Alice in Wonderland

There is something about Alice in Wonderland that is frighteningly fascinating to me.  A strange world in a realm with talking rabbits, cunning cats, and the ability to shrink or grow by drinking or eating something.  I have never read the book or watched any of the movies, but the whole story is bizarre and makes me think of my own dreams which are nothing like real life, always strange and somewhat ethereal. I have been working on an Alice in Wonderland altered tag book and have the first page done:

I painted the tag blue, then used some Distress ink and a blending tool to age the edges.  The vintage paper with writing came from a variety pack of ephemera.  I added a piece of cardboard and then an image of Alice that I colored in with colored pencils.  The letter stickers are Jenni Bowlin (I think).  The clip at the top of the page is a flower clip I found in the scrap booking section of Hobby Lobby.
I have more tags done as far as a base background color.  My plan is to not tell the actual story of Alice in Wonderland, but to have a book of images and scenarios of the characters.

More Journal Pages

Credit card scraping paint technique, stencils. gel pen

The red was stamped with paint and corrugated cardboard

Watercolor and salt, stencil and ink blown with straw

Snow!!

Yesterday it started snowing.  And snowing.  As of this morning we have over 6 inches on the ground.  I was inspired to make a journal page using a piece of scrap book paper that was laser-cut into snowflakes.  I placed it on my paper and washed over it with watercolors.  I took the wet snowflake paper and pressed in onto the other page for a subtle effect.  Below is my page.

More pages

Here are some more pages in my art journal.  One is completed, the other one is a background I started.

Another Background

This was made by putting two colors of paint on the paper and using an old credit card to spread the paint around.  Then I used some punchenella as an accent on the edges of the page.  Next I dropped some white acrylic ink on the page and used the end of a paintbrush to draw out the ink to make star-like shapes.

Art Journaling

I have started an art journal with no specific theme.  Below are some pages that I have started.  Working on backgrounds for several pages at a time lets me explore different techniques without having to worry about focusing on a single page.

Completed page

Background started

Two-page background

Happy (Almost) Valentine's Day

This is a Valentine's Day card I made for Bob.  I was excited to give it to him so he received it last night.  Here is how I made it:

Supplies:

• Watercolor paper
• watercolors
• Distress Inks
• salt
• Japanese paper
• German dresden foil wings
• words stamp
• spray ink (made from Distress re-inker and Perfect Pearls, see Note at bottom)
• Grungeboard letters

For the large read heart I used a words stamp to stamp on a plain piece of watercolor paper.  Then I sprayed the paper with red spray ink and when it was dry, cut out a heart using a template I found online. 


I tore the edges off a piece of 9x12 watercolor paper to give it a rustic look.  I sprayed the paper with some water, then painted the background with blue watercolor.  Next, I added some purple and green watercolors.  I sprayed the paper with water again to blend to colors, then sprinkled salt on the paper (see the little flecks?)  Then I splattered some whiteYasutomo Pearlized watercolor over the whole paper. I let everything dry before moving to the next step.

I ran a Distress ink pad (vintage photo color) along the edges of the main paper and the edge of the heart.  Using a blending tool, I added more Distress ink to the corners of the paper and did a little on the heart.

The LOVE Grungeboard letters are painted white.  The Japanese heart was made using a paper punch.  I glued everything in place and Bob loved it!!!

NOTE:  The spray ink was made using a dropper of Distress re-inker in Lipstick, a scoop of gold Perfect Perals and water in a small spray bottle.