Sneak Peek!

A few weeks back, I joined a traveling art journal group.

In this group, 12 artists swap journals until everyone has created

in each one. I'm keeping my theme the same for each journal, but I'm

personalizing it depending on the person's likes & dislikes.

Here is a sneak peek at my 1st one!

Hand Carved Stamps

This is a project I've been putting aside for YEARS.

I'm not sure why I was so afraid of trying this

technique, but boy am I addicted now!

If you've never tried carving your own stamps,

I highly recommend jumping in!

 

My kit was purchased from Michaels,

and included everything you see in the first picture.

You don't have to use a kit to do this, though, as

most craft stores sell the pink rubber pad, tools,

& transfer paper as well.

 

1st STEP:

 

 

In this 1st step, you draw an image onto the transfer

paper included in the kit. Once your image is to your liking,

flip it onto the rubber pad & press lightly. Your image now

appears on the pad & is ready to carve!

2nd STEP:

 



 

If you've purchased the kit from Michaels, it includes 2 tool tips for carving.

Practice on a small corner of your pad to get the hang of the tools & WATCH

your fingers! It takes a little getting used to, but is so easy once you get the hang

of it! You can carve as much or as little as you please. I chose to carve the negative

space out of my image & accidentally cut off my owl's eye (oops!) No big deal,

just adds character to my stamped image!

 

When your image is complete, try a practice run on a scrap piece of paper to see

if anything else needs touching up. If not, you're all set to stamp!

 

FINISHED PRODUCT:

 



 

With my finished owl stamp, I created artist

trading cards (atc's) for a swap I was in on Instagram.

Enjoy!!

GRUNGE Birds!

As you can probably tell from my artwork,

I LOVE the grunge look. I distress just about

everything I create with ink to give it a

dirtier feel!

I also love birds & can't seem to find

a grungy bird stamp or image, so I decided to

create my own.

 

Here is Grunge Bird #1

(& a naked friend)

I created the 1st bird,

then traced him onto paper

to create his friend.

 

 

As you can see,

I changed Bird #2's outfit a bit

 

Grunge Birds #2 & 3

 

 

Now, we can't have 2 boys without

adding a girl to the mix!

I used the same process as mentioned above,

but gave her a dress instead.

 

Grunge Bird #3 (Girly Bird)

TADAHHH!!

 

Here is the full set,

complete with a few crazy

eyeballs to add to the birds!!

These will be available in my ETSY

shop very soon!!

 



Totally addicted to ATC'S (artist trading cards!)

I've always known what artist trading cards were
& have been familiar with the trading aspect of it, but never tried until a few weeks ago.
 Oh my goodness, have I been missing out!
Not only am I receiving tons of beautiful artwork,
but making friends from all  over the WORLD!!
This is the coolest hobby ever! I absolutely love
running to my mailbox each day to see what has arrived!
The envelopes alone are pieces of art & each artist usually sends extra
goodies along with their card! Amazing. Just amazing.
If u haven't tried this hobby, stop by my
Instagram page & join the fun!!
Here are a few pictures of what's been swapped:

 

A love for ink & cheap note cards!

 

Have you noticed how many ink products

are on the market these days?

I only have a few in my stash, but it's

just enough to create beautiful notecards!

 

For the cards pictured above, I painted

different ink colors onto cheap, white

notecards, allowed them to dry,

& stamped multiple images onto the card.

Those three simple steps turned them into works of art!

This is super fast & easy to do.

Give it a try!

 



Circus Sketch with watercolor

There's something about the Circus

that makes me smile. I love the old advertising

signs, the colors, & the patterns.

Today's page was inspired by just that.

Enjoy!

 

Watercolor Sketchbook Practice

Finally grabbed a travel

watercolor kit today

(with my 40% off coupon at ACE Moore)

and I couldn't be happier!

Even though this was created in my studio,

it's the most relaxing & addictive process so far.

I also have a love for industrial items, so this page

came together quickly.