Category Archives: Mixed Media Mania

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

3 Comments

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

July 30, 2013 · 4:07 pm

Summer Art Potpourri

Hard to believe that summer is flying by so quickly! Completely amazing! I hope all of you are enjoying summer fun, good times, and lots of the beauty of nature. So much inspiration can be found all around us if we take the time to notice. I could probably spend a month of Sundays trying to get that purple shading and flow and nature reproduces it flawlessly time after time.

Here are some of the things I’ve been working on since my last update.

A good friend had his 70th birthday party and was his usual serious self–of course I had to memorialize the moment.

It took all my restraint to keep the layout masculine and relatively unadorned. I framed it and gave it as a gift to he and his wife.

Restraint be damned when I got to this layout! I could not get enough flowery adornment on this page!

Switched gears from scrapbooking to some mixed media work on the canvas cover of a mixed-media album. I used gesso mixed with modeling paste to do my bricks. The frame and corner pieces are resin covered with black gesso and Inkagold. I made this project at the Swirlydoos art camp in June. The class was taught by Design Team Member extraordinaire Rachel Moses. I love my framed worry doll!

Worry Doll Mixed Media Mini-Album front cover

Worry Doll Mixed Media Min-Album back cover

My goal this summer has been to use up items in my stash because it seems to reproduce exponentially when I’m not looking. This layout I used some strips of fabric to make my ties along the top. I used some gelli plate printed doilies, ribbon,and stenciled glass bead gel.

The next layout is one featuring a picture of my crazy little fox terrier mix–Sophie. Do not be deceived by this precious photo of her slumbering comfortably on my husband’s pillow.

Lots of distressing and flowers and texture but the main thing about this layout is that I used a piece of paper that I had been “hoarding” for about four years. Yay me!

I have more projects to show next time. See you soon and thanks for visiting today!

Art Out With Your HeART Out!

5 Comments

Filed under Mixed Media Mania, Musings

Tagged as canvas, flowers, katyoparty, mixed-media, nature, texture

June 20, 2013 · 7:03 pm

It’s Mixed Media Madness Baby!

I am away at an art retreat for a few days and having a great time! Here is what I’ve been creating today! TFL!

Art Out With Your HeART Out

2 Comments

Filed under Mixed Media Mania

Tagged as blue, burlap, flowers, green, katyoparty, paint, texture

June 17, 2013 · 1:55 pm

Cozumel Mini Flip Through

Peacocks in Cozumel

Hello Hello! I finally got my mini-album done for my Cozumel, Mexico trip! It’s been several months since the trip but I am so easily distracted in my art life….first I got a Gelli Plate, then I found some awesome heavy-weight watercolor paper at a thrift shop, then I started experimenting with video….you get the picture–easily distracted.

I am sharing the picture above of some peacocks because it is one of the pics in the finished album and because I was fascinated with them while on vacation. Once I discovered the peacocks on the grounds of the hotel I pretty much went and saw them every day. Oh yeah–mini album–right!

I did a short video flip-through on the album. Thanks for looking!

Art Out With Your HeART Out!

Featured Member

Hello Hello!

I am pleased to share that I have been selected as the Featured Member of the Month for June over at Swirlydoos (http://www.swirlydoos.blogspot.com/2013/06/featured-member-katyoparty.html). I enjoy being an active member of the community there and I am honored to be featured on their blog. TFL!

Art Out With Your HeART Out

The Butterfly Messenger

3 Comments

Filed under Mixed Media Mania

Tagged as butterfly, featured, katyoparty, messenger

May 31, 2013 · 4:59 pm

Picture This–Hands and Hexagons

Recently I had the pleasure of hosting the May Swirly Girl Challenge on http://www.swirlydoos.com/sd_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?206934. As host I had artistic control over the theme and guidelines for the challenge. What to do? What to do? I’d recently started playing with the hexagon paper shapes and was considering ideas for using them. While brainstorming with them I placed a couple on my fingers thinking they would be the perfect size for use as rings. That got my little wheels turning and that is how my challenge theme was born. Hands and Hexagons.

I began looking through my photos for a candidate for my layout and hoping for further inspiration for using hands and hexagons. I came across this picture I took in Alexandria, Egypt, of one of the fisherman fishing off the ocean shore. I was amazed by how long the fishing poles were that they used. This particular picture I had printed in a rose colored tone for no particular reason. Perhaps the Universe knew all along I would need it to fit perfectly with the color scheme of this layout.

I traced my hands and cut them out. I am fascinated with the art of Mehndi so I used one of my stamps to simulate the look of that by stamping on the cutout hands. I shaded the edges to add some dimension and eventually glued them down around the picture as if they were framing the scene for the shot. Lots of layers and distressing underneath. Added my hexagon “rings” and simply could not resist some glittery nails!

I have a great appreciation for well-done hands by artists. One of my favorite hand artists is J. D. Hillberry. He does charcoal and pencil drawings and I own a few of his astounding pieces.

Here are links to a few:

Thanks for spending some of your time with me today. Your visit is appreciated.

Art Out With Your HeART Out

4 Comments

Filed under Mixed Media Mania

Tagged as distressing, glitter, hands, hexagons, katyoparty, layers

May 30, 2013 · 7:42 pm

Hooray for Hexagons

A few weeks ago I had a fun art date with myself and started playing with a pile of hexagon cut-out shapes I had left over from a die-cut piece. They were black cardstock when I started on them. I layered some white gesso on and then began painting some with acrylic paints. I went on to make designs with StazOn inks and stamps, doodled with Signo markers and then embellished with random brads I had in my stash. Here is the first batch:

As I progressed I began using clear embossing powder on some and I also began experimenting with texture paint and pastes.

Yummy texture and patina

Stamped with Versamark, brushed with Perfect Pearls and then clear embossed.

I was really happy with the way this one came out–love that subtle xray look!

Old china look

This one I stenciled with modeling paste, then used blue embossing powder and white embossing powder, clear embossed over that and then went back with some brown ink to highlight the stencilled design. I am pleased with the aged china look.

Rusty patina

I began doing more layers with inks, embossing, modeling paste, paints, and trying for the metal look.

A crackle stencil with homemade decopauge mist, paints, and inks, clear embossing over top.

Experimenting with different stencils and modeling paste.

Aged copper patina

Hooray for Hexagons!

It was so fun to play with embossing powders again and to combine them with mists, inks, paints, modeling paste. I encourage you to revisit the supplies you have in your stash and experiment with new ways of combining them. If you are like me you have probably learned new skills and have new ideas since the last time you played with some of those old mediums. Go forth and

Art Out With Your HeART Out!

8 Comments

Filed under Mixed Media Mania, Musings

Tagged as embellishment, hexagon, katyoparty, mixed-media, patina, texture

May 24, 2013 · 3:38 am

Learning From My Art Journal

It’s been several days since I began my Art Journal Experience and I look forward to it every time. I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve learned so far.

–You can use up a lot of bits and bobs that you’ve been saving. The entry above I finally used the rose in the vase illustration which I had cut out of an old children’s book and had in my stash for at least 5 years.

–Don’t put a brad through the previous page without figuring out how you are going to camoflauge the back of it on the next page. Lesson learned. My least favorite part of this page is the metal tape embellishment I put over the back of the brad (upper left corner).

–Put masking tape over the center seam of the book before you cover it in gesso so your paints, inks, etc., don’t leak down into the book spine and bleed over into other pages.

–Put scrap paper under each page you are working on to keep any overflow mediums from going over the edges onto already done pages or the next page. Some people may not be as picky about this as I have discovered myself to be!

This page is pretty much strictly paint and a bit of Lindy’s Stamp Gang mist. I started out wanting to use up some of the scads of leftover alphabet stickers in my stash. You know how when you buy alphabet stickers and use up all the “good” ones and then you’re left with lots of consonants? I’ve created several items in the past using these poor “old maid” letters. If you look closely you’ll see the stickers are the base of the stems, leaves, and flowers on this page.

I started out this page wanting to use some InkaGold color pastes. I started with those vibrant Dylusions Spray Inks and then progressed to Luminarte Silks paints, some metallic 3d paints and finally added some painted masking tape I made months ago. On this page I learned that I love all these rich and shiny colors together!!

Other things I’ve learned:

–Roll with whatever you’re doing–there are no rules in your own art journal. Use whatever colors you want and put things anywhere you want. You are the Boss With The Hot Sauce…or the metallic paint as the case may be.

–Be patient when it comes to waiting for things to dry. I am completely impatient with this and my heat gun is my best friend. There are some mediums that dry differently if you force dry them and it kills me to have to let them air dry naturally. I will keep working on this.

The most important thing as always is….

Art Out With Your HeART Out

7 Comments

Filed under Art Journal, Mixed Media Mania

Tagged as Dylusions, flowers, InkaGold, katyoparty, mixed media art journal, paint, Silks

May 13, 2013 · 1:32 am

A New Beginning–the artful way

This is how I spent some of my time today. I started my first art journal! What a wonderful gift to myself on Mother’s Day. Everything happens in it’s own time and this is a prime example. I’ve been looking at and admiring many artists’ art journals while following a parallel path on my own art journey. Always thinking that I would do some art journaling someday, later, or tomorrow. Right.

Recently while shopping for some other MUST HAVE NOW art supplies I happened across the rack of art journals. I’ve been through this routine before and I’ve looked at probably dozens of art journals without ever purchasing one. Just call me Goldilocks–I wanted one not too big, not too small, the paper had to be not too thick, not too thin, the cover had to be flexible but not flimsy–maybe I should be called Her Royal Highness MS. Goldilocks. In any case this time all journals were 40% off so I began the routine of ~~fondling~~ perusing all the journals. I mean ALL the journals. Spent about 20 minutes before I found IT. THE ONE! The perfect size (7″x10″), the perfect weight and feel of paper (#120 lb), the perfect cover (nondescript and unadorned but not plain). Did I mention it was THE ONE??!! Took it home and…put it on the shelf for a couple of weeks.

I moved it around several times because it kept getting in the way. I picked it up and looked at it several times. The pages were so white and so blank and there were so many of them. I put it back on the table. It seemed no matter where I put the damned thing it kept being in the way of what I was working on. There was no way the Universe was going to let THE ONE get lost in the shuffle. So today on “my” day, Mother’s Day, I opened my new art journal and played. I got all the pretty colors on the page from the feeling in my heart as I reflect on my blessings of true love, sweet family, good friends, good health, and the companionship of a sweet dog.

Art Out With Your HeART Out