Take Me To Your Leader - Altered Envie

What happens when your mail art trading partner's interests are very different from your own?  Well, you can either disregard her likes or you can stretch yourself.  This month, I decided to stretch myself.  Science fiction?  Aliens?  No sweat!  (I told myself, somewhat confidently.)

I started with a monoprint I made a while ago using my Gelli Plate. Once folded into an envelope, the patterns in the print reminded me of photographs of the Milky Way.  That created a perfect backdrop for my alien.  I used an image I found on the internet as a guide and black, white and gray acrylic paints.  I was pretty pleased with how he (she? it?) turned out, since I can honestly say that painting aliens is not in my bag of usual tricks.

On the back, I stamped a simple message that always reminds me of the old Bugs Bunny cartoon character, the rather inept Marvin the Martian.  Is anyone else old enough to remember him?

Speaking of simple, this post will be short and sweet, as I try to get back into the habit of regular posts.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a fabulous day.

If You're Lucky Enough to Be Different - Greeting Card

Do you ever sit down to make something and end up making something else?  (All the time, right?)  Well, that's what happened with this card.  I was trying to make a couple of cards using some monoprints I created (I'll talk about them in a different post), and they just weren't coming together.  So I switched gears and made this card which I plan to send to a friend.  She loves the color purple and I know she will get a kick out of the little girl on the front.  I've nicknamed her Celie, after the character in The Color Purple.

The background started with my monoprint.  To that I added a strip of vintage sheet music (my friend is a classically-trained vocalist) and a circular graph cut from a vintage engine manual (just guessing here, but my friend probably knows little about vintage engines, or modern engines, for that matter).  The sentiment and the Celie "paper doll" are Tim Holtz products.  The butterfly is a rub-on by 7 Gypsies.  To age the papers, I sponged distress inks around the edges.  A dark charcoal pencil was used to outline the sentiment and Celie; a blending stump and my fingers helped to smudge the charcoal.  Because of the charcoal, this card got a quick spritz of acrylic sealant as a final layer.

Thanks for stopping by!  If you haven't already done so, hop over to this blog post and enter to win an original piece of mail art.  You have until July 13, 2018, to enter.  (That's Friday the 13th.  Ooooooh...)

Supplies:
Purple and white cardstock by Bazzill; monoprint on Strathmore bristol vellum paper using purple acrylic paint; vintage sheet music and graphic illustration from my stash; sentiment and paper doll by Tim Holtz; butterfly rub-on by 7 Gypsies; mustard seed and walnut stain distress ink; dark charcoal pencil.

In the Doghouse - Moo House Diptych

This pair of moo houses turned out so cute, I wish I could keep them for myself!  But I derive great pleasure from sending my art to others, so I will trade them during the Mini House-athon if someone asks.  That's how the marathons work, after all.

The yellow background is from a monoprint that I made using a Gelli Plate.  I adhered it to watercolor paper to give it some heft and stamped on the brown splatters.  The little dog was clipped from an RCA Victor ad in a 1947 Life magazine.  The numbers are rub-ons and are added not only for interest, but to help me keep track of how many mini houses I make during the marathon.  The roofs feature a patterned paper adhered to watercolor paper, a red cardstock star, and a miniature black brad.

Thanks for popping in!  Have a great day.

Supplies:
Gelli plate print; splatter pattern stamp by All Night Media; Adirondack potting soil ink; clipart dog from 1947 Life magazine ad; patterned paper by My Mind's Eye; red cardstock; black mini brad; rub-ons by 7 Gypsies.

Icelandic Poppy No. 4 - Altered Envelope

Inspiration can come from just about anywhere.  In this case, it came from a forgotten monoprint that I found in my stash.  I made the print into a 6 x 4.75 inch envelope using my envelope punch board, then sat and studied it until I finally decided what my next step would be.

Since my partner likes poppies, I decided I would try to paint one on the envelope.  I did a practice sketch on a piece of scratch paper first.  Once I was happy with the size and shape of my design, I transferred it onto the envelope and outlined it with black Stabilo All Pencil.  I then painted inside all of the pencil lines with white acrylic paint.  Some of the Stabilo pencil smeared a little when it got wet, but that actually worked well with my design.

I continued to add color and details to the poppy by painting on lemon zest Dylusions ink spray, peeled paint and antiqued bronze distress paint, more white acrylic paint, and more black and white Stabilo pencil.  This was such a fun process that I never wanted it to end.

I added the No. 4 with a stencil to signify that this month is the Envie Addicts' fourth birthday.  I stamped a flourish border but left the back fairly plain, mainly to prevent any confusion at the post office.

I just love participating in this altered envelope exchange every month.  It's a fun and talented group and I have received many beautiful pieces of art through the mail.  I've also learned a lot and have been motivated to try new things.  For example, my first inclination was to add some stamped images to this envelope.  Instead, I drew my own poppy and am quite pleased with how it turned out.  I hope my partner likes it!

Have a wonderful day.  Thanks for dropping by.

Supplies:
Homemade monoprint using white cardstock, Liquitex acrylic paints and Gelli Plate; We R Memory Keepers envelope punch board; black and white Stabilo All Pencil; titanium white acrylic paint; Dylusions lemon zest ink spray; peeled paint and antiqued bronze distress paint; Tim Holtz stencil; black Staedtler pigment liner; flourish stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms; Ranger Archival watering can ink; squid ink Gelatos.

ICAD No. 24 Psychedelic Circles

I haven't made any index cards for several days now due to other projects I had to get done and things like work and having a garage sale.  So I was happy to find time tonight to make a card using some Gelli Plate prints I made last year.

I used various sizes of circle punches to create a whole bunch of solid and "donut" circles to adhere to my index card.  I love how dynamic this card is, and I think it illustrates well the week's theme of psychedelic and today's prompt of geometric.

On top of everything else, my printer/scanner started acting up last night and I've spent several hours over the past two days trying to fix it.  I was in a panic, let me tell you!  I don't know if it's fixed, but I did manage to get this card scanned.

Thank you for reading my blog and as always, I so enjoy reading your comments.  Have a great day!

ICAD No. 12 Gelli Print Make-over

If you think this card looks like a companion to yesterday's (ICAD No. 11 Silhouette), you would be right.  I actually started this card first, reached a certain point, and got stuck.  So I set it aside, made yesterday's card using the paints I still had on my palette, and came back to finish this card today.

The background is a Gelli Plate print I made on sheet music a while ago.  Unfortunately, the original color scheme (blue and yellow) was not inspiring me at all.  So I dry-brushed white acrylic paint over the entire piece to tone down the colors, and then used pink, green and additional white accents to transform the color scheme to one I liked.  Like yesterday, this card was also inspired by a couple of Dina Wakley techniques: drawing simple shapes and fixing overwrought layers.

Have a great day!

Supplies:
4x6 index card;  Gelli Plate print on sheet music; titanium white and pink acrylic paint; black and white Stabilo All Pencils; picked raspberry and mowed lawn distress inks; Signo Uniball white gel pen; Tim Holtz collage stamp; Faber-Castell black Pitt artist pen; Tim Holtz alpha stencil; punchinella.

Scrap Tags

Authors get writer's block.  Athletes have slumps.  What do artists experience?  I call it losing my mojo.  It happens periodically, usually after a stretch when I don't have much time for art.  Once I finally did have time this month, it's like all my creative juices had turned sour.  But now we're on the verge of a new month, and I'm determined to get back my mojo.

Usually the first thing I do to jump-start my creativity is to clean off my craft table and put away any items I left out.  (I'm notoriously bad about cleaning up after myself.)  A clean table is refreshing, and in the process I'm reminded of the great art supplies I have.  So while doing that yesterday, I came across the pile of scraps and "failures" from the last few weeks.  I also rediscovered a package of black cardstock tags I bought recently.  Bingo!  I decided to make some tags using just the scraps on my desk.

The tags include little bits and pieces from the past month: leftover word die-cuts, extra copies of a photo I didn't use, stamped images, a piece of gelli print paper, and bits of "failed" mixed media postcards on watercolor paper.

I used a regular paper hole punch to create the small circles, and then unified all of the bits with my Stabilo All Pencils in black and white.  I love how the white Stabilo pencil looks like chalk on a blackboard.

The finishing touch was some diamond Stickles on the die-cut words and on the small circles.  You can kind of see the glimmer on this last one, which I think is my favorite.

Tie a piece of ribbon onto these and they will make fun gift tags, or I may put them on a card front, or they could be the start of a journal page.  The tags are 2.5 x 4.5 inches, so they'll fit just about anywhere.  I love imagining all the possibilities.  Welcome back, Mojo!

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day.