ACCORDIAN TANGLES

I've had this little - about 4"x4"- accordian fold book for a few years, just waiting for a project.

Enter zentangle!

The best part is I still get to do the flip side, then find a great quote (or two or more) to finish it up.

Have a fabulous day!

BABY WIPE SWIPE & A WIN!

So messy but so fun and easy to do- that's Baby Wipe Swipe.

On glossy card stock, drag a baby wipe that has been folded  and had drops of dye ink applied to an edge. Continue swiping the baby wipe across until all the surface has been coloured. Once the swiping is done, you can pounce the wadded up baby wipe onto more glossy card stock. Pounce on regular card stock too. Once the ink is used up, throw the baby wipe away or dry it out and cut it up for other art projects.

This card has a love theme because of the background stamp, French Script and the feature stamp

"love lives here". Beautifully done calligraphy made into a stamp. Can you say awesome!

And now to the win....

I recently left a comment on a blog that was participating in a blog hop (Blog Buzz) hosted by Quietfire Designs. My name was drawn and look at what I won! And not just me. There were eight other winners. Suzanne Cannon is the owner/artist and I've been a fan and customer to her online store for years.

This has been a complete thrill! The best part was already being familiar with the product and knowing I'd be getting fabulous stamps. Go see! Go now! Quietfire

Check out the blog too- great art and links. And don't forget the newsletter! :)

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you get some art time today.

BLACK & WHITE TANGLE

I'm still working on tangles. White on black seemed like a good thing to try, so I did and it was.

I'm very happy to be showing this to you. Maybe a bit more than usual because I haven't been thrilled with my card offerings lately. I liked the technique, so I posted them.

In trying to keep it real on my blog, I will show the not so good as well as the stuff that I makes me happy.  This one, makes me happy.  :)

Thanks for looking- I appreciate you.

BACK TO THE BRAYER WASH BACKGROUND

The turquoise and pink papers were brayered and die cut and punched. The card base was stamped, then spritzed with the spritzer tool and markers. Everything was glued down and pearls were added. The tiniest flowers have dots of white shimmer ink to mimic the pearls.

Click the image to make it bigger.

I am off to check out the technique box to see what I can show you next.

You have a wonderful day!

FUTURE FLOOR FINISH RESCUE

This card was 'war'! Battle after battle to get anything remotely workable.It began when I wanted to use a piece of glossy card stock that I had done the brayer wash background to and discovered it didn't work at all. Too washed out and even but still good for stamping. So, I stamped it and die cut it and attempted to colour it with markers.

Nothing worked-the dark colours were too dark and I couldn't build up enough colour with the light markers. I even tried bleaching out areas to show lighter colours better. Nope-no good.

Finally, I put some Future Floor Finish and reinker together and brushed it on. Success.

The flowers dried a bit dark so I added FFF to a drop of white shimmer ink and brushed that on. It lightened the flowers and still allowed colour to show through. So, I eventually got components I could work with.

Future- not just for floors anymore.

I hope you find some arty play time today. Enjoy!

BRAYER WASH BACKGROUND & COLOUR Q 138

These shoes! Not for me to wear but I love the colours.

This brayer wash background started with more mustard and then I added a little pool party which of course, gave me green here and there.

This works best on regular card stock (washes out on glossy) is easy and only a little messy. Ink up the brayer and spray it lightly with water. Then roll it across the cardstock. Repeat until the card stock is covered in colour. You can add other colours or keep it all one colour. Stamp over it, emboss it, the possiblilities are there for lots of play time.

Here is the sample tag:

All in blue-love it!

Don't forget to go have a look at the Colour Q entries. Lots of beautiful eye candy.

Have a wonderful weekend!

BANDANA IN BLUE

The bandana technique is another easy peasy one and not messy at all. Like zentangling, it is doodling with purpose and very soothing.

Choose a card stock colour that will show well with black  and white ink. Stamp the images in black and once dry, draw just outside the black lines and add dots here and there with a white gel pen. That's about it- as much or as little as you want.

A little brighter here as it faces the window more squarely.

Thought I would start including my sample cards/tags as well.

Another B-technique tomorrow.

Thanks for looking!

BACKGROUND WHIMSY

In keeping with the challenge I made myself to do a technique or use new rubber, I am showing the background whimsy technique. Usually, it stays in the background and a focal image covers part of it but this time, I made the garden the image.

On glossy card stock, stamp with stazon ink and once dry, sponge on dye inks. Use a white gel pen to draw over the lines. A little or a lot, it's up to you. As with most techniques, you decide how much and where.

Like the bandana technique, it can be addicting. Up tomorrow, hopefully, the bandana technique. Another B.

Have a marvy day and thanks for looking.

AGED TILES

Aged Tiles can look so different every  time simply by changing the colour or image.

Basically, once you've stamped your card stock you cut it into strips, then cut the  strips making sure no two cuts meet. Then, sponge ink around the edges, reassemble the pieces, ink the edges a little more if you need to then add a few smudges to 'age' the 'tile'.

My friend Yvonne made me a birthday card using all blue ink and it's stunning! It also resembles Blue Delft ware.

Tomorrow, I hope to show a technique starting with a 'B'.

Thanks for looking!

BOOK BUILDING BINGE

There are so many ways to make books and I have a made a few over the years, from post-it note books to small photo albums to funky art journals. This book was inspired by a youtube video. Type Jennibellie into the search bar and you can see lots of the great stuff she does. She recycles!

I liked the way she bound the signatures- she was using greeting cards- so decided to give it a go.

I used a heavy weight card stock for my pages. This will become an art journal so the weight will withstand the paint and glue quite well. It's about 6x8 inches with a 3inch spine.

I enjoyed making it so much and had lots more card stock and decided to recycle a bit too.

These are 4x6 inches with a 1inch spine. The covers and spine are made from cereal boxes that I first used as scratch paper under other projects. All kinds of paint and inky goodness there.

I hope you get some playtime today or at least some youtube time.

Have a GREAT day!



ROUND ONE CHALLENGE

You may remember this card from my first attempt at the recent Colour Q challenge and how I liked certain elements but not together. My friend Jutta gave me a little push to do the challenge I set for myself-thanks J! Now one "fail" becomes two cards I like. See?

Challenge completed.

I hope you are enjoying the long weekend.

Bye for now!

COLOUR Q-TRY IT AGAIN

Once again, the great colour combo. My second attempt...

Mono embossing is a fun technique layering the same colour on itself, having the embossing break the colour up and give it tons of tactile and visual texture. Butterflies. They have been a popular design element for years and they probably always will be. They're like flowers or geometric shapes, a good 'go to' for designs. The light sheen on the butterflies comes from the crystal effects that I brushed on after  I completed the card.

Here is another look without the shine...

 Just a reminder to you- you can click on a picture on any post, for a larger version.

Have a ridiculously amazing day! (read that on Pinterest and I love it)

ROUND ONE

Once again Colour Q has come up with a great colour combo.Soothing colours and springtime too. So, in keeping with wanting to do techniques, I assembled everything to do Air Blaster Shine. Then, I made this card:

I know, right? A bit of a disaster! The technique was done correctly but nothing else was. So, I like the flower/leaves cluster. I really like the argyle punch. I don't like them together. The air blaster shine is done on glossy card stock with water, dye reinker and a spritzer tool. Or you could use canned air or a straw. I embossed with the stripes folder first because I wanted the ink to flow along the channels. Spray water all over the card stock, then drip on the dye ink, then push it around with puffs of air from the spritzer tool. Or canned air or straw. You can add a new colour or more colour by repeating the steps. Let dry or dry with a heat tool.

Even though I dislike this card, it shows the technique I wanted to share today so it serves a purpose. It also has become a challenge now, so I can dismantle it and try again.

I have since made a new card for the Colour Q but it must wait until morning.

Thanks for looking.

ACRYLIC LAYERS

The copper acrylic paint was still on my work table so I painted a layer of it onto the card stock. Once dry, I brushed on a layer of green acrylic paint. When completely dry, I ran it through the Big Shot in an embossing folder. I used the sanding block to take off green paint and in some areas it also took off the copper. I like the look. I stamped the sentiment with black stazon, then assembled the card. Using my stylus (the end of the paintbrush works too) I placed dots of copper paint on the flower centers.

Acrylic layering offers a lot of experimenting. Apply more layers of paint before embossing and sanding. Paint, emboss, sand, paint, change to a different embossing folder and emboss, then sand.

Here you can see the copper dots and the sentiment.

Just play and try different things.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

3-D BEFORE A

I have a box filled with cards and each card has a technique on it with directions. It has been years in the making and I'm pleased as punch to have it. While going through my stamps and marking the retired sets with a big red sharpie, I noticed that there are sets I've had for some months now that have never seen ink. Crazy!

So, I decided it was time to break out the unused stamps and start working through the technique box. I am challenging myself to use either a technique from the box or a previously unused stamp set- one or the other, or both, on any card for the rest of the year. I think I can do it, in fact I have already begun. The acrylic-acetate card from yesterday- that technique came from the A section of the box.The technique card in front of that was the 3-D technique which should have come before the A. Now I've decided to not worry about precise order and just do them.

The flower on this card is 3-D because it is stamped several times, different layers are cut out and they are stacked using foam tape between the layers. Like paper tole, only simpler.

Hopefully you can see the three layers better in this photo.

Give it try and layer something.

Do you have any challenges of your own? Would you like to join me in mine? Play along and I'll post your results too, if you like.

Have a wonderful day and may all your stamps be inky (in a good way)

ACRYLIC UNDER ACETATE

With this technique, the acrylic paint is acting as a colorant and a glue. It's easy peasy- here's how.

Use Stazon ink to stamp your image onto the acetate.

Brush a generous layer of acrylic paint onto the back of the acetate or onto the card stock you'll be placing the acetate on. You are using the paint to stick the acetate and card stock together. Put the two pieces together and set aside to dry. When dry, you can trim it, mat it and use it.

*Do not try to speed the process by using a heat tool from the paper side, although if you do and it warps, put it in an embossing folder and run it through your machine. ;)

Just play and have fun!

CASCADING IMAGES

The stamped leaves were masked, embossed with Distress embossing powder, then cut out and attached to the card. Less bulk on the card and less cutting out this way. The black card stock was coloured with Pearlex and Future Floor Finish before stamping the leaves. An old technique but timeless.

Have a wonderful day and enjoy the beautiful sunshine!

A 'SORT OF' EGYPTIAN NECKLACE

My friend Julia loves all things Egyptian, so I attempted to create a necklace for her with an Egyptian flair.

The curve is similar to a collar without being one.

She was pleased with it so I am happy.

I see now that I really shouldn't have taken the photo of it against a wine coloured fabric. I learn so much with this blog o' mine.

It has been a gorgeous weekend and I hope you all got to enjoy it.

Thanks for looking!

BIG SHOT STAMPS

I was busy with the Big Shot today, making stamps or maybe they should be called printing blocks. I think of stamps as being flexible, cushion-y. These are not. The green die-cut is actual size of the die. The blue ink print is the new stamp. That's what happens when you die-cut shrink plastic!

Here are more samples-

Same die as green foam above.

Card stock attached for a handle, then I realized I could just do this-

 fold the corner of the heavy plastic that I attached the shrink plastic to.

One of my favourites.

Some packages of the shrink plastic report 40% shrinking from the original size, some say 20%. All I know is that it goes pretty small while keeping uniformity of design.

This allows for actual die-cuts being used, along with a die-cut foam stamp and then the smaller print blocks. Now all I need to do is create something with all this.  :) Maybe tomorrow.

Enjoy your day!