Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Home


This is a four page spread! My first! I call it Home. The sentiment: A house is made of bricks and beams. A home is made of hopes and dreams. I found this quote on the internet, so it is not original to me. I don't know who the author is, so if you are the author, kudos to you, leave me a comment below and I will be more than happy to post your name for credit.

This spread was inspired by Rach0113, her journal page: Home is Where the Heart Is. She has embedding disabled, so you can search for her channel and watch her techiques. I have not started making how to videos yet, so I just have stills here on my blog. They are coming, so please visit often to grow with me in this blog as I expand on my Art Journaling Journey.

On this page, I created four pages: Day and Night. On the left, is the sun with the day, each page has inspirational messages with the bike on the insert.  The inside houses flip to reveal the second half of the quote.  Here's a picture with the center page turned:


A short video of the center page being turned:


I used the following products:

Ranger Tim Holtz Distressed Ink: Twisted Citron
Ranger Tim Holtz Distressed Ink: Mowed Lawn
Ranger Tim Holtz Distressed Ink: Seedless Preserves
Ranger Tim Holtz Distressed Ink: Black Soot
Ranger Tim Hotlz Oxide Ink: Fired Brick
Ranger Tim Hotlz Oxide Ink: Fossilized Amber
Ranger Tim Hotlz Oxide Ink: Faded Jeans
Ranger Tim Hotlz Oxide Ink: Cracked Pistachio
Cricut Expressions
Adobe Creative Suite Illustrator (to draw the houses that I imported and cut with the Cricut)
Pentel White Gel Pen
Micron Fine Point Permanent Pen
Farber Castel Pitt Markers
Golden Matte Medium
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Metal Word Bands
Ranger Dyan Reaveley Dylusions Collection Ink Spray, After Midnight
Ranger Dyan Reaveley Dylusions Collection Ink Spray, Calypso Teal
Ranger Dyan Reaveley Dylusions Collection Ink Spray, Tangerine Dream
Ranger Dyan Reaveley Dylusions Collection Ink Spray, Cherry Pie


Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Happy Birthday Daddy!


This past weekend I had the pleasure of working with my niece Kennedy in making this card. She picked the elements and colored them. I simply assisted her and taught her how to use some of my equipment including the Cricut Expressions to cut the die cut lettering, the Cuttlebug to make the die cut bird, Tim Holtz Scissors to fussy cutting the cupcakes. We found the red wagon on the Internet and printed it out and fussy cut it for the layout. I think the Birthday Card for her Daddy came out beautifully, and I know she is very proud of her creative talent to put a smile on his face when she finally delivers this very special card. 

It's wonderful to work with children who like to express themselves in the creative art room or studio. She enjoyed using lots of tools, colored pens, markers, coloring books and more. We even had a math lesson (shh!...she told me she does not like math) when she had to calculate the designed panel, the card size, and the elements to be sure everything will fit. So it was math with a ruler, fractions, and decimals...I'd like to think her math lesson was fun!

So let me publicly say, Kennedy, I enjoyed playing with you in my studio and you are welcomed anytime. 

Supplies and products used:

Tim Holtz - Crazy Birds (Stamps and Dies)
Tim Holtz - Blueprint Assortment (Stamps)
Cricut Expressions Die Cutter
Cuttlebug Die Cut and Embossing Machine
Ranger Tim Holtz Distressed Ink: Fossilized Amber
Ranger Tim Holtz Distressed Ink: Faded Jeans
Ranger Tim Holtz Distressed Ink: Wilted Violet
Ranger Tim Holtz Distressed Ink: Black Soot
Darice Stripe Embossing Folder 5 x 7
Strathmore Watercolor Paper Series 200
Recollections™ Foam Adhesive Squares 
Neenah Exact Index White 90 pound 

Friday, May 26, 2017

Sacred Places

Sacred Places
 This layout was made with my Lavinia Stamps. They are whimsical and otherworldly vibe kind of stamps. As you can see I also used a shimmery acrylic paint by Colour Arte Silks. This layout was inspired by Rach0113 on Youtube. The sentiment is my original but the idea for the layout was inspired by her entitled Secret Garden. I love crediting the source of my inspiration, as they deserve the acknowledgement and it is my way of saying thank you for teaching me something new. Inevitably, I will vary something to make the layout my own, but I am forever grateful to these talented artist for sharing their creativity with the world via Youtube.

I used my "go to" techniques of paper piecing, stamping, and coloring. I added texture to my background by using blues, greens, and purple. I added a white ghosting border to the houses and mushroom figures so that they would stand out. I used dimensional sticker flowers to the garden. The stone pathway is a stamp by Lavina Stamps. My next goal for this blog is to add a Youtube video to actually show you how I did these, it was so much fun!


Saturday, May 20, 2017

Follow You Passion



This  mixed media layout was an experiment with tissue paper, transparent acrylic glaze by Silks by Colour Arte, texture paste by Farber-Castell, Golden Matte Regular Gel, Farber-Castell Pitt Pens, Zig Wink of Stella glitter pens, Gelly Roll White pen for highlights, stencils from my stash, and images of African American Ballerinas Ashley Murphy, Misty Copeland and two other ballerinas I found on the internet. I wanted to convey images of black women who were following their passions.

The tag, holds another quote from a stamp that I do not have but was inspired to use the text: 

The three ballerinas (left to right) are Ashley Murphy, with the Washington Ballet Theater, Misty Daniella Copeland, Principal with American Ballet Theater, and Michaela DePrince.

Spirit led me to select these women for my Art Journal Page, and now that I've learned about each of them, I am glad I did.They are excellent subjects for my layout about Following Your Passion. Surely each of these women follow their passion everyday as practice and performance is an integral part of their lives.

 

Michaela DePrince

Michaela is a Sierra Leonean orphan from the war in her native country who was adopted by American parents. A war survivor with vitaligo, she has had to overcome a lot of stigmatization, culture, loss of parents and sheer survival. You can read more about her story on her website. Since my daughter is also a Sierra Leonean, Michaela's story touched me as I learned about how her passion helped her to survive great odds, unbelievable adversity, and became a light to success as a ballerina, published author at the young age of twenty two. All of this juxtaposition to my daughter who has never been to Sierra Leone, I realize how incredibly blessed she is to be an American. However, when I look at the sheer talent and determination of Michaela I realize that it's not where you come from, but what you make out of yourself. I admire this young lady and was drawn to her image and so I included it on my art journal.

 

Misty Daniella Copeland

I love the fact that Misty Copeland is the first African American Principal of the American Ballet Theater. She's a trailblazer, a role model, an inspiration to me, young girls and women everywhere. She is a published author, and has a Barbie Doll in her name by Mattel, which I plan to get my hands on one. Misty is following her passion, as I read that she is in the studio dancing 8 hours a day 6 days a week. Truly a labor of love. She talks candidly about her aches and pains, as a dancer, but she has become strong by willing herself through it, and recognizes this as a strength. I so admire her for this, you can learn more about Misty on her website.

 

Ashley Murphy

Formerly a dancer with the Dance Theater of Harlem, Ashley is now with the Washington Ballet Theater. Originally from Shreveport, LA, Ashley's pose was so striking, I had to include her in my layout. You can learn more about Ashley on the Washington Ballet Theater website.





 

Let's Play



This is a card I made to invite my niece to come play with me in my art studio. She has a proclivity for the creative arts and I wanted to share some techniques with her to give her a head start in Art Journaling or card making. I made this card using the LDRS (Little Darling Rubber Stamp) Creative set called Happy Birthday Critters. It comes with stamps and dies. On the first image, I stamped directly on the card. The second one, I stamped and then die cut it so I could have some dimension with the balloons. The third Panda Bear, I stamped and glued it down. I think I like the one stamped directly on the card the best...he is integrated into the scene. I think I would like to fussy cut them instead of using the die for this project in the future, because it looks so funny like they are just pasted there instead of being part of the scene like the fox on the Pogo stick. But I was just having fun, and it is all a learning process....we'll see in the next iteration. I just love these little critters.  I printed out the sentiment on my Brother Label maker and made a fish tail tag for it and used the same yellow orange polka dot patterned paper I used for the frame.

The die set comes with four critters, plus the balloons, hats and cake and sentiments. Since this was not a birthday card, I did not use them and created my own and just used three critters  for this project. I experimented with my Spectrum Noir glitter marker pens,  Wink of Stella glitter pens, and my Faber-Castell Pitt markers to make the grass on the bottom. Since it was alcohol based markers, I did not do my normal shading and pasting with gel matte medium. I will make this card again using my normal materials that will allow me to do more blending.

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Coming Home


This Art Journal entry was an experiment using Lavinia Art work from the UK. I love her fantasy images, and purchased these two digital images to create this layout. I also purchased the stamps and will try this again once my stamps arrive. However, I could not wait, so I purchased a digital copy of the image and paper pieced it on my layout. It is an experiment with paper piecing, collage, and textured backgrounds. What I've learned from doing this layout is that my focal points need to stand out more. In this layout, I could have done that by making the background more monochromatic so that the house and the fairy could pop off of the page. The inspiration for this page was from Rach0113 Houses of Hope. Check her out, she really is talented and makes the most beautiful Art Journal pages, she's been an inspiration to me.

That is why this is a process, a learning process. I still wanted to post it and share with my blog community.

Materials used include Glossy Accents by Ranger to get the texture on the stepping stones. I used my Cricut machine to cut out the house, the fairy and the trees. The moon, Piggy lady, butterfly and birds were stickers from my stash. I also used Faber-Castell Big Brush Artist pens and Matt Gel to seal everything on the page. I still got some bleeding on my shadows on the hills...have to work on that...but all in all, it's an enchanted piece and I like it. What do you think?

Enjoy!