Brush Strokes Origin - Our Mixed Media Moods

Welcome to OUR MIXED MEDIA MOODS!!!! We are SO GLAD to be back with you... shake off some cobwebs & get to work at our desks.

Jenn and I have been loving having fun with you. We adore sharing our experiences & knowledge with the world so when we had this idea it seemed perfect.. and IT IS!

Our Mixed Media Moods is a monthly collaboration between myself & Mixed Media Jenn where we pump up our youtube channels with high quality mixed media videos. Then.. we invite YOU to join us and link up below so we can visit your amazing responses! 

My YouTube Channel | Jenn's YouTube Channel

Occasionally we'll have some giveaways, prizes and guest artists joining us.. so please join our facebook group to see all the happenings! AND sign up for our newsletter for emails delivered directly to your inbox!

Jenn has worked up this incredible monochromatic mood board for us & of course I couldn't wait to get started!

OOOOOIE! I love this project! I really REALLY do! I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do :)

Here is the VIDEO, followed by closeup shots, supply list, & Link up!
After you're done here on my blog, don't forget to pop on over to see Jenn's Post.

Supplies:
Plain Cardstock Uhu Adhesive (6 pk) : http://amzn.to/2FX6HwW Vintage Ephemera of all sorts Liquitex Gesso : http://amzn.to/2FUdyaC Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold Fluid Acrylic : http://amzn.to/2FYAPYM Stabilo Marks All BLACK (12 pk) : http://amzn.to/2DsPgH3 Golden Fluid Matte Medium : http://amzn.to/2G08ktF (SOON TO COME DIGITALS TO UMWOWSTUDIO) Tandy Leather Needles : http://amzn.to/2Dm3Ko7 Snow White DMC Thread (12 pk) : http://amzn.to/2DT957v Singer Sewing Machine : http://amzn.to/2EZJWY7 Black & White Thread : http://amzn.to/2Dm8mKZ


Link UP :

An InLinkz Link-up

Skull Maggots - day 9

welcome to my day 9 Friends!

After seeing my Ingredient Cards laid together yesterday and sort of stewing over how I'll be presenting them as a whole, I thought it would be good to add in a few cards with a bit less dimension. Hopefully my layered heart can get over it! :) so where today's project might not be very technique and or labor intensive, I'm still excited to show you the fourth of my Ingredient Cards... SKULL MAGGOTS :

dun dun DUN!!!!!!!! I love how it turned out :) And I feel like it could be the front of some funky 80's SciFi novel or something! The base is, of course, Canson watercolor paper. It's been layered with a trimmed down piece of patterned paper from my Destination Unknown line for 7 Dots Studio.

The Destination Unknown paper was trimmed down and then stamped with the Waybill/Invoice Background from Viva Las VegaStamps!. It was stamped in Ranger archival black, but to tone it down I dabbed the stamp on the ink pad and then blotted it on some scrap paper so that I was stamping with a ghosted image on the card background. It gave the card a great worn look. Then it was machine sewn to the card. 

I stamped the Elegant Lady Face from Viva Las VegaStamps! on bristol board in Ranger's Archival ink and fussy cut her out. Then.. I chopped off the top of her head! lol. The Detailed Brain was stamped on that same vintage book text I've been using for the ingredient cards. I trimmed it out also, then tucked it behind my Vintage Lady so that her brains are now exposed.

I glued everything down and then finished the card with the Skull Maggots stamp from last year's Halloween release. The Bristol board is proving great for stamping and really seems to hold up to wet glue, too. Believe it or not.. no UmWowStudio on this card. Sad right? haha :) 

Also please don't forget about the other participants on this journey. Hop around, leave comments, and be entered to win:

Terra Black Dragon Alison Julia Lyneen Kelli Maureen Sue DominoART Lost Coast Portal To Creativity

Susan Sarah Keren Lisa F Teresa Fiona Lisa H Stampendous Stamps Shell Sarah S

Airless Chambers Susan R Dream In Darkness De Stempelwinkel Leslie Rahye Kat Rebecca Lee Suzi Sara DeeDee

Altered Frame - Day 4

Whoosh -- day four is here!

I'm going to be honest.. I'm not really LOVING this piece.... it's ok. I'll give it credit for what it is.. done and Halloween themed. lol. I like it! Just not love it like the first three for this month :)

Today I have an altered Chipboard Film Reel Frame from UmWowStudio. The frame itself has been covered in black archival ink by Ranger. I just swiped the pad across the chipboard. Easy peasy! The base of the insert is watercolor canson paper in a 4x6 rectangle. It's been covered with a superbly delicious vintage text. Fluid Matte Medium did the job well. 

Before I adhered the book text to the card base I punched a couple of holes in it in this sort of haphazard spread out pattern. It's such a favorite technique of mine and I really need to utilize it more!

Then came a scraping (similar to dry brushing) of thick gesso over the card to highlight some of the texture. I really love how this adds back in some white space I was missing. Pair it with the holes punched in the top corner and the whole piece really felt a balanced.

The bottom left corner was adorned with a Raven in Witch Hat stamp from Viva las VegaStamps!. I stamped (and you'll find this a lot) in Archival black by Ranger Ink. I'm a big fan of straight black stamping.

The top left corner was also stamped. I used the Chandelier in Cobwebs and the Spider on Web Line both from Viva Las VegaStamps!.

This photo really accentuates the depth that the frame has. And I love that! I'm a big "dimension" person.. and love my pieces to have some volume to them. Our chipboard @ UmWowStudio REALLY helps me achieve that specific aspect. I'm very thankful to have it at my fingertips :)

and don't forget about the other participants on this journey:

Terra Black Dragon Alison Julia Lyneen Kelli Maureen Sue DominoART Lost Coast Portal To Creativity

Susan Sarah Keren Lisa F Teresa Fiona Lisa H Stampendous Stamps Shell Sarah S

Airless Chambers Susan R Dream In Darkness De Stempelwinkel Leslie Rahye Kat Rebecca Lee Suzi Sara DeeDee

Kokopelli Make n Take

This past weekend was one of the AWESOME Scrap Society crops where I am lucky enough to be continually invited to do the make n takes! The girls are so great with their crops -- full of fun, prizes, food, hilarity and they're all THEMED! September's happened to be WILD WEST themed and it was A HOOT! They're so great! They let me bring lots of UmWowStudio and Viva Las VegaStamps! to sell, too... so if you're local and looking to find some good stuff AND a great time... hit them up! Sign up for the next or get on the waiting list. ♥

Because I wasn't so sure how best to make something Wild West themed that EVERYONE could relate to.. I instead picked up a beautiful Kokopelli stamp from Viva Las VegaStamps! and created a sunset background. The background are made using Tim Holtz / Ranger Ink Distress Stain Sprays. For the first one I used Abandoned Coral, Wild Honey and Mustard Seed. Spray each in a line next to each other with a bit of overlap.. dry, spritz with water and dry again. It's finished with some book text circles, faber castell PITT pen doodling and the little chipboard star which is from the Christmas Confetti pack from UmWowStudio.

Since I demo to approximately 50 sweet ladies who attend the crop, I tend to try out the same techniques and products in slightly different layouts. Sometimes I change up color, or doodling, borders or dots. And here you can see the results! I love laying them all out together and seeing just how different each one ends up.

This one in the bottom left corner is a background that turned out slightly too dark for the stamp. So I figured out something else! no problem-o right? :)

Other Distress Stain Sprays used include Spiced Marmalade, Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves and Mermaid Lagoon. Some of the doodling has been done with a thicker pen, and sometimes I covered in the chipboard in the same ink I used to stamp in. (Archival ink by Ranger)

I was quite drawn to the one of the Coral and Raspberry mix..

as well as the Seedless preserves and Coral and Raspberry.

Which is your favorite? Or are there colors you might have chosen differently? PLUS! the stamp from VLVS is just KILLER to work with. It's so sweet and pretty. Really laid well over such gorgeous colors.

Allure {Art Journal Spread}

Today I am sharing a double page spread in a traveling art journal. I participated in a journal swap a few months back and I sort of dropped the ball on a couple of spreads... well I'm playing catch up and trying to make it up to those lovely artists... so here is one spread I finished up and mailed out this AM. 

The shape of the journal was a neat change in my routine.. curvy delicious sort of butterfly shaped pages. Each journal was themed, and this one said Madame X on the front.. it had a really gorgeous sort of corset stitch closer and some heart dangle beads. Add that to the few who had worked in the journal before me which gave me this sort of pink stripe in the binding.. and I knew the direction I was headed.  I promise you there is A LOT of beauty in these pages.. and the closeups show you tons of texture, layering, and lots of really great techniques have been utilized to complete this spread. SO... Here they are! 

The Left Page

The Right Page

The background is made up of vintage ledger pieces and old book pages that I had previous diecut for other projects. Never throw out anything right? I love the ledger paper with the vintage #s in this photograph. It's such a beautiful piece.

Here is more of that delicious ledger paper... YUM! I also layered up some drywall tape which has quickly become an absolutely favorite of mine. I adore the little perforation it has and the circles it adds to the background. All the background pieces were put down with Golden's Fluid Acrylic. Then I used Blick gesso to swipe and highlight areas of the background. It also camouflaged some of the hard edges from my papers. A bit of glazing was done with some gray paint and glazing medium.

I drew the lines and circles with a fineliner, golden fluid acrylic in carbon black and airbrush medium. There are drops and some hand drawn doodles, circles, and dots with a Sakura of America Micron pen. I also did a bit of lovely hand stitching using some super thick hemp cord in this beautiful charcoal color. Picked this up at Hobby Lobby. SO glad I did! The pink is from Tim Holtz's Distress Stain in worn lipstick. LOVE the sweet pink against the neutral background.

The flair (or button) is from a newer set at UmWowStudio called Noel. The colors fit perfectly with a brand new christmas lined I designed for 7 Dots Studio --- BUT it can be used out of context just as well. I loved the stitching that was it and it was perfect to mimic on the page. I also did some stamping in Gray Flannel by Memento with the new Numbers Set I designed for Viva Las VegaStamps!.

I ended up tearing out my pages, cutting off the scraggly binding part and then doing a bit of machine stitching to add more texture. I sewed in white to keep the contrast low. And finally.. this little bit of goodness that finishes off the page.. I recently got a stack of beautiful vintage dictionary pages and found this one quite relevant to the theme of this journal! The tone of it was very.. alluring! haha. First I used matte medium to put down some muslin, and then the dictionary page.. and finally all the machine stitching.