Oldie Moldie Monday - a Day Late

I was not home last week and week end so did not get a card made for Oldie Moldie Monday.  I had hopes of posting the card yesterday but I had my eyes examined in the afternoon and they were dilated.  Need to say I was not able to work on the card last night.  So here it is today.

The paper is the same I used last week for Oldie Moldie Monday - it is a Basic Grey 6 x 6 pad.  It is one of the Tim Holtz crazy birds stamped on gessoed book paper and colored with distress paint.  The sentiment is from Jilli Bean Soup.

I am entering it in the challenge on Shopping Your Stash - where the challenge is layers - lots of layers.  I love layers as you can see from my card.  The added bonus is that you use up more of your supplies.  Yeah - because you know we do not stop shopping.

Everyone enjoy your Tuesday.  Show some love for your old supplies.

Recycled Art

This month on Mixed Media Mojo the monthly challenge is to use recycled items.

The recycled/upcycled items in this ATC are the card stock from programs for commencement.  I have sprayed the white card stock with pink and blue sprays.  I have also recycled a tag from a piece of clothing I purchased.

I matted the pink card stock with black.  I stamped the circles and dots on the pink card stock.  I inked the stamp with VersaMark and VersaFine black ink.  I then clear embossed the stamped images.  They shine and have a little texture.  I painted them with yellow distress paint to pick up the color in the flower I am going to use.

I covered the outside and the inside of the recycled tag with the blue card stock.  I stamped the sentiments and clear embossed them.  The tag was adhered to the front of the ATC.  I cut off the end of the top of the tag.  The flower was glued to the end of the bottom of the tag.  The top edge slides under the flower and closes the tag.  A few pearls and a enamel dot were added to the ATC.

I am entering this in the weekly challenge at Wicked Wednesday ATC which was to use a fold on your ATC.

Spring is Sprung

Yesterday was the first day of Spring.  Yeah.  Winter has been long - very long so happy to see Spring come.  Of course, I love Spring but I also hate Spring.  I love the warmth returning, the flowers and grass starting to grow but I hate the work - all the leaves that did not get raked need to be cleaned up.  Hopefully the rain predicted this week will wash away some of the grime left on our lawns.

This week the Wicked Wednesday ATC challenge is Spring.  I dug through my collection of backgrounds and found a yellow piece which I cut down to the correct size for an ATC.  This is a recycled background piece.  Recycled cardstock and a layer of an old book.  Add some gesso and paint and away we go.  I recently got the February color from Tim Holtz.  This time I got the ink not the paint.  The flower stamp is from Hero Arts.  I stamped it with Versamark and Black ink and then used clear embossing powder.  It really makes your image pop.  The flower was colored with distress ink and the leaves with distress paint.  A couple stencils and more distress paint added some texture to the ATC front.

The sentiment is a sticker from SRM Stickers.  I placed the sticker on a leftover piece of inked paper.  I added a strip of polka dot paper at the top of the ATC for some contrast.  I also used my favorite circle stamp from Stamps by Judith to add the circles.  Glitter gel was added to the flower and then glossy accents added to the petals and leaves.

I am leaving on vacation and if I can get up enough courage I want to do some art abandonment along the way.  I believe I will leave this piece somewhere in the Florida Keys.  I just want to try this but then I have lots of friends I could mail it to and they would love it also.  What to do what to do.

Art Journal Page

The first page in a journal. Somewhat daunting - very scary.

I have had this blank journal for awhile.  It is a mixed media journal.  It is laying in the area where I do my mixed media so when I had gesso left over I would smear it on the page.  I have two pages that are prepped like this. 

Tonight I started my first page.  When I read the monthly Take the Challenge with Mou on the Faber Castell blog - to create a project related to Time.  

I scribbled some different colors of Gelatos on the page and then smoothed them out with a wipe.  

Currently I am not too happy with the look but I know it can be changed very easily.  I deepened the color with more Gelatos and spread the color with my fingers so more of the pigment stayed on the page.

I found this great image of an antique alarm clock at The Graphic Fairy and printed it on copy paper.  I cut it out and added it to the page with gel medium. 

I then took different stencils and distress paint and added some texture around the page.  My favorite turned out to be the orange paint with the square stencils.  I liked it so well I put it on in several different areas of the page.  I also painted in the edge of the paper where the spiral was. 

I am always afraid to write or stamp directly on a page because of the chance to ruin something.  I decided to write my quote on tissue paper.  I love how tissue paper just melts into your background with gel medium.  (sorry my picture of the handwriting on the tissue paper did not turn out).  I wish now I had written it larger and it was darker.  

I took a Tim Holtz stencil that had numbers on it (a page about time needs numbers on it).  I laid the stencil on the page and used the Big Brush through the stencil to add the numbers in 4 different spots.  I also stamped some circles (I love this little circle stamp from Judith).  I painted the inside of the circle with a Dina Wakely acrylic paint (my only tube).  

I keep feeling the urge to add more to the page but I like the page the way it is.  

Some things that make my soul happy are my daughters, my mother, the rest of my family, my neighbors, playing with my paper, and the thought that in about 15 months I hope to retire.  On that note thanks for stopping by.

Friday - Time to Challenge Yourself

It is Friday - time to use one of my Unity Stamps and share on Friends With Flair.  It seems I am on a "make Christmas cards" kick.  If you look at last week's post, you will see that I used the same paper for this week's card.  The paper just goes so well with the dark brown embossing powder.

The image was done with Zing dark brown embossing powder.  I colored the tree with some distress paints just to add a little color to the image.  I then layered multiple layers of patterned paper.  Thus my other two challenges.

Addicted to Stamps - Make Your Mark - I colored my tree with distress paints

Virginia's View Challenge - Patterned Paper - lots of patterned paper on this card  The paper is from Simple Stories.

As I was putting my card together this week, I realized I had forgotten to add the beige pindots to my card from last week.  No wonder I kept looking at it wondering what it was missing.  The piece of paper came in handy this week and I made sure to put it on the card.

I must tell you (a peak into next week) that the card will be the same image only stamped in white embossing color.  I am contemplating what wacky colors I can use on it.  Any suggestions.

Enjoy your Friday - I have some fun planned for the week end so my card making will be a little limited plus next week I am staying with my grand dogs for a couple days.  I wonder what mischief we can get into.