Thursday Card of the Day-File Folder Style

Happy Thursday dear friends!

It's been a busy week so I am revisiting the "file folder" technique.

I'm showcasing Michael Strong's mini butterfly and mini dragonfly stamps

for my friends at the Enjoy Michael Strong Stamps Yahoo Group.

Here's my method of making the file folder card:

I cut kraft paper in half

to measure 4.25 x 5.5 inch
 then fold that like a card.
I make tabs with my Envelope Punch Board
then cut away the approximately 1/2 inch wide strip with my paper trimmer.
Before I had the Punch board, I just made the tab with my paper trimmer,
scissors and a corner punch.

Here's a LINK with info on how I used acrylic paints for my background.

I sponged the edges of the painted panels with distress walnut stain ink. 

I attached the layers with dimensional foam.

For the inside of my file folder card, I made a "file" from cardstock. Then sponged dried marigold distress ink over a pieces of the mesh bag (that lemons are packed in from the grocery store). 

Materials

Dina Wakley heavy body acrylic paint

Stamps: Michael Strong, Hero Arts, PrintWorks

Inks: distress ripe persimmon, twisted citron, dried marigold, walnut stain

Wednesday Card of the Day-Birdhouse and Painted Background

Happy Wednesday dear friends!

Today's card features the small birdhouse from Michael Strong's Little Houses stamp set.
I used colored pencils on the birdhouse and fussy cut it--very easy!

Using a scrap of watercolor paper, I added gesso first and let it dry.
Then I experimented by applying my new Dina Wakley Heavy Body Acrylic Paints
with brush, stencils, stamps and sometimes I just spread the paint with my finger, ala Dina!

I was pleased to find that Matte medium does a wonderful job of attaching/gluing paper.
Before I tried this, I didn't realize what a nice finish the matte provides.
I used a torn images from an old book.

I stapled my muslin fabric scrap to secure it
and added Mike's bird house over it with dimensional foam.
Stamped the Thank You on paper, sponged the edges with ink and attached with dimensional foam.

Additional details:
Liquitex Basics acrylic gesso

Golden soft gel medium matte
Inks: Versafine black onyx, Stampin' Up! pink passion

Thanks so much for visiting!

Painting a Lady Face in my Art Journal

A great big thanks to Amy Joy Johnson aka HapaChicCreative for her

Jane Davenport Portrait Paints - Demo & Unboxing YouTube tutorial.

Amy gives wonderful directions for using Jane Davenport's portrait paints and face stencil.

I'm so happy I gave this a try...and glad to have used this paint kit on the actual day I bought it!

So many times my supplies go into my stash and sit there unused!

This is my second "entry" in my art journal, a Canson 5.5 x 8.5 inch with 138 lb. paper.

I applied gesso ahead of time. I used a stabilio pencil to "draw" in the stencil lines, 

whereas Amy used a Derwent Inktense pencil.

Here you can see my work area with my iPad nearby

so I could watch Amy's YouTube over and over.

 The aqua brush was included with Jane's paint and stencil kit.

Also used brushes from my stash.

Here are the paints I used. I forgot to include a photo of Dina's Ruby red paint.

This paint tray pallette worked well. For the black outline/definition I put a dab of black paint on the top of this pallette and thinned it with a little water. Used it to accent the lines on the face, including around the eyes, the eyelashes, nose, mouth and eyebrows. I don't have Jane's mermaid  brush markers for the hair so I used Dina's Lapis blue mixed with some Liquitex Basics titanium white and Dina's Ruby red for the strips on the shirt. Don't have the white PITT pen to add highlights. Next time will try to use white acrylic paint for that.

This was very fun and relaxing to try make this face with Jane Davenport's stencil.

Thanks for visiting!

December 30 Stampfest with Lynette

Lynette and I decided to start some art journal pages with my new Dina Wakley Heavy Body Acrylic Paints. I grabbed my previously gesso-ed papers and my new journal. It's a Canson 5.5 x 8.5 inch size with 138 lb paper. I don't know the details on the loose papers which were from my stash.

Before getting started we watched some YouTubes:

Dina Wakley's Dina Wakley Talks About Art and Art Journaling

and

Jenn Engle's Art Journal Page: New Dina Wakley Paints

Then we had a ball playing with paint, stencils, stabilio pencil, the fine tip applicator to write with Dina's paints

Made by Lynette

Made by Lynette

This and the next photo show my attempts. You can always click on an image to enlarge.

It has been very fun and relaxing to try to draw lady faces like Dina Wakley and Jane Davenport.

Inspired by page 77 of Jane's book, Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces: A Mixed-Media Portrait Workshop, I cut out an oval and tried to draw a face with my India Ink Pitt 0.1mm extra fine pen. I used Golden gel medium-Soft Gel (Semi-Gloss) to adhere it to the page and also added the gel over the oval. It dried quickly and ended up with a nice semi-gloss finish that was not too shiny. On the left panel, I drew the face with a stabilio pencil. Noticed that the pencil bled when I tried to add some watered down Lapiz blue paint. So I added some white from a white out pen to "fix" the eye. I'm not sure I liked how the stabilio pencil got bled, so will have to experiment with it. I really like Dina's attitude...about just making art and not worrying! Just love her words, "Oops, oh well". She gives everyone permission to have fun with art!

Here is a photo of Lynette and me--

a nice remembrance our our fun exercise in art journaling with paints!

Materials:

Dina Wakley Heavy Body Acrylic Paint

Fine Tip Applicator for writing words in black paint

Stabilio pencil

Faber-Castell India Ink pen

Dina Wakley Word Stencil-"Hey You"

Sequin waste stencil

Flat paint brushes

Toothbrush