Playing With Dylusions Spray Ink

Some background pages I've been playing with using mixed media and dylusions spray ink, which is very intense. I only ordered five colors, bubblegum pink, vibrant turquoise, london blue, lemon zest, and squeezed orange. I really like them, but am still learning how to manipulate them and considering picking up a few more colors. I had great fun on these pages just letting go and playing, excuse moi, experimenting. :) The one above has a little gesso rubbed over the inks in spots, plus Asian and musical stamps added. As you can see, the gesso added a pastel look.

The mask for the figure consisted of a round bottle cap, two keys on a ring, and a straw paper folded in half, and the small mask is the cap off an ink cartridge. The dots were made using a piece of paper that I had punched holes in to make a stencil, of sorts. Great fun!



This on was actually the last one I did, and I used a paper towel that had been saturated with ink blotted off the harlequin page. I rubbed it on this page, sprayed some yellow over it, and added pink dots with the home made stencil full of holes.

The page on the left was made using a bought stencil. I sprayed the stencil, lifted it, turned it over, and used it as a stamp on the other side of the page. The right page was a disaster, as I used masking tape to do a harlequin pattern, painted it orange, missing part of the diamonds, because I didn't do it right. I used a brush to paint the orange in the missed diamonds, which made these lighter than the others. Hated it! Sprayed the london blue over the whole thing, let it sit a minute, layed a paper towel down on it to blot up the excess ink and it is what it is. I kind of like it...

There's that holey stencil on the left again! I laid a mesh bag that had held fruit on the right hand page and sprayed blue ink over it. It made a good stencil I think.

Another holey stencil page! The orange dancing girl is from a bought stencil and the ghostly figure above her is where I laid a hand made sponge stamp down in the wet ink. The right page is a hand made stencil, which I laid one on top of the other.

I have no idea what these pages will eventually morph into, if anything. Sometimes I fall in love with background page and don't want to cover it up. Sometimes I just add words and sometimes lots of layers of lots of stuff. We'll see...

 If you visit http://creativeeveryday.com/creativeeveryday/2012/04/creative-every-day-check-in-april-23-29.html you can click on the links to visit some wonderful artists in all genres. 

Hope something on here made you smile. :)

Pink Tree Symphony Journal page

Have you ever seen a pink tree? Or heard a tree symphony? I have!

This page is on mixed media paper and is another experiment with masking tape and dylusions spray ink. I taped the tree form off, then sprayed the inks over it, let dry, and peeled the tape off, leaving a white tree form. The inks are intense, so I used some white gesso brushed on top of them, mixing with the ink colors. I used gel medium to glue decorative papers on the tree form, but didn't like it and covered them with modeling paste and let dry. I used a brush to add some of the ink to the tree, a stamp to add music, added a few spatters, and wrote the words, "Sit quietly in the woods and the trees will play you a symphony," with a pencil. They will too. I've heard them. :)

I may have been discouraged from making pink trees as a child, but trees are not always brown like we're taught as children. I, in fact, have seen pinkish grey tree trunks in the early morning light with the sun rising and touching everything with nature's paint brush, casting a pink light over everything it touches, and it was magical and beautiful, and I'm grateful to have seen it.

I love pink trees and tree symphonies! :)

Journal Pages w Masking Tape, Napkins, and a Flyer

I was so tickled over the treasures that I found at Goodwill (see the misc label) that I couldn't wait to play with them. Isn't that just like a kid? lol

I left several blank pages in my Misty Mawn Open Studio journal, which I have now titled "The Misty Mawn Experience," so I created a double page spread about Spring, using the napkins and stamps that I found at Goodwill. I also bought a plastic canvas at JoAnn's the same day, which I used in the background with a spray ink wash. I cut the leaves out of decorative paper and used a blue metallic pen for writing and the dots. This is not for any particular lesson, but I used several of the techniques I learned from Misty. I "layered it until I loved it" and had a great time doing it. Spring is my favorite time of year.

I had a great time doing this one too, also in my MM journal. It started with a flyer that someone gave my husband about a bike rally the other day in the BBQ place. It's the background on the right side with the skull. I don't know if you can see it on here or not, but a lot of the writing on it is slightly visible through the layers. I glued down pieces of the same napkins I used before (the 2 ink figures), a sheet of the navy/cream floral cardstock from the wedding invitations, etc., using matte gel medium. I painted over all of it with titanium white and a little yellow ochre fluid acrylics and let dry.

I didn't particularly like it, and I had seen a tree made with masking tape somewhere, and I'm sorry I can't remember who shared it, so I decided to try it by masking a tree shape over what I'd done and spraying Dylusions spray ink over both pages, rubbing some of it off and letting it dry. When I peeled the tape off I loved the designs on it coming through from the layers beneath. The Dylusions spray inks are very bright and intense, and I lightened some of the places a bit. I have since learned different ways of working with them, but I love how the pages look right now.

There will be words added as soon as I decided what I want to say, but for now it speaks volumns to me without saying a word. :)

HAPPY EASTER

Wishing you all a happy Easter with bunnies, eggs, family, and friends, but let's not forget the real reason for the Easter celebration, the resurrection of Christ and what He did for us on the cross. :)

Enjoy the day!

Shopping Trip and WIPS

I actually typed this whole post a few days ago, only to discover I was having internet problems and blogger hadn't saved most of it to publish. Interruptions kept me from finishing it until now. Hopefully, I will get it posted before I get interrupted again. :)

Tuesday, Mar 27, was our 42nd anniversary and hubby and I had a spontaneous day out, just the two of us. We couldn't decide what we wanted to do, if anything. We had to take some stuff to the bank in town, so after we dropped it off, we just started driving northwest and wound up an hour and a half later in one of the nearest large towns (or small city?) to us in a huge shopping center. The drive was beautiful and we chatted and laughed as we drove, just enjoying being together.

I had received a Hobby Lobby gift card for Christmas from our nephew and his family, so we went in Hobby Lobby for a few minutes, where I spent the gift card, plus a couple of extra dollars, on a crop-a-dile II. Then we had a delicious lunch at Ruby Tuesday's, which we relaxed and took out time with.

After lunch, I went to JoAnn's Fabrics while hubby went to a sporting good store. I found way more great things than I could afford, but I came home with a sheet of plastic canvas for stenciling, etc, a liquid gold leaf pen, a fabric bundle, a sample pack of glitter, a small silk pouch, mama some pipe cleaners, and a CPS magazine.

We enjoyed frozen yogurt at Sweet CeCe's, which was do-it-yourself and the NY Cheesecake yogurt with almond slivers was really good. That's the only shopping we did in the center, but on the way out of town, we stopped by a Goodwill store. It took some digging, but I found an unopened box of Anna Griffin print-it-yourself wedding invitations with background paper of navy/cream, invitation cards of cream with silver borders and rsvp cards to match, with navy ribbons and two sizes of envelopes. 25 of each. I also found two bundles of nice napkins, also unopened, and some unopened Disney stamps, all for about $8.00!

Close up of the smaller napkins. Metallic gold borders with black/white drawings of the four seasons, and the words are in German. There are about 25 of these. How cool is that?

The larger napkins, also about 25 in pkg, are about hankerchief sized and have a cloth like feel to them. I love the colors and vintage look! I have already used both napkins on journal pages, plus I have plenty to share in a stash swap when one comes along. I loved finding these treasures!

The drive home was beautiful also, and we got here safe and sound, plus hubby surprised me with a copy of the Cloth, Paper, Scissors book. It was a good day of bonding and we're grateful to still have each other and that we were able to enjoy the day just enjoying each other's company.

 These are a couple of projects in progress. The one above is a sleeve for my e-reader. I needlefelted some yarn samples onto the edge of a piece of needlefelted material, lined the inside with a colorful turquoise, black, and white cotton cat print, and used bookbinding thread to stitch the edges together. I still need to attach some sort of fastener to the top to keep the reader from sliding out in my purse, and I may or may not add an embellishment to the front. The needlefelted material is thick and soft enough to help protect the reader from bumps and bruises in my purse too.

I had a 9x12" signature left over from the journal I made for Misty Mawn's class, so I cut it in half to make two smaller signatures. I used a scrap of canvas for a soft cover and stenciled on it with modelling paste, let it dry, and rubbed over it with titanium buff fluid acrylic paint. Enough of the pink was still wet enough to mix with it, giving it a pink tint.

The signature already had five holes punched in it, so I just went with it, and, using bookbinding thread, stitched them in in the uneven holes, giving a wonky look. I plan on carrying this one in my purse, so that's ok. It'll also be light, and if I need more signatures I can add them.

Since these pictures were made I practiced using the crop-a-dile to put little red eyelets on the edges of the closure. I kind of messed up the ones on the front, but I finally got the hang of it on the back ones. :) I tied a piece of the bookbinding thread through the center eyelet on each side, then tied it in a bow. I also added the title, Jots and Tittles, in black marker on the front. I will do some more to the covers when it tells me what else it needs. Right now I'm thinking I need to take some of the buff paint off the dancing ladies for a start?

Hope you enjoyed seeing what I came home with and some of what I'm working on. I sure am enjoying playing with everything. :)