Spring is in the Air

I squeezed in art time wherever I could find it this past week. I wanted to create so I made sure I found the time.

I played some more in my Dina Wakely Media journal. And I do mean play. I am having so much fun in this book! Something about all the different paper types is freeing me to just put paint to paper and I am loving every minute of it.

This is on a watercolor page. I used Dylusion Sprays to create the background. I was grabbing whatever looked blue or blue-ish from the pile so I know there are blues, purples and teals in the sky. The ground is a mix of greens and yellows and maybe orange. I was just spraying paint and water until I got a look that I liked.

After letting it dry for a day or so I added the rabbit. He was painted with acrylics, a random mix of whites, creams and browns with a touch of black to create gray and the eyes.

And again we wait lol

When I found time to return I added the tulips. These are entirely done with Scribble Sticks, magenta, white, and blackberry for the flowers. Lemon, lime and night for the leaves and stems. 

I created the pattern on the ground using a Dina Wakely stencil that looks like leaves or feathers and also a Dyan Reavely stencil that is leafy branches. I used Distress Inks in browns and greens, again randomly dabbing into whatever pad I thought might work to get the look I wanted.

My brother in laws birthday is next week.I got the card mailed out in time! I am doing really well this year!

The frame and embellishments are from the Magic Slider die set, Kit137, from LDRS creative. 
This is such a fun set to play with. My only issue is finding stamps that are small enough to fit in the frame yet large enough to color. This basic, uncolored image is stamped on a piece of acetate.

Here is the slider halfway up revealing a colored layer below.

And here it is fully open. The cards are fun to make and to receive. 
This is one of the mini Crazy Dogs from Tim Holtz. He fits perfectly in the frame along with his fancy party hat and balloons from the Mini Bird Crazy and Things set.

And my last project of the week, a giraffe tag. Yes, I am still obsessed with giraffes. I just love them!

I created the background by laying down layers of Distress Inks and Oxides in browns, reds and golds. I then used stencils to apply the squiggles, triangles and dots. I outlined the triangles with a black Sharpie pen.

The background giraffe, from Rubber Stampede, was stamped 3 times using Distress Ink in Walnut Stain. I then used a water brush to soften the image.

I stamped the giraffe head, from Impression Obsession, onto white cardstock again using my Distress Walnut Stain ink pad. I colored him in with Spectrum Noir alcohol pens. And used my black Sharpie pen to make his eyes black.

I rubbed some Distress Ink in Tea Dye and Walnut Stain to create a drop shadow behind him. The giraffe was added to the tag with double sided foam tape to lift him up off the surface. He didn't stand out as much as I wanted so I added more ink to the tag, Candied Apple to the upper right, Peeled Paint to the lower left. Both are Distress Oxides. 

I am going out of town next week for my job. Hubby is wondering what I am going to wear because so far my suitcase is packed with mostly art supplies lol  It could get very interesting when I try to explain my attire at my meetings :-)

Until next time...Happy Crafting!

Buzz Buzz Buzz

I woke up bright and early at 6:30 am on a Saturday. It was not entirely my idea, the cats were demanding breakfast. But that’s ok, I had been trying to find time to get back to my Dina Wakely Media journal.

I knew I wanted to work on the kraft paper and bees kept coming to mind.

I put down a layer of color using Gelatos (Butter Cream, Kiwi, and Aqua Dolce) and Scribble Sticks (Tangerine, Ruby, and Night) I blended these with a Gelatos blending stump.

I then stamped a honeycomb design randomly over the page using KaiserCraft’s Honeycomb clear stamp and Distress Ink, Walnut Stain.  I thought I took pictures of just the background with the stamps but I can't find them in my files. :-(

My next step was to spray a layer of Krylon’s Workable Fixatif. My hope was that this would keep the Distress Ink and Gelatos from fading away when I added my layer of gel medium. (it worked pretty well, I had very minimal bleed/fade in the Distress Ink and no noticeable color change in the Gelatos)

I applied Golden’s Gel Medium (soft gel, semi gloss) with a palette knife and set it aside to dry. It can take several hours for the gel to dry completely. Let it set and dry on it’s own and it dries clear. Dry it with a heat tool and it dries with a milky cast.

Once the gel medium was dry, I rubbed on some Snow Cone and Watermelon Gelatos on top. I then brushed these places with water to make the color move down between the gel medium hexagons. I then, while still wet, wiped the excess color off the gel medium areas.

You can see the base colors and stamped lines under the clear hexagons.

I applied some more gel medium ‘honeycombs’ to capture a bit of these new colors. The gel is partially dry in the picture below.

I drew the queen with Prismacolor pencils (Dark Brown, Peach, Light Peach, Black, White, Tuscan Red and Violet) the highlight in her eye is white acrylic paint. Her hair is a mixture of Prismacolor pencils (Black and Dark Brown) and Scribble Sticks (Black and Lemon). Her crown is Scribble Sticks (Lemon, Tangerine and Black). I ended up going back over her crown with Prismacolor pencils (Black, Canary Yellow and Spanish Orange) to make is show up a bit more. I colored in between the gel hexagons that overlap her face, with black Prismacolor, to make them stand out.

I found a photo of a honey bee online. I resized it and added 3 of them to my page. The largest is about ¾ of an inch. I then colored the edges with Dark Brown Prismacolor to tone down the brightness of the body and the whiteness of the wings.

I am debating back and forth as to whether it is finished. Part of me wants text or scribbles along the left side. Part of me says don’t mess this up lol

Thanks for stopping by!

**Update

I added bits of text using Distress Ink, Walnut Stain and a rubber stamp from Non Sequitur from a stamp plate that I bought maybe 20 years ago. If you have a choice, always by red rubber stamps! They will last a life time!!! 

As always...Happy Crafting!