ArtiphyTheHeart

X-Book

One of the first books you make when you study bookbinding is the X-Book.  It's simple, but its folding has a purpose that repeats with other more complicated bindings.  It's what I used to call a root book, since its construction is the basis for so many books.

Some of us in Artists Of the Round Table are working our way through Alicia Golden's bookMaking Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings, Structures & Forms.  We'll be making 100 books beginning with the X-Book.  Here are some pictures of mine:

It's made from a single sheet of paper that is cut and folded so that the middle puffs out.

It's easier to get the picture from the top.  Each fold is a page, and when the two end pages are pushed together toward the middle, it forms an X, which gives the book its name.

Then the outside folds of the X wrap around the inside folds to create the cover and the back.

Even if you made a gazillion of these in grade school, you make them still when you learn to bind books.  And it's amazing how easy it is to forget the simple stuff!

I decorated the pages with a combination of lettering, drawing, and clear stamps from Layers Of Colors, Close To My Heart, and Character Constructions.  

India ink and a Rapidograph coordinate perfectly with black VersaFine ink.  I added some of my own lines and quirks to the some of the stamped images, and it was impossible to tell where their lines left off and mine began.

THANK YOU, LAURA...I WON!! The Grand Prize...

...All Nine Sets of New Release Layers Of Color Art Stamps!!!  Wooo hoo!

Please bear with me!  I am so thrilled right now, I'm probably not making sense!  I just got an email from Laura of Layers of Color art stamps, saying I had won the first prize--all nine sets of her newest release stamps!!!  I cannot tell you how over-the-top thrilled I am, especially since it has been a dream of mine to own her entire collection!  These are stamps are some of the most beautiful, and the highest quality available anywhere, and each one is lovingly hand-drawn by Laura, herself.  You owe it to yourself to stop by the Layers of Color blog, or the store website, and take a look at these!!  There's a button on my sidebar that will take you there, or you can click the links in this post.

The card above was created using one of the LOC architectural block stamps.  Below is a collage of mine using the same stamp set in an altogether different way.  You can read about this collage by clicking HERE.

Thank you so much, Laura!!  This is a dream come true!!

Bringing Hope...

For Layers of Color, Mixed Media Monday and Pointy Hats and Wings

A Celebration...

In my opinion, one of the brightest spots on the web is also an online shop.  If you haven't visited Layers Of Color art stamps, you owe it to yourself to stop by and take a look at the gorgeous artwork that owner Laura Campbell lovingly puts into the stamps she sells!  And visit the gallery, too!  There is plenty of inspiration not only from the talented design team, but from customers as well!  This is the perfect time to do so, because if you visit right now, you can pick up all the details about the huge give-away that's coming up on November 14th and 15th in celebration of the release of nine new LOC original art stamp sets.  

The Collage...

I'm going to go into a bit of detail here so you can pick out the LOC stamps I used in creating this collage.  The background was painted with layered acrylics.  I recycled a piece of gift wrap tissue with script by adhering it to the surface with gel medium and then added successive layers of medium and acrylic paint over the top.  I buffed it smooth, and assembled my little party fairy using wings, hat and body parts from Lisa's Altered Art, a star from Sandra Evertson's Fanciful Paper Projects, and two different Layers Of Color architectural block stamps for the skirt and top.  I drew and painted the hand on a separate piece of paper, then cut and collaged it to the surface.  The sleeve was made using another one of the stamps from the LOC architectural block set, colored in-between with watercolor pencils.  I added the scrolling, flowery rub-ons from Heidi Grace, and as nice as they are, in retrospect, wish I had painted them myself by hand.  Lastly I laid-in the shading and the dots.  

Mixed Media Monday...

"Opposites attract" is this week's MMM theme, and what could be more attractive to a human than a tiny fairy bringing beauty and hope.  There are also the obvious opposites of color and contrast, handmade and mass produced elements, and rough and smooth textures.  

A Spot of News...

This is the only place on this blog that you'll hear about my next piece of news, so if you're interested, please read-on!  I've begun another blog.  It's a home on the web for the very satisfying cards and crafty pieces that I love to make to unwind at the end of a long day.  Early on, I tried to blend these pieces in with my other artwork and into this blog, and while this may have worked, it confused me, and some other artists who emailed me, wondering just what it was that I did primarily.  The answer was, and is, that I'm one of those rare-ish half-right, half-left brain people who's hemispheres are so equally balanced, that I find it just as easy and just as satisfying to make fine art on the one hand, and graphic design on the other.  I spent a great deal of my life drawing and painting and getting an arts degree, and just as much of my life writing and working with publishing layouts and graphic design.  As one graphic designer friend of mine put it, "You've joined the ranks of artists who get as much satisfaction from creating your own art from scratch, as you do from pushing around and arranging the elements created by others."  This is so true, and it describes me to a "T"!  So for my own peace of mind, and at least for the time being, you can find my arty cards and crafts at ArtyCardsNCrafts.  ArtiphyTheHeart will remain the place for everything else I do.  Maybe I'll even choose to post some of my drawing and painting in the future...we'll see... But for now, that blog will link back to this one, but this one will stand on its own.  

Asking A Little Favor, If I May...

If you decide to visit ArtyCardsNCrafts, or if you get there through a blog challenge I've entered, please take a minute to look at the list of links in that blog's sidebar.  My hope is that it will become the most comprehensive and up-to-date listing of card and craft challenges on the web.  So if you know of a challenge that is not listed on that blog, please email me with a link so I can add it to the list!!

And now I'm off to:

Have a late lunch

Catch up on some reading

Visit GoodReads, as my DD recommends it so highly,

Do a bit more tweaking and blog maintenence, and

Work on an art journal page, already in progress

Have a great day, Everyone!

Until We Meet Again

I'm a little late again for this challenge, but if you have to be late, I think it's best to be late in saying "goodbye".  I'll truly miss Laura's challenges, and am glad that she'll be keeping the gallery open, and hopefully adding to it with her own, lovely work!  For the final Layers Of Color theme, "farewell", I kept it simple.  The image and sentiment are from Memories of a Lifetime, the stamp is from Just For Fun, and the substrate is the outside of a very special envelope I received from Ilonka Schneider.

When I told Ilonka how much I loved one of her pieces...you can see it by clicking HERE..., she decided to surprise me with it!  If only you could see the colors in real life!  They are truly amazing!  She even tossed in a handful of gorgeous twinchies along with the card!  The black envelope that held all these beauties is so lovely itself that I have used it as the background for for this piece.

When my daughter was little, she so hated farewells that she would refuse to say good-bye to her friends when it was time for them to leave.  We used to tell her that good-bye was necessary so that you could have the opportunity to say "hello" again. 

I know I'll be saying "hello" to Laura again, as I don't own all of her clear stamp sets yet and I can't wait to add to what I have!  These are some of the most beautiful stamps I own, all of them designed by Laura.  So I won't say good-bye, just farewell, until we meet again...

Have a great day, Everyone!  And be sure to come back for my next post!  I spent a glorious weekend covered in paint and collage.  Pics will be up soon, so stick around. . .

Coins

The Layers of Color theme for last Friday was "Coins", and here's my tag, better late than never, I hope! 

I have truly loved these challenges, and it is really very sad, I think, that Laura who so very beautifully administers the challenges and handles all of our artwork, will need to end the challenges soon in order to devote full time to her growing business of gorgeous acrylic art stamps.  My only regret is that I was not able to participate in all of the wonderful weeks that the challenge has seen.  But, no use regretting.  Instead, time to make art for the couple of challenges that remain, while we still can.

The base for my tag is a snippet of hand-made paper that came in a pack I bought from Kelly Kilmer.  All Night Media's Chinese coin was stamped randomly on top with Perfect Medium, then dusted with Perfect Pearls in "forever red".  The inchie squares were torn from more handmade paper, and they, and the tag, were edged with a copper Krylon pen.  The two large coins were RAKs from Belinda Schneider, and the center charm was purchased ages ago with a lot from an antique store.   The tiny coins at the bottom were hand-sewn to the base paper with gold thread.  These are from a group that I purchased at a trade fair last January, and I have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to display them.  The ribbons at the top are from my personal collection, and the copper rick rack is another item from Belinda's RAK. 

And now for a "true confession":  I am not much of a video or computer game player, but I am kind of hooked on Jewel Quest, and use it as a stress-buster from time to time.  Last night I beat--Yes, BEAT--Jewel Quest II!  It's a very long game, with lots of levels.  My son thought this was awfully cool, and as I was getting near the end of the game, he told me to wait until the entire thing stopped by itself at the end.  I wont tell you what happens when you win the game, but there is surprise music, congratulations, and some really cool special effects.  What does this have to do with a coin tag?  Well, the game is all about a quest to find and uncover hidden jewels, and along the way you find and collect hidden coins.  So in honor of my "win", you can't see them, but if you were to lift the three charms that run down the center of the tag, there are "hidden coins" stamped underneath.  It's the same Chinese coin image, but stamped with Tsukineko's "essential glue pad", and covered with micro-fine copper glitter from Rubber Stampede.  Maybe I should have taken a second pic to show you, but after all, they are "hidden" coins, so you'll just have to guess!

Have a great day, Everyone, and Happy October!

Happy Birthday, Arty Girlz!

Getting in just under the wire since it's almost next Tuesday....Happy Birthday, Arty Girlz!! 

This card was made using tea folds, a process similar to origami, but with a European history.  There are many websites explaining the various techniques, folds, and materials used, as well as many online groups of tea folding enthusiasts.  The fold I used was found online in the article, "Tea With Leo" from issue #29 of Craft Creations magazine. The article is down-loadable and comes with detailed instructions for this particular fold.  To make it easier to see how the folds are manipulated, I made the tutorial video below, which will also be available soon on my blog ArtiPhacts, so you can refer back to it whenever you like.

"Fold It" was the challenge this week for Saturday's Workout.  This card certainly fits that challenge as well.  I used Japanese rice paper with a stamp from the the Layers of Color "Architectural Blocks" set of clear stamps.  The block was stamped with black VersaFine ink onto the porous side of the paper, then colored-in using Prismacolor pencils.  Each block was cut into a square and folded, then glued onto a square of cardstock.  The center square was made with the individual blocks within the square.  They were cut, tea-folded, and adhered to a smaller square of cardstock, which was then glued to the larger tea-folded square.  The "happy birthday" is from Stampendous "Hey there cupcake" set of clear stamps. 

Have a great day, Everyone!   

Untitled...

This piece is large, mounted on stark white watercolor paper, and I love it!  It isn't often that I get around to making something with a hint of elegance, but when I do, it gives me a satisfaction beyond words.  This Carolyn Quartermaine inspired piece actually began a little more than a year ago with the gold flower petals.  I spent several days perfecting the mix to get the shade and shimmer I wanted, then another day cutting out and hand crimping the petals, inspired by gilded wood flowers on a Carolyn Quartermaine chair back.  The bit of flourish top left is cut from the same paper. 

The pink paper on the left is hand painted, and the textured oatmeal paper bottom right is stamped with Hero Arts "manuscript background" and embossed with JudiKins Egyptian gold.  The paper top right is a piece from a pack I got from Kelly Kilmer.

Wednesday Stamper asks for circles this week.  The mirror circles I used are items I picked over by hand at a Renaissance fair.  They are silver backed which makes them perfect for Layers Of Color's "metal" theme, as do the three fabulous charms--wish you could see these beauties in real life--that I picked up at a trade fair.  They are gold, enamel, dripping with pearls, with intricate designs and rhinestone centers.  Not a bargain, I'm afraid, but I wanted them so badly....they were worth every penny!

I love it when I begin a piece with lots on the table and complete it by subtraction instead of addition.  My favorite pieces are often the more subtly colored, minimally worked.  But I do so love color and packing it all in, that these are fewer and farther between.  Ahhhhhhhhh.  With this piece finished, I feel so balanced! 

If it's not your taste, that's fine!  You don't have to like it.  This one I made just for me!

Have a great day, Everyone!

Pablo Neruda and a Rose. . .

Pablo Neruda is wonderful.  For me, he is like water and air: Necessary.  I have a long list of poets and a short list of favorites.  Neruda is in a small cluster of poets at the top. 

The Layers of Color theme for this week is "rose", and Mixed Media Monday's challenge is to recycle or re-purpose.   I've recycled the images of the rose, red bamboo, and the woman, from old magazines.  The stamps are digital this time, and the doodling is done with my favorite red and black Micron pens. 

The words are as much of Neruda's "Ode To The Rose" as I could fit on my journal page.  It's a good translation from the Spanish.  When I read Neruda, I read as much in Spanish as I can, with an English translation beside me, and this is one of the best translations I've found.  The poem is about loyalty, honor, truth and love, and if you can get your hands on it, or any of Neruda's work, you owe it to yourself to read it!  There is also a wonderful little movie called "Il Postino".  It's a work of fiction about a character that idolizes Neruda, and it's really worth seeing.

On another note completely, if you get the chance, stop by Dawn's blog before the 30th and leave a comment to win some fabulous blog candy she's giving away.  She has even agreed to ship internationally!   

Have a wonderful day, Everyone!

   

Buttons. . .

Daniel Torrente's art stamps are some of my favs!  I just love these mischievous little kids, so let me introduce "Marci", who was made into a stuffed tag for the Layers Of Colors "buttons" challenge.  I felt like doing something a bit different, so I stamped her onto white cotton and colored her with a fabric gel pen.  I stitched her closed by hand so she wouldn't look too perfect, added some buttons, a black tab and a chain, and some extra stitches on the outside, leaving the knots and the loose ends hanging.  Right now she's chained to my purse and I plan to keep her there.

Have a great day, Everyone!

Exotic Birds. . .

The Saturday's Workout challenge for the week is to use a sponge technique in whatever is created, and the Layers of Color theme is exotic birds.  Here's another 8X8 prepared for one of my art journals, with sponged edges and stenciling done by applying by chalk ink with a synthetic sponge.  The exotic birds are obvious.

The background paper was made by brayering 4 colors of Distress Ink (antique linen, tea dye, walnut stain and spiced marmalade) in a criss-cross pattern over a base of layered matte medium, gesso, and titanium buff acrylic paint, which was burnished and lightly sanded between each, thin layer.  Next, the "b-i-r-d" was stenciled with VersaMagic "turquoise gem" chalk ink, and the entire background was overstamped with Rhona Farrer's "swirls V:I" using Versa Magic "gingerbread" chalk ink.  The flower and the birds are images from Memories of a Lifetime, very meticulously hand-cut using both scissors and an Xacto knife, and adhered to the piece with matte gel medium.  Last, I used several colors of watercolor pencil and a gold Marvy gel pen to outline, color-in, and smudge various parts of the page.

A word about hand-cutting images for those who are interested:  I do a lot of cutting-things-out in my pieces.  I love to freehand (no outline drawn beforehand) cut shapes and images, especially of people and birds, and I love the way they are imprecise and free.  But I also love to meticulously cut out intricate details from photographs and images.  I didn't always love doing this, and it wasn't until recently that I became pretty good at it.  It took lots of patience to develop, and one thing I noticed along the way was that as my cutting improved, so did my drawing, and as I practiced drawing contours, my cutting got better and better.  If you are interested in what I have to say on cross-training artistically, you can read my post in ArtiPhacts by clicking HERE.

Have a great day, Everyone!

   

Berries Transfer. . .

Both the Layers of Color theme of "berries", and Saturday's Workout's challenge to use transfers, are covered in this one piece.  The berries on the left are a clear tape transfer of part of a magazine image. 

I began with a 3-1/2" X 3-1/2" piece of watercolor paper.  With a Chinese calligraphy brush, I washed a thin layer of blue violet watercolor and built up the color gradually.  Using a butterfly stencil, I painted darker areas of violet watercolor on the right, and stamped one of Christine Adolph's butterflies on top in black VersaFine.  I then cuts masks of the butterflies from a white paper napkin using the positive image from the stencil, and placed them over the stamped butterflies while I stamped Hero Arts manuscript background in Adirondack wild plum dye ink over the top.  I corrected the color of the watercolor wash, blurring the over-stamped image just a bit.  Then I adhered the napkin masks to the butterflies using a water-thinned consistency of matte gel medium, both over and under.  When this dried, I adhered the transferred image to the left side of the watercolor paper, trimmed the edges and mounted the piece onto plum and black cardstock. 

To transfer the berries image, I cut the part of the image from the magazine that I wanted to transfer and adhered it to a piece of ultra-clear packing tape, right side of the image to the sticky side of the tape.  I burnished the image to the tape as well as possible with a bone folder, then soaked the taped image in a bowl of water.  The image transfered to the tape, and the excess paper rubbed off the back of the wet tape.  When all excess paper was rubbed off, the tape with the transferred image was left to dry, then stuck to the left side of the watercolor paper and trimmed.

Have a wonderful day, Everyone!

Cupcake Trio. . .

The Layers of Colors website is one of my favorites!  The challenges are fun and the stamping products are fabulous!  So why is this only the second time I've participated?  Don't ask me.  Real life so often gets in the way of my virtual fun!  But this week, late as I am, I have something that fits the theme for the week, which is "cake".

I just happened to pick up these stamps last week at my 3rd Thursday ATC swap.  The cupcakes are a departure from my usual style, but I couldn't resist them!  They are a Perfectly Clear set from Stampendous, and there are 6 different cake bottoms and frosting tops to mix and match, along with 3 candles and a sparkler, some sprinkles, hearts, a cherry, and some words, like "for you", and "sweet". 

I stamped the bottoms in "willow" Adirondack Lights, and Nick Bantock's "chrome yellow" inks.  The chocolate tops are stamped with Nick Bantock's "Van Dyke brown".  The cherry was colored with Marvy markers, then stamped.  Little jewels are pink dot sparklers from Stampendous.  These tiny things really shine!  They are holographic and catch at least 20 times their teensy size in light!  I wrote the "happy.happy.birthday" with a metallic brown Sakura gel pen, then layered everything on cardstock and a strip of dot paper. 

Have a yummy day, Everyone!

In My House There Is. . .Metal, A Door That Opens, and A Rooster With Wings. . .

Last Friday, Dans Ma Maison...required the use of metal, and my house has metal hinges, a metal door handle, a black metal key, and there is also a metal screen in the door. 

On Saturday, the grand opening celebration party for Layers Of Colors, requires something that opens.  The hinged, screen door to ma maison does indeed open.  As you can see here, the door opens onto some playful kittens inside the house.

And today, a challenge that I've have been wanting to join for ages, Created By Hand, asks that we make something with "wings.  The winged weather-vane rooster fits the theme.

The substrate for my house is museum board painted with acrylics, then lightly distressed with Tim Holtz tea dye ink.  Rooster and milk can stamps are from Close To My Heart.  The key is from 7 Gypsies, the hinges and brads are from Making Memories, the handle was a grab-bag item at a craft show, but I did distress it with Adirondack alcohol inks, and the screen is from the hardware store.  The image of the kitties is from Memories of a Lifetime.  Also used were German scrap, black lace sticker tape, Micron pens in red and black, pencil and cardstock.

Have a great day, Everyone!

Colorful Norbert. . .

The theme for Layers of Color's first challenge is "humorous", and ArtyGirlz is asking for "handmade backgrounds".  Colorful Norbert fits both.  I'm breaking my own rule, here.  I require myself to make separate pieces for each challenge and not to "double-up".  I don't care if anyone else does it, it's just that for me, my personal challenge for myself is to make a separate piece for each.  But I'm more than a little tired tonight, and Norbert works both places.

On top of the two aforementioned challenges, there's a personal one, as well.  Rosie Rowe--Altered (t)Art and Stuff wants me to "go green" for earth day.  Believe me, Rosie, I WANT to go green!  Truly!  But I'm afraid that a re-cycled tag is as green as this one gets, unless you count a few of the lines and dots I made with a Sharpie (*ouch* Bad joke).  I'm staying indoors today as I'm allergic to my blooming olive (green) tree.

Norbert is a stamp called "Jolly Guy" from Catslife Press.  I stamped him with Nick Bantock yellow ink on white cardstock and cut him out.  He's glued to a hand-made background of periwinkle acrylic paint and gesso scraped onto a former shipping tag with an old credit card and spread criss-cross with a dry brush.  The tag is overstamped with Paperbag Studios "numbers diagram" and Hero Arts "manuscript background" in mushroom Adirondack ink.  Norbert and the text are decorated with a variety of colored fine line Sharpie pens.  And further "greening it up", the ribbons are recycled from a tossed-out mardi-gras ornament.  The whole thing is sitting on a yellow gingham sheet from Paper Pizazz.  The white stuff around the yellow gingham is a photoshop brush I added for atmosphere...I am tired...

Oh, and one more thing...if you have time, take a peek one post back.  There's some wonderful art from Dani Rogall--Stampingwitch and Crissi and Julie of ArtyGirls to delight the eyes!

Have a good night's sleep Everyone!  I know I will!!