Fishing Memories

I just completed these 2 small fishing books. On the left is the front cover and on the right is the back cover. Back in August my husband and Ken, a friend of ours, took Ken's son and son-in-law on a fishing trip to Canada. Their hopes were to have the 'boys' catch large Muskies... and they were successful. I thought it would be a great way to remember the trip with these small books. I had made a similar book for my husband a couple of years ago. Each book contains some pictures of the group and then pictures specific to the fish caught by each of the boys.

These are a couple of pages in the books. I used a graphics program to size the 4 x 6" photos so they would fit in this small book. The book on the top shows the inside front cover where I copied a map of the lake where they were fishing.

Here again are a couple of the pages from each of the two books. Since my husband loves to fish, I tend to have a few fishing related stamps that I can use to embellish projects like this one.

Christmas Gifts

I found some paper mache boxes at Hobby Lobby about a month ago; they were so cute with the reindeer on them. I thought they would be easier to paint than they were. The reindeer are raised images and I planned to paint the background first and then with a light touch go over the reindeer with the metallic paint...forget that!!! It worked best to paint the reindeer with a very fine brush first and then paint the background with some acrylic paints I mixed together to get the red and green I wanted. What a pain it was to paint in all the small areas surrounding the antlers and legs!!! I bought some wood pieces to use for the feet on the boxes and for the handle on the top...painted those with metallics to match the reindeer. They turned out pretty good...not perfect, but pretty good. Now, I just need to decide who I will give these to for Christmas???!!!

Altered Mannequins

I wanted to make some birthday gifts for my friends Pea and Maggi, and found a great idea in the book Paper Transformed by Julia Andrus. Here are the 3 mannequins I created; the one in the middle was my 'practice' lady. I have lots of painted/inked papers to use in future projects as I tried various water color mediums to create the petals of the skirts. Not only was finding the right colors and issue, but also the right kind of cardstock. But I finally found what I liked when I got out my Aileen's color mist sprays and some very thick cardstock. Both sides of the cardstock need to be colored so the cardstock has to be pretty sturdy. Another tip I can pass along is color both sides of the paper before you cut out the petals for the skirts. Based on the template I created for the petals, I was able to cut 5 petals from each 8 1/2 x 11" sheet of paper. And I used 10 petals on each of the skirts. The upper torso is draped with plain white tissue paper that I sprayed with the same colors I used for each of the lady's skirts. The flower petal corsages on each was also color sprayed.

This mannequin is still in my possession. I'm not sure if I'll keep her or give her to someone. I would work each step on this one first and then move on to the other two. For this one I sprayed a base coat of Asilomar Sand color mist first. One side I left just adding a little gold, but the rest of the sides of cardstock I then applied a different color once the base was mostly dry.

This is the mannequin I gave to Pea. Each side of the cardstock was sprayed with a color and once they were mostly dry I then sprayed over lightly with tungsten carbide. I like the deep rich colors that were created with the combinations.

I gave this mannequin to Maggi. Even though her birthday isn't until November, I couldn't wait to give this to her. As with the mannequin created for Pea, I used 2 color mists for each side of the cardstock.

Raevn's nest chunky book page

I'll be attending the Raevn's Nest Art Retreat in Cedarburg, WI in October. I've signed up for the chunky book that my good friend Pea has organized. Here's a look at the page; I've made 43 of these 4 x 4" pages. I started with some scrapbook paper that I thought would be a great background. But I didn't have enough of the paper so I scanned a sheet and made my own. Next I used a mini mask made by Heidi swap and sold on Suze Weinberg's site. I sponged Aged Mahogoney Distress Ink around the mask. I had a stamp that said "Let your spirit dance" from Angi B, but the word dance didn't fit with my theme. So I inked up only part of the phrase and then created the word "fly" with my scrabble letter stamps and shrink plastic. I made 43 "f's", and 43 "l's", and 43 "y's"...I am crazy, but I sure do like the result!

Here is the back of my page. I applied ink from 3 different colors of Distress Ink pads to a craft sheet. Then I sprayed with copper colored Moon Glow Glitz Spritz. I layed the water color paper down onto the craft sheet, placed pressure across the paper with my hand, and then gave it a little twist. When I lifted, if there was an area with no color I placed the paper back down onto the craft sheet where there was some ink left. I dried the paper with a heat gun and then went outside to spray them with a fixative; the Moon Glow product needs a fixative. After the papers were dry from the fixative I stamped the bird in the tree image, but decided the page needed more. So using various colors of ink I stamped the 4 words around the image.

Embossed Tiles

This is the Embossed Tile Technique that I found in 'Altered Surfaces' book by Chris Cozen (working artist for Golden products)....
I started with some mini canvases (2 x 3") that I found in a local art store. Apply Golden's Light Molding Paste evenly across the entire canvas with a palette knife. I then stamped an image using a foam stamp; I also added some wavy lines along the 2 sides of the canvas. I then let the paste dry overnight.
I experimented with wood mounted and unmounted stamps, but was not successful with them. Even using this foam stamp I sometimes found the image not sharp enough so I would respread the molding paste and stamp again. I was working on several canvases at one time and needed to clean the foam stamp after each canvas to ensure a sharp enough image.

After the molding paste had completely dried, I wet the entire surface with water using a brush. Don't soak it, but use enough water to allow the paint, you are about to apply, to flow. Using a brush and a small amount of paint, drop the paint in several places on the canvas. The colors should spread across the canvas. I used 2 colors: Golden's fluid acrylic ultramarine violet and phthalo green (blue shade). Do not cover the entire canvas.

I let the canvases sit overnight to make sure the first application of paints was dry. Then, again wet the surface of the canvas and apply an iridescent color to the areas that were left unpainted. I used Golden's fluid acrylic iridescent bronze. The paint must be dry before proceeding to the next step so I let them sit overnight again.

Using a palette knife, Golden Clear Tar Gel is applied over the entire canvas. The gel will appear milky when wet, but it does dry clear. The humidity was very high when I was working on this step of the project so I let the canvases sit for 2 days to dry thoroughly.

To complete the canvas some embellishments were added. Decorative braiding was glued around all four sides of the canvas using red line tape. Then 3 small shells were adhered to the corner of the canvas using glossy accents.

Here is the mini canvas displayed on a mini easel!!!

More altered tins

I bought some cute little tins at the local stamp store. They were painted white to start with so I used various colors of alcohol inks. They look great, but they need something else to add interest.

And here are the finished tins. I created an embellishment using hot glue and a stamp. After they cooled I applied inks and rub ons until I achieved colors that I thought looked good on the tins. But that wasn't enough.... So I got out my fibers and beads and this is the result.

Altered Tin

Back in May I started working on some tins. At that time I posted a picture of the tin after I had sanded and painted it. I finally found the embellishments I thought would work .... I used a glue gun to apply the decorative braiding around the edge of the top.


Here's a better view of the top...
Two decorative leaves, one gold and one copper, along with a bee (button).
I think it is finished; although, I'm not sure if I should add something on the right side. I don't want to clutter it up! I'll let it sit and look at it again in a week or two.