12 Days of Christmas

Byhand Artists Yahoo Group once again is having a mingle - 12 Days of Christmas.
Here is my basket filled with all the gifts I started opening on Dec 13, 2010. What fun!

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Stencil Play

I bought some new stencils, and just had to have a go at them.
The background on the left is a basket weave made with a Fiskars plate.
The oval is also made with Fiskars punches.

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Mme 2AX

This is another day of just playing - using up some resources at hand.

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Art Journal Gypsies Week 4

This is my Week #4 of the Art Journal Gypsies prompts.

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Serendipity booklet

Well, I have finally made a booklet from a rather large piece of 'junk' mail. I folded it a few times and got 3 pages plus the covers, at 6 x 6 inches. Yayy!
I covered all the pages with scrapbook paper stack of the same size. I then used images from the book 'Bathing Beauties', adding lace, ribbons, rub-ons, etc.
The front cover has a piece of grunge paper, smooched with alcohol inks. The metal flourish is door hardware. The flower is made from stamped fabric, paper painted with distress crackle paint, and an antique button.
Serendipity is stamped on gauze ribbon.

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French Lunch

The challenge this month at Altered Books Yahoo Group is a lunchbag theme.
I have a serviette on the left page with paint scraped backgrounds. The right page has a mushroom paper bag, with some funny characters riding the wave!
This is mostly collage, with a stamped image of the River Seine in the centre.

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Fall Geometry

An art friend of mine gave me some wonderful serviettes, and I have been playing with them in backgrounds.

Here is one that is a kind of Fall Geometry, a subject that I really liked in high school. The right page is more of the paint scraped technique, using three colors of Fall. Then some stamping with those rubbery tools for opening jars. Look around for objects to use for stamping - great fun!

The tapes are glue backed tape used for page setters, as in sticky notes.

The bottom left of the right page has a stamping of leaves, then embossed with brass powder.

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Art Journal Gypsies Cover

This is the cover I made for my AJG Journal. It started with some molding paste, then colored with inks and acrylics. When dry I splotched on some Glass Bead gel from Golden products. I colored some places with alcohol inks. The plaque is made from air-dry clay, rolled thin and pressed over a carved jewelry box of mine, to get the bird image, then painted with H2O's. The oval glass over its face is also covered with glass bead gel. The flourish is Tim Holtz grungeboard. Oh yes! - this cover was a lot of fun to play with!

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Cup of Home

This is a spread for the Art Journal Gypsies group. It has a Fall theme with a depiction of Home and cozy!

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Art Journal Gypsies Week 2

Here is week 2 of the AJG prompts. This took a bit longer, getting all those images, but finally, lots of cutting later, I finished up!

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Delight in the Journey

Here is a little file booklet I made from a diecut kit. They were various sized mini files - it is mostly stamping and coloring with Distress Inks...then some ephemera - stickers, rub-ons, flowers. I punched two holes in the spine, and stitched with waxed linen thread, adding some baubles. Stamps from Tim Holtz and Time to Stamp.

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GPP Street Team Crusade #21

I went to previous Crusades, and am finding quite a few that I would like to try. Here is the "Irresistable - Wax rubbings" challenge...my version of it. I used the Anaglypta Wallpaper which is textured paintable wallpaper as my 'stencil' for rubbing. The papers are gorgeous, more than my pictures show. I used 8 different patterns on lightweight columnar pad, light fabric paints, and of course crayons. Easy peasy backgrounds. Give it a try.

Here is a scan of the right page - cannot seem to get a good image at all...sigh. Click on the pics for a larger image - it does help!

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Collage and Doodles

This is my attempt at doodling, my version of it! I decided to practise my doodling, which right now is quite non-existent in my spreads. Do you think I would pass the test if my life depended upon it? lol
I used up bits and pieces that were on my worktable, from either experimenting or torn pieces, vintage newspaper clippings, paper flowers - you name it, I grabbed it! The background is H2O's which explains the shiny parts (camera does not like shiny)!

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Stencilled Tags

As I was playing around with stencils for the Street Team, I got the bug to make a couple of tags. Most of the inks I used are Distress Inks.

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GPP Street Team Crusade #44

Hosted by Michelle Ward

This Crusade is called ‘In a Scrape’ and involves painting with old credit cards.

You squish a few colors onto your page, then spread with the CC. This is just plain ole fun! I started with opaque acrylics, then whittled down to translucent paints, some watercolors, sometimes gesso. Then when it was dry, I painted over stencils with the CC. I love using stencils and masks.

This is my first entry, but I will definitely visit the previous challenges and try them.

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Take time

We are back in action...yayyyy! Art Journal Gypsies, that is! Go to the site to find out what it's all about.
If this is something that interests you, please join us.
The first prompt is  "TAKE TIME TO ALLOW YOUR SOUL TO BLOOM".
I have chosen "CUPS" as my image for the duration of the lessons.
Here is my offering - this was a lot of fun to create...lots of napkin collage and stenciling.

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Nightfall

Were you a reader of pulp fiction? I bought a book from the library, and am using some images from it. So cool! However, nothing in that book was happy....lol !
The right side spread is a stamped image of an Asian lady, which had the same colour scheme, so they got together! The two other images, the man and the woman, are from the Grunge master, Tim Holtz.

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School days

Here is a School Days spread done for the September Challenge at Altered Books Yahoo group.
It has to include a pocket - I used the library book pocket; I just love those.

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3 Envelope booklet

Well, the summer has been absolutely fantastic! There has been some days devoted to artwork, but not as much as in the cooler weather, so here goes---->>>
This is a 3 envelope booklet I put together from online instructions. I don't recall where I found it, (it has a weird way of putting together) but this is what I came up with. Nothing fancy, but I did enjoy all the inking, stamping, glueing, etc!

The back page (left) is a plastic kitchen tile, a rose image covered with glass bead gel. Hard to see in the scan but it is so pretty. The front top right has a UTEE piece that I stamped on.

I love using stencils, made from just about anything.

            

More stenciling.

                 

A variety of flowers parts, inked and embossed with EP

The heart is heated Tyvek.

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RUNABOUT BAG

A few days ago I had the urge to sew a small purse - When I need to do a quick bit of shopping I don't like to take a huge purse/bag filled with...``````~~~~~~ So I picked out three ties, and went to the design table. This is what I came up with.
The strap is webbing that I colored with alcohol inks in the same colors as the bag, but it did not photograph very well.
Bag size is 8"x6"x1.5"

The Front

The Back

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WATERCOLOR CRAYON STAMPING

This is my Sunday play time. I made this little canvas after watching a video on Splitcoast Stampers.
I used one of the flowers in the previous post.
I will be framing this lil canvas...I just had to post it! It was such fun to make.

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FLOWERS

I was playing today and made a few flowers using different techniques.

The first flower is made from various sizes of paper purchased flowers. I put a brad in the centre, crumpled the flower petals, opened them up, and sprayed with mists.

Second flower is made with canvas cloth. It is not as easy to make, but I do love the look of it.

The third flower is make with a soft kraft paper - I cut out 10 circles with a decorative scissors, all the same shape. Did the same crumpling etc as with the first flower. It is more vibrant IRL. I really enjoyed making these little gems, and will be using them as accents. 

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NATURE MINGLE ALTERED BOOK SPREAD

Here is my book spread using M-B's ATC.

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NATURE ATC MINGLE

This is my ATC done for our ABCanada Yahoo Group, for altered books.
We do a swap of the ATC - the theme this time is Nature - and make a spread using the ATC. I sent mine off to Jane L.

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ROMAN SPLENDOUR

This is my last spread in Terry's Journal, a Roman theme. I did all of the May pages.

The pages have a variety of napkins, the area around the man's image has textured paints, beeswax and water-soluble crayons. The bricks are made by drawing rectangles on kraft paper, using distress inks, crumpling up, and spritzing with water.
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LE CAFE

An entry in Terry's calendar journal ...the third spread.

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FASHIONS ARE IMPORTANT

Another page in Terry's Calendar Journal.

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MAXWELL'S SILVER HAMMER

A spread in Terry's CJ - performed by the Beatles

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BY THE BEAUTIFUL SEA

This is my last entry in Juliet's journal, and off it went to Valeri.
This background is acrylic paints, with cheesecloth draped over the page whilst still wet.
I love those Parisian postcards, and was lucky to get a book of them from St.Jacobs market.

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