My Art - Journal page

I created this October journal spread as an extra because there are only 7 of us participating in the swap so I offered to do an extra set as did a few more so she will have a full set of months when we are done.

I used a catch sheet from an alcohol ink session on these pages. I doctored it up with a bit of watercolour to make it more consistent and even. Added the Sizzix letters for "October" on one side and colour printed "give" on the other side and used the insides of the Sizzix letters on that side. I also used my sewing machine to make stitching holes on both pieces and then a marker to simulate thread. Added some vintage photos with descriptions to remind us to give thanks for the qualities of our BEING as well as the many materials blessings we receive. A very fun layout that worked out just as I had envisioned it would.

My Art - September journal page

A layout for a journal swap I am involved in! Her theme was vintage children and she is doing a calendar as well. I had fun choosing images to put on this page and creating the background to look like a writing practice booklet. I used an outline alphabet to stamp white on the black board and the header. I used the same stamps to create "September" on the bottom of the page with black Memories ink and then watercoloured it. The set of stamps is used and was missing the "s" so I made one today from fun foam and it has worked reasonably well in this layout! I used a white gel pen to hand write the saying on the black board. I have been using my eyelets!! Worked out quite well on the blackboard!! It was a fun challenge!!

Therese

My Art - Cardmaking with fabric

Another #8 card!! The fabric - large napkin - I bought quite a while back because I loved the colours! Worked perfectly for this card!! It is a heavy twill. Ironed easily and the pieces really keep their shape. I glued the fabric to the card front and layered on the colour printed greeting. I glued the greeting down but added a brad to the corner to

be sure the greeting would stay in place. The circular colour printed accent is layered onto green and attached to the card with a "screw" brad!! The right hand side of the back inside of the card (duplex cardstock) is stamped with texture. Perfect for an invitation to a backyard BBQ or your next Fiesta night!! Change up the fabric and the cardstock to suit any occasion!!

The texture is a wheel from Stampin UP. I have removed the rubber from the wheel and use it with my acrylic mounts. Consider checking out the wheels - some have very nice images that can be cut apart once removed from the wheel and used as unmounted stamps. EZmount works like a dream for mounting UMs to your acrylic blocks!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Easter to those who celebrate!!

Therese
Mixed Media Market

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mixedmediamarket/

My Art - Cardmaking with Alcohol inks

The large accent on this card was created using foil, cardstock, alcohol inks and embossing (CuttleBug -D'vine Swirl). I glued the foil - regular out of the kitchen drawer - to a sheet of cardstock. I cut it apart and embossed the pieces. Applied alcohol inks to the foil. Fun!!!! On hindsight I found that the inks seeped through the foil which was stressed by the embossing and into the cardstock. Next time I will apply the alcohol inks to the foil and emboss after they are dry. This makes a very sparkly, rich looking accent. Layered the accent and then glued to the front of the card leaving the bottom edge hanging over the front of the card. (3.5"x 11" folded at 6 1/4"). Added a circle (1 1/8") and a flower to the rectangular ribbon slide with a brad to create an embellishment for the card. Would be great for a special occasion - wedding or anniversary!!


Therese

My Art - Cardmaking with OSW

One Sheet Wonder accent for this card!! I used flower, leaves and stipple stamps (SU) for my OSW. Layered the accent onto the front of the card, glued yellow cardstock to the bottom front of the card and added the stitches with a marker. Once it was trimmed even to the back I stamped my greeting (SU). This was a quick and easy card - another #8!

One Sheet Wonder indicates a sheet of decorative paper that you create to make coordinating cards. Great to make card sets for gifts - the cards coordinate but are not all the same.

Take a sheet of cardstock and stamp the flowers in red all over in a random pattern. I like to start with a diagonal line and then add to that. Not too close together. Make sure you have some falling off the edges as well. Then add your leaves in green in between. I added yellow to the flower centers using my finger as a stamp. The stipple stamping was done in brown and yellow in between the flowers. To create coordinating cards just mark off the back of your sheet and cut apart. Add coordinating cardstock - in this case ruby, avocado and yellow - and make up your cards. Lots of different cutting templates are available but you can easily make your own. If you would like a template just Google - One Sheet Wonder Template or head on over to Split Coast Stampers and search there!!

Therese

My Art - Cardmaking with screening

For texture and interest I added screening to this card! Yes, regular fiberglass screening!! We always have pieces leftover when we make up our moulds and deckles for papermaking. The laser printed greeting is layered over the screening and attached to the card with the brads. The accent is layered punched shapes - scallop (SU), 1 3/8" (SU), 1 1/4" (SU), 1 1/8" (?) with a little white silk flower ($1 Store) and a silver brad. I added the black dots to the scallop and it was just what it needed to add a little pop to the card. The white embossed layer (CB -Floral Motif) is attached to the inside back of the card. Another #8 card! I challenged myself to make cards that would fit in these #8 envelopes and was surprised to find that it was not as difficult as I thought it would be. There are a few more to come!!
This card could be made up in any colour!! Consider using drywall tape instead of the screening. The fiberglass drywall tape can be coloured very easily with stamp pads or acylic paint to coordinate with your cardstock.
Therese

My Art - Cardmaking Hydrangeas

Cardmaking!! This was my spring/Mother's Day/Easter card!! The purple mesh I have had for quite a long time and it finally made it into my cardmaking!! It is very loosely woven so can easily be altered by just pulling it in one direction or another. I attached it to the card front by gluing the strip down with hot glue. The image (SU) is watercoloured and glued in place with 3D foam tape which also anchors the mesh to the card front. Added the layered flowers with a brad. I brought stamps so a greeting could be added to the card for those who wanted Mother's Day cards. I like that you can fray the edges a little for some interest and the mesh certainly adds some texture to the card!!

Therese

My Art - Antique collage card

My card for the card exchange with my stamping group! We explored antiquing techniques last month so I used a piece of sheet music which was antiqued with walnut ink. I stamped the music image (SU) with chocolate chalk ink and cut the image out closely. Layered them on the top of the card. I used my Cuttlebug and my new ribbon slide dies to cut the oval ribbon slide! These work great!! Layered a brown circle and heart onto it. The heart was silver so I stipplied it with chalk ink until it worked with the colour scheme. I attached it to the slide with a brad. The ribbon slides accomodate 3/8" ribbon the best so I dug out a short piece in a chocolate colour. Used the deckle scissors (Fiskars) on the bottom of the front flap and stamped the composers (SU) on the back inside of the card. This card fits in the #8 envelopes I purchased for the monogram cards.

Antiquing can be done with a variety of mediums - brown ink pads, brown reinkers, brown acrylic paint (burnt umber is my favorite), distress inks, lemon juice and heat, walnut ink, coffee, tea, etc. They all give a subtly different look and it is fun to experiment. Certainly you can use blank paper or cardstock but I like using printed paper - either something I have printed myself or pages from a book or sheet music. Try crumpling the page before you apply your medium. One of the girls used a page from an old magazine and walnut wood stain!! Worked wonderfully!! Keep an eye out for interesting copy when you are putting paper in your recycle bin! Free art supplies means you can spend more on rubber!!

Therese

Countdown to more images!!

Here is another countdown to St. Patrick's Day image countdown! These are also linkware - provide a link on a site before you down load!

http://artist-how-to.com/Countdown.htm

I am hoping to be able to create with some of these later today!!

Enjoy!

Therese

Countdown!

Hey! Lisa is having another countdown for St. Patrick's Day and Easter! You can check out her linkware images on her site:

http://countdown.tentwostudios.com/

Celebrate St.Patrick's Day tomorrow by creating some green art!! Lots to choose from!!

Therese

My Art - Photo holder

These little photo holders were the last project I made with my students the last week before March break. It was a fun little project and for their versions I allotted them a piece of shrink plastic to make an embelishment or a tag for their holders. Shrink plastic was very popular!! I also brought in some recyclable plastic which acts very much like shrink plastic so they had a ball!!
I used large binder clips (2") as a base for these photo holders. The cardstock cover is tied on at the top to keep the two arms tight to each other which allows the photo to be held in place when inserted between the two. I got the basic idea of using a binder clip to make a photo holder from SCS but modified the design to suit my needs. This version allows more space to decorate and to personalize the holder. I provided the students with a variety of collage materials and some 3D elements to decorate their holders. They are so open to just going for it and created some very nice holders!!
I used a piece of cardstock about 3" x 8.5" which I scored at 3.5" and 4.5". I punched the holes to tie where the binder clip handles narrow which keeps the whole cover very nicely in place.
A quick and easy gift idea that can be changed up or down to be suitable for a kindergarten class or the next gathering of your craft group!! Great little idea for Mother's Day!!

Enjoy! Be creative!

My Art - Lots of monogram cards

Here are all the monogram cards I made for myself. It was very interesting because the students added watercolour washes to the backgrounds of some of theirs for a very interesting look.

Check them out here:
http://www.tmalakrsc.blogspot.com/

It was a very fun project and helped them to appreciate hand lettering in the very short period of time they had to learn it!!

Therese

My Art - Monogram cards

Here is what one of my monogram cards looked like. I watercoloured the letter. Very happy with my new version of T. Monogram cards are great for sending little notes of thanks or appreciation. When you have used your own lettering they are much more unique.

Therese

My Art - Kersal Monogram

This is a Kersal letter!! I taught my class of students to make a Kersal letter so they could create their own monogram cards!! A very versatile lettering style!! They each created an original which I scanned and laser printed so they would have monogram cards of their best work. I borrowed this lettering form from one of the artists on the ByHand group. Thanks, Yogi!!

We used pencils for our practice sheets and then a Sharpie Ultra Fine on coated paper to make our good copies. They made as many as they wanted and in the end picked one to be their best one!!

Therese

My Art - Yalphamingle - A

Our fat book page mingle has morphed into the Yalpha mingle!! I am so glad it is continuing on!! This year we will be featuring letters on our pages!! I started with A but it could have been any letter!! Though my letter looks black it is actually covered with silver foil paper! I got a new Cropadile at my SU party and really like it! It sets eyelets better than anything else I have used in the past - still not always perfectly but pretty close!! And in a breeze of time and with no banging!! A win - win in my books!! It sets several different sizes of eyelets along with other embellishments like snaps, etc. So I played with it for this page. Added black eyelets to attach my letter and three silver ones to the right hand edge. I added fiber to those!! The Cropadile is not as versatile as the Memories setter in that it cannot set them in the middle of a page so I will likely not liquidate the Memories setter just yet. My friend, Linda, used her Cropadile to punch a hole in a thick plastic game piece when we were making danglies at her house! Cut it like butter!! The Cropadile punches two sizes of holes and because of the design easily punches them through metal and any sort of chipboard, etc!! A versalile piece of kit!!
I laser printed ALWAYS and the list on a laser transparency! Very fun to make your own transparencies!! Printed off some keys and some large letters for future Yalpha mingle pages while I was at it to fill an 8.5"x11" page!! I have more art to scan and put up so maybe later this week.

Thanks for checking out my blog and get creative this week!

Therese

My Art - "Faux Silk" Thank you cards

These are the Thank you cards I made for the gang that came over for my Stampin Up party a few weeks ago. I have a wonderful SU demo who does a great job of presenting SU and always has great Make and Take cards!! We had a great time as usual!!

I bought a box of 500 envelopes (#8 - 3 5/8" x 6 1/4") because they were perfect for the monogram cards I was doing with a class of students a few weeks ago. So now I am experimenting with them for regular cards!! For these cards I cut 8.5" x 11" down to 3.5" x 11" and added a white layer on the front to make up the few inches I was short. Worked out quite well. The panel is made with the "faux silk" technique.
Take a piece of tissue paper and stamp and colour the images. Cut cardstock smaller than the size of the tissue paper - 1/2" -1" smaller on all sides. Crunch the tissue up into a ball and carefully unball leaving the wrinkles in. Cover the cardstock all over with glue and gently place the tissue paper on it leaving some hanging over on all edges. Gently press the tissue paper into the glue all over. You want a nice all over textured look. Then turn over the cardstock and glue down the overlapping edges of tissue to the back.
Makes a very nice feature element for your projects - cards as well as scrapbooks and altered art! The greeting is colour printed and layered with the SU circle punches!!
I would encourage you to experiment with different envelopes! It helps you think outside the box!!

Therese
where spring is trying really hard to melt the snow!!