Art Journal Page: Explore the World

When I saw the Simon Says Stamp challenge for Vacation, I immediately thought of the Tim Holtz "Adventure" dies. I wanted to do a mixed up collage with them, and after playing with them for a while decided I should also use the globe die from my stash.

This reminded me of a work acquaintance who once asked me: Do you vacation or travel? At first I was a bit insulted at the implication that one is better than the other (she made it clear that traveling was a much more intellectual and therefore higher pursuit than vacationing). At the time, I wasn't sure how to answer as I do some of both and I don't believe they are mutually exclusive. I've taken a few Disneyland/Disney World vacations that have broadened my perspective on things AND I've traveled to Alaska as part of a small ship expedition with National Geographic that was thoroughly entering as well as enlightening.

Either way -- vacationing or traveling -- exploring something new is fun! My art journal page is a nod to exploring new destinations.

I struggled with this one a bit, trying out a different style and it came out more busy than I had originally envisioned. Looking at it now, I'm thinking I should have opted for more white space and left off the stamps in the three corners. Your thoughts?

I'm entering this in the 

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Vacation.

I Love It Art Journal Page selected by Frilly and Funkie blog

Very excited that this art journal page was selected as a top three for the Frilly and Funkie I love it challenge . This was the second time – I’m really trying to up my game by studying mixed media artists.

Ordinary Moments

Ordinary days, ordinary moments. I made this tag to remind me life isn't always about "big adventures" -- the day to day moments make up the building blocks of our lives.

I used a variety of TM dies, chitchat stickers and distress inks. The background is a resist technique using picket fence distress paint.

Happy Spring Greetings!

Happy Spring! To celebrate I'm sharing a birthday card for my daughter. Her birthday was in April but I wanted to wait to share until after I sent it to her! I used TH funkie flower dies, distress inks and a collage of old dictionary pages for the background.

I'm entering this in the Frilly and Funkie challenge: Spring is in Full Bloom

http://frillyandfunkie.blogspot.com/2019/04/spring-is-in-full-bloom-challenge.html

Celebrate 2019 and New Possibilities

To celebrate the new year I created this oversize tag using Distress Inks, Tim Holtz stamps, stencils and die cut letters.

To get started, I cut a piece of mixed media card stock 5 x 9 1/2 leaving the bottom torn holes in place. Then I used the spritz and smoosh technique to color the panel with Squeezed Lemonade and Carved Pumpkin Distress Oxide.

Next up I added some circles using a stencil I had on hand with Carved Pumpkin.

To give a more celebratory mood, I added stars with texture paste through the stars stencil and sprinkled lightly with white glitter dust while still wet.

For the letters, first I stamped a leftover strip of paper with a script stamp, embossed with fine white embossing powder and inked up the strip with Candied Apple, lightly wiping across the script.

 I die cut the letters twice using Alphanumeric Cutout letters and doubled them up to give a bit of extra depth.

I stamped the sentiment in Candied Apple on white card stock and added it along with the script in black soot randomly to create extra texture. To finish it up, I added some washi tape in various places restamped the clock and smudged the edges all around with Black Soot before finally mounting on black card stock. In retrospect, I think the "2019" would have been better also mounted on white, but its a learning process!

Let me know what you think. Happy days to you all.

I'm submitting this to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge -- Party Time!

https://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/?p=14747

Poinsettia card

Christmas cards are all in the mail including this one to my sister made from Tim Holtz Sissix dies, paper and distress inks. 

A Christmas Birdie Bag

What could be more fun than a little holiday birdie? A little birdie on a bag just big enough for a gift card!

This started out just playing and exploring with the new Tim Holtz Mint shifter stencil. At first I found it confusing then realized it's designed to leave blank or white lines in between the thick and thin lines of color.

I used Distress Oxides in Twisted Citron and Candied Apple on mixed media paper.

Then I used a pattern found by a Google search for a gift bag to cut and score the sheet to make a small gift bag.

The finished bag is only 4 inches tall.

Then for a bit of holiday whimsy, I colored this little guy from the Tim Holtz Bird Crazy stamps using Distress markers.

I had previously spent a very productive few hours die cutting an assortment of festive greens, rustic trees and snowflakes, which then came together quickly for a background.

All I had to do was add a bit of embossing powder for a bit of sparkle and voila! Done!

Thanks for visiting!