Gearing Up!

Howdy, howdy!

I know it's been a while, but I was dealing with some different stuff that needed my attention. I know, I know... what could need my attention more than this?! Truth be told, nearly two weeks of my absence was spent watching everything Netflix had to offer while I lay on the sofa, snuffling and wheezing away a cold. For some reason it's difficult to feel creative when breathing is an issue.

Anyway! I have been and am a Guest Designer this month for Gina's Designs. Gina's does all kinds of really cool laser cut things, such as the gears pictured above. If you haven't followed me around on various social media platforms, here are the links:

When Whippoorwills
and
We Danced

Less than a year ago I fell madly in love with Gina’s Designs laser cuts. I was introduced to them via Rubbermoon when I was on their Design Team. Ever since then I've been a little addicted to using them in my projects. I find that they fit perfectly with my collage style of art work. As with so much of my work, I love to give chipboard that aged, distressed, vintage feel. For me, that’s part of what makes it so much fun to work with - the fact that I can use layers of stuff and multiple techniques and the chipboard stands up to my “abuse”. So, when Gina asked me to be a Guest Designer, I was thrilled.

But not quite as thrilled as I am today, 'cause... guess what?!

I just found out that I'm going to be a more permanent member of the Design Team for Gina's Designs! I actually found out the other day, but I couldn't tell anyone until they'd announced it. So, I've been giddy with excitement and just about exploding from holding back the news. I'll be posting every Monday on Gina's Design's blog, so save the link and check back. In the meantime, check out what my fellow crafty Design Team friends are doing over there, because they are one freakishly talented bunch!

The quick tutorial for today is me telling you to play. Just play!

I started with the Gears Shape Set, which, like all the other laser cuts, comes in plain old kraft brown. See?

I wanted them to look like well used metallic bits, so I got out every metallic-y substance in my arsenal and started playing... sponging, spraying, slopping, glopping. I'm tellin' ya, that's where the fun is.

Just play. You'll be amazed where it takes you. And here's the other thing about that. I hear all the time from people who tell me they try doing something, get frustrated when it doesn't go where they want it to, and give up. Well, if you're just playing, none of that pressure is there. You're freed to just let it happen the way it wants to happen, which is where all the very best art of any kind comes from.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to play.

The Whimsical World of Art

There is a word that I love (just one of many, if you know me at all).

That word is:

whimsical
/adjective

1. spontaneously fanciful or playful
2. given to whims; capricious
3. quaint, unusual, or fantastic

It's a word that doesn't get used nearly enough.

In the art world, in my humble opinion, it's a concept that doesn't get used nearly enough.

Don't get me wrong. I admire "serious" art, and especially the skill it takes to produce it. However, as someone who appreciates art, it's always the more whimsical stuff that draws my eye.

After all, where else in our lives can we completely give ourselves over to whimsy if not in art? In art, it's acceptable to have a chartreuse sky, swimming camels... anything that doesn't quite belong in all the most amusing ways.

Truly, art should be spontaneously fanciful and playful. Art should be capricious and given to whims. Art is at its best when it is quaint, unusual or fantastic. Art ought to be whimsical.

So it is there that my love of RubberMoon's stamps is based. They make it easy to wander the whimsical path.

The card above was made using RubberMoon's Squeak, "Oh, Rats!", and Black Cattitude stamps, along with Tim Holtz's clock stamp.

The concept behind this card perfectly, yet oh, so whimsically captures my behind-the-eight-ball frantic feeling with regard toward getting everything done between Halloween and Christmas.

Hey, what day is it? Wait. What time is it?! Oh, rats!!

The rats race around the clock (rat race... get it?) as if trying to keep up with time, capped off by the wry look on the cat's face as one of the rats gets away.

Here I am at my last post on this blog for 2014, with holiday presents made and gifted, cards made and sent, cookies made and eaten, well-wishes bestowed upon beloved family and friends...

...but for this final wish...

May you have a very 

Happily Whimsical New Year!

Making It Snow

IMAGINE Crafts and RubberMoon Art Stamps are excited to share with you the amazing projects that our design teams have created to kick off the Holiday Season! Over the next few days, we'll be sharing with you inspiration and techniques using IMAGINE Crafts' line of ink products featuring rubber stamps from RubberMoon. Be sure to visit the IMAGINE Crafts and RubberMoon blogs daily for more projects and ideas!

Can I just say? I have been having sooooo much fun playing with my stuff from IMAGINE Crafts and Rubbermoon! I thought I'd share a fun card with you today. 

For this, I started with a half sheet of watercolor paper, which I sprayed with IMAGINE Crafts GooseBumps Shimmer Texture Spray. I love the slight shimmer and the texture adds some nice dimension to projects. In this case, I was going for snow, and it worked so well!

If you look closely, you can see the shimmer! It's really difficult to capture in a photo.

Once the GooseBumps spray was dry, I used a couple of different colors of blue, an IMAGINE Crafts Ink Blusher sponge, and some Ink Potion No. 9 to fill in the sky.

I sprayed the Ink Potion No. 9 directly onto the cardstock. It helps the inks blend and made the perfect cloudy sky for my falling snow. As you can see, the IMAGINE Crafts GooseBumps resists the ink, making it look like falling snow.

Time to start stamping! For the trees, I used RubberMoon's Skinny Trees background stamp. 

Again, the GooseBumps resists the ink, so it looks like the snow is falling on the trees and just beginning to give them their wintery coats. 

To add to that effect, I sprayed the trees with a bit of IMAGINE Crafts Sheer Shimmer Spritz in silver.

Then I cut the cardstock down to size. Of course I saved the rest of it for later!

I added a few more trees to fill it in. 

I topped just one of the trees with a single gold star using the star stamp from RubberMoon's Dust Collection. (It's not like I won't use the rest of that set, but I tell ya... that star stamp alone was worth buying the whole set!) I stamped it using IMAGINE Crafts Delicata Golden Glitz ink.

I felt like it needed just a little something more, so using IMAGINE Crafts Delicata Silvery Shimmer ink, I added the sweet RubberMoon New Moon face in the sky. She has that peaceful look that I feel when the snow starts falling.

One final word about Delicata Metallic inks. I wasn't convinced that I needed more metallic ink pads. But! I love, love, love these! The colors are so vibrant and lush. I may never use any other gold or silver pads again.

PS.  If any of you IMAGINE Crafts / Tsukineko gods are listening... I'd love to have one in a nice bright copper. Pretty please!

You Art Too

Rubber stamp: RubberMoon's Tall Tree

Whenever I hear someone say, "Oh, I could never... I'm not an artist." It makes me want to scream. Mostly because I've been there, thought that, and wasted years that could have been a whole lot more fun had arts & crafts been part of the scene.

I used to try to sketch tree branches and end up with a wastebasket full of crumpled paper. The only reason for it? I forgot to take a good look at nature. Nature, while it has a certain order to it, loves some randomness. Branches aren't, as I kept trying to make them, straight lines. They're squiggly and bendy and broken in places.

Branches are meant to be doodled, not sketched.

When I first held my new Tall Tree stamp (original image pictured above) in my happy little hands, I knew I wanted to do a winter scene with it. So, I stamped it in white on blue cardstock.

And I wasn't happy with it. I mean, I was happy with the stamp - I just didn't achieve the look I was after. I wanted a cold, snowy afternoon. The kind that always makes me think there's magic afoot.

That barren, stubby tree just didn't say "magic". So, I picked up my white gel pen and began to doodle branches. And I didn't stop until my little tree whispered "magic" to me. It took me maybe 5 minutes. Yep. Five.

But, the key here is that it was just doodling. Anyone can do it. Anyone. Even you, over there shaking your head and rolling your eyes. Squiggly lines. You can do it. Yeah, so much for that old oh-but-I-can't-even-draw-a-straight-line excuse. Because, guess what? Neither can I!

Give it a try. I dare you. It's true, the Guggenheim Museum will probably not make an immediate bee-line for your door, but you'll have tons of fun. Plus, you'll flex creative muscles you didn't know you had, and trust me on this, it will take you to some amazing places.

To see what else I did with the Tall Tree stamp, check out my post this week over at Rubbermoon: One Stamp, Three Designs.

Coffee and Templates

(Fitztown digistamp used: Halloween 9)

It's no secret that I'm a freak for coffee. Not only is it not a secret, it's probably a fairly well-known fact. Rumor has it that I can be a little scary if I don't get my coffee.

And it has to be decent, deep brew for me to be really satisfied and happy. Weak coffee only serves to make me fractious. But decaf? Boy, howdy. Serve me that stuff and you'd better just run for your life!

But enough about my (completely reasonable) demands.

Somewhat lesser known is my love of stencils. They can be used in so many different ways and combinations and on any number of projects.

I have a dozen or so of them and it's not nearly enough. Which runs frighteningly close to being the same as not having enough coffee. Yeah. It's that bad.

Anyway, when I saw this Fitztown spectre, I knew that poor ol' ghoul wasn't so bad really. He just needed some decent coffee to bring him back to life. So, I poured myself some and went to work.

I colored him in using Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils and a small brush dipped in water to blend them. Then I cut him out.

I felt like he needed some ghostly looking flames and I had just the ticket - a template from The Crafter's Workshop.

Using a template is ridiculously easy. All I did was to lay the template on black cardstock and sponge over it with ink. I shifted it slightly to vary the placement of the flames, and using a different color, sponged over it again. I repeated this four times using Brilliance Pearlescent inks in: Lightning Black, Poppy, Olive, and Ice Blue.

Your templates can simply be wiped clean and put away for later use. If they get really messy, you can gently wash them in soapy (dish detergent) warm water.

Here are a few other examples of cards I've made where I  used templates.

Another Crafter's Workshop template, 

combined with a Tim Holtz stamp (sentiment). 

I don't know what company made the bird stamp.

Tim Holtz template over Stampin' Up's Harlequin background stamp. 

Floral stamp is by Penny Black. Sentiment is by Sweetgrass Stamps.

Tim Holtz template. 

Stamps by Blockheads, Eclectic Omnibus, 

Stampin' Up!, Scottish Borders and Rubbermoon.

Get some templates and start playing! You'll be amazed at the creativity they inspire.

All That Glimmers

One of my mother's favorite idioms to throw at us was "All that glimmers is not gold."

(I'll show you how to do those leaves in just a minute.)

Mom was right. It's also aqua, rust, maroon, green, silver. Okay. Now I can feel her giving me The Look for being sarcastic. Amazing how she can do that from 2800 miles away.

So, let's just talk about Glimmer Spray, shall we? Or you can call it shimmer spray, or twinkle spray, or Extra Special Sparkly Magic Juice if you prefer. Yeah. Let's call it that! You probably know the stuff I'm talking about though. You spritz a little on your paper craft project and Shazam! Suddenly your project shimmers like it fell into a vat of fairy dust.

Companies like to sell their name brands of Extra Special Sparkly Magic Juice it for big dollars. The well-kept secret is that it's very inexpensive to make your own. Not only that, but by making your own, you can get exactly the color you want. You can even tailor it to match your ink pads (presuming you have bottles of re-inker to match them, and why wouldn't you?).

Here's what it takes to make your own Extra Special Sparkly Magic Juice:

• Gum Arabic - available at any art supply store. I bought mine a couple of years ago for under $5 and I still have at least 2/3 of the little jar left.
• Re-inker -  any brand will do. In fact, I bought out a re-inker supply from a company that was going out of business. I knew I was going to use the ink just to play with and not to re-ink pads that I have, so it was a worthwhile and relatively inexpensive investment. I use re-inkers in all kinds of ways for all kinds of projects.
• Pigment Powder - I have several different kinds that I've had for several years. Pearl Ex, Perfect Pearls, etc. Go with whatever you've got. If you don't have any, for making Glimmer Spray, I recommend getting plain pearly white. It will blend fine with any color of ink and you don't necessarily have to match the powder color to the ink. 
• Small empty spray bottles - again, go cheap. Sure, you can get them from art suppliers and big brand names, but scout out the dollar store or dollar bin at your local pharmacy first.
• Water - straight from the tap will do.

The recipe is -

In a small spray bottle add:

• 1 part Gum Arabic
• 4 parts Pigment Powder
• Fill bottle about 2/3 of the way with water
• Add ink drops until you achieve the color you want.
• Shake well.
• Find all kinds of funtastic uses for it.

Note: Your homemade Extra Special Sparkly Magic Juice will keep forever, but you will need to shake it well before each use. Occasionally, the pigment powder can clog the nozzle. Simply run it under hot water to unclog it.

Really, that's all there is to it and the possibilities are endless. Oh, I should warn you that mixing up those Extra Special Sparkly Magic Juice potions can be a little addictive, not to mention using them. But look all the different things you can do with it!

You can simply spritz it on paper for a unique background. You can dip paintbrushes into it and use it like a watercolor. You can spritz it on your non-stick work surface or on a piece of plastic wrap, dip your stamps in it and then stamp on watercolor paper for a beautiful, shimmering image. Here's how I did the leaves pictured above...

Stamps used are from RubberMoon Art Stamps, from left to right: Carved Leaf, Oak Leaf, and Elm Leaf.

Oh, and once you're done dipping those stamps in and you have tiny blobs/smears of it left on your work surface? Don't just wipe it up - use it! I get some of the coolest backgrounds by dropping a piece of cardstock onto my "leftovers" and smooshing it around.

I told you, there's just no end to what kind of creativity you'll spark when you start playing. So, now that you know how to make your own Extra Special Sparkly Magic Juice, what will you do with it?

To see another example (pictured below) of how I used it in a project, please check out my post over on the RubberMoon Arts blog. It's scheduled to go "live" tomorrow, Friday, September 26th.

Give Peas A Chance!

My first post is up over at the RubberMoon Arts blog (read it here)!

I sound like a broken record (or glitchy mp3 for those of you too young to understand the implications of a broken record), because I keep saying "I'm so excited to be part of this Creative Dream Team!" But I am. Not only is it a wonderfully supportive group, but Holy Inspiration, Batman! I can only sift through the blog posts for so long before my head is so full of ideas that I feel like I'm going to explode.

The above card is what I designed for my first post and you can read up on how I did it by following the link above.

Stay tuned, because I have all kinds of fun new RubberMoon stamps to play with!