Smash* Challenge #1

This weekend I am participating in the Three 24 hour smash* aholics challenge.  It's 3 challenges for 

each of the three days of the weekend.

The first challenge was to make a page about someone or something special..

So I flipped thru my pictures and this one stood out t me...

It's of my parents from their last visit.  And in honor of my mom finally starting to follow this blog I thought 

I'd include her!!

Some close ups of the details... The pretty butterfly with Ranger acrylic paints, and home made 

glitter spray (I used an old container of eyeshadow)

The little glassine envelope was left over from my wedding, and I added a little bit of twine

At the top of the pic is the xoxo glittery ribbon, some coups I got at a raffle a while back..

The king and queen are from the cover of a book of stamps, and I made the mom and 

dad sign from scratch...

It's a cute little page, and much more smash* like than I usually do!  I hope you enjoy!

10 tips to get past the blank art journal page

10 Tips

to get past the blank art journal page!

1. Put down a wash of color... Use watercolors, or acrylics.

2. Tear out a page of a magazine and modge podge or glue it down on the page.   Any magazine page will do... after all, you're probably going to cover it up again!

3. Distress just the edges and corners of the page.

4. Stamp your page directly from the ink pad and then quickly spritz with water.

or my favorite.......

This seems to work very best with the ranger distress inks as they stay wet longer.

5. Glue or modge podge a ripped up dress pattern to the page.

6. Haphazardly stamp with any of the rubber stamps you have not yet used, or haven't used in a long time!

7. Glue or paste that old calendar right onto your page!

8. Use something unexpected... try rubbing with charcoal, or how about some of those retread tires we see on the side of the highway? (Please be careful!!!  Don't get hit!!!)

9. Stick all your drink wrappers on a page... think the green tea bottle you just threw away, or the cup of joe you drank this morning.


10. Use that punchinella!  Abuse it!  Use all the ink pads you have!

After I put down a background on a page I usually shut my journal and leave it... Then when I'm ready to do a page I already have a bunch of backgrounds ready to choose from.

Turning Vacation into art?

 My husband is a perpetual goof ball!

My parents love to go to thrift shops when they come to visit... Dad is always looking for local t-shirts, and mom is looking for household goods......

My husband on the other hand... he's never looking for anything in particular, and is more so just along for the ride!

Flagstaff, Arizona is just far enough north of Phoenix that they get snow most every winter, and are even close to skiing. 

This is my amazingly funny husband dressed up in the Flagstaff good will.

In case you can't read the bib below, it' reads "Don't feed the Bears, Feed Me!" 

What sort of silly and fun things do you do on vacations??  Do you sing in the car?  Do you make up games to play in the car?  Do you try on silly bibs??    How would you translate this into a journal page?? 

Orange

Create an orange page!

It's such a bright and happy color... but how do you make a whole page of orange???

This page is similar to one that I saw online, and while I should have written down the site, I didn't, and then of course I couldn't find the site... Luckily for me I did however write down some of the things on the page... This is my version of that page.  

I journaled exactly what I was doing at the time I was doing it.... 

The background is orange watercolors mixed with wild honey Ranger ink, and orange glitter watercolors.  The lettering is stamped using black soot Ranger ink.  And the white writing is a jelly roll.  

This page was super easy to make, and I love that it went together so quickly!

Journaling with a group

If you've checked out my bio at all you know that I moved to Arizona from Florida a few years ago.  And while I wasn't much of an "artist" while I was in Florida, I fancy that I have much more of an artistic streak now.  And while I have my very safe haven of my studio craft room I have found that it's important to have someone to bounce ideas off of. 

Since my work schedule has been all over the road for the last 4 years, it's been hard for me to stay with a group! 

First there was a group of quilters/ sewers that I met through a friend.  I was (and still am) a novice to the world of quilting, and it was great to have some older women who could give me tips and tricks to get things done!  Sadly this group met on Wednesdays, and when my work schedule changed so did my ability to go.

Then last year I wanted to try my hand at cake decorating.  I signed up for a class at a Joanns, that was cancelled, and rescheduled, and then cancelled again.  I finally got into a class and it was awesome to have others that were learning the same thing as me.  However when the class ended, and I signed up for the next one, it was cancelled, and changed, and cancelled and changed again.  I got annoyed and moved on to something else.

January is usually a month of resolutions and beginning new things.  As I looked around my studio I saw a lot of remnants of started projects, and thought what can I possibly do with these?  Enter art journaling.  It is a perfect outlet for trying new things, and of course using up some of those old things too! 

After about a month of going it on my own I turned to meetup to find a group of likeminded artists friends that I could bounce ideas off of, and get inspiration from their work as well.  I found a great group that meets periodically at the local starbucks.  How wonderful to know that there are others doing what I'm doing, and they are willing to share their knowledge with little old me!  What tools have you used to jumpstart your art??  Where do you go for inspiration??

Challenge #15

I had to read the rules twice before I determined that an art journal/ smash book entry would be fine! 

This is my first entry to the saturated canary challenge I am super excited to start using these fun digi stamp creations by Krista you can find them in her store here. 

This is my big beauty!  

I used copic and prismacolor markers to color her.  

And her close up!

The background for the page was painted with a wash of glitter watercolors, and the raindrops are of the same.

Some of the raindrops have a little Ranger Distress Crackle paint on them.  

Thanks for taking the time to stop by hope your are enjoying creating something today!