JAM 12 favorite season

My favorite season is just starting, spring.

The fresh new beginning of life, still full of hope.

I started by writing the word spring with a piece of rope, this is one of my hardware store finds for the let’splay theme of March.

Next I painted everything in a fresh spring green.

Finally added the only rub ons (that was the creative challenge with this prompt) I have in my stash but which coincidentally work wonderwell with the theme.

masterboard to card

I promised on wednesday I would show you what this masterboard

would turn into.

Oops, the days have slipped by and it is already Saturday.

Well with the moto better late then never here is the card I made with the masterboard

I justed stamped this amazing image on it and cut it to size.

How did the masterboard come together?

I started with a large piece of watercolor paper and grabbed all of my circle stencils (because the biweekly theme over at The Craft Barn is to use circles in the background)

First I applied some texture paste through one of them.Then I went to town with my Dylusions spray inks.

Next I added some more stencilling and stamping with a stamp

 I made from anti-scratch selfadhesive felt from the hardware store, which in its turn is this month's Let's Play theme 

I still have plenty leftover from the masterboard ready for a next project in the nearby or not so nearby future, we'll see.

life is one big party

This weekend I went to the DIY store searching for things that I could use as an art supply.

Why did I do that?

Because it’s this month’s theme over at the Let’s play challenge.

Because, according to Carolyn, using supplies that aren’t meant to be used as a craft supply frees you up of the worries whether you are using it correctly, because there is no right way, because it wasn’t meant to be used as a craft supply.

Logic, right?

So what did I find... this gluing aid that is used to glue down tiles.

And what did I use it for... as a texturizer on the gelli plate

Isn’t that one awesome print.

The minute I pulled it from the gelli plate, it screamed party to me.

So I added some funky stenciling, dancing girls, swirly embellishments and the quote:

Life is one big party, enjoy every minute of it.

So this is my entry for this week, I did find some other possible art supplies. 

Curious what they are? 

Stay tuned and you’ll find out!

spread love, not war

For this month’s Wanderlust challenge we needed to be inspired by a pattern and use markers and/or pens.

I found the pattern on these candlelight holders interesting and inspiring.

So I set to work and came up with this.

Because the pattern has an oriental feel to me, I used my mosque stencil, which is a handcut, very whimsy stencil (these were the days before my silhouette cameo).

Here is a step by step:

First I glued down some pieces with Arabic text on it and applied a layer of blue with the playcolor sticks.

I stencilled some bubblegum pink Dylusions paint through a floral stencil of which the pattern is similar as on the candlelight holders.(  I haven't used the paints in months, not since I moved back to my attick studio, although they are just next to me on display on the shelves so I guess this spread also qualifies for this months let's play theme of neglected supplies.
)  Next I applied black paint to the mosque stencil and I wanted to use it as a stamp, but failed, it just left some black marks as can be seen on this picture. 

Instead I just stencilled it, love the texture that came through the black from the layers underneath.

When everything was all dry I took my posca paint pens and started doodling.

All of a sudden a heart appeared in the tower. So I will be entering this in the Craft Barn challenge, hearts and no red. 

This heart lead to the title of the page: spread love, not war.

neglected art supplies - distress stains

Another supply that can use some dusting off are my distress stains.

Why do I suddenly think about neglected supplies? Well head on over to Carolyne Dube's blog and she'll explain you everything.

So I cut some tags and grabbed my stains and was all set for some play time.

This is an overview of the results

And here are the details

watercolor technique = applying distress stain (DS) to craft mat and swiping tag through it.

watercolor technique and stamping with DS

from left to right:

watercolor technique + DS blown with air can

drawn pattern with crayon (acts as a resist for the DS) + watercolor technique

watercolor technique + dauber dots

some textured tags
left: glue down crumbled up tissuepaper and add some DS 
right: scrunch up the still wet tag after the watercolor technique,
then add some DS to the crunches.

these ones didn't really turned out as hoped.

left:watercolor technique + watersplatters

centre: watercolor technique + placing a babywipe for a while on top

right:apply layer of babyoil, on top watercolor technique

I turned the tags in a little booklet for further reference by simply putting a bookring through the holes.

forgotten toys - alcohol inks

This month’s theme over at the let’s play party is neglected art supplies.

I had to think a bit about this, after all they are neglected and forgotten about, but then suddenly I could think of a few, one of which is alcohol inks.

I believe these bottles were one of my first purchases when I started my mixed media journey a couple of years back, after some initial play they were abandoned and they have been sitting on my shelf since then.

I did some searching on the net and pinned all different kinds of techniques with alcohol inks.

I grabbed my bottles and started playing.

Because they were neglected they didn’t feel precious to me anymore and that made me feel free to experiment with them.

(I can remember when I just bought them and knew exactly how expensive they were,let me say I was very careful with them)

Enough of me talking let me show you the results of my play time.

blown with canned air
something my son also really enjoyed doing.

I think this must be my favourite technique
marbling in water,
super easy and look at that result.

gessod cardstock, double embossed.
embossed with machine
and heat embossed with silver.

this effect was created with hairspray and AI.

metallic sheet, embossed and AI added.

glossy cardstock swiped
 with applicator with AI and alcohol

stippled with applicator.

AI and alcohol on craft mat,
card swiped through.
Love these colors.

stippled on a piece of acetate.

Here are 2 techniques I tried but didn't turned out like I hoped it would

colors were first swiped on (do not like the colors)
then stencilled.
The stencilling didn't work like I hoped.
You should be able to poor it in the stencil and it keeps it together
but mine seeped underneath. so I used the applicator instead.

AI on CD, stamped and heat emboss on top.

Something I also learned following Carolyne's Permission to play workshop, besides using non precious supplies, is that you do not have to create finished pieces every single time. 

So I just had fun creating these, 

are these finished? 

no,

but I am not putting pressure on me to do so.

JAM 4: favourite color/plastic wrap

Hello there,
For challenge no.4 we needed to use plastic wrap, well I already used plastic wrap on the gelli plate and with spray inks, but never with acrylic paints, until now that is. I painted a sheet of watercolor paper with purple and pink paint, made them a bit more fluid with some water, added a piece of plastic wrap on top and wrinkled it up. Then came the hard part, leaving it to dry overnight.

and this is how it turned out

pretty cool.

Cut my circle out of the sheet of paper, now I have some left overs for something else.
Stamped stars in some more purple and pink and added a layer of magic fibres.(something I already have for years in my stash but only used once I believe, so you could say neglected and let that be the time for this month's Let's play challenge too)

Exactly the magical background I wanted for my fairy scene

ancient city

Carolyn Dube is hosting a rediscover how to play challenge this year, yeah awesome!

I think it’s kind of a continuation of her permission to play class, if you haven’t taken this class yet I can highly recommend to do so (and pstt it’s even free)

Every month there will be a challenge which you may or may not follow, you can link up to 3 times a week and each month there will be an awesome price to win, like a 50 dollar gift certificate to Dickblick this month.

So on to this month’s challenge which is to use something that would have been thrown away.

I must say I need to interpret that as something that someone else would throw away, as I am a total hoarder and see a use in pretty much everything. (much to the dislike of the DH)

Here is the evidence to show for it, a bin full of “junk”

So I dived in and pulled out these, some teabags and a crown from a cake decoration (it’s a tradition here in Belgium on January 6^th to eat a “three kings” cake which has a crown on top and a treasure hidden inside, whoever has the treasure is king for a day).

I started by glueing the crown on my page as a border

Applied a layer of gesso

Suddenly an ancient city appeared to me (probably due to the fact that we are currently searching for our next summer family holiday and I’m looking at Italy in particularly), as it is on both sides of the page it looks mirrored.

I used a blue gel stick and a babywipe to color the sky blue.

Added some script stamping and colored the holes in different colors of the rainbow.

Don’t know for sure whether it is complete (I know I didn’t use the teabags, these will go back in the box and appear somewhere else no doubt), but for now I call it done. And didn’t Carolyn say that it is not about finishing, but about the play.

I must say I’m still not in complete play mode as I overthink way too much each step, and worry about the outcome…

But heay I’ve got a whole year to join in the fun and find the inner kid in me again.