A Bird in the Hand

 

Bleubeard and I are back today with another entry for our recycle, reuse, repurpose theme we are hosting this month at Art Journal Journey.  

For obvious reasons, we named this A bird in the hand.  Because the toucan has a face, we are also joining Nicole and her Friday Face Off.  Since the toucan is a bird, it qualifies for the Triple B challenge, too.  And because the toucan has wings, we are also joining Country View Challenges, whose theme this month is Things with wings.  We even have a few detail shots.

The substrate is new 110 lb. cardstock that accidentally got some of my handmade shimmering mists splattered on it.  Not wanting to let it go to waste, I decided to use it as a background for the toucan.  The toucan was fussy cut from an old gifted calendar page.  Years ago, I printed the hands on cardstock that denoted sign language letters.  They were on a page with other images I had printed, most of which had been used in various previous journal pages.  The cardstock was getting a bit wonky and bent since so many images were gone.  I decided to use all the rest of the images, along with the hands, of course, on this page.  Although technically new, the page had so many empty spaces, I thought it was better to use the images now, than risk them getting even more rumpled.  Consequently, only the toucan was recycled for this journal entry.

 

Bleubeard and I greatly appreciate you stopping by today.  We hope to see you at Art Journal Journey, Triple B, Country View Challenges, and Friday Face Off.

Fate of the Monarch

 

Bleubeard and I are back today with another entry for our recycle, reuse, repurpose theme we are hosting this month at Art Journal Journey. We are also joining Country View Challenges, whose theme this month is Things with wings, and Triple B, which in case some aren't familiar, stands for Birds, Butterflies, and/or Blooms.

This started with what most people would call "junk mail."  I am not sure how or where it came from, other than I know it came from a piece of mail I received.  There's been some talk lately about the plight of the monarch, so when I received this, I had to act.

I've included a few detail images.

 

I started with the page I received in the mail to which I added an image of monarch larvae I found in an old Biology school book.   I had created a butterfly "film strip" several years ago, so I deconstructed the strip and used it on this new journal entry.  I fussy cut the butterfly and flower from an old calendar.  The words at the top and bottom of the page were part of the original page.  This is certainly a chilling realization and I'm glad I saved the page so I could use it this month to call attention to the plight of the monarch. I was shocked how many monarch butterflies have been lost over the past 20 years.

Bleubeard and I greatly appreciate you stopping by today to see what we recycled, reused, and repurposed.  We hope to see you at Art Journal Journey, Country View Challenges, and Triple B.  

 

Halloween

 

I'm celebrating Halloween a bit early, but it appears I'm not alone.  Seems Try it on Tuesday is also celebrating early.  Then of course, there is our own Elle from Empire of the Cat, our host this month at Art Journal Journey, whose theme is  Fairytales, Folklore, and Fables - Tell Me A Story.    The story today is Trick or Treat, a Halloween favorite.

I created this tip-in for a friend from the colored and stamped images I showed last week.  It appears there are other sites choosing Halloween, too.  Country View Challenges wants us to share a harvest or Halloween entry.  Further, Creative Artiste is holding their 87th challenge where anything goes as long as there are multiple media (multiple means a minimum of three). 

I actually created two of these.  Instead of reinventing the wheel, I chose to make both quite similar.

I used fluid acrylic paint to create the witch and pumpkin using chunky stamps.  Because the witch and pumpkin both have faces, I'm also joining Nicole's Friday Face Off which will go live tomorrow.  I hope you join her by sharing a face, ANY face. 

There are a lot of challenges, so I will also show my Halloween cards I made.  I know two of the four I created have been received.

I realize it was not a good photo, but it was early morning and I was trying to get these ready to go in the mail.

Here they are up close:

In case you are as interested as Creative Artiste is, I first colored either orange or lavender paper using orange glaze paint.  Some were painted on copier paper, while others were colored on book pages.  I used black dye ink on the stamps.  The cross was one I hand carved using a paring knife.  The hands were computer generated on my laser printer, making it easy to color over them.  

For the back side of the tip-ins, I used fluid acrylics to create the witch and pumpkin.  I used variegated thread on the tip-ins and the tip-in images.

 

Please join Bleubeard and me (in alphabetical order) at Art Journal Journey, Country View Challenges, Creative Artiste, Friday Face Off, and Try it on Tuesday.  And have a super spooky day filled with all treats and no tricks!

Merry Christmas

 

Today I'm going to share how I made my Christmas tip-ins and cards I sent this year.  For my tip-ins, I started with a Staz-on reinker I mixed with 91% isopropyl alcohol.

When the sheets of card stock had been colored, I created a template for the tree I would eventually add.

This was the first time I had ever dry embossed anything, so it took some work getting the right number of shims in order for the embossing to be successful.  Gotta' love those large Behr paint chip samples.

I fear a few got debossed, rather than embossed, though.  The tree took up the front side of my tip-in.

Now let's head to the back side.  It reads:

This 19th annual tip-in is sent with love by
Bleubeard, Squiggles, and Elizabeth
Christmas, 2021

Of course, there was a part that was originally hidden by the small tree tied using my handmade baker's twine.  It reads:

Here is a TREET 

to place on your

TREE

I'm not an eyelet person.  Even with a crop-a-dile, my hands cramped and cramped as I was assembling eyelets on both the trees and the tip-in bases.  I tried to make the eyelets look nice on both sides, but that was sometimes impossible, as I had a finite number of trees.

After I completed and sent my tip-ins (because several had to go overseas), I started on my cards.  It was finally time to cut these dies apart.  At least I have the tool for it.  I do love my tools!

Now a different set of shims and tools required for my Big Kick.  I was on my way at last.  There were a LOT of "firsts" in both the tip-ins and the cards this year.  And my friend Sharon wondered why I made them all the same!  I believe in assembly lines.

Once all the dies had been cut, I got out these gifted note cards my friend Kathy had given me years ago.  For some reason, they weren't large enough for her.  For me, they were perfect.  Had I chosen, I could have printed sentiments.  There were even instructions for how to create the writing in WordPerfect, my writing software of choice.  As an aside, when I learned a client insisted on Word for documents, I found I could create the document in WordPerfect, which would then allow me to save it in Word.  

Back to the cards, though (have I never mentioned I'm easily distracted?).  It was time to color them using pumpkin Staz-on reinker and 91% isopropyl alcohol.  Excess cardstock I laid under the card bases can be seen drying on my craft room floor. 

Looks like I'm ready to start stamping, something I am NOT good at.

And then I did the most ridiculous thing.  I inked everything using PIGMENT ink.  For those who aren't familiar with a pigment ink pad, the ink doesn't dry quickly, like solvent or dye ink does.  These took overnight and needed heat to help them along.  They are sitting on my cracked and dirty craft floor antistatic mat near the heater.

A new day, different challenges.  Since the design of the die cut reminded me of a postage stamp, I got the idea to add a cancelled postage mark that read SC for Santa Claus and north pole.  Thankfully, I got smart after three of these cancellation marks.

It was now assembly time.  First the front,

then the inside sentiment,

and because I was afraid the ink might bleed through to the back, I added my "handmade by" stamp to the back of the sentiment.  It looks like Bleubeard can stamp his name better than I can stamp mine!

I want to wish everyone who celebrates it, a joyous, safe, and healthy Christmas.  See you tomorrow, folks.  I'll be gone all day today.

I also decided my card (and probably my tip-in, too) fits nicely with this month's Country View Challenges, so I'm joining them, too.

Leaves

 

It's time to join Tracey from Hotchpotchcreations, our host this month at Art Journal Journey.  Her theme is My Favorite Color is October.   

I finally gathered some leaves for a journal page.  Granted, they are silk leaves, but leaves none-the-less.

"Even a leaf in the wind eventually lands."

These leaves have definitely landed.

They have landed on old book pages 

 I colored in the colors I associate with October.

For this journal page I started with 110 lb. cardstock that I covered in book pages I colored using pink, red, orange, yellow, and lavender watercolors before adding them to the cardstock.  I then added the three silk leaves and the computer generated text.

 

Thank you ever so much for visiting today.  Bleubeard, and I are delighted you joined us and hope to see you at Art Journal Journey with your own take on My favorite color is October.      

 

I didn't realize it before, but I can also enter this at Try it on Tuesday where their theme this fortnight is Autumn Blessings.

 

I am also going to enter it in More Mixed Media's latest challenge which is always Anything Goes with optional orange. 

Thanks to a visit to Jo's blog, I am going to join Country View Challenges for October, which is Autumnal Colors or Halloween.