"700" Art Journal Page

I have a counter on my phone that counts down the days until I get to be a "Stay at Home Artist".  Ask me any time and I can tell you how many days remain, without looking.  Am I excited?  You bet I am!  A couple weeks ago I hit the 700 days mark and thought it was worthy of an Art Journal page.  I also wanted to practice a background technique that I had recently read about so I thought this would be a good place to try it out.  The background was perfect for journaling, I knew I wanted to do a bunch of that, I had a lot to say, but most of it I didn't want to share so I thought it would be fun to conceal a big portion of it with butterflies (a symbol for change).  I'm really happy with how this turned out.

Mixed Media Artist Tip #1- Left Overs

I thought it might be fun to start a new series on my blog with some tips for Mixed Media Artists.  I don't know how often these tips will be posted, I wish I could say that I already have a line up "in the can" but I don't.  It just occurred to me this morning to even share this idea.  You see, most of the things I do are ideas I've gotten from some one else so it would be silly for me to post tips that I know for sure have already been made available.  I'm not saying that my tips are original, I'm just saying that they're tips I haven't seen before.  So... here we go.

Today I'm going to be talking about left overs.  You know, left over paint, modeling paste that you colored, sprays that you want to test to make sure they're not clogged, tape, glue, whatever little bit of something you have left over from a project.  I'm pretty frugal so I usually tend to take out less than what I really need, but sometimes I go over board and that Frugal Frances in me freaks out.  I decided that I needed a place to put all theses little left overs and WaLa my "Bits Book" was born.

The book is a free book I grabbed from the break room at work (it had been sitting there for a year and no one touched it so I claimed it).  It's actually a Harry Potter book.  I'm not a fan so it was perfect! Now, if I'm working on a project and I have anything left over I pull out my Bits Book and smear it in there.

Here are some pictures:

As you can see, I've only used about 10 or 20 pages, this is still a fairly new idea for me.

Left over home made modeling paste

Some left over paint through a stencil

Paint from my brayor when Geli Printing

Checking out a new spray

More left over paint through a stencil over a page that was already painted with a wash

When I first started doing this I had no idea what I would do with these colorful pages, I just knew that the left overs had been saved and not washed down the sink.  Today I started getting some ideas.  

• The first idea I had was to use them for the backs of my ATCs.  I make quite a few ATCs every month and I enjoy making the backs pretty as well.  I used to cut up my scrap book paper and use it.  Recently I started using old book pages.  Today I realized I could use these beautiful painted or sprayed book pages!  Isn't it funny how the mind works?  One idea leads to another.

• The next idea I had was to use some of the MANY punches I have and punch out shapes to use in my art journals or to share in happy mail.  I have a whole box full of circles I've punched from various things, why not punch shapes from this?

• Then I thought, wait a minute!  I have a SILHOUETTE!!!  Then the possibilities became endless.

I hope you found this tip helpful.  if you have any other ideas how these book pages could be used I'd love to hear them.  Thanks for stopping by.  

2 new ATCs

These two ATCs were created using images from CrowAbout StudioB.

And I Smiled- ATC

I just finished another ATC for one of my swap friends.  It was a lot of fun and I'm so happy with how it turned out.  I used one of the backgrounds that I made throughout the week (I collaged, painted and stamped 3 12x12 pieces of ugly scrapbook paper and cut them down into 48 ATC backgrounds, it was quite the process).  Next I glued down some punched out hearts and shadowed them with a charcoal pencil and did the same with my word art (which came from one of Tangie Baxter's collage sheets).  I inked the edges and called it done.  Sweet and simple.  Love it.

Inspire ATC

This may be my new favorite ATC that I've made! I actually love everything about it.

The background is made from torn strips of dictionary paper they I aged with distress ink. I used a few of my favorite stamps and a bit of washi tape on the background then attached my heart which is just a painted piece of book paper. I stamped my word on some left over book paper that was already naturally aged and outlined it with a chattel pencil then used my finger to smear it. I used black ink to ink the edges and it was done.

Merry and Bright ATCs

I made these last week using a kit that was just released on Sunday by CrowAbout StudioB (it's so good to be back on her Creative Team!!

For the background I used a piece of newsprint that I keep on my craft table for mopping up paint.  I glued that to card stock and glued that to chipboard.  The back has a nice piece of scrapbook paper and my ATC tag with my personal information and information about the card.  On the front I glued pieces from the kit Merry and Bright  that I printed out on regular printer paper and traced with a black marker.  I used a white paint marker to make the dotted border.  SO simple, yet so fun.

I put these up for trade this morning on my Instagram and they were snatched up within minutes.  I love my swapping buddies : )

Here are the cards I made:

And here's the kit I used:

My Stuff your Stuff swap

Oh my gosh!  I did the most fun swap a few weeks ago!  It was a great exercise for my creativity, that's for sure. I was assigned a partner and we each sent an envelope full of stuff to one another.  Once we got the stuff we were supposed to use it to make 2 ATCs for our partner.  Well... my partner sent me a TON of stuff so I was able to make 3 ATCs for her and still had stuff left over!  It was a lot of fun.

Here's what I made for my partner:

And here's what she made for me:

More ATCs

I've got some more ATCs finished up and ready to go to their new homes.  Since I first learned about ATCs I've enjoyed making them.  They're so much fun and so quick and easy to put together, especially when you have everything all set out in front of you.  I never know how one is going to end up until it's done.  That's part of the fun though.

Here are my newest ones, using a kit by Crowabout StudioB called Just Go With It.

Here are my ATCs:

And here's the kit:

Some ATCs

I'm back to creating for Nancy over at CrowAbout StudioB.  Now that I'm back into making ATCs I thought her designs would be PERFECT for me again.  I've always loved Nancy's designs but for a while I wasn't doing anything mixed media, it was all digital and I couldn't bare to make things and not print them, so I decided to give up my spot on her team.  But now... I don't think I'll ever leave mixed media art, so I think Nancy is going to be stuck with me for a very long time.

I made a few ATCs with one of Nancy's more recent packs called Funky People Parts 2.  I've completed 3 of them and one is already traded.

Here's what I made:

And here's what I used:

Open Theme ATC swap with Karen

I LOVE swapping with Karen, her style is SO much fun.  She's still fairly new to making ATCs and I figure that if she's already this good just getting started... I MUST own as much of her art as I can : )  I really liked making the one I sent to her.  That is my style.  It has taken me a LONG time to figure out what really makes me happy but I have finally found it.  This ATC makes my heart sing.  Karen's card is first, mine is second.

Map theme ATC swap

My most recent group swap of ATCs was a map theme.  It was a lot of fun because it forced me to stretch outside my boundaries.  While I'm happy with the results of my cards, I think I'll stick with the style that I seem to be developing into- more of a layering, mixed media, inky, art journal sort of style LOL.

Below are the cards.  As always, the first set are the ones I received and the second set are the ones I made.

Open theme ATC swap

I recently did a swap with Connie, who I met on Facebook when she posted some pics of her beautiful art. I complimented her work and said that I wished I was one of her swap buddies and she said "let's swap" so we did. Connie's ATCs are first and mine are second.

Bird Theme ATC Swap

I've met some really neat people on Instagram and Facebook that I've had a blast swapping with. I'm starting to have some trouble keeping up lol. I wanted to make sure to share with you the beautiful treasures I've been getting in the mail.

A while back Karen and I did a 2 for 2 ATC swap with a bird theme. I had so much fun making my cards, they were very simple but I thought they turned out real pretty. And of course I was thrilled with the 2 birdies I got back. Karen's are the first two mine are the second two.

Ocean themed ATC swap

I just recently did an ATC swap with my friend Jen from Instagram. It was an ocean theme and I'm so pleased with the results, both in the card I made and received. Mine is the brownish colored card and Jen's is the beautiful blue one.

Oregon Coast art journal page

Just finished my second art journal page in my first ever at journal. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The book itself is an encyclopedia that I altered. I have the whole set and hope to some day have an entire set of art journals.

I started by gessoing my page then put down a piece of wallpaper. I brushed some Vaseline on the wallpaper then painted on a layer of white paint. I let this dry real good and wiped away the paint that covered the Vaseline. I used my finger to smear some paint around and a paper towel roll to stamp some circles and India ink to trace those circles. When everything was dry I glued down my magazine clippings and used my finger to smear some gesso around the clippings. I used a paint pen to decorate my page and edge it and a Pitt pen for my journaling. It was a lot of fun.

Cheerful by LuvEwe Designs

LuvEwe Designs is my Designer Partner over at GingerScraps this month.  She's a well established designer with loads of great stuff in her store.  I decided to work with her newest kit Cheerful.  It was a lot of fun.  It's a mini, but don't let that fool you, it has plenty of fun stuff to use.

Here's what I made:

And here's what I used:

ATC Swap at Paper Traders

I recently joined a swap group and mailed out my first swap last week.  It was a 6/6 ATC swap and the theme was pets.  It was SO much fun. I've greatly missed making ATCs.

Here's the one I made (they were basically all the same):

I'll post again when I get the 6 back from my swap partners.

Little Man by Little Rad Trio

Have you been over to GingerScraps lately?  Holy smokes!!  You must stop by.  There are a whole bunch of extremely talented new designers.  It was very difficult to decide who's new release to work with this week, but the deciding factor came when I saw that little word strip that says "momma's boy" because that's exactly what Morpheus is.

So... here's what I made:

And here's what I used:

Just For Nice by Kathy Winters Designs

It's been a rough couple months for me and my computer.  It finally died and went to E-Cycle heaven and now hubby and I share a computer.  So, my computer time is slightly more limited than before.  I do have a fun new scrap book page to show you.  I decided to start a new album in addition to my yearly albums that I make of my pups.  The new one will be a page dedicated to each of their nicknames (and there are a lot).  So I've finished my first page.... here's what I came up with:

And here's what I used:

Father Figure by LuvEwe Designs

I really enjoyed this new collection by LuvEwe Designs called Father Figure.  These colors are so easy for me to work with because of my usual subjects LOL.

Here's what I made:

And here's what I used: