Variation On A Theme...

On Monday, during the StencilGirl / Lost Coast Designs blog hop I created a somewhat silly spread in my journal.  (BTW, it's not too late to get in on the fun or the prizes in that blog hop!)

Today I've decided to pull out a few other materials, namely this wonderful little coloured 'paper pocket' and a tag so that I could create a cute little variation yesterday's theme.  It's all really quick funny, since I've never been concerned about birthdays or my age, but I know some people are and so the idea was born.

I had this newsprint on which I had cleaned the dictionary stamp I used in the blog hop post while I was doing the background Gelli print.  I tore a couple of pieces from it to glue to the pocket and the tag.  Then using Inktense pencils, a stencil, the little black insert from doggie poo bags, and some acrylic paint I added some additional colour and texture.



Notice the drippage...drippage makes me happy!



Since all the additions resulted in the backgrounds not being totally flat, I stamped the two bird stamps on to deli paper, tore the images out, and adhered them using matte medium.


Add some magazine cut outs for the text, some fun tassels to the tag using yarns or whatever you have on hand and you've got a cute little birthday 'card' for that special friend who's celebrating the --th anniversary of their 29th birthday!

The message says, "A little bird told me it was your birthday...-but don't worry...I put an end the THAT!"

Here are the two pieces separate:

 

And what they look like with the tag tucked into the pocket ready to be presented to your friend!

Blog Hop Featuring Cecilia Swatton's StencilGirl Designs...

I'm participating in another fun StencilGirl Blog Hop, this time featuring stencils designed by Cecilia Swatton!  I'm using Cecilia's "Swatton Grid" and "Mimosa 6" stencils today.

6" x 6" Swatton Grid

6" x 6" Mimosa

Sometimes you have to work smarter, not harder, so today I'm doing just that.  I'm thinking ahead to the busy Christmas season, and I want to make my own gift tags this year.  I also want to get my November art journal calendar spread done, so in comes the 'smarter'.  

I cut a bunch of these little tags out of card stock, hole punched them and then pulled out may art journal calendar.  

I spritzed some yellow Dylusions ink spray on the page and used a baby wipe to swirl it around a bit.  

Then I arranged the tags onto the page and the fun began.

Since November can be such a dark, gloomy month, pulled out my bright spray inks and sprayed through Cecilia's stencils to create some beautifully colourful patterns on the page.

Here you can see me spraying some grass green through the "Swatton Grid" stencil.

After creating all of that fabulous background colour and texture, I removed the tags and set them aside.

I pulled out my Liquitex paint markers and added some outlines and numbers, etc. to the calendar spread.

Then I added some extra texture to the journalling blocks by stencilling some white through the stencils, alternating  "Mimosa 6" and "Swatton Grid" 

I added the name of the month and the year and the calendar spread was done.

And now to get back to those Christmas tags I was making... I added some doodles to the beautifully patterned tags using a gold Pearl Pen and all they need now is a pretty bit of gold yarn and they're ready to go!

I hope you've enjoyed your stop here!  Remember there's a giveaway on the 

StencilGirl Talk blog and Cecilia will also have a giveaway of her own on her blog.  

ALL comments in the entire hop are eligible to win. 

The more blog's you comment on (one comment per blog please), 

the more chances you have to WIN! 

The giveaway will close on Sunday, October 27th at 11:59PM Central Time.

StencilGirl Talk

Cecilia Swatton

Linda Kittmer-you are here

Linda Cain-hop over here next...

Carolyn Dube

Corrine Gilman

Judy Shea

Kirsten Reed

Jessica Sporn

Maria McGuire

Art Tags...a Little Something from Nothing

When I'm working with either watercolour or acrylic paint these days, I like to keep a couple of blank tags on my desk.  Instead of wasting the paint that's on my brush when I want to change colours, I doodle with the brush on one or both of the tags to use up as much of the paint as I can.  I end up with some interesting backgrounds and then later, I can add some doodles and lettering with a black pen to finish the tag.

This first tag was made using Twinkling H2Os or Twinks as they're often called.  I was working on some of the pieces I started on Saturday night.

I've also been playing around with writing with my glue gun (a lesson in the Letter Love 201 class).  I had a package of sparkly glue sticks in gold, silver, red, blue and green, so I thought I'd see what the gold and silver looked like using this technique.  I must say, I think I prefer the control I get from the dimensional Pearl Pens, and they seem to result in a very similar look, but the one neat thing the glue gun lets you do is create a dimensional word on your not stick mat and then pick it up and use it as an embellishment on another piece.  The Pearl Pens may work for this too, but I'll have to experiment to be sure.  The glue gun glue certainly dries quickly which is a real bonus!

While painting some of these with Silks acrylic glaze, I was again cleaning my paintbrush on a couple of blank tags.  You can see the painted tags on the right of this shot.

After doing some sewing, I went back and added some doodles to the tags using Pitt pens in black and silver, and a white Signo pen.  So far, I think I'm liking these tags more than the glue gun words, but I'll have to reserve judgement until I figure out how I'm going to use them in an art journal page.

And finally, here's a page I created using one of the glue gun words.  I did the word on a navy blue card stock and then lay it over the white journal page before spraying it with a copper Perfect Pearls mist.  I then moved the dark card stock out of the way and sprayed some bright yellow Dylusions ink onto the page.  I off set the card stock so that it would give me a bit of a bright highlight along the lower edge and to the right.  I added a quote in that space.  Finally I used a star shaped hole punch to cut the stars in the card stock and then I glued them randomly around on the yellow paper.  I found that the gold glue gun glue didn't show up as well as I hoped so I added a bit of a highlight using the white Signo pen. It actually stands out quite well but I couldn't seem to get a good shot that does it justice.

Artful Random Act of Kindness Tags

The other day I, after watching one of the Creative Jump Start videos, I pulled out some tags, spray inks and stencils and played around a bit.  

Then I wondered what I would do with these little pieces of art and after thinking about it for a bit I decided to use them to make little RAK tags.  I continued to decorate them by adding some acrylic paint and when I liked how they looked I printed up some labels to stick to the back and added tassels.

 
Over the next few days, my plan is to give them out as I do some RAKs for people around town, and hopefully they will continue to make the rounds.


Wouldn't it be amazing if one found it's way back to me eventually?