CJS #2 - Tape

One of my favorite bloggers is Marjie Kemper. I know first hand what a generous, kind person she is, and she is also very talented. It was exciting to see her name as one of the presenters for the 2014 version of Creative Jump Start, Nathalie Kalbach's brain child. This year we are using household items. 

When I first saw Marjie's example, I had no idea it was tape--literally could have knocked me over with a feather. Here's my take on her project. 

I used the same technique on a tag, and put yet another tag on top of that. I sop extra ink, paint, whatever with tags of all shapes and sizes. They are often great additions to art journal pages or cards. 

I love mixed media art...it's so much fun!!

Hope you're finding your fun. Thanks for visiting today.  

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.

Weekly on Wednesday - No. 234

Another week, another desk check-in, thanks to our friend Julia, at the The Stamping Ground.

Kind of clean - with a few experiments I was trying - more about those later. I have fun this week. I am still on track with my "art everyday challenge" of inchies. I let myself do a twiniche once a week.

The larger one is a series of circles made of scrap paper, collage images and a new technique I learned from Creative Jump Start, which involves transparencies (sheet protectors in my case) and paint. It has real possibilities.

The "inchie of the week" is above. It's painted with my new favorite thing - Dragonfly Wing Twinkling H20 (first off I LOVE the name of the paint) - along with a couple of other colors...and of course it begged for a dragonfly on it, so who am I to disappoint?

I'm taking Lifebook again - I wasn't going to until I realized how much I had learned last year. These next couple of pictures are from a creativity exercise we did.....pretty funny.

We were to pick one of our knick-knaks and draw it with the non-dominate hand. I actually kind of like it...I would have been way too intimidated to draw it with my right hand, so it worked. I'll be doing more of this.

And finally I leave you this week with my Wart Hog and Friend creation.

Three colors of washi tape, five pieces each, randomly applied on an index card. What is it? After looking for a while I thought maybe a horse. But as we can see, much more like a wart hog!

Sorry I wasn't able to get to everyone last week - I'm more determined this week.

Enjoy - hope you have some time to be creative this week!

Art Journaling in January

After a busy and creative December I've been having a bit of a dry spell...finally got going again at the end of this week.

When I get stuck I really do go back to the folks who brought me to the party. Dina Wakley has had a huge influence...I just love her style. As I am still developing mine, I see her work in many of my pieces. 

This page used a technique from Sami Harding as part of Creative Jump Start 2014 hosted by Nathalie Kalback. What a great way to start this year...in 2013 each of the "starters" used the same thing three ways, this year it's household items. Sami's lesson was about using transparencies which I didn't have, so I used sheet protectors to paint with fluid acrylics.  Way fun. Something I'll be going back to I'm sure.

I debated whether to put this page up or not. There are some things I like  - the face, the circles, a lot of the background. Some things I don't. The darn circles need to be a smidgen higher!!!! If I didn't move so fast I would have seen that. At 57 I'm still learning that lesson! And frankly the poor dear looks a lot like house-frau. Alas.

I will say again though, the Dylusions journals take a licking and keep on ticking (okay, another way we know my age).

And lastly. I couldn't help but notice that when I'm having a bit of difficulty getting started with art, my desk is relatively clean. When I'm in engaged, it's a disaster. Happy to say I'm getting back to normal now.

Tim Holtz Tattered Florals & SSS Shabby Chic

I, like so many in the crafting world, owe a whole BUNCH to Tim Holtz, artist, creator, and by all counts an exceptionally nice human being. So when he issued a challenge to use his Tattered Floral Dies in a new way, I knew I had to step up my game and out of my box. Turns out my Shabby Chic project also fit into the Chic to Shabby challenge over at Simon Says Stamp. Love it when that happens!

I bought two of these tins moldings during the annual Cover-Ups "Up from the Basement" sale about 6 weeks ago thinking I would use them somehow. Since I had to be brave and try something new, it seemed this was a good time to give it a go.  I used a couple of dry coats of white, buff, and yellow paint on the background. 

For the flowers I wanted LOTS of texture. So I started with some of these:

• Chipboard with crackling medium on it (a technique I tried in Creative Jump Start 2013)
• Cheesecloth & Spray Starch
• Window Screening
• Stamped Coffee Filters glued onto Tin Foil
• Packaging Plastic

Onto which I applied - in a variety of orders

• Bundled Sage Distress Paint
• Broken China Distress Paint
• Black Soot Distress Paint
• Golden Quinacridone "can't make art without it" Nickel Azo Gold Paint
• Tarnished Brass Distress Stain
• Sunflower Sparkle Perfect Pearls Mist

I used my fingers - I just couldn't get the same effect with any brush and smooched and wiped and sprayed and smooched some more until I was happy with the flowers.

I ran the packaging through a couple of the new embossing folders - loved the way the big compass worked. Enlarged the dress form on a copier and then glued it to black paper and cut it out. Pulled out some treasured buttons for the large flower centers, and since I knew basic black usually benefits from pearls I started playing around. Finally in one of the many hmmm moments, I tried the angle and liked that. Plus it gave me the opportunity to get a flower on the dress to pull it all together.

I'm really happy with this project. It made me stretch and it actually came out looking like I had envisioned it in my head.  So once again - THANKS TIM for inspiring me to reach further. Mixed Media is Me. 

Paying It Forward #1

A week or so ago there was a challenge going around Facebook which said:

Pay it forward 2013, I will make something....handmade...for the first 5 people who comment on my post...you will receive it in 2013 before the year is over and it will be handmade To qualify, you must repost this and commit to doing the same for your first 5. Have Fun. 

My friend who posted this is a ceramist and I jumped right on that band wagon, so reported and some of my friends signed up with me. I've been wanting to so come canvas work, and when I saw Hels Sheridian's theme for Sunday Stamping this week was DREAM, I knew where I was going.

This is where I ended up:

I've been following Creative Jump Start - an amazing group of lessons brought to us by the dedicated, talented, and oh so kind Nathalie Kalback. If you haven't heard about this jump over to her website and sign up for the newsletter. Every day there is a new post with the possibilities for give-aways by the sponsors and a lot of video lessons from a lot of folks I was unfamiliar with...what a gift!

The canvas is for a good friend that I had lost touch with and incorporates a lot of what I've been looking at, but I feel like it is also totally mine. Which is a VERY fun feeling. Colors I love, I've always loved and still are drawn to. Lots of misting and water, and drying and re-misting and stencils and stains and my absolute "can't make art without it" Picket Fence Distress Stains.

Something too dark? A couple of coats of picket fences and your problem is solved. I even used it on the corner pieces...which I stained with alcohol inks but then they were too dark. No problem. Picket Fences Stain to the rescue. I had a ton of fun with the alcohol inks too....I really like how the clock came out. 

In the lower left hand corner is one of the hand made beads I made last spring from small manilla tags covered with all sorts of Distress Stains using Tim's distress marble technique. 

There's a couple of things I would do differently next time, but for a start, I'm good. Thanks Hels!! If you want to play with Sunday Stampers, pop over to Hels' blog Ink on My Fingers and join the fun.