Art journal: Two Marys

After a few weeks of low mojo, I opened my Dylusions art journal to a blank spread this morning just to get something down on paper...

Okay... this looked too cool to not share. The craft shack is also a green house since we are back to 20°F washer...

This came together quickly, and I love it.

Supplies:

• Dylusions art journal
• Blank pages brayered with a Ranger brayer and Distress Paint in Broken China
• Old encyclopedia page inked with DOx in the top three colors on the stack... fun to just randomly grab these! The lucky picks were Squeezed Lemonade, Seedless Preserves, and Wilted Violet
• I used the Broken China paint on the brayer to transfer paint to some bubble wrap and  then  printed onto the encyclopedia page
• Ripped the page and adhered out to the journal with Distress Collage Medium in Crazing
• The images of Mary were from Lunagirl years ago. I coated them with Mod Podge (glossy) and added multi-colored Stickles to the edges.
• Popped Mary up with 3M dimensional adhesive
• Golden butterfly from a generic pack bought at my fave scrapbook store

That's it! 

I'll share this with Creative Artistes this month. 

SOS: Roses

Thanks for visiting!

This morning we are kicking off another Shopping Our Stash challenge, this time encouraging you to dig up some roses!  No pun intended🌹... or was it???

Here's my creation, which is an art journal layout:

How about some process images?  Okay!

So, this is what I started with.  There are many ways to "shop your stash," and one way is to finish projects you've started... this spread was actually two independent pages that both happened to have roses on them... what luck! For the record,  I never touched the top page -- it stayed the way I found it (a Nancy Drew page with LSG Magicals plus a library card with Teresa Collins modeling paste through Tim's roses stencil then Color Bursted and sprayed with Glimmer Mist).  The bottom page had been inked with DOx in early March... actually, the first time I played with DOx.  The circles are Seth Apter stamps.

Found this pre-clipped beauty in a zip-lock... I was like, "Well, no idea who to give credit to..." 

...fast-forward a few hours: doing some spring cleaning, look what I found!-- a virgin sheet! Credit goes to Marsh Johnson.

Added these 7-year-old 7 Gypsies cards and coated them with a little white Liquitex gesso-- otherwise they faded right into the background. 

Roses at bottom-left are years-old (3?), from a Creative Imaginations packet.

You can hardly see it,  but I added some Dina Wakley Media Tape... definitely a stash item-- I don't use it as often as I ought.

Oh, goodness!  Check out the cracks from the Distress crazing medium, accented with Vintage Photo Distress Stain.  "Love" was writ with industrial stencils and black Liquitex gesso. It was outlined with WOS in gold,  and some lovely Good Riddance lyrics were added.

Supplies: Well, I kind of shared the supply list during the process pictures, but I will just add that the tassels were from Michael's-- another dollar-bin stash item.  I just attached them with a few slits, but since this book is still in use,  I removed the tassels for storage.  I'd like to think I'll re-attach them when this book is done... but my memory is terrible.

Hope your memory is better than mine and you don't forget to join us this week at Shopping Our Stash... dig up some roses!  (Pun intended this time!)

For fabulous inspiration, visit the gardens of the SOS team's creative minds!

Stars

How about a starry layout?

Supplies and notes:

• Dyan Reaveley's journal sprayed with Dylusions in After Midnight and Vibrant Turquoise.  I took a paintbrush in water and "painted" any of the just-spray parts so no white remained.
• Next, I added DecoArt metallic paint to the top and bottom of the pages with my finger, and also painted line-stars.
• The trees were added by using the negative of Tim's treeline die as a stencil with Black Liquitex gesso.
• Stars on trees and below were made by using DecoArt Metallic Lustres through a Heidi Swapp stencil.
• The black stars were actually drawn with my finger on my computer, then cut by the new Cricut. Very cool, huh?  I glued them on with Mod Podge  and rubbed them lightly with more Metallic Lustre
• The quote was written with WOS in gold.  

I will share this with Stamps and Stencils' current challenge: Lucky stars.

Untrustable sisters

This was one of those layouts that spanned over two months of tinkering:

Supplies and notes:

• The book is the Childcraft art journal made in December 
• This spread was coated with white Liquitex gesso back in December or January 
• Distress Inks were applied directly and through home-made stencils, and ink was also removed through the same stencils using a baby wipe in January
• The sisters were drawn with the tube of Dylusions spray bottles-- London Blue and After Midnight in February 
• I was looking at this on Friday as I was trying to get some craft-therapy, and the Built To Spill song Untrustable/Untrustable 2 came on my Modest Mouse radio on Pandora, and I totally went with it-- grabbed a Faber-Castell Pitt and began writing.  Oh, I also added black toenail polish at this time!

Exploration of Field Journal #1

Getting close to my heart here, this was excellent therapy:

Supplies and notes:

• The base of this layout is the Childcraft art journal, on a page coated with white Liquitex gesso.  Prior to this specific layout, I "cleaned" a stencil I made that had Color Burst on it on the spread.
• The girl was drawn with Faber-Castell Pitt pens and a Sharpie.  She was shaded with multiple grey shades of Spectrum Noir markers.
• Miscellaneous pre-cut birds in my stash from various field guides and bird books were pasted to the spread with matte Mod Podge and matte Collage Medium
• Various tapes used, including Dina Wakley Mixed Media Tape, Arc Crafts wood tape, and generic gold chevron tape
• Faber-Castell Pitt pens and Sharpie for all other writing
• Generic coordinate stamp inked with Tim's Mixed Media pad in Hickory Smoke stamped all over the page
• The image of the nun is from Lunagirl, glued into the spine.  A Fiskars bird punched from Tim's metallic kraft-core
• The library card was also glued into the center of the book with Mod Podge
• The feathers are from a chukar.  A family friend is a hunter and they passed these on to me in the interest of using all parts of what they shoot.  I love using these feathers that a less conscientious family would toss away.

I will share this at the following challenges:

• Stamps and Stencils: Birds
• Simon Says Stamp on Monday: From a book
• Mixed Media World: Anything goes

Goldfinch Love

Here's a spread from my small Dylusions journal:

Supplies and notes:

• Dylusions sprays 
• Martha Stewart stencil (compass star)
• Sharpie brush pen
• Bubble wrap with Distress Paint
• Quotes from an old reader
• Jane Davenport's washi tape
• Library card art created over time... previously stamped with an Inspired By Stamping goldfinch in Dina Wakley's mixed-media palette, some extra inkiness from another project, and it looks like Tim's doily stencil...  The card was affixed by spraying the reverse with Elmer's spray adhesive and then using Dina Wakley's mixed media tape-- pleasantly sheer and subtle 
• Dina Wakley's heart stamp (also a piece from the past) colored with Colorbursts.  Popped up on dimensional tape. 
• The fire of the now-sacred heart was made from a scrap of an over-watered Colorburst panel.
• Almost forgot: there's some Tim Ledger Script on here, too.

I'll share this at the following challenges:

• Happy Little Stampers February Mixed-media challenge (I tore lotsa washi, plus a strip of the bubblewrap used)
  
• STAMPlorations February Mixed-media challenge 
  
• Mixed Media Mojo, February
  

Bucephala

Here's my beloved Buca:

Miss her so much.  She was really much more attractive than this picture, but I did it from memory... normally I sketch from a picture but I didn't have any head-on pictures of her accessible that looked how I was picturing her... dogs and their personalities...

Supplies and notes:

• I used the art journal I made from a Childcraft book in December.  Pages were coated roughly with white Liquitex gesso.
• Dylusions sprays were applied through home-made stencils.  Some parts were dabbed with a baby wipe where the Dylusions mud was being made.
• I sketched Bucephala (I called her Buca, pronounced "boosa"), with a Sharpie and accented with plain white chalk.  I have to note that earlier I started a project in a new small Dylusions journal, but it was a sad piece, so small... Buca was so big, so without even thinking about it, I oriented the Childcraft sideways to accommodate my lovely animal.
• "Bucephala" was written with the Sharpie originally, but I went over it with black Liquitex gesso to make it a little more bold.  I thought about adding her birth and death dates (spanning 10 and a half years... a good long life for a mastiff), but I don't want to face that reality every time I see this... it's been nine months and I'm still grieving.

I was glad to make this-- good therapy-- for the current Simon Says Stamp On Monday challenge, "Pets corner."

Okay... here is the sad drawing I referred to earlier, but she's to cute not to share: