ATC Challenge - Red

I was invited to join a small Artist Trading Group and we just finished our first trade. The challenge was the color red. Originally I was thinking Valentine's Day but that was so obvious. But then I ran across some Chinese envelopes I had in a drawer and the inspiration took hold. This year, Chinese New Year lands on Valentine's Day! So I created ATC's based on the year of the Metal Tiger which is this year's animal.

First I used a red fabric background and stamped a chinese character in dark blue. Then stamped some other oriental motifs in cold and a darker red. I then used a puffy paint to paint individual tigers on each card. When dry, I used a heat gun to puff them up and then painted them copper using H20 watercolor paints. When that dried, I added in details and stripes with a dye pen. The pen with the H20 paint trashed two of my black pens. Apparently they don't play nice together. So note to self, don't do that again. I sewed a Chinese coin onto each and finished the edges with a satin stitch in black.

I made 8 so that I could pick the best of the bunch for my trade which included only 5 people. So I have 3 left but need to do some adjustments to the faces.

Charms that missed the swap!

As usual, I didn't get something in on time. Partly because I didn't think they were good enough and partly because my life runs on a hamster wheel! So here they are:


Had to do a peacock

This was done on Stambord with embossed black ink. My sister carved the stamp for me and it is way too cool! So I stamped it and then hit it with the heat gun to emboss. When cool, I painted it with Twinkling H20's. Really cute.



Purple and green fairy or angel.



Pink fairy or angel




Definitely an angel


These were goddess type beads made out of fimo clay but they had a little kick to the side for a sassy look. After they were baked, I wrapped them in eyelash yarns and added wings. The purple wings were made out of ribbon and the other two were made from angelina film.

Creative Prompts Project

I cannot tell you how I found this site! Sometimes we just find things and we are glad we did. I may have heard of it through a friend or read about it on another blog - I can't remember! The cow on the sidebar will link you right to the blog that is hosting this. She will put in a word as a "prompt" to kickstart the creative juices. You have to create something that symbolizes the prompt or word. I am now behind a prompt as they just posted a new one.

I finally had room on my camera again so I could take pictures of my doodling. The creative prompt is BUBBLES. I love bubbles. I was inspired to do three versions!


So this one was kind of lame but I was playing with the Twinkling H20's and they are so much fun I had to include the picture.






Now after working on the first one, I remembered my hand carved stamp and decided to get it and play. I stamped it around the page - trying to connect them like tissues or nerves. Then I outlined the stamped images in black marker and filled in the spaces around the stamps with bubbles!





Same idea but stamped in two layers rather than one to get some dimension. I keep doodling along these lines so I think I will need to create something from these ideas.

If you are stuck and need to just play, I highly recommend this project. Have fun, I did.

Latest Art Addiction

Ever have one of those days when you want to create but don't know what to do? Have you ever gone into a slump and need to find a way to kick start your creative juices? Well I had the same problem. It wasn't for lack of ideas, I just needed to create but didn't want to work on any of my projects. Sketchbooks were always a problem for me because I had a tendency to try to bring each idea and sketch to a final piece. Kind of defeats the purpose of a sketchbook doesn't it. Well Quilting Arts Magazine and Cloth, Paper, Scissors Magazine periodically run ideas for sketchbooks so I have found myself sketching in them more.




On the right are the sketches from the viewfinder onto tissue paper. After blowing them up on the copy machine (left side) I glue these onto pages in my sketchbook to create new and interesting pictures/designs.

The other day was my big, creative breakthrough day! I found an old piece of cardboard I had cut to create a viewfinder. It was out of white cardboard and the center opening was 2" x 5 3/4". I started dropping it over books with pictures and saw some interesting shapes. I became very excited. I hunted down some tracing paper and started sketching around the shapes in the viewfinder. I was able to get about 8 pieces on one sheet of the tracing paper!

Next step was cutting them out and enlarging. I blew them up on a copy machine (yes we actually have one in the house!) to 180%. Then I cut them out (you only get one per sheet this time). Next came the truly inspiring and fun part. Ok I might be just a little addicted - not as bad as that chicken guy - but close! You need one 8 1/2" x 11" spiral bound sketchbook, a glue stick and a pencil.



This picture was created from an outline of small sailboats and their masts.



These were from a small detail of a building. Reminds me of vases or maybe a musical instrument.



Another from a part of a building. Looks like jello molds.



Small architectural detail that was made into it's own building. Reminded me of Dorthy and the Wizard of Oz.

I started playing with the pieces and gluing them onto pages in the sketchbook. Then I started gluing two different ones to the same page. I cut pieces up to create comic book type pages! I started seeing a picture out of roots and created an entire cross section view of a pond from the lily to the bottom of the lake. I could see an art piece developing from this. Small mini pieces put together to create an entire picture.
Wow! Once I started I couldn't stop myself. I have started carrying it with me to piano practices to work on while waiting. After burning myself out on the gluing. I pulled out the pencil. Now I had to create pictures out of the shapes on the pages. I sketched and came up with some really fun and interesting designs. All you have to do is start extending the lines from the photocopy to create a new picture. Who knew a forest could develop out of small sailboats and masts.



This was a cross section of a part of a fish. I created a fish and bubbles hiding in the seaweeds.



This was an outline of some plant. I made two copies and glued them bottom to bottom and connected them to create a plankton looking piece.



This was from roots and a rock. I made two copies. I glue one to the bottom of the one page and the other to the top (reversed) on the next page. Then connected together. I colored with oil pastels and watercolors. Reminded me of a cavern under the water.



I glued different sized pieces to two pages. It creates a picture but is broken up into different sized squares.

I colored some of them in with colored pencils, watercolors and oil pastels. I think I may actually have some new and interesting pieces that will come from these experiments. Who knew working in a sketchbook could be so much fun?!!