Artful Journeys - Week 26: Celebrate!

Hey, y'all!!!  It's Melody here, bringing you this week's prompt - Patriotic/4th of July/Red-White-Blue.

239 years ago, on July 4, 1776, the Thirteen United States declared their independence from England, creating a new nation.  A nation which has been a melting pot for peoples from ALL OVER the world.  So, as July 4th grows near, we decided to honor ours, and all other countries - if you don't have a day of independence, then go patriotic with your spread, using your country's colors for your spread.

This week, tho she forgot what day of the week this was, Lynn threw together a cute little page for our prompt:

She said: "I started off painting half the page Robin Blue and the other half an off red, then added some Barn Red as well.  I stenciled the anchor and month in white, then added some larger circles, but I didn't like them, so I went back thru with smaller circles, which I liked a lot better, and really liked some of the blue peeking out.  I completely lost track of which day of the week it was, so this was just a super quick page, but it was fun, and I hope you like it.  Thanks for looking!"

Next up is my (MELODY) spread - I have had a really tough time creating lately, but I did have some great fun creating this spread.  You can see it HERE:

Next up is TAMIE'S spread, and I absolutely LOVE what she pulled off in her journal this week! Go read all about her process HERE:

BETTY is totally patriotic this week with her spread.  Check it out HERE

SHANA is traveling over the course of the next couple of weeks but will return with a vengeance after her travels.

We hope that you all find some inspiration in the work we have prepared and that you get in the patriotic spirit of our theme this week. Be sure and show us your creations over at Artful Journeys.

Have a wonderful week, and Happy Independence Day!

ARTFUL CHICKS
~~Betty, Melody, Tamie, Lynn & Shana

ARTFUL JOURNEYS - POP UP ART CHALLENGE #17

Hi everyone!  Betty here for your pop-up art challenge!
July is almost upon us, summer seems to be in full swing all across the country and the heat has set in for most of us.

POP UP CHALLENGE:  Create a July calendar in your journal using a patriotic theme.

I figured you expected this was coming. I love calendars in my journal. Helps me keep track of what I have created there, and when -- especially since I don't usually date work in my journals.


TAMIE created this fun calendar for her journal, even though she hates calendars as she has told us many times.  She used watercolor, a black Bic pen, a pre-printed calendar page and stamping.

BETTY - My calendar page was created independently on watercolor paper and then tipped into my 9x12 Canson wirebound mixed media journal.  Shaving foam background using craft acrylic paints. I had some really cool red & white music printed scrapbooking paper that I used to cut out some hand drawn letters for the "July" part, and punched out some flowers that I thought looked sort of like a fireworks burst.  I used a red Sharpie marker to add the dates and applied a couple of patriotic stickers and called it good.  I actually glued this in on top of a page I made a few nights ago that I hated so now I don't have to look at that horrible fail.  In hindsight, I should have masked off the two color sections  for this piece, but as usual, I was in a hurry.  Maybe next time I will plug my brain in before I haul off and mix two dark colors together all at one time!  LOL.

LYNN made this super awesome calendar for your viewing pleasure!  Great job Lynny!

MELODY says that her Muse has taken a hike, but she did manage to get this beauty together. Look at that interesting background!  

SHANA has been preparing for a long trip back to the land of cheese heads to spend some time with her family, but she will be back soon!

So there you have it.  Hopefully you can draw some inspiration from something we created.  Be sure and show us your July calendar at Artful Journeys when you finish!  We want to see!!

Have a safe and happy weekend!

ARTFUL CHICKS
~~Betty, Melody, Tamie, Lynn & Shana

ARTFUL JOURNEYS - WEEK #25 Fun with Beauty Aids!

Howdy, y'all!  Betty here this week!  Did we get your attention with that catchy title?

This week we have a fun adventure for you to help bring out your sense of fun and adventure!  Our prompt for you is to use shaving foam and any coloring agent to create at least one background for your art journal or other art projects you might have planned.  Of course you can go wild with this prompt if you like.  You aren't just limited to the "backgrounds" and if you want to paint with the shaving foam, go for it!  We're all about creating, experimenting and having F.U.N.!!

WARNING!!!  This activity is highly addictive and may cause total and complete excitement, amazement, joy and creativity!!  You have been warned!

I fretted all week about this prompt.  First, the hubs does not shave with shaving foam, so this is not anything I had at home.  I have never ever used this technique so I called upon our creative friend, Mr. Pinterest, and watched a bunch of videos, looked at several photo tutorials and knew this was going to be a blast.  Who doesn't like playing with gooey, messy stuff??

Please come have a look at all the great fun I had.  I had to stop after 10 pieces.  I could have kept on and on and on.  It was a blast!  You will definitely be seeing my efforts on future journal pages, even perhaps in a swap or two.  Come visit me here

MELODY couldn't stop either and made some outstanding backgrounds that you are just going to LOVE! Check it out here

SHANA has blown the doors off this prompt and will wow! you with her spectacular creation!  Check it out here

 

LYNN created these awesome pages, and here's what she had to say:

Ok girls--this was so much fun to do with the inks and the shaving cream. The two top ones I just used one color of the Niji Splash Ink in Magenta.

The bottom picture I use Dylusions ink spray on top of the splash ink in crushed grape. I only had a little bit of the shaving cream but a little seem to go a long way.

I put the cream in a pan and added the inks and cut my paper down to 4x4 and just put it on top and pressed down and then picked it up and took a credit card and scrap away the excess until it was smooth. I plan on doing more of this prompt and making backgrounds and tags with it.

Give it a try. This was the most fun I have had with a prompt since we started. P.S. It is a little messy but well worth the end results. Thanks for looking.

We hope that you get inspired and have as much fun and all of us did creating something for you this week.

Artfully yours,
ARTFUL CHICKS

~~Betty, Melody, Tamie, Lynn & Shana

ARTFUL JOURNEYS - Week #24

Hey, y'all!  Melody here again this week and let me tell you what, it's gotten hot down here in the Lone Star State, and with lakes, creeks and rivers still flooded, it feels even hotter...so this week's prompt is one that makes a perfect play into the start of summer!  Let's get to it, shall we?

First off, this week I had a really tough time with this one, as I just could NOT figure out what I was going to do, even contemplating just painting the page and writing down the lyrics to a song, lol.  But my muse stepped in at the last minute and saved me from embarrassing myself.  You can find my spread and read all about my process, HERE.

Next, we have Shana's take on this week's prompt, HERE, and it's pretty darn cool, let me tell you!  Hop on over a take a look!

Next up is Lynn's page for this week, and she didn't disappoint!  Here page makes me wish I had a sailboat!  Here's her page, and what she had to say about her take on our prompt!

"Sail away with me"
This week I had no clue what to do for this prompt and it took until the deadline to come up with something but in the end I came to really like it.

Painted the bottom with my new inks Niji splash ink in blue and the top I did the same ink in yellow. A little bit of this ink goes a long way. For the letters I used stickers and had a sailboat stencil lucky for me because there was no way I was drawing them. Can't hardly do stick people. Lol

So stenciled the boats in boat and white but now wish I had done 3 different colors but this will work good too. Added glimmer washi tape to kinda make it look like glimmering water and that is pretty much it.

Much easier then I thought it would be and happy with the end product. Thanks for going to the blogs and please leave some love for the girls they do a great job. Lynn ☺

BETTY  has made a fun and whimsical page.  So hop on over to her blog and check it out HERE 

We hope you all have a fantastic week and are starting to enjoy your summer.  We will look forward to seeing your creations at ARTFUL JOURNEYS.  Go out and make it an artful week!

ARTFUL CHICKS
~~Betty, Melody, Tamie, Lynn & Shana

ARTFUL JOURNEYS Week 23 - Song Lyrics!!!

Hey, y'all, it's Melody here for this week's blog post!

Interesting thing about music.  It can evoke many, many moods.  Pick you up, calm you down, help you focus, take your mind back in time...either way, it's a VERY powerful thing!

The team and I have put our collective heads together and had some great fun with this prompt, so let's just jump right in!

First up this week is Shana, and she really had some fun with this week's prompt....you can see her full spread and her process here.

Next is Lynn's prompt...and here's what she had to say:

This is my first song prompt and it was fun. I don't listen to music but I did have a songbook and picked a song called "Some Other Time". I tore it and glued it to the page and added a few bling pieces to it. Always have to use the bling.

Painted it a canary yellow with my favorite color pink and stenciled dots and flowers all over it so there was no white because Ms. Betty doesn't like white. LOL

And I even did a little sewing to give it more interest. At the bottom of the song it says a person name and then Sept. 14, 1978. That was very cool so I made sure it shown though. Had fun with this one and thanks for looking.

Next up is Miss Betty's super awesome spread for this week's prompt, and it's just as bright and sunny as she is!  You can see her entire spread and her process on her blog, here.

Tamie just took it to the next level this week with her spread...see it and her process here!

And then there's my take on this week's prompt, which you can see here

Be sure to hop on over to all the blogs and read all about the girls' prompts and see what they've been up to...be sure to give them some love when you stop by!

Keep it artful!

ARTFUL CHICKS
~~Betty, Melody, Tamie, Lynn & Shana

POP-UP CHALLENGE #16 June Calendar

It's pop-up time!  Can you believe June is here already?  Most kids around here are already out of school, graduations start next week, and the heat is just around the corner.

For your Pop-Up Challenge, we want you to create your June Calendar and incorporate the color Yellow into your page / calendar.  Doesn't yellow just scream summer?

Here's what we've come up with for your inspiration for this month:

BETTY - I love the color yellow, although I can't wear yellow at all.  This bright, happy color makes me happy. Sunflowers make me very happy and they are my favorite flower of all time, followed closely by the lovely yellow rose.  Being the rule breaker that I am from time-to-time, I decided to make an unconventional calendar for this month. Each petal is a separate day of the month.  Created in my 9x12" Canson mixed media journal. Flower sketched with a bold Signo Uniball and then colored with Prismacolor pencils.  Start to finish: 40 minutes while watching TV with the hubs.  Quote by Charles Bowden -- "Summertime is always the best of what might be."

TAMIE --  Tamie tells us every month that she doesn't like calendars, but she always manages to create something fun and interesting for hers.

I used the new Dylusions acrylic paints. I did the dots for flowers using a plastic bag then a tiny brush to draw with paints the flowers. glued on a poem and mini June calendar.

SHANA - We learned this week that Shana doesn't like calendars either.  Oh boy, two of them!

I hate making calendars, maybe its the the structure of it, I feel completely constrained having to keep within the guideline. so with my 1st calendar due as part of the creative team I groaned... loudly and whined to anyone who would listen, I started with the layers of yellow and made the circles for the days, wrote the month on the top and I was stuck, it sat that way for hours... But the chicks rescued me! I asked what to do and they told me to find words about the month of June and add flowery vines. I did exactly as they suggested and I finally have a calendar I made that I don't hate, all with the help of these awesome ladies!

LYNN - I started with paint of course yellow and a mint green and they mixed pretty well together. Have a 3 inch die cut that I did the circles with and added June on top and a sun second and the year third.

The "grow something " I cut off a calendar I have and added some bling to the sun. The butterflies are the kind you iron on clothes that I picked up at a garage sale and just stamped some flowers to fill the page. Border I did with flower washi tape and she's done and I love it! Thank you for looking.

MELODY - When I first started my June calendar, I sprayed my spread with Lemon Zest Dylusions spray, and I really just didn't like it, so I got out my cadmium yellow light, titanium white and turquoise, then punched out 30 little tags using my Recollections punch, using some Gelli prints I didn't really like and edged them all with a black gelato...the quote is from a country song by George Strait, "I ain't here for a long time, I'm here for a good time."

We hope that between the five of us, we have inspired you in some way. Be sure and show us your calendar, whether you like doing them or not.  It's a great way to document in your journal and get some words in there!

ARTFUL CHICKS
~Betty, Melody, Tamie, Lynn & Shana