6 X 6 (11)

Wow, December is just rolling along, ain't it?

Here's another batch of 6 X 6 "art journal" creations. Be sure to check out inspiration from Rachel Black at her YouTube channel. #artfulevidence

Week 37: Stars: Untitled.   I decided to just make a companion piece to the previous week which was Diamonds. I went with a fluorescent pop and the nuvo drops I used on the background stars actually glow in the dark.

Week 38: Dragonflies: Bright Dragonfly.  I was making cards at the time and found these luscious colors in my scrap pile. I sketched out the dragonfly and cut it out from a leftover background paper. I cut it out in three pieces and just glued it all together. It turned out way better than I had imagined when I started it.

Week 39: Rust: Electric Bee.   I often fall back to steampunk themes when a prompt is "rust". But I wanted something different that the steampunk page I had already done. Then, I was inspired by a Jennifer McGuire video about how to make a faux metallic look with texture paste and embossing powder. (You can see the video here.) I decided to try the technique with this page. The hexagons are the texture paste with a combination of embossing powders. To tone it down a bit more, I used some distress ink around the edges as well as some gelato to really get between the shapes. I knew I wanted a bee but the stamp image I had seemed too small so I made the bee from die-cut gears and a couple flower petals. I drew in the outlet and cord because a bee goes "buzz" and that was pretty damn close to the sound of electricity. (you know, bzzt) Anyway, this was another page that surprised me.

Week 40: Winter: Birch.  I knew the theme was coming but I wasn't sure what to do with it. I figured I'd go with a "first snow" page. As I was rifling through my stencils for the previous page (rust), I saw the Birch tree stencil from Tim Holtz in my bag. I told myself to remember that because it would come in handy with some of the Christmas stamps I had. So I just laid down the stencil and went over it with a grey ink. I didn't want black as the background so I planned to color in the parts of the trees with a black sharpie. After I saw the gray, I decided to add in a navy blue to make the sky appear more wintery. I ditched the stencil then and just tried to make the birches look realistic.(which is not really my strong suit) Once I had the pen work done, I thought about my snow idea and decided against it. I just wanted a horizontal element to round out the trees and found a quote to add. This ranks as my new favorite. I may even frame it.


So thanks for joining me. Hope you have an awesome week. My Christmas project is on hold and I doubt it will get finished this year. My mojo needs some recharging and some simple playtime with no expectations. But if I manage to get the advent calendar done, you'll be the first to see it.

If you're still looking for a unique gift, check out my Etsy store! I've got Divination Decks in stock as well as Postcards featuring Edgar Allan Poe. Or just drop in to favorite an item!

Peace,
-Wy

Some Cards to Keep Me Busy

I've been inspired to make cards recently. I haven't done anything in my art journal in ages; since late September anyway. But for some reason, making cards has just been more interesting for me lately. So here's a few that I've done with minimal explanation. I'm gearing up for a craft show in a couple weeks so they will probably be there. If they don't sell, they may end up in the Etsy store. I'm thinking of adding single cards there. (But seriously, who knows? I can't vouch for anything as I've been so wishy washy on decisions lately.)

 Some wonderful homemade paper that a friend gave to me is the background. I colored the Unity stamp to match.

I had a bunch of mixed-media mop up pages that I decided to cut down to the size of a card front and work with it in a smaller format. I cut this background specifically to use the gears. It has several small drips of yellow so I went with this lightbulb stamp as a focal. I love this one.

I was trying to use up some Christmas paper. This is a gatefold card. I like the subtle stamping I did with a set from Tim Holtz (deer, trees). It matched the vintage feel I was going for.

I just loved the colors on this one! The little lemon #pegstamps I used in the background/sides really allowed this to look cohesive. The middle lemon is from Stampin Up...an older set, "A Happy Thing" I think.

So there's a little of what I've been up to recently. Still have some Christmas projects in mind but no promises!
Thanks for hanging out with me!
-Wy

6 X 6 (10)

Wow, another set of pages to share! Now I'm catching up to real-time, though, so it will be another month or so for the next set of pages. This is for the Rachel Black challenge group found on Facebook or check out her YouTube channel for visual inspiration.

#artfulevidence

Week 33: Autumn: Happy Fall.  I hadn't made much with leaves this year so I did so with this theme. The stamps are from Unity Stamps (Autumn Grunge) and I heat embossed them over a painted background to create a resist. I covered the page with Black Soot Distress Oxide ink and wiped the embossed areas clean. The Happy Fall sentiment is heat embossed in gold and the border is simply gold metallic marker lines.

Week 34: Steampunk: Imagined Life.  The quote at the top of the page is from Thoreau, "Live the life you have imagined." This page began with my desire to use up some background papers I had made but could find no use for. I decided to cut some down to 6X6 so I would have a background ready to go for future challenges. I liked the unusual colors of this one for the Steampunk theme as well as the teal shimmer under the magenta color, (You can see it clearly in the last photo.) The vintage woman is a stamp and her wings are chipboard embossed with Patina embossing powder by Ranger. In the photos, it reads very copper but it has a great teal color to it as well that brings out the background shimmer. I managed to use up a sheet of stickers with the other elements.

Week 35: Halloween: Godzilla vs. Kong. I made this for a challenge at Lost Coast Designs. (Kong and Godzilla stamps are from their company, Carmen's Veranda) Again the background was premade and since I was in the midst of my HUGE Halloween blog month, I wanted to do something different for this theme...not the usual. When I think of Halloween, my first thought always goes to trick-or-treating so when I saw the unused stamps of Kong and Godzilla, I knew I could make that work. Maybe this is why the big kaiju monsters fight?...because one of them doesn't know that at Halloween it's all about the chocolate. I added the skull decoration to Kong's door for his homeland of Skull Island. Now that these stamps have been inked up, I'll be using them for other things, too.

Week 36: Diamonds: Cup of Care.  Another background that was done previously but I added the diamonds to the back to fit the theme. All I knew when I started was that I wanted to use a snarky caption as well as a woman's face. I was going to make her hair out of flowers but I had a scrap piece of paper that had this diamond like design on it and I wanted more diamonds on the page. So I cut out each diamond and made a head piece for her.

So I'm all caught up! Hopefully, I'll have some Christmas projects and cards to share soon. My Etsy shop will be having a sale around Thanksgiving time if you're looking for any gift card sets for special people on your list this year. I'm hoping to have another special item posted for that time as well! Ssshhh, it's a surprise!
-Wy
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