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!

Happy Presidents Day

What does Presidents Day mean to me? A 3 day weekend!

Isn't that sad? It was originally created to honor and remember George Washington and now it is more well known as a day to get sheets and towels at half off.

Our forefathers would be so disappointed in us. Maybe I should make something George Washington related during my long weekend.

So why exactly am I posting today? Yeah, I know you are all wondering lol

Well it isn't to share the birthday card I made for my brother because I forgot to take a picture of it but it was a cute pop-up card.
And it isn't to show you the cute Valentine I gave to hubby....because I forgot to photograph that too (although I could probably go hunting around the house and find it if I was so inclined lol)

Nope, I have been playing in my Dina Wakely Media journal again. Although this is not what I normally do (art/craft-wise) I am having a lot of fun.

I watched Dina's faces tutorial again. And then changed it a bit. I wanted a rounder, younger looking face and I wanted an open mouth. I also tilted the head. Why not?

So I started this page (on the watercolor paper) by scribbling Lime Scribble Stick up the left side. I then doodled on some Magenta flowers. I added some Lemon and Turquoise scribbles on the bottom right. I brushed water over all the scribbles to soften them.

I then drew my head/face and painted her with acrylic paints.

And then I sat....and stared....and sat some more. What direction should I take?

She actually sat on my desk for a couple days as I thought of things and then dismissed them.

I then grabbed my Dyan Reaveley "Around the Edge" stamp set (which I had actually bought to use in my Bullet Journal) and stamped the leaves on the bottom right and top left using Distress Ink, Pine Needles.
I then colored the leaves with Lime and Night Scribble Sticks.

Next came the bird stamp which is part of Dina Wakely's Scribble Birds set. I colored him with alcohol markers.

And then they sat for a couple days. Every time I looked at them the word 'secrets' would pop into my head. What secrets are they sharing?

I stenciled on the leaves, down the left, using the stencil that came with the Scribble Birds stamps using Distress Oxide, Peeled Paint. I stenciled the flowers in the upper right using Tim Holtz' mini stencil that looks almost like cherry blossom branches and Faded Jeans Distress Oxide ink.

The text came to me at work one day (so I had to grab a post-it before I forgot it!) I typed it up, printed it, then dragged the paper through some Distress and Oxide inks It blended in beautifully with the Scribble Sticks already on the page. 

I really like how it turned out. 

And then today.....

Let me start with....I never paint realistic animals. I don't think I have EVER tried to paint a realistic animal. I will draw them. I will draw and color them. I don't paint them. So what ever possessed me to do this today I will never know.

It is supposed to be a Barred Owl. Yes I know this is a really bad looking owl! Yeah, it is BAD!!! lol

So why am I sharing? Because I did it. I have always felt like I couldn't paint a realistic living thing...and proved it lol.  But the fact that I actually, finally tried is the important thing.

There a few successes and a lot of failures in this. I should have listened to the advise I give others...when you are frustrated or feeling like it is not going well, get up and walk away, come back later. Didn't do that. Should have done that! lol

I think the paint on and around the eyes is at least 1/16" thicker than the rest of the page lol
Oh and the page is the cotton canvas which I prepped with clear gesso.

But he did look a whole lot worse! I got up to take a break. Walked out of the room, came back 2 minutes later and immediately saw some of the problems that I could fix. I made myself wait another 10 minutes and then went back in. Trust me when I tell you, the eyes were REALLY hideous before I went back in....we will just leave it at that! LOL

Will I go back and try to fix it some more? Maybe, probably not.

I love the background! That is the last thing I completed. It was a very washed out, pale green. I deepened the color with several shades of greens and a bit of brown. It looked better but really came together when I added the stencil which I did while the under paint was still wet so that it bled and softened a bit.

I have to say I like them together. The colors go well together. And they seem to have the same hair style! lol

I have 3 more days to play. I am looking forward to getting my hands dirty and working on something new....and hopefully not so scary! :-)

Until I pop in again....Happy Crafting!

Happy Valentine's Day

I like Valentine's Day or maybe I should say I like any day that makes someone buy me chocolate lol

I used to decorate for Valentine's Day and put up lots of hearts and doilies. But not any more. I am getting old and lazy lol.  But I still make cards....or try too. I am way off track this year and just finished my parent's card today. And since it is Sunday, I can't mail it until tomorrow which means they probably will not get it until the 15th. Oh well, can we really only tell people we love them on the 14th?

I made a shaker card! I used Anna Griffin's shaker card dies. And Cuttlebug's confetti dies for the 'filling'.
The patterned card stock came from a new Recollections paper pad called Girlsquad. It has lots of cute Valentine papers. 

I struggled with this one. Not in the making but in the 'do I really like this?' stage. The die set is really nice as it gives you dies to cut the window in your card base, the window in your card front and lots of embellishments. But I just wasn't feeling it until I got all the embellishment in place. I think the rose finally did it for me. That came from some freebie I got with an Anna Griffin order lol  And it had all kinds of swirls and stuff with it that I had to cut off. But I think it was worth it. I hope my parents like it.


In my last post I said I had just received my Dina Wakely Media journal. The 8x10 version came out last year (at least I think it was just last year and not earlier than that). What is cool and different about it is that it has 4 different substraights in it.....watercolor paper, canvas, kraft paper and burlap....all in one journal! 

She brought out a larger version this year at Creativation but there is no way I would have space for it or comfortably be able to fill such a large work space. (I tend to work small so the 8x10 is already going to push me outside my comfort zone)

I jumped right in with burlap! I have never worked on burlap before. I tend to avoid it at all costs due to the smell and that fact that something in it (maybe all those fibers) makes me sneeze.  So, with tissues at the ready, I dove right in. I used acrylic paints in reds, oranges and yellows to create a sunset background with white and pale yellow for the sun.

I then used Dina's Scribble Sticks in black to draw a giraffe. It is tough to get a straight line on burlap! So I have a stylized giraffe lol
I then used Scribble Sticks for the patterns around the sides but it still needed something.
I googled African postage stamps and found some I liked. I printed them on regular printer paper so they would feel more like the real thing. I cut them out and glued them down with Aleene's Tacky Glue. 

So now I need to decide my next step. I am thinking of washing a medium to dark color over the stamps, or at least part of them, to help settle them into the background a bit. But it is a work in progress so I will mull it over for a bit.

Here is a page on the watercolor paper. I watched one of Dina Wakely's YouTube videos on drawing faces. Faces are not my forte. If I spend long enough on them (like hours and hours drawing) they turn out fairly well. This was a fun way to create a face in a short amount of time. 

I tend to be very rigid in my drawing and painting. I see people all the time that freely slap paint on canvas without any obvious direction and they just let the colors and forms guide them. I have never been one of those people. I have to see it all in my mind before I can even start. I want to see if I can be more loose and free in this journal. I don't think there is anything wrong with my creative style...it's worked for me for over 50 years....but there are days lately where I desperately want to create something but don't have the time to think it all out in advance. I want to be able to open to a page and just brush on some color and then be able to walk away and come back later and apply something else...no pre-planned ideas. 

Wish me luck! lol

So that is all I have for this week. I still need to make a Valentine for hubby (not much time left for that one!). And my brother has a birthday next week so I need to get that done as well. My bullet journal did not keep me on track this week! lol

If your weather is even remotely like mine....stay warm! And Happy Crafting!