Saturday 30 April 2016

Tag 4-9 "Find your Wings" #onelittletag


Tag 4-9
Here it is, another tag using the same die and general layout but different colours and flavour of patterns. I think this tag and the previous tag (my last post) I did while actually very similar, look and feel very different.

 
While these other tags, that are not exactly the same, but have similar colour choices and tone of patterns all look like they are from the same family



This was just a little exercise illustrating how colour and pattern choices affect the mood of your project, even when it is something as small as a tag.
Thanks for joining me and have an awesome day!


Tag 4-8 "Hoot Hoot" #onelittletag


Tag 4-8 "Hoot Hoot"
momentwithmimi.blogspot.com
One more for the bird prompt, almost finished that one. I used a paper pad from my stash that I have had for quite a while

This is an old Sizzix die I have had forever, but rarely use.


I made a few of them  since I had to cut a few different papers to mix and march.
I also cut a few out of some brighter coloured stock.  I wanted to experiment with using the same layout and die, but coming up with a completely different look.  So expect another one very soon!
Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks for stopping by



Friday 29 April 2016

Tag 4-7 "Love Birdz" #onelittletag


Tag 4-7 "Love Birds"
 Still with the bird prompt. Couldn't do a bird prompt without at least one tag of Crazy Birdz!

Tag 4-5 "Freedom is a State of Mind" #onelittletag




Welcome!  This is Tag 4-5 "Freedom is a State of Mind" 
Still working on the bird prompt from the One Little Tag Craft Challenge.  This is one of the backgrounds I made using the wax embossing resist technique. (see tutorial on my blog if you like it)
I used distress inks, a Tim Holts die for the bird cage and a couple of Memory Box dies for the bird and the music.  The sentiment is a Prima stamp. 
Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday 28 April 2016

Tag 4-4 "Rise and Shine" #onelittletag



Welcome to my blog! 
Another tag for the "put a bird onit" challenge with the One Little Tag Craft Challenge on FB.   This is a new stamp set for me and I thought it was cute and wanted to use it I used a coated card stock for this tag, which I don't normally use. It is a pretty slick surface.  I am going to play around with this card a little more and figure out it's pros and cons.
Thanks for stopping by!  I am back at making tags so if you have been enjoying them, make sure to check back for new ones and maybe some new tutorials as well!

Wednesday 27 April 2016

Tag 4-3 "Dare to Spread Your Wings" #onelittletag #MMM#9



Hi there!  I am playing catch up for the tag challenge I have been participating in. ( the One Little Tag Craft Challenge).  This tag is doing dual duty and is also my MMM #9 tag for the other FB challenge I am participating in (Mixed Media Morsels).
The week  14 challenge for One Little Tag is "put a bird on it" and the MMM #9 prompt is "Whimsical Birds".
I have actually been missing doing my tags.  I was doing so well, and now I have fallen so far behind. but I am not going to be discouraged and am going to get back to it.  I also have some painting to do, so I may not be doing tags every day, but I have been enjoying the motivation to be creative every day.  So if you have been enjoying my tags, be sure to check back because there will be more.  I am hoping to have some paintings to share too.
Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday 20 April 2016

Embossing folder wax resist technique


Another little tutorial.  I had the laminator out and ready to go, so I figured that I would make good use of it.  This technique was inspired by a video I watched by Gina K on Stamp TV (I will try and add a link to this video).  I was also inspired to do this post for a couple of friends, Lynn and Mary,  who  have a Sizzix Embossing Boutique, but haven't had a chance to do a lot with it.  I thought this would be a fun technique to show them another way to use their embossing folders.
This is best with a bold patterned folder..  You will also need some waxed paper, the card you want to use, a laminator OR iron, some ink and blending tools (or make up sponges work fine as well)  You don't need 2 different colours, but I found that it seemed to make the pattern stand out a little more.  And, of coarse, your embossing machine of choice.  I am using my Cuttlebug (because I had it out)




Trim down your waxed paper a little larger than your embossing folder, place it inside the folder and run through your machine.  Personally, I found it worked better just running it through once with a card shim, so that it didn't squish the waxed paper too much.  This may be different with your machine or your embossing folder and you might want to run the folder back through again.


Put the card you have chosen to use and cut down to size, over the waxed paper. Place inside a folded sheet of copy paper as a carrier if you are using a laminator, or protector if you are using an iron.  Gina K put card on both sides of the waxed paper to make use of the wax on both sides, but I found that with the laminator, two cards flattened out the image, so I just used one.  Gina used an iron, so maybe there wasn't as much pressure.  I ran it through the laminator once.  If you are using an iron, iron firmly over the paper protector.  If you put card on both sides of the waxed paper, make sure to iron both sides.



When you remove your card, make sure you know which side was in contact with the waxed paper because you will not be able to see anything, but that is the side you will work on.  If you are doing several at once, you may want to put a small dot on the back so that you can keep track of the waxed side.  Now it's time to get out your inks and let the magic begin.  I have chosen two distress inks, "Picked Raspberry" and "Spiced Marmalade".  I used an ink blender, but any dye ink or inks and a dauber or make up sponge should work fine as well.  I sponged on the ink in a circular fashion and look what happens to the seemingly blank card!






Blend until you are happy with the result.  This is supposed to be a resist technique, but it almost seems like the ink is sticking to the wax, it's hard to tell, but I like it!  It would make a beautiful background to a card.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this technique and may give it a try!

Gina K's Stamp TV Video that inspired me to try this technique








Crinkled Tissue Textured Foiling #onelittletag #MMM


Hi there, thanks for joining me! 
I started off this blog doing some simple tutorials and I have kind of gotten away from that, so I decided it was time to do another.   This idea started off inspired by the Mixed Media Morsels FB group I have joined.  MMM # 5  uses tissue paper to add texture to your page.  I have used tissue many times on my canvases to add texture to my paintings.   So I have put a different spin on the challenge.  As some of you may know, I have been into foiling lately and a amassed a bit of a foil haul on my holiday. I was struck with an idea and what happened? The girl goes crazy!


I crumpled some tissue paper and put it directly on my scanner, wondering if the wonderful texture would translate to a useable image.







The image on the left is what I copied on my laser printer directly from the crumpled tissue paper.  I used this to print the copies on card.  The card on the right is a copy, which actually seemed to turn out darker.  I thought I would also copy some of the image on some coloured card for a different effect






I copied onto some light green, dark green (thinking of Christmas) and some black card (I love the look of foil on black card!)  Then I trimmed down the sheets.  These backgrounds will eventually become tags for the One Little Tag Craft Challenge, another FB group I belong to.  I trimmed down the foil, put it over the printed tag (foil side up), put it inside of folded copy paper as a carrier and ran it through my laminator.



























I love the way they turned out.  It's difficult to photograph the foil so these don't do the tags justice.  But hopefully you get the idea and may want to give it a try as an interesting background for a card or a tag or in some of your other artwork. 





Thursday 14 April 2016

Tag# 4-13 MMM #15 Mosaic Collage


Welcome!
Today's tag is a combination of challenges.  The challenge on #onelittletag is to collage with magazine pages and the prompt at Mixed Media Morsels is to collage a mosaic background.
So I cut up a magazine page to use for my mosaic collage. I did have enough pieces to do it entirely blue, but I wanted to add a random pop of some colour.  Once I finished, I coated it with gloss medium/varnish.  It was interesting to do and looks kinda cool, but I don't know how often I will use this technique.  It's a little tedious and difficult to do with my vision.  These are fairly large  pieces, so pretty primitive (which I actually like) but some of the members of MMM used fairly small pieces.  It probably took them quite a while to do, but the results were quite striking!

Wednesday 13 April 2016

Tag # 4-12 MMM #8 Houses #onelittletag #mixedmediamorcels


Tag 4 - 12 #onelittletag

I am so far behind! I am starting fresh, carrying on from here amid will probably try and catch up the rest gradually. On this tag I used Acrylic paint over printed paper. I drew and cut out the house, painted, doodled and used a stencil for the tree. The walkway was stenciled over magazine paper, cut out and collaged into place for this weeks challenge. I am combining this tag with MMM #8 Houses 

Tuesday 12 April 2016

New Challenge! #MixedMediaMorsels


Well, I have joined another group on FB.  This is definitely the year for new things!  I had never done any challenges or joined any on-line groups or ever done a blog before the beginning of this year.  Reaching out of my comfort zone.  All good!
This group is called Mixed Media Morsels hosted by Cat Hand.  Once a week, she does a video showing a mixed media technique for us to try.  I actually joined about a month ago, or so, but have had a lot going on and hadn't had a chance to do anything yet.  I am very delinquent with my tags as well!  We are supposed to be keeping a little art journal with  all our morsels in it, but I am going to combine my challenges, so I will be turning my morsels into tags.
This is my first mixed media morsel, but it is actually MMM 13 (I believe) and I think they are up to MMM 15.  But I will do a few at a time and eventually catch up.  I may not do all the ones that I have missed, and go forward from here, but I will do some of them.  It's all fun!

Saturday 9 April 2016

Art Show update


Thanks for stopping by!  Just a quick show update,  This is how my booth looks now after some rearranging and the addition of some new paintings.


This is how my booth looked yesterday.  Three of my paintings have found a new home  "Blue Night Birch" (top right), "Drama (top left) and "A Light Touch" (bottom left).  Also gone are one of my Gelli prints and several of my tags.  This has been an awesome show so far, and still one day to go!
It has been a great show overall for many of the artists.  It's been really busy, with a terrific turnout. There have been a lot of happy people leaving the show with a painting in hand that has called to them in some way.
Thanks for checking in and I will give the final update tomorrow.

Friday 8 April 2016

Spring Art Festival - OAA




Thanks for stopping by!  I've been a little busy lately getting ready for some Art shows.  So, for those of you that have been following my tags, that's why I haven't been making many lately.  But I will be back at it very soon, I have not given up on the challenge!
This is my artwork that I will be displaying this weekend at the OAA Annual Spring Art Festival.  It's a great show with about 70 different artists.  So, it will be a busy weekend, but all good!
Wish me luck!

Wednesday 6 April 2016

Tag 4-6 "The best is yet to come" #onelittletag





Tag 4-6 - The best is yet to come #onelittletag

I put this one together fairly quickly. Things have been kinda crazy here, but I wanted to make a tag. I used a distressed background that I already had. The stamp is a Graphic 45 one that I like but haven't had a chance to use. I printed out the message. This weeks challenge is to include birds or a bird in our tag.   I have done several tags with birds in them, so I decided to put a different spin on it. This is pretty monochromatic as well, that wasn't my plan, but that's how it worked out.
Thanks again for stopping by!

Tuesday 5 April 2016

Time Machimne


I have been sharing all the tags that I have been doing, but tags are not the only thing that I do.  So I thought I should start sharing some of my other art.  Mixed-Media is something that I enjoy and want to do more of.  This 8" x 10" painting is one that I did a couple of years ago.
I added some texture to the background with gesso and used some ribbon as a stencil.  I gold leafed the entire background.  I made an acrylic transfer skin from a photo I took at the ROM. painted the back of it white and adhered it to my painting.  I had made some gear moulds and made these gears using acrylic medium n the mold.  I added some touches of acrylic inks.  I keep thinking I would like to do a similar one on a larger scale because I really liked how it turned out.

Monday 4 April 2016

Little Black Dress


This is a mixed-media painting I just finished that will be displayed in DT Toronto.  It is 36" x 48"  I love mixed-media, but this was a little out of my comfort zone.  I wanted to paint a dress, which in itself is a little different for me.  Then I got this idea of using a real dress.  I wanted to take something real and make it look painted instead of painting something to look real.  And I love the irony that the little black dress started as a little white dress.
 This photo doesn't show all the texture and background elements but I textured the background with gesso, then added some stenciling and washes.
Thanks for checking it out!

Another month of Tags #onelittletag




Another month of tags done.  There are several  unfinished tags this month, but the challenge is to be creative everyday, not necessarily finish one every day.  Or even like what you have done, for that matter.    I was away for a bit this month, so there was some catch up and I have had some other things on the go as well.  I do like what I have done this month.  I did some experimenting and playing and had some fun.  I hope you have enjoyed seeing what I have been up to, I really appreciate you visiting my blog!
 
 

Saturday 2 April 2016

Book Page challenge #onelittletag



I did do my take on this weeks  book page challenge, and although these are also not finished, I am sharing. I copied a map page using my laser printer and foiled it. I used red, blue and gold foil. It's really hard to capture the foiling . There are no black parts on the tag, it's all foiled. but it looks black in the photo. I also copied a music sheet and foiled in red as well, my thoughts being to use it in a Christmas tag.