Little Beauties Swap

I signed up for a "Little Beauties" Swap on one of my groups - we had to create "instant art" pieces that were larger than inchies and smaller than ATC's. Below is a sample of the little beauties I created.

Two new additions to Background Noise Sketchbook

I have added two new backgrounds to my sketchbook . . .

The first is Torn and Painted Papers - and I found this in the Somerset Studios Nov/Dec 2007 edition. On the left side of the page - you can see that I divided the page. The left side is the papers after being adhered, prior to painting. The right side of the page is after I have painted with 2 colors of Golden's Glazes.



The second background is one of my favorites . . . Embossed Paper Scraps.
Lots of fun, supplies that most everyone has on hand, relatively quick and easy!!
What more could we ask for:



Clicking on either picture will enlarge it so that you can read the directions.

Mosaic Play Day

Chrissy, Maggi and I had our Polymer Clay Play Day today - making Mosaics ala Laurie Mika! We had a BLAST!

Below is the progress of our day :)

Here is the table set for our first project . . . . making mosaic tiles out of original Sculpey. Now I just had to wait for the gals to arrive!

Phew . . . they finally made it. Here are Chrissy and Maggi hard at work!

Here are our clay pieces after baking:

Here are Maggi's pieces after painting:

Here are Chrissy's after painting:

Here are mine - after they were partially painted:

Next up was the colored clay . . . . here are my pieces, after Pearl Ex, before baking:

Here are Maggi's after the Pearl Ex:

Here are our pieces after baking:

We learned a lot from this one play day . . . what works, what doesn't, what we liked

and what we didn't like so much . . . LOL!

All in all . . . . A FANTASTIC PLAY DAY!! Even with the snow storm that decided to hit us!!

Mixed Media Mosaics by Laurie Mika

Mixed Media Mosaics: Techniques & Projects
Using Polymer Clay Tiles, Beads & Other Embellishments
(Paperback)by Laurie Mika (Author)
$15.63 at http://www.amazon.com/

I will be attending a retreat at Raevn's Nest Art Retreat in October
in Cedarburg, Wisconsin and am keeping my fingers crossed that
I am able to get into the class that Laurie Mika is teaching. I
received this book from Amazon last week and it is truly
INCREDIBLE! 127 pages of full color, easy to read,
easy to follow instructions for GREAT projects using polymer clay!
This is by far, one of the BEST art books I own. My only affiliation to
Laurie is being a fan :) I went out yesterday and purchased the supplies
needed and tomorrow Maggi and Chrissy will be coming over for a
PLAY DAY!
Stay tuned . . . . . . . photos to follow . . . . .

If you are interested in Mosaics, in Polymer Clay - PLEASE give this
book a try . . . . I can't believe that ANYONE would be disappointed!!

Background Noise #5 - and Updated Sketchbook Cover

I added another personal favorite to my background book today - Mulberry Paper Color Wash Resist. Fun, easy and can be as colorful as you want!!

Click on image if you would like to read the instructions! A side note, that Fiona reminded me of. When you are ironing your mulberry paper between two sheets of paper - it WILL STICK. Don't panic!! Keep ironing and it will eventually let go. It is sticking because you are ironing away the embossing powder.




Here is a current picture of the cover of my sketchbook. I am adding a square everytime I create another background . . . . . . still have a ways to go :)

Background Noise #4 - Glue Resist

Our next Challenge for the Background Noise Sketchbook is a Glue Resist technique. Another fairly easy, effective background.


Here are my sketchbook pages:




and here are some of the large samples of my backgrounds:

sponged on dye inks:






brayered on dye ink:





color wash spray:

January Tip-in "Paris"

In my ongoing Tip-in Swap . . . . this month's theme is PARIS!! Here are the front and back of my pages!!

Background Noise #3 - Melted Crayon

I added another pesonal favorite to my Background Noise Sketchbook . . . . melted crayon! VERY easy, VERY effective . . . . and if you have kids . . . . you have the necessary supplies right in your house :)

Mishap with Art Quest Sketchbook Cover

I had mentioned in one of my groups that I had a slight mishap with my Art Quest Sketchbook. While working on a page - I managed to drag the bottom left corner of the front cover through RED ACRYLIC PAINT! OH NO!

I blotted it with paper towel - and then again with a damp paper towel - and it still left a lovely shade of red BLOB! That will definitely teach me to be more careful - AND to protect the finished pages and cover in the future!! I looked at it for a few days . . . . perhaps hoping that it would go away overnight ? ? ? Well, of course that didn't happen, but then an idea struck! I used a piece of punchinella and sponged a dark pink through it - now it looks like it was supposed to be there - because of the punchinella I also used on the tag. Just thought I would share a way to fix a mess :)

Before:

After:

Newest addition to the family!!!

Please meet the newest addition to our family, my nephew Logan! Craig's sister Teri and her husband Rick are the proud parents - and I am the proud Auntie!! He was born last week Tuesday, was 7 lbs and 10 oz and was 20" long!! He is just the sweetest baby!

New addition to Art Quest - Faux Chipboard

I am finally caught up in my Art Quest Sketchbook! The latest challenge was Faux Chipboard - using Fun Foam. I didn't have any of the fun foam stickers, but I did have one sheet of black fun foam. I decided it would be best to keep it simple - and cut out the easiest shapes possible, hearts and diamonds!! Although I did challenge myself by cutting out the word "L O V E". The fun foam shapes were adhered to the page using E-6000. The background and the fun foam shapes were all painted with gesso and then acrylic paint. I then stamped over the fun foam shapes with a diamond stamp, a lace stamp, and a Love background stamp. I then adhered an image on top of the large heart and added some background stencils and a "Friend" stamp. With Valentine's right around the corner, I thought this was most appropriate :)

Another background for Background Noise

I added one of my own favorites to this sketchbook . . . . Paint Dragging! Fun and easy and very effective!!

Shining Stones Swap

After creating my shining stones backgrounds, I signed up for the swap that Chrissy is hosting. Here is the card I created from my backgrounds:

Art Quest Sketchbook and Challenge #2 "Dictionary Page"

I have finally created the cover for my Art Quest sketchbook which we started last year on Art Ventures. I had completed the first challenge - and am working hard to get caught up :)

Here is the cover:

And here is Challenge #2. We had to randomly select a dictionary page - and then a word, which I did by running my finger down the page and counting to five. And here is my take on "fish-monger!"

Instant Art Swap

The premise behind this swap is to create pieces of "instant art" that you can use to finish a project. Adrienne suggested that every get a zippered binder with plastic sleeves to hold the pieces. Then when you need that certain something to finish a project, you can look through the binder. For this swap we had to make 5 photo slides, 5 ATC backgrounds, 5 itty bitties, 5 images (in two sizes) and 5 tags. Below is one set of what I created.

Pea's Ponderings

I was in a journal page swap in a group called Paper Dolls a couple years back. We each made X amount of journal pages ready to journal on and received one back from everyone in the group. I just now created a cover and bound these. I look forward to journaling in it :)

I love the song "Big Girls Don't Cry" and used that behind a transparency of my face! My son thought it was for a swap and asked "who wants a picture of you on their journal?" ROFL! I choose this because it sets the tone for my some of my personal goals for 2008! Clarity, Peace, Serenity! I couldn't ask for more!!

Here was an actual page I received - and I thought WOW !! How is that for spooky!! I made this the very first page in the journal!!

Background Noise

I have started another journal, titled Background noise, at the direction of Trish Bee of Next Generation Stampers. We will be showcasing our background creations, complete with instructions.

I have come up with a "Pea Rating Guide" for each of the backgrounds that I create. My personal rating scale will be comprised of how easily the background can be made, on whether or not I have all of the necessary materials already in my house, on the "noise" factor . . . . can I create said background while my family is still in bed, and last, but certainly not least, do I LOVE what I have created :)

To start off our book, Trish choose Shining Stones . . . . and I can tell you that the Pea Rate is a PERFECT 10!!
I LOVE IT . . . . AND, I didn't burn down the house while creating it!!

Here is the cover of my sketchbook . . . I will be cutting a one inch square from each background that I create and adding it to the cover as I go.

Here are the journal pages for the first background we all created . . . . Shining Stones

Here is the backside of the last page and inside of the back cover.

Here are some larger examples of the backgrounds. I will be using one of them to create a swap on CCSwaps, where we have to use this background