Deco Pages

Two more deco pages.

Two more decos...

I started the deco above- front and back pages - on photoshop. Added some stamping and a bird velum overlay.



Again I started these in photoshop and added ribbon and old photos to complete them.

It's been a while since I posted

Even though I haven't posted I have managed to squeeze in some art it the past month. Most of my art projects have been friends deco books, a few little beauties swaps and greeting cards for family and friends.

In addition to that I have been very busy creating my hair clips for local boutiques. I have add on three shops in the month of May alone. So I have to fill the orders for Spring/Summer and get them in before I miss out on the summer shoppers. Once I get over the big rush I can work at a easier pace creating next seasons.

Anyway, the images below show some of my current projects. If you look closely you may even see some of your art.. little beauties, backgrounds and inches used in my projects. Thanks for stopping in!

Decos

Greeting Cards

- birthday card

- birthday & father's day (work in progress) cards

- Mother's Day card

- birthday card

Little Beauties

Art Deco pages

These are the front and back pages I made for an art deco book. The leaf print in the background was from a "little beauties - leaf" swap that Susie made. It was the perfect addition.

Art from the weekend

Over the weekend I picked up Spackle. I wasn’t sure how to use it so I inquired with my friends at Art-venture. One suggestion was to use it to create a raise stencil image.

Using a border image and the Spackle and a touch of paste and viola – it adds a nice touch to your art piece. I used it on a calendar (using the Oct image from one of my art groups Art Exercise). I also added it to the gesso canvas I made previously. I liked making the calendar and decide to make another one (without the Spackle) to use as a hostess gift for an upcoming swap.

My next Spackle project will be to create a textured background.

New Art Excercises

I have a few projects to share with you from my art groups. One group offers up three or four “Creative Art Exercises” each month. This month it is #1 Gesso, #2 Shades of Autumn, and #3 Make something with the image provided. I have complete exercises #1 & #2 combining the two to create an ATC.

Autumn-Nature ATC
Steps:
1. The small multi-hued square is made from gesso mixed with varies shades of tube watercolor pounced onto the cardstock with bubble wrap.

2. I cut the gesso strip into 1 inch squares and bound them with gold wire and attached it to a wine color square to the back.
3. This was placed on a Gold background I stamped with a leaf motif. I added a strip of green mulberry paper running down the side.
4. A small bird sticker was placed on the bottom.

Tip-in for October 07- Children
Funny and playful things come to mind. My first thought was the nursery rhyme “Old woman who lives in a shoe”. I also found a funny little poem about kids that I used on the backside. “Cleaning house with children at home is like trying to staple Jello to a tree!" So keeping them in mind I went to work…here’s the results.

Is Summer still here?

What a warm and wonderful Thursday - 81 in Connecticut and it is October. Since last posting I have worked on several projects. Halloween ghost cards for the grandson’s and my friends daughter Maddie – naturally they aren’t very scary because they are still so young.

Glittery Ghost Card

IF YOU ARE PART OF THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS AND YOU DON’T WANT TO PEEK STOP HERE!
I am working on a swap for the 12 days of Christmas and have signed up twice. So I have been busy creating 2 sets of 12 gifts and I’m having fun. For one of the sets I made magnetic bookmarks. I liked them and made an extra to keep for my own. I try to make an extra of whatever swap project I am working on for myself or to give to someone else.

magnetic bookmarks

I received in some awesome Black & White ATC's from one of the swaps. They are so cool and I should scan them and post them for all to see the beautiful work my artsy friends did! Anyway, while perusing through them I thought it would be nice to make an ATC holder for them. So, I found an old card holder template and modified it into an ATC template. Played around with it and ended up making several to store my ATC’s in.
ATC holder

I like them so much I decided to make them for the 2nd set of 12 Days of Christmas Swap.
Because I like to recycle when I can I used old calendars that have a nice glossy coat. The blank side was coated using direct to paper - I used black and brown StaysOn ink and a lighter brown distressed in. The look reminds me of animal print. That became the outside the inside ended up with the floral print form the calendar. They’re cool and they keep the art organized.
ATC holder

New Art for Swaps

Hi today I am posting different swap pieces I have made.
The first one is is for Clown themed Tipins - front and back.
Next is mini ATC's in autumn colors.
And my favorite is the doodle ATC's. I doodled the flowers and colored them with pencils and cut up strips of my earlier doodles to create the ground. I like doodling. I can do it anywhere... even while I work. Oops did I say that? Anyway, I hope you enjoy them.

Wacky and Weird - Disjointed Figures ATCs

For one of my swap groups we are making ATC's - Disjointed Figures. The basic instructions are cut a sheet of book paper to ATC size and attached to the front of an ATC card. Next stamp a face onto a seperate sheet of paper and cut it out. Then cut out a silly dress shape from magazine paper of your choosing. Now assemble the strange looking person together onto the background text page. Add some excitement to the page using watercolor, pens,and stamps to create your Disjointed Figure.

These are Wacky and Weird and a lot of fun to create. I added watercolor wash to the text page and also to the stamped face. Cut out a cute little birdie and a dress. Added a tree stamp to the background and colored that. Once it was assembled I added arms and legs.

Watercolor wash on text

This is a card I made for a swap using a text sheet that I water colored a rainbow of colors and stamp an image of a girl with buterflies. I pasted the title jouful flying friends on to it. I really like the water color wash on text and plan to use it on more projects.

Altered book shrine "Summertime"

This is my very first altered book shrines I am working on. My theme is Summertime after the song "Summertime and the living is easy. Fish are jumping..."

I love listening to Rene Olstead sing the song...because I'm a beach girl I find it so inspiring.

Step one cutting the shrine box inside and glueing the pages to bind the side is done and now I started painting the cover and adding a stamped design. Next I started painting the inside.

Looks dark and scary in there but it's just the scan.

Now I've moved on to the inside adding images, sand (yes real beach sand..oh I can feel the warmth under my toes now...), text and shells.

I glued sand and real shells in the shrine box and wrote on the hand drawn wave "Summertime and the living is easy" ...here it is so far. hummm...I think it needs more.

I'll move on to the cover and think on the inside for a while. Added my Summertime title, images and what not. Take a look. What do you think? More to come on this.

6/20: I finished my Summertime ABS. I added more images and some bubbles. Now I'm happy with it!