Dragon Eye Journal/Box

Recently, I learned how to make glass "dragon eyes". What do you do with a handful of dragon eyes? I decided to make a spell book box. It looks like an ancient leather bound book on the outside, but it's really a box.

I must give credit to the talented Yvonne Williams of Back to Earth Creations for her excellent tutorials on making the eyes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsSaE9g1Y1w
There are other tutorials available on you tube by other artists, but hers was the best for me.

 The outside is covered in paper which I distressed to resemble old worn leather, and the the interior is a chipboard box I made and covered in old style paper to coordinate with the outer cover. 

Here are some other views of the box.

Write It On Your Heart Canvas

Life is too short to waste time doing things that don't bring us happiness, but what really gives life meaning is the relationships we have with those we love. I think first of family, but we have friends we love like family, too.

This canvas is created using an 8" square museum canvas (1 1/4" deep) turned upside down and distressed using modeling paste, inks, and paints. Inside, I've used card stock, corrugated paper, embossed chipboard, twine, cheesecloth, and a resin heart artifact by Prima Marketing. Layers of  paint, ink, and metallic paste provide a rich surface reflecting multiple colors.  

Write it on your heart that the ones you love are life's most precious gifts. Always be thankful for the blessings of loved ones!

Birds, Birds, Birds

I felt inspired this month to practice some new techniques using birds as my subject. I've always loved birds (as long as they're outside), especially songbirds. I also drew some inspiration from the scriptures, Matthew 10:29,30 (KJV) and the song, "His Eye Is On the Sparrow." Lauryn Hill has a killer version of it, by the way, that's really worth listening to and having a copy. Enjoy!

 This is an 8"x 8" canvas board. It is a mixed media piece. Materials are acrylic paints, modeling paste, paper, gilder's paste, and Faber-Castell Gelatos (a water soluble pigment stick that is similar to an oil pastel). I've stenciled, stamped, painted and smudged...

 This is also a mixed media piece done on an
 8"x 8" canvas board. The material are the same as above, with one addition, a strip of crocheted lace.

This is a 9"x 12" studio canvas. Materials are the same as above with the addition of some glass glitter and micro beads.

Captured Faerie

    This poor little fairy is locked in a birdcage, but still has the tender heart to care for a tiny bird. It appears that she's fallen out of the peddler's cart and landed on the forest floor carpeted with autumn leaves. The cage is the alterable medium birdcage from Prima Marketing. She is set in a 12" x 12" gallery profile canvas from Blick Art Supplies that has been turned backwards and used with the canvas as the back and the frame as a shadowbox. The canvas has been lifted from the frame around the edges and distressed. The fairy is modeled from polymer clay, painted, and clothed in Sari silk and gauze.

She is surrounded by fallen leaves and an assortment of other items that have fallen to the ground around her, a spoon, a small bottle labeled as lavender, but is really filled with pixie dust, and a few other small objects. She has her little bird friends to keep her company until she is rescued--which will be soon, undoubtedly

I tapped some crystal head upholstery tacks around the outside edge of the frame just for a little added pizazz.



This idea was inspired by an altered birdcage done by Robbie Herring on "Live With Prima".

Memories

 

     This week I decided to use one of my own family pictures to create a canvas. I used a little different process, in that I left the canvas white and immediately began adding components and layering with inks and paints. Usually I color the canvas first and then add more as I go along. This was a fun way to venture out of my normal habits and try a new technique. When using vintage and one of a kind photos, please save the originals in a nice album. Make a copy and use the print instead. This way you can enjoy your family photos to decorate your home, but still preserve the originals to be passed down to future generations. I just use a good quality card stock and a standard HP ink jet home printer, but you can have them printed at a print shop or office supply, if you desire. With the ink jet prints, I always spray with an acrylic matte sealer before using. This keeps the ink from running or fading when it comes in contact with glues, inks or other mediums. There's usually a lot of water in the mediums I use, and this technique has worked very well. I also have found that in humid climates or environments (bathroom, kitchen) prints can lose their color by absorbing moisture from the air. The sealer helps prevent that and also adds a nice, non-glossy finish to the photo.

I love the details and appearance of nostalgia that the multimedia process achieves. 

Beautiful Moments Layout

Ever since I was first introduced to scrap-booking years ago I have loved it. Somehow, combining my favorite photos along with commentary (journaling) and creative elements really struck a chord. It's nice to have perfect albums with all the family photos carefully mounted and preserved in orderly fashion with names and dates carefully lettered under each one, but I love the personality of a scrap-booked album. Not only am I able to tell much more of the story behind the pictures, but I get to be creative in decorating each page according to the personality of those in the pictures. Sometimes, I just express myself and don't worry about whether my work reflects the likes of those in the photo. Now that so much digital storage is available, I don't always print out my photos and put them into books. A concept that I've embraced more recently is to create a scrap-book layout, but mount it to heavy chipboard and display it instead of binding it into a book. This one combines my love of multi-media with some scrap-booking concepts.

                                                              

Penny Farthing Fun

Another project wrapped up, I think. I haven't decided if I'm really done with it yet. I think I am. This is a really fun project with a metal piece from Prima Marketing. The large wheel can be a frame or shadowbox. I made a steampunk type composition inside and mounted it to the inside front of the frame, leaving lots of room behind it to be a secret stash spot. It would be great to put a mini picture album in there, or the extra set of car keys, or maybe your chocolate stash...

I do need to put a pretty paper inside here. I'm on it!




See you soon!

                                                      This is better.