Monthly Archives: August 2013

August 24, 2013 · 6:13 pm

Tango Time!

Hello hello! I’ve been having a wonderful and creative few days here at Create Chicago. Taking awesome classes and visiting with pals I’ve met at previous Create retreats here in Chicago. My first day here I took a class from the (in)famous Sue Pelletier. The class was called Create The Dress You Were Meant To Twirl and Spin In. Sue is a mixed media maven extraordinaire and it is absolutely charming to spend the day learning from her.

I made my dress a bodacious little tango number in the color my mother would never let me paint my room. I really enjoyed the process and building layers upon layers of paint and lace and ephemera and flowers. I will add a few more finishing touches when I return home tomorrow but for now…..anyone up for a tango???

Art Out With Your HeArt Out

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Filed under Mixed Media Mania

Tagged as bling, Create Chicago, katyoparty, mixed-media, SuePelletier, tango, texture

August 14, 2013 · 10:33 am

Dragonfly Dreams Canvas

Dragonfly Dreams of Being a Mermaid

This is an 8″x10″ canvas board I picked up at a thrift store earlier this summer. I’m guessing it might be 15-20 years old because I got eight of them in various sizes that were still in their original packaging and all for $2! What’s a girl to do with all those blank boards but start smooshing and spreading and getting her hands messy!

I started out with summer colors–bright orange and turquoise blue but as you can see that didn’t last long. I ended up with “mermaid colors”. The dragonfly began as a Tattered Angels piece that I misted and then built up with acrylic paint, Inkagold, and Shiva Paintstiks. At some point it was outlined with a Pitt pen.

The canvas itself is layered over and over again. I started out experimenting with Kroma Krackle and I am in love with this stuff! You can see the deep cracks in many areas. I put it down on one layer but then went back with it several times after adding more layers with different mediums.

My “swaying” peacock feathers were stencilled with glass bead gel over several layers of paint, mist, and Inkagold paste. I love the variations of color that you can see through the bead gel. I continued to layer with 3d stencil paint and then toned down the gold with Smooch sprays, Lindy’s Stamp Gang sprays, and Shiva Paintstiks.

I also used Golden Crackle Paste to stencil some flowers randomly in one of the first layers I put in the background. I used some Vintag metal brads to anchor a simple organza ribbon for hanging.

I am happy with the way this canvas evolved and turned out. Thanks for visiting and come back soon because you never know what can happen when you….

Art Out With Your HeART Out

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Filed under Mixed Media Mania, Musings

Tagged as dragonfly, katyoparty, mermaid colors, mixed-media, peacock feathers, Shiva Paintstiks, texture

August 10, 2013 · 10:05 pm

Passion Blossom Greetings!

Yesterday I made this simple card I call “In The Pink”. A bit of fussy cutting and some flowers!

In The Pink

Happy Day! Thanks for visiting!

Art Out With Your HeART Out

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Filed under Musings

Tagged as flowers, fussy cutting, katyoparty, pink, Prima, sweetheart

August 9, 2013 · 1:03 pm

Summer Potpourri–Car and Gardens

Hot Summer Wheels

Hello hello! Isn’t that the most beautiful summer car??!! Yeah–too bad it isn’t mine, but it does belong to a good friend. I thought I’d share some of the other things I’ve enjoyed this summer.

In June I went to a garden open house at the home of a local garden guru. It was absolutely gorgeous with the profusion of colors and vignettes around the property. Here are some of the shots I took:

Tiny drops of sunshine

A proliferation of perfume!

Purple buzz

A cornucopia of cacti!

Tiny Stone Gardens

Soothing Symmetry

Lush and Lovely

Circle in a Circle

The Artist’s Palette

Pond in Purple

Shaded Serenity

Sweet Eternal Slumber

I hope these images have given you a moment to take a deep breath and smile. Thank you for visiting today!

Art Out With Your HeART Out

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Filed under Musings

Tagged as flowers, Imperial, katyoparty, palette, summer

August 8, 2013 · 10:47 am

Transform It!

Hello hello! I wanted to share a layout I did this week for the August Swirlygirl Challenge over at Swirlydoos (http://swirlydoos.com/news.php). This month’s challenge is hosted by Christy at Creating With The Girls (http://creatingwiththegirls.blogspot.com/). The goal was to take a piece of paper and transform it’s look using whatever you wanted. Since I am a fan of mixed-media I pulled things from my bag of tricks….

Here is the Before:

Cotswald Manor by Splash of Color

This month’s kit from Swirlydoos is filled with the most beautiful papers it was hard for me to choose one to transform. They were all gorgeous on their own! That said–here is what I did…

In The Pink

I recently received some corrugated snowflakes in an RAK from the Funky Junkie Boutique (http://www.thefunkiejunkie.com/) so after gluing those down I continued layering with various and sundry mediums to get to the end result.

Here is a close-up:

I am obsessed with pink right now and can’t seem to get enough of it! The photo is from a clipart sheet I bought several years ago from ArtChix Studio (http://www.artchixstudio.com/shop/home.php?dir=home).

Here is a list of the supplies I used to create this:

Dylusions spray colorant in White Linen and Funky Fuschia

Inkagold in Rose

Liquid Pearls-Flamingo

Gelatos

Prime and Bo Bunny flowers

Plaid craft paint in County Twill

Versacolor ink pad in Peony

gesso mixed with Dylusions in Funky Fuschia

Heritage 3d Stencil paint

Thanks for visiting today and don’t forget to

ART OUT WITH YOUR HEART OUT

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Filed under Mixed Media Mania, Musings

Tagged as flowers, katyoparty, mixed-media, pearls, texture

August 7, 2013 · 7:59 pm

Summer Potpourri–Art Journal Update

As promised here are some other things I’ve been working on this speedy summer–where has it gone??!! My arting time has been more sparse than I prefer but I have been doing some creating! Here are a few art journal pages I’ve done this summer. I am still enjoying working in my art journal and experimenting with new ideas, supplies, and techniques.

I have been putting tape over my center seam on every set of pages to prevent bleed-through. I have also been gessoing every page for better “tooth”. This page I did some paint washing and then stamping and used some felt letters.

Acrylic paint over gesso, metallic paint, banner with Stickles “stringer”, stamping, outlined lettering, papers from stash.

Love the patterned paper I bought in a grab bag and also love the big bloom stamps and little poppy scraps from my stash. Acrylic paint on the edges.

One of my fav pages–hearts everywhere!! Heart stencils, heart stamps, hearts for everyone!

Must’ve been a blue day huh? Dylusions mists, Inkagold sparkly 3d paint, stamps, modeling paste. Fun and free flowing!

Experimenting with black gesso. One of the points of art journaling for me is that I want to use up some of those bits and bobs that are left over from projects. Too small to be a project on their own but I can’t bear to part with them. This page uses modeling paste colored with alcohol inks, embossed metal that is painted with gesso and alcohol inks, tiny laser cut butterflies colored with Smooch inks.

Last but not least…muted soft beachy colors and metallic acrylic paint. I textured the page with bubble wrap, and a piece of cardboard cut so it had teeth, a cardboard roll was used to make circular patterns along with a foam circle and square shapes.

Thank you for sharing my art journey and spending a bit of time with me today! Look for the glimpses of beauty in your everyday life and…

Art Out With Your HeART Out

4 Comments

Filed under Art Journal, Mixed Media Mania, Musings

Tagged as art journal, beachy, katyoparty, mixed-media, pattern, scrappin, texture

August 7, 2013 · 7:33 pm

Playing With Paper 53

Hello hello! I discovered the super fun app Paper 53 a few months ago and have been ~~wasting time~~ playing with it. If you haven’t given it a try you should. The free version is okay but for a few bucks you get all the tools. Here are some of my doodles…