Saturday, February 28, 2015

Documented Life Project pages

Hi and Happy Saturday...

Its snowing here...ughh...since yesterday...
That will just make more time for art since I can't leave the house.
I drive a tiny car and it does not dance well with the snow...

So I havent been very good about posting my DLP 2015 pages so this post is a little catch up...

I must say this group and the prompts are keeping me very interested in continuing on with this journal and COMPLETING it...
I Have so many journals that I have started and then I move on to something else and there are more blank pages than color filled art pages...
I am determined to see this project through...

Here are weeks 5, 6, and 8...I havent done 7 yet...he. he.

 WEEK 5....UNDERPAPER...



WEEK 6...LAYERS















WEEK 8...REPEATING ELEMENTS
Im having so much fun with this project...always excited to see what each weeks prompt it...
Today is a new one...
I also have DT stuff to work on...
Off to my studio I go.
x0x0x
Monica

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Artist Trading Blocks

Hello Beautiful People...

So in between design team projects...OH WAIT...so...not only am I on the Art Anthology Inc. Dream Team, but I was invited to start creating with the awesome team of artists over at Gauche Alchemy...

Very excited to see where this new adventure with them leads and share it all with you...

Ok...so...while not working on design team projects and a couple of special projects (stay tuned)...I have been making Artist Trading Blocks..

Last summer I took the amazing class Imaginarium, Anthology of an Art Doll taught by the amazing Mary Jane Chadbourn...As part of the kits she offered up for class participants, she included a few Artist Trading Blocks...same size as Artist Trading Cards, but in the form of a 1/2 inch block of wood...

I have been having so much fun with them...until...BLASTED...my printer ran out of ink...so I am waiting for my ink to get here so I can start printing images and making more of these fun projects...but let me show you the 3 I did make...the first one was part of a swap we did within the facebook group from the original class...the other 2 I ended up selling before they were even finished which is awesome...and there will be more to come...so here they are...































































I'm having so much fun making these blocks...can't wait to get some more made.

Have a fantastic Friday and a great weekend...
x0x0x
Monica

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Up Up and to Away

Hello Beautifuls...

Monica here today to share with you my project for this week...

We were prompted to create a project this week with the theme being Inventions.

I grew up in Northern California very close to the Napa Valley.
I can remember from way way back, seeing the hot air balloons flying over on beautiful sunny days. I have always loved them so I decided to do my project with a hot air balloon theme...

Here is a picture of the completed piece...













Now let me tell you what you will need.

11x14 Canvas
Art Anthology Stucco Texture Paste
Art Anthology Colorations Sprays in the following colors...
Juicy
Grape Soda
Wild Orchid
Warm
Cinnamon Toast
Timeless
Guacamole
Maps
Hot Air Balloon Printout
Gel Medium

The first thin I did was use a palette knife to apply the Stucco Texture Paste randomly to a piece of mixed media paper. I did this not only to create texture, but also because I knew the mists would react differently to the texture paste and the canvas background.

I had my map and balloon printed out and after the texture paste dried I figured out where I wanted to place them.













I adhered the printouts to the paper using gel medium.

Next I grabbed my Art Anthology Colorations Sprays in the colors I listed above and I started misting...I started at the top with the Warm and the Cinnamon Toast and let it drip down along the sides where I had put the texture paste.

I then started to add the Grape Soda and Wild Orchid...then the Guacamole. I just kept misting in different areas where I wanted the specific colors.













So you can see here how the colors react differently to where the paste is, and where it is just the paper. I love the variation.
I kept misting until I had the look I was going for













Next I grabbed a regular state map and cut out an area and started misting wit the Colorations in Warm, Timeless, and Cinnamon Toast.















I knew I was going to adhere the piece to an 11x14 canvas so I tore the map into strips to frame it once I adhered it to the canvas.














Before I adhered it to the canvas, I went to my sewing machine to add some stitching detail to the sides of the balloon and the map. I love the look this added. I then adhered the piece to the canvas using glue, and used gel medium to apply the torn map strips to the canvas to frame the main piece.










I added the date of the first manned air balloon flight at the top.













and the rest at the bottom.
Here is another picture of the completed canvas.





















I had a lot of fun with this project and I love that I was able to achieve a vintage look using the Art Anthology products.

I hope you have a fantastic week and thanks for stopping by.



Monday, February 9, 2015

KrAzY LoVe

Hi Everyone,

So glad you stopped by today.

I have a fun project to share with you today.

For this project I started with a styro foam heart that I cut out of a square piece of styrofoam.

I paper mache'd the heart with newspaper and paper towel.











I had to let this dry overnight.

Once it was dry I covered the heart in Art Anthology Gesso.

Next I chose my colors. I didn't choose traditional Valentine's Day colors.

kKI used Art Anthology Sorbet Dimensional Paints in Imperial, and Baby Blue Eyes, and Art Anthology Velvet Dimensional Paint in Lime Aid








I painted the colors with the pattern I wanted starting with the Imperial, then the Baby Blue Eyes, then the Lime Aid













I then reached for my Art Anthology Gesso and with my fingertip I applied it around the edges of each color because I wanted a softer look.













I then took a white paint marker and outlined all of the edges of the different colors, I did the same with a fine line black marker.













Next I grabbed my chipboard letters.









I gesso'd the letters then grabbed Art Anthology Colorations Sprays in Patience and Grape Soda.
I misted until I had the colors I wanted.
Then I grabbed my Art Anthology Dottie Stencil and I used Gesso to apply the dots to the top of the misting on the O and the E, and I used Art Anthology Dimensional Sorbet in Big Dip O' Ruby for the L and the V.  I also outlined the edges of the letters with a black pen










I used the black pen to outline the circle pattern from the stencil and this really made the dots pop









Ok now lets get funky...I grabbed my roll of black and white checkered duct tape and tore a piece off that would fit around the outside edge of the heart. I then painted the chipboard letters for KRAZY in black and outlined them in white and along with the LOVE I adhered them to the top of the heart...










hmm...still not quite funky enough for me...I grabbed my black gel pen and decided to add black squares to the white lines I had added earlier...And yes...that is exactly what it needed.


I had so much fun making this project. Hope it inspires you to go make something fun and funky for Valentine's Day or any day.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.
x0x0x

Friday, February 6, 2015

The Heart Knows No Time

Hello Gorgeousess...

Hope you have all had a FaBuLoUs week and Happy Friday....

I'm here to share with you a Love inspired project...after all, February is the month of LOVE....

This project was very easy to do and the outcome is just what I wanted...

Here you can see the completed canvas














Now let me share with you what you will need, and how you can achieve a beautiful vintage Love inspired canvas.

 You will need:
7x14 canvas
Art Anthology Gesso
Art Anthology Colorations Spray in Salted Caramel and Cinnamon Toast
Variety of White paper flowers
Vintage Papers
Vintage Lace/crochet ribbon
Clock parts and gears
Scrap Canvas
Scrap Burlap
Sheer Lace
Hot glue gun and glue.
Spray bottle filled with water.

So the first thing I did was pick out the lace and papers I wanted to use.
I used a matte gel medium to adhere them down randomly to the canvas, letting some of the lace hang over the edge and also not concerned with adhering the edges of the paper.
Remember you are going for a worn vintage look. Just keep layering until you are happy with how your canvas looks.

Next I added the paper flowers in the upper right and lower left parts of the canvas.
Now get your scrap canvas and burlap and cut two hearts...Glue them down to the canvas with a hot glue gun, offsetting to each other.
I had a sheer lace that I cut and adhered to the inside of the canvas heart with the matte medium, just to give it another layer.

Ok now, grab your hot glue gun and start randomly spider webbing hot glue on top of the canvas...You want it to look stringy and very random...Once you have everything the way you like it, grab your Art Anthology Gesso and start covering everything in gesso. Just lay it all over your canvas...Now be patient and let this dry, and by all means use your heat gun. Here;s a shot of my canvas at this stage in the process.



















Once it's dry you will want to get out your clock parts and gears and start laying them out on your canvas to your liking...I used a clear glue to place mine. I didnt use the hot glue gun because I wanted to be able to move them around while the glue was drying if necessary. I also had some metal brads that I placed around the flowers to give it some more interest.






















Now go ahead and grab your spray bottle with water, and spray at the very top of the canvas, so it drips down...Now grab your Art Anthology Colorations Spray in Cinnamon Toast and do the same. Spray just at the top of the canvas and let it flow down with the water...It doesn't take much. I alternated between the water and the Cinnamon Toast until I got the look I wanted. I also added a few sprays of Salted Caramel just for a more aged effect. My canvas was quite wet at this point so I actually left it overnight to dry.

I needed the hearts to stand out more so I sprayed some of the Cinnamon Toast on my Art Anthology Craft Mat and used a brush to go around the edges of the hearts. I also did this around the outside edges of the canvas. I used white cardstock and alpha stamps and stamped my phrase onto the paper  then inked the edges and adhered them.

Here's another look at the completed canvas.

















Thank you for stopping by the Art Anthology blog today and I hope this project inspires you to go play with some Art Anthoogy sprays and gesso and lace and papers. Have a great weekend and Happy Valentine's Day in advance.
x0x0x