art project pics as promised...

...although a little late. Life intrudes at the most inopportune times, doesn't it?? I was planning on posting these pictures yesterday, but I had an extra-long day at work (FDA auditor + Monday... 'nuff said!), and didn't feel like doing anything once I got home except falling asleep on the couch in front of the TV after eating Filiberto's leftovers... it's a sad way to spend the evening, isn't it? I agree, but sometimes, it's just what happens. Today is another day, I left work at the normal time, and the audit is now over, with no observations- yay! Anyway, these pictures are from this weekend's crafting... I spent the afternoon cutting, pasting, and painting (I still have some acrylic paint underneath my fingernails... note to self: be extra careful with the black paint!) I am still not comfortable working with overly-large projects, so these are 4 x 6 inches, postcard size. These first two pics are a technique I saw on Flickr (I think from Jeannine P, although I don't remember for sure- there is such wonderful inspiration everywhere on that site!)

The colored sections are regular old Crayola crayons, scribbled onto a piece of watercolor paper. While I was doing this, Tom had to smell them, to reminisce... I think I heard somewhere that crayons are one of the most recognizable smells anywhere- I know they are for me. After the crayon scribbling, I covered the entire thing with a coat of barely-diluted black paint, then wiped it off the crayon areas, to create a "resist" effect. The circles are "stamped" with white acrylic paint, using lids off a couple drink bottles. (I have quite a collection of these odd things going; unfortunately, sometimes Pandora finds them, and we're woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of her shooting them across the kitchen tile...) The quote is a rubber stamp- that portion of the card was covered with a clear sparkle glaze, which was done to cover up a bit of a smudge, actually... but don't tell anyone!

These two pieces of paper were just to test out a couple of my newest toys, Heidi Swapp masks... they're cut-out images made of adhesive-backed plastic, and you use them like a stencil (only it's the opposite: the paint ends up around the image, leaving the image itself blank). I just realized this combines some of my very favorite things: books, the color blue, and plants and birds- funny how that happens, even when I'm not trying to do it. These bits of paper will be used for something- not sure for what, though...

This picture is also pieces of 4 x 6 paper, and it's another technique I've been wanting to try , seen in a recent issue of Somerset Studio magazine. It uses torn strips of regular masking tape and torn strips of magazine pages. The strips were attached to the background paper in an alternating pattern- the lighter strips are the tape, and the darker strips are the magazine paper. After attaching them, you get out the acrylic paint, start painting, and see what happens- the colors of the magazine paper are affected differently depending on the paint colors used... I also added some clear glitter glue for added interest, too. It was a bit futzy to do, but I like how they turned out. Here is the pink piece, finished off with a bouquet cut from a catalog and an edging of blue watercolor crayon. Now, I'm off to work on inchies for a swap, and maybe cut a few more pieces of 4 x 6 inch watercolor paper... (maybe I'll even mail some of these, seeing as they ARE postcard size!!)