I made a short picture video on youtube of my latest journal.  Here is a picture of the page.  Check out the video too.  I took a picture of all the major steps I did in making the page.

I've been trying to improve my drawing skills so, I have spent a lot of time just doodling on paper.  I've seen a swap that is coming up to hand draw and paint a pretty girl face.  I've been working on a lot of faces because of that but have not quite got to where I'm really happy with most of them.  I'm still working on ATC's though and, as always, just love working with a variety of mediums.

 Here is a sample of some of the things I've been doing.  On the charcoal one, I've worked on trying to make the hair realistic.  I used various charcoals pencils to vary the shades and left light areas to indicate the highlights.  I think a small light bulb went off in my head as far as learning to do a better job with hair.

Happy crafting

PS:  I did also do some sewing this last week.  We have 2 dogs and therefore have dog beds in several rooms.  One of them just was worn out so, I wanted to make another one.  Both of my dogs seems to love fleece and I have a fairly large piece left over from some PJ's I made.  It's a rather boring project because it was just a 2 squares cut and sewn together (right sides together), turned, stuffed and sewn closed.  I did do some hand tying to hold the batting in place.  The dogs are happy and I'm happy because it's something I could do with materials already on hand.

Playing with Watercolor

I wanted to challenge myself to do an Art Journal page in watercolor and not use any ink (which is what I usually do).  I pulled together this page after being inspired by some youtube videos on watercolor painting.

I would like to learn to do the foreground better but, I thought I should just stop messing with the page and let it go as is.  Overall, I liked it although I have a long way to go!  I took a closer picture of the hummingbird and the red flowers which were my favorite parts.

I did add some color pencil to the yellow flower.  I wanted to bring them out more but, now they are too bold compared to the other flowers - Oh well, tomorrow is another Art day!

Art Journal page/Row Houses

I used the digital stamp again that I wrote about in my 12/28 blog entry.  On that one, I used the stamp to make ATC's.  On this entry, I'm enlarging the stamp and using it for an art journal page

 For this page, I started with a watercolor backround.  I wet the paper and then floated in blues, purples and just a little red and yellow.  When the paper was still wet (but not saturated), I used an eye dropper and dropped in 91% Isopropyl Alcohol.  This alcohol repels the paints it hits and caused small ringlets.  I think this adds some interesting texture.  I also did some blotting with a paper towel prior to applying the alcohol.

While the backround was drying, I had printed out the houses to the dimensions I wanted.  I use good quality paper in the printer (mat, not glossy) and make sure the ink is totally dry.  I then colored it in with markers and cut out the houses.  If you have trouble with your ink smearing when using digital stamps, try rubbing the image first with a kneadable eraser.  I think that does help especially with certain papers.  I would run some small test samples from your own printer to see how yours reacts.  If you have a big problem with smearing, colored pencils might work better or, print the image on a laser printer at one of those copy stores.

With the paper dry, the houses are glued in place (I used gel mat).  I used a watercolor pencil all around the edges of the roof, under the eaves, in between the houses and on the foreground to add a shadow effect.  I used a dark brown and once I drew it in, I used a brush to activate it and pull some of it out.

For the final effects, I added butterfly stamps and a sun stamp all colored in with markers.  The saying "Spread your wings and Fly" is just hand written in a light pencil then I go over it with a black marker and finally, outline it with a white gel pen.

I also inked the edges of the paper with both a blend of blue and purple

Fun stuff!!  I hope you enjoy my page and try one of your own.

 ATC's galore!

I've been busy with ATC's as usual.  Tonight, I did this cat one.  I took some pictures to show you what I did on that one.

Original paper cut to ATC size

Paint with Gesso to mute the colors a little

Sprayed with 3 different types of dylsions sprays

Final card finished with stamped letters, Cat paper (from Graphic 45), cat silouette from an internet picture and some black paper cuts at the top.  I did add a little more blue spray before since the last picture but I forgot to take another picture!

Here are some of my other recent works:

I'm having such fun.  I love making and trading ATC's

Art Journal page - Mermaid

I'm finding myself doing more and more art journal work.  For me, it's a wonderful way to experiment with different techniques and tools.  I acquired some new stamps recently which included the mermaid stamp from Julie Nutting and some sea stamps from Dylusions.  I combined those into this page.  I took some pictures of how I started laying down the backround.

Using mixed media paper, I stamped the mermaid using Stazon ink

I colored the mermaid with markers, and added some details with black ink (scales on her fin etc).  I then cut her out

For the backround, I put blues, greens and teal shades of acrylic paint and let them slightly mix.  I then dabbed them with a paper towel to create a blotchy, texture effect

I used a dot stencil and made dots in white, green and blue.  I'm trying to make it look like water bubbles

Finished page

To finish off the page, I glued on the mermaid, stamped fish and seaweed and added a saying.  In order to make the mermaid and the saying pop, I added some brown color around the edge to create a shadow effect.