Friday, June 30, 2017

Art Every Day, June 30, 2017

The roller coaster of June is finally over.

My piece for today is a sunset, which closes out my first full month of returning to art every day.  The background is watercolors, the silhouettes of grasses and bushes are from a great rubber stamp.



This month has had a wide spectrum of emotions for me.  My husband and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary, a grand occasion for us.   And, sadly, on the very same day, our beloved cat, Dempsey, passed away at age 17.   We will miss him terribly.  

I am ready for a new month.


Thursday, June 29, 2017

Art Every Day, June 29 2017

Today, there are two pieces, cards made at the same time.and sharing parts of each other.  This duo was my take of a card duo from Jennifer McGuire, who made an almost identical (only hers is much better!) pair of cards.  I saw her video, and having the same stamp, decided to make my own version.  Making two cards at the same time was a great bonus!



Art Every day, June 28, 2017

Today's creation is a page that I made using white embossing for the pattern, then painted with watercolors.  A spritz of shimmer mist and it was done.





See you tomorrow!

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Art Every Day, June 27, 2017

Here the latest art every day creation.    This was inspired by a piece that Marta did (Maremismallart) on you tube.  (And with a nod to Piet Mondrian...)


Digital age watercolor

See you tomorrow!

Monday, June 26, 2017

Art Every Day, June 26, 2017

Now that I have caught up on all the daily art pieces, today's post will be much shorter!

Item 26/365:  This postcard started with Karat Aquarell watercolor crayons.  The next layer was sprinkled Brusho powder.  Then I added a bit more of the watercolor crayon to a few areas.  Since this will probably be posted out of the USA, I covered the entire surface with acrylic glaze,  And finally, just for a pop of white, I added a die cut hello.



Watercolor crayon, Brusho postcard

See you tomorrow!

Sunday, June 25, 2017

Art Every Day, June 25, 2017, Part 2

The internet seems to be working well today -- some days it is pretty poor here -- so I will do a second post and catch up with all the Art Every Day images.  

Item 18/365:  Acrylic painting of birch trees used for a postcard that went to the Czech Republic..  

Birch Trees Postcard


Item 19/365:  Acrylic abstract postcard.  This one went to the USA.

Abstract in acrylic


Item 20/365:  Acrylic abstract postcard.  This one went to Portugal.

Abstract in acrylic


Item 21/365"  Humorous thank you postcard.  Totally ridiculous and probably not politically correct, but I cut the figures and text from a damaged commercial card and re-purposed them for this postcard.  The bottom text says "if you want to find happiness, find gratitude"  Sending this one to a friend who loves cartoons and comics.


Thank you for a cartoonist friend


Item 22/365.  This is a watercolor painting done on photo-printing paper, it is not a photograph.  I've been needing a few thank you cards lately.  

Watercolor sunflowers on photo paper


Item 23/365:  Another journal page.  The moons are cut from hand painted bits of paper.  

Explore journal page


Item 24/365:  Very elaborate collage of  "stuff" I had hanging around on my work table.  

Clean off my work table journal page


Item 25/365:  Same Wplus9 stamp that I used on item 16/365, but with a different color scheme.  This is a terrific stamp!  You will see more of this stamp, as I still have a few uncolored ones waiting for my brushes.  




So ... I am finally caught up with all the pieces done since June 1st.  Stay tuned for ones still to be made!

Art Every Day, June 25 2017

Yesterday, I started playing catch-up with my art every day restart.  Today, more images, this time, items 9/365 through 17/365.

Item 9/365: A photograph postcard for one of my Postcrossings mailings.  Postcrossings is a worldwide exchange center of for postcards that is fun for all the participants.   This particular card is of a road going up a canyon just a couple of miles from my home.   This card went to Germany.

Indian Creek Road


Item 10/365:  This is another postcard for Postcrossings, one that went to a young girl in Russia.  She was very interested in fairy tales and I found this unicorn image and made a postcard from it.  Hope she likes it.

Unicorn Card sent to Germany


Item 11/365:  This postcard went to the Netherlands.  Brusho was my choice for the background, this time both painted and sprinkled, then I added gold embossing paste through a stencil.


Art Card sent to the Netherlands


Item 12/365:Watercolor crayon for the 1st layer, then Brusho and finally, acrylic gloss medium.  This postcard went to Australia and I wanted to make sure it was waterproofed for the trip.


Art Card sent to Australia


Item 13/365:  Ths postcard is a collage of many types of hand painted and distressed papers.  It went to Germany.

Art Card sent to Germany



Item 14/365:  I created this postcard using inks for the background, First I added the inks, then while they were still wet, I covered the inks with crumpled up saran wrap and let the card dry.  Then, I added a fern leaf created from translucent embossing paste which I had tinted green.  This card went to someone in the US.

Art Card sent to USA


Item 15/365:Another photograph of a mountain road near our home.  This postcard went to New Zealand.

Road in the Big Belt Mountains


Item 16/365: This card uses a rubber stamp from Wplus9 designs.  The first layer of color in the flowers and leaves is from alcohol markers.  After that I did all the shading with colored pencil (one of my favorite mediums).  This card went to Taiwan.


Postcard sent to Taiwan


Item 17/365:  The last entry for today is a journal page.  I finally discovered my bird feeder and hung it this week, so this page celebrates that milestone.


Bird journal page

Saturday, June 24, 2017

Two Years Gone

After two years away from the blog, I'm back.  It has been a very stressful two years, but things are finally back to normal for me.  What has happened?  To make a long story short, a multi-steps move to a new home in Montana, near loss of my dear husband to heart failure, his retirement, and losing my mother to Alzheimer's disease.  Plus a host of smaller things.  But now all is good.  Hubby's health has improved and we are finally settled into our new home and are loving it.

With this new start, I am going back to an old commitment:  art every day.  I returned to this on June 1st, so this post (and the next few, as well ) will be my catch up of all the first 24 projects completed.  And, of course, the daily project, too.    Onward ...

Item 1/365.  (Item one of the 365 for this year.)  This greeting card was inspired by a card made by Jennifer McGuire.  The bird houses are 6 layers of cardstock thick, cut from a gorgeous die, as are the cute little birds.  The branch is hand drawn.  The leaves, bushes and sentiment are stamped.  


Item 2/365:  This greeting card was inspired by Sandy Allnock.  I saw her use some Brusho (which I had just gotten) and this looked like a great way to experiment with the powder.  Her card was MUCH nicer -- she is a terrific watercolorist and I'm just a dabbler -- but I was pleased with the experiment and will work with the Brusho powder a lot in the future.




Item 3/365:  A new white stamp pad was the inspiration for this greeting card, with white "grasses" stamped onto Neenah Desert Storm cardstock.  I used a bit of scrap cardstock as a paint "brush" to add the black scratchy lines, a little sentiment from a Tim Holtz package.  It was a fun, quick card that I really like.



Item 4/365:  Back to Brusho.  Here, mostly sprinkling onto wet paper, then wetting the powder even more.  Fun and the results were unpredictable, which  I also enjoyed.



Item 5/365: And even more Brusho.  The powder is so much fun and gives really interesting abstract results when sprinkled and wetted with a fine spray.


ITtm 6/365:  Brusho, once again, but this time on top of a die cut series of hexagons that were cut, painted separately, and reassembled.   If this were larger, it would be hanging on one of my walls.




Item 7/365:  A small watercolor painting of grasses in the early morning sunlight fronts this greeting card.  Multiple strands of fiber cross the front and are anchored by  a decorative button.




Item 8/365:  Inspired by Leslie Weinrich (the frugalcrafter), this card is made of patterned papers cut with a hexagonal punch and assembled to resemble a hex quilt.  Then, I embossed the entire thing to resemble quilting lines.  It was fun, fast and looks very "quilty."




More to follow.  It is so good to be back!