Friday, September 17, 2010

The Master's Touch



These are some Round Robin journal pages that I did for my sisters book which is entitled Hands.
I chose to do a bit of a spiritual type page, so have included the images of the hands from the painting Creation. I printed them and then cut them out and adhered them on top of my own background.
I call this background the "Stucko" technique, because it always looks like there is a layer of mortar on top of rocks. It is a fairly easy technique, which yields some amazing results.
First is a layer of old book pages, and then on top of that, torn pieces of decorative paper. In this example, the paper looked like old wood slats, but the tone was good, so it worked.
Once the decorative paper is adhered, (I used gel medium to attach it) then with an old plastic gift card, I scraped gesso over the entire surface, and then continued to scrape it till the paper started to show through again. You have to work fast, so the gesso doesn't dry on you, but if you do one side at a time it works pretty well.
Once you are happy with the amount of gesso, you just set it aside til it is good and dry, and then I took a distress ink pad, and smeared it across the whole surface, and then with a paper towel, I rubbed the ink around, and also it rubs some of the ink off. It makes for a lovely subtle aged color and pattern. Just perfect for this page.
Then I adhered the cutouts to the backgrounds, and then with my brown watercolor crayon, I outlined the cutouts, to help seat them into the page, and give it all a cohesive look. I also ran the crayon around the outside of the pages to give them an aged and vintage look. Then wet them with a small paintbrush. I added the lettering with some tiny alphabet stamps and a brown StazOn pad, and voila!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Mini angel canvas


This is just a little painting I did... I was feeling a little sentimental, and thought that a pretty little angel would be fun to paint.
It is done on a 6x6 inch canvas. The background is watercolor crayons, and gesso mixed. The wings are gesso then a light coloring accent with a pale blue watercolor crayon. The crown is metallic acrylic paints. The base coat of her face is acrylic paint, and then several layers and colors of watercolor crayon for accents and depth.
Everything else is done in acrylic paints. She was a ton of fun to paint, I may even do another one like her at a later date.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Memorial Day weekend

A few glimpses through our journey to Yellowstone.
It was a lovely day filled with great memories.
Awesome beasts!

YES! That is most definitely a grizzly bear!
Yellowstone lake (from the south side)

Lily pads~ taken at the Continental Divide

Old Faithful just starting to erupt.

Old Faithful in all her glory.

Old Faithful Geyser (that's a lot of boiling hot water)

The party's almost over :(

Our little dip in the surf of Yellowstone Lake- north side near Fishing Bridge
(it was extremely windy)

Abby getting her feet wet.

Quincy's little treasures

Lots of little houses

I am participating in a couple of swaps with the Paper Traders yahoo group, and both were making little row houses.
First was Keron's swap, and the theme was to make tiny little chipboard decorated houses.
Here is what I came up with.


Second was Connie's swap which is Creepy Cottages- we were to make the same little chipboard decorated houses, but this time a spooky feel or Halloween theme.
Here are my houses:


Both swaps were a lot of fun, and I can't wait to see what everyone else created.