Wednesday, November 11, 2015

thanks to our Veterans...

this sentiment seemed appropriate for today...

thanks to all our veterans & to those currently serving & working hard to keep us safe...
we appreciate YOU so much...



this was a quick card to put together...
the diagonal stripes are the yikes stripes stencil, just used on an angle and stenciled with

 a favorite stamp-it stencil-it...
the flower is the gorgeous
the leaves are stenciled 

I had intended to stamp
then stencil & keep it completely flat,
 but I had a scrap of clearly for art already covered with newsprint, so I added another layer, with just the flower...
that little extra makes a big difference...

the sentiment and floral collage were both stamped with jet black...

you can see that t's a
simple & quick card...

I've had lots of requests for tutorials doing more art journal pages...
I KNOW...
it's been a while...

so...

I have one done & I'll be back on Friday with a ton of step out photos to show how I add multiple layers to the background 
with stamps, stencils & inks...

AND...
there's also
  a fun NEW technique...

here's a peek...



I'm really liking the tea rose
sky blue & leaf green archival trio of colors...
using jet black makes them all pop...

that's it...

time to edit the photos & write the tutorial...

see you back here on Friday...

enjoy your day &  
I hope you can...

make art!
wendy




Thursday, November 5, 2015

Make ART Challenge - November - Celebrate Fall

Hi folks! We're finally back after our month long break! Not that things settled down at all...our house sold, in two weeks (WHAT?!), and we're knee deep in trying to pack and find new housing. Never a dull moment! Thanks so much for your patience!

I did manage to find some time to create a project for this month's challenge...along with a photo tutorial, listed below. Before we get started with the ART, let's review the challenge rules:


  • Our November challenge opens today and anyone can participate!  Just link a photo of your project (on your blog or gallery), using the Linky Tool, at the end of today's post.  (If posting from your blog, please only insert the URL of the specific challenge post, not just your blog title)
  • The challenge ends on Thursday, November 26 at midnight (EST).
  • A random winner will be selected from all of our participants and announced here on the blog on Friday, November 27.  You may enter multiple projects, however, your name will only be entered into the drawing once.
  • Each month we will have a sponsor and the sponsor will award the prizes.
  • You must use at least one Wendy Vecchi product in your project.

This month, Wendy will be awarding one winner, chosen from a random drawing, a prize package of her wonderful products.

The November challenge is to create a project inspired by the fall season. Use some fall colors or themes for this month's challenge.

Let's get on with the tutorial!

 I started by pulling out my brand new Dylusions black page journal...it's dreamy. I used a blending tool and two paint colors from PaperArtsy to create a sky and ground on the page. I love how you can just see hints of dark peeking out through the colors.


Next, I used Wendy's Add a Stencil stencil and white gesso to add some design to the background. My hills were created using vintage book text and some fancy free hand cutting. I inked the hill edges with Gathered Twigs ink.

I used Wendy's embossing paste and the Lovely Tree stencil to add a few trees and to even add some leaves on the ground.
This is the step where I forget all about my camera... I actually started by coloring the leaves with acrylic paints, but I didn't like the look of the sky peeking through the leaves...the trees didn't look full enough so...I painted in the background of the tree as well, creating a tree shape by hand. Then I added more individiual paint colors to the embossed leaves. TIP - A great trick for easily coloring embossed images is to put the stencil back over the image once the paste is dry. Then you can easily paint individual areas without paint getting on the background. This was the technique I used for coloring the tree trucks. I also used Faber Castell Big Brush markers to create a darker shadow around the hills.
Here I added some text throughout the page using Jet Black Archival Ink and the Artful Words stencil.
My final step was to add the sun, which I hand cut from designer paper. The sun's rays are from Wendy's Sunburst stencil (one of my all time favorites!).  The quote was added using some individual letter stamps. I had a few fall themed stickers in my stash and I added them to the top right hand side of the page, which created the perfect spot for my date stamp.

I hope you enjoyed today's project! Now it's your turn! Interested in sharing your ART? We'd love to see what you create based this month's challenge! To share, just add your blog post (the specific post, please) link below.  Once your project is listed, you'll be entered into our drawing.  Thanks so much for playing along this month!


Saturday, October 10, 2015

October Challenge

Hi friends! By now you're probably wondering what happened to the October challenge. Well...life happened...and I completely forgot about the challenge until a few days ago. 

Let me explain...After being unemployed for six months, my hubby finally found a job! Yeah! However, it's in another state, which will require us to move. Insert sad face. We had a week to get our house prepped for photos and listed for sale, which included packing up the majority of my studio and a major clean in our attic and garage (so thankful the hubby got that job!). And then...we went on a week long vacation (it was needed!) Half way through our vacation I remembered the challenge for this month...ugh...

I am so sorry about the unexpected and unexplained break! However, we plan to be back to our challenge next month. I already have a project completed...yeah for making ART!

Thanks for hanging in there and we hope to see lots of participants next month! Please share our challenges with your social media groups, we'd love to see more folks making ART!

Oh, and, does anyone want to buy a house in NH? **wink**


Friday, September 25, 2015

September Make ART Challenge Winner

Hello ladies! It's time for me to announce the winner of the September challenge...Raise your hand if you bought lots of Wendy's new products..WooHoo!  Our winner this month is...


Congratulations, Wanda! You've won a prize package from Ranger! Please email me at ksdm@comcast.net to claim your prize. Be sure to check out Wanda's beautiful tag on her blog. 


Thank you so much to everyone who participated in this month's challenge! Spread the word about Wendy's challenge blog..we'd love to see more people participating in the challenges! We're so happy to see everyone's work each month. Stay tuned for next month's challenge, which will be announced on Thursday, October 1! 

Friday, September 4, 2015

Make ART Challenge - September - NEW Product Inspiration

Sorry for the delay, Wendy fans, but we have some exciting news to share and we had to wait one more day for he good news...Today is the release of Wendy's NEWEST products...WooHoo!!!

This month's challenge is going to be a little different...we're only sharing the cover of Wendy's new catalog, aren't the colors divine (and they're going to help me hold on to warm weather just a little bit longer), and Wendy has posted the full reveal, with projects on her blog!

Your challenge this month is to visit Wendy's blog and create a project inspired by one of hers or one of her new products. Be sure to share, in your blog post, what product or project inspired you.


As for the new release, let's just say that I can't wait to go shopping...there are some fabulous new goodies!! Before you head to Wendy's blog, let's review the challenge rules:


  • Our September challenge opens today and anyone can participate!  Just link a photo of your project (on your blog or gallery), using the Linky Tool, at the end of today's post.  (If posting from your blog, please only insert the URL of the specific challenge post, not just your blog title)
  • The challenge ends on Thursday, September 24 at midnight (EST).
  • A random winner will be selected from all of our participants and announced here on the blog on Friday, September 24.  You may enter multiple projects, however, your name will only be entered into the drawing once.
  • Each month we will have a sponsor and the sponsor will award the prizes.
  • You must use at least one Wendy Vecchi product in your project.

This month's sponsor is...Ranger!  Ranger will be awarding one winner, chosen from a random drawing, a prize pack of Wendy's products.

Interested in sharing your ART?  We'd love to see what you create based on Wendy's new products! To share, just add your blog post (the specific post, please) link below.  Once your project is listed, you'll be entered into our drawing.  Thanks so much for playing along this month!


Friday, August 28, 2015

Make ART Challenge Winner - August

Hello ladies! It's time for me to announce the winner of the August monochromatic challenge...It is...


Congratulations, Julia! You've won a prize package from the queen of ART, Wendy Vecchi! Please email me at kim@eclecticpaperie.com to claim your prize. Be sure to check out Julia's beautiful Wendy-inspired card on her blog. Julia also has lots of other beautiful art on her blog as well!

A a GIANT thank you to all of the other challenge participants! We're so happy to see everyone's work each month. Stay tuned for next month's challenge, which will be announced on Thursday, September 3! 

Thursday, August 6, 2015

August Make ART Challenge - Monochromatic

Hello all of you Wendy Vecchi fans! Are you ready for this month's challenge? Kim here, and I'm super excited to be hosting Wendy's challenge this month. Wendy just returned from a whirlwind trip to the UK and is now rushing to meet some looming deadlines. Before I share the details on my project, let's review our monthly challenge rules: (PS - How do you like my kid's Kiwi Crate easel? It's perfect for holding art projects! **giggle**)


  • Our August challenge opens today and anyone can participate!  Just link a photo of your project (on your blog or gallery), using the Linky Tool, at the end of today's post.  (If posting from your blog, please only insert the URL of the specific challenge post, not just your blog title)
  • The challenge ends on Thursday, August 27 at midnight (EST).
  • A random winner will be selected from all of our participants and announced here on the blog on Friday, August 28.  You may enter multiple projects, however, your name will only be entered into the drawing once.
  • Each month we will have a sponsor and the sponsor will award the prizes.
  • You must use at least one Wendy Vecchi product in your project.

This month Wendy is our sponsor! She's going to be sending our winner a prize package filled with some of her favorite goodies.


And now...on to this month's challenge...It is to create...a...

...MONOCHROMATIC project...

Did you guess that by looking at my project? **smile** Monochromatic means that you'll use shades of just one color...and I chose brown! Any guesses why I chose brown, besides the fact that I love the color brown? Well..I was digging through my scraps and found a discarded pocket watch die cut (from Tim Holtz) that I had die cut and embossed ages ago, but never used. I had cut out the middle part of the pocket watch die and as soon as I found this piece, I knew what I wanted to make!

I started by die cutting a circle and stamping/stenciling. I started with the Checkmate stencil, added the Price Chart stamp, and then used a blending tool and Potting Soil Archival Ink to add just the branch from the Stamp It, Stencil It Build a Blossom set. The last step was to age the circle edges with Gathered Twigs. You can just see the background peeking through the black text in the photo below.

After my background piece was complete, I die cut another circle from Clearly for Art and stamped text from an older stamp set, Parisian Art, onto the plastic. The plastic piece was attached directly to the pocket watch die and then I separated the background piece from the plastic with foam tape for some added dimension.


One of the tricks to keeping a monochromatic project visually appealing is to use different shades of the same colors, incorporate texture, and add lots of layers.

After I assembled the pocket watch background, I inked an Art Parts flower, using Distress Inks, and stamped the Mesh pattern on to the top of the flower. I added little gold dots, using a gold paint pen, and used Potting Soil to emboss the flower middle.

The swirls and sentiment are from the My Kind of Art stamp sets (one of my favs!) and both were stamped on scrap paper and fussy cut. I, of course, added more Gathered Twigs to everything that was cut out. To finish my project, I added some hand dyed ribbon and that cutie bird (I love that bird!) from the License Plate Art stamp set.

Now that you've read about my project...it's your turn to create! To be entered into the challenge, simply add your blog post (please link the specific post instead of your blog name) to the link list below. Once your project is listed, you'll be entered into our drawing. Thanks so much for playing along!