I'm back! It's time for Art Journal Every Day!

Our daughter came home for a quick visit and Sunday we brought her to the airport for her trip home. I wish she could have stayed the week but she has to work.  She was only here for 4.5 days and it went by so fast.  This art journal page I made before she came home but didn't have time to post it.  I will be adding it to Julie's Art Journal Every Day challenge.

 

It has lots of layers and some modeling paste for some texture.  I wrote in the bottom left corner and it reads, "I wish the summer would never end".  I realized this summer that I should live some place where it's always warm or at least it never snows. I'm already panicking about the winter and it's not here.

 

Here is a close up of all the layers and modeling paste.

 

 

 

Thank you for stopping by.

 

 

 

Operation Reorganization is Done (for now)!

Sorry I have been missing in action. First cleaning up my art room took longer than I thought it would and the other my daugther is here for a long weekend so I'm enjoying my time with her. She heads home on Sunday but I wish she could stay longer!  Yesterday and today I treated her to some new clothes. Learning to live in a big city is expensive and she generally just has enough money to do what she needs to but no extra. I'm exhausted from shopping! 

I thought I would show you my art room now that I have finished it. I only worked on half the room the other half will have to wait.  I decided to reorganize because the room is small but I felt like my art supplies were closing in on me.  After a trip to Ikea I knew what I wanted to use.

Here is what it looked like before:

 

 

The three chests of drawers where not working for me. I couldn't really put all my stamps in so I can see them. They were piled on top of each other. There was just so much stuff on top of things that it just felt disorganized.  Don't get me wrong generally the art room is a mess anyway when I'm working on projects but lately I just can't find what I'm looking for.  I also wanted more room on my table.

 

Here is what it looks like now:

 

 

I bought the white chests of drawers at Ikea. There are actually three but the wider drawers I stacked.  I kept the smaller chest of drawers to hold all my chipboard and my favorite ribbons.  The wider drawers hold rubber stamps only.  I  don't have much room left. There is only one drawer that doesn't hold stamps but holds stencils and templates. The narrow drawers hold more rubber stamps mostly cling mounts and acrylic stamps, embossing powders, alcohol inks, reinkers for ink pads, and UTEE and the melting pot.  The small set of two drawers with my big shot  is great because it rolls. So when I need it I can just bring it over and cut away. The bottom drawer holds all my dies and the top drawer is alphabet stamps. The best part is that I was able to really move stuff off my table giving me a little more room to work on.

 

Here is what the opposite corner looked like before:

 

 

A cluttered mess! As you can see there is so much in this corner and so much on my desk.  The biggest change was moving all the paper so I had more room for the supplies I use on a regular basis. The shelf unit has a drawer at the bottom and it was filled with junk.  I took everything out of it and threw most of it away and I now store all that paper in there.

 

Here is what it looks like now. You can see how much more open and less cluttered it is. It is so nice to sit at my table and not feel claustrophobic.

 

 

Can u tell the difference?  It just looks so much more cleaner, open and bright. I still might make a few more changes. It hasn't been this clean in a long time and it won't last for long!

 

I will be back next week!

My daughter actually made her Christmas gifts.

I will be posting what she made.

Easy Peasy and so inexpensive!

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time for Reorganization!

Just letting you know I won't have any posts this weekend (maybe one).  I am reorganizing my art room. It's time. I bought a couple of drawer units from Ikea and I think I will be able to put all my rubber stamps in them and get rid of two huge pieces of furniture (maybe more).  I think I will have a little more room.

Here is what my room looks like now. I'm showing you this picture because you can see those drawers I have all my stamps in. You should see the most changes there but I may move a few more items. The chest of drawers that holds my paints (fan on top) I hope to get rid of too.

I'm also taking everything down off all the walls.  One small section of a wall will be an inspiration spot. I haven't decided how I'm going to do it yet. Any suggestions?  This room as never been painted since we moved in. It was supposed to be a guest bedroom, then it was a play room for my daughter then my art room. When I can afford to get all the carpets replaced in the house and put down a floor I will paint the room. Until then I can play around with what I want to hang on the walls.

Have a great weekend

Thanks for stopping by!

Stood still as if time had stopped........

Was on a piece of scrap paper that gave me the idea for this piece. All the paper on this are scraps on my table. The tree in the background is from a Cricut cartridge called October 31.  I use this tree a lot.

Can you see the bats in the background. Thats the great thing about spray inks you can dry them and spray more on top for some neat effects.  Here is a close up so you can see the bats.

I decided to put it in a frame. It was hard to take a picture of with the glare but you get the general idea of what it looks like.

I'm starting to buy frames for some of my art pieces. I may try to sell some. I am definitely bringing a few pieces into work with me to decorate my area.

Thanks so much for stopping by!



My New Fav Colors

Yellow, Pink and Orange. For some reason I can't get enough of these colors and with Dylusions spray inks they are bright, bright, bright!

This is a 12x12 size of watercolor paper. I know 12x12! I thought I would never go there but I did. It already had the string on it for some unknown reason. I found this piece in my stash of starts and unfinished projects. While I was spraying something else I sprayed a glob of yellow on it and all of a sudden inspiration hit.  I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

I just kept spraying the new colors and adding water a few times and let it drip. Oh before I sprayed more than one color, I added gel medium through a stencil and let that dry.  The flowers are old prima flowers I had and the photograph of the tulips I fussy cut a little before I put it on the page.

Thats it! Let me know what you thing.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Halloween Inspiration

I'm on a roll now with Halloween. I've been using every little scrap left on my table. Here is a 4x4 claybord mixed media piece that was fun to make.  Except for the tree (Red Lead Paper Works) everything is scraps off my table.

Thank you for stopping by!

Thrill, Chill and Be Scary!

On most blogs lately I have been seeing Christmas in July. I just can't do it yet but I can do Halloween. I can do Halloween probably all year. This is a 5x5 mixed media piece that I made this past weekend. 

The first thing I did was add texture to the claybord using modeling paste. Once it was dried I added some acrylic paints and a few sprays. Then just pulled my box of Halloween goodies. The crow, frame, stamp used on frame, and the thrill, chill and be scary are all from Red Lead Paper Works. Everything else is scraps from my Halloween box.

If you look closely at the picture above the bat, web and the background looks like its dusty. The one thing I love to do with all my mixed media projects is spray Krylon UV-Resistant Clear sealer.  The fantastic thing about it is if you spray it very close and too much of it, it will leave a film.  That film is perfect for Halloween.

The roses were white paper roses from my stash. I sprayed them with Dylusions Spray Ink in lemon, sunset and the brown.  You can also see the texture in the background on both these pictures. You can also see the dusty black ribbon underneath the roses.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Art Journal Every Day

Hello! Today I have a quick journal page to show you for Julie's Art Journal Every Day. At work we are purging and in a box I found a plastic tube and some gears from an old laser printer so I thought they would make great tools for paint. 

I painted the background with black gesso then used my new tools to add a design. The butterfly is make from dry wall tape and my works were written in a white ink pen. The sentiment is actually perfect for this week. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Every Day Blessings

Today I have a frame to show you. It's painted in yellow, red and orange acrylic paints. I added Rock Candy Crackle paint on everything. 

From the picture below you can see I added a little texture to the frame. It's hard to see but they are little stars that I added with gel medium and a CW template.

The background paper is from I piece that I made a while ago. Can you see the little stars and the crackle?  It makes for interesting texture on the frame.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Ziafly

Another one of my favorite stamp companies is Stamp Zia.  I love all their designs. This stamp is called Ziafly.  It was originally was on a card but I didn't like it. She was colored in the Dylusions Spray Inks.  If you look in the background you will see a stamp in black ink that is also a Stamp Zia stamp. It's about 4 inches in diameter. I will be using them a little more often so you will be seeing more.  I have three more of their stamps but they are large ones.  When I bought these stamps they are already permanently on acrylic instead of wood.  The leaves are Dylusions rubber stamps which I stamped in white and embossed it in white plus on a tag sprayed with Dylusions inks. The words are a portion of a stamp from Red Lead.

It's very different but I love it. The colors make me happy!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

a Cloud in her apron pocket

I finally placed an order with Red Lead Paper Works and found the order on my door stop when I arrived home from work on Friday night. It was a wonderful surprise. I love their products but never placed an order until now. I love quotes and they have wonderful stamps. You should also check out all their Halloween products.

This canvas is a 4"x12" canvas. It's an odd size. I started it by using a stencil and added texture to it with gel medium, added acrylic paint in robin egg blue, aqua and white. Then it sat in my art room for two weeks because my head and my hands were not cooperating. When I open my box on Friday night I found all my inspiration a die cut dress, quote and cloud stencil.

I used some vintage dictionary paper for the clouds. I used the cloud stencil to trace and cut them out. If you were to look closely to the dictionary paper you will see it's the definition of clouds. 

The dress color was decided by the ink spray on the canvas. I was spraying something else and it got on this canvas so I ran with it. The little blue birds are made out of wood. I used Dylusions spray ink on them. The letter stamp is also Dylusions.

If you look closely you can see the texture I added with the stencil and gel medium. The little blue dots on the canvas is from a Stampin Up stamp. My drawer of Stampin Up stamps need a little organizing. I take them out of their boxes but just throw them in the drawer so I can't tell you which set they are from.

The dress is one of the die cut dresses I bought from Red Lead. There are four designs. The lace I bought for $2 at Joanne's. I always check out their remnants for lace. 

Here it is again so you don't have to scroll back up to see it again.

Thanks so much for stopping by!