Sunday, July 31, 2011

Make your own chipboard accents!

So today I have a cool project for you, I love buying blank chipboard shapes and inking, painting and decorating them! My fave are the Tim Holtz Grungeboard, BUT since not all of us can afford the expensive stuff I figured I would do a quick photo tutorial for you!


Supplies
Assorted cut out cardboard shapes (I like to use cereal and cracker boxes)
Paint
Fabric
Paper
Modge Podge
Stamps
The sky is the limit!

Start out by painting your shapes white

Once your paint is dry you are ready to go!

Swirls of fuchsia, pink and purple paint

Leftover paint from star!

Spray Ink with a stencil!

Painted blue, pink and purple and wiped with baby wipe to show off embossing!

painted orange, yellow and pink and then wiped with a baby wipe to show texture!

Water color hearts!

Graffiti fabric (made by me) cut and modge podged!

Another graffiti heart

Painted, wiped, written on and then a clear coat of glitter glue

My finished results, can't wait to use these in my journal!

Well I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial, try it out and let me know how it turns out! Have a great Sunday and I will be back tomorrow with some of my last journal pages!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Spray Ink Tutorial!

Hello there! Hope you are having a fabulous Thursday! So today I would give you some writing and general journaling sparks to get you going! I know sometimes I sit down with my journal and ponder what I want to achieve with this page? What do I want to try? What do I want to say? So if you ever have days like these then these journal jumps will get you going!

Reverse Silhouette
Make a silhouette of yourself (which may require some help) or use an already taken picture, 
it can be your head or you whole body! Trace your sillouette into your journal 
(this way it can be used as a stencil later on!) Instead of filling your head or body in black, 
I want you to draw, paint, or collage the interior of your silhouette with the things that 
describe, represent or define you - fill the space. Then surround the sillouette with black!

 
One word
Pick a word - just one word! This word should be something that triggers a strong emotion - either positive or negative. Fill your journal page with that word - just that one word. Write it, stamp it, cut it out of a book or magazine. Write it once - BIG or write it many times in tiny writing. Explore that one word - try to explain what it means with your art. You cannot use any other words to convey what this word makes you feel.

Graffiti
I am sure you see graffiti on the sides of building in the cities or neighborhoods around you... This week create your own "tag" using your name or initials in a street style. Make it big and bold - fill your journal page with your "tag". Use colors that speak to you, make a stencil so you can repeat your "tag". Get in touch with your youthful side - set your inner child (or teenager) free!!

Red
Use only the color red to make art today. You can use any shade or many shades of red, but you can only use red. No pure black, pure white - only shades of red. What emotion does the color red inspire? Passion or anger? Splash it on your page - release those inhibitions - go for it!!

Doodles
Dedicate an entire page in your journal to doodling. Try out designs and patterns. Look for inspiration all around you, in everyday stuff.


And I saved the tutorial for last because I think it's terrible! But if it helps you or you learn something new from it than I am happy!


Here is my finished page!

Well I hope all of this get you going! Feel free to leave a link to your blog or web album so we can see how you used the prompts! Have a great Thursday!

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Some revamping to be done!

Hello there I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend! I am going to be making some changes to the blog, but good ones I promise! So if you come by and things look crazy it's because I am working on some new things!

Lately I have been dying fabrics, I use some of them in my art journal and on other mixed medial products. I have a blast dying them and seeing how they come out! I can't wait to cut these up and use them in my journal!




My art journal is almost finished! I feel like I went through so quickly, and if you look through it the front half of the book it is so different from the back half.  But I really love that my style is changing, has your style ever changed? Did you like it? I am really happy with my recent work so let's hope that it keeps going and evolving! Well onto the pages!

I'm gonna keep going, I'm gonna keep trying til I reach the stars

you've got to be kind to yourself

I don't need you anymore, I'm letting go...

lots of hidden journaling and unreadable journaling!
Well I hope you all have a good beginning of the week! I will be back on Tuesday with a tutorial!

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Long time no see.....

I apologize for being MIA I have just been super busy! I spent all day Sunday hanging out with Samie Kira and then Monday afternoon my mother in law, sister in law, brother in law and their two kids came to visit and yeas they are all staying at our house! So it's been a bit crazy but I love it! Well I am going to make this a short one I hope you are all having a great week!

don't forget to give yourself love...

it says keep going but I used shimmery paint so the camera flash got to it!

oooh sneaky hidden journaling... bet you can't guess where it is?

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Paper cloth tutorial!

Hello there friends! I apologize for not posting sooner but I have been a busy bee! Next Monday we have family coming into town, and I just had my best friend since junior high leave town so I have been pretty busy! But things are doing good, just s lot going on! On Tuesday I went with Samie Kira to her mixed media art group in Glendale and had a blast! I got to meet Dina Wakley and several other talented artists! But I have to say I really enjoyed watching Dina work in her numerous journals that she brought! So thank you Samie for letting me tag along with you! Alright enough of the talk and onto my oh so terrible tutorial! I filmed this so many times that I was just so so frustrated by the end! But here it is!



Here is my finished results!



I added stamps, puffy paints and some fun white circles! I can't wait to turn it into something great!
Here are some recent pictures from my journal!
More flowers!



for my wife...

playing with my new teal ink!
I finally made a cover for my journal! It's sewn together like a basic book cover you can take off and put back on! My sewing is terrible but I still love it!
I really hope you enjoy the tutorial! Any questions please feel free to email me or leave a comment! I hope you all have a great Thursday!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Sticky messy fun!

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend and fourth of July, I know I did! On Saturday I got feathers put in my hair which are super fun, I just got black and white ones but my wife got purple, pink and black and white! I also went to a thrift store and got a pack of 10 doilies for a dollar, a book of sheet music, a lace doily and a purse for a whopping 5 dollars! On a sadder note this was the first Fourth of July without Rusty but our first Fourth of July with our Mexican Hairless Amiga. I keep thinking I  am going to see him laying on his pillow in the closet when I wake up, or walking into the living room and him all sprawled out on the couch... it;s hard I miss him alot but it helps to know he is happier now.So about two weeks ago I bought a book called Stitch Alchemy which is about combining paper and fabric to make paper cloth and earlier this week I finally got around to making some and I love how they turned out! I will be doing a tutorial this weekend on how to make paper cloth (it's sticky and messy) but so much fun!

This was the second one I made and I love it, the picture doesn't do it justice, it's sparkly and there are lots of different elements to it, I cant wait to cut it up and use it!

This was my first one and once again the picture doesn't do it justice! There are so many layers and colors and sparkly stuff!

Here is a 12x16 canvas mixed media painting I finished on Saturday night, I am really happy how it came out, the words didn't turn out the best but I am not going to obsess over it!

Another journal page!

This journal page was a lot of fun, the background was made with my Inktense pencils, and the stars and wings are sparkly!
Well I hope you all have a great Tuesday, I will be back Thursday with more fun projects!

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Sickness and sadness....

The past week has been probably one of the worst weeks ever! Last Friday I woke up and threw up everything I ate for dinner the night before and was ill all weekend! 

During the week our dog Rusty slowly but surely lost all control of his back legs, he was 10 and after a trip to the vet we knew we had to put him to sleep. Luckily we have an AMAZING vet and she came to the house to put him to sleep. This happened yesterday and I am so sad and very much missing him right now but I am also trying to stay strong for my wife she has had him all of his life and I have had him since I met her six years ago. He went with friends and family surrounding him which is the best way to go I think.  I miss him and I don't know if I will ever NOT miss him...

Well no onto the art, I haven't done much this week, my craft room has been a bit abandoned due to me being sick and having to take care of a dog who could no longer doing anything on his own. But last night to cope, I worked in my journal and the rest were done last week.

I wanted to learn how to draw roses so these are the results!

You can be my lucky star


Take a chance you owe it to yourself

making my dreams a reality

Well thanks for taking a look, I will be back Monday with more! Have a great weekend!