4th Day of the 12 Days of Christmas Tags

This 4th day was simple but elegant.

Sprayed the tag with Tim Holtz distress spray stains, abandoned coral and cracked pistachio. I tried to ghost with a Tim Holtz mini stencil but it didn't really work. To make circles I used the bottom of a plastic medicine measuring cup and dip it in Golden brand iridescent gold paint then with my finger filled in the circle.

I traced the globes with Sakura gelly roll non color glitter pen. Made the tops of the Christmas ornaments with Faber-Castell gelato, silver ice.

I didn't like the blandness of the color so traced again with the glitter pen. With gold glitter pen, drew that piece of metal on the ornament where it attaches to a ribbon or hanger. The sparkle doesn't show much in the photos, sorry to say.  I drew in the bow and string to make it look like it was hanging. I wrote Seasons Greeting with Faber-Castell Pitt pen in black.

I might not explain this well but you see what I mean.

3rd day of the 12 Days of Christmas Tags

Today I made a simple tag with a Christmas tree and a pigeon with a string of lights wrapped around it.

First I gesso the tag then heat blast it then paint a light coat with Tim Holtz distress paints, salted ocean.  Then added more gesso to lighten up the blue.

I'm don't draw well but I decided to draw a Christmas tree then painted it with 3 shades of green; light green, sap green, and phthalo green. On card stock I drew a banner and wrote MERRY on the flags, using different colors of glitter gel pens for each flag. I also put non colored glitter gel pen around the flags and string. I used a Faber-Castell black Pitt pen to outline the Christmas tree. Finally I set the wrapped penguin next to the tree. The penguin is from my stash, I've had it a long time. It looks so cute!

Second day-12 Days of Christmas Tags

This the second day of Christmas Tags and I had to redo a tag today. You know how it is when you have an idea and as you progress the idea didn't pan out. I kept trying to make it work but no matter what I did, like spraying with Tim Hotlz distress sprays, adding gesso, using red and green paint, it looked dreadful!

For the second tag, I took a Christmas tissue paper and Mod Podge it on the tag also sealing ealing the surface of the tissue. I had some old stick-ons of snow people and did a Vicky Papaioannou with cutting out some white hills for the snow people to sit on. I cut some card stock into 2 curvy hill shapes and painted them white. After gluing them on the tag I placed the snow people on the hills. I then used some gel pens to accent the snow flakes on the tissue paper. I wrote Merry Christmas with a black Faber-Castell Pitt pen.

The simmer of the gel pens are difficult
to see.

12 days of Christmas Tags

So today is December 1 and I thought it would be fun to share my 12 days of Christmas tags with everyone. Now I'm just a beginner so my tags aren't going to be as intricate as some other art journalist but these are going to be attached Christmas presents that will lend to a more polished look on the gift instead of store bought tags.

So I started out with a Manila colored tag, a Darice product that I picked up at Michael's. I put down some white gesso on the whole of the tag.

Next I painted it with two shades of green and yellow ochre. I blasted the tag with my heat tool then added some more of the acrylic paints. I really had no idea where I was going so let my muse take over with painting the whole tag with Golden iridescent gold paint. I liked the metallic look to the tag.

I had some old Christmas print craft paper so I fussy cut a poinsettia. I used a holly stencil that I used on a plain craft paper and using the same greens as the tag, then fussy cut them out and painted three holly berries too. I darkened the edges of the leaves and berries with Tim Holtz distress inks, pine needles and aged mahogany. Glued all down and I like it! Simple but nice for a holiday gift tag.

Stepping aside can let the muse in later.

I did a new technique for me on my art journal page. It's torn strips of paper that was on Mix Media Morsels 11 by Cat Hand. I had taken some Manila folder and printer paper that I painted with left overs from previous projects and tore them into irregular strips. Then glued down and covered the strips with matte finish Mod Podge. After it was dry I stamped with black archival inch with Tim Holtz mini stencil collection letters and numbers. Then I stopped, couldn't think what else to do so I stepped back and let it alone for a few weeks.

So then while looking through magazines, the muse hit me with an idea! I went to the computer for owl images, found one I liked, so I printed it out then fussy cut part of it. Drew some tree limbs and it looked good. I think owls are so adapted to their environment and so cool that I wrote what I thought about them on printer paper using black Pitt pen. Shadowed with walnut brown Pitt pen.

I believe you don't need to finish an art journal page in one day, sometimes stepping aside will let the muse in!

Copy doesn't make perfect! Dyan Reaveley's journal block technique.

Copying another artist work doesn't always go well. I didn't copy her work per say but a technique she used. I'm talking about Dyan Reaveley, and her use of the journal block. I don't have one but I make my own copy but cutting a manila folder as a template In Dyan's journal, she cuts the borders of a couple of pages with the block in graduating lengths.

As you can see I tried to be clever and didn't cut each page the same. There really isn't any theme to each page, I just let my muse take over.

 On this page I think I mainly used Tim Holtz distressed paints, twisted citron, fossilized amber, and mustard seed, and salty ocean. I used the butterfly stencil from Faber-Castell. Doodled with black and white Pitt pens. I also used some ordinary acrylic paints.

On this page the background is in Tim Holtz distress spray stain, cracked pistachio, mermaid lagoon, and abandoned coral. The pages didn't have a gesso prime on them so the sprays really absorbed into the paper. I also used Faber-Castell gelatos, blood orange from the Diner collection. To color in the branches and leaves, I used a brown Pitt pen, white and green gelly pens.

This is my favorite page with the background of Faber-Castell gelatos metallic(silver ice, iced rose, and squid ink) and Ranger's yellow liquid pearls.  For the ocean, I used various markers too. I need to write these down while I'm creating! I drew the fishing boat and the birds with a black Pitt pen. I love this page that I didn't have the heart to write on it.

This page was in honor of the Great American Brew Festival that is held every year in Denver, Colorado. I cut out images from a post card for GABF and their logo from the Internet. I had some business cards and stickers from those breweries and bottle caps lying around. I can't remember what I use for the background but I do know I used white gesso to prime the pages. I used Tim Holtz Ideology rubs, which I came to realize I don't like using them. It's really difficult to get the imaged rubbed right.  I stenciled the GABF with individual letters. Stamped with clear stamps from Inkadinkado. The stamps were on sale from the planner aisle at Michaels.

It turned out pretty good for trying our something new. I'm still new to art journaling so I try to keep track of the art supplies I used.

Travel page, York Brewing

Last August I went on holiday to the UK and one of the excursions was to York. One of the places we went to was the York Brewery. I wanted something that would say brewery to me so I decided to make a beer barrel.

I sorry but I didn't write down what paints I used, I'm still new at this and forget the details. I mixed together a few colors of acrylic paints together to get the right color I wanted for my barrel. I had a 4 pack bottle carrier that had the York Brewery logo on it so I cut it out and glued it on the barrel.

The next page I tried to make a beer that I drank there, Imperial Stout on cask. I like looking past the glass and only seeing the beer.  I'm still not happy with it...
I didn't want to write on it so I taped a York Brewery coaster on the edge of the page and wrote on that.