Color Pallete Challenge

Trying to create a color pallete for future challenges on Digital Whisper. Didn't get all the hues just right so am still looking for purple in my past art work...it's definitely a color I DON'T use! LOL

The Grandville Diamond

Just a bit of Steampunk-oriented fun with a touch of J.J. Grandville tossed in!

Hilda Conkling Land of Nod

Another Hilda challenge hosted by the generous Gale Blair at Paper Whimsy....aaahhh....such whimsical dreams in the land of nod.

Hilda Conkling Loveliness

Vibrant? uh, yes! LOL

I just love Hilda Conkling...wasn't she amazing? Just a few words in this poem, yet so much wisdo there....

Autumn ATC for Lottery

Paper Whimsy Forum has started up a new ATC lottery each month and here is my entry for September...it's been a LONG time since I made an ATC and it was fun!

Hilda Conkling Wishes

Another Hilda Conkling Challenge piece hosted by Gale Blair for Paper Whimsy Forum members only. Come on over and join in the fun! I adore the imagery of Hilda's poetry and look forward each month for the new free collage sheet & poem. Thanks Gale!

dia de los Muertos

Oh My! Where did the summer go...I have been so out of touch online but have had a wonderful time with friends, family and fitness. I will soon be back on track with blogging but wanted to share a collage I created tonight using images from Itkupilli Shop, dedicated to the Mexican holiday, dia de los Muertos. What a wonderful time of year when villagers go to the cemetery to visit their loved ones and invite them home to enjoy a feast of their favorite foods. Family members share humorous stories about their departed and celebrate the lives they had lived....isn't that wonderful?

Hilda Conkling Butterfly in the Wind

This weeks Quote Challenge on the Paper Whimsy forum is "Butterfly in the Wind" by Hilda Conkling...I absolutely fell in love with the words and couldn't wait to create my collage. I have chosen to create all of my quote pieces in an altered book I have and started with tissue paper background, some cheesecloth and off I went! LoL

Read these words by Hilda Conkling and be inspired to create your own art.

Butterfly in the Wind

All of a sudden

Blown to my hand

Wings of dewy color,

Silvery flaky dust along my finger...

I wondered where he had come?

I asked him where he was going?

Butterfly words are faint

But I heard his answer...

I never know!
I am a wanderer in the wind.

Tissue Paper Background Tutorial

We were talking about background textures on the Paper Whimsy forum and I thought it would be fun to do a basic tutorial on one of my favorites; tissue paper background! Easy peasy, anyone can do it and you probably have all the supplies on hand. Have fun!

I own all the text and images in this tutorial – feel free to use them for whatever you want. Commercial, not commercial, credit me or don’t credit me it’s all good with me. Hugs, Carol

Step ONE: Gather all your supplies. You will need:

• Substrate - things like cardboard, heavy watercolor paper and cardstock work best for this technique.
• Tissue Paper – any color, design or style. If you don’t like the color or design you can paint over it, right?
• Adhesive – I use gel medium but you can use any wet adhesive like Elmer’s glue or ModPodge.
• Paint Brush – any size or style but I would recommend 1”-3” in width depending on the size of the substrate. You want to be able to apply the adhesive quickly.
• Assorted Inks - sprays, paint, alcohol inks, stamp pads to name a few.

Step TWO: Crumple the tissue paper. I usually crumple the tissue pretty tight (left of photo); then loosely open it as shown to the right of the photo. Of course it depends on the end result you want for your background. The more you open up the tissue, the less texture you will get.

Step THREE: Using the paint brush, apply the adhesive somewhat generously to the substrate. Use enough adhesive so that it remains wet until you can place the crumpled tissue on it. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the placement of the tissue. I just plop it on there and press it down using my hands.

If I want a more flat texture, I use a brayer or the adhesive jar/bottle to press it down a bit more.

Step FOUR: While the tissue is still wet, tear off the extra tissue around the edges. You can trim the edges with a scissor if you want but I like the randomness of the torn edges.

At this point, I usually put a light layer of the adhesive over the top and let it dry completely before proceeding to the next step.

Once the tissue is dry…create to your heart’s desire. Rub ink pads over the raised area to highlight them or use acrylic paints and dry-brush them on. Just go crazy and have fun!
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Here’s a piece I quickly did to show you a collage piece from start to finish. I started with some old tissue that came in a gift package, crumpled it up, unfolded it a bit, and glued it to the cardboard substrate. Notice that this tissue paper didn’t leave large wrinkles like the pink one did. It was a bit lighter weight and didn’t crumple as much. Interesting, huh? Who knew? LoL

Next I tore along the edges of the substrate to remove the extra tissue and applied a light coating of gel medium over the top. Notice that this time around, I applied the gel after tearing…see you can mix it up! I hate repetition and rarely do things exactly the same way twice.

After the tissue was dry, I took my “Old Paper” Distress Ink stamp pad and rubbed it over the raised areas. I was surprised how many highlights actually came out…it didn’t look like there were that many; did it?

After the ink was dry, I laid a stencil on it and sprayed over the top with “Orange Juice” Memories Mist. I LOVE orange!

After that was dry I took a favorite rubber stamp, inked it up with black ink from a stamp pad and made a row of paisley designs across a portion of the background.

After that was dry I used my favorite fluid chalk pads and rubbed around the edges in hot pink and orange, which you can see in the next photo. For me, this is what makes art interesting…lots of layers on the background…and this is before you even start putting your images and embellishments on.

Notice that I always let each layer dry before adding a different color element. Otherwise, things can get muddied up a bit and unless that is what you are going for, it will be disappointing to do all this work and have to gesso over it only to begin again. Wah! However, I always have my heat gun handy to help the drying process along; just don’t get it so close that the adhesive bubbles up or the tissue catches on fire! LoL

Reminder - when using a heat tool always keep your eyes on what you are doing. From beginning to end, this background only took about ten minutes.

Now you are ready to add your collage bits! Can’t wait to see what you create next! Hugs, Carol

How The West Was Fun

As part of the International Collaberative Experiment (ICE) round robin, I have been working in Kathy Park's altered book "How The West Was Fun". I finished it tonight and here it is! I love this wicked girl and the wild boys....I have a feeling they would all have fun together in the west. Hope Kathy likes the collage...her book is FAT and gorgeous!

Hilda Conkling Quotes Challenge 02.14.09

Gale Blair at Paper Whimsy is hosting a year-long art challenge and is generously providing participants with gorgeous collage sheets and Hilda Conkling quotes to challenge us twice a month. In order to participate you must be a member of the PW forum...come on over and join us!

This month's color theme is blue and I used the provided fish, flower, door and text. I began with a PW image, colored & painted it, then further altered it to create the vision I wanted to use to tell the story of the the text. Here is my strange, pure, happy two-page spread. Enjoy "The Key To My Mind"! Namaste, Carol

Birthday Tag for a Friend

I haven't made a tag in a LONG time and it was really fun! Small space but lots of layers. I don't know if you can see it in the photo but the background is 3-d....my favorite technique! I just might have to make some more of these!

Happy Birthday friend!

Gothic Arch for Ja*who*dee

Judy really threw me for a loop this time with an "open theme". I kind of freaked out, got stymied and my muse left me to figure it out for myself. I decided that today was THE day and pulled out everything I had that was aqua and/or brown...her favorite colors. Here is what I ended up with (muse looking over the shoulder) and I will be mailing it off Monday. Thanks, Judy, for being patient. Hugs, Carol

Red & Black Haiku

My friend is having a birthday soon and I was given the following theme to create a birthday 4x4 for her; black & white white a touch of color, throw in a bit of zetti and birthday wishes. I don't think I follow directions very well cuz I think the red is more than "a touch" and it's not quite zetti...more like zetti-goth but I think she will love it anyway! I know I do and it was so much fun to create...I need to do more Haiku, it's totally fun! Happy Birthday dear one!

One World-One Heart 2009 Participant (Giveaway)

I'm so excited to be participating in One World-One Heart this year. I love the idea of making friends from all around the world and sharing our love of art. Last year I met so many really cool people and won 7 prizes! I was very blessed by the experience and made the decision right then and there that I would be a participant in 2009! Since this is my 100th Blog Post, I'm going to celebrate by giving away two prizes instead of one! Please read all the details and then just sign up once for a chance to win one of the two gifts I'm sharing this year. TWO GIFTS! TWO WINNERS!

Winner #1 will receive the mixed media collage shown here...it measures approximately 7.5" x 9.5" (not including hanger) and consists of hand-dyed/printed fabric, nubby yarns, fibers & ribbons, fabric/paper/velvet flowers & leaves and last but not least...copper, lots of copper!

Winner #2 will receive Tim Holtz "Distressables 2" which has 50 pages of tips, techniques and projects. It's a great little book packed full of inspiration!

In order for you to sign up for a chance to win the mixed media collage OR book, please leave a comment on THIS post. I would love it if you took a moment and looked around and left comments on other posts but understand if you don't have time now...please stop by again!

Sign-ups are open to everyone however I must have a way to contact you if you are the winner (i.e. an email or mailing address). Please note that any messages with advertisements/solicitations listed in them will be deleted and not entered in the drawing. Sign-ups will close at 10 pm CST on 02/11/09 with the winners being announced on 02/12/09. Both winners will be notified by email and asked for a mailing address.

If you want to know more about the One World-One Heart event, click on the OWOH logo. I look forward to getting to know you (and your art) through your blogs. After all, we do share one world-one heART! Wishing you an art-filled 2009! Namaste~Carol

ATC's for Paper Whimsy PJammer Retreat

I haven't created ATC's for several months so it was fun to do them again! I came home with a lovely assortment of ATC's from the other ladies at the retreat too! Woo-hoo!

Halloween Gothic Arches for Paper Whimsy Swap

I had so much fun with these Halloween gothic arches. I tried so hard not to use witch hats on any of them but my little guy just demanded one of them. I found a wonderful old book when I was in Noblesville, IN and am having a blast finding fabulous words to use in my art. These arches are for a 3:3 swap at Paper Whimsy hosted by Lynn Fox.

Bitty Row Houses - Playful Nudes

I bought this gorgeous "Playful Nudes" collage sheet transparency from ARTchix Studio right before the yahoo group switched to a no-nudes posting policy. Unfortunately, as an "adult" group, we were getting too many ads from yahoo listing links to pornographic sites. What a bummer huh? Really, there was not other choice but it was a big bummer to have this gorgeous group of ladies and not be able to create with them...at least not yet. :)

If you are under 18 or if nudes offend you, please look the other way but I do hope you will enjoy the copper row houses I made for Lenna Andrews' current swap. I LOVED working with the copper! I used copper mesh, copper sheets and copper tape. I embossed, distressed, painted and texturized it....and next time, I am going to try heating it! After I had the houses cut out, I used the new DigiSheets from Paper Whimsy for the backgrounds. Then I began auditioning images and the Playful Nudes transparencies just seemed "right". I love how they look over the swirling fruity backgrounds and in hind-sight...it creates a bit of voyeuristic art....which I love! Hope you do too. Namaste, Carol

8x8 tip-in pages for Ja*who*dee

Ooo la la! Judy's theme was Jefferson Starship "White Rabbit" and it was SO MUCH FUN! The whole time I worked on it, I just kept laughing and giggling at my own silliness which made for a fun and enjoyable weekend of art. Here are the lyrics to the song, can you find the symbolism in my art?

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
Recall Alice
When she was just small

When men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving slow
Go ask Alice
I think she'll know

When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's "off with her head!"
Remember what the dormouse said;
"FEED YOUR HEAD
FEED your head"