A Closer Look…

Hello! Today I'd like to take a closer look at some of the pages I created for my Mermaid Journal. (You can see the whole thing HERE.) For these pages I used stamps that can be found at Topflight Stamps, an online store where you can browse different and hard-to-find art stamps from all around the world.

I love these Lavinia mermaid stamps!

For these pages, the background is created with Distress Oxide Inks with details from the Mighty Wave stencil. I used some other old stencils of mine to "print" onto the background by rubbing them directly with a Distress Oxide ink pad, lightly misting the stencil with water, and then laying the stencil ink side down on to the paper and blotting over the top with a paper towel. The mermaids were stamped with black archival ink. The foreground images are diecuts and fussy cut stamped images from the Couture Creations Under the Sea set.

More Distress Oxide Ink backgrounds! I just love the look of those inks, yum! I included more fussy cut Couture Creations stamp images in my basket bouquet of diecut flowers.

Thanks for stopping by! Keep an eye on the Topflight Stamps blog for all sorts of inspiring art. The new Design Team is going to town!

Topflight Stamps Used:
Lavina - Guinevere Mermaid, Alana Mermaid
Couture Creations - Under the Sea


Dies Used:
Sizzix:
Journal (SSS here)
Stitchy Flowers (SSS here)
Basket
Sand & Sea
Harlequin Border

Stencils Used:
StencilGirl:
Mermaids
Ranger - Mighty Wave

Other supplies:
free downloadable images from The Graphics Fairy - mermaids
Distress Oxide Inks - all of them!
marbled paper from my stash

Sizzix & Simon Says Stamp links in this post are affiliate links which do not affect the price you pay but allow me to earn a small percentage of a sale. Thanks!


Sizzix is having a huge sale right now and many of the dies above are discounted! Check it out.

July Journals with Eileen Hull – Be A Mermaid

 

Have you been keeping an eye on Eileen Hull's blog this month?? She's been featuring the uber popular Journal Die from her Heartfelt Collection all month long. My teammates have been creating some fabulous journals! Mine is ocean/mermaid themed. I packed it full of a lot of stuff! My craft room looked like a disaster zone. Get comfy because there are many many photos to share. ;-)

I mainly used Distress Oxide Inks and Stencil Girl stencils to decorate the cover

The binding was done with sari silk

Detail of the charms on the spine

Journal back

Here's a little flip through of the inside and if you are really interested, scroll on for all the photos of the pages.

Commence interior shots!

Inside cover & first signature

Many of the backgrounds were created with Distress Oxide Inks

The center of the first signature features a pop up house made from the House/Pocket Die

Fold out flap for fun!

The mermaid clip was made by my friend Tonya Trantham

These backgrounds were made with Ken Oliver Color Bloom pigments on watercolor paper

The first few lines from the fairy tale The Little Mermaid are written on the tail.

The mermaid doll was made by my friend Brandy Boyias & it fits in its little pocket

Stitchy Flowers & Basket dies page detail!

I made good use of the retired Graphic 45 paper collection Voyage Beneath the Sea
all throughout the journal! I knew I was hoarding it for a reason.

I made a little removable shaker card from the Luggage Die to slide into the page

The old postcard graphic is from The Graphics Fairy website

You get a prize if you made it through all those photos! Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out Eileen's blog for more fantastic journals.

Dies Used:
Sizzix:
Journal (SSS here)
Stitchy Flowers (SSS here)
Basket
House/Pocket Stitchlits
Luggage Tag
Tag Collection
Holiday Greens
Lace
Sand & Sea
Mini Sand & Sea
Garden Greens
Washer Border
Harlequin Border

AJVD:
Elegant Rectangle Stitched Backdrop
Fringe Flower
Antique Sled


Stamps Used:
Tim Holtz (S.A) - Sea Life
Tim Holtz (S.A.) - Hashtags
Paper Artsy - LPC001
Lavina - Guinevere Mermaid, Alana Mermaid
Couture Creations - Under the Sea
100 Proof Press - bunch of mermaid stamps, shell plate & jellyfish
bunch of retired Graphic 45 stamps sets

Stencils Used:
StencilGirl:
Mermaids
Aidan's School
Sphere's Small
Ranger - Mighty Wave
Tim Holtz - Leafy, Splash, THS056

Other supplies:
free downloadable images from The Graphics Fairy - mermaids, girl w/ shell
Distress Oxide Inks - all of them!
Graphic 45 Voyage Beneath the Sea Collection
sari silk

Sizzix & Simon Says Stamp links in this post are affiliate links which do not affect the price you pay but allow me to earn a small percentage of a sale. Thanks!


Sizzix is having a huge sale right now and many of the dies above are discounted! Check it out.

Steampunk Art Journal pages

Hello there! I've been working in my steampunk altered book art journal and have a few pages to share with you. (To see the original post about the making of the journal and cover, go HERE.) I've used some super cool steampunk stamps from Carabelle Studio, diecuts, transfers, stencils… all sorts of goodies. ;-)

I finally broke into my package of Tim Holtz Paper Dolls. Lots of fun in there! ;-) Underneath the gear die cuts on the right hand page I did some packing tape transfers from an old technical manual. The actual art journal is a repurposed children's book so on some pages I left the original illustrations peeking through the gesso.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out all the cool stamps at Topflight Stamps, your one stop shop for utter wonderfulness brought in from stamp companies spread across the globe. They are always getting in new designs, my wish list can't keep up with them lol!

I am also entering this into the Summer Challenge over at SanDee & amelie's Steampunk Challenge blog. There is always cool stuff to see there!

Stamps Used:
Carabelle Studio - The Heart Has Its Reasons
Visible Image - Scripted Streets

Dies Used:
Sizzix - Gearhead

Other supplies:
Tim Holtz Paper Dolls 

Sizzix & Simon Says Stamp links in this post are affiliate links which do not affect the price you pay but allow me to earn a small percentage of a sale. Thanks! 

Get More Out of Your Dies!

Hello! We all like to get the most use possible out of our supplies and today I have an oldie but goodie technique for you to stretch your dies. I’m going to show you how to use them to make foam stamps and then use those stamps in a resist technique.

1. Apply a double sided adhesive sheet to the back of a piece of fun foam then die cut your shapes out of it. You don't have to use the adhesive, but it makes the next step super easy.

2. Peel off the paper backing of the adhesive sheet and stick each foam piece onto a square cut from plastic packaging. That's it for the stamps! Easy peasy right?

3. You can use the stamps with ink or paint. Here I used acrylic paint because the paint then acts as a resist when you mist or ink the shapes with water soluble media. (More on that in a minute.) Because these are small stamps, I used a paintbrush to apply a thin layer of paint to the stamps and then stamped the centers of my die cut flowers.

4. I used a few different mists on the flowers and once they were mostly dry, I used a baby wipe to clean the excess off of the stamped parts. It wiped right off!

BONUS TECHNIQUE!!

That's right, here's a different way to get more uses out of your embossing folders! You can use them to stamp too.

1. Use a brayer to apply a thin layer of silver paint to one side of the embossing folder. I placed the basket shape onto the painted side and carefully closed the folder, then gently pressed it to transfer the paint.

2. Once the paint was dry, I misted it and wiped the excess off the paint resist.

The rest is standard card assembly! ;-) Build the base and then arrange all the goodies in an aesthetic manner.

Thanks for stopping by! Head on over to Eileen Hull's blog for more techniques and inspiration. We also have an Eileen Hull group on Facebook. We share inspiration, ideas and techniques and you are welcome to join us! Just request to join and someone will add you quickly. It's a fun group full of nice and creative people. =)

Mermaid House

Hello there! I'm here with a mid-month project for our Altered Embellishments Challenge over at the Mixed Media Monthly Blog. You still have time to play! You can see my first project, a gardening binder, HERE. I thought the UmWowStudio chippies I had left looked like undersea flora and coral so I got the idea to make a mermaid house complete with garden.

Hang on to your hats, this is going to be a long post with lots of pictures!

Top Detail

I was able to remove the front glass panel so I could easily stamp a mermaid in the corner with archival black ink.

 After the tour, here come the tutorial tips:

1. When I'm thinking about filling a 3-dimensional space like a lantern, I usually make some mockups to rough out the spacing and proportions of what is going inside.

I used parts from Eileen Hull's Cookie Box die to form the base.

2. After hot gluing the cardboard base down I used crumpled aluminum foil to cover it and form the 'seafloor'. I also covered it with a layer of ultra thick gesso to smooth out the foil texture and build it up a bit. The house pedestal base I covered with DecoArt Media's Textured Sand Paste.

3. For the roof tiles I used the Village Gingerbread die. I wanted them to look like they were cut from mother of pearl. I had some wild adhesive backed prism film that I thought could work to give the roof tiles some interesting shimmer.

On its own it was way too "disco" so a covered it with several layers of a few different colors of Silks Acrylic Glazes. That toned it down and also added a nice shimmer.

4. The embellishments I altered with crackle paste and paint, paint with stamping and embossing powder.

The diecut seahorses I painted and then covered with Fractured Ice embossing
powder. That stuff is too cool!

5. Back to the base – I spread on a layer of modeling paste and sprinkled it all with fine white sand. As I started placing all the elements, I was sure to work from back to front because it would have been too hard to reach around and get to the back layer with the house etc. in place. I used hot glue to fasten the parts down.

6. I completely finished the house and pedestal so I could place it all as one unit into the lantern.

The mermaid resident has a little crab feeder in her yard.

7. Some of the chipboard embellishments I cut apart and reassembled so they would be
"3-D" and fit better in the space.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great weekend! Head on over to the MMM challenge post to see some inspiring projects and to join in the challenge yourself. You still have time!

Products used
Lavinia stamp: Alana Mermaid
DecoArt Media Modeling Paste
DecoArt Media Texture Sand Paste
various small shells, coral, sand
PaperArtsy Fresco paint: various colors
UmWowStudios laser cut chipboard pieces
Emerald Creek Embossing Powder: Fractured Ice

Dies
Sizzix Cookie Box
Sizzix Village Brownstone
Sizzix Village Manor
Sizzix Village Bungalow
Sizzix Village Gingerbread
AJVD Fringe Flower


Sizzix links in this post are affiliate links which do not affect the price you pay but allow me to earn a small percentage of a sale. Thanks!

I'm also entering this into the Frilly & Funkie 'In the Good Old Summertime' challenge. Summer makes me think of the beach and all things oceany. (My seasonal mantel decor is all beach themed right now.) The bright colors I used in the project also fit the season. Now I live far away from the beach but I can still visit it in my imagination. ;-)