Friday, December 31, 2010

Spurt

This Artist Trading Card uses a Tim Holtz background technique.  One of my friends demonstrated this at our stamp club; it uses canned air to move alcohol inks around glossy cardstock.

Splurt

This beautiful stamp is from Stampendous.

Happy New Year everyone!

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Voyages

This started out as a set of three Artist Trading Cards, but my sister Dianne liked the third one and "traded" for it.  They are simple collages created with stamps.  Finally a strip of scrapbook paper and a Dymo label were added.

Voyages

Monday, December 27, 2010

Go Fish

Here are another couple of Zentangles I completed while in Montreal recently:

Go Fish

Go Fish2

Friday, December 24, 2010

Zentangle With Stamps

At stamp club in November I also demonstrated Zentangles.  One of the options we discussed was using stamps.  Here is an ATC I  made to use as a sample:

Autumn Leaves2

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Seasonal Joys

This Magenta stamp depicts some of the lovely things we enjoy at this time of the year.  I love it!
2010Seasonal Joys

Monday, December 20, 2010

Make Your Season Bright

These two cards use patterned seasonal paper, using one of my favorite layouts for using patterned paper from the New England Stamper.  Click here for details.

2010Make Your Season Bright2

2010Make Your Season Bright

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Happy Holly Days!

Thanks to my sister for lending me this stamp while I was in Montreal.  I got a start on my Christmas cards while I was there.

2010Happy Holly Days!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Peace on Earth

The Christmas cards are in the mail, so I feel that I can show them to you now.  This one represents my big Christmas wish:

2010PeaceonEarth

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Seabirds Read

Here is a bookmark I made with one of my sister's lovely stamps:
Seabirds

Friday, December 10, 2010

A Greeting for My Friends

I also completed my stamp club swap while in Montreal, using a very Tim Holtz simple technique:

November 2010 POMA swap

Ink a bold, solid stamp with distress inks, spritz with water, and stamp onto watercolour paper.  When dry, stamp the greeting using a permanent ink.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Fall Vintage

With all my gallivanting about, I forgot to post my October vintage collage Artist Trading Card.

October 2010

Ten Two Studios Holiday Image Countdown

If you like to use vintage clip art in your artwork, hop on over to Ten Two Studios and download some free images.  Each day between now and December 25 a new image will be revealed.

Please remember to share the link on Facebook, your blog, Twitter, etc.  This is one of the download terms, to share the link.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

To Peak or Not to Peak?

Another thing I did in Montreal was to work on my Christmas cards.   I'm never sure whether to post Christmas cards on my blog because the recipient may see theirs here ahead of time.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Greetings from Montreal

Well, not really, but I've been there and back and that is the reason for my long break from blogging.  I was visiting my sister Dianne, and we spent two weeks stamping and shopping.  What fun!

While I was there, I prepared for my demonstration day at my Stamp Club here in Vancouver.  My sister found a cool Tim Holtz technique in a 2003 Rubber Stamper magazine and together we created this sample:

Faux Bleach

This is a resist technique using manilla file folders.  You simply stamp in Versamark, heat emboss using clear powder, and paint using dye re-inkers and a water pen, allowing the colours to pool together.  Then you iron off the embossing leaving a faux bleach look.  (The file folders have a special coating on them that makes the ink pool together.)

Monday, November 8, 2010

Birdies Go to Paris

This time the birdies have teamed up with some Tim Holtz French Market stamps and have gone on a trip to Paris.


DSCN1917

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Feathered Friends

I love birds, and I must confess I own more than a few bird stamps.  I was inspired by StampingMathilda to get them out last week and create a few Artist Trading Cards.

DSCN1871-1

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Spritzed Backgrounds and Bleach

Here are a couple of Artist Trading cards I made on watercolour spray backgrounds.  I embossed the stamped images, bleached out areas for colouring and then coloured them using H2O's and pencil crayons.

DSCN1873

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Ink Catalogue

When I first started stamping, I stamped out samples of all of my ink pads in a sketchbook, so that if I was looking to match ink colours with paper, I would have something handy to quickly refer to.  Over the years, the sketchbook pages became overcrowded and an update was in order.

I recently finished that project, a 4" x 6"  book cataloguing all of my ink pads:

Ink Catalogue

The cover is a postcard I picked up at the Vancouver Art Gallery this week.  It is by LAIWAN, and part of a display called "Everything Everyday", about the art of the everyday object.  (What you see on this postcard are Vancouver bus transfers.  The actual work containing the bus transfers is much larger, but postcards were also created for us to take.)  It somehow seems fitting to the exhibition theme that I'm reusing the postcard of the reused bus transfers.

Special thanks to Susan Raihala for the great tips on photographing cards.  I'm going to be giving it lots of practice, but I tried it here for this book and I'm very impressed with the results.

Happy Hallowe'en everyone!

Friday, October 29, 2010

Octagons Part 2

The theme of Octagons (see previous post) brought quilts to mind:

Octagon blue Octagon random

Octagonal Blue3 Quilt Octagons4

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Coffee Time

This tree is a Spanish tree (what?  no difference?) viewed from a sidewalk cafe.

Tree

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Octagons

One of the October themes for the Vancouver Artist Trading Card Group is Octagons.  Using a hand carved octagon stamp for a background, I created some stamped ATC's for fall:

Fall Octagons2

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Castles Everywhere

This Zentangle was inspired by the many castles we saw in Spain.

Tower

If you are a Zentangle aficionado, you will have noticed that I do not do my Zentangles in the traditional way, with a random "string" to define the various areas.   I prefer to draw an outline drawing (here a tower) to be filled with "tangles". 

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Filling the Well

Those familiar with Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way will understand the concept of "filling the well".  Julia recommends a weekly "artist's date", to renew the supply of images and inspiration used up as we go about creating things.  I think of this as fuelling of creative fire.

A trip to unfamiliar shores is like an extended artist's date, and I'm recently back from three weeks in Spain and Portugal.  I won't inflict our tourist snaps on you, but I will say that to lovers of art, history and architecture Spain is a goldmine.

One of the things I cherish about such a trip is a break from the familiar.  I took very few art supplies; aside from travelling carry-on, who has time to create when there is so much to see?  I made a small journal to capture travel moments, itinerary details, etc. and took a black drawing pen thinking that a Zentangle would make good airplane amusement.  I collected lots of ephemera and will make a travel journal with some of the pictures my husband took.

Here's a Zentangle from my journal:

Bird Brain

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

August Vintage Collage

Although I'm not home to receive them, the August Vintage Collage Artist Trading Card swaps have probably been received by everyone.  I decided to try a black and white theme this month, and used a variety of clip art I had on hand, from a Dover clip art book.

August 2010_1

August 2010_2

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Tranquility

Wondering what a "clean and graphic" Artist Trading Card might look like, I made this, using a stamp I'd recently used in a vintage style.  (See Card Style and Tea Time).

Tranquility

The teapot is mounted on foam tape, providing a little dimension that you can't see in the scan.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Inchies for a Swap

At a recent stamp club meeting we gathered to share some paper engineering and distress ink techniques, and to swap cards.  Here are my swaps:
Thinking of You5
Thinking of You6

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Zentangles

Zentangles have become quite the rage amongst my artist friends, so I thought I'd give it a try:

Zentangle

"Zentangle is an easy to learn method of creating beautiful images from repetitive patterns." They are traditionally done only in black and white, although many artists use them as a base for adding colour. You can learn more about it here. The repetitive patterns are called "tangles", and you can find lots of patterns here.

It is fun and relaxing, and I'll definitely try more. It feels like it might be a good airplane distraction, so I plan to do some on my upcoming trip to Spain. (I might be doing one while you are reading this.)

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Never Too Early

It's never too early to start Christmas cards, especially when you've got new stamps!  (Well, they're new to me, and that's what counts.  I bought this set at a local community centre swap meet for $5 - it isn't complete, but I got 4 stamps - such a deal!)

This is definitely a "clean and graphic" card, right in my comfort zone.

Christmas2010_1

I hope you're all enjoying a lovely long weekend!  We're off to Spain on Tuesday, for three weeks, but I've been so neglectful in posting that I might have some things scheduled in my absence.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Tea Time

The August swap for the Vancouver Artist Trading Card Group included Time, Telephones & Teapots themes.  This was my piece, and it illustrates how difficult I find "vintage".

Tea Time 

I've been thinking about Black & White pieces too, lately, and so I tried this one, with some judicious use of masking:

Tea Time 2

If you want some Black & White inspiration, check out  Godelieve's work at Stamping Mathilda.  I love all of Godelieve's work, but I find her Black & White series particularly inspiring lately.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Vintage Collage Lovelies

Has it really been almost a week since I posted?  Tsk tsk.  And I've received some lovely artist trading cards to share with you too!  These are from a monthly vintage collage swap, and I'm honoured to receive such beautiful and detailed work.

July 2010

Here is my less than spectacular contribution.  I've been having trouble spending time in the studio in the heat of the summer, so I whisked a collage stamp onto some collage paper.  I promise that I've done something with more glue for August.

July 2010

Saturday, August 21, 2010

France Journal

The pictures from my last trip to France have sat in Cyberspace for almost five years. I'm not a scrapbooker, but I love artists books and journals. I've been seeking (well, maybe only in my mind), a way to reconcile these differences, and postponing my France Journal in the meantime.

And then fate joined me up with Lelainia over at Tattered Edge and with a new (to me) Bind-It-All machine. I suddenly wanted to sew things on journal pages like in Lelainia's Remains of the Day journals. (See here for Remains of the Day journal classes. I haven't had a chance to take one yet, but Lelainia says they are great.)

So, I hauled out my bulging envelope of brochures and maps from my France trip, and here is the result.

DSCN1791

DSCN1792

DSCN1799

DSCN1794

DSCN1796

DSCN1797

DSCN1798

DSCN1801

DSCN1806

I can now go on my next trip to Europe without feeling guilty about unfinished "business" from the last one. My DH has just booked us to go to Spain in September!