Ultimate Passion Book

Speaking of Leighanna's class, I thought I would share MY Ultimate Passion Book with you. My favorite techniques taught were cutting out windows in your book and stenciling with gesso. Since this was my last class of the week, I was very drained. I wish I had taken notes! During class I actually accomplished very little, just spent time soaking up info. The photos show the results of working in my home studio. I really want some plastic doilies to call my own. Anyone have a resource for them they are willing to share??? teehee

Envelope Art

First foray into envelope art! It all began with Art and Soul Virginia, May 2007. One of my classes was Leighanna Light's Ultimate Passion Book. I learned fabulous techniques from this talented and generous teacher. Leighanna painted each participants envelope which held instructions and collage supplies for the class. Each student received an invitation to join an envelope round robin so these beautifully painted envie's could live on! About 10 of us signed up and communicated via our "thingmakers" yahoo group. Being new to altering envies, I started out small, as you can see in the above photos. I used my favorite anatomical heart gel transfer on the front, and a fusion collaged heart on the back. After making the rounds, my completed envy is below. Leighanna opened the envy and used a duck tape backing. Very clever! I'm excited to say that I have signed up for Leighanna's Metal Treasure Deck at Art and Soul 2008.

ATC Muse in Overdrive Part 4

Saturday Muse ATC #4! This one started with a background I made a while ago and begins with Titan Buff mixed with sand. I painted it with Golden Heavy Body Cadmium Red and it germinated like that for several weeks! I embossed the edges with Red Dragon embossing powder from Stampendous! Love it. Next came a background stamp from Divas D'Este with black Staz on ink. The sassy image is from Artchix. I used Rub-on Stitching from DCWV to outline the image. Now the best part, the quote! It's from "Love and Other Impossible Pursuits" by Ayelet Waldman. Stay tuned because her book is ripe with ATC inspiring material!

ATC Muse in Overdrive Part 3

Saturday Muse ATC #3!!! I call this one Victorian Mosaic. Collaged papers down using soft gel medium. Let thick lines of gel gather around edges of papers and border. Sprinkled down embossing powder and heated her up! Used gel to adhere dancing couple images from Artchix French Feast transparency. Added more gold embossing powder. Gelled down purple Pressed Botanicals from European Papers. The flowers were a free gift included in my last order. How classy is that!! Thank you European Paper People!

ATC Muse in Overdrive Part 2

This one was fun and quite simple. Glossy paper with alcohol inks, tree tile stamp by Rubber Soul, metallic flakes adhered with sticky embossing powder. Stars punched out. Glittery vellum glued on back of ATC for sparkle. I like the simplicity of this card. Inspired by my neighbor, Al, who was blowing the leaves off my lawn. His family takes care of my tree, in exchange for a pot of my famous turkey chili now and then! Go Penn State!

ATC Muse in Overdrive

My second Saturday ATC is titled "profoundly lonely", a phrase from a fantastic book, "Kissing in Manhattan" by David Schickler. I'm a voracious reader, and keep a notebook of my favorite phrases and quotes. My daughter is reading "Treasure Island" for school and tonight we found the phrase "poisonous brightness". Isn't that wonderful!! I must create an ATC with that soon!

Back to this ATC! Background is game board with stamped circles using gesso. Next, a light wash of Hansa yellow, then colored with Portfolio oil based pastels. Words from an old dictionary and a stamp from Diva's E'Este. Voila! In case you're worried, "profoundly lonely" is not how I'm feeling right now, but I think the bird-riding man probably struggles with it!

Another Adventure with Golden's Light Molding Paste

Saturday was a fun filled day of Creating! This ATC began with a painted and stamped background. Painted Interference oxide green on the back of the transparency image to give it a nice glow. Soft gelled down a torn book page and collage papers, added image. The paper on the lower right corner was a gift from my BFF Tracey. She brought it to me all the way from London!Next step was the gold foil tape edging. I wanted the tape to get "painty" and have the next step, adding the stencil with molding paste flow over top of it. I allowed the paste to dry overnight. Painted a first coat of Phthalo Green, followed by Jenkins green, to give it that black green look. Final touch was a very light rubbing of Treasure Gold in color Renaissance Gold.

Finished!!

My Medusa

My daughter on Halloween. Crazy me, I bought a new car on mischief night! I was nervous all night about my baby. (The car not my daughter, teehee) Thank goodness that decision is behind me, it was making me nuts. Now I have a silver Nissan Rogue to drive around in. I won't say that the fold down seats and large cargo area made my decision, but I was thinking about all the supplies I'd have room to haul down to Virginia to Art and Soul! Yup, my room is booked, and obsessing about classes has begun! I even ordered moo cards of some of my ATC's to have for trades. I hope they come out well. It was kind of tricky to get the cropping correct without losing any necessary elements. I have signed up for an all original page fatbook for Virginia. Scheduling stressing about that commitment for after the holidays! My sister's ballerina canvas is almost finished, just have to decide about adding the roses. My next Christmas project is a shadow box for my other sister, Deb. She loves all things Johnny Depp, so this will have an Edward ScissorHands theme. It's been fun researching Tim Burton's art.

What Possibilities Remain

Decided against using light paper for word backgrounds as shown on earlier post. Instead, I printed words on my Dymo machine and adhered them to copper strips. There is a tiny question mark inside the heart. Look very closely. I almost didn't put it in, but I think it helps get my message across. The colors are my favorites, Golden Interference Oxide Violet and Green Gold. The colors are "cooler" in real life. Anybody want to trade? This is a 4X4 canvas board.

Add Roses or Not???

Close up of canvas from an earlier post. I'm completely torn about adding the rose garland. I'm thinking it looks too, should I say it, crafty???? Advice for or against wanted! The top pics are after I added gold rub n buff type stuff. I also like her tiara on top her head instead of tucked up in her hair. Comments most welcome.