made inspired by one of the many wonderful and inspiring process video's Jenn Engle has on her You Tube. In this video she uses letter stickers on her art journal background for extra texture and serendipitous design. I loved the idea so much I created an ATC using some number letters stickers of which I have so many and almost never use!

I've used one of my fave butterfly stencils and next to it I added the numbers in a cascading flow over the stencil design. Then gessoed the piece with white gesso and then around the edges with black gesso. In the white parts I dripped some Roher and Klinger calligraphy ink in Alt Goldgrün and Cyan Blau. The calligraphy ink is thicker and has a shellac base so it clung to the gesso pretty well. I did spritz some water over it to get it to dilute and flow better over the raised edges. The sentiment Bue True (from VLVS!) was well as the butterfly was stamped on a left over piece of water color paper, and before I adhered it with pop up dots I spattered some white and magenta ink over the card. I added some threads in the same colors around the popped up aria's, edged the card with white ink and matted it onto black card stock. 

I really loved using the stickers this way and with definitely use this technique again :) Thanks again for the inspiration Jenn :)

I am entering this in the following challenges:
Stamps and stencils fabric and fibers
Stamping sensations May Butterflies, fairies and fantasy

STAMPlorations Mixed Media Challenge May 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

Art Journal: Inhale the future

Last week I shared some really great news with you all and today is my first post over at the VLVS! DT inspiration blog, yay! I created a mindful journal page to ring in the new year with warmth, a hopeful message and a resolution of some sort. 

Feed your Soul. 

Inhale the future, exhale the past. 

Enlighten! 

Do all things with LOVE. 

This page was created during the first couple of days of the new year and the process was really meditative. The steps of the process you can see below and I used stamps from VLVS! plate 1475 which has wonderful stamps to incorporate in mindful, meditative art journal pages. 

I trimmed the page to fit in my new spiral bound journal with black pages. I often do very colorful work so I like the fact that the journal automatically matted the adhered page.

For a detailed descriptive process/tutorial and more pictures, please visit my post at the VLVS!DT inspiration blog. 

The materials used:Stamps from Viva Las Vega Stamps!Feed your soul 

Inhale the future 

Do All Things with LOVE 

Yoga Lotus position Silhouette 

Double Tree pose Silhouette 

Lotus Petal Design Silhouette 

Small lightbulb

Stencils:

Crealies sunburst straight 

Crafter's workshop Balzer Zia Sun mask 

Donna Downey Enlighten

Inks/spray/paint:
Distress inks: squeezed lemonade, mustard seed, spiced marmelade, fired brick

Memento tuxedo black

Stazon: jet black, black cherry, rusty brown, timber brown, mustard yellow

Ranger perfect pearl spray Kiwi, dina wakely mica sprays, dylusions lemon zest

Faber castell Pitt markers
Spectrum Noir Red Sparkle brush pen
Perfect Pearl metallic Rub on paste in gold and red

Mediums/glue:

Crafter's workshop Gold Gesso

Crafter's workshop fluffy modeling paste

Miracle tape

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

Mini Art Journal - A new way of seeing things

This is an ATC I made a while ago when I wanted to test the drop/tear stamp from Designs by Ryn (from water effects sheet) in combination with an eye stamp (by stampabilities). The other stamps are from Tim Holtz Grunge rays and the travel quote stamp from Technique Tuesday. I thought it made a striking card esp. with the bold colors and the rays coming from the eye. I was super pleased with the outcome, even if it was a first try. So I set it aside on my desk and moved on to other things and then the most annoying thing happened... When I wanted to write down the materials I used for this card and I couldn't find it anymore! I went through my desk and papers over a bunch of different times and could not find it anywhere! What a bummer!! But thankfully I still have the picture of it. Then I thought, wouldn't it be great to have a journal where I could test out my ATC format idea's on without risk of loosing them again? And so, the mini Art Journal was born!

I have this moleskine sized journal with sturdy watercolor pages in them which I thought would be great for this project. It's bigger than the ATC format of course, but still small enough for projects on that scale. I stamped the eye and drops first with memento Black and made a mask for them. Stamped the Tim holz Grunge rays with Staz on Black Cherry and the checked stamp with Staz-on Saddle Brown. The background color is Distress stains Wild Honey, diluted with water and adhered with a brush, creating a gradient from top to bottom.

Then I took off the mask to work on the eye & drops. As you can see I placed all the drops closer to the eye. It already has a striking result like this due to the bold background! As you can see the mask was not cut tightly around the image (I wanted to avoid bleed through in the image by color seeping in though the sides) but you can easily fix that. I used Tombow light ocher and a water brush to blend the colors in. And then I I got some more Tombow dual brush pens to color and accentuate the eye and drops.

And this is the end result. I added more lashes and gave it a bit of 'smudged eyeliner" look. I had found a left over piece of water colored paper and stamped the quote on it with Staz-on Pumpkin. I just love these drop stamps from Designs by Ryn! They are so realistic and very easy to place. Not sure how I feel about starting yet another ART journal though, but I like that I have a place to collect my small scale ideas in.

Hopefully at some point I'll find the original ATC again... Or I'll just make others, now that I have the visual ideas in the journal ;) 

Have you ever lost something you created? 

I think it means that I need to do a bit of spring cleaning on my desk, haha!

Also with this post I am entering the fortnight challenge at De Stempelwinkel's challenge blog for challenge 8 'Sunshine Yellow' - wish me luck :) 

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a creative weekend.

namasté 

Art Journal - Today is a gift

Recently we went to see Kung Fu Panda 3 in the cinema. I totally loved it. The movie was full with inspirational quotes, zen and mindfulness related ones that I would love to use in my projects. This quote is from one of the movies 

"Yesterday is history,
tomorrow is a mystery,
today is a gift,
that's why they call it present"
- master Oogway.

With yesterday being  Liberation Day, it is definitely a fitting quote!
 I wrote it down with a Swan fountain pen and AM turquoise Calligraphy ink on a background I had previously made. The background is a color wash with Distress Stains and glimmer mist sprays. Stamped over with Viva Las Vegas nibs and dip pen stamp. Also used impression Obsession Fountain Calligraphy pen rubber stamps. I stamped Lost Coast Designs Loopy Calligraphy background stamp with versamark on the edges and embossed with WOW violet interference. It has a nice shimmer to it!

I took a page in my art journal and decorated the edges as my Tip-in piece is smaller than the journal pages. I used Distress Stains, diluted with water and adhered with a brush on the page. Dried with heat tool and stamped with Brilliance ink, staz on and distress ink with stamps from Designs by Rynn (textures) and Katzetkraft (rounds). When I was satisfied with the look of it I adhered the qoute page on it.

This is the finished page in my art journal with a detail shot of the embossed parts. In the end I added some shadow to the lettering with a black fine liner. I love how the colors pop in the middle with the dark frame around it. 

A good reminder to treat today as a gift and enjoy the present :)

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

namasté 

Craftorij Zomer Challenge 2015

Today starts the summer challenge organized by the Craftorij Shop keepers/members. The challenge is explained in Dutch on the website, but everyone is free to join in. The idea of the challenge is to make something everyday for the months of June and July (=61 days) on correspondence type cards inspired by a prompt given by the challenge hosts. Style and material choice is completely free, the only 'rule' is that it has to be 10x15 cm in size. I have a pack of HP 100 photo cards I bought at the kruidvat for 99cents at one point which would be perfect for this. I have already started to 'warm up' to the feel of creating something every day and made the above inspiration card a little while ago. It's a mixed media collage with 'found' papers, flyers and stationery. 

The art Nouveau lady stamp is Profile with stars by Lost Coast Designs and alphabet stamps are from Image Tree Stamps - Antique Typewriter Lowercase Font which is one of my faves to use.

The text in Dutch 'Elke Dag Inspiratie' means "Every Day Inspiration" which is what I am hoping for with this challenge. Not sure if I can actually make one every day, but am sure going to give it a try ;) 

If you want to join in the fun, here's the facebook group page where the prompts (in Dutch only) are being given out. But you can use google translate very easily to figure out the prompts in a language you can understand :)

Thanks for stopping by!

namaste

Lost Coast Designs Monthly Challenge - Use Some Red

Some fun news to share with you all. Last month I got contacted by Linda from Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Varanda, if I wanted to join the Design Team. Even though I am busy as can be with working 2 jobs, I could not refuse this wonderful opportunity to use and get inspired by rubber stamps all over again. So I am proud to announce I am part of the LCD Design Team in company of some great artists :) 

In lieu of this I wanted to share an ATC piece I made a while ago, using the dress form stamps and measuring tape ATC back ground stamp. 

Which also complies with this month's team challenge Use Some Red :)

My work process for this piece: 

I get inspired from images and stuff I collect that sits on my messy desk for a while. Like the pink vintage dress maker print you see on the back, is from an envelope I saved. It's made with ranger stuff mostly, distress ink, embossing powder, perfect pearls. collage papers are from basic grey I think, epoxy buttons sticker I got locally (non brand from blokker).

First I made the back ground, with collage papers, then stamped with red brick distress ink the measurement tape stamp around the sides, without using too much ink. The the Dressmaker stamp with versamark on front, red brick embossing powder and heat tool to set. Then stamped with versamark ink again but on the upper right side & lightly added perfect pearl red rust to give it dimension, The measurement tape on top is made from kraft paper which I distressed and sprayed glimmer mist over in mostly green colors. Then I stamped it with a measurement stamp (with red staz on), cut the desired length and twirled it on the card until it looked satisfying then glued it in place. Then added the epoxy buttons to finish.

I hope this got you inspired to get crafting and Use Some Red for this Month's LCD Challenge :)