Guess What

I’m excited and thrilled to say that I AM A WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER.

I fell so blessed and would like to thank all the powers that be (you know who you are)

Y’all remember the recent Artist Cellar Stencil Blog Hop about the Cecilia Swatton Kaleidoscope set. Yep that’s the one. My name was drawn by Cheryl Sleboda of muppin.com fame.

So thank you Cheryl and Artist Cellar and Cecilia.

^5 for a great set of stencils and neat projects from all the blogs that took part in the Hop

Now let’s see what I did with ‘em

you may watch my video here to see how I did it

close ups

I also took this Journal Page and turned it into a Christmas Card that video is coming up on Dec 12, 2014  titled Christmas Card'age (just saying)

Happy Art'ing Y'all

More or Less

How I have set up my camera for recording video on my work top. I use a Logitech and have it mounted (with a big binder clip) to the top of a paint stick that is mounted (with medium binder clips) to a small’ish desk easel. The desk easel is sitting on top of a wire pantry rack, well I have the easel tied to the pantry rack with some cord that I found lying around. I also have a fairly heavy book on the pantry rack to sorta weigh it down. To avoid tip’age and ka powy type of fall’age. I do have the camera mounted upside down so when I record it shows the view as if you were over my shoulder, umm errr as if you are at my work top with me.

Yes I have shadows going on in my vids, (excuse coming up) because the lights I currently have in my studio are not great, they are halogen and way super hot. . . as they burn out (kinda slowly – argh) I have plans on replacing the strips with plain old florescent lighting. Hey they do make  “natural” day light bulbs for ‘em. LOL I actually dumpster dived (curb side trash) for them. Cause the Universe just knew I would want and use them when the time is right. ^5 God ^5

And um anyways back to lighting I have a floor lamp on the right side that I turn on for extra light and to sorta counter balance the shadows away.

For the sideways angle shots (I have used this once) I brought in some tall patio chairs and taped Poster Board to them to block out the way too distracting background. And as y’all know white poster boards can be used to bounce a bit of light back. . . making for a little brighter view. The one time that I did this I sat the camera on a coaster so it would be just a little elevated (higher then the desk top). Haha Lucky for y’all I made sure I had it right side (top) up.

I have the laptop on the left so I can plug in the camera by USB and more or less have access to the control software that I don’t really know anything (much) about.

For Editing I’m using the FREE Microsoft Movie Maker that came with said Lap Top. It’s not been too hard to figure out and I have no plans on using anything else at this time. I am a beginner people; which brings to mind the little ol’ fact that Once I jump on the Fad it is most likely run its course and something new is about to come out. At least so says my history of “the in thing to do.” Just saying!

Because for the most part the talking I do in my videos while I’m recording is pretty lame, very disjointed and or garbled (I don’t know how y’all understand what I say). I’ve used a hand held digital recorder (old Olympus) and do the sort of Voice over audio thing. Umm yeah it’s not a whole lot better than then the recorded sound with the video, but it makes me feel better. And let’s be honest here peoples That’s what’s important – Yes that I feel better about it.

And when I’m done “filming” and doing “voice over” and all that editing carp I upload to my YouTube channel and typically I go grocery shopping and running errands, with the hope that when I’m done the video will be done uploading and I can proceed from there.  So umm yeah ta dah end of wordiness post. 

Happy Art’ing Y’all

Journal'age

This week our Dar Challenge was Aquatic life; as is the Dar'way our choice as to what that is, what it means or what we want it to mean. Because I recently (LOL just checked - maybe not so recent) did a mermaid page, I opted not to do another one . . . sorta, well it's not really a "mermaid".

Johnny and I had a super Date Day this past Sunday (yeah sorta a subject change) After our lunch and a movie we lounged on the sofa watching TV and I mentioned to him about Dar's challenge this week. . . we joked around about poor Aqua Man, the not so super super hero (hey our opinion). Laughing I said, hey maybe I'll carve a fish stamp, cause I don't think I have any fish. And Monday while I was (yeah another subject switch) while I was doing stuff around the house, something I was doing (it doesn't matter what) was not going so well and I got sooooo MAD. I mean really MAD, so mad I was crying and all that kind of junk. I know, right? So I tossed down (NOT threw) my tools and stomped out of the house straight into the studio.

Awww that's the place to be. I remembered the fish and checked my stamps. . . Nope don't have any. Soooooo I drew a few out. Um really Jamie that's way to big, lol it was almost 5 inches long. What was I thinking? But two of 'em I liked. . . so I transferred my drawings onto my SpeedyCarve pink stuff and carved away. Then I stamped my fish onto the pink stuff and carved some more. ^5 I like 'em

I was just gonna tweet the above photo to Dar, but though no. . . I need to actually use these cute fish. And I did this Not really a mermaid, mermaid Journal page

The face is #8 from this year's 29Faces in Feb challenge; and yes her head is a pocket. I like doing that. It makes sense ya know, my head has secrets stuff in it and the faces I draw and paint can hold secrets  stuff / journaling too.

that is all except with this blog font the exclamation mark ( ! ) looks like a lower case L l - !

Happy Art'ing Y'all

Final Project

For CreativeJumpStart2014 and sponsor Prima Marketing Inc. I had to wait a very long time for my glue’age to dry {humidity town} on this Finnabair inspired canvas. Well y’all that know me, know that I like to put my own spin on everything I do. Always have, lol just can’t quite use the same colors as are shown / recommended / suggested / whatever so here for your viewing pleasure {I hope it’s pleasing} is my rendition of Ana Dabrowska’s Spoon canvas

I used a leftover {lost my mojo} canvas and as I’m lucky this way, I had found a spoon on Bourbon street in New Orleans {yes True Dat} Sooo I pulled some other stuffs from my trash junk Treasure box and stuck ‘em on my Upcycled canvas. Waited forever for that to dry {days and days} and

Skewers, pen nibs, craft stick, chain, 

peanut container aluminium seal, ribbon, 

a hanger hook, tape roll thing, clock hands

a New Orleans street Spoon

I slathered on {!ack!} BLACK gesso {yep} only I reserved a few things from the original gluing down for later {I can do that it’s my canvas}.

I like how this photo shows some of the spots I sanded ever so slightly; Oh yes that is bubble wrap {grin}

I added my set aside treasure {ooo GOLD ooo}. Made up a sentiment {I’m a poet ya know}

And Voila – Ta Dum – Look what I made

Happy it makes me! Thanks Nat for a great CreativeJumpStart2014 and ^5 to all the super Artist that showed us their tricks and techniques for using house hold items on the fly for making Sweet Sweet Art.

ps YES I could have used hot glue {not a fan of it} or I could have waited for my glue to dry all the way and be clear – but um no {I didn’t want to}

Happy Art’ing Y’all

CJS2014 #TEN

Yes that IS CORRECT project #10 CreativeJumpStart2014. In the last Art’ing How to video that Nat of N*Studio did, she showed us Jumpers about using rubber bands on a piece of cardboard. . . I mean I have done this with a round lid, but for some reason I never clicked to using a square or a rectangle {knocks self in head} Doh!

I started my background with layers of white gesso stenciled through a medium sized square pattern, gray acrylic paint and then baby wiped off; white gesso’ed through a small square stencil pattern, neon green acrylic paint and then baby wiped off; white gesso’ed through a tiny squares stencil, sandstone acrylic paint {think very pale kaki) and then baby wiped that off. I used a pale pink ink and a grid pattern clear stamp to make some haphazard marks across the background. Drying between each layer of course. And then I watched Nat’s video. . .

Out came the rubber bands, my were too wide so I cut them in half to get narrow bands. I then wrapped them on my left over cardboard in the same X pattern that was used in the video cause I loved it so much. And like Nat, I didn’t want a hard harsh line so I used a White ink.

To make it easier on myself I added a little handle of sorts to the back of my X pattern stamp.

It was kinda hard to get a photo the stamp made on my background, but in real life it looks good.

I dug out a face from the 29Faces in September challenge and typed up some word’age for my journal page. {yes as a matter of fact she is a hidden pocket}

Did ya notice? Hum did ya?

Thanks  Nat for your inspiration and thanks to sponsor Darkroom Door for the chance at a giveaway.

Happy Art’ing Y’all

Washi Tape

And because one thing can lead to another and Well there I was in my studio one cold icy day. I picked up the empty cracker box and thought ‘Hey this could be a washi tape storage thingie.’

So I reinforced the outside edge with silver duct tape. I then measured {sort of} the depth and cut some cardboard to that {sorta} measure. Made my marks where I wanted the dowels (more on them below) punched the holes and slotted down to the holes on one side*. I lined the inside edge with old scrapbook card and this also added reinforcement to the sides and the dowel spots. I added more silver tape to cover up the thicker ugly edge view.

For the dowels I used straws cut to length and to strengthen them I inserted skewers. I was inspired to use skewers from the CJS2014 video by Mary Beth Shaw, Jan 25

I may need another box or two

*My friend Ozegran explains and shows a much better in fact a wonderful washi storage system and she made her own box {not cheated like me} (Washi Tape between Jan 21 and 27, 2014)

So um yeah, that’s it and for all my CreativeJumpStart2014 projects click that link uptop or HERE.

Happy Art’ing Y’all

Bluebirds

Brought Project #9 for CreativeJumpStart2014 and the sponsor Cocoa Daisy challenge. Yes this is prolly another long winded post But hey if ya wanta know how I did it you will just have to read it {not sorry} IF you dare not know how I did it then just look at the pictures {but still leave comment love}. I used household items

Background white card stock, used a popsicle craft stick to smear on some white gesso, dried then carded {room keyed} on pretty pink, dried, carded on some tan, then splated on some clear gesso and used the craft stick again, dried…

I got out a fancy scrapbook paper thing that is like a stencil {what I use it for} I brushed on red and right away laid the fancy paper stencil down and wiped it with a baby wipe to remove some of the red. Yummy 

so then I added a stamped flourish in sepia ink. Once that was dry I put a dob of white gesso on my pallet  coffee can lid, dipped a bead necklace in the gesso and dangled that on and off my background. Very fun and not too terribly messy. When that was dry I cut the background into 4 x 6” pieces {postcard size}.

I took corrugated box, die cut hearts from it, tore around the heart and pealed some of the paper off. Next I used the back of a scrapbook stack {like cereal box} cut it down so I could dry emboss it before I die cut a little bird. Next I painted the bird with blue, used my finger to rub on a tiny bit of white gesso. I printed out my sentiment, cut those out. Inked the edges in black. . .

To reinforce the postcards I added pink cardstock to the backs and used a Postcard stamp to fancy 'em up. {um they are postcards ya know}. Next I glued on the embellishments (heart, bird, sentiment). And then I added a shadow line inside the heart and around the bottom of the bird. Finally I took a photo of a finished Postcard and really now finally – Finally doing this post so I can tell y’all about CJST2014 and sponsor COCOA DAISY.

ps put a drop of black stickles in the eye hole socket.

Happy Art’ing Y’all

We Circle

Yep this is another CreativeJumpStart2014 project and sponsor challenge Tonic Studios. I used household items and a technique shown by Samie Harding for this Project #8 and it was a few days in coming. 

I was inspired by the journal spreads shared on Donna Downeys blog from week 1 of her 48 weeks workshop. Yeah liking the bricks… so I took a leftover strip of watercolor paper, used WC crayons, then dry embossed with a brick folder, went over the strip with white gesso and then with a bit more red and black WC crayon. Dry embossed again to get more of a haphazard brick thing going on. This strip sat on my side bar for a day or so.

Meanwhile I wanted to do something for a CJS2014 using cardboard, so I grabbed an empty zip lock bag corrugated box {bulk buy} and trimmed it down so I could die cut the Townscape on the Edge (TimHoltz). And then thought ‘Now what?’ so I tossed them aside, they ended up near the above Brick strip.

And I made a couple of other projects here and here and all of a sudden the light bulb twinkled and I knew I wanted to try Samie Harding’s Transparencies & Painted circles from Jan 22^nd. {cause maybe} 

OOOOO my head goes ‘where’s the strip o’brick & those townscape houses?’ {found} I trimmed them to 3 ½ x 2 ½ “ ATC size.

I have a stash of pre-cut packaging that I use to reinforce my ATCs, so I glued them onto the brick fronts and went ahead and glued on my printed ATC backs {cause peoples need to know who made ‘em}. While those were drying . . .

I found some plastic from discarded packaging; on one I used a black sharpie to make a swirl before I painted it. On all except one color I used my fingers {WEEEE finger painting}. Oh and one is really a piece of leftover scrapbook paper {the yellow ‘un} I sat those aside and broke out a little pocket dictionary, and cut out some choice definitions.

By this time my painted plastic was dry so I cut out my circles of various sizes and um yeah most some are not so “circle”. I layered my fancy Samie Circles, some shinny side up some not. I thick tacky glued them onto the brick ATC backgrounds, added my dictionary papers and Bam Ah Lam Ah Voila!

Project #8 for CJS2014 sponsor Tonic Studio challenge is done! Can we say love {LOVE}

ps my friend “Vicki” picked the Front for the zip lock box Townscape houses. LoL I simply tweeted, ‘Front R Back’ , and she said Front. ^5 for “Vicki”

Happy Art’ing Y’all

Lucky 7

This is Project #7 as part of the Challenge for CreativeJumpStart2014 and sponsor PanPastel. Use Household item(s) or sponsor Product. I had to go with household items for this Tag project. Yep another Tag, hey they are fun, ya know. Just think of 'em as a journal page only tiny {insert head nod & eye wink} I dare y’all to try one.

I started with a left over / used cardboard coffee cozy. And I used an idea from a friend SunsetCarole {shout out} who had recently told us (Coffee and Art in the Morning community) about covering small corrugate (similar to the cozy) with a napkin NOTE apply napkin to the bumpy's {end of note} . . . So that’s what I did for the front. On the back I did the masking tape background as shown by Marjie Kemper on Jan 11th of the CJS2014 workshop.

I stuck the napkin down with matte medium AFTER removing the 2 non-printed layers. Once it dried I added an Eiffel Tower brad, to continue with the Paris / Europe theme of my napkin. Next I found buttons I wanted to use and I cut the shanks off of them using a wire cutter for jewelry making. I sanded the stubs left by the shank to get them just a bit flatter. I tied my blue crochet thread in on whatever to the pink button. Pre laid them out - Yes – like - but still needed something . . .

I rummaged in my charm bin and found the “Oui” charm, YES that’ll do {LoL if ya get it} and I tied more of the blue crochet thread onto that, frayed the ends a bit {love the fuzziness of it}. Ok now need something up top. Ah ha a face, one simply must have a face {insert crooked smile} found a little round stamp that would tie in with the buttons, stamped it onto some leftover script paper; Got lucky with that, cause it agreed with the colors. Punched it out with a circle punch then glued it down just under the edge of the tower brad.

Before I glued on the really bumpy elements I added masking tape bits on the back and painted that with craft paint using a makeup sponge. Once dried I added my purple door stamp {get it?} Hint>{um look at the title of this blog} and a date stamp then I signed it. ^5 for thinking about this BEFORE adding the buttons on front.

And back to the front - I glued on the buttons and the “oui” charm, stamped a flourish {but ya can’t really tell}, added a few dots of purple and pale pink glitter glue. Added an eyelet then found some scrap ribbon that matched {lucky again}, used that with more crochet thread for the tag pull. I frayed some of the ends again. {umm fuzzy}

And Voila, that’s French for Ta Dah which is slang a proper word phrase for Look what I made. Remember to check out N * Studio and Lucky #7 project sponsor PanPastel.

Happy Art’ing Y’all

CJS2014 Project 6

Yep you read that right, this is my 6^th project for the CreativeJumpStart2014 workshop, the Stampendous challenge. So this post uses both the Sponsor Product and a Household item.

To make this card I used fancy printed card stock (cut to 8 x 5 /12”) folded in half. I cut a piece of “Love” worded printed paper slightly smaller to layer on the front. I also die cut some hearts from the same card as the base.

I used the Steampunk Gears Perfectly Clear stamp set. Although I altered one stamp just a bit AFTER I stamped it onto white card stock (see below). I also made my own border strip. Here I laid the various gears, from the Stampendous Steampunk Gears Perfectly Clear stamp set, onto a clear block, varying the heights for interest. Inked them up and stamped onto a strip of base card (in this example I used plain white card). I cut my gear printed strip going outside and around them {wavy like} keeping the bottom edge straight.

I took my 3 chosen lock washers {household item} and spray painted them gold. So while they dried I adhered the altered Stampendous gear to the front and added the hearts around it. I then outlined the hearts with Gellly Roll (stardust I think) to add just a slight touch of Bling {cause I’m a gurl} oh, I touched the numbers a bit with the pen too. And glued on my lock washers gears.

I typed my inside sentiment and printed it out on white card, to layer inside; then I added the stamped gear border and another heart {yes with glittery ink too}. And if truth be told I thought of the sentiment first just after I spotted the little bag of washers.

^Front^

 ^inside^

This would make a pretty good Guy card, if you used different “manly” colors {I guess}. And thus ends Project #6 for CJS2014 and sponsor Stampendous challenge. Thanks for checking out my post and if ya get a chance say Hey to Nat.

Happy Art’ing Y’all

Who's Ready

For my fifth project for CreativeJumpStart 2014? I am and me too. To enter the challenge for a Giveaway by Sponsor StencilGirl I needed to use their product or household items . . . and sad to say I don’t have any StencilGirl {big droopy sad face} – But I have good news . . .

I do have household items to Art this project with

I took a flap off of a hoarded handy cardboard box, pulled the paper from one side. Note: I did NOT wet/dampen it before pulling the paper off because sometimes I want the rustic look. {end of this Note} I cut it into a Tag shape.

I then cut a paper doily roughly in half, found a leftover ink stained circle from another project, {this set the color theme} stamped a face on it and trimmed that to more or less fit the doily; Glued those together and onto the corrugated tag with regular white school glue. I rummaged through my Alpha / Word Bin* and found the scrapbooking embellishment that says “Journey” I stuck that on. I then found a tiny dragonfly bead and glued that onto the Journey embelli.

The Tag needed something else, oooo Washi Tape but when I looked through my stash nothing really seemed to fit {ah shoot} So being the Artist that I am, I found my First Aid Box and pulled out the Paper Tape that is normally used with gauze for covering cuts and I stamped the word Timeless on that. It wasn’t dark enough so I went over it with a black Sharpie marker. I used matte medium to make sure it stuck on really well and would be sealed.

I was really liking the Tag, but still . . . ah ha buttons! I found three Pearl shanked buttons and the shank fit very nicely in the trough of the corrugate. This time I used thick tacky glue to adhere them. It needed sparkle so I found some shimmery watercolor paint and very, and I do mean very lightly washed some over portions of the tag. (you may be able to see some glints of it in the ^close up photo^). I went over the whole tag front and back with matte medium to seal it.

Finally I added the hole with eyelet and used pale green crochet thread for the tag pull. Bam a Lam and Voila Tag’age was made.

Thanks for checking out my Project #5 for CJS2014 using household items and StencilGirl challenge.

*Alpha / Word Bin – the place I keep words, letters, phrases, cut from junk mail / magazines, leftover scrapbook stuffs and one mustn’t forget fortune cookie love notes.

Happy Art’ing Y’all

And her name

is Faith

So what came first the face, the background or the quote? Good question. In a way it was the Quote. . . But then the Background was really first (? a couple / few years ago?) . . . but then the face -- no, really the face was last.

Here’s the real story. I was reading a newsletter from Leonie Dawson and I read the quote, but of course in the newsletter it wasn’t a quote, it was part of a paragraph. But isn’t that, for the most part, how quotes come about any way. Y’all know during a conversation or in a piece of writing and a sentence or two strike a chord (heart strings) and voila a Quote is born.

So I had this quote and automatically envisioned a face with eyes closed, sort of peaceful ya know. But before I drew, I already knew exactly the background I wanted to use. It’s a scanned and printed out background I did some time back (?years/months?).

 Do I drew the face and painted her lips (as some of y’all know) during BarbOwens (Barb’vark) UStream on the 17^th. Yeah I tweeted my lips LoL.

I finished painting her not real long after the stream and glued her on my background. Stamped the Leonie Dawson quote onto Deli Paper (love this stuff), matte mediumed that down. Wrote a little note’age about the quote, that is hidden behind Faith’s head. Because . . .

I like drawing faces (most of the time) on watercolor paper and then painting with acrylics then cutting them out to put onto journal pages (8 ½ x 11 cardstock) and I might as well make the head a pocket. . . Cause I like little hidden places and flips and flops and whatnotage spots . . . because I think they are fun. There I said it – hidden places are fun, because others may not know they are there but you as the maker do. . . Secret .  

for me, like with Leonie, I have learned that when I can't do what it is I think I want to do or even those things that I need to do. . . I am enough. I am worthy. Self nurture and rest is important to your soul, your spirit because If your soul / spirit is tired / under fed / under nourished it will begin to spread around dust to your mental and emotional parts and from there to your physical body. So take a break and take care of yourself - emotionally - mentally - physically and most importantly spiritually, your whole being will be happier for it and that my friend will make you shine brighter than glitter under a disco ball lite up by the noon day sun. 

Happy Art’ing Y’all

Because

LOL at my caption in the card I made for a dear friend. . . but really this Owl stamp came about because I wanted a whimsy owl for my annual Me journal page. I carved it from Speedball SpeedyCarve (the pink stuff). This is a great How To carve YouTube. 

 I stamped my owl using Ranger Archival Sepia Ink / Archival Jet Black

I used Derwent: Watercolor and Inktense pencils with touches of Colorsoft and Prisma pencils.

I colored lightly over my stamped design, sometimes using more than one color to achieve a mottled effect.

I activated them by using a water brush, sorry don't know the manufacturer.  

I also used white and black craft paints for the pupils and “life” in the eyes. . . 

except on the last little guy He got googley eyes because they are fun.

I also want to mention I’m having a good time watching the CreativeJumpStart2014 videos and doing projects like this.

Happy Art'ing Y'all