The Land of Lost Luggage

I spend time wondering...

I spend time wondering what my life will be like 10 years from now.... do you?

6x6 journal page using up some of the "resist" paper I made for Crusade 21.

Crusade 21: Irresistible

Another month means another GPP Street Team Crusade! You can check out the beautiful tutorial and details for this month's crusade by clicking here. Don't forget; anyone can join in on the crusades!

 

The Crusade is to make a wax resist using crayon and then to embellish it with paint. For my resist, I wrapped paper around some glasses I have had for a while. The pattern of the glasses is called "Clover" and it is one of my favorites from the "old job".

I made three pieces. Two with red crayon and one with white. I think the white one was my favorite. I painted some interference paint on top of it to spice it up a bit.

This shot is with the camera flash to show the special effect paint...see that glimmer of purple near my signature? Love it. You can really see that purple flash when you turn the paper in the light!

Here is the white paper thrown into the 6x6 mini-journal. I had to escape the back pain and contractor pain today and play along.... Thanks, Michelle!

GPP Street Team: Crusade 20- Casting Call

I have to tell you, this month's Street Team Crusade took a lot out of me. You can read about the Crusade details on Michelle Ward's blog here.

In my quest to stop buying anything new and use what I have, I refused to head to the local craft joint to buy a $2 pack of Sculpey to cast with. Of course, this was not required for the Crusade, but I had it stuck in my brain that I needed to make castings of some vintage keys for this crusade. I did what every mother of a toddler would do, I stole my child's Play-Doh while she was sleeping to start with.

Play-Doh took about 5 days to harden totally, but unfortunately it cracked and broke into smithereens when I tried to pick it up. Plan B.

For Plan B, I tore strips of scrapbook paper and whipped it up in my Cuisinart, grabbed a foam stamp, and followed the directions again. I waited about a day and a half for the pulp to dry completely and then went to seperate the new cast from the stamp. My dumb cast broke in half.

All of this could have been avoided if I would have parted with my $2 to begin with.

Since the piece only broke into 2 pieces, I fixed it up by using heavy gel medium to patch up the fault line. That dried for 24 hours.

The "tile" was still really fragile. I quickly decided to toughen it up with acrylic paint in a glazed tile like fashion. After adding the paint, I laid in a heavy coat (flooding the whole piece) with Golden's "Clear Tar Gel". The tar gel took about 2 days to dry up (it goes on with a haze and dries clear) and I am left with this embellishment that may make it onto the cover of a journal or into a bigger assemblage piece one day:

I think the tile is about 4x4". I am happy with it. Moreover, I am happy that the Crusades really make me stretch my brain muscles and think about what I am doing.

Update: You remember Crusade 19? Cut it out, Stencils? Check out my daughter's bike. Hit it with the spray paint the other day. Can't wait to take it to the park!

 

Thanks for stopping by and listening to all the jibber jabber today! I am really enjoying the Street Team- anyone can join. I hope you head over and take a look for yourself!

More quick projects... (& the famous transfer tutorial)

 

fronts: gel medium and/or acrylic ground for pastels transfers embellished with paint. backs: hand cut stencil + spray paint, acrylic, pen

Several of you asked for transfer tips yesterday convincing me that I could really host a 24 hour cable access television show regarding the subject! Behold, the most requested Lost Luggage tutorial of all time- Transfer How to - over on my "old" blog. Look around while you're over there...I divulge all of my most favorite tips and tricks. There are two "old blogs"...one for reviews and tutorials and one for art before Typepad.

If you have questions regarding the transfer process, please post them in the comments here. That way, I can answer for everyone to see!

By the way....have you checked out the GPP Street Team Crusade this month? It's all about cutting stencils like I have above and inhaling spray paint fumes. What are you waiting for? You know you want to.....

Thank you so much for stopping by today!! Have a great weekend!

GPP Street Team: Crusade 19

This is a warning to all readers. Please take this post very seriously. I want to show you first hand what will happen if you embark on this crusade: Cut it out II: Stencils.

This is how it will start...a few innocent bottles of spray paint picked up here and there...

Then you acquire a stencil burning tool with your craft store coupon and you're off and running....and running.....and running.

The next thing you know, you will have been burning stencils for a month and you take out a small loan to buy really fancy spray paint in oh so delicious colors....and then you ignore everything around you and burn something like this:

The area in your garage, under your car, looks like this and your husband can't figure out why you're spending so much time in there:

The truth is, my friends, burning stencils is much more addictive than cutting rubber block; and I have it BAD.

I feel so good now that I have that off my chest! I no longer have to hide my two black fingers in shame...I can quietly peel stray paint off my fingernails in peace. If there is an organization for stencil cutting addiction, please nominate me for president.

I spray a little somethin somethin on just about every journal page now..I love the look of overspray and handwriting! You should give it a try...but don't say I didn't warn you.....

I'll wrap this up by saying...you should really try this. Michelle made a beautiful tutorial to get you started! Check it out here!

Crusade 18: Put a fork in me...

Cut it out- make your own stencil or stamp...sounds easy enough..except, one stamp easily becomes two stamps which become 5 stamps... I digress..

First I cut this "love" stamp using my handwriting as the guide. I love it. (Couldn't help myself...) This is the page in my journal I made with the "love" stamp.

That's when the cutting bug set in...I cut these...

...and then these; using them on this journal page. And theeeennnnnn after that, I am pretty sure that's when I got crazy-eyed and decided to cut this (I am not sure how I went from 1x2.5" blocks all the way to 4x6"...I should have built up more stamina first!):

I printed out that tree image and colored it in with charcoal pencil. Pressed the image onto the rubber and voila! Tree image, ready to cut. This one took about 2.5 hours to cut out..I have a nice, raw, calloused finger to prove it. Of course, I inked that one up for the journal too:

Head on over to the GPP Street Team blog and try this now. I insist. You'll love it too! Have a great weekend! I am going to rest my finger and I'll see you back bright and early Monday morning!

Stampers and the street team collide! (And no one got hurt!)

WS: In your garden . 6x9" journal page with hand carved stamps, acrylic paint

Here we are with another garden project! I'm normally not this "gardeny",  but I couldn't pass up this weeks Wednesday Stamper! I've been carving little 1x2.5" rubber blocks into vine like doodles and I used two of them on this journal page. I've carved 4 stamps so far; it's really addicting!

Page close up; Interference Green, machine stitching.

I'm still carving stamps! Once I finish, I'll post all of the projects for one great big Street Team post! Thank you all for stopping by today! See you again soon!

Decompression Weekend

The weekend is here! The great, childless, extravaganza weekend that we have been looking forward to is finally here! The three "f's": Friends, Flea Markets and Food! Hooray! I'll tell you all about it on Monday....hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures!

This page is the sister page of the "lounge" page I showed earlier this week. I made this transfer the same way as the first page, with Golden Acrylic Ground for Pastels. I am really happy I dug my mediums out of storage...hopefully I can make a few more transfers before the Binge is finished!

And now hear this! It's time for GPP Street Team Crusade 18!

The crusade this month is called "Cut it Out": make a custom stamp or stencil. Like many supplies sitting around here, I purchased the lino cutter set several months ago with the intention of using it long ago. But as soon as I saw the awesome stamps Michelle Ward cut, I knew I had to try it; and HOOKED I am! I only have a few 1x3" carving blocks at the moment, so I am a little limited, but I had to post early this month to tell you about the absolute ease and fun of this project! Here is a sneak peek of one of the stamps I cut yesterday- using my own handwriting! How cool is that?

I'll post for this Crusade again this month I am SURE. If you have not tried cutting stamps yet- you have got to try it. It's so easy! For me, I have to get my hands on large cutting blocks...I can tell this is going to be a great month! See you next week!