UGLY at Divas Art Club

For the past several months, our hostess for the September meeting asked us to save items that we would normally toss out to share and use for the September project.  You won't believe the pile of junk that we sorted through on Monday night.  There were boxes, paper rolls, fabric, beads, ribbons and all kinds of trinkets.  We were to construct an UGLY PROJECT that had some significance on a personal basis.  We could use a hot glue gun, needle and thread or a stapler.  All other craft items were not allowed.  

I was sneaky and brought a few items for my project that I saved from my last hospital visit.  Below is my UGLY DIVA.  She has a big heart and loves flowers.

Black and White - Anything Goes at Moo Mania

I have been wanting to make some black and white cards so yesterday I pulled out some white on black papers.  Fortunately, it was timely as I read the challenge at Moo Mania this morning, thanks to Valerie.

I needed a tag for a gift so I created one using a paint strip for the background and a clock element so I'll also link to Art Journal Journey for August. The scan did not pick up the verse which reads, "adventure awaits you."

Busy craft week

 I have been busy this past week, meeting digital challenges, card challenges and finishing a canvas.  We have oodles of birthdays to celebrate in September so a supply of finished cards will make it much easier to mail them timely.

I finished a canvas as a tribute to my mother.  When we were kids, we used these spoons, sneaked out of the house, to dig in the hurt.  One in particular had many scratches on the bowl.  My mother loved roses and also wore pearls a lot in later life.  I believe she would like this canvas.

Below are some of the cards I made. 

I also did an experiment on watercolor paper to see if you could stamp over a stencil that had been embossed.  What I did incorrectly was stamp with non-archival black ink so when I attempted to remove color from the image, the black smeared.  It was still a fun experiment and I added silver mica spray to the images for an added effect.  For the stencil, I used a Brilliance ink pad in green/blue shades and embossed with clear embossing powder then stamped the larger ginkgo leaf images. 

Off to finish some more birthday cards.

Making cards

In September, we celebrate many birthdays so I have been busy making some cards both to give and for challenges and wanted to share some of them with you.

Canvas Oriental Style

Our "Circle of Friends" Artistic Souls art group will be working on canvases this week using an antique spoon.  I have been practicing various techniques and knew I wanted a canvas oriental style.  I have been inspired by Finnabair and her design team and used ideas from them to create this canvas.  I used a canvas for a mixed media project back in 2005, covered it with gesso and off I went.  The focal point was from a brochure sent to me from a friend in Taiwan years ago.  One thing I did attempt on this was liquid "pour" medium.  When I went to use it, it came out of the bottle quickly so more than half of  a bottle went on to this center image.  Next time I will transfer the liquid to a bottle with a spout so that I don't waste so much.  I do like the effect and it is much faster than using ice resin. The other papers and elements were from my stash.

 

 

BRUSHOS CRYSTAL POWDER BACKGROUND

Below is a photo of my Brusho backgrounds used for a card and two ATCs.  I also used a ginkgo designed stencil from Ryn Designs.  If I could redo the whole process, I would have used glossy cardstock.  After I made my background, I decided to emboss the ginkgo design from the stencil, but with the thinner matte cardstock it didn't work as I expected.  I put the stencil back over the background and went around the design with a black pen.

For the card, the ginkgo leaves are real that were dried.  Because they are very fragile I applied Diamond Glaze to the back to give them more substance and to help avoid the leaves from splitting.

I love to experiment and this was my first completed Brusho project.  More to come!



Moo-Mania Number Challenge

While in my "projects to do" box I found an embossed number background that must have been an experiment with coloring on embossing folders.  It was perfect for the number challenge at Moo-Mania.  In the same box I found these clock images and combining both, I created this fun card.