I'm Back!

Happy Belated Mother's Day to everyone. We spent the weekend in Albuquerque with one of our daughters and another daughter and her family joined us from Austin. Both grand boys were there which made it an extra-special time! They are just so cute together. Both are now talking and it's fun to see their personalities developing. Here are just a few pics from the weekend.

family brunch

"cool dude" Drew

Carl, always snacking

loving cousins playing in dirt

getting wet

they get along so well!

It was a whirlwind weekend - tiring to keep up with those two!

DIY Enamel Dots

Type in "DIY enamel dots" on You Tube and you will come up with a bunch of sites showing how to make these.  My husband was out of town all day yesterday so I decided to make some (didn't want to have to explain why I was baking the beads our kids used to play with eons ago!).

I had found a small bag (only 400!) of perler beads (also called pony beads, but they are a bit larger) at the dollar store so I had plenty to work with.  Mine were actually called pony beads and I had learned that you should bake them at 400 degrees for about 8 to 10 minutes.  "They" also said that the pony beads smelled bad while baking, so I took my toaster oven out to the patio and baked there.  I put a piece of parchment paper on the tray and arranged the beads with the holes at the top and with some room between each bead. Then I started baking. I timed it for 8 minutes, but they weren't done until about 10 minutes.  They flatten out and the hole disappears.

I forgot to take photos along the way, but these were my finished beads. You can see that about 2/3 of them turned out. Maybe I didn't leave them in long enough. The red, yellow, dark blue and some of the green didn't bake perfectly round and some still have dimples at the top. The white and pink and lighter blue came out really well! I also didn't space some of them far enough apart, but this was a trial run. The good ones look just like the ones you can buy!

So, if you have any leftover from your kids and want to have a bit of fun, go try this out! 

Now, I must run - it's almost midnight and I still have to pack and then get up at 4 am to catch a flight to Albuquerque. We will be with two of our daughters and our two grand boys over the weekend to celebrate Mother's Day. 

An early Happy Mother's Day to all of you! See you again next week.

More Texture!

Still playing with loads of texture in my art journal. This is a double-page spread I created a few days ago. It's very textural! Take a look at the step-by-step photos I managed to take while making this. I have found it helpful to take photos along the way because often you can't remember what you did!

Here's the final spread:

And the process photos:

started with pages that had been previously painted and stained

added masking tape and gesso randomly applied with palette knife

added crumpled white tissue paper while gesso still wet

closeup showing tissue paper texture - also you can see where the distress stain (yellow) reactivated

joint tape added - love that texture

next came Whipped Spackle through a stencil (you can still see the yellow stain soaking through), raspberry and peacock Distress paints, torn book pages with blue gelato and white paint, and bubble wrap "stamped" on with white paint

hard to see in this pic, but I added bits of torn cheesecloth (see closeup below)

chipboard letters, painted and embossed with UTEE for extra texture

white fabric heart, a corrugate heart and added a "flower" cut from painted and heated Tyvek

here is a photo of the strip of Tyvek (used in construction but also is what the white, fibrous mailing envelopes are made of, recycled from PO) that I painted with metallic paint and heated with a heat gun  - can you see the "flower" shape just right of center?

I ended up cutting three flowers out of the Tyvek and added beads to all the centers

final step was adding twine to the three corrugate hearts

So there you have the anatomy of my page. In all, I think I used a total of about 20 textures! 

Art Journal Page - Texture

I spent a few days working (playing) in my art journal.  I wanted to play with the new "irRESISTible" sprays from Imagine Crafts. These come in many luscious colors, but I only have the metallics - gold, silver and copper.

I first sprayed gold through a honeycomb pattern stencil on the right page and then flipped the stencil over to the left page to transfer any excess spray from the stencil. I sprayed copper through a butterfly stencil on the right and silver through another stencil on the left.  I also sprayed randomly on the background with all the sprays.  

When dry, these sprays are permanent so you can layer them and retain the colors of each. They also resist any media that is applied over them.  I used Golden Fluid Acrylic paints over both pages and then dabbed off some of the paint with a baby wipe. The areas that are darker (around the edges and in some splotches on the pages) are where the base coat of gesso did not completely cover the pages so the paint absorbed more in those places.

I added some drywall tape which I'd also sprayed with the gold irRESISTible, some corrugate cardboard strips and some Washi tape. The honeycomb on the lower left is a card stock die cut which I painted with Art Anthology Velvet Paint. Since this paint is very thick, I pounced it on for even more texture.

I still wasn't happy with the right butterfly. To bring out more detail, I outlined it with a permanent pen, then painted inside with a turquoise "Silks" acrylic glaze.

These closeups show the incredible texture and shine of these sprays.

April Rolodex Card-a-Day (Part 2)

These are the remaining cards for April.

Scraped paint background, paper scraps

Easter - I shared this earlier in the month

New neon paints, postcard image I've saved forever

Brown bag, book text, gesso, paints, ephemera

Digital postcard received from friend - a long time ago (I cut to fit and rearranged a few images)

3 alcohol inks on craft sheet, glossy paper swiped thru; then dabbed with blending solution through stencil, TH stamp

Gelli plate print on deli paper; title from TH stencil packaging

Crafty Secrets make-n-take from convention a few years ago!

Scrap papers from spray inks

New TH "crocodile" stencil with Viva glitter paste

Old photograph on which I journaled

An attempt at drawing and coloring with Inktense Watercolor Pencils; tree is paper

Now this is what my Rolodex looks like now. I doubt it is going to make it through the entire year! It's filling up fast but it looks so yummy! I love having it on my desk.

April Rolodex Card-a-Day (Part 1)

I managed to keep up with my RCADs during April, creating 27 out of the possible 30 days of the month! I just love making these - no rules, no pressure, no stress. Clean up the worktable or add some little treasures you want to keep and remember but don't know where to put them.  Since there will be a lot of photos, I will split this into two posts, adding more tomorrow.

Distress resist and butterflies cut from patterned paper

Scrap paper from painting a chipboard die - too cool to throw away

Embossed wallpaper with acrylic Silks glaze

Clear EP resist with stamping, glassine flowers and stickers

Mosaic with paper scraps

Alcohol inks with alpha stickers as mask; stamping; doodling

Stencil & white paint, sprayed with ink while wet

Book page background, ink, stamped; title cut from paper bag

Homemade texture paste, TH stencil, spray ink, flower cut from paper

Scraped paint background scrap; napkin image

Gesso, clear embossed script stamp, distress inks, stamped butterflies

Mixed media - paints, stamping, doodles

Picture of great palette found on Pinterest; background is scrap of sprayed paper

Leftover paper strips from a class, woven, stitched, title stamped

"Wrinkle-free distress ink technique"; stamped and colored collage image

Hope you'll visit tomorrow to see the rest of the month's cards!