Art Apprentice Online

Become an Artist

Monday, December 24, 2012

A Place in Time Graphic 45 Calendar

Merry Christmas and Happy Hannakuh!
Today I'm sharing a calendar gift with you. I had such fun making it. I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink on all the paper edges and on the December Page I combined that with Evergreen Bough Distress Ink. I used the design team for Graphic45's blog for my inspiration.

Argghhh....I cut off my head and wore a too tight shirt...please watch the calendar instead of me!!!


Here are the photos of each page:












Monday, December 17, 2012

Suburbia and Stamping Gear

Sharing some fun things today!



Some close ups of the stamping gear designs. Does anyone remember Spirograph???


Monday, December 10, 2012

Late Night Hanging Out!

You know that December can get rather crazy, especially for an artist/crafter. This past week I had several deadlines to meet, as well  two in-person classes, a Birthday Party and an Art Club meeting/ banquet to prepare for, shop for and cook for. Along with my full time shift work job, this makes for a marathon weekend when it all has to be finished by 9:00 AM Monday morning. Also that means I leave my house at 8:30 AM and don't go home until after Midnight Monday when my work shift is over. So Monday Musings has to be finished by 9:00 AM Monday too!

Therefore, I made this video at 3:00 AM, uploaded it by 4, and now I am at work and it's about to go live!
I'm a little fractured by that time after so much drive for days in a row, as you can see! It's ok to laugh at me!
Near the end, I am telling you about a donation our Art Club makes to Indianapolis Riley Children's Hospital every year and I couldn't recall the amount our club has donated in full. So counting the $3000 we presented to them today, our total over the years is a nice $78,324.48 ~ SWEET!!!
My art club is a Chapter of the Society of Decorative Painters, an international painting service organization. It's main charity focuses are Memory Boxes for families of newborns who pass away, and Treasure Boxes for seriously ill hospitalized children. Our chapter participates in these two charities as well as with the Quilt Raffle for Riley Hospital. The website is www.decorativepainters.org
My chapter's name is Indy Decorative Artists and it's blog website is http://indydecorativeartists.blogspot.com/

First the tiny little video and then:






Monday, December 3, 2012

Monochromatic Winter Bell Jar Card

This is a "cool" card to make! Please enjoy the creativity and expand on your own!
P.S. Late edition edit: The stamps are either TPC Studios, or Recollections brands. The first is from JoAnns and the 2nd from Michaels. The packaging is long gone!



Here are two photos of the finished card:



This is fun to make and very quickly goes together. Since it is flat, it mails nicely too!
Contact me for supplies if you do not have a local store to purchase from!

Monday, November 26, 2012

A Christmas Tile Gift

This is a great gift because it's easy, fun and inexpensive to create. It's also very useful and can be adapted for any season or for everyday use! The sentiment stamp set used in the cards at the beginning is by Hero Arts!
 
 

Monday, November 19, 2012

Clean and Simple, Assemblage and Assembly Lines!

This time of year, we do a lot of homemade gift-giving. A lot of us make our own cards to send to friends and family. Here is a video showing how to do a claen and simple handmade card and how to do a more involved assemblage card. The Toy Soldier assembly card is designed by Tammy Tutterow and you can see her original card here: www.tammytutterow.com 







Here are the measurements for my  Clean and Simple Retro Santa Card.

 Clean and Simple Retro Santa Card.

Card Base 5 x 7 prefolded card or 10 x 7 inch cardstock folded in the center.

Red Cardstock    6 3/4 x 4 3/4 inches

White Cardstock   6 3/8 x 4 1/4 inches.

Jenny Bowlin Cough Syrup Ink

Archival Black Ink

Tim Holtz Christmas Time CMS141 Stamp Set


Tammy's Toy Soldier Card

Kraft Cardstock

Dark Green Kraft Core Cardstock

Music Style Embossing Folder

Sizzix Toy Soldier Die

Sizzix Tattered Banners Die

Walnut Stain Distress Ink

Distress Stains Fired Brick, Picket Fence, Tea Dye, Black Soot, Metallic Stain Antique Bronze.

Studio Multi Medium Matte

Crackled Accents

Stampabilities Vintage Type Lowercase Stamps Set



Monday, November 5, 2012

Poinsettias and Star Brights

Today, I'm sharing three more new Tim Holtz dies with you and the different ways you can use them!




Here are two photos of the poinsettia I made in the video. I decided to emboss the outer ends of the leaves with Ranger's sticky Embossing Powder and pour Ranger Clear Rock Candy Dry Glitter over them...now it looks ice encrusted! Too cool!

Monday, October 22, 2012

In the Bag Die Tutorial

Some treat bag fun!



Here are some photos of my finished bags!




 The Bats and Silhouettes are on dimensional foam popups!

Monday, October 15, 2012

Color Reference Tags

You know, you don't always need the pressure of accomplishing an objective, to be creative. Sometimes it's fun to focus on learning more about technique or about the properties of your tools, or about color. This week, I'm focusing on learning more about using color! I'm using inks but you can use paint or color pencils to make your set of reference tags!


After I stopped the video, I realized that I had switched the covers on Stormy Sky and Peacock Feathers. So the tag in the video is Stormy Sky and Salty Ocean! So I did a tag the right way with Peacock Feathers and Salty Ocean and put the two side by side here in the photo below so you can see the way it is supposed to look compared to the one I did in the video. There is a big difference!


Here is a photo of the card I showed you also!

The Base and the skull are on pop dots and the clear dome is slid under the top edge of the base and glued only on the edge not showing. This is my version of a card that I beleive was made by Shelly Hickox.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Face Painting at the Orchard!

Happy Monday to you! This past weekend I spent the entire time painting kids and adults at a local orchard's fall festival. My partner Donna Harcourt and I started at 9am and finally cut off the line at 5:30pm each day. During that time we painted kids and adults faces and a few arms non-stop! And I do mean non-stop...no meals, no potty breaks, no sitting down even once! Our line is always a 30 minute wait...but they wait and they always go away smiling! It's a wonderful thing for a child to sit in your chair, a little shy and a little antsy and when we finish, their smile lights up the whole place!

Our wqorking table with paint, wipes, and water basins full of brushes!


I am painting a scorpion design on this boys hand...he said it was "Awesome" when I finished!

This is Donna Harcourt with a young customer

This young man works for the Orchard and he wanted me to paint eyes on his eyelids! He got lots of looks and double takes!

Monday, September 24, 2012