She Who Stamps & Scraps

Guest Designer @ The Artistic Stamper

It's my first spot guesting at The Artistic Stamper and the rule is only a sneak peek is allowed on my blog... hoping you'll pop on over to check out my project.  Thanks so much for the visit!

Marjie 

Art Journal Cafe Guest Designer

What a thrill to be the very first guest designer at Art Journal Cafe!  I was beyond honored to be asked... those ladies are super talented and the word is spreading like wildfire about their brand new site.

The current challenge is to use magazines - either for images, backgrounds, text - or all of the above.

I took Dyan Reaveley's classes a few months ago in Massachusetts, and I was really drawn to the pages she shared that had partial torsos. I promptly developed an eye for spying 'good ones' in magazines and now have quite a few on hand. If you ever get the chance to take Dyan's classes and pore through her journals... don't think twice about signing up.  I could have sat for 12 hours straight poring over her journals... her work is amazing!

For this page I used paints, distress and archival inks, glimmer mists, posca paint pens, distress markers, stamps, and stencils.  I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone's pages using magazines... sure hope you'll join us at Art Journal Cafe! 

Many thanks for the visit!

Marjie

Eclectic Paperie Guest Blogger

I was so excited to be chosen by Eclectic Paperie as a guest blogger for their new art journaling challenge, along with fellow blogger Melody Schwartz. Here's the theme:

                               
So many ways to go with that one!  I knew I wanted to show a woman and that I wanted her to fill the page (and this is a small book... only 5.5" X 8.5"). I went with a technique Julie Fei-Fan Balzer taught in a class years ago, where we made our own masks by clipping models from magazines.  I like this chick's pose with her hand on her hip and the attitude her body language conveys. I used lots of stamps, Ranger archival inks, paint, Dylusions ink sprays, stencils, and paint pen.

One of the things women are known for is keeping calm and carrying on.  One of my favorite teas has "Calm" printed on the tags so I used that in a few places, and added some eyes as we must also be watchful for ourselves, our families, and friends.

Back to the hop:

• Visit each E-Team blog participant and the guest bloggers to leave a comment to win a $25 eP GC. Comments can be left from May 23-May 28th. Two random winners from the blog hop will be chosen. GC winners posted May 29th.

• Join the E-Team journal adventure and post your journal page on the eP blog. Two people will be picked to join the team next month. They have until Sunday June 3rd to upload their journal page inspired by the monthly quote. The next E-Team guest blogger will be announced on Friday, Jun 8th.

Here are the E-Team links for visiting:  

Daisy Sparks

Micki Harper

Sherry Cheever

Starla Nelson

Broni Holcombe

Plus guest blogger:

Melody Schwartz

Hope to see your entry to the E-Team art journaling challenge very soon!

Marjie

Unruly Paper Arts - Ink Techniques - Mixing Wet & Dry Inks

Today's my first appearance as a columnist for Unruly Paper Arts. Hope you'll pop by!  The theme all month has been Ink Minx, and there is loads of inspiration over on the blog. My column is on ink techniques, and my tags are inked with a variety of Dylusions Ink Sprays, Archival Inks, and Distress Inks (all by Ranger). I started with this:

And ended up with this:

I used tons of stamps and stencils on this project, and I've included a lot of stepped-out photos in the column over at UPA.   Hope you'll pop over to see the whole thing.  Thanks so much for the visit!

Marjie 

Leap Year Layout

Today's my last time as Visiting Artist at Gingersnap Creations, where the theme is Things That Leap.  The gorgeous background paper is from 7 Dot Studios. It's their new Wonderland collection, which I'm loving.

The title letters were originally a very shiny brown. I dulled them with sandpaper and then recolored with different Ranger Color Washes. The leap year letters, red numbers, and metal (Ideology) are Tim Holtz, and the tan numbers are Jenny Bowlin. I forget where I got the Scrabble letters; the notebook punch is Fiskars.

This was a piece of 12X12 paper that I cut down.  I used a strip of text paper (spritzed with Color Wash) to cover the seam and then finished off the bottom with a strip I'd run through the notebook punch... this enabled me to keep the dark edging on all sides, even the cut ones.  Hope that makes sense.... that there are no white cut lines, just good grungy edges.

As this month Scrapbookers Anonymous has a "G" theme going, I'm hoping the gears on my clock will count.

Thanks so much for visiting.  Hope you enjoy this day that only comes around once in a blue moon.

Marjie

 

Gingersnap Creation Challenge - 2 Colors

This week Gingersnap Creations is kicking off a new 2-color challenge (I went with black and blue.) It's my fourth week being a Visiting Artist over there and I've so enjoyed hearing from old friends and new as a result. Thanks, Gingersnaps!

I made my card with multiple blues from Ranger:  distress inks, archival inks, and color wash. I love layering colors with lots of different stamps. The most economical piece of this card is my 9 cent stencil.  It's a piece of laser-cut wood that was in the clearance bin at Michael's last week. Shaped like a flower, you can see it on the top left.  I sprayed color wash over it and now it's a brilliant blue in it's own right.  I think I'll use it several more times as a stencil and then eventually spray it black and use it on something as an embellishment.

Loads of stamps on this one, including one of my favorite Dyan Reaveley backgrounds (that funky alpha one.) I stamped Tim's sentiment in black distress ink and heat embossed with clear powder.  I edged the sides of the card with black distress ink, heat set, then ran Versamark over the edges before dipping each edge into clear embossing powder and heat setting.

Thanks so much for the visit!

Marjie 

Gingersnap Creations - Faux Technique (Faux Enamel)

Back again as a Visiting Artist at Gingersnap Creations... I'm loving this gig!  This week the Gingers are doing faux techniques.  I knew as soon as I heard the theme I would finally try the faux enamel technique Shelly Hickox demonstrated on her blog last summer. Yes, I've been meaning to try this for six months!  Shelly made the little round number tag in her project and I couldn't get over how she transformed her supplies into what looked like the real deal.

I started out by painting my chipboard white (4 coats), then inking it with broken china, frayed burlap, and shabby shutters distress inks.  I stamped Wendy Vecchi's sentiment and flower stamps in olive, coffee, and black archival ink, and Dina Wakley's woman stamp in black archival.  I inked up the edges with frayed burlap and black soot distress ink before applying 3 coats of UTEE with my Heat It tool.

My stamped lady image didn't take the way I wanted so I treated a chipboard heart with all the same inks, then stamped the part of the lady on it that needed improvement, and again did the same UTEE treatment. Adhered it to the base with Multi Matte Medium. (Same for that little heart on top, as an accent.) I added some ornate trim with hot glue.

I hope you like this technique and that you'll give it a try. It's pretty amazing what the UTEE does on paint/chipboard.  This piece really looks and feels like enamel. Be sure to visit Shelly's blog along with Gingersnap Creations for more ideas.  

Have a great day!

Marjie 

Masking Tape? Really?

Last week I shared my first Visiting Artist post for Gingersnap Creations and I was so happy to do so... but this week they gave us masking tape as a challenge.  Hmmm. Not so happy!

I thought.  Thought some more.  Flipped through mags.  Googled.  Nothing was calling to me.  Not even remotely.

I decided to just apply some masking tape to old patterned paper and see how it would take color applications.  The answer was Notsomuch... until I put those taped papers into embossing folders and ran them through my Vagabond and then colorized them.  Then.... holy smokes!   Here's a little book I made for my honey:

 

The masking tape sheen sort of comes through the color wash.  It almost looks like I hit it with Perfect Pearls Mists.  Here are the individual pages (double click to enlarge):

I used Butterscotch and Lettuce Color Wash by Ranger plus 8-10 different embossing folders (Sizzix and Cuttlebug) plus black archival ink (Ranger).  I kind of like that you can see the seam on the cover page from where two strips of masking tape meet.... looks like a crack in leather to me.

The page shape is Sizzix's parchment die from forever ago. Some stuff doesn't go out of style. The metal is Tim Holtz Ideaology.  I also used Tim's hearts dies and some older Sizzix circles and letter/number dies.  

So in the end, I'm glad I was pushed by the Gingersnaps challenge.  I'll also enter this in the love challenge at Paper Issues and the heart challenge at Inspiration Emporium.

Thanks so much for the visit!

Marjie 

 

Art Journaling: Words of Wisdom

It's my great pleasure to be one of the two Visiting Artists at Gingersnap Creations for the month of February.   This week's theme was Words of Wisdom.  Pretty heavy stuff!  I hemmed and hawed for a few days and then asked my kids what they thought of when they heard that phrase.  My eleven year old said "Fortune Cookies!" and I very quickly knew just what I wanted to do. Even better, it required a trip to buy some FCs, so he got a little payback for his idea.

Here's a pic of stage one...I painted my white pages with gesso and then used gel medium to attach some paper bits and scraps that were laying on my desk.  Then I added some green water color paint, but didn't like the result:

I added acrylic paints and Ranger Color Washes in a variety of layers. After attaching and painting my fortunes and a few 7 Dots Studio stickers, I started stamping:

The final stages included more layers of color, stamping, and stenciling of distress and archival inks:

Oh, and here are the fortunes:

* Better ask twice than lose yourself once.

* Knowledge and not doing are equal to not knowing at all.

* Love is the affinity which links and draws together the elements of the world.

* Forgive the action, forget the intent.

* Trust is earned by many deeds.

* Consume less. Share more. Enjoy life.

* Integrity is doing the right thing even if nobody is watching.

* In the end, all things will be known.

* Nothing is so mcuh to be feared as fear.

Thanks so much for your visit.  Hope to see you over at Gingersnap Creations!

Marjie

PS - if you're new here be sure to look at the top of the page for a chance to win two great books by Tim Holtz!  Prize drawing will be Monday, February 6th.

 

Grungy Monday 10: Dream Triptych

It's my privilege to be a guest designer for Linda Ledbetter's Grungy Monday Challenge #10!   I share the honor with Karen Mathews in Ireland.... don't miss Karen's work here.  The theme this week is Distress Ink Free-for-All... make anything you want using Distress Inks or Reinkers as the main component.   

Surely you know that Grungy Monday celebrates Tim Holtz and really... don't we all?  You can see Tim's amazing work on his blog here.  For this challenge I altered a plain triptych from A Stamp in the Hand.   I went heavy on the Distress Inks, and also used a few Distress Stains and loads of Tim Holtz stamps and masks.

I started by staining the triptych with a few coats of Distress Stains (wild honey on each panel + fired brick on the edges.)  Then I used five different Distress Inks (wild honey, spiced marmalade, aged mahogany, walnut stain, and vintage photo) to stamp the panels and in several cases, worked around masks and stencils.  

I used a ton of Tim Holtz stamps from eight different sets:  Bitty Grunge, Stuff to Say, Creative Muse, Papillon, School Desk, Going Somewhere, Just Thoughts, and Purely Random.  Also a few of my older wood-mounted Stampers Anonymous stamps and a Hero Arts script stamp, plus some misc dream-theme and collage-y ones from my stash.  Basically, a whole lot of stamps!

The stenciled words (Dream and Imagine) are Stampers Anonymous stencils and the masks (fence, compass, barbed wire, flourishes) are Tim's. I used some of Ranger's Coffee Archival on the word stencils as well.  Also used a bit of  Ideology hardware from Tim - a  sprocket, game spinners, word charms and an ornate plate.

If you're a fan of Tim's and not yet a member of the All Things Tim yahoo group, please consider this your official invitation.  It's a great group led my list mom, Gloria, and you will be thrilled with all the ideas, inspiration, and creative support you find there.  Check out the Grungy Monday photo album there as well, and be sure to upload your creation too.  There just may be a prize drawing... you never know, but you've gotta be in it to win it!

I can't thank Linda enough for this opportunity.  It was a little daunting that it was a Free-for-All instead of a specific technique, but that ended up being a good thing because it definitely opened up my imagination.   Remember to check Karen's blog too!  

C'mon along and join us this week on Grungy Monday #10!