CJS Projects - #1

I am really enjoying Nathalie Kalbach's Creative Jump Start 2014. As I've mentioned before we're using household items in new ways this year. Here's a new take on bubblewrap.

I had a blast with the technique that Andrea Gomoll taught us. Parts of the finished product are very painterly, parts of it are transparent...and its all full of luscious color. MMMMM. I made several pieces, but this was my favorite.

The colors reminded me a specific Claude Monet painting he did later in life...so I kind of went for a similar layout in my art journal.

One of the benefits of the bubblewrap process is you end up with very cool parchment paper as well, which provided most of the background for the spread.

I just glued it down and added a few splatters of ink to tie it to the white space. It made me so happy, I added a couple of little dyed tags with "Joy to the World".

Life is good today. Hope that's true for you too. Thanks for stopping by the Fun Room.

Simon Says "Be A Queen"

I said "okay".

It was easy (which was good since I had two hours to make the card, photography it, put it up, and then make the link). When I first got the Wendy Vecchi  stamp I thought, oh my goodness when will I ever use it. It was only because I hadn't met Dyan Reavely and her amazing stamps. So far I have four of her collections and must have more. Not to mention the spray ink Ranger is now carrying in amazing, glorious colors. But again, I digress.

There is weekly challenge at Simon Says Stamps, and the challenge this week was Kings and Queens. I was poking around the web while listening to the Super Bowl and found the link to the challenge on Ellen Vargo's  blog -  who's part of their design team and has many other excellent attributes like her art is way cool. Any way I had picked up the mail this morning and found packages full of art parts and some of Dyan's stamps. There are other things I could/should be doing, but I couldn't wait to play.

The background is three different Tattered Angels sprays on watercolor paper. I used white acrylic paint on a natural sponge and dabbed it on the background. Next I smeared some Grape Jelly ink over top of the white so it was toned down, a bit.  But here's what I like the best. I ripped apart the packaging and smeared some Mustard Seed Distress Ink on the bubble wrap and popped that on top of the whole think. Although you can't see it in the picture, the stems on the leaves are covered with Rock Candy Stickles and it reacted with the Mustard Seed Ink, which I thought was way cool.  

So there you have it. I didn't mean to be a Queen, but the crown I had was a perfect fit and so....there you go.