Tree Hugger

Ah March the time when it becomes glaringly apparent that despite carefully laid plans I have taken on more than I have time for. Of course this is in the form of what I want to do as far as art goals...like keep up with DLP...spring in my house is one of ramping up chaos. The sports have started, rehearsals for the spring musical are in full swing, my taxi driver hat is firmly on my head, my lacrosse goalie coaching stick in my van, and it is the perfect time to panic that I won't be ready for the 115+ student drama camp I am organizing. I have decided to trudge on with the realization that one day fairly soon (as one of my most active kids goes to collage in the fall) I will have absolutely no kid activities on my agenda so I better enjoy it. In that spirit I present Documented Life Project Week 7 drum roll please!

February Theme
Layers You Will Love!
February 14
Art Challenge:  Cover Up Good Stuff
Journal Prompt:  Going Undercover

 I love birch trees and miss seeing them everywhere I go. Spring break 2013 we skied Mt. St. Sauveur, surrounded by birch. The hills were empty, the snow powdered and my happiness extreme. I knew I needed a picture taken with my favorite so I trekked off the trail to get this shot- that is my "undercover" journal prompt. Literal translation-undercover of the trees, undercover- layers of clothing, or secretly going off the trail. What really inspired this page was my under layer- as in "undercover"... see how I do that?

My page started with this birch covered napkin and grew from there. This was the art part- cover up the good stuff, which started out as hard cause I like the napkin but I managed to keep some of it showing through. I really wanted the photo on the layout. My favorite parts of this page are the modeling paste circles with silver metallic paint, the embedded beads, and the charcoal highlighted tree die cuts.

Also & I realize this is silly but I LOVE tabs- I finally get to stick my February tab on my page. Enjoy.

Roc Nicholas Postcard

A while back I was following along a blog hop for one of my favorite stamp companies- Stampotique. I posted comments along the way & entered a contest of Roc Nicholas who is one of their designers, and won!!! She sent me a mail art postcard- it just happens to be the first one I have ever received. Roc was releasing her new stamp line & I was one of the lucky winners- love her new stamps! Here is the happy mail that wondrously showed up in my mail box! Cue extreme happiness & excitement!

In honor of this milestone in my life (are you getting the excitement yet?) I decided that Roc should receive my very first sent mail art postcard. Drum roll please!

As a member of Canvas Corp Crew Team I added in their color challenge for the week using Tattered Angels products. So I figured I could do a simple mini-tutorial as well. 

I started with a 7Gypsie postcard- (how convenient) that I bought at Joannes, this week. I spritzed it with Chalkboard- seven seas & firefly- so pretty & vibrant. For the front of the card...

I spritzed with the seven seas and added a Glimmer Mist- Caribbean blue to give it some shimmer. Flicked GGlam on to give that splatter look and sewed around the edges. Next added my Roc Nicholas stamped images. You can find her stamps here. These were colored with Glam, Glaze & the firefly for the bird body, than glued on my card. Time for a sentiment...

After practicing with different brushes, strokes & ink I went with a simple paint brush & liquitex acrylic ink. Once dried added dots of white. At this point I needed more color. Out came Prismacolor colored pencils. I admit I don't use these much & was kind of amazed at how vibrant the colors are. Ok so not the crayola colored pencils!

This added the pop of color that Roc's images deserve! So here is my first mail art happiness that will be making it's way into Roc's mailbox- sssh don't tell her!
Update: I am also using this card for this weeks challenge over at Stampotique  SDC# 187 cause I do have pops of neon! Bonus...  

DLP Wk# 6

This was a fun one!!! You can check out Documented Life Project & play along. Here are the prompts for week 6.

February Theme
Layers You Will Love!
February 7
Art Challenge:  When Not To Stop
Journal Prompt:  "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough!" (Ooh)

So I did get very literal on  this one and may have gone a little over board with the layers or you could say I embraced the challenge whole heartedly! Apparently the answer to "when not to stop" is when you hit the madness!!!

 I love how this one turned out- very different from my usual style yet similar. I have been feeling the need to put magazine paper down and so I did. Cut strips from a number of ads/articles... I covered it all with a nice layer of decoupage glue as I wanted to seal this layer. It ended up looking like this:

Next I scrapped on a few similar colors of paint & let it dry for a minute that with a baby wipe & stencils, wiped off some of the paint to reveal the magazine prints underneath. Which made it look like this:Not overly inspiring but the magic will come.

I used my Big Pitt markers to outline some of the shapes that were revealed. I then took more stencils & paint but this time dabbed the paint directly through the stencil onto my piece. Next up stamping with archival ink. you can see below where I stamped the Wendy Vecchi circles using navy.

Time for a title! The journal prompt was "Don't Stop Till U Get Enough" the title of a Michale Jackson's song. I did a play on that concept that tied in with my crazy layering. "Stop the Madness" became my title which I stamped on distressed tags adding some sewing & staples along the way. I stamped the D sideways by mistake but it actually was a happy accident so I left it. Tip: If you mess up on your tag just flip it over and start again!

Yet more stamping as I stamped my journaling very aptly-"use every color in the box" which if I added a few more of these in case I missed a color. 

Time for doodles. I am loving irRESISTible pico embellisher (as they call it), to add squiggles and lines, dots, words... you can barely see the yellow above (as it is used on top of yellow) the word proof. Creates a glossy raised scribble. Some of the colors are translucent like the yellow & some of the darker colors cover better but they still have that glossy raised quality. Lastly my date stamp & voila a crazy fun colorful page which I LOVE!!! So use a technique you have been meaning to do and you may create a wonderful something! I am also linking this up on Art journal everyday at Balzer Designs, you can check out Julies site here.

Inspiration Wednesday wk# 3

Ok so while I am getting my art journaling done blogging is not keeping up!!! Ah well I hear you can't have everything. 

So I struggled with week #3 of Donna Downey's Inspiration Wednesday fun. My page hit an impassible ugly stage & was put in time out for a few weeks. The above photo shows the hot mess. I had not yet added the spray orange (forgot to take a pre-photo)

I came back to it & added 3 simple things & bam like it. Not my favorite page but it does make me giggle. 

                                

The orange as I mentioned, some ferro paste letters in turquoise with a stencil and my cluster of collage items. Much better! 

The brilliant thing is I was watching video's on YouTube & the ads kept coming on & annoying me. Perfect time to use this fun quote.