celebrate autumn - art demo at Artist & Display

I'll be working at Artist & Display on Sunday Sept 22nd from 1pm - 3pm doing a demo of  Twinkling H2Os.  Everyone that stops by can create their own autumn colored tree using these shimmery water color paints.

If you've never worked with Twinkling H2Os or if  it's been awhile and you need a refresher I encourage you to stop by. These paints are easy to use and in a very short time you'll have your own autumn tree creation to take home.

The tree image has been printed onto watercolor paper. You add the leaves. 

You could make a Green Bay Packers themed tree...or a spooky Halloween themed tree. 



The photos don't quite capture it but these paints just shimmer in the light. 

All supplies are included...and it's free!  So come on over, grab a paintbrush, and let's celebrate the first day of autumn.

here's a link to the store.  Hope to see you on Sunday! 
http://www.artistanddisplayonline.com/demos.php?classid=540

Art in the garden - glass totem

I've seen many of these glass garden sculptures or "garden totems" as they are called in local art fairs and I just had to create one of my own. Decided on a blue and green glass color scheme (favorite of mine).  A cobalt blue glass vase that I've had for years was the starting point.  

 

 

Some family and friends would be surprised to learn that I used some of my Coca-Cola glasses.  The bottle green color of the glasses works great with the overall piece.  

I purchased two small glass saucers and a green wine glass from a local thrift store (Goodwill) for under $2.00 total (gotta love that).  Thrift stores are great places to shop for glass sculptures like this.  All other items, including the glass gems and beads, I had around the house and/or studio.  

 

I used a tube Loctite clear silicone waterproof sealant to glue all of the glass pieces together.  I did this in stages in order to keep it stable.  Started by gluing the cobalt vase to a glass plate and let it dry overnight.  Then each day I added another piece ending up with a wineglass at top.

I really like the strands of glass beads and glass gems for extra bling.  

 Once it was done I let it set for 4 days to completely cure before I brought it outside.  I love how the sun sparkles on the glass.  The sculpture has becomes a focal point in the space.

 

Art in the garden - glass flower

I love how glass art looks in the garden.  I've seen these glass flowers at art shows and thought I'd try my hand at making some.  My tiny garden really doesn't have much room for more garden art but I thought I'd squeeze in another piece (or two) of garden art.

 

First I searched for small bowls or plates that could be stacked together to create a pleasing arrangement.  All of these pieces have similar color tones.   Most of these pieces came from my husbands grandparents.  The small glass cup is too small for a wine glass...maybe it was used for Sherry? I think the bowl on the bottom is actually an old glass cigarette dish!

I glued the pieces together using Loctite clear silicone waterproof sealant. This type of sealant comes in a small tube and must be used in a well ventilated area.  Open up those windows!

 

After the pieces were glued together I took an old spoon, flattened it, bent it, and then glued it to the back of the stack of dishes.

 

The flower part is done.  Now to work on the stem and leaves.  Fortunately my hubby doesn't mind shopping for art supplies IF it's at a hardware store.  He picked up a small piece of copper pipe and flexible copper tubing.   I bent the copper tubing into leaf shapes and my husband used a rivet gun to attach them to the copper pipe. We also crimped one end of the pipe to hold the flower.

 

After I put the newly created flower stem and leaves into the ground I just slipped the end of the spoon into the crimped end of the pipe.

 

Voila! My glass flower is now blooming in the garden

This is a great project to reuse old glass dishes that hold a special memory... or maybe didn't sell at that last rummage sale (lol).  I am working on another glass garden art project.  Stay tuned!



summer dreams...

our dreary weather lately sure has me craving for some sun and warm temps.  So I decided to take a break from my gardening work and retreat to the studio to see if I could infuse some summer into my day with some summer themed cards.

First I went through all my paper scraps and picked ones that make me think of summer.  I also grabbed some rubber stamps with a tropical/nautical theme. I rummaged thru many art supplies and picked out a few I haven't used in quite awhile: vellum paper, eyelets, and my crop-o-dile tool (for setting the eyelets).

I stamped the beach scene stamp on vellum using Archival black ink.  Then I turned it over and colored in the image using copic markers.

The copic markers flowed over the vellum paper and gave it a watercolored look (kinda hard to see in the photo).  Using eyelets, I adhered the vellum piece to a white piece of cardstock (which really made the image stand out) and then on colored cardstock and finally glued to a folded card base.

added some lettering and the card is finished.  I did the same thing with a lighthouse rubber stamp.

When coloring the sky I left blank areas as clouds. Everything was colored in on the back of the vellum.

I used eyelets and layered this image onto cardstock and then onto a folded card. 

So even though it's cool, cloudy (and starting to rain again) I have a bit of the tropics in my studio.  And I know a few people who will appreciate getting these summer inspired cards.

Faux stained glass suncatcher

the inspiration for this project is about two things I am missing the most lately...sun and flowers!

Actually it all started out when I was at Joann Crafts buying items for a class and saw this square acrylic block (normally used with unmounted rubber stamps) in a discount bin for .25 cents!    Good grief, I can't pass that up.

I used a hand held Fiskars drill to drill a hole in one corner.  Then I placed Peel Off Stickers (flower and leaf images) onto the block.   Peel off stickers are laser cut outline images and can be used with most paper crafts and non porous surfaces like glass and plastic. The outlines are great to color in with markers, colored pencils, gel pens, or what I used here...Sakura Glaze Pens.

The raised outline of the stickers holds in the ink from the glaze pens.  Glaze pens have a pigmented ink that flows quickly from the pens and dries to create a stained glass effect.

It works best to place the piece on white background and hold it up  to check to see if you've colored in all of the areas. 

The ink is very fluid and I usually just tap the tip of the pens on the plastic to get it flowing.  You can also add a few colors together and the colors will blend together before drying.

Just a few more details and then I added a ribbon to hang in the window.

and even though we didn't have much sun today...I still like how it looks in the window.

tattered floral challenge

Tim Holtz issued an art challenge to create something using his Tattered Florals Die.  

Flowers AND an art challenge? Bring it on! 

I really enjoyed this project.  Since my blog is so new this is my first blog art challenge.  So excited!  I am very happy with the results of my project.  The flowers are now "blooming" in a glass jar (jar was colored with alcohol inks, of course) on my desk.  I created small butterflies out of one of the flower dies and attached them with wire to hover over the blooms. Also had enough petals to create a flower pin for my jacket.  

Below are photos from my studio on the project.  First let's set the stage with the necessary equipment (photo at left).  It is also important to note that no household budget was harmed in the making of this project. All of the supplies were in my studio.  I can't always say that...so it's worth noting ;-)

I had some mixed media papers that I created and was holding on to for...well, something.  I just couldn't bring myself to use up the papers.  Ever had that problem?  Reluctant to use some supplies?  Decided that this project challenge would be the perfect time for me to go through all of my fav papers and use them! Wow, felt so good to go thru and actually USE these papers.

Also had scraps of muslin and pieces of denim (from old bluejeans) and wondered if they would work in the die? Yes! the tattered flowers die worked beautifully.  Love how the old faded denim flowers look!

 

 

 

I used Distress Reinkers mixed with H2O in Mini Misters to spritz color on the muslin and denim blooms.  Some papers were inked with Distress Inks.  Now I had a garden full of flowers just waiting to be put together. 

 

 

But first, had an idea to create butterflies for the flowers. I used the small flower from the die and cut out one of the petals. I punched a hole and added wire for the antennas and to attach to the flower. Used game spinners for the body of the butterflies. (Game Spinners - Tim Holtz Idea-ology)

 

 

 

Next I punched holes in all of the blooms using a small awl, added wire for the stem plus a round brad for the center of the flower.  The brad had a ring that I used to wire the butterflies. The main wire was wound around a chopstick and covered with tape.  (note to my husband...we need to go out for Chinese food again to get more chopsticks!).  I wanted floral tape but didn't have any.  What I did have was some Tim Holtz Tissue Tape - with a Christmas design.  Hummmm.  I wrapped this around the wire and chopstick then colored the tape with Distress Stain (Peeled Paint).  You couldn't tell it was Christmas images! And now the flowers were sturdy enough to stand up in a jar. Leaves were cut from leftover scrap from the flower die cuts.

 

This challenge really made me think of using the tattered flowers die in new ways.  Especially using denim fabric.  I just love the texture and worn look of the denim petals.

I chose bright colors since I am longing for spring and with the amount of snow outside now it seems like spring is still far away.  These colorful flowers make me smile and I'll enjoy them for a long time.  So I'm going to upload my photos and blog to Tim's site and enter the challenge.  Winner gets a wonderful goodie bag of stuff from Tim Holtz (wow, that would be so cool!!).  Wish me luck!

 

 



Alcohol Inked Tile Card (Happy B-day Ted)

Happy Birthday Ted! (a.k.a. Mr Stampers Anonymous).  Stampers Anonymous is an Art Stamp company and their owner Ted is 50 years young this month.  To celebrate customers were encouraged to make Ted a b-day card.  Since I love making cards and love the stamps from this company I just had to do this. The result was an alcohol inked tile card.  And of course I had to doodle the envelope too.  Instructions for the tile card are listed below.

The key to this project is making the paper first, then cutting the squares, and then doing the rubber stamping.

I started by making two pieces of alcohol inked paper.  (the steps for working with alcohol inks will be another post).  Then I cut the paper into squares using a 1 inch square punch.  I needed removable tape to hold the squares for stamping and for some reason couldn't locate the tape in my studio (yeah, that's never happened before LOL!) so I grabbed some tissue tape instead.  The tissue tape is a little tacky but not strong enough to glue the squares.  I placed tissue tape strips sticky side up (taped down on the ends to keep them in place) and then placed the paper squares on top of the tape.  The squares are placed edge to edge, alternating between colors.  The tape is just there to hold them in place.  After the squares were down I rubber stamped an image.   The Mona Lisa image is from Tim Holtz "Mona's Sketchbook". (Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz collection cling mount).   The ink used was StazOn Jet Black.

Once the rubber stamped image was dry I gently removed each square and adhered it to a piece of black paper using a tape runner. Kinda like putting together a puzzle. I left spacing between the squares to get the tile effect.  I then trimmed the black piece of paper and adhered the whole image to a card stock base.   

I added lettering using Micron pens and finished up by doodling the envelope with more Micron pens, Zig Markers and Copic Markers. Hope Ted likes that card as much as I liked making it.