Mixed Media - The story of my Quirky Birds!

Hellooo! Welcome to my blog!

Today I'm sharing with you my very first lesson on drawing and mixed media, which is Quirky Birds, by Tamara Laport! I love Tam's lessons, as she communicates her art lesson in a so relaxing, peaceful, understandable and joyful way, that she always makes me feel so well!

The plan for this lesson was to make (in mixed media) on an accordion paper, some quirky birds(!), which will pass a message to yourself on happiness and joy, through one of your favorite songs or poems, some quotes etc. 

I chose the song: "Dream a little dream of me" by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong (click here for the song's youtube video!). And these my version of her quirky birds!

(click on the photos to zoom)

The first one is a bit scary king owl, isn't it?! lol! But then again he reminds us of the shinning stars and the night breezes!

I think the second one is a cutie! And she could be singing in the sycamore trees!

The third one, is a wise, beauty owl that suggests to leave all worries behind! She is wise so I will listen to her!

And the fourth one is a sweet bird-princess that's gotta keep dreaming, and so will I!

Well, I really love these quirky birds' story! 

For the lesson, we could either draw our quirky birds on the back side of the paper or do something different, and so I thought about it and I felt I really needed to write the lyrics of my song! Thus, I painted the background with acrylics, I embellished it with stars and flowers, made my "quotes" as titles and I've written all the lyrics of my birds song!

(click on the photos to zoom)

You always have to remember, "STARS ARE SHINING BRIGHT"....

So you have to "KEEP DREAMING"!!!

And creating!

Thank you for visiting my blog! I'll be happy to get your comments! 

Card - Coffee Lover!

Dear friends, hi! Welcome to my blog!

After moving our home and trying to put everything in its new place, I, finally(!), managed to make some time for a new card! Our new home still needs a lot of work and time to become completely and entirely functional, but hey! my craft place is quite ready and I really need my creative time to relax and be happy! 

For a long time I wanted to create a watercolor background for my card but for some reason I couldn't make one that I really liked. After watching many video tutorials on how to make a watercolor background and trying different techniques, I believe I've found the one that works for me! 

So here is my new card with the watercoloring background! 

(click on the photos to zoom)

The process for creating this card is the following:

1. To create the watercolor background I've adhered my watercolor paper onto a thick cardboard, using removable paper tape, to avert paper buckling. With a big brush, I watered all the paper surface. I placed, on a transparency, ink from two Tim Holtz Distress ink pad colors, the Worn Lipstick and the Shabby Shutters, sprayed a little water on them, and with a smaller brush I started picking ink and placing it onto the watered paper. I've tried to avoid blending the two colors together since this would result in a muddy brown color! After my first layer of colors I heat setted the colors with my heat gun. I continued to place ink on the paper and heat-setting until I was satisfied with the result. Then I removed the paper tape which left the white border on the paper. I have seen this technique of watercoloring from the amazing Kristina Werner and you can watch a sample of her watercoloring background process here.

2. Using the Potting Soil Archival Ink, I stamped two images from the Prima Coffee Break Cling stamp set, onto some patterned paper from the Lost & Found paper collection of My Mind's Eye, and fuzzy cutted them.

3. I used a matching colored ribbon to make a bow on the handle of the coffee pot.

4-5. The cup stamp that I've used comes along with a sentiment and some coffee steam, thus, I have masked it with some post-it notes in order to stamp on the background only the cup and the steam of the coffee. I also stamped the coffee pot. 

6. I made a banner with some polka dot paper from the same paper collection, where I have stamped with the Potting Soil Archival Ink the sentiment and some coffee seeds from the previous stamp set. I've also used ZING Clear embossing powder to emboss the sentiment. 

7. I adhered my cutted images of the cup and the pot on the stamped ones, using Galleria Matte Medium for the cup and adhesive foam tape for the coffee pot to add some dimension to the card. I used a watered brush and ink from the Tombo Art watercolor marker 969 to make some shadow around the cup and under the pot. 

8. To add some details on the card, I glued three matching green gems and used the ZIG Wink of Stella Glitter Clear marker on the pot's dots.

9. Finally, I punched and inked with Worn Lipstick distress ink a small heart, I glued it on the banner and placed the banner with the sentiment on the bottom of the card using adhesive foam tape.

And here are some close-ups of the card.

And an other final view!

That was my card for today, I hope you like it! I would be happy to get your comments or any questions! 

With this card I participate into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "We're Going Dotty!"!

I also participate into the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "Coffee or Tea?"!

Thank you for visiting my blog!

We are moving!

Dear friends hi,

We're moving, not my blogs this time, but our house!
I can't wait to get crafty in our new house but this might take a little time until everything gets in place and in order! I'll be changing my crafting "room-desk" too, so I might have some photos, organizing my new one, when I come back! See you soon!

Art Journal Page - Childish Dreams!

Hi! Welcome to my blog!

Today I have a new art journal page to show you. This page was inspired by Tamara Laport and her new awesome art work which can be found here! 

I have to admit that before meeting Tamara's art and watching some of her videos, my girl-painting skills were reeeeeaaaalllyyy poor! That made me sad as I loved seeing other peoples girl-painting but I couldn't make one myself (at least not one that I would like!). After studying Tam's videos and techniques on sketching, painting and shadowing a girl's face, I started feeling more confident about it and this journal page is my second try on it! And I have to say that, although I still find points that are not "correct" and that need more "work", I really like the outcome! Also, I can see the progress between my previous projects (see here and here) and this one, and this fact makes me hope for even better results in the future! I hope you will like it too!

(click on the photos to enlarge)

Here is a closer look on the girl...

 

and to the right page! I so LOVE this quote!

                

To make this journal page, I initially drew the girl's face with graphite pencil. Then, I colored the background using some stencils to give some pattern to it. I cutted some scap papers with different colors and patterns into small pieces and adhered them to different areas of the page. Then, I used some watered gesso and a brayer to tone down the background. After that, I painted the girl, I sketched and colored the flowers and I wrote the quote with black pen. Finally, I embellished my page using a stars stencil and the butterfly stamp, which I doodled with a black and a white pen.

In this photo you can see the different patterned papers and the small flower drawn on the girl's neck. 

And here is the cute butterfly stamp! You can see all the texture from the paper pieces and the gesso layer, and the background coloring through the stencil.

Well, that was my page for today, I hope you like it! I would be happy to get your comments!

With this art journal page I participate into two great challenges! The Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "Anything Goes" and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes"! I love them both and I'm so happy that this week I have two chances to win their great gift! Keep fingers crossed!

PRODUCTS LIST:

• Prima Finnabair Stencil "Stars"
• Tim Holtz Stencil "Clockwork"
• Inkadinkado clear stamps "Fancy That"
• Lefranc & Bourgeois Gesso
• Dylusions Ink Spray "London Blue"
• Neocolor II watersoluble crayons
• Winsor & Newton Galeria Acrylics (Permanent Magenta, Pale Olive, Cerulean Blue Hue, Pale Terracotta)
• Faber-Castell Broadpen 1554 black pen
• Sharpie white pen
• Brayer

Card - Happy 6th Birthday!

Hi! Welcome to my blog!

Today I share with you a card that I made for Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog 6th birthday! I wanted this card to be really joyful and festive, so I picked up some bright colors and imagined of a happy celebration and...this is what I came up with! 

I love celebrations with balloons and fireworks in country areas and I tried to bring that on my card! 

The numbers on the balloons are for the six celebrating years of the blog, they were embossed on the balloons with white embossing powder and they were embellished with glitters! (glitters don't really show up well on the photos).

And as I love banners, I made a triple small one with a heart to emphasize the "happy" part of my sentiment and...

a bigger one for the word "Birthday". This bigger one is attached on the card pannel with foam tape to bring some dimension onto the card. Also, it is glued on the balloon with the number "6" as this is the year of the celebration! 

Sooooo! HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY to the SSS Wednesday Challenge blog and its Design Team, thank you for all the challenges, the inspiration, the spotlights and the giveaways all this time, wish you all the best with many many challenging events to come! Happy Celebrating!

With this card I participate to the "Happy Birthday" challenge of the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog!

That was my card for today, I hope you liked it! I'll be happy to get your comments or any questions. Thank you for visiting!

Card - Spring Happy Birthday!

Hi, welcome to my blog!

Today I have another birthday card to share with you! Although I have used paper cuts from an autumn collection, white, orange, green and brown colors remind me of spring and I love to call this card spring happy birthday card! This card was inspired by the amazing Kristina Werner. Kristina is a professional graphic designer and papercrafter and I really love her work! You can find her original card here.

Making this card was quite a challenge to myself, as I had to try many alternative techniques, some totally new to me. The first alternative technique was making the embossed background not with an embossing folder but with a stencil. For this one, I used my Big Shot machine by placing one cutting pad, a sheet of felt, my cardboard, the stencil and on the top the second cutting pad. I love the embossing result! 

(click on the photos to enlarge)

For the fox and the fawn, I stamped them on watercolor paper and colored them using distress inks and a water brush and watercolor markers. This was my second try for watercoloring stamped images (you can find my first attemp here) and I have to admit that I'm not quite satisfied yet. But we all need to try, right?! After coloring the images, I hand-cutted them and colored the white edges.

I made the sentiment by stamping with brown archival ink on velum and embossing it with clear embossing powder. Archival ink isn't the best choice for stamping on velum but as I didn't have a brown StazOn ink or a brown embossing powder, I had to use it and it hold quite well on the velum. 

For the shaker window, I have used two sizes of scallop circle dies to cut the paper border. In order to achive depth for the window, I have also die cutted with the dies a piece of foam sheet and glued it under the paper border.

For the content of the shaker window, except from the ordinary sequins, I love using other small things that I can fit inside, like wood veneer embellishments, small paper die cuts, and beads.

With this card I participate in the challenge "Anything Goes" of the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog!

That was my card for today, I hope you liked it! I would be happy to get your comments or any questions. Thank you for visiting!

PRODUCTS LIST:

• Sizzix Big Shot machine
• Sizzix Circles, Scallop 8 dies
• Memory Box Scraped Paint Stencil
• Bo Bunny 6x6 paper pad Autumn Song Collection
• Lawn Fawn Clear Stamps Into the Woods
• Ranger Distress Ink spun sugar, tea die, walnut stain
• Tombo ABT markers 899, 977
• Ranger Archival Ink Potting Soil
• Zing! Embossing Powder Clear
• Hero Arts "Find Joy" Clear Stamp Set
• Simon Says Stamp White Cardstock
• Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Cardstock
• Doodlebug Design doodle twine take note
• Studio Calico Wood Veneer Shapes Tiny Stars
• Martha Stewart Flower Shower Punch Around the Page Set
• Moon Shaped and Circular Sequins
• Velum