Pop Up Art Challenge #22

Pop-Up time!!!  Betty here this week, bringing you another little art challenge to keep you stimulated and using your art supplies in new and creative ways!  We never want you to run out of mojo or ideas, and having a pop-up challenge keeps you involved with your journal AND your art supplies.  We all have those supplies that we just HAD to have, and often they just sit there, looking all pretty and tantalizing, but they aren't getting used.  I definitely have this problem with some of my supplies, reaching always for the tried and true, go-to supplies.  I don't challenge myself as much as I should, and want to.  So this week, put on your thinking cap!


CHALLENGE:  Use washi or decorative tape prominently in a creative spread in your journal. 

Washi and decorative tape have a myriad of uses.  If you've ever spent any time at all on Pinterest, you know it can be used for many, many things...  Mosaics, covering everything from clothespins to tin cans, as labels, as creative art.  So that's where we are today:  making creative art.


For my spread, I used a background page created in my Canson mixed media journal with some new acrylic paints I picked up at Target a couple weeks ago, making different paint combinations with the same 4 pots of colors. This time I used the Azalea Pink and Lime.  It is really bright!

The background was applied with a credit card, with several different layers of each color.  The finish is satin smooth, and I love, love how it feels.  I began by layering 5-6 rows of different patterns of washi tape onto some stiff card stock.  I then individually cut out the pieces, and affixed with Alene's Tacky Glue (it was handy).  After it was fully dry, each pinwheel flower was outlined with black china marker and smudged. I wanted to give that "blowing in the wind" effect with the lettering, so I used the china marker again and smudged it all.  I rather like how it turned out, but I did have to go over some of the letters several times because the background is so slick-smooth, I would rub off the marker.  I added some additional embellishment to the center of the flowers and the leaves with a bold Signo Uniball pen.   Anyway, this is what I came up with......and that song is still stuck in my head!  It was fun playing with my big hoard of washi tape and deciding which ones to use.

MELODY made this beautiful spread in her usual bright style, but straying from her usual bright pinks.  She still managed to get that favorite turquoise on the page, and brightened it all up some more with some lovely washi embellishments.  Using some plain white cardstock, she drew hearts on one side of the page, then laid out her washi tape on the opposite side, making it super easy to cut those hearts out.   Don't you just love the shadowed stenciling?  Remember that Melody actually "journals" in her journal, so she always leaves plenty of room for her writing.  Another fabulous and beautiful spread, Mel!

And here's a couple of close up views of those lovely corner hearts!

What kind of fun can you create?  Think outside the box, think inside the box, use that washi and decorative tape and wow us!

As always, we're keeping it artful!

ARTFUL CHICKS
~~Betty, Melody, Lynn & Shana

ARTFUL JOURNEYS - WEEK #10

Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of lightning, at once exists and expires. ~Charles Caleb Colton

This week, we're thinking about clocks and time.  Time is a commodity that seems to be fleeting in many of our lives. We over-commit and run from dawn to dusk and well past that daily.  Electronics eat up our time these days it seems -- hours online chatting, trolling the feeds, dreaming the dreams of the perfect art studio we found on Pinterest, lusting after the newest, latest & greatest art supplies.  We're inundated with texts, phone calls, television.  We cannot escape it......but we can do our best to manage it.  And once we use up that precious commodity of time, we cannot get it back.  So we have to learn to use our time wisely.  Set strict family time, art time, computer time, and of course, rest and ME time -- whether you use it to take a long, luxurious bath with the door locked, or a quiet solitary walk where you can center and collect your thoughts.

Since Daylight Savings Time returns to most of the northern hemisphere today (2:00 am), let's focus on CLOCKS & TIME in our journals.  And remember to "SPRING FORWARD"!  Express the theme any way you want.  I think this week your Artful Chicks went in all sorts of directions, given the "time" we had to create! (ha).  Have a look at our interpretations of this week's prompt, and see where you go from here.  Have fun with it and let those creative juices shine this week!

LYNN JACKSON -- Clocks! For this weeks prompt I used two colors for the background..lime green with diva pink made by Apple Barrel. The clocks are a stencil I have and the fingers pointing towards the clocks are washi tape. I look forward to the time change with more light in the evening.  This was a fun page to create. I think I'm getting my mixed media mojo going! Thanks for looking!

MELODY ELZY - Melody is wowing us again this week with another of her bright and colorful spreads.   Melody is just teasing you with this pic! Go check it out on her blog here,  to see the finished spread in all its luscious glory and be sure and leave her some blog love!  She will appreciate it!  We always like to know you are actually visiting us and seeing what we're up to!

BETTY RICHARDSON - I'm still a little into grunge mode with this week's prompt, hot off our "grunge" pop-up challenge.  And besides all that, all this paint was still sitting on my dining room table!

I created this as a tip-in for my journal as a 'trifold."  I upcycled a K-cups coffee box and made use of all the box folds.  Base was coated with a thin layer of gesso, applied with  a ratty acrylic flat brush I use just for this purpose. Then I began slapping on different shades of red acrylic:  Liquitex Heavy Body in Alizarin Crimson, Liquitex Basics in Napthol Crimson, Aquatec in Cadmium Red Light, and Daler Rowney in Brilliant Red. Some of the paint was scraped on, others brushed, and in some places smoothed and thinned with a baby wipe and my fingers.  I wanted to let some of the wording off the box peek through.

Once  that was all dry, I made some random marks with some generic black acrylic, and a splash or two of some permanent drawing ink.  I had gathered up several different clock faces and images, and the ones I had previously printed out on white cardstock, I covered in Cadmium red.  I wasn't very happy with that decision, but I had no TIME to do it all over.  I am embracing the Tim Holtz philosophy of embracing imperfection!  The silhouette was in my stash of happy mail goodies and she is holding a cup of coffee.... my favorite.  Really, that silhouette was the decision maker for the lettering. Had to do it.  And in my world, any time is truly coffee time.  I finished off the lettering, edging and marks and called it good.  It was TIME for me to move on to the next thing on my never-ending to-do list.

So here's what I learned:  Recycling is always good; coffee is always good, any time day or night;  I still love red and black together; I'm liking grunge more and more; and time is something I never have enough of.  I'm fixin' a fresh cup.  Care to join me?

TAMIE RODRIGUEZ WILSON - Another beautiful and very creative spread from Tamie with glorious use of color, texture and a little of her "madness" thrown in. See the full details on her blog, here

We hope that we have inspired you in some way this week.  Be sure and show us what you create and how you're thinking about TIME and CLOCKS this week over at Artful Journeys.  We'll get Tamie's interpretation posted sometime later today.  There was a little glitch over there in the big Detroit. But fear not, we know there is something masterful coming!  We'll get the blog updated for you as soon as we get the finished images.

We appreciate you stopping in, and if you'd care to leave us some blog love, that would be fantastic. We read all your comments and love knowing that you're here, reading, watching and playing.

Keep it artful!

Betty, Melody, Tamie & Lynn
ARTFUL CHICKS

ARTFUL JOURNEYS - WEEK #9

Time is flying.  February is over!  This heralds a change in the seasons very soon (and we know not soon enough for those of you still buried in snow).  Someone up there in the north must have left the freezer door open, because you sent cold, snow and ice to north Texas. Who did that?  Ours was short-lived, though and was gone the next day.  (Aren't WE lucky?)  We know you want to SHARE all that white beauty, but  remember turn about is fair play. We'll be sure and thank you and share with you when it is 107 in the shade here in July and August!  hehehe.

Today (I am writing this on Saturday 2/28) would have been my mother's 90th birthday. She was very important in MY life, and not a day goes by that I don't miss her.  She was a lover of life, of people, and of beautiful and creative things. I think I got my creative bent from her, or at least I like to think so.  Mother was an amazing influence on my life, teaching me many things and helping to mold me into a strong, independent woman.  Our lives have many positive influences, and my mother was just one of those beacons of light. ~~ hugs, Betty.

This week at Artful Journeys, we want you to think about something (or someone) that is important in your life and reflect that on your journal page, BY INCORPORATING YOUR FAVORITE QUOTE.

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BETTY RICHARDSON - As stated above, Saturday, February 28th would have been my mother's birthday, so my spread is really about remembering her. Come check it out on my blog here to see the full spread, my processes and materials.

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LYNN JACKSON -  "Go your own way"

This one was pretty simple. Took a art journal page and added under paper to it layered with different stencils and stamps along with my quote in the middle. I do believe in the quote. I go my own way and pretty much have my whole life. Thanks for looking.

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MELODY ELZY - Come check out this luscious page that Melody created. You can see the full spread, and read all about it on her blog here

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TAMIE RODRIGUEZ WILSON -  Come check out how the "madness" in Tamie's head gets translated to the page to make this beauty!  On her blog, here

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We always appreciate you visiting us and seeing what we're up to, and we certainly appreciate it any time you leave us some blog love in comments.  We do read your comments and appreciate your support.

Be sure and show us what you're creating in response to this week's prompt over at Artful Journeys.  A new photo album for March will appear shortly for you to post your images!

Stay artful!
ARTFUL CHICKS
~~Betty, Melody, Tamie & Lynn

MARCH IS LOOMING OH SO CLOSE!

It's that time of the month, folks, that we need to be looking forward to a new month, new opportunities for creativity, new things to try and more fun to be had.

Before we post our weekly prompt for this coming Sunday, we wanted to remind you to get your MARCH CALENDARS made and into your journals!

If you are arting like crazy, you might want to skip a couple pages in your journal (if you like things in order) or create as a stand-alone and tip it in when you get to March!

Anway, here's what we did for our March calendars!

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MELODY ELZY - Here is my calendar for March. I love how this turned out. The tag, papers and sticker came to me in a private swap, the paints are the new Dylusions Blendable Acrylics by Dyan Reaveley and the stamps are a set by Graphic 45. Colors used in the background are Fresh Lime and Cut Grass. I TOTALLY misjudged the size of my circles in proportion to how much space I had after I laid down the tag, but I still like how it came out. It's just a little off. Just like me!

                                            

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TAMIE RODRIGUEZ WILSON - Tamie is celebrating her birthday this month -- can you tell?  More lovely madness from the creative mind of Ms. Wilson. Tamie doesn't like calendars, and doesn't particularly "like" to make them, but she is humoring us. LOL  A great page using acrylics, stencils, mono-printing, stamps, collage elements & washi tape.

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BETTY RICHARDSON - Created in my large Dylusions journal this month, with my fantastic new Dylusions Blendable Acrylics that I purchased at Scrapbook Expo in Grapevine. These paints are fantastic -- soft, buttery, & a super smooth finish. They dry quickly, and have a transparent quality to them, unlike other acrylic paints.  I first stamped a script background stamp on the page and I too used Fresh Lime and Cut Grass applied with a paper towel.   I also used some Dylusions spray ink in Cut Grass as well. See that stamp peeking through??  That is UNDER the paint.  Yee haw!  And, just a little bit really goes a long way!  I cut up some "inchies" out of a fabric catalog using all shades of green and all different textures, then added the dates with a white Signo Uniball, then outlined each square with a gold Signo Uniball.  On the sides, I added a place for notes, and made a little flap out of a card I got with an Artsyville order, hiding the journaling lines on the right side.  Some washi tape was added for interest and a little embellishing, and I called it finished.

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LYNN JACKSON -  March is a month where winter is almost over... maybe.. and daylight savings time begins which I love and my husband’s birthday! I painted the background neon green with some grass green and added the month of March out of a pocket calendar with some punch out flowers and a heart doily that I put a stencil on. Bring on the new month! I'm ready.

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So get busy, make up your March calendars and show us your creations at Artful Journeys.  We are always interested in your art, and love for you to share with us.

Keep it artful!

ARTFUL CHICKS
~Betty, Melody, Tamie & Lynn

14 DAYS OF LOVE - Day #3

Zipping right along, today we present you with the challenge to incorporate your favorite "love quote" into a journal page.

Quotes are wonderful to work with in your journals.  They can help express your mood, your emotions, evoke memories.  You can create your journal page around the thought expressed in the quote, and often-times a specific quote will lead us in a specific artistic direction.  Let your heart help you create this page of love then show us your creations over on the group feed at Artful Journeys.  And don't be shy about showing us your work.  We are not here to judge you.  We want to always encourage you and cheer you on, no matter your skill level.  We're all about showing you some love.

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LYNN JACKSON  For today's prompt, Lynn is having some fun with her quote!

Materials used are yellow card stock, Washi tape, and cut out hearts and letters and a stencil.
I just took a piece of card stock and cut letters to make my quote and added washi on the top and bottom of page. Stenciled some hearts and it was pretty easy peasy! Hope you like.

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TAMIE WILSON -- Tamie has been in a doodling mode this week.  She used Gel pens and Joy Ink pens on a lined 4x6" index card. Quick and easy, fun and please-y.

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BETTY RICHARDSON -- I took a different route this week to express one of my favorite "love" quotes from Voltaire...... done in scrapbooking style in my 9x12 Canson Mixed Media journal.  I used assorted scrapbooking papers, a die cut scroll plate for the quote, a Martha Stewart die cut edger for the tulip punch out, ribbon, yarn, flat-backed jewels,  black Micron and white Signo Uniball pen.  "LOVE IS A CANVAS FORMED BY NATURE AND EMBROIDERED BY IMAGINATION" ~~ Voltaire

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MELODY ELZY

Incorporate your favorite "love" quote: So I took my index card from yesterday and used it to lay out my quote...."The sun loved the moon so much he died every night to let her breathe."

The first time I read this quote, my heart clenched a little, and so I knew, when I saw today's prompt, THIS was the quote I was going to use. This is what Valentine's day is all about...a love that transcends all logic, and makes us dream of that kind of love for ourselves...

Be sure and post your images to the February Photo Album on Artful Journeys along with a brief description and they will show up on the group feed.  We can't wait to see what you create!

We're keeping it artful!

ARTFUL CHICKS
~~Betty, Melody, Tamie & Lynn