This card has many layers as I started with one thing & kept adding more to it.  I glued down an old (2004) lottery ticket that was in my stash of ephemera, coloured it with Watercolor Wonder crayons, gesso and then some acrylic paint to seal everything.  Then, I decided to add more ephemera – pattern tissue, tape from an envelope that Wendy sent me, scrap of scrapbook paper, scrap of painted paper, butterfly sticker, punched flower from painted paper, the hand sticker from a scrapping kit and I stamped.  I, also, sprayed the whole card with the pink glimmer spray I made earlier in the week.  The stamp is actually leftovers from what I cut off of these stamps.  I had DH cut a 3 inch square of plexiglass for me, and I used E6000 to glue the bits.  I used brown Staz On to stamp on both sides of the card.  Random stamps for random stamping.  I can’t wait to try these out on fabric…..

How is your Labour Day long weekend going?  Are you giving yourself some Creative time?  I had such FUN yesterday painting fabric, painting in my art journal, painting a page spread in the Sketchbook and also on canvas…..today, I will play some more in my art journal and maybe start on the others.  My notebook is getting so full of ideas to try…..I may just hide that book for awhile!

ENJOY!

For this week’s card I sanded then added a layer of Gesso.  Then, I had some acrylic paint leftover from the project below (it was the bottom layer), so I painted it over the Gesso then quickly smooched some plastic food wrap onto it.  I was told that you can’t do it with acrylic paints, that it had to be watercolour….well I did it!!  It is coming into my favourite season of the year……so I painted some Lutradur with copper, gold & green Lumiere paints, even the back.  When it was dry, I cut the leaves freehand and then sewed them onto the card.  The tag was an oldie, I sprayed it with Olive green glimmer mist I made.  Once dry, I first printed in pencil, then used a black Zig Millenium over top.  I wasn’t sure if the zig marker would work straight onto the sprayed surface, so that is why I used pencil first.

This art journal page spread is before I wrote on it……I started with gesso, then painted acrylic paint before doing a rough image transfer method like Leslie Herger has in her video HERE. I used some old National Geographic magazines, then added Watercolor Wonder crayons( Stampin’ Up!), & Portfolio oil pastels, gessoed (one side not all over & the other side all over…..I like the left side better).  I then rubbed some more Watercolor Wonder crayons and the last touch was my homemade glimmer mists.  The final step once its all dry is to sand it so you can write on it.

YES, homemade glimmer mist…….I finally found some little misters at the dollar store this past week when we did the monthly shopping.

I filled the bottles with equal parts of water and rubbing alcohol, then I added some colour with SU dye re-inkers that I have on hand.  Before add the pearl ex powders, spray the coloured solution, to see if its dark enough for you.  Then, I added about 1/8 teaspoon of Pearl Ex powders in each bottle. Shake lightly making sure to mix all the Pearl Ex powders in.

I tried to photograph the shimmer but it didn’t show up in any of the pictures .

Now you have something to make with all those pearl ex powders you have had in your stash for years.

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I will start with this week’s first – Question for Week 34 is: How do you create your nest?

For this card, I used one of those Japanese papers (they have a name I can’t think of it right now), flipped it over.  I found the nest in one of the books I use to cut out words.  I coloured it with watercolour wonder crayons (Stampin’ Up!).  The bar code was from a parcel I received in the mail last week.  The number is from the selvage of a piece of fabric that was in my scrap bin.

Week 33 question was: What are you crossing your fingers for?

This background paper is from the Art Retreat last April where I showed how to take a textured wallpaper and do a rubbing with pastels after painting the paper.  I outlined the swirls that were prominent with a black zig marker.  The tag was a collage element at the bottom of the paper tote.  I use some alphabet rub ons to make the “33″ – used the “B”s.

Would LOVE to find more textured wallpaper scraps…….anyone have an idea where to get them?

Week 32 question was: Why did I do that?

I ripped a page from one of the old books I use to cut out words.  I ripped it into small pieces & glued it down in every which way.  Then, I used Derwent watercolour pencils to colour the background, blended them in together with my fingers that were damp.  I drew the tree with a charcoal stick.  I cut out all the words from the same old book.  The number is from a bingo card sheet.

Because of the charcoal, I sprayed it with a matte acrylic sealer.  Otherwise, everytime it was touched it would rub off.

As you can tell, I’m still on a “Tree” kick…..I LOVE drawing them!

Question for Week 31 was: What 3 words would someone use to describe me?

For this card, I scrunch it up every which way, until it felt almost fabric like.  Then, I rubbed the orange and green watercolour wonder crayons, wet my finger to blend.  When I rubbed the crayons onto the card, the folded lines show up….so again,I made them into trees with a black zig marker.  I added fibres to the bottom just for the fun of it.

I coloured the tag, then printed on it.  The “3″ is cut from a paper I received with a cute little stamp set I got this past week from Traci Bunkers.

I’d be interested to hear what 3 words people would say……I wrote 3 on the back of the card, but wonder if they’d be the same as yours.

I took yesterday off from the studio, caught up on blog reading, napping, emails, napping, Facebook, napping, Twitter, napping and started on my cards for the last few weeks I’ve missed doing for 52 Questions.

I bought myself an external hard drive on Sunday and spent some time make folders on my computer where I can transfer things from all my CDs, and then put them onto the external hard drive.  I have hated having to go through all the CDs for one photo I know I took a year or so ago.

I have “Photographing the leftover bookmarks” I made for the exhibit on my TO DO list for this week.  Finishing the beading & hand stitching on “Wildflowers” is also on my list…..I stopped working on it when I couldn’t get onto Blogger anyway, so couldn’t have posted to the Textile Abstractions blog.  Yesterday, I could finally get the Blogger dashboard to open – for the past month or 3 weeks, all it would do was go to white screen and have that symbol that it was taking its time.  Don’t have a clue why it wouldn’t as all other sites were fine, since the last Firefox update.

On Sunday I, also, bought myself a brand new box of Crayola 64 crayons – the box with the sharpener on it.  I used to have pail of crayons for when we get little kids here, but dumped it a couple months ago…..I wanted a brand new box for ME!   I went through some of my sister’s magazines & pulled some colourful images to use as inspiration for my Colour Journal that I have started – inspired by Alisa Burke’s HERE.  As I work more into it, I will photograph and show you what I’m doing in it.

With this card, I glued down a leftover piece of painted paper towel (same as THIS piece) with gel medium.  I added the 30, from a bingo card.

Then, I wanted something simple as I liked the background….so digging into the bottom of my pizza box I came up with the little piece of corrugated paper, the embossed punched flower and the THANKS which was probably cut many years ago.  The strip of paper was the perfect size, I snipped the end and wrote the question on it.

WHO do you need to THANK this week?  Is there someone who inspires you or is always there to encourage you?  Send them a handwritten note…..we NEED to do of that in our lives!!!

I am working more & more with many layers of Kroma Acrylics….LOVING it all!  I don’t have alot of the colours but will be ordering more as soon as I can save for more.  They are FABULOUS to work with!

For this card, I first sanded the surfaceof the card, then started with the Quinacridone Red, spread it with the old hotel card.  Its a thin layer so it dried quickly, then I added the Yellow Oxide layer.  Once that was dry, I added a light coat of gesso, then with a wet paper towel I rubbed off some of  the colour….you can see where I rubbed more than other areas.

I used a pencil to lightly draw the tree (YES, trees are my recurring dream!), then used a Zig Writer marker to colour the tree.  I cut all the words except for the “recurring” from the same old book I have been using for other cards.  For the “recurring” I happened to have an old receipt on my table, so I tore off a strip, wrote the word with my Zig Millennium marker, then cut the length.  I had tried to silhouette the numbers at the top, but it didn’t work out, so I cut the numbers from a catalogue selling stamps.

I did get this week’s card done for 52 Questions.  The question is: What are your favourite days of summer/winter filled with?

Summer to me means sunflowers…..although we didn’t plant any this year, I still associate them with summer.  I could smell the hay in the air last night – so haying season is in full swing.

I painted the sunflower with Kroma Arcylics, then spend most of the time making this card, trying to find the words….LOL!

The one page from an old discarded book is looking like swiss cheese.  I wish I had a Canadian spelling for the word “FAVOURITE” but this is the only one that popped up.

How is your summer going?  We, in SW Saskatchewan, are sure NOT used to humidity along with our heat…..

Hoping for the upcoming week to be more creative….

I just LOVE this background and will be doing more of this in my art journal….!!!

I put a blob of Kroma Yellow Oxide artists acrylics down on the card, used an old hotel key lock card to spread the Yellow across the card.  Let dry, then did the same with Kroma Phthalo blue.  When dry, I used a paper towel to rub some Gesso across the card lightly and wet the paper towel a little to rub off some of the blue in places.  LOVE IT!

Because I LOVED it, I didn’t want to add anything else….so just the question, which is cut from a magazine & a book.  Had to hand write “Lately”.  The number is again from the paper tape measure and the arrow is from an old scrapping kit.

I cleaned the key lock card onto a piece of 8.5 X 14 paper, so have that for something else.

And, just a side note – Kroma Acrylics is Canadian and have excellent customer service!!!

HAPPY 4th of July of all my Amercian friends!!!

Question for Week 26 of 52 Questions is: On my walls I would write….

I have been experimenting with different painted backgrounds, so this paper started with the sponge roller below being cut at, and painted first with a light blue and then the purple.

I use the plastic bags that cereal comes inside the boxes as my table cover…..I blob the paint right on there and roll the sponge roller back & forth to an even consistency.  Then, roll all over sheets of paper (I used printer paper), you can adjust your rolling by putting pressure or lightly, etc. You can see one sheet of paper below.  I did 6 sheets of 8.5 X 14 paper with that same blob of paint, so it goes a long way. 

For this week’s card, I used a paper tape measure “26″ and the limited edition tab is from an old Stampin’ Up scrapping kit.  The large green scalloped circle was in the pizza tote, and the flowers are actually a reverse of an alphabet card set I found at a thrift store years ago….I punched out the 2.5 inch circle – it just fit that width.

So try chopping up a cheap sponge roller and paint some backgrounds!!!

This card was sanded and then smooshed with colour using Diana Trout‘s tutorial HERE. I used some retired re-inkers from Stampin’ Up  and a bronze metallic inker.  I like the glossy papers and vellum more than this card, but its still OK.  I then had to wait forever for it to dry even with the fan going on it…..this humidity is getting old.  I cut all the words from an old book, but had to write “HUG” as it wasn’t popping out at me today from that book.

I’ve been doodling the ribbon lately, expanding the circles, adding thickness to parts, so thought I’d do the same on this week’s card.