on my mind, out of my mind, oh no my mind

Welcome to another post when I'm feeling out of my mind. I have a hard time transitioning to fall. I love summer even the hot and humid days. The only thing I do like are the colorful leaves. They are just starting to show themselves.

I work for a tax accountant and I start prepping for that horrid tax season in November. I think that's why I have so much anxiety for fall. I'll be busy from November through to April 15th. Also, I hate the cold.

In the fall my art is sort of a mess. I look at it and wonder where my head is at. So out of my mind is correct. To keep my mind focused I work like to work in mixed media collage. It keeps my mind and hands busy with little pieces of paper trying to make it work. I don't know why it's calming for me but it works.

This piece is called Many Moons. Here is a picture of my auditioned papers. I spend quite a lot of time auditioning pieces and sometimes they just don't work and I'm diving into my box of scraps looking for something else.

The long strips are dried wet wipes. I keep them and use them in collage all the time. I have quite a stack.  Some are a form of polyester plastic so I figure with gel medium they will last quite while and not disintegrate.

Here is the finished piece. Its hard to photograph because of all the metallic on it. What you think is white is silver.  I also added Seth Apter's Cling Rubber Stamps by Impression Obsession called Border Lines.  I'm obsessed with this stamp!

Another thing I've been doing to keep my mind focus is color. Every time I use a stencil I spray it with water and put it down on paper. I keep going on one piece of paper until I like the way it looks. When it's all dry I put it away to use another day.  Fall is here so now I'm pulling them out and coloring them in with watercolors. I'm not a fan of watercolors so in an effort to change my mind about them I try to use them.

Fall makes me feel like I have to squirrel away all my nuts for the winter and get everything in order so working on collage and coloring in a page like a coloring book keeps my mind at peace. Well, maybe for a short time!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

 

on my mind, out of my mind, oh no my mind

Welcome to another episode of My Mind!  I traveled a lot in August and I'm still trying to get my art mojo started.  Do you have that issue?  If I'm out of my art room for an extended period of time I just can't get going again. 

Everything I do I hate and just paint over. In fact, I ripped out an art journal page and threw it away. I started to get a little bit focused this weekend.  OR I tried. Sometimes I feel like I love creating to many projects in many different mediums that I can't decide what to do first.

This little 3x3 piece of wood had a great background.

 

 

Then I did this to it. What was I thinking!!!!!  Or maybe I was thinking to much.

 



I did create this on a piece of 11x14 mixed media paper but I didn't like it.

I did create this which turned out okay.

After a while I just get frustrated and have to walk away and regroup. So I love to play on SnapChat and a in photo app called PhotoLab.

  

 

The second mermaid is my daughter.

 

 

Lately, I feel like I'm out of my mind. My hands and brain won't work together. I think I'm heading into my art journals again. I think its time to play with Mermaid photos!  Don't you?

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

 



TCW Gel Medium Gloss - When it Dries You Can See Right Through IT!

Hi Everyone.
Today I have a small Feather Abstract to show you. It's 5"x7" and I even have a few step out pictures.  I'm creating a Semi-Transparent Journal and this is a piece of that plastic I'm using.

I started out by using a brayer and adding paint to the background.  While the paint was wet I put a stencil on top and wiped away the paint. Sorry I don't remember which stencil I used. It was from The Crafters Workshop.

The Crafter’s Workshop provided me with stencils and mediums to create this project.

The opinions I share are solely my own because I do love to use them.

 

Then I added a stamp to the background with Archival Ink. The stamp is an old unmounted stamp and I do not know where it came from.

 

 

Here is where the fun happens. I added the feathers from TCW389 Fancy Feathers with TCW Gel Medium Gloss.  As you can see its white while its wet.

 

 

 BUT when it dries it's crystal clear.  I added some titanium white Golden High Flow Acrylic around the leaves.

 

 

 

Here is the finished piece.  I'm in love and will be making more of these.

 

 

I hope you try some TCW Gloss Gel Medium. It's so much fun to work with. Can you imagine all the possibilities?

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Forgetting My Creations

I keep forgetting to share my Design Team projects for The Crafters Workshop here. Today I'm going to share a few projects with links to the tutorials so you can see how they were made. You can see the tutorials by clicking on the date.    Lets get started!

MAY 15, 2018:

MAY 1, 2018: This is a quick and easy technique to create backgrounds

APRIL 17, 2018

APRIL 3, 2018 - Tea Bag Art

MARCH 20, 2018

The Crafters Workshop provided me with stencils and mediums to create all these projects. The opinions I share are solely my own because I do love to use them.

 

 

FEBRUARY 20, 2018

 



That's it! I'm all caught up. I hope you enjoy my tutorials and check out the rest of the Design Teams' projects.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

 



A New Collage: Mellow Yellow

I love collage. I like going through all the bits and pieces of paper I've saved. There are times where I just dump out my scrap drawer and find pieces for collages. I put them in separate envelopes so I can use them in the future. Sometimes I just dump them right back in the drawer because I don't like the combination anymore.

This collage I decided to create a background using white and yellow acrylic paints and a stencil called Tuscan Floral by The Crafters Workshop. My collages usually have lots of negative space but this time I didn't want to leave the background all white.

 

Next I took my pieces and auditioned them to decide where I wanted them. The yellow flower is actually the bottom of a water bottle. I tried to use it to create some stamped flowers but it didn't work that way I had hoped.  The blue and yellow papers are scrapbook paper, dry wall tape (holes), and two other pieces of scrap paper.

 

There are so many pieces I keep that I do go through it and throw some of it away. I know I can hear some of her screaming NOOOOOOOOOO!  When this drawer is to full to close, I go through it all.

 

 

 

Here it is finished. The bee I think was part of a piece of scrapbook paper but I've had him forever so I'm not sure. Oh, the two little greenish circles on the left is bubble wrap. See I keep way too much!!!



Thank you so much for stopping by!

A Big White Blob: I just went with it.

Yes here is the blog.

It was supposed to be a fine like of white paint.

The tip of the bottle, which was old, broke off and this happened.

So I just went with it. I love it.

First, here is a list of the supplies I used.

• 8x10 Canvas Panel. You can buy these at your local art or craft stores.
• Gesso - Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft
• PITT artist pens - cold grey and black
• Gelatos - orange soda, bubble gum, red cherry, passion fruit, boysenberry, lime and margarita mix
• Mini Circle Grid by The Crafter's Workshop - TCW203s
• Rubber Stamp (sorry no idea who makes it)
• 1 piece of deli paper

LINKS TO PRODUCTS:

The Crafter's Workshop Stencils

Faber-Castell Products

 Here are the steps on how I created it.

Step One: I used a palette knife to add gesso to the canvas. I love using a palette knife because it gives the canvas texture.

Step Two: I added an alphabet stamp to the background with the cold grey PITT artist pen

Step Three: I love writing or scribbles in my pieces. I used a black PITT artist pen to add my writing. Yes, it does say something but that's between me and my canvas.

 

 Step Four:  I started at the top and added  orange soda, bubble gum, red cherry, passion fruit, sprayed it with water and used my finger to blend the colors.  I repeated the same technique with   boysenberry, lime and margarita mix for the bottom half.

Step Five: Once the top and bottom were all blended I sprayed it again with water and layered a piece of deli paper on the top. I do this to take off some of the color. I like it to look a little distressed in places. It's like monoprinting without the plate.

This is what the deli paper looked like.

Step Six: I then used the Mini Circle Grid stencil and a baby wipe and took off more color. I chose to only do it on the one side of the canvas. 

Step Seven: I wanted to add more white in the middle of the canvas where the colors meet.  I added gesso in a fine tip bottle with a little water BUT it was an old bottle and the tip broke and put a blob of paint on the canvas instead.  So I went with and just squirted out the rest of the paint which gave me the perfect finish to my painting.

Here is a picture of the blob of paint before I show you the finished canvas. Remember there are no mistakes in art. You just go with it and you will find it wasn't a mistake at all.

Here is the finished painting.

Although you can use gel medium on top to seal the Gelatos, I use Krylon Acrylic Sealer Spray. The  Gelatos are water colors and if you add more water or something wet they will run.  I found if I take my time and spray lightly they don't run.  This piece has four layers of the sealer.

I hope you find this an easy way for your to create something special for your home.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Tag Swap G+ Community

In June I joined a tag swap in a G+ Community.

These are the tags I received from +June Walker.

They are amazing.

I love the face and all the colors.

 

Isn't this cute?

I love the little heart that dangles from the top.

Love the red, white and blue on this tag.

I wish I can draw birds.

Here is my card I sent to June.

It didn't start out very pretty.

I didn't think I had any before and after pictures but I found them.

Here is what it looked like to start with.

It was in my box of tags that are full of paint, spray inks, etc.

Quite ugly but wait until you see the next picture.

So I tried to use a weird color combination and some stencils.

Ugly!!! So Ugly.

In the end I completely repainted it and added modeling paste, beads, brads and glitter.

Love this. So pretty. It was a perfect tag for June.

Thank you June!

I love your tags.

Thanks so much for stopping by!