I've been missing in action lately, spring is here and along with it all of the yard work and gardening. I spend my winters dreaming of working in the dirt! Yes, can you believe that? I daydream of planting and nurturing my flower and vegetable gardens.

I created this Flower Girl in celebration of spring, she too is having visions of her garden.

We are having a Vintage Lottery at the Paper Artists Online group this month. Everyone that creates a piece for the challenge will have an opportunity to win all of the pieces at the end of the month. There is definitely some beautiful work. I submitted my Flower Girl for the challenge.

Have a wonderful week!

This weeks challenge at Studio L3 for Grungy Monday 05 is to use this Tim Holtz technique in a project. The jest of it is to make a niche in your project. I have wanted to try this for awhile, and this is what I came up with.
Okay, so it feels unfinished to me too. But, I am at a loss here, do any of you have any ideas? I would like to finish it for a gift, perhaps an edging treatment?

Anyway, I made the papers using Club Scrap stamps using a variety of Adirondack and Distress inks. You can't really see all the layers of stamping, which I do like. I think I'll use your suggestions and come back next week with a finished project, hopefully.

Hop on over to the Studio L3 and look at all the beautiful entries of the finished projects, you won't be disappointed. My friend Rachelle is a guest designer there this week, and her project is just rockin'.

Until then, there's gardening to do...have a great weekend.

I'm enjoying another Grungy Monday Challenge at StudioL3 this week using Tim Holtz/Ranger Colorwash Sprays. The only specific guideline, was that we use actual Ranger product on our piece. I just happened to have a few of these in my stash. This is my entry for the challenge:
This piece was an accident for me. I was using a resist technique and gesso, forgetting that the Colorwash sprays were water based and the watercolor smeared during the process. I decided I loved the soft muted colors. The stamps are from Club Scrap.

If you would like to see a couple of more vivid pieces using Color Wash and paint, you can check out my Poppies here or an art journal piece here.

Stop on over at the StudioL3 blog and see how others have used these color saturated sprays.

The Grungy Monday challenge this week at StudioL3 is to use Distress Ink and Studio Multi Medium. You will find Tim Holtz demoing this technique in the link. This was a challenge for me and I am less than thrilled with the results.
When I was finished with my faux scene, I had way too much white resist so I ended up stamping some music notes on a piece of tissue and laying it over the tallest flowers on the left. This helped somewhat. We've all been there, trying to fix a piece that just isn't quite right.

I'm a country gal and the beauty of mother nature never ceases to amaze me. I hand wrote around the edge of the frame, what always comes to my heart when I see the amazing bounty of God. 'This is the day that the Lord has made, and it is good.'

I hope you have an amazingly bountiful week!

Linda at Studio L3 has started a new series of weekly challenges called Grungy Monday, based on Tim Holtz techniques. This is the first week for the new challenge and we are to use this Tim Holtz technique to inspire our work.
I began with a mask from Club Scrap and sprayed with my home made mist (Shabby Shutters Distress Reinker and Green Patina Perfect Pearls). I rubbed in some Dried Marigold and Broken China Distress ink. The music stamp (Club Scrap) was stamped on the Grunge Paper flowers and on a scrap piece of paper and embossed with Copper embossing powder. Everything was spritzed and rubbed with the home made mist. I tore a few pieces of scrap to give the illusion of a landscape, and created a faux banner. All of the pieces were grunged up with Walnut Distress ink and assembled. I couldn't find the appropriate embellishment, so I stamped the hummingbird and did a little free form stitching.

There are so many wonderful artists participating in the challenge. Stop by Studio L3 to look at all the beautiful interpretations...and thank you for stopping by.

This is the finished piece of the sketch I shared a couple of days ago. I did take progressive photos while I was making this, so I could share a tutorial with you.

I shared the sketch I had started the other day of the flowers. This was done with a graphite pencil on the prepared masonite board. I was looking at a photograph, while trying to draw these.

 With all the frisket removed, I decided to use acrylics to try and paint the flowers.

I had lost most of the detail, so I went back in and used a charcoal pencil and tried to further accentuate the image. The trick is to use the charcoal, without smearing it.
I rubbed the charcoal a little with my fingers to blend it out. The final piece was coated with a matte finish acrylic spray.

I love the color of this piece, but wish I had done a better job shading the flower to make it look more dimensional. I'm planning to do another flower on the same size board and hang these pieces in my house somewhere.

They just say 'Spring' to me! Thanks for stopping by.

This post is for the frugal crafters out there. I just purchased a half sheet 28"x48" piece of masonite board from Home Depot ($5.50). This is a piece of 6"x9" that I have used to start a painting.
 My husband cut the board into various sizes for me, ranging from 4"x4" to 11"x14". I think I got 12 or 14 different pieces of substrate to play on. I read that if you apply 4 layers of gesso, with a sponge, it makes a perfect surface to paint/play on. These were sanded with a fine grit sandpaper between the 3rd and 4th coat and then again after the 4th coat. I now have several pieces of substrate to play on for $5.50.

Maybe when I grow up, I'll actually spend the money for stretched canvas, but until then, this works for me. I am taking photos of this piece in progress, come on back in a few days, we'll see how it turns out and I'll share a tutorial.

Have a beautiful week.

The tag challenge the past two weeks at Kard Krazy was to use the word 'Postcard' some where in the tag. I started this project kind of mindlessly, meaning no direction in mind. I layed down a little gesso and went from there.
 The main image is from 'Time to Stamp' with a vintage kind of beach theme. The image is probably from the 50's and made me think of my parents in that time period. I ran with it from there, and made a mock postcard that had been sent to my parents, from their best friends back in the day. The image was tinted with Distress inks.

It ended up being a walk down memory lane for me and evoked wonderful memories of my childhood. I love how the image came out fairly muted, looking old and time worn. Unfortunately, I didn't get it posted for the challenge soon enough.

Hope you have a wonderful week, I know mine will be busy.

I will definitely be stamping on muslin again.

I was able to get photographs as I made this piece and thought I would share a tutorial. Normally you would do a piece like this on a canvas, but alas, I have none. This was created on a piece of 8.5" square cardboard that was heavily gessoed on both sides to give it a little strength.

Using basic scrapbooks papers, I cut various sized squares and just glued them down randomly using mat gel medium.

Then it was given another coat of mat gel medium. Let it dry completely. I made a basic sketch with charcoal to use as a guideline. This could be anything you want to sketch.

I used 2 colors of acrylic paint, blue and green. The paint was puddled side by side on a piece of wax paper and then I used my small brayer and picked up the blue on one end of the roller, and the green on the other. I rolled this all over the piece, outside of my sketch area.

Next, I took a damp paper towel and wiped away some of the paint until I was satisfied. In some areas I added a bit more paint, and then wiped away the excess again.

The next step was to paint a rusty red in the bodice, this time using a paintbrush, then again, wiping some away.  A rich brown was used in the dress, using the same technique. I took a bit of both of these colors and dabbed them on to the background, helping to integrate them into the overall piece, making it more cohesive.

Gesso was used to paint in the wing area, again wiping the excess away. The head and neck were painted completely with gesso to prep it for the face.  The face and neck were then painted with a pale beige.

Now comes the more difficult part for me, sketching the face. I had actually considered leaving her faceless...no guts no glory, or so the saying goes. I used a charcoal pencil to sketch the face and painted it with acrylics. To get different skin tones, paints were watered down quite thin.

The whole piece was then outlined with black paint. I used charcoal to create shadows along the body and in the wings. The words were stamped with black ink. The whole piece was sprayed with fixative. 

When finished, I was pleased. I have a long way to go with sketching, but it is a beginning.

Here's to new beginnings and to all of our journeys in 2011!

I see wonderful potential for this technique. Hope you enjoyed it and thanks for stopping by.

Since she's been finished, 'Dreamona' has just been hanging around my craft area, making my heart happy and telling me wonderful stories about where she's going to her new home in Wyoming.

So, if you have a stash of tags, perhaps mount them in a clever way and put them to good use, then go join Tim as he continues with his 12 Tags this year.

When I had finished these, I had an Aha moment. I have particpated in the Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags the past few years and thought, wouldn't these make lovely 'lil hangers to give as gifts? I'll be posting these as soon as I get pictures.