CSI Case File 175

You should come on over to CSI (Color Stories Inspiratiom) and participate in one of the challenges. The challenges are set like case files with a scene, a color scheme, evidence and a testimony. Here is the one I did for case #175.

I made the tags myself which I often do because I want a certain size or color. I inked around the edges and did a little doodling on them. I cut circles out of paper,doodled and splattered watercolor to the background. I love using my watercolors lately on add them to almost everything I do. I also added some hand cut flowers from pattern paper. At first the photos were in color but they really clashed with the layout so I had to make some changes. I used a filter to remove the color and add a very subtle sepia tone. I don't generally like sepia toned pictures but it really worked in this case. I will add case #176 very soon. I hope you enjoy.

CSI Case file 177

I had a great time with this layout. I drew my own oyster in the top left and then used water color and pen. I then added iridescent medium inside the oyster to give it a pearl effect. Oh my it may not look anything like an oyster but I gave it a shot. I also added a lot of journaling on this page. In the top left I added a quote which reads "The world is your oyster. It's up to you to find the pearls." I thought it was perfect for this page. I hope you enjoy.

The Scheme: I included all five colors.

The Evidence: I Included polka dots, book pages(the dictionary pieces), clouds and googly eyes.

The Testimony: I used Savor as my inspiration to tell the story about my granddaughter eating oysters.

My first Happy Mail going out to a friend tomorrow. Three guesses what the mail is about. This was constructed using a small black paper bag. I picked them up a long time ago to use for a project and thought it would be fun to use as an envelope with a little decorating.

I just returned from Destin FL. It was a short unexpected trip. I guess I should say unplanned trip. It was my 31 anniversary and my husband really wanted to go to the beach so off we went. It was fun but really too cold to enjoy the beach. It rained the first day and was just too cold and windy the other two days. We did have some great food and enjoyed just messing around town. Before we went started my DLP for week 2. Yes I am behind. I will post the pictures tomorrow or later tonight. Here are my pictures from the first week.

I opened up my Etsy shop yesterday. Yeah me. I only have one item in so far but that's ok. I plan to add more items later. I was more concerned with getting the shop open and learning how it works. I'm so excited to get started. Here is the first item in my Etsy Store. I really love this mini album. the inside pages are made from envelopes and many of them are machine stitched. The cover is hand painted canvas and decorated with flowers, gold butterflies, chipboard and other tiny embellishments. I am in love with these colors. Please visit Etsy shop at ArtisticWandering

 Thank you for looking around my site.

Yesterday I spent the day at a friends house playing with paint, stencils, gesso, stamps and ink. My friends are new to the world of art journaling and paint play so I shared with them a few techniques I have learned. We made a total of three pages using a different approach for each one. I had the best time just playing. I wanted to share with them but learn at the same time. I am a very slow scrapbooker and generally very slow in my art journaling but for this day I wanted to be free. I wanted to approach this with no rules and no ideas with how the end result would look. I wanted to see what I could come up with fast and without over thinking. For the most parts I was pleased with the results. We laughed and chatted as we painted and played with our paints. Below are the pages I completed. I hope you enjoy.

For my first project I stamped with gesso on the background and then used watered down paint to do a wash over the gesso. I then used a stencil and black paint around the edge for a border. Some stamps and ink were used to add some grunge and interest and the owl. I painted some circles and outlined them with black pen and a whit out pen. To finish it off I added the quote.

The second one I grabbed some scraps to scrapbook paper. The rule was not to look at the paper you were grabbing and just pull out of the box enough paper to cover the page. After the paper was glued down some gesso was added on top using a pallet knife. The next two layers were created using a circle and ledger stencil and paint. The quote was added with strips of paper and stamps for the words Love and Laugh. I painted inside the words love and laugh with acrylic paint and painted on a scallop border.

 The last page was done in about 30 minutes. I had no idea where this was going but knew I wanted a sky with clouds and houses. I turned out ok but I would like to do this again taking a little more time to add more detail and paints.