Rock, Paper, Scissors

Another late night and I spent it gluing origami paper to some pebbles. I like them. I think I'll make a small bowl full of them.

Digital Fun - Warped Warren Wallpaper!

Sue gave me a fabulously foxy photo of her brother Warren from the 1970's. I could not resist increasing his Groove Factor! I've had the pleasure of meeting Warren once and ladies, he's even better-looking now!

Upstream

Paper doll mermaid. Do click the photo for a better view.

Mug Shot

Coffee is a hugely big deal to me. See how perfectly it mixes with art...

Sue and Nancy kept me up til 3am.

Sue gave me the image of this beautiful child and Nancy showed me an excellent toot on gel/acrylic medium transfers, so here's my entry. I made the heart embellishment with UTEE. The whole shebang is on top of one of my alcohol backgrounds (yes, yes, yes, it's PHOTO PAPER! At least I knew better than to heat it this time! LOL) I used a lot of coppery metallics, but they just don't scan very well. *sigh*

Can I go to bed now???

xx/oo

typoGenerator -- cool toy for free!

Check it out!!

http://www.typogenerator.net/

Look what my Nancy sent me!!

"The Music in Me" by Nancy Torsen

I just LOVE this! Thanks, Nance!

UTEE Black & White 1st attempt

This was sooooo fun! I can't wait to do more!

If you're a newbie like me, you'll want to know:

I used:

UTEE = Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel in Clear and Black
Embossing Powder in White and Gold Sparkle
Suze Weinberg's Melting Pot, Kool Toolz and Non-stick Craft Mat
Wilton shape cutters

Here's a YouTube Demo with Suze Weinberg: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1mrH8_87_M

A page from my art journal...

PS: The Crafty Chica is Kathy Cano Murillo and here is her website: http://www.craftychica.com/welcome.html

I'm not crying yet...

...but it is just not my day in the studio. Impatience, ignorance and more impatience added up to wasted time and supplies. Grrr.

I usually post pics of my mistakes, but it's a swap secret thang and ...oh...just GRR!

Beautiful idea...first few successes...this is gonna take a long time! I grew impatient and came up with a time-wasting method, destined to waste good ink, too. Well...before it all smeared, I tried my old stand-by of "just cover the whole thing with UTEE!"

Can you say fire extinguisher? Well, it was close.

So, I moved onto beautiful idea #2 for a different recipient. Different mood...one I know very well and have worked many minor miracles with. And it went so well until we got to the heat booth (okay, it's a cardboard box that keeps my UTEE from flying all over the place when I heat it). My ATC began to crumple like a shrinky dink!!

It took me a moment to realize what I had done: In my grand tradition of "Take what'cha got and make what'cha want", I had used photo paper instead of gloss card stock for the background. Oy.

So, I scanned what could be salvaged and played with it on my lame-o photo editor. What looked ok on-screen did not print so nicely -- even on very nice glossy paper. *sigh*

I know who could help me with this, but he is asleep. I just feel like a real dork and I earnestly desire to have one small success before I call it a night. Wait. That could be a factor...lack of sleep, I mean. I worked until 4am today and here it is 1:20am again (not late for me, but I am getting tired).

I truly love life. I'm sucking really hard, but the marrow is elusive (temporarily!).

Thanks for listening.

xx/oo

Mirrored Card Stock!

Like many of you, I find it a challenge to find glossy card stock offline. So, I bought a couple sheets of poster board and cut them up. One of them has a glossy pearl finish while the second one is mirrored! Yes, it has a shiny, mirror-like finish! It does not scan well -- everything you see as black in this image is actually shiny mirror! Whee!




I've made some interesting backgounds on the mirrored surface using alcohol inks from Ranger. On top of that, I did an all-over bg stamp of faux crackle, using Staz-On opaque white ink. Exciting stuff!!

I'm just having fun. Hope you are too! Thanks for stopping by!

Glazing Challenge - Experiment #1

Yay! I had so much fun with this! What we have here is a large piece of watercolor paper (about 9 x 12") with a good 8 - 12 layers of acrylic glazes in warm colors.

I used images printed on regular printer paper. I am finding that they do not hold up well under glazes. Next time I will print on gloss & see whether I can glaze that with better luck.

Thank you for looking! I really appreciate your comments and constructive criticisms.

Art Salon Sunday July 13th

Somewhere along the line I never really learned how to rubber stamp well. So I worked on just stamping. I stamped up a bunch of ATC backs and that helped me to gain some confidence.


Sue uses a pad of very firm Fun Foam to stamp on and it makes a big difference in the results. Put some muscle into it!

Our challenge for next meeting is an altered book technique (worked up ATC-sized) of layering glazes and ephemera. I am very excited to try this technique!

Background Intrigue - Glossy cs + Sharpies

Today's questions from Cassandra Cushman on artisttradingcards prompted me to get out my Sharpies. I thought I could gently blend this into an ultra-hip bg, while carefully retaining the colors.".


I said 'carefully'... but I had a "Juicy Lucy" on my blending tool and the first smear made apparent that my plans had gone awry! Good thing my 6 year old was there to say "Keep going, Mom!" We liked the result and named it "Dark Pearl

BG Challenge

I am pleased with this one! This is not something I would have done without the challenge from Sue to use her background! (BTW, the lady is Lene Lovich.) I went for big contrast and I think I got it! What do you think?


The other background? Sorry, Sue -- I think I killed it! If you're really curious, it's here: http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b383/hula_skirt/BrennaJunk/ATCSFBusStop.jpg

Sue's Acrylic Antiqued BGs

Oh boy! Sue Harrison gave me these two bg's to work with -- another challenge! The style here is all Sue -- just gorgeous! --but I am supposed to work my own style on top...I'll keep you posted!


During our last Art Salon, Sue made some truly amazing backgrounds using acrylic paints and (I think) a glazing medium to thin out the color. She was using a distressed paper -- if I knew which companies to credit, I would!


Sue promised to write as soon as she can, but she has had her hands rather full in the last two weeks.

Tropical Experiments

These are alcohol ink backgrounds. I love them so much that I had difficulty about covering them up!

I think the koi pond worked out well enough. I printed images from the internet and slicked them up with some acrylic pearl medium. Voila.

Same thing on the Hawaii card. Acrylic highlights on a printed image.

The Tiki Dude has such great possibilities, but needs to be re-worked. My effort to outline him should have been done prior to adhesion because I made a mess! Again, I love the background so much that I didn't want to cover it (not such a good thing). Take a close look in the lower right for a frightened mermaid figure!

I love the colors~

The good news is that I had nice success with some items I cannot post yet due to swap secrecy!! ~~Stay tuned~~

Sue Harrison

I can't adequately convey to you the heart of Sue Harrison. She is an incredibly talented multimedia artist. She's a designer and teacher with a Midas touch! I have asked her to give us a summary of her career...and the minute that's in, it will appear here!

For now, let's talk about her generosity: Our Art Salon meetings take place in her studio, where she shares every tool and supply without hesitation. She says to me "Don't buy anything! I probably have it!" LOL So I call her before I buy supplies for us.



Sadly, we all have to stop working to eat now & then. Sue usually makes us a wonderful lunch to share before we go back to work with "fresh eyes."

And of course, every studio needs a mascot! This little darling is named Calamity.

Kooks and progress

Well, it seems I am making some progress. The 'oops' experiment from the other night actually dried, so I went ahead and used it as a background for this handsome gent.

I went further to try a set. The results are varied. I used glossy paper to print the image and then Inksentials Glossy Accents to adhere them to the card. I don't have a brayer, so Mr. Kook is a bit lumpy here & there, but I think it adds character. Some of the images covered in ink look pretty good. but the final one seems lost altogether! I poured a LOT of blender on him, but I think he's a goner. LOL

About last night.

Well, I've always said that I needed an ink tutorial. Last night proves it. It was an 'oops' experience.

Not only does nothing stick to a packing tape transfer, but I only had a dye-based ink pad to work with and it refused to dry. I even added some UTEE -- because I don't have any reqular embossing powders -- and that held the ink beneath the UTEE in place, but I know there's a better way. BTW, this is on glossy cardstock.

Another experiment last night may have yielded better results. As Suze Weinberg and Tim Holtz from Ranger teach, you can color clear UTEE with alcohol inks before melting. (Never add alcohol ink to a pot of melted UTEE! You will create fumes instead of art!)

I added Adirondack alcohol ink in metallic copper to a small anout of clear UTEE in a small jar and stirred until it was well mixed and dry. Then, just to experiment, I embossed this image on a cardstock that is more like watercolor paper.

It's a real learning experience! The textured paper is not the best option for a complex stamp. And I think that embossing of any sort would look better on a simple stamp or one could to a UTEE dip (but that's another story).

I can barely see the copper color in the UTEE because of the bold balck inked image.

Hands-on learning is really adding to all the tutorials I have read and videos I have watched. I get really happy when I think to myself, "This isn't working. I need________." It means I am learning.

Alcohol Inks for Newbies

Eager to try alcohol inks, Sue and I have watched online demonstrations by Tim Holtz from Ranger and gave it our best shot. Sue made these before our meeting and she said she was not so sure about it. I find her color combinations quite pretty, but I do think she needs to keep her hand in it until she finds her comfort zone. The quick-drying, clean results seem well-suited to Sue's artistic style.



I rolled up my sleeves. I dabbed. I smooshed. I knew that there would be a breakthrough.



It came -- I remembered seeing Tim squirt inks directly onto the non-stick craft mat and then dragging the paper through it. So I gave it a shot. I was using greeting card glossy stock and found the size too large to work effectively in my small, evaporating puddle!


Sue graciously cut some ATC-sized cards for me and I was back at it. I felt quite pleased with this! I called this set "Fish Tank"




And the card on the left here looks like squooshed rose petals. It's very lush and rich. I called this "Gypsy" and we'll just see whether it ends up bearing Gypsy Rose Lee or some other gypsy imagery!

Style Challenge -- The Swap!

So much happened at our meeting on the 29th that I am having to break it up into little chunks to post it all!

We finally got to swap our Challenge ATCs! Remember, the challenge was for each of us to prodruce one ATC in the style of the other person. I called it "If I Were You" and Sue called it "Pretending I'm You" either way, the results were...challenging! LOL

Here's what I made for Sue. I tried to be precise and methodical!

I dabbed bleach onto cardstock for the background. I printed the mother/child image on onionskin paper (THAT was a challenge in itself) and layered it over a strip of subtly shimmery gold paper as a mat. The silk bits came from an actual antique sewing kit the size of a matchbook and the sealing wax in the upper right is melted crayon! Hey "Take whatcha got and make whatcha want!"

Now here's Sue's entry: Remember, my own style is very mess-cat. So I told Sue that I still thought this was very tidy LOL She said "Yes, but these are COLORS I would never have used on my own!" LOL I love it!

I asked Sue for permission to publish her emails and artwork. Sue? Could you please describe your work for this ATC?

Challenges are just that: CHALLENGING!! We both agreed that this was hard to do, but we each are hungry for the next challenge!