Walking Home

 Why walk home when you can have a walking home?

Hello everyone!

Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge is Architecture/Building, so I decided to have some fun with my home and Dylusions with a fairy tale/myth theme.

 

I started with a page with previous paint and stencil layers.  On the bottom is Dylusions Old School Numbers with blue paint.  I love using already started backgrounds.  It can take a daunting task, like a white page, and make it completely manageable.  I actually went through a few different pages before I settled on this one.

The house and legs are magazine cutouts.  So save those old magazines!  I also know my library at times will clean out their stash and sell the old copies for super cheap.  Go exploring and see what speaks to you.

The mushrooms are from Dylusions Doodle Parts.  I had stamped one, colored it, and cut it out a long time ago.  So I made a few more and colored them in with Tombow markers and some Artist Loft markers.  I really like these because they are saturated with gorgeous shades, and the two different tips allow for detail work and wide strokes.  I purchased mine individually, but the sets are also really good because they give lots of colors for you to play and the two tips allow for experimentation with different strokes and shading.

 To cut the mushrooms out of the white cardstock, I used an amazing tool.  Tonic Studios scissors with the burgundy handle.  Very important note with scissors: if you use a set of scissors on fabric, DO NOT use them on paper.  Yes, that's right, keep separate pairs for fabric and paper.  Paper dulls the edge of the blades, which means fabric will fray when you cut it, or try to cut it.  My Tonic pair are my paper scissors.  I have a separate, smaller pair for fabric that I will go into at another point.  And I must say, those are marvelous as well.

I searched through my stash for die-cuts dealing with home or adventuring, and arranged and glued everything down.  I also used my Sharpie pen to outline everything. 

Dylusions Journaling Block is a fantastic tool for many reasons, including using it to stamp Dylusions border stamps, which is what  used it for in making this page.  I also have to give a shout-out to my Archival Black Ink stamp pad.  Oh my goodness so I love this pad.  It lasts a long time (I'm still using mine years later), it's crisp, and you can put anything over top and it will be fine.  Or it can go over anything and look fantastic.  And have no fear, it comes in a wide array of colors.  Now there's different types of ink pads: dye, pigment, embossing, to name a few.  Archival is special, at least to me.  It's ink is permanent and vibrant.  Now the set I took my border stamp from is called Inbetweenies.  And yes, it's Dylusions.  I may be slightly obsessed with Dylusions.

I really enjoyed making this page, even if it didn't turn out exactly the way I expected.  No matter, it's the fun that's important, and I most certainly had a lot of fun!

Thanks for coming along on another adventure with me.  Bye for now!

Anything Goes ATC Style

Update: Links are fixed!  Thanks for your patience!

 

I love ATCs, otherwise known as Artist Trading Cards.  They're the size of traditional trading cards, such as baseball, but they're mini works of art.  Low commitment and expectation due to the small surface, but also great for experimentation.

This week the Monday Challenge for Simon Says Stamp is Anything Goes.  So I went with an ATC to play around with.  I grabbed a journal card from my stash, trimmed it to size with my American Crafts paper trimmer, and went to work.  I will say I've had this paper trimmer for a long time and it still cuts like it's brand new, at least in my crafty opinion.  Mine is definitely well-loved.

A little housekeeping before I get into how I made this little beauty.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.  Some products I've used I've included links to add these fantastic goodies to your supply.  Now, on to the making!

 

I started with some gelli printed deli paper that I adhered with a gluestick.  The stencils include an older Dylusions stencil with bricks and large numbers, a clean up print, and Tim Holtz Layered Stencil Patchwork Stencil.  I'll do another post about that.  The grungy alpha stamp is from Paperbag Studios called, aptly enough, Grunge Alpha.  This was I think the stamp's maiden voyage.

I also used Avery Reinforcement Labels, a chipboard circle, a orange and white striped triangle sticker from Pinkfresh Studios Dream On collection, a Citrus Twist Phrase Sticker (the yellow one), and two phrase stickers from a random sheet I have.  I've had monthly memberships with a couple different companies, so I have lots of supplies that aren't commercially available.

For the border I used an Emerald Green Uni Posca Paint Marker with a bullet tip.  You can purchase them individually, but this is a good starter set of the basic colors, plus black and white.  Never underestimate the glory of black and white paint markers, they're worth their weight in gold!  I love colors, don't get me wrong, but I tell anyone I discuss my art with, white and black add that amazing pop to colors.  Nothing like it.  I also love black and white pens, which are also worth their weight in gold.  One of my favorites is this Fine Point Sharpie Pen.  It's slim and easy to hold, gives a nice line that's not too thick, and the felt tip writes on most surfaces.

A finishing touch is a little transparent plastic arrow from my stash.  Thanks for checking out my project.  Bye for now!

Mash Up Time

 Why hello there!  I'm so glad you came back.  This post is about art journaling.  More Than Words has a wonderful challenge for this month called Mash Up.  You choose two or more themes from the previous six months and make an art journal page.  I had a lot of ideas running through my head.  I looked through magazines for images that fit somewhat with my theme.  I had an idea of using clocks and a house.  I really liked the idea of using Time, and then I was thinking Love Letters or Green as a second choice.  Looking through I came up with a few other ideas as well, but then I settled on something I love that many others also love, the movies.

Movies are magic, and you forget time when you're there.  I love that.  You're swept away in the story, no matter the genre.  So I had my theme, my images, and I pulled out my art journal.  Now my art journal has lots of pages with partial work on them.  I've played before, stamping, painting, stenciling, so many pages have the beginnings of pages.  Here's where a funny part happened.

 

I opened my journal to a page and it already had letters stickers for the word "movies" as well as background work.  Then I was struck by another idea.  Another theme from the mash up was art supplies.  So I used Time, Love Letters, and Art Supplies.  I'm using my page as a love letter to something I love, the movies, while also using a letter stencil in the background and letter stickers.  I also used time in the "3, 2, 1" part of the spread for when you actually film a movie.  And I used plenty of art supplies in general on this page.

I hope you enjoyed your visit today.  I know I love when a page comes together somehow randomly.  Bye for now!

Greetings from Art and the Kitchen Sink!

Greetings everyone!  How're you all doing today? Who's ready to talk crafting?  Wow, that's a lot of hands.  And yes, I see you, the Hermione clone in the back with your hand waving.  I love that enthusiasm.

All of you are smart cookies, so I'm guessing you all have done some kind of crafting before.  I'm talking knitting, drawing, painting, scrapbooking, card making, art journaling, gelli printing, stamping...the list is endless.  And even if you haven't done all of them, you've done one or two.  Doesn't matter if you just started or have been doing it for years.  It all comes down to fun.  Getting your hands dirty, right?  If your hands aren't a kaleidoscope of color when you're done, you haven't played enough.

Oh, and me? Well, you can call me Georgie, and I've done a lot.  Some I dipped my toe in, others I went full tilt.  Some people talk about bringing their work home.  I did the opposite, hah, at least with my art.  Have a little art kit to play with on lunch.  And oh my, the looks, the stares, the questions.  Bottom line?  I don't care.  Art is my time to chill and play.  Just if you have to be somewhere, set an alarm or timer...bosses don't consider art play an excuse.  However, if your work life includes art, even better!

Why, you ask, is my blog called Art and the Kitchen Sink?  No doubt you're all familiar with the phrase "everything but the kitchen sink."  It can be applied to almost anything in life done to an extreme.  Usually joking around.  I've discovered that in the crafting world, just about everything can be considered some form of craft.  And you can lose yourself, in a good way, to said crafting.  So when you're playing with your choice of crafting, you can tend to try everything, including the proverbial kitchen sink. Hence, and the kitchen sink.  Nothing is off limits.

To give a sampler of my work (and believe me, it's definitely a sampler), I've included a banner I put together in about 30 minutes for this area.  Trying to figure out  a way to put it up on the blog permanently.  I'll let you know how that goes.

So thanks for visiting my little slice of the blogosphere, and don't be a stranger.  I can talk about art forever, so if that sounds good to you, then make me a regular stop in your day.  Bye for now!