Saturday, April 3, 2021

Easter Postcard

HAPPY EASTER!

The theme this week at Sunday Postcard Art is Easter.
Which reminded me that I needed an Easter card to mail out.



I started with spraying a piece of heavy sketch paper with Shabby Shutters Distress Oxide Spray.  I layered it with a piece of design paper purchased on Etsy.  I cut a scrapbook paper shape with a die.


I mixed some of the Shabby Shutters Distress Oxide Spray into white modeling paste to tint the paste and pressed it through some stencil designs.


(I changed my mind for the die cut paper)... I glued everything down, stamped and embossed the bunny and greeting, inked the edges of the postcard with Peeled Paint Distress Ink with a final darker edge using Walnut Stain Distress Ink.


When my postcard was finished, I glued it to a heavier 98lb mix media paper.

A mysterious dark blotch appeared that I tried to fix but did not work well.  The 93 year old eyes of my recipient are not even going to see that.  That’s what I’m telling myself.



Normally our Easter weather is snow or rain or howling wind.  But this year here in Wisconsin in the USA, we are being promised gloriously nice weather for the Easter weekend.  What a wonderful Easter gift.

March 2021 Calendar Journal



That was a whole month of fun!

Sunday, March 28, 2021

Lavender Postcards

Lavender is the theme this week at Sunday Postcard Art



I’ve made two postcards for this theme.
The first is for the color and shades of Lavender.


I used Distress Oxide Spray on 70lb heavy sketch paper.  Then a rubber stamped image, a die cut alphabet, modeling paste through a stencil, the “hello” die cut, distress inks to darken the edges and Washi tape to trim.

My second postcard is my attempt at Lavender, the plant.



Again I used Oxide Spray on heavy sketch paper and again through a stencil.  Die cuts are the plants cut from the heavy sketch paper and painted with watercolors.  The bee is a rubber stamp and a strip of Washi tape at the bottom for ground.  

Both cards were then glued to a 90lb mixed media paper for mailing stability.

These are the address side of these postcards.



If you would like a chance at finding one of these postcards in your mailbox, let me know which would be your choice in your comment.  I will contact the winners for mailing info.

Happy Mail Day!

Thursday, March 25, 2021

On Day 25

On day 25 of March, another single flower appeared for my art journal.  Sheila of  
Orange Esmeralda is hosting the theme of a single flower at Art Journal Journey for the entire month of March.  
I had one more single flower idea so I got my page ready to receive the flower.  I do like how the page prep came out.  I hoped I wouldn’t ruin it.  I kinda just wanted to stop here.  


My original flower idea just looked blah.  So I moved on.
I have been inspired by the white flowers in the other entries that were cut from music paper or had text and other markings added to them.
No more drawing for me....
I traced the outside of the flower die onto fabric that I backed with paper so that I’d be able to glue it to my page.  I stitched around it twice then cut outside the stitching.  I also die cut the flower from black paper to add interest and somewhat disguise my poor choice of fabric.  I added a paper punched center and a large brad.


I glued the flower to the page only around the center so that the petals are loose.


I haven’t played with stamps like this for awhile and had a fun day with this page.



Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Salt and Sand Postcards



Welcome to day 3 of the Salt and Sand blog hop.
Many thanks to Carol of Just Let Me Quilt for her hard work organizing this fun blog hop.


When I decided to join in the fun of this blog hop, I wasn’t ready to make another quilt of any size, nor any other sizable project, so what to sew???

Yes, POSTCARDS!
And I will mail them out to 5 of my followers.

When I think of salt and sand, I think of the ocean/sea and the beach.

And the ever present seagulls.
I always complain that I cannot draw.  I did draw the seagull, but practically used up an entire eraser trying to make him look somewhat like a seagull.


Next came to mind a lighthouse.  I couldn’t make the light light up but the lighthouse building glows-in-the-dark.


From there my mind traveled out to sea for a fish or a boat.  What came to mind were those thieving salty sailors of the high seas...Pirates.

The skull and cross bones on the pirate hat glow-in-the-dark.


Can’t have pirates on the high seas without a ship.
This ship has already been in a battle...with me. The eyelets and I did not see eye to eye.  It’s a battle ship...it should show some battle scars...right?   


What’s a pirate or a pirate ship without a pirate parrot.  He keeps his share of the booty close.  Dare not to take his treasure!



What a fun time I had with this challenge theme!

If you’d like to receive one of these postcards in your mail, mention it in your comment.  Tell me which postcard you’d like to receive and your name will go in the drawing for that card.  If you want to get in more than one postcard drawing just mention which ones.  I will contact winners for mailing info.

Check out my fellow bloggers that are sharing their Salt and Sand projects today.

Saturday, March 20, 2021

Me vs. Paints and a Flower

Me vs. Paints is typically a battle and the trash bin wins the prize of a quite unfortunate painting.  This time is different.  I think this painted watercolor flower is not completely unfortunate.


I think me and my inexpensive paints did a fairly decent job of it.  
I struggle with several painting issues.  The most debilitating of which is not being able to visualize the finish during the process.  So I don’t know when to quit fixing it.  Or even whether or not it needs fixing.  Another is not waiting for layers to dry.  For once I did use a heat tool at times to get it dry faster.  But I kept painting on it and making it worse.  It was destined for the trash bin.
Once I finally drew the scribbles, I could see it so much better.  But that just started a whole new fix-it process.  I thought one of us has to give in and I didn’t want it to be me.  I think I ended up with a fairly decently painted single flower for Sheila’s (Orange Esmeralda) A Single Flower theme at Art Journal Journey .




I haven’t actually pasted it into my journal yet as I’m undecided as to what I might want to do, if anything, with the page it will get pasted to.  

Update:  I have finished the page.



This theme runs for the entire month of March.  All mediums of art are welcome to join in.  It’s such a great theme to welcome the arrival of Spring.