Age is just a number

 The inspiration for this page started with seeing a video on YouTube

by LivArtNow on how to make tiles.  Now she made her tiles on

small pieces of wood, but I saw another video and they used pieces

of chipboard.  That I have, so that's the way I went.  You will see the tile

that I made in the upper right area.  Came out pretty cool I thought

and I liked using the numbers in different sizes.

And as we all know, age really is just a number.

I used some of Tim Holtz idea-ology tissue paper to begin with. I tried

paints this time instead of the gel pins.  There's stamping, stenciling and

spray mists used.  And of course the numbers and letters

were cut out with the Cricut machine.

New Journal page

Ok, so I realize that I am new to this form called 'art journaling' but

I rather like finding all these techniques that I'm learning to do.

 

The first two pages were painted backgrounds using gesso, Faber Castell gel pens

and wipes.  But this one I actually used a paper background and lots of Mod Podge. And

I used some new stencils that I had ordered.  I mixed gesso with powder and

white paint to come up with the stenciling texture.  To

give it additional color on this page I added some brown paint.

I applied some torn paper elements to the background page

then used a thin coat of gesso to dilute the colors with.

Using my Cricut machine I cut out other elements that

brought Paris to mind.  I added those, diluted the colors

with the help of gel pens and added the aging elements around

each.  There are a few rub-ons along the way.  The unbrella

I printed off and colored in with pencils.

 

When I was in high school I had a post card that

had Mona Lisa on it.  I carried that card around in my books

for the longest time.  I think she is what made me

fall in love with art.  She is in the Louvre in Paris.  I've seen

her there.......and she made me cry.

Be My Valentine?

 Just a couple of quick Valentine's cards.  The first one is a 4x4 card.  I made 3 of them

for friends at work.  Just simple with 'be my valentine' stamped inside.

 

The next one is for my mother.  It's a 5x5 card since it has to be mailed.

 

The heart inside popes up when you open the card.

Another Journal page...

 I tried my hand at another journal page this weekend. Now, I was never really that

good of a painter, more 'crafty' painting than anything. And it's been probably

20 years since I've really even done any painting.  But to my surprise

most of my paints were still good.  I had them stored upside down so the air

had a hard time getting into it.

 

I love dragonflies and being in the south, during the summer, they are

everywhere. I managed to find a picture of one that

helped me, so I drew one, copied it over to some thicker paper.

I painted it, then cut it out.  I applied it to the prep page

with Mod Podge. I tried spraying it with some Glimmer Mist, but that

didn't really show up that well. When I was done with

everything else, I added a bit of Stickles liquid glitter to

add that bit of shimmer on the wings and head.

 

There are a couple of things that I need to practice a bit

to get better at, but all in all, I'm happy with the page

results.

Art Journaling and the winter blahs

I'm one of those people that about this time of year, the 'winter blahs' set in.  Are you that way too?

Anyway, I try to find do things, activities, mostly crafty stuff that helps me fight the

blahs as best as I can.  I've found a new one this year, was not really familiar with it

until I starting do a bit of research.  It's called Art Journaling....mixed media...and your

imagination are the main 'ingredients'.

 

I used mainly YouTube as my research vehicle.  I watched several videos from

different artists until I found one or two styles that appealed to me.  I collected the materials

that I needed and weren't already in my possession.

 

So, here's my first attempt.

 

 

I'm excited that this gives me another use for the

Cricut machine.  Not that I will use it every time. But it

does increase my options and ideas.