Art For Hermine & a Mini AJ

I was recently asked by the very talented

Hermine Koster, to make a piece of

art for her project. I was sent an Art card

& then spent about two weeks trying to decide

on my theme!! France was my choice.

Here is the completed card below.

Stamps - Elusive Images

Background - Emboss resist stamp - Tim Holtz.

 

This is the card I made to accompany the little art card.

Stamps by Art Journey.
Clouds and grass are stamped using
embossing folders. Colour added for flowers
using distress markers & watercolour brush.

I also sent to her the matchbook that I recently made

as it went well with my final design.

 



 

I also sent her a blank miniature Art Journal.

Below is mine.

I am showcasing the front cover, the first spread

and the back cover today.

 

Inks used Hero Arts Shadow Inks.

Archival Black Ink.

 



Stencils are TCW and Donna Downey.

Stamps - Stampers Anonymous

Kaisercraft & Paperbag Studios.

 



This little Art Journal measures 3" square.

I made it from a piece of 140lb watercolour paper

and I created a Maze Book.

To create the two covers I copied the idea from

Tim Holtz Valentine Book 
instead of making card covers, I folded them
over to make sturdier covers. I did not bind the book with tape
I left it free flowing until it is completed.
I did seal all the pages together on my version.
I have left them open on Hermine's,
so she can make pockets if she wishes too.
Being so tiny, there are only 6 double spreads but as my
name suggests, I love minis!!!

Caught up with my Art Journal

I have been very creative behind

the scenes making things for others

and taking care of a few commission pieces.

Today I got chance to finish page 6

of my Art Journal and make page 7 too!

 

 I had made a mistake on the word MOON

but with some bold drawing around the word,

it is hard to see now where I went wrong.

The background is made spraying home made

distress inks in peacock feathers and pumice stone.

 

This page came together really easily once

I decided on my theme. In fact

the only problem I had with

this one was knowing when to stop!

The colours do not look as good in photo

form as they do in real life.

The camera makes them much lighter.

I had planned to offer this piece for the

latest Vintage Journey challenge,

Spring Flowers but I do not think it floral enough.

The background on this one is stamped white tissue

coloured with distress ink sprays. I made it in the week

following reading an old CS article by

Rachel Jackson & seeing France Papillon

use it on her latest AJ layout.



Quick Cards

No Art Journal page to share again, this weekend.

It still isn't quite right. I made an error (smudged my colouring!)

and to fix it is a slightly lengthy process.

If I could get away with leaving it I would.

I have also been extremely busy trying to

finish up some commission work so that I

can crack on and create for me & others.

 

Once I'd finished one of the commission cards,

(It will not be blogged as the person it is for reads &

it wouldn't be fair on the person who requested it!!)

I had all the inks, stamps & embossing gear out so,

I made a quick couple of cards just to have

on hand.

 

Les Papillons

 

 

Life 

 

It is always good to have a few

cards  in reserve!

Stamps; Kaisercraft, Next

Cavallini, T Holtz

Butterfly - 2 Cavallini stickers fussy cut.

White embossing detailed powder

Distress inks; worn lipstick,

bundled sage, victorian velvet,

squeezed lemonade.

The first card has gesso on the surface surface before embossing

the stamp and inking it up.

Ironed off the powder and added further stamping.

Second card was a piece of left over from the

commission using wrinkle free technique.

 

 

Vintage Journey - A Little bit French

The third challenge on The Vintage Challenge blog

is "A Little bit French"

I had to think long and hard about this one,

not because it was hard, but because I had

too many choices!!

 

I finally decided on a matchbook in browns and pinks.

Here is the front.

This is the back.

 

 This is the front of the glassine bags

 

and this is the back of them.

I made six of these mini cards to insert

into each bag and they have images on the front

and quotes on the reverse. 



 

This is the whole piece put together.

If I could have done this differently,

I would have used sturdier cardstock.

The whole thing took me about 8 hours,

with drying time at about half hour.

Materials;

Glassine bags (internet purchase)

White cardstock

Distress stains - gathered twigs/ Victorian velvet

picked raspberry

Perfect Pearls - Cappuccino/ perfect gold

Staz-on Timber Brown ink

Archival black

Hero Arts Shadow Inks in

soft sand/wet cement
CW - Harlequin Stencil

Stamp sets;

Tim Holtz/Elusive Images

Kaisercraft Quotes

Wooden Paris stamp
B Line Designs Paris duo
Typographie - unknown
 

I coloured the main body of the matchbook with

gathered twigs distress ink & then once

dry sprayed with gathered twigs

re-inker & the perfect pearls.

Mini cards were sprayed with V/Velvet

& then a quick spritz of P/Raspberry

added to the back of each.

They were lightly over-stamped with text
and V/Velvet was sponged through a
Crafters Workshop Harlequin Stencil,
prior to having the images & quotes added.

 

Hope you like it as much as I do. The shimmer is gorgeous!

Edited to add I have also entered this in the
Kraft Journal Paris or France Challenge.