Free Bird - Mixed Media Hippie Art

Hi everyone!   I have a fun new piece to share with you that I just completed today.

I'm calling it "Free Bird".  (Let's see how many of you get it.) This is just a really fun canvas don't you think?!

For this canvas I set out to just play.  The base colors are new ones that I just bought and wanted to try out.  If you follow me on FB then you saw them.  They were a crimson and navy blue color.

I treated this canvas like an art journal page and just started to doodle.  I did my favorite tangle/mandala flowers and then added beautiful vibrant colors.

I really wanted this piece to be free.  Does that make sense?  You know, very organic.  At one point I thought, "what the heck am I doing, this is a hot mess" but I just kept at it til it made me happy.  I think that's really important when creating.  You have to trust yourself enough to let go and follow your instincts.  Especially when you think you've made a mistake or ruined your piece.

In the end it came together perfectly.  I love the vibrant colors, doodles and birds.  It totally reflects my mood when I started :D  I hope you love this one as much as I do!  I'll be adding the original and prints to Etsy soon so please keep an eye out for that.  Thank you for stopping by and have a beautiful day!!

You can find the original HERE and the print HERE

Explore * Love* Laugh - Berry71Bleu October Challenge

Hello, today I'm sharing my spin on the Berry71Bleu October Challenge.  This month Berry71Bleu's sponsors are Speedball and Gelli Arts so I had the pleasure of working with their fabulous products.  I created this fun art journal page:

I started out by creating a monoprint with the gelli plate and Speedball block printing ink.  The Speedball colors I used are: Magenta, Violet and Gold.  I love the consistency of the Speedball paints, they're nice and thick so you get great coverage and vivid color.

I used various stencils and stamps to create interest and texture in my monoprint.

I cut circles from another monoprint to create this beautiful flower.

I used some vintage book text and image for my focal point.

I add a scrap of cardboard and some rubons here and there.

Finally I added some doodling, I feel like adding a little bit of black helps to ground the design.  Well, I hope I've inspired you to play along with us this month because we have some great prizes to share with you!!  Take a look at how generous Speedball and Gelli Arts are:

First Prize: 

Random Prizes:

 6x6 Gelli Arts Gel Printing Plate

You will get 2 tubes of Green and Blue Speedball paint.

Main Sponsors:  

Speedball Art Products Company
facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SpeedballArt

 Product Catalog

A Tradition of Excellence: For more than 100 years, high quality art products from Speedball have created Unlimited Possibilities for Artists in both classrooms and professional studios around the world. Speedball is committed to artistic innovation and expression.

Printmaking Is A Time-Tested Craft That Is Ideal For Contemporary Art Expression: Today with the advent of new techniques and materials, Printmaking has gained renewed interest and unprecedented support. Printmaking begins with Speedball - America’s leading manufacturer of printmaking materials - unequaled for quality, safety and ease-of-use.

Economical and Time-Flexible: The Beauty of Printmaking is in its flexibility and economy. Projects can range from simple printmaking exercises lasting only for a short session to more complex projects that can be expanded to include advance detailed techniques. Printmaking is more popular than ever and Speedball Art Products is the artist’s choice!

Speedball Block Printing Inks: Give your creations all the brilliance they deserve with inks from Speedball. Speedball’s Water Soluble Block Printing Inks come in 18 brilliant colors available in 37cc, 75cc, 150cc tubes plus 8oz. and 16oz jars. These inks are easy to clean up with water, non-toxic, gluten free and super for printmaking with linoleum, wood, Flexible Printing Plate, Speedy-Carve™, Speedy-Cut™ and Polyprint. All Speedball inks are AP Non-Toxic and are excellent for use in the studio, school or home. Speedball also carries Oil-Based Block Printing Inks available in 10 brilliant colors in 37cc tubes or 7 colors available in 75cc tubes. Suitable for printing on papers and fabrics, they are non-darkening, waterproof and permanent.

A special thanks to Speedball Art Products and  Gelli Arts for supplying the Design Team with Gelli Arts Gel Printing Plates and Speedball Block Printing Paints.

We love gelatin printing and we've developed a better way to do it!

Our Gel Printing Plate looks and feels like gelatin, but is durable, reusable and stores at room temperature. It's easy to clean and always ready for printing. Monoprinting on a Gelli plate is simple and fun. The gratification is immediate, and the prints are too cool!

Thanks so much for joining me today, have a wonderful day!!!

ENTER THE BERRY71BLEU OCTOBER CHALLENGE HERE!!

Illustrated Stories & Sketches - Art Journal Page, Zeus and Zoe

Hey friends, today I'm sharing my last post as an official Zeus and Zoe team member so I'd like to take a moment to thank Marivic for the giving me this wonderful opportunity.  I have truly enjoyed working with the incredibly talented  Zeus and Zoe Design Team and all of the fabulous Zeus and Zoe products!!   A huge thanks to all of you too for your support during my Zeus and Zoe term!!!!!

For my last Zeus and Zoe project, I really wanted to share something fun in my favorite mixed media style so I created this colorful art journal page.

My background was already started with left over sprays and stencils so all I had to do was pick a focal image.  I chose to use this beautiful vintage lady from my Zeus and Zoe kit.  I colored her in using Prismacolor pencils, distress inks and markers, Liquitex soft body acrylic paint and a Faber-Castell brush pen.  I simply fussy cut her out of the paper and glued her on to my colorful world ;D

I added swirls with Golden Molding Paste and a DecoArt stencil.  Then doodled around the top and bottom of the page.  I added pops of color with Golden Fluid acrylic paints.  The fluid acrylic adds tons of color while allowing the colors underneath show through.

I added bits of vintage news papers from my Zeus and Zoe kit to create my title and for scallops along the inseam of the page.

I doodled flowers here and there to add some yellow as an accent color.  I wrote "Dare to dream in bold bright colors" along the top.  I imagine that this is the way my vintage lady sees the world.  I have to say, I'm so loving this art journal page!!  It makes me very happy with all of its bright colors and doodles; it's how I see my world, lol.  

Well friends, thank you so much for visiting with me today!!  I hope my art journaling makes you smile too, HAVE A BEAUTIFUL/COLORFUL DAY FULL OF INSPIRATIONS!!!

HUGZ!!!

I've entered this project in the DL. ART Thankful Thursday July Linky Party
&
Five Simple Things' Inspire Me Friday 110 Anthing Goes Link Up

Create Happiness - Art Journal Page

Hello my sweet bloggie friends!  I'm back with you today to share my second Zeus and Zoe project featuring the beautiful products from this month's sponsors Donna Salazar and Couture Creations.  

I was inspired to art journal by the Donna Salazar dictionary pages so I chose to highlight: artistic, journal and happy.

I like to use my excess inks and paints in my art journal so that nothing goes to waste.  So I flipped through my art journal and found this page filled with the over sprays of a previous project.  Next I dug through my Zeus and Zoe kit and found an unfinished page that never made it onto another project along with jump rings and it hit me!  Create an art journal page within an art journal page, does that make sense, lol?  I punched holes on my art journal page and the mini album page I found then connected them with the jump rings, easy peasy right?!

Then I began by adhering torn and inked strips of Donna Salazar papers from the Natural Beauty collection.

Once I figured out the basic design, I focused on adding the layers of inks and paints to grunge it up a bit and give it my "Norma twist" ;D.  I used a doily stencil with an acrylic dauber to create texture.  I really like the way the acrylic paint puffed up.  This allowed the inks to really get in those groves to help define the shape.

With all the stencil work done, I started layering more of Donna Salazar's Natural Beauty papers and even ran some through my sewing machine.   I used a beautiful flowing vine stitch, distressed and inked all of the edges.  Next I added the dictionary strips that I wanted to use.  I highlighted the edges with fluid acrylic using my finger then outlined the entire strip with a black pen.  I created a small banner using the Donna Salazar Natural Beauty die cut pieces.  To give them a little more presence in my design, I glued them on some of the paper and cut around them leaving about a 1/4" border.  Then I added the Natural Beauty Chipboard Alphas with a little pen work to make them pop.

For the insert, I focused on journaling about why I love to art journal.  I wrote:

"These pages are so much more to me than a place to learn through my creative play.  

They see me through the darkest days.  With each layer, the troubles of the day fade away and I'm transported to my happy place."

This is so true for me, my art journal gives me wings to soar above whatever challenges I might be facing.  I truly believe in the the healing power of art.  Being creative has a wonderful way of lifting the soul and one of the beautiful things about art journaling is that it can be done with no expectations or pressure.  You don't have to worry about incorporating a photo or story.  All you have to do is play, let the page become whatever it wants to be.  If you don't like the way it's turning out, just keep going.  Add another layer of paper, ink or paint; whatever you want until you feel that smile on your face and twinkle in your eye.  You know the feeling you get when you're so happy with what you've just created.

For the cover, I used a page from a mini album that I received in my Zeus and Zoe kit.  It already had paint and stencil work on it from before.  I was gonna use it on a layout but ended up leaving it off.  So all I needed to do was add some of Donna's Natural Beauty paper, a little more stenciling and chipboard alphas.

To finish off my pages, I added some doodle work, strips of torn fabric and cording from my Zeus and Zoe kit.  I also added the key and hanging sign Couture Creations dies.  I love the grungy feel of these art journal pages and the bonus mini page tucked in.  If you've never art journaled before, I encourage you to give a try.  Just remember to have fun and JUST PLAY!!  It's also a wonderful way to use up all those scraps, odd letters and embellishments you have laying around.  Well I hope I've inspired you to give art journaling a try!!

Oh and don't forget to enter this month's challenge: My Favorite Things!!!  There are wonderful prizes up for grabs including this autographed kit from Donna Salazar, so get to craftin peeps!!

The Main Prize

Donna Salazar is a wife, mom, grandma, artist, designer, teacher and kid at heart. Her playful nature tends to come across in her products and classes because she believes that art should be fun. Donna is known for blending contrasting elements to create what she calls her “Girlie Grunge” look. Donna's style is especially appealing to mixed media artists, however her love of flowers and all things sparkly seems to appeal to crafters of all types and styles. 

Donna is a licensed designer and has product lines with 5 different companies: Clearsnap, GCD Studios, Spellbinders, Want2Scrap and Zutter. Donna offers free video tutorials, e-classes and a LIVE webshow, called Tuesday Tutorials, where she gives away lots of prizes from her partner companies and/or original artwork created during the show!

Random Prize:

Couture Creations

http://couturecreations.com.au

An Australian owned and loved brand, Couture Creations is the culmination of 20 years experience in the scrapbooking industry. From its final inception in 2010, Couture Creations has been devoted to producing expertly designed, high quality products overseen by veteran designers and crafters for a result that is both simple and elegant.

Couture Creations is part of Artdeco Creations growing collection of quality craft brands available worldwide. Distributed through a network of the best industry representatives in scrapbooking and craft internationally, Artdeco Creations has the ability to test and meet global expectations for quality and precision beyond local trends and markets.

Also included in the Random Winner Prize Pack is this 6x6 paper pack from Donna Salazar:

Thanks for joining me today and have a BEAUTIFUL, INSPIRED day!!!

Art Journal - I am.....

Thank you all for your sweet comments on yesterday's post, "Love Birds".  I'm so glad you all liked it and enjoyed seeing it come together.  Today I finished up an art journal page that I started over the weekend.  This page is the very first page of my Donna Downey Inspiration Journal.  As you can probably tell from my page I was needing some reminders and what better way to start the journal right....

This actually started out with some left over molding paste from a stencil, Postbox Red Dylusions and some gold paint.  You can see what it looked like on my FB page: HERE.

I did a little more stenciling, inking and highlighting while I thought about what I wanted this page to be and say.  Then it hit me "I choose to be happy" like in Rihanna's song.

So with my favorite Signo pens I started adding my lettering and did some doodling.

I actually stamped this on the inclusion back in December and it ended up working great for this page.  All this has is some over spray from the other page, some inking and the journaling.

I even added little hearts to the doodling down the seam :D  Thanks for stopping by today.  I truly appreciate every visit and comment.  Have a Beautiful Day!!!

I Love Your Smile - Card

Happy Monday my crafty friends!  I've got a very quick post for you today because it's been one of those very busy kind of days.  I had to be up and out running errands early so I just got a chance to snap so pics of the card I made yesterday.

I made this cute little card with my PWP Feb Mixed Media kit and this just happens to be the 3rd project I've made with this awesome kit.  

I've added a lot of fun doodling all over this one!

Cute right :D  If you'd like to see my 1st project using this kit, visit the: The Aviary and tomorrow I'll be sharing an art journaling video of my 2nd kit project.  So make sure you check that out ;D

Thanks it folks, I gotta go make sure homework is getting done while I get dinner going!!  Have a AWESOME day & THANKS for stopping by!!!