Art

The completed work of an artist which is the expression of creativity or imagination, or both that portrays a mood, feeling or tells a story; works of art collectively.

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entering my art journal page in:

Simon Says Monday Challenge - This is where the cowboy rides away

OK, so the prompt made me think of campfires out in the prairie under star filled nights...which then morphed into a more "citified" oil lantern with moths fluttering around it ...

The background was made using a paint etching technique. The first layer are random colors of Ranger Distress Paints which I then covered with a thick layer of an acrylic/glaze mixture and then scratched through while the paint was still wet. A shot of Maya Roads whiteout was spritzed over the top and then it was sealed with Helmar Crystal KOTE Gloss Varnish. 

Loved creating the lamp as my centerpiece, cut from the Cricut Country Life cartridge, p. 64 and then shadow outlined with my pens and outlined the glass globe with stickles. The flame was created by free hand drawing it onto the vellum and then coloring it in with Sakura Glaze pens and the white Sharpie.

The butterflies began their life has very pretty dimensional butterflies from K&Co. but moths aren't that pretty to me, plus the pink and blue colors wouldn't work either. So, I did what any self respecting mixed media artist would do...I tore them apart and inked and grunged them up! I even added a layer of Ranger Distress Crackle Paint over them!

Superfluous

“A kiss is a lovely trick, designed by nature, to stop speech when words become superfluous.”– Ingrid Bergman

: beyond what is needed : not necessary

pronunciation

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Simon Monday Challenge - It's a mystery

Creative Inspirations - Inspired by Anything Goes

I discovered by accident a way to combine the Frosted Designs October and November Mixed Media Paper Kits, if you want to know how then you can click on

Happy Accident = Happy Artist

or it can just remain a mystery...;)

I've never used an embroidery hoop to create a wall hanging before, seen lots of other people do, so this was a first for me.

Creative Inspirations -Fairy Dust, Copper, Pumpkin,Mint

Deco Art - black

Prima - flower, leaves

Helmar - 450 Quick Dry Adhesive

 K&Co. - butterfly 

ribbon and wheat stalk - misc.

Postprandial: adjective

occurring after a meal

pronunciation
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Paper Smooches - August 19-25 Cool Shades challenge

All That Stickles -"The Great Outdoors" Linky Party

I took the digi image and enlarged it for my horizontal card, knowing that it would pixelate but I had planned on outlining it with liquid pearls anyway. I also added an extra outline of stickles to make sure the original inked outline wouldn't show. I gave it a shot of Goosebumps too so when I inked in his color, he would have even more texture.

Coral was the hardest color to come up with, so at first I mixed stickles together but it wasn't quite right until I added a gelato layer over the stickles on the beak and feet, I love the yummy layers of yellow,orange and melon to get a wonderful coral color.

Paper Smooches - free digi
Viva Decor - Liquid Pearls
Ranger - stickles
Helmar - Liquid Scrapdots
K&Co. - pattern paper
I Imagine - Goosebumps spray
Recollections - glitter sticker letters

Paper Playtime - Challenge #16 Lots of Yellow

Ch# 16 Lots of YELLOW

Begins: Monday, Aug 5

Ends: Sunday, Aug 18

Sponsor: CTMH, Lucy Kelleher http://lucyk.ctmh.com/

Prize: $10 Gift Certificate to Online store

(must have USA address)

I love simple, easy to make cards, no stress = happy card maker! The most time was in arranging the sentiment to go around the butterfly shape, which I did on my Print Artist program.

Graphic 45 - solid cardstock
K&Co. - butterfly
Copics - edges
misc. from stash - pattern paper

Try it on Tuesday - Collage with a twist: must include some script

I love collaging, there is just something fun about getting all gluey and messy!

I wrote a post called "Box Artist" the other day because I am always humbled and amazed when someone buys them. I never thought of myself as a box "designer" but I now received my first commissioned box so I'm extremely thrilled.

Like most of my boxes, they have tops that are held together by Velcro. I love using the MS doilies because they are actually quite sturdy.

The ribbon on this one is adhered onto the bottom of the box to keep it from slipping. I also didn't have to do anything to the inside of the box except paint it as she is wrapping the gift in tissue paper to put inside it.

Here is an up-close of the collage, I tore book test and a scrapbook paper into sections and glued them on, next a layer of printable butterflies

followed by a layer of tissue paper to soften the effect.

entering this in:
Creative Inspirations: Inspired by Anything Goes
Moxie Fab's - Tuesday's Trigger: It's Collagical

 Martha Stewart - miniature doilies
Apple Barrel - acrylic paint
velvet ribbon - stash
K & Co. - paper
flower, and fluffy "thing" - JoAnn's

Here are the butterflies, feel free to use them,

 they were a free printable that I got from Donna Downey.

Eisensteinian: adjective

From Sergey Eisenstein (1898-1948) Russian

Think: montage, montage, montage.

This rounds out our top 10 words inspired by filmmakers

and again, this one isn't actually IN the Merriam-Webster dictionary

although they offer it up as a word!

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House of Cards - Shabby & Vintage

365 Cards - Day 202 - Super Sketchy Sunday

It's so nice to have a sketch to follow, takes all the stress away. 

Love the felt flower layered over the lace. 

DCWV - Shimmer Stack

Prima - butterfly paper

Martha Stewart - doily

Maya Road - felt flower

brad, lace - misc.

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Simon Says Monday Challenge Blog - Celebrate

Craftin Desert Diva's - Craft It Up & Link It Up Party #11 - Birthdays

Crafty Cardmakers -#96  Birthday

( The balloon is hand drawn. )

My Little Shoebox - stamp

StazOn Ink

Faber Castell - PITT pen

Ranger - Distress Stain

K&Co. - pattern paper
CARDSTV - sentiment stamp

Warholian: adjective

From Andy Warhol (1928?-1987) American

Audacious, minimalist, unwatchable.

pronunciation

( one of my favorite artist when I was in High School...just in case you wanted to know )

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Aud Sentiments - Challenge 85 - With Sympathy

Along with many of you, I agree that sympathy cards may be one of the most difficult cards to make. I think the reason is, it's because it's such a tender time in someone's life and you want the card to reflect the importance of the moment.

I used one of my Gelli prints for a background sheet, love the way the butterfly picks up on the colors of it. I also really like this sentiment for a sympathy card.

butterfly - K&Co.

script paper - My Minds Eye

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I am also very remiss in announcing the winner from Scraptown Lady's giveaway which I was suppose to do yesterday. I know this isn't much of an excuse but I dropped my cable company and got Netflix instead and am now currently obsessed with watching TV on my laptop instead of doing my usual routine of blogging and such. My apologies!

So without further ado....the winner is:

Pam of  Scrap-n-Sew Granny

Contact me at sandeesetliff@yahoo.com with your address so I can get your prize out to you!

Congratulations!

demotic: adjective

of, relating to, or written in a simplified form of the ancient Egyptian hieratic writing

or

 common, popular

and

 of or relating to the form of Modern Greek that is based on everyday speech

pronunciation

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Yesterday was the second day of spring...huh? I woke up to this and thought I must be dreaming!

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entering this little bunny in:

 

Die Cuttin Divas - Challenge #107 Use a bunny

So do you eat the tail or the ears first?

Ears for me, lol...although I haven't had a chocolate bunnies in eons!

Cricut  Craft Room - Easter Seasonal 2010

( This was offered in the CCR as a free cut, made my base card shape and then the cover, and the bow )
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Inkspirational Challenge #12



I love having a sketch challenge and trying to come up with an alternate way to do it yet keep within the parameters of the sketch requirements. I was worried at first at the mono chromatic aspect to the challenge but once I began digging through my stash it all came together on it's own. I just love that!

I have used Liquid Scrapdots for many tiny things before but I think this little bee that I fussy cut out is the tiniest of them all!

ANOTHER reason I love Liquid Scrapdots is the layering effect. I know that twine and burlap aren't that thick, but when you want your die cut to "float" equal to the material; it sure makes that feat possible with Liquid Scrapdots. With pop dots, you have a height you cannot manipulate, but with LSD, anything is possible! I used the LSD under the flower and under the top portion of the clay pot.

American Crafts - pattern paper
Cricut - Stretch Your Imagination cartridge, p. 80 ( tag )
Close to my Heart - ink marker
Really Reasonable Ribbon - Hemp ribbon ( bow )
Prima - flower ribbon
Helmar - 450, Liquid scrapdots
K&Co. - Gem
Ranger - Liquid Pearls
rub on sentiment,twine, clay pot, glitter flower, burlap - misc.

Reminder: Paper Playtime has their Challenge #6 to Use a Bee up an running.

Grotesque: noun

 a style of decorative art characterized by fanciful or fantastic human and animal forms often interwoven with foliage or similar figures that may distort the natural into absurdity, ugliness, or caricature

 

pronunciation

 

And here I thought they were gargoyles!! So, did you know that gargoyles have a purpose? Do you know what it is? Answer at the bottom of the post ;)

 

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Carey took me to the Biltmore Estate Inn for a 5 star breakfast!

And it was deeeellliishhh!

 We needed a fortifying breakfast cause we were going to the tip top of Biltmore today. See the flag flying up there? That's where we are heading...by stairs...lots of stairs....

 I was standing in the Italian Garden when I took the above picture and here is the view of where I was, from the top of Biltmore.
Here is the view in reverse, once we were up top.
Breath taking, windy and cold....but oh so worth it...every single step!

And who says that George Vanderbilt didn't have a sense of humor? Grotesques with butt cracks...lol

and boobs!

These are things you don't get to see on the ground!

 

 Did you know that a gargoyle is a spout in the form of a grotesque human or animal figure projecting from a roof gutter to throw rainwater clear of a building?

So now you know the difference between a gargoyle and a grotesque!

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and #25 of 30 Mother's Day cards in 30 days

LOL, I was soooooooooooo tired last night, I could barely make my card, but so far I have upheld the making of a Mother's Day card every day.This card makes me laugh seeing it the next day, I know I'll have to do something to make it better...any suggestions?

ok...update....I think it's better now :)

Cricut - Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge ( created in Cricut Craft Room )
Hambly - butterfly sticker
K&Co. - flourishes
Prima - rub ons
Heidi Grace - glittered flower
Heidi Swapp - black bling
Faber Castell - PITT pens, silver metallic gelato
Traveling Typewriter - font
pattern paper - from my stash
Helmar - Liquid Scrap dots

Year in Review

Limor Weber posted a challenging challenge, lol

December Challenge : A Year in Review

Using any type of journal you choose. Mine is a Maya Road chipboard mini album.

I want to start off by mentioning that I don't do art journals. I don't make "all about me albums". But in the last 3 years I have undergone some changes that were forced on me. So 3 years ago, I did make some "all about me" lay out pages, and I did make an mini album full of quotes that helped me get through a very rough time in my life.

So I was at first concerned with being able to do this challenge. If it wasn't for the prize that's offered, I don't think I would have even tried, ( so you can see how badly I want to try out Pan Pastels, lol ). But now I am glad I did because I can see the proof that I am evolving, changing for the good. I started off with my "word for the year" for 2012 which was FOCUS, so I titled my album
"Focus on the Possibilities".

The front of the album is acrylic so I adhered a Creative Imaginations overlay using Aleene's Tacky Glue to the front, ( dried crystal clear!! )added a Prima flower, Ranger's stickles and glitter sticker letters by Recollections.

I used Ranger's Watermelon alcohol ink to color the back of the heart and outlined the wings with stickles. Left side was easy, the right side on the other hand had proved to problematic, I was trying so hard to be creative that it failed miserably and I ended up painting it with black acrylic paint. In hindsight, using a gloss paint and shiny gold foil letters by Pioneer was just not a good combination. Just too hard to read. But I do like the puffy butterflies from K&Co. that accent the theme of the quote about Happiness.

 

On this next page, I think I finally started to enjoy the process, and discovered that by using by Pinterest quotes I had collected, I could virtually trace my last year and I began to enjoy seeing how my attitude was last year compared to where I am now. I began to relax and have fun.

 

  First I put down a layer of gesso and then crumbled some blue Conte pastel on top, using my credit card applicator ( very fancy tool ) to smooth it out. I really liked the outcome, it looks like wood grain. Very cool.

The next page was a lesson I already knew but had forgotten which is, Ranger's Dylusion spray inks need to have a fixative sprayed on them before you add a gel medium on top. Yeah, I know, lost my beautiful background but kept working anyway, no time to cry over spilt milk. I became a woman on a mission.

 

Encouraged by the gesso and pastel mixture I decided to try a similar technique but with my modeling paste. I combined red and yellow pastels and mixed it together, spread it out over my brick stencil. Loved the effect. Used Ranger's Distress Marker and Faber Castell PITT pen for the wording.

 

This page was also a "oh wow" moment for me, lol First I covered the chipboard with masking tape  and then drew with my Conte Pastel pencils. It had a VERY smooth finish to it. I have learned that pastels and masking tape go well together, go figure, huh? Finished off with Faber Castell PITT pens. Background and flowers all done in pastels.

 

The heart was gesso'd first and then 3 different pastel colors crumbled on top, be careful to try and not blend them together when smoothing them out. The background of the page is colored in with pastels and blended together with my fingertip. A mixture of pens and stickers to finish it off.

 

The next page was more of a play in Faber Castell's gelatos. They covered the plain chipboard very well :) I did use some pastels to shade the bucket and the tone down the word strips.

The last page's background was created with assorted sprays. I printed the seahorse clip art on some text book paper and colored in the image with my Faber Castell PITT pens, the seaweed is made with Liquitex Soft Body Cobalt Teal acrylic paint and added some gold micro beads. I used pastels to shade in the edges of the book print and around the edge of the page itself.

So there is my year in review...not such a bad year...I can see myself becoming more positive and achieving more goals!