My first Art Retreat

 

I am off to my first Art retreat tomorrow and I am so excited. I created some ATC to share with others at the retreat. As my first time going to this event, I wanted to create something that defines me. I love stamping, ink and of course Pandas so that is what I used on my cards.

 

I started the background with Alcohol and pigment inks. I then added some blue acrylic paint that I have the shinny.

Still wanting more design, I stamped circles.

I used the stencil again to create the flowers. Using gesso I created the petals and then added the centers with a paint pen.

I also outlined all the flowers with a black paint pen. I stamped my panda on a small piece of paper and then added it to the card.

I am very excited and a little nervous. I am sure I will come back with fun new ideas and inspiring knowledge. I hope to meet lots of talented art people too.

I will share it all when I get back.

Take care, Amanda

A Labor Day of art

It has been awhile since I have added to my blog. I miss checking in and visiting other people I am following. But most important is that I have been doing some art and it is time to get back into the swing of things. I have been working on my art journal for my Tip-In project over at Paper Traders.

I was playing with some Alcohol Inks and gesso. The rings were made with gesso and a bottle top. The little circles were from a homemade stencil of punched out circles.

It needs some edging so still a work in progress.

 This is a page I made inside. I used crumpled paper bags for the pages. I liked the way the gesso and the paint made a textured look. The image on the left was some goodies given to me from one of my swap partners. They are a great group of people.

And then more circles and rings of gesso and white paint.

 Here is one of the pages I have received from my swap partners. This is Shelly. The pieces are sea glass from the Bahamas where she lives. TOO COOL! The edge is hard to see in the picture but is has some of the sea sponge from there too.

I love the colors and her beautiful coral art work. She added on the page a quote from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow... "My soul is full of longing for the secrets of the sea" So true!!!

This is another swap tip in from Pam C. The fish are so awesome. The are embossed and have great colors and dimension. She added the quote from J.F. K. "We are tied to the ocean... And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch. we are going back to whence we came. I could not agree more!

Here is one more swap tip in page and this one is from Heather. What a great collage. I love the colors and the fun fish! I feel very blessed to be with such a great group and love all the wonderful pages I am collecting for this journal.

I will have more to share as I fill up my journal and fill in more of my own pages.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week.

Amanda

Another Art Page

 

I was behind getting my page done this month for the Word Prompt Journal. Check out the sidebar link to see all the great pages created by members and others who have joined in.

I did want to try some new techniques for this page, so used a dollie and gesso for the first layer of my page.

 This is the dollie. It had four corners so I decided to use each one on each corner of my page. I see that this technique is tricky to know how much gesso to use. It is a fun surprise each time to see what would show up.

Next I blended some alcohol ink on the page to add more color. The theme for the page was to use some symbols of time. I used my stamps with clock faces and clock hands.

I am trying to practice my art lettering. It is a work in progress. I stamped letters and then tried to add to it. I need to let it be.. I will keep trying.

Then I wanted to add this little bird. I created a nest using strips of paper and layered to create the effect.

Here is the final page.

Challenging myself more

 

 There is a lot of things that I want to learn and do. Being part of a wonderful art group has helped to push me in that direction. I belong to Paper Traders. This is a art journal we are doing with the group. We are given a monthly word prompt to create with. This is my Follow Your Heart for February.

 

This was a magazine collage swap with the group. I love to create and use new techniques. To make the shoreline and cliff. I used many magazine pages. Cut the pictures into slices and then reassembled them to create the page.

 

This was another swap to take an old photo and create "oddball Ancestors". I used stamped butterfly wings and embelished them with lots of stickle. The hat was from an stamp with the mad hatter. It was fun to think outside the normal way of using stamps. I created the background blending the background with paint and alcohol ink.

I want to create more, this was fun.

Busy Sunday

It was a fun day. Lots to do and trying to keep a balance so worked on finishing a project. I love creating backgrounds. These are done with Alcohol Ink, blending solution, and water-base dye ink. Started with the lettuce green alcohol ink and then rubbed in early espresso dye ink. The blending solution created the neat looking rings of color (or lack of). My goal was to create a feel of a rabbit hole. This is for a swap at Paper Traders, Alice's Mad Tea Party ATC. What do you think?

Then found this great vintage clip art on Graphic Fairy. A perfect fit and used some photo pens to color her in to give a aged look.

Here is the almost completed ATC. I stamped a clock face on the background. Added some black card stock that was embossed. I liked the added piece tea cup and heart. Seems like it needs something.. may need to let it sit..  What do you think?

Time flied today.. feel just like the Alice rabbit... I'm late, I'm late...  but just relaxed this afternoon and found lots to be thankful for and my top 5 are:

1. Beautiful weather after a good rain
2. So much inspiration around
3. A wonderful Palm Sunday and the beginning of Easter Week
4. Alcohol Ink
5. Keep trying new techniques

Have a wonderful week!

Busy January

January is a busy month. Not only trying to work on resolutions and 50 by 50 list but lots of birthdays. And silly me I keep forgetting to take pictures of my cards. But now I am working on another swap project at Paper Traders It is an ATC swap with a Mardi Gras theme. So I decided to create my background using alcohol inks, blending solution and some gold acrylic paint. Fun to be creating and thankful for so much. The top 5:

1. A wonderful Saturday with my sister for her birthday

2. Ink and paint on my fingers

3. Working on list items.

4. Keeping better track of food

5. New art toys to play with

Wishing all a great week.