Oddball Art Dolls

Hi all….another Monday and with it comes Art Dolls. Yay! These were done for a swap over at AFA. Yep, Nanner’s Oddball Art Doll Army, WWIII.

There are some imaginative dolls reporting for duty there. What a blast it was to make these. They are movable and stand between 7.5”- 8” tall. Looking forward to seeing the returns from this swap.

Thanx for stoppin' by!

 

 Corporal

 

 Private First Class

Mercenary

What Can Ya Do With This Stuff? #5

Well hello all...boy have I missed being around here. Life happenings will always win out, yeah? Hope you all have been well, being happy, staying warm, and creating lots and lots of art.

I have been creating art on and off since my last post here and will try to get the projects up as time permits….But today, I bring you the latest installment of ‘What Can Ya Do With This Stuff?’. These pieces were made for my swap partner over at AFA in the Altered Gift swap.

Mini Matchbox Chest of Drawers

 

 

Now these charms were inspired by Roni over at Ink Stains. I totally fell in love with this idea when I saw it and just had to make some of my own. Thanx Roni! I did keep the blue one though. I made them to match the colors of the chest of drawers.

Magic Charms

Enjoy!

Taking Care of Business...Gothic Arch

As you can tell, these hands have been busy with many new projects. Been takin’ care of business...like ya do. This is the last of the new projects that I spoke about a few posts ago. Ain’t she creepy? Just in time for Halloween too.

So yeah, I found this girl at The Graphics Fairy blog and had to use her for this piece. Thanx again, Karen! Just a bit of my dark humor mind you.*Mutley laugh*

I cut a window out for the red sign...you can't tell, but it looks like it's floating in the arch. I used a clear crackle medium (you can't see the cracks, but they're there). Sand and Clear Glass Glitter were used that I colored with Alcohol Inks to get the "look" of blood and a muddy look. Distress Inks, markers. Collaged images. 4x6 in size with an easel back.

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Playing with papers, again...Paper Dolls

Can ya tell?...yup, I like to play with paper dolls...well, more like create them. With the help of Karen over at The Graphics Fairy blog, I had some beautiful Victorian Scrap Girl images to play with. Here and Here. Thanx Karen!

As soon as I saw those Scrap Girl images, I knew that they would not sit in my Image Library for long. I just needed patience (hey, I’m working’ on it!). Well lookie here, it paid off. As you may know from a previous post, my Muse and I played with some papers, inks and gel mediums. That was a fun day. That’s how the hats and dresses were made. These were fun to make too.

I took the color out of the images and gave them a sepia tone. Backed them onto chipboard, cut them out. Added Alcohol Inks to some German Scrap and used a Fiskars round punch to embellish the hat and dresses. Easels were attached to the backs to stand them up. (wish my pictures could come out better...sorry ‘bout that)

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Playing with paper...Faux Leather Experiment

This will be a short post but image heavy (read previous post). I wanted to try another way to make faux leather (you know, the texture, look and feel of it) and I got reeeeally close. Really.
 

 

 

 

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Nothing New Under the Sun...NEW!

Well now, it’s time for another installment from the Nothing New Under the Sun. Lets play with some papers, inks and gel mediums. It’s true, this is not my discovery…I’m not claiming it as mine either but my Muse really wanted to play.

I was hanging out over at Ink Stains the other week and saw that Roni had a Distressed and Glazed Brown Bag Technique that I found to be awesome and wanted to try it. Thanx Roni! Of course my Muse wanted to know what type of effects this technique would have on other types of paper and what effects an embossing folder would have on them. So I got to work (enlarge pics).

I had more Gel Medium than Glossy Accents and more Distress Reinkers than stamp pads, so I used these instead.

Three types of paper were used: a lunch bag (thin paper), Rice Paper (even thinner), and Kraft paper (heavy weight).

What was discovered…

The papers softened and became very porous once they were crumpled.

Do not flatten the papers (you want the inks to brush across the peaks).

Tape paper down with drafting tape to hold in place as you apply inks. Remove tape (can melt into sticky edges) before you heat set.

Dry each layer of ink a with heat tool. Use a pencil or some other heat resistant thingy to hold the paper down while drying.

Inks showed up best on the Rice paper (white).

A thin layer of Gel Medium was applied with fingers, and even though inks were heat set, a smidgen of ink did come off. No worries, you could hardly tell. Let this completely dry before using.

Gel Medium (even when dry) does not play well with embossing folders. It sticks! I had to pick out a lot of the stuck paper with a toothpick. Use WAX PAPER! 1. Embossing folder; 2. your pretty painted paper; 3. Wax Paper...close folder, run it through your machine. Wah-la.  

NOTE: Save your wax paper. Roni also also shares a Faux Embossed Wax Paper Resist at her site.

The heavy Kraft paper held up the best when applying inks, watered down inks and gel mediums. I used this one to further experiment and create my next project (more posts coming soon).

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Just in time for Halloween

Here’s one of the projects that I worked on in the last week. This card came out of a need to get my hands on my art toys again. Wanted to try my hand at a half window card but I didn’t wanna get messy per se, just wanted to play is all. Card making is one of my first loves….taught card making classes some years ago. I have a card making workshop coming up next month…(will try to take pics of the class). My Muse took me on a an exploration to find just the right elements to use for this card...had no idea it would turn out this way, but I am pleased with it. I just love trying new ways to make some magic.

As you can see in the first pic all the elements used. What you don’t see is some other toys that I have been drooling over for a while now…Movers and Shapers dies, and SpellBinders dies. So how did I get the “look” of the half window card you may ask? Ah, the magic of YouTube. This is where I found Valita's tutorial on How to make a Half Window card in the Cuttlebug. It’s amazing the ideas we come up with. Thanx Valita!

Well, I don’t have the Cuttlebug machine either so I used my Big Shot along with the Labels, Ornate #5 Sizzlits die. It worked! Once I got the formula down, I was good to go.

What you may not be able to see are some of the details in the finished card. The papers were aged with Distress inks. I used Cuttlebug embossing plates for the front half and swirly bits of the card. Used a silver metallic pen to make the dots around the borders. Sizzlits Skull charm was used (I cut the tip off) and used gold paper for eyes, nose, mouth. Inside: The tips were cut from the top/bottom of the Ornate #5 label and turned sideways. Ghost and pumpkin punch were used to add a bit of embellishment. Rubber stamps for “Boo” on silver metallic card stock, and an almost invisible stamped swirls on the opposite side. Well there ya have it.

Thanx for stoppin' by!