Mixed Media ATC

I was lucky enough to recently attend an Art Retreat with a group of online friends from across the USA and Canada. Special hugs and thanks to my good friend Annette for generosity which still leaves speechless and teary eyed! 

The event (and believe me, it was an event!!) was arranged by Bren aka Elegant Tangle . One of the requirements was to create an ATC. I am now the very PROUD owner of 18 pieces of artwork from some of the most beautiful, talented, crazy ladies  I have ever met and I am thrilled to be able to call them REAL friends. 

So back to my ATC.... allergies getting to me... ya' know.... watery eyes.. must be the pollen ;)

I created the papers I used for the background in a totally mixed media fashion. But the most memorable part,  this was the first time I played with the acrylic inks that another great friend, Robin, sent me.  They are  FW Acrylic Inks by Daler Rowney. I don't think I have cracked open a quarter of what these puppies can do! Here's a close up :

 The backgroud was created with emerald green, cyan blue and Indigo leaving some white spaces. The frog was just then drawn on with a dip pen and black india ink. Then I just darkened up the background to make the frog stand out. Just a little coloring was added to his head, eyes and front hands (right??? frogs have hands, certainly not paws?) . I mixed flame red and lemon yellow to get that awesome bright orange. 

Well, that's about it. Just wanted to share my ATC. Certainly not what I normally create. I hate to say "not my style" because I have a very eclectic style so this fits in there somewhere. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Challenges:
Anything but a Card - ATC Extravaganza
Amusing Challenges - Anything Goes ( I hope it's ok this isn't a card. Couldn't find the rules.)
Creative Inspirations Paint - Anything Goes

Hugs~

Ticket Swap

I recently traded tickets with my good friend Darcy W and let's just say I found mine to be a bit of a challenge. I remember how hard I thought ATC's were at first and this takes that space limitation to a whole new level! BUT in the end I thoroughly enjoyed myself!!!  

The tickets themselves were created without the use of a die. If you missed that video you can see it here. 

I created the tickets above by embossing with clear to get that resist effect and then inking with Tim Holtz Distress Inks in assorted colors. I also added some collaged and punched butterflies. I LOVE my ART stamp which I recently purchased from Paula aka JournalArtista. I am so happy I was able to snag that one when she was clearing some of her stash!!!

But my favorite ticket strip that I have done so far is this one:

Birds with crowns?? Seriously doesn't get any cuter... lol! This strip was cut from some homemade papers and the little birds were collaged, then painted over. 
And take a gander at these beauties I received from Darcy!!!

Love, love, LOVE!!!!

I think I will be making a lot of these tickets in the future for adding to art, cards, tags... anything! 

Hugs~

A Copic Fairy and Video

I finally have gotten around to coloring up my April release for Whimsy Stamps.  Her name is Wishes.  

 I am all over the board with my art supplies and tend to jump from one to another so it was a blast to pull out my copics and just color. It is so relaxing for me and reminds so much of coloring in my coloring book as a kid (but without my lil' brother sitting next to me breaking them in half and ripping the papers off of them!! ~oh the horror!!~)

I filmed the process and have shared a lot of techniques in this one. Hair, skin, translucent clothing and some colorless blender / rubbing alcohol techniques. Here's a few close ups of those techniques:

The shimmer in her dress was achieved by using my version of twinkling H20's (stay tuned for future tut) after coloring. Same with her hair. The wings got a coat of Winsor and Newton Iridescent Medium


I hope you enjoy it!

Hugs~

Stargazer Lily

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter! We did. We've been having beautiful spring weather. So much so that I'm starting to look forward to seeing flowers start to bloom. I had a play in  a new journal I created Saturday evening while watching a movie with hubs. 

Nothing special about the journal. I just used some smooth white cardstock cut in half so my pages are 5 1/2 x 8 1/2. I also included some watercolor pages cut to the same size in the back section. I had run out of spirals to use with my binder so I opted for just using three rings and I REALLY like it. You can see from the pic above how easy it is to fold back and I love that for when I am sketching, etc.

I swing from wanting to sketch, to playing with copics, then my prismas, wait.... back to mixed media and collage. You get the picture, right?? So this was a play with drawing and watercolors:

And just a few close ups:

The white in the background was achieved with splattering Friskit before beginning to paint at all. The splatters on the petals was chinese white watercolor. 

This was done entirely with the Koi travel set.  I'm working on one now of some dogwood branches. It's at that ugly stage... lol! But the more I practice the more confidence I will gain to do larger paintings. That's my hope at least. 

Thanks for swinging by!

Hugs~

Making the jump to BlogLovin'

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Howdy everyone!!! Nothing in particular to share. Just jumping through the hoops to claim my blog for Bloglovin'. Actually a very simple process. I have been hearing rumors that we will be losing our readers and our follow features through blogger aka google. You can read about it here:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/more-spring-cleaning-out-of-season.html. But as I interpret that article they are only removing the friends connect gadget for NON blogger sites. 
They will be replacing it with a google + follower gadget but not all in my google circles are bloggers and to respect their privacy I'm not sure I will be taking that route. Time will tell.
In the meantime I am going to go ahead and add bloglovin'.
I hope some of you will chose to follow me on Bloglovin' by clicking on the icon in the sidebar. 
I have imported all of the blogs I follow into Bloglovin'. It was a very painless import process and if you act soon (I think before July) they will be able to import all of the blogs you currently follow into their reader. 
I look forward to keeping up with everyones blogs as always. I just hope you understand that I don't get the chance to comment as much as I once did. 
Thanks for dropping by!!

Hugs~