Mail Art Monday: Snow in July

Over at Stampotique this fortnight we have a challenge for you to use your tape. I often use it to put it under an image to "ground" them on the page. I have done that with this postcard as well. I've used Cloy from the July new releases combined with this wonderful quote from  Mark Twain. Cloy is such a fun and interesting image! The background is a typewritten book page which I swiped through distress stains and after it dried I spattered some white and gold liquitex paints over it. It looks like its snowing on a warm july day... but cloy seems to be cold none the less ;) Don't forget to link up your project if you make something to fit the theme :) 

I'll be back later this week for more tape inspiration! 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

You stand in your own light, make it shine

Yesterday I took out some my new supplies from my Art Specially haul this year and made the above card. I used my Lindy's magical shaker's on the text background (vintage typewriter text), Tim Holtz Alterations dies, Patio Lights and Alice from Stampotique Originals. I also used some fabulous caran d'ache Neopastels which I got at La Couronne du Comte and I absolutely LOVE working with them on my projects!

They are so bright and colorful to work with! I used the die from the TH mixed media set on heavy 200gms card stock, applied a good amount of white gesso and when that was dry, I rubbed all the oil pastels over the edges of the design. The colors really pop! The images were stamped on neenah classic white cardstock and colored with Letraset promarkers. I fussy cut them out and adhered with ZIG 2way glue pen. I applied a heavy amount of yellow pastel's around the lights so it looked like they shines brightly. Then outlined the sires and bulbs with a black uni posca marker. on the inside, I added a quote;

It's a quote I got in a fortune cookies once and it's been in my wallet ever since. A reminder to let your light shine brightly! The lettering is done with tombow markers and outlined with faber castell pitt marker.

Wanted to show you how the card looks on a white background, but the lights really shine on the black background in the first picture above :)  The Stampotique text background challenge is still on until tomorrow, so do link up your projects :)

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

Try it on Tuesday - use a quote 

Craft Stamper's Take it Make it Challenge April

Love to create - #7 anything mixed media goes

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - What's your super power?

With this post I hope to convey my power to use and blend color in various mediums and have it POP! 

Thanks for stopping by and hope you'll come by tomorrow to see what I've made for the new challenge theme for Stampotique which goes live then :)

Have an awesome day!

Art Journal: the Frida Blues

Last weekend I found some time to play around with my Lost Coast Designs stamps again and created this page in my pocket art journal. I feel like I really need some bright bursts of colors in my journals/life right now because it's so cold and winter is in full swing now (and to counterpart my SAD blues). For the background I used Brusho Ultramarine on watercolor paper. The effects are always mesmerizing and fun. I stamped the Frida Image directly onto the paper and colored her in with tombow markers. Chose the diamonds, circles and circle border stamps for the background. Lastly I added bright yellow tombow markers to contrast in color to the blue brusho. I stamped the circles with Memento Ladybug red and adhered it to my pocket journal. Added strips of color coordinated washi tape to the top and bottom and called it done.

This page is so different than the one I did before and I love how you can use the same stamps and yet create such a different style with them :)

Stamps used from Lost Coast Designs: 

Little Diamonds background 

Circle frame large  

Bubbles border
Frida 3 

Others: 

Maruman Zuan Watercolor paper 

Brusho Ultramarine 

Memento inks Ladybug, mango, danube blue

Stazon midnight blue

Various colors Tombow markers

Washi tape

The " #32 Anything Goes challenge"at Loast Coast Portal ofCcreativity, is still running until the 25th, so why not take a stab at it :) I am entering this one as well (you can enter multiple projects!). It's not even required to use LCD or CV stamps but would be fun if you do!

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

When life gives you lemons...

I made this notecard a while back and sent it to someone recently. The lemon was made with a stencil, india ink and ecoline, while the word was written with a versa marker and then embossed. Things have been a bit tough lately, but I'm trying to put all things in perspective. There is a lot to be thankful for and when things aren't going the way you'd hoped or expect, I'm trying to remember the following

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by!

namasté

Mini Art Journal: Kiss

Last week I showed you some work in progress pieces of my experimentation's with The Crafter's Workshop Gold Gesso and I've taken the Klimt image to work on for an Art journal spread.

The Gold Gesso was a base on the Klimt print on which I have applied some metallic rub-ons with my fingers. The gesso provides a smooth surface on which the metallic paste just glides over. I have used some purple, green and red colors. The gold outline of the rectangles are still clearly visible and that gives it a fun effect. The Open Rose is a rubberstamp from Carmen's Veranda, which I stamped with memento black on sticker paper, colored with Letraset Pro markers and cut out.

I cut the page to size and glued it to my art journal and added the rose to it. Then got some vellum and stamped some lyrics from a Prince song this image reminded me of; "All I want is your extra time and your.....KISS"
(eta: yeah I know it's "I just" instead of "all I" but I glued it in before I realized the mistake... oh well, it's all part of the process ;)

I stamped the hand carved heart stamp a few times for the fun of it and cut and outlined the lyrics and this is what the finished spread looks like :) It's something fun and different and I definitely liked how the rub-ons work on gold gesso. Definitely going to experiment with that more. Also Carmen's Veranda has a this Klimt Kiss as a stamp and see what I made with that over here. 

And to ring in the weekend fun, let's all sing along to  - Kiss - from Prince :) 

Thank you for stopping by and have a great weekend :)

namasté

Mini Art Journal: No More Questioning

A while back I made the above page in my mini art journal with some gorgeous stamps from Katzelkraft and I thought it was done like this. The empty space of the background, which is made with Brusho crystals and dylusions sprays, would leave room for suggestion. But after staring at the page for a while and having made this spread on the next pages (excess baggage) it inspired me to get my letter stamps set from Eline's Hand lettering line out again and stamp in a quote that felt right.

When I am in my art room creating stuff, I love to listen to music while doing so. And Katy Perry's tunes are among my fave to listen to (this Peacock mailart piece was also inspired by her music) and the lyrics from the song "Love Me" inspired me to add the following quote to the page.  

"There is no more questioning, I'll be the one defining who I'm going to be" 

Sometimes it's hard, to pave your own path, with opinions and comparisons clouding your view of yourself. It's good to remind yourself that it's OK to be you. Wherever you are, on whatever path you are on, you're in charge of your own life. And it's OK to just BE YOU and not what everyone else expects you to be or think you should be. I feel like I have grown and learned so much about myself over the past year and a half. It still fills me with so much gratitude thinking about the moment I've decided to just stop and BE ME. So I hope this weekend you will take a moment, to stop, breathe and appreciate who you are. Embrace yourself with all your complexities and troubles and tell yourself, it's OK, you're you and it's all OK. Like Dr. Seuss said "Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!" ... Hmm, that's a good quote for another spread I think :) 

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

namasté

Mini Art Journal: An Ocean of Drops

Today I am sharing an spread in my art journal inspired by a quote from Cloud Atlas, which fits beautifully with the stamps from Viva Las Vegastamps and Designs by Ryn.

The background is made on Maruman Zuan watercolor paper on which I used different Dylusions spray inks, brusho crystals in blues and teals and spattered liquitex acrylic inks in black and white. The brusho ceated some fun effects with the spray inks. When it dried I then stamped on the drops from Designs by Ryn with Staz on Azure. 

A close up of the background, a multitude of drops effect. The greens are from the brusho crystals which gave a fun unexpected effect. And these drops stamps from Designs by Ryn are just amazing!

I colored the half face with tears from VLVs with letraset promarkers and ripped it out and adhered to the page. The lettering of the quote I have done with a black brush calligraphy pen from Muji store which I forgot I had ;) It was a good test to see how it works on watercolor paper. I had to trace it a couple of times to get the deep black I wanted. It would probably work better on smoother paper. 

The I adhered the page to my journal and added some washi on the top and bottom of the page to cover up some empty strips. I traced the quote with a sakura stardust pen to give it some sparkle. 

"What is the ocean but a multitude of drops?"

I'm entering this journal page in the october customer creation challenge at the Designs by Ryn blog. Wish me luck :)

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

namasté

Mini Art Journal: Excess Baggage

Over at Stampotique Challenge blog the theme for this fortnight was "Your fave quote" and wanted to do a spread in my pocket art journal for it. I let this theme sit a bit with me and finally found a quote that resonated with how I was feeling at the time (my husband and I had a little spat, but no worries we always kiss and make up...). I went through my lovely Stampotique stamps this past weekend and found Mothloved to depict that feeling. And the spread shown above was born.

The quote I used is  

"Everyone you meet comes with baggage, 

find someone who loves you enough to help you unpack" 

- now, ain't that the truth? 

And little Mothloved, she carries her baggage with her everywhere she goes, but she is very lovable!

I stated off by grabbing one of my brusho background pages (used ultramarine brusho over a script stencil) and added some more color to it: mustard seed and broken china distress inks with a blending tool. Then I stamped some script and circle stamps with matching Staz-On inks on the page for some interest. Lastly I stamped Mothloved with Memento black on the side where I wanted her to be.

I cut the page to fit and adhered it in the journal. Mothloved is stamped on sticker paper and colored in with promarkers and then cut out. I used the same color scheme as I did with the background page, blue and yellow. On the bottom I adhered some washi tape and some extra near her feet to "ground" her more on the page. These techniques (stamping for placements, adhering a colored image op top and grounding that image with masking tape) are often used in Corrie's work. So Corrie, thank you for the inspiration :)

After I put on more washi tape along the edges to frame the page I went to work and stamped the quote in by using Eline's Handlettering Script rubber stamps. I patiently formed every word with the separate letter stamps out of the 2 fonts, brush and stencil, then stamped the whole quote with Staz On Azure. It was definitely meditative to do.

A close up of the end result. In the end I also outlined and underlined the stamped words with a 0.1 steadtler Micron pen to give it some more depth. I also took out the extra washi tape on the left bottom side of the page as it really didn't add much to it and called this spread done. I have a strong desire to give Mothloved a big hug!

This spread is entered for the Stampotique #258 Fave Quotes challenge and if you feel inspired to join in, you can until next wednesday when the new challenge prompt will be announced! Can't wait to see what the next challenge is. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

namasté

ETA: Just found out that Stampotique team chose my entry Affectionate Seahorses as one of the gift certificate winners for the August 2016 challenge! Woot!! I am so freaking happy! Thanks so much Stampotique team, it really made my day!

Mini Art Journal: The Nature of Causality

Last week I showed you some results of my gelli printing session using some fun stencils. I have used one in my pocket journal as a base in combination with a wonderful Mucha woman stamp from Lost Coast Designs. I stamped her on sticker paper and colored her in with letraset promarkers.

The print I took was the "clean up /dirty print" and I started with adding more color to the page with dabbing distress inks squezed lemonade and evergreen bough on the page with a blending tool. It created a really nice bright background to work on.

Then I got out the yummy large grunge border stamps to create some texture on the page. I used staz on cactus and forest green and the hero neon ombre sets in green and pinks.

I stamped the whole page with both grunge border stamps in alternating colors and when it came to cutting the page to size for my journal, I flipped the page because I liked the look of the clocks right above her head.

I definitely love how the texture of the background came together. The green aria on the left sort of does look like a couch and I decided to place the lady there.

A quote from Terry Pratchett Discworld was added to the right "Do not interfere with the nature of causality" and I found this very fitting with the artistic process.  I had a hard time letting go of the fact that the flower imprint is not distinctly visible anymore as it did in the very first picture of the post. But I still could create a page I was happy with. Sometimes things just happen while you are working on something and it's better to work with it,and not against it. The quote is written with Kuretake Fudenosuke brush soft pen and accentuated with a pentel white gel pen. The border stamp is from Dylusions and the star stamps from studio light.

I love promarkers because you can create some lovely shading.

Terry Prachett is a wise man!

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.

namasté

A Circle of Stories (Let the gelliplate printing madness begin!)

The week began with a square, let's end it with a circle :) 
I held off as long as I could, but when I saw an 8" inch round gelli plate being offered on Marktplaats for 1/2 the retail price a few weeks ago, I just could not resist and got it! And the gelli plate printing madness begun!

After you-tubing tutorials some fun tutorials, I just got out my Amsterdam Acrylic paints and got to work. This is the first print I pulled with a stencil from my Ed Roth 201 book. This book has some amazing stencils and the concentric circles work really well with the round plate. And it's really true what they say, once you get to printing, you just cannot stop!

I played around with a lot of different stencils and paints. I printed most of them on smooth 80gms double A premium printing paper and I used Canson Tracing paper to rub over stencils to take some paint away. I still had a giant roll of this paper from my days working at an office supply store in college.It's just as smooth as deli paper but of a much better quality.

Then I noticed on the group Creative Collage on Swap Bot, a swap "Gimme a circle" hosted by Artsynerdgirl which would be the perfect swap to use one of my mono prints as base for. The swap requirements were to add all circle elements to your collage and include 3 different other media to your work. I picked out some great stamps from Dyan Reaveley Dylusions Around the Edge set, some round office supply stickers, my tombow markers, my scalloped 1"inch paper punch, some staz-on and memento inks and got to work.

I stamped one of the ladies from the Couture Collection With The right Hat on a piece of the tracing paper, colored her in with tombow markers, cut her out in circle form and added to the collage.I felt like this needed a quote and added the following to the piece:

"We are all joined in a circle of stories" stamped with the Handlettering script alphabet stamps I also used in my midori April overview. I doodled around the edges with a sharpie, sealed with artist medium and that is all she wrote! My partner still has to receive this piece but hopefully she will enjoy it. I definitely enjoyed making this! I love the gelli print and recently joined the mixed media artists and The Printing Shop groups on swapbot to make more use of mono prints in my swaps. I also did a number of journal pages with my prints and will show you those in a next post. 

Do you have a gelli plate? Share a link to a work you have made with it, I would love to see it! At some point I definitely want to try this image transfer technique Bridget Koopsen showed on the gelliarts blog. I don't print a lot of photo's anymore, and only have an inkjet printer, but I have a bunch of older art pictures I "dumpster dived" lying somewhere which can be used for use! All in good time...

Thanks for stopping by and have a great 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 

Art Journal - Imagination is more important than knowledge

For a while I had this great idea in my head to make custom washi tape with the rolls of MT pastel washi tapes I don't really use enough. I had bought them like 6 years ago at the MET store in NYC and still a lot of the tape is left. So I thought I better put them to great use! I put together a fun color cobination and stuck them on a long cutting mat so you can decorate longer strips of tape. The stamps I used is from Technique Tuesday's Pens and Brushes. This is actually one stamp, but for this purpose I cut the individual items loose with a small sharp scissor. Warning: Do this at your own risk!! The space between stamps is really small, so you have to be really careful while cutting. But it's definitely doable!

Then came the fun part, stamping and making unique patterns on the tape. But the fun part, turned out pretty frustrating for me. I didn't get the sharp and clear imprints on the tape as I wanted. I used memento ink drops stamping pads, but the print didn't stick on the surface well enough. And then I tried stamping with Staz-On but still it did not stick well on the tape. I had to use my heat tool the make the ink set. The imprints were not so sharp either. I found out that this MT tape with a glossy finish is water resistent! So sadly the stamped tape didn't come out as well as I hoped it would. But we all learn from mistakes, right?

I ended up using the stamped tape in my Art Journal none the less. I covered the whole page with it (you can see the unclear and faded imprints on the tape) and then covered it with clear artist medium. Then I got some yellow, lavender and red Amsterdam acrylic paints and the Pen and Ink stencil from Stencil Girl Products to stencil on the images you see on the page. When the paint dried I took a fine black sharpie and the stencil again to add the outlines. In the end it does show a messy and fun effect!

Imagination is more important than knowledge 

- Albert Einstein

An inspiring and, for me, true quote. I still do not know how to make the imprints on the water resistent tape sharp and clear, but my imagination won't let me stop trying :)

Wishing you an imaginitive and inspiring weekend! 

Thank you for stopping by!

Namasté!

PS: Ink giveaway on this week's Pens and Ink is still going on until next wednesday!