Mixed Media Canvas #1

Doing the Tim Holtz tags is definitely reducing my anxiety about mixed media.  It's working...hooray!!  I got together with some friends to make this canvas.  Everyone in the group had a different theme.  Wynema and Vicki did ephemera collages using lots of things from their relationship with their husbands, Wynema let me post hers so make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom of this post so you don't miss it!  Carolyn's canvas had a beach theme and I decided on a botanical theme.  We had boxes full of stuff EVERYWHERE, which gave us a lot to choose from when embellishing!  Our canvases were 9 x 12 and were painted black with acrylic paint.  We used Adirondack sprays to put color onto the small cards and then began using our imagination to add ephemera for texture and interest.  Oh what fun!!

Here is my canvas...

I was a little worried that the background colors on my card pieces were too bright, but I was going for garden colors and pink, fuchsia, and greens are my favorite garden colors. I went for it and I'm happy with how it turned out.  I think Tim Holtz has some amazing ephemera and I used some of it on my canvas, but to me just using that isn't enough.  I think it's so much more interesting to use found objects, vintage papers, and embellishments made from combining this and that so that is what I focused on while making my canvas.  It was a challenge to place the cards so that my completed piece was well balanced and pleasing to the eye.  I feel like I made one mistake but once it was all glued down it was too late to change it.  What do you think?  Do you notice something?

I'm not going to bore you with a close up of each little piece of my collage, but here are a few of my favorites...

I loved doing this so much that I'm going to make one more, with a beach theme next time!

Below is Wynema's gorgeous ephemera canvas!  I just love the combination of the teals and blues with the orange and rusty color...gorgeous!  You can see more of Wynema's work on her Pinterest page here.  Make sure to check out her jewelry and painting boards.  She is a very talented lady!!  I'm still waiting to see Vickie and Carolyn's work.  Once they get them finished, I'm hoping they will let me share them here :)

Thanks for visiting.  I'd love to hear what you think of this project so if you have a minute, please leave a comment!

Love,
Janet


Supplies used:
The basic supplies were a 9x12 canvas, black acrylic paint, watercolor paper and assorted Adirondack and Dylusions sprays.  Some of the other things we used are wire, encaustic wax, cheesecloth, metal sheets, embossing powder, slide frames, stamps, plaster tape, twine and fibers. Just about anything will work on this project!

Watch Out Orlando Graduation Card

I am very, very grateful to the bloggers that I follow lately!  I've been in one of those creative slumps and I can't seem to come up with anything that I like on my own.  Thank goodness this doesn't happen to everybody at the same time. I've been lucky enough to find great cards that I could use as a springboards and this is an example of another one!  I needed a graduation card for a friend who is finishing up nail tech school and since I know she will take Orlando by storm, Wanda Guess' card was just perfect for the event!  You can see Wanda's inspiration card here. Since I had the Taylored Expressions Instant Photo Frame Die I was set to go. It is a favorite because you can put so many things into the opening to make snapshots that are the perfect size for a card front!

  I used the "Cracked" font on my computer to make all of the wording for this card.  To center the words on the photo frame, I printed them out on white card stock.  Then I cut the frame out of vellum.  I placed the vellum frame over the words to center them and marked the 4 corners so I could place the die just where I needed it to be and taped it in place.  Ran it though the Big Shot and then used it in my card :)

I had a few of the paper dolls left when I cut the strip to size so I used them to decorate the inside of the card...

Supplies:
Dies:  Taylored Expressions Instant Photo Frames, My Favorite Things Skyline Border, Cloud Trio & Paper Doll Girl Border and Memory Box Corner Bow Die
Miscellaneous: Dylusions Ink Spray - London Blue, vellum

Thanks for visiting!
Janet

One Layer - Crayon Resist Cards

I found out that I really don't like making one layer cards.  I admit they are easy and quick and I'm ok with how the cards turned out...but the stress involved when I was trying to figure out how to make one piece of card stock folded in half look good made me a little bit crazy!  I put my big girl panties on, got some glossy white card stock and my Ranger Distress Stains and Ink Pads and went to town!  Here are the two cards I came up with.  One layer is still weird to me and I don't think it will become a standard fare, but I rose to the challenge!!

On the first one I wanted the look of a layered greeting so I used a die to cut the shape out of Eclipse Masking Paper.  I stuck it on and stamped the leaves with black Staz-On.  I wanted some white spaces to complement the center so I used the crayon resist technique and colored the leaves before adding the ink.  After the background was complete I rubbed off the wax from the crayon with a paper towel and colored some of the leaves with a Copic marker.

For the 2nd card I used the same stamps but didn't use the mask.  These were fun to make, but it was really difficult for me to stop myself from layering them onto something else and adding embellishments!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used:

Stamps:  Dylusions - Around the Edge, 

                 My Favorite Things - Complimentary Greetings 

Cardstock:  Glossy White 

Inks: Staz-On - Black

         Ranger Distress Ink Pads - Fired Brick, Aged Mahogany, 

                                                         Mustard Seed

         Ranger Distress Stains - Wild Honey, Rusty Hinge, 

                                                     Scattered Straw, Peeled Paint, 

                                                    Tumbled Glass

Copics: G99

Dies: My Favorite Things Die-namics - Textile Rectangle Frame

Miscellaneous:  White crayon, Black Sharpie pen, paper towels, sponges