Friday 24 June 2016

More Deli Gelli print fun





Hello my friends
Shaving cream wasn't the only thing I got into yesterday.  I have been wanted to get out my Gelli plate for a little fun, so I also took that with me to the art club.  It's great there, I have lots of room to spread out!
Here's a look at some of the deli paper, Gelli prints I created for collaging.



















Have I mentioned how much I love my Gelli plate!

I think I should be good for collage papers for a little while now.


Needless to say, I had some fun, yesterday and thanks for letting me share it with you.  Have an awesome and artful day!





Shaving Cream Fun! #onelittletag





Hello my friends!  Welcome to my blog.
One of the challenges on the  One Little Tag Craft Challenge that I have been participating in was to do some backgrounds using a shaving cream technique.  I have herd of this before and seen it in books, but never attempted it.  Quite honestly, it wasn't something that was on my "Gotta try that" list.  But, prompted by the challenge. I thought I would give it a try.





The first thing required, of course, shaving cream.  I got a can at the dollar store.  I don't think it matters what kind you use, but it does have to be cream, NOT gel.   Jenny Barnett Rohrs, the creator of  the One Little Tag Facebook challenge, did this technique using food colouring.  I didn't have any food colouring so I used my Dr. PH Martin watercolours. You could also use re-inkers, if you have  them. I used Recollections cardstock from Michaels.  I covered my work surface with newspaper and used my craft mat.






I spread the cream over my craft mat and added some drops of the watercolour onto the cream.  If you try this, be sure to use colours that play well together, because they will mix.








I used the end of a paintbrush to run through the cream and paint (gently) to create a sort of design.   I didn't want to mix it too much so that the paint didn't combine and make one colour, I wanted to maintain different colours.  Once I was happy with what I had done, I took a sheet of cardstock and placed it onto the cream.  I tapped it gently, but didn't push heavy enough to squish down the cream very much.  Then I lifted the sheet off the cream.






There was still shaving cream on the cardstock and I used a paper towel to wipe it off.  That was not the best thing to do.  It smeared the colour all over the sheet and obscured the pattern I had created.  I will still use this, but I wasn't happy with my first "pull".  On the next ones I did, I used a piece of card to gently scrape the cream off the paper.







I ended up with some nice marbled looking patterns.

Finally,  after they dried, I trimmed down the sheets into tag backgrounds that I will use at some point.  And guess what they smell like!



This technique is messy, I will admit.  After I cleaned off the craft mat  after the first colour, I just sprayed the cream directly onto the newspaper, so that I could just roll it up and through it in the trash when I was finished.  That was an easier clean up.
At first my thinking was that , now that I've tried it , I'm god, I don't need to try it again.  But now, a couple of days later, I think I probably will.  Some of the tags look pretty cool and I've found myself thinking of different colour combinations and different ways of doing it.
This is something that you could do with kids and they would love.  I would probably stick to the food colouring with kids, though.  And maybe use some gloves to prevent hands from becoming stained.  .
  Summer vacation is here, so this might be a good time to try some messy fun to try with the kids, or by yourself for a great background for a  mixed media project.
Well, thank you for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed the shaving cream technique!  If you di, please share with others that you think may want to give it a try.








Monday 20 June 2016

Tag 6-20 "Happy Birthday"


Father's Day fell on my sister's birthday this year, which also happened on the day she was born.  It also was my parent anniversary.  Busy day!
So this tag is for my sister.  She is about 3000 miles away on the other side of the country.  I haven't seen her for several years now, though we speak often. But I miss her.  I was happy to hear that she had a wonderful day with my nephews  
Happy Birthday, Kerry!  Love and miss you xoxo

I made the larger flowers from scraps of patterned paper I had in my stash, as well as the butterfly. I trimmed the tag out of card I have on hand and the foiled die cut with the sentiment is the "waste" from another tag I did. I punched some leftover vellum and added some lace pieces from my stash. I hope she likes it!

Sunday 19 June 2016

"Happy Father's Day" Tag 6-19 #onelittletag


Welcome my friends!
Today's tag is for my Father for Father's Day.
I cannot express with words how much I love and appreciate him.  One day a year is certainly not enough to show the gratitude I have for what he does EVERY day for my daughter and myself.  
We are blessed to have a very special "Papa".
Love you Dad!





Of course I had to add a bit of foiling! I stamped the foiled areas with some toner paint I have been working on making and will share with you when  I get it figured out.

Happy Father's Day to all the good father's out there, that love and cherish their children!

Friday 17 June 2016

Tag 5-23 "You Make Me Laugh" #onelittletag



Welcome to my blog!
This tag is a "catch-up tag" from the One Little Tag Craft Challenge.  The challenge that week was to use Gelli prints.  This is a background that I created by collaging some of the deli paper I had Gelli printed.  I added marks and splatters with distress paint.  I added some embellishments that I have had in my stash forever, a sentiment from a Fiskars stamp set and did some outlining with a micropen and a Posca paint pen.
I hope you find it cheery, and thank you for stopping by!

Thursday 16 June 2016

Tag 6-8 "Hello Sunshine| #onelittletag


Hello my friends!  Welcome to my blog.
My tag today is based on the challenge to "step out of my comfort zone".  I have always loved the "mixed media girls" and have wanted to try creating some of my own.  But, as I mentioned n my last post, because of my vision limitations. drawing and colouring are difficult.  So, outside of one other attempt quite a while ago, I haven't tried my hand at it.  I thought this would be a good opportunity.
I drew a face, labouring with my magnifier and armed with an eraser.  II liked the face I created (although my daughter informed my that I need to fix the eyebrows.  But I am sharing, warts and all!)
I made some copies so I could use it again.  I coloured her face using Spectrum Noir markers and a white gel pen.  After  I finished colouring her, somehow I ended up with a mark on her cheek.  I attempted to lift it out, and did lighten it.  So we won't call it a wart, we will call it a beauty mark!


I used a napkin background, did some paint splattering and cut around some of the images (also out of my comfort zone!).  I ended up mounting another napkin to some card in order to cut out one of the images to put behind her.



I figured out how I wanted to position her and cut around one of the flowers to put her behind it and to give my tag more dimension.
I stamped my sentiment (which I had received as a free gift with a Quick Cards magazine) with Versmaark ink and heat embossed it with black embossing powder on vellum



Finally, I mounted the tag onto a black background.

I hope you like my mixed media girl and I think I will be doing more of them!  Thanks for stopping by!







Wednesday 15 June 2016

Tag 6-7 "Recipe for Happiness" #onelittletag


Hello my friends!
Just to let you know before you get too far, the text in this blog post is the same as my last post with a few minor changes, because I did these tags together and the info is mostly the same. But I wanted to leave it all in case there are some new friends that haven't seen the last post.
  A few different photos, of course!
The challenge for the next few tags was to "step out of your comfort zone".  Some of you may already know this, but for those who don't, I am legally blind.  I obviously do have some vision, but my impairment makes some things difficult.  I love art and do lots of art, but I have adapted my art to limitations, and avoid the things that are a little more ...difficult.  So these tags may not be a stretch for many people, but they are for me.  But that's a good thing!  I just ended up more out of my comfort zone than I expected.
I got a new MFT stamp set called "Recipe for Happiness". I actually got the dies first and had to wait quite a while for the stamps. I thought the set was really cute and was anxious to finally use it.


 I stamped and die-cut a bunch of the little guys out and had some fun colouring them in.

 The colouring is what's out of my comfort zone. I have to hold a magnifier and get really close to colour, I'm sure I look pretty comical! After I coloured about 10 (okay, 11) of them I realized that I wanted much bigger Chefs to make my tags. So now I am out of my comfort zone again, for the same reason, and free-hand drew these Chefs based on my new stamp images. To finish the little guys I had to step out of my comfort zone AGAIN and cut them out with scissors, which is really hard for me because I cant cut and hold my magnifier at the same time!



The old fashioned stove is from a Local King Rubber Stamps set. I used Spectrum Noir markers to do my colouring and I used distress ink for the background with a Tim Holtz stencil and some distress paint splatters.




 All things considered, I am really happy with how they turned out!


Thanks for stopping by!

Tag 6-6 "Thanks for being there" #onelittletag


Hello my friends!
The challenge for the next few tags was to "step out of your comfort zone".  Some of you may already know this, but for those who don't, I am legally blind.  I obviously do have some vision, but my impairment makes some things difficult.  I love art and do lots of art, but I have adapted my art to limitations, and avoid the things that are a little more ...difficult.  So these tags may not be a stretch for many people, but they are for me.  But that's a good thing!  I just ended up more out of my comfort zone than I expected.
I got a new MFT stamp set called "Recipe for Happiness". I actually got the dies first and had to wait quite a while for the stamps. I thought the set was really cute and was anxious to finally use it.


 I stamped and die-cut a bunch of the little guys out and had some fun colouring them in.

 The colouring is what's out of my comfort zone. I have to hold a magnifier and get really close to colour, I'm sure I look pretty comical! After I coloured about 10 (okay, 11) of them I realized that I wanted much bigger Chefs to make my tags. So now I am out of my comfort zone again, for the same reason, and free-hand drew these Chefs based on my new stamp images. To finish the little guys I had to step out of my comfort zone AGAIN and cut them out with scissors, which is really hard for me because I cant cut and hold my magnifier at the same time!



I used Spectrum Noir markers to do my colouring and I used distress ink for the background with a Tim Holtz stencil and some distress paint splatters.


 All things considered, I am really happy with how they turned out!
Thanks for stopping by!


Sunday 12 June 2016

Tag 6-11 "Elegance et Emerveillement" #onelittletag


Hello my friends, sorry it's been so long!

  We've had some technical difficulties, got a new computer and since I am completely lost when it comes to computers, I'm having a hard time figuring out a new and unfamiliar one. It tock me forever just to figure out how to get this photo off my iPad, and I'm still not sure how I did it! (sad, I know!)
  I haven't made a tag for ages!!!  So I am glad to have a new one to share. This tag was made with a napkin I got at the St Lawrence Market in the background and using some of the awesome new Carabelle Studio stamps that my friend Lynn picked up for me in Montreal.
I hope you liked t and I will be back regularly now.  Thanks for stopping by and have an awesome and artful day!