Artist's I Heart

I have met many friendly and talented artists via blogging. I have been remiss about adding blog addy's and websites to my Artist's I Heart column. Well, holy time consuming Batman, I've updated the list!!!! Check out each and every one of them at your leisure, you won't be sorry!!! I still have a huge list of tutorial sites to revisit and add....egads......

Summer Skinny Book Page

I was able to finish my arttechniques Skinny Book pages this weekend. In the previous post, the background and wordings are shown. Moving on to the mermaids....

First step was picking some paper for the mermaid torso. I used scrap paper and free collage paper that was included in one of my issues of Somerset Studio magazine. The mermaid related stamps are all from Invoke Arts. One of my favorite rubber sources.



I used white ,and a color mix of my own making, embossing powders for the shell bras.

Next step was choosing the photo for the tails. I used a photo of the Sea I took while on vacation with my heart at the Outer Banks, North Carolina.

My inspiration for the tail was the stunning colors of angelina fibers I purchased during vendor night at Art and Soul. I also purchased some really cool rubber at this booth hosted by Doll Makers Ink. I used the directions from Sherrill Kahn's book, Creative Embellishments, on how to heat the fiber to make it "flat" and paper like. I highly recommend this book.
I used a teflon sheet, my iron, and a deep imprinted rubber stamp:

The rubber did not make much of an impression this time. Next time I'll use a thicker layer of fiber. I wanted an airy approach to the tail so I used a thin layer. I used the rubber tail piece as a guide to cut out the tails:

Used brads and sequins to attach all the parts together. I then use foam tape to attach the mergals to the page. Here are 3 different maids:

They are all a little bit different. Here is a close of one of the tails:

On the backs of the pages I embossed a Fred Mullett Sea Urchin stamp. I also listed my supplies and wrote out the whole quote by Jill Davis on transparencies. I adhered the transparencies with Glossy accents. :

Missing Porn Star Sighted

Mitch was sighted briefly this weekend while I rummaged through my lingerie drawer.


Within seconds Mighty Mitch had disappeared again. He is a slippery inch. Stay tuned....

Baby Love

My first meeting with Baby Gianna. Look how weepy I got. What a pushover. This kid is going to get lots of checks from me, I can tell.

Before she came out:

God Bless Jonni, John and Gianna.

ArtTechniques Skinny Book Page

I'm participating in my arttechniques yahoo group's skinny book page swap. There are 25 artists playing with the theme "Summer". I was much inspired by the Sea during my vacation with my heart to the Outer Banks, NC. Not long thereafter, I happened upon this quote by author Jill Davis: "The Waves of the Sea help bring Me back to Me. " Fell in love with those words. This page was easy with all that inspiration floating around. The skinny pages are 4"x7" and will be bound in the upper left hand corner. I began with watercolor paper and a color wash:

Here are the colorwash ingredients along with water:
Next step was creating texture by layering papers and using bubble wrap:
Next step, sea sponging along the edges with Golden's Iridescent Bronze Fine paint. I'm totally addicted to this paint. When you add water to make a wash the colors seperate and you get different effects on your paper. oooooooaaaaaa.


Here are the buggers laying out to dry:
My next step was adding sticker letters. In the spirit of Using What I Have, I raided my old scrapbook supplies (egads, keep that on the DL) and found lots and lots and lots of letters. I mixed and matched and was able to finish all the pages without having to buy any!! woohoo. I played around with techniques, on some I added stickers, used rubnbuff in turquoise and white, added white gel pen outlines, on some I used the letters as masks:

added a little white gel pen for definition:

Thats all for now! stay tuned for the unfolding of my skinny page!

Missing Porn Star

Mitch is MIA. The guys are down to 6 inches now, with Mitch gone. I've started recruiting volunteers to help in the search. Will keep you informed.

Mitch, You are Missed.

70's Porn Stars

Got your attention, didn't I? Here is my "fun with inchies" completed. These guys are from pages of an old clothing catalog I scanned and added details with Sharpies. They just looked like vintage porn stars to me, not that I've ever seen vintage porn, ahem. Anyhoo, I had a blast picking very studly names for each face. Anybody got any other good 70's porn star names? I still have a few faces left. These only add up to 7 inches, and I have enough to make a good 10 inch. teehee.

Chinese Proverb Canvas

Finished this canvas this weekend. I'm 100% in love with the Chinese Proverb that I discovered in the July/August issue of Cloth Paper Scissors. The artist who utilized this proverb in the article "Art at the Speed of Life" is Pam Carriker. Her work is full of layers, textures and gorgeous colors. Her talent is inspirational. I'm not 100% happy with my hand lettering, but that can only improve, right???? Sharpy does not flow well over Golden's Tar Gel medium, note to self! I'm a slut for that shiny surface though! The proverb reads: "You cannot prevent birds of sadness from passing over your head, but you can prevent thier making a nest in your hair." What a great sentiment.
Please feel free to comment/critique. Input is most welcome.

Fun with Cabinet Cards

Last Sunday I got lost in my favorite local antique store. I found some great faces on a couple of cabinet cards. I have several cards already but haven't been able to make myself alter them. It seems sacrilegious in a way. The hell with it, I went for it this week. My Heart was away and I had time to play. My first step was applying several layers of gel medium to the central figures on the card. After drying, I added gesso to the backgrounds. I didn't scan them before altering, oops.

I started with the female figure. I had no idea where I was going with this, so I began by digging through my paper stash looking for ideas and inspiration. Lo and behold after several hours flew by, I came up with this:

I really like this one. Not bad for a virgin effort. I used stencils, stamps, german scrap, rub n buff, magazine images, acrylics, corner tag, metal corner, dictionary entry, plastic sticker thing for brooch.

I've also started a 9 piece ATC series inspired by a White Stripe's song. Here is a sneak peak:

Also been playing around with Inchies, these should be done and posted by this weekend:
And an honorable mention goes to these 2 pieces that I've also been working on:
The above one is almost done. Below needs a lot more attention.

I have to wrap these projects up this week or set them aside, because I've commited to a 25 page skinny book due August 1. Can't wait to start it!

Work in Progress

Last December I started a new canvas in bright Stewart Gill paints. I added texture with masks and Golden's Light Molding Paste. Here is the beginning:





Added a little more:

Added an image that I am Obsessed with right now:
This is rough, rough, rough, lots and lots of layers to be added. This image is gel mediumed to the canvas. I'm not using transfers this time. I'm going to start with several layers of semi gloss gel medium over the image, then move on to several acrylic washes over the whole canvas. I'm envisioning lots of textures, words, and bits of this and that stuck here and there. I haven't decided what will dangle off her finger on this canvas.

Another use of this same image on a smaller canvas board:
This is not a transfer. I gel mediumed the image down to painted canvas background. Dry brushed gesso over entire image and used watercolor and chalk pencils to highlight over Portfolio water soluable Oil Crayons. This canvas is going to have more paint and stamp embellishing, here is just the beginning.
Off to the studio/spareroom/kitty litter room.......

The Bride and The Book

Here is the bride, my sister Linda, with my book from the previous post. Hope she remembered to take it with her to the Amalfi Coast, and to bring me back lots of paper from Italy. And here I am with my daughter.

May we all live happily ever after!!!

Homage to an Italian Honeymoon

It all began at Art and Soul, with two book making classes I attended given by Albie Smith. It has blossomed into a full blown addiction. My beloved sister, Linda, is getting married tomorrow!! She and Tony are honeymooning in Italy. What better present than a handmade book to store photos and ephemera from thier trip? Work with me here, I just wanted to make another book! I made a mix of color washes using water and Golden Acrylics. I used Albie Smith's book kit purchased at Vendor night at Art and Soul. Scroll to previous post for pic of kit and contact info for Albie. Here is my chosen color palette, think ancient sun warmed stone......

There was a wonderful team running the store at Art and Soul. Marie and her cohort (whose name escapes me, so sorry) from Collage, were fantastic. They were the hardest working people in show biz that week. The variety and abundance of stuff I just had to buy was unbelievable. Topping the list was this Clear Gesso. oh yea. Clear. Tintable. shiver. Can you feel it? ok, getting a grip now......

In this application I used it straight out of the jar and brushed onto Archway stamps, also purchased at Vendor night from Lost Coast Designs. I dropped a benjamin at thier incredible booth. All of the stamps used in this book are from Lost Coast Designs, unless otherwise specified.

Here is a color wash over the dried gesso stamping.

And another wash over gesso stamp.....

Ooh aah, yet another one......

So this went on for about a week. Here are a bunch of my favorite pages. In this next one, I have added a piece of Albie Smith's handmade paper into the mix.
Torn page with gesso/colorwash archway.

Stamped and colorwashed torn paper. Stamp by Stamper's Anonymous.

Gesso'd Italian Poetry stamp. Love the texture. Stamp by Hero Arts.

More of Albie's cool paper. You know I really love my sister if I'm willing to give up all this awesome paper.

Mona's eyes. Creepy, yet all knowing, just like all us girls. teehee. Stamp by River City.

Next pics are just cause I couldn't narrow down the choices about which one to post......

Botticelli stamp from Invoke Arts.

Here I am deciding the order of the pages.

Adding book cloth to binding.

Almost ready to add paper.

Deciding placement of signatures.

Using Japenese screw punch through each signature.
Sewing signatures to binding.

Waxed linen, size 22 needle. Or maybe a little bigger.

Finished binding.

Fat Honeymoon Book!! Colors of cover are Golden Heavy Body Acrylics; Iridescent Bronze and Cobalt Teal. The covers in the kit came white with the stencil design already in place. I can't take credit for that!! I'm guessing Albie used Golden Light Molding paste on the book board. Since time was a factor for me, I'm glad the covers were already stencilled. When isn't time a factor???

The colors of Italy. In my mind. sigh.

Dedication page. Stamp just in case she had any doubt about the art thing........

Well, that's my Homage to An Italian Honeymoon. Much Love to Linda and Tony. Can't wait for tomorrow!! Ti Amo, Susan