Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Art Journal Pages.


One of my very favorite things to do as an artist is to build layers. It takes time, and i love every second! Sometimes i get so carried away that there's nothing left of some of the previous layers. i really love the look of painting/smudging white on the final layer to soften and conceal some areas.

Thanks for looking! Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Art=Freedom.

Just a reminder that when you sit down to create, don't be afraid. Your art can be anything you want it to be. And if you don't like what you've made, it can always be cut up and pasted into a collage. Or recycled. Or hidden away, never to be seen again. No matter what, you'll learn something from your mistakes, and often mistakes turn into happy accidents or the discovery of a new technique. Just relax and play and you can't go wrong. Time spent making art is never time wasted.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Not your average Halloween card...

i make cards for all kinds of occasions, but for some reason i rarely make any for Halloween. Recently, though, i've been inspired by non-traditional and vintage Halloween images from back issues of Somerset Studio and RubberStampMadness. i'm realizing that Halloween cards don't always need to be cute or covered with pumpkins and ghosts. This card came from that recent revelation.
i love playing with Distress Inks, so this card was a blast to make.

Ingredients: CS/paper-Colorbok, stash, watercolor paper; stamps-Square Face Frame HamptonArt, sun unknown, swirls/star from "Chocolate Chalet" Cloud 9 Design, star "Loves Me, Loves Me Not" Technique Tuesday, text "Distress Background" Limited Edition, Be Magical unknown; ink-Tim Holtz Distress Ink, Ranger Archival; star brad-Jo-Ann Scrap Essentials; Stickles; pop-dots.


Have a magical and inspiring day!

Sunday, September 27, 2009

A peek inside my current art journal.

First off, thanks to anyone who still visits my blog despite my sporadic posting habits. We're still without high speed internet at home, though apparently the phone company's working on that...ahem. i can't believe we moved from the boonies to a more populated area and still don't have high speed available, aside from satellite, and i am NOT paying those prices.

Anyway, i hope everyone's doing ok! We're good, though the economy is really hurting the tattoo business. Looks like this stay-at-home mom might be looking for work soon after many years of only working at home. That will be a big change! Wish me luck!

With my son back in school, i have more time to work in my studio, between laundry, cooking and cleaning house, ofcourse. i still make lots of cards, but have lately focused more on my lifelong passion for mixed media and collage. The blank book i got in February for art journaling is now about halfway to completion. Today i'm sharing a few snippets of it.


These pages were inspired by an issue of Somerset Studio (or maybe it was one of their other publications...?) that focused on black and white. It's not visible in the photo, but there's a lot of texture here, with embossing and paint. In the bottom photo, the top reads "art saves my life".

Thanks for stopping by, and i hope y'all have a wonderful day!