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!

Happy Valentine's Day and Tuesday Card of the Day

Happy Valentine's Day! I just love Valentine's Day.
It's such a special day to celebrate love and friendship!
My parent's were married on Valentine's Day way back in 1953!

Today I'm sharing some file folder Valentine cards I made by cutting kraft paper in half
to measure 4.25 x 5.5 inch
 then folding that like a card.
I made 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. Easy and fun!

For the inside I added this "file" stamped with 

Dina Wakley's big Handwritten Heart Collage stamp. 

Stamps:  Michael Strong, Hero Arts, Ranger-Dina Wakley, PSX

Ink: Versafine black onyx, 

Distress-worn lipstick, festive berries, barn door, mowed lawn.

Thanks for visiting
and

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Monday Card of the Day

This week I'm card captain at the Enjoy Michael Strong Stamps Yahoo Group.

I used Mike's cloisonne hearts to make flowers, adding the stems from a Stampin' Up! set.
Used a strip of printed paper on the left. Drew squiggly lines and dots with a PITT India ink pen,
my latest favorite black marker.

I dug out my old crimper for texture on the white layer here.
Then sponged the edges and added the "fussy cut" typewriter
along with the stamped sentiments and printed paper.

Stamps: Michael Strong, Hero Arts
Inks: Versafine black onyx,
distress festive berries and worn lipstick

Thank you 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!

Lady Face Painted and Collage Cards

Inspired by Dina Wakley and Jane Davenport, I've been working with Dina Wakley's heavy body acrylic paint, stamps, stencils and finding some relaxation and stress relief! Instead of working inside my art journal, I worked on separate pieces of watercolor papers from my stash.

Dina Wakley makes this look so easy in her YouTube videos. It was a bit of a struggle for me! I guess I thought I could just spread some paint on paper and it would look great...not!
I think it's better with layering the paint...and adding stencils and stamps.

I drew a few faces with a PITT India Ink marker pen. On some of these I added watercolor pencil to color to the hair and eyes, but the PITT marker bled, so I wasn't sure that was the way to go. My pieces are small-they fit on a 4.25 x 5.5 inch card (or smaller). 

The "mood du jour" is part of a Dawn Houser/Inkadinkado stamp. The leaf is from What I love by Stampin' UP!

I really like how the Golden Soft Gel (Matte) medium worked to adhere the book page strips. They dried to a nice matte finish. In the past I had used a semi-gloss medium, which has a shine to it. The matte finish makes it look so much better! 

The "think" is part of a Dina Wakley Media 6 by 9 inch Stencil called Hey You. Originally I stenciled the "don't overthink", but I worked over the "don't over" and just left "think". Decided to add "don't" and "just create" with my PITT India ink pen and  then Gelly Roll Classic white pen. The lady is from Hampton Arts-Time Flies. I used black Versafine ink. The leaves, from SU, same as above, were stamped with Dina's "night" paint, which is a very dark blue.

The face here is stamped with distress vintage photo using Rubber Stampede's She knows #3652C. For the white circles I used the plastic cover from a paint dabber. Used a piece of sequin waste to stencil the little circles on the right using Dina's white paint.

This face is stamped with distress walnut stain ink using Dawn Houser/Inkadinkado Camp Rouge French lady face stamp #8340-N. I mixed Dina's ruby and lemon paints to create the orange color. The white circles on the bottom left were made with the sequin waste stencil. The other white "circles" were added by hand with the paintbrush.

Thanks for visiting! You are welcome to share any tips or ideas on this topic!