Some background art to share

Happy Friday greetings!  What do you do when you're stuck for inspiration?  One of the things I like to do is create backgrounds to use later.  Making backgrounds when I'm not inspired to make a project is a great way for me to enjoy my time in the studio rather than staring at my walls (or piles of stuff waiting to be put away) and feeling frustrated. 

There are more ways than I can count to make background art using Gelli Plates, acrylic paints, inks, gelatos, pan pastels, stencils, rubber stamps and more!!  And Altered Pages has a wide variety of these and many other supplies for your artwork.  Today I have chosen watercolor pencils.  I love the way the colors softly blend together.  Sometimes the results will surprise you.  I used a Royal Langnickel size 10 paintbrush with these. 

I started with quarter sheet panels of white ink jet card stock and colored random patterns with the pencils completely across each card.  Then I grabbed my brush and started blending.  You can absolutely use a water brush for this!  I wanted brushstrokes to show in places and used less water in those spots.  If you're creating on the go or someplace other than your own cozy studio chair, the traveling convenience of a water brush is wonderful!  Or if you're like me and don't have a sink handy in your studio, then the water brush lets you create without jumping up to refill your water cup.  If you've never used them, give them a try!
 
 

 

And now you're ready to use them to make a card or two!  So go out and have fun creating whether its a complete project or just a piece.  The point is to just make art!

 

 

This month Altered Pages is partnering with Royal & Langnickel. In celebration of that along with October being breast cancer awareness month we are giving away this beautiful Pink Art Journal.

To be entered into the drawing all you have to do is just place an order of $10 or more with Alteredpages.com. The lucky winner will be announced on the blog as well as our Facebook page on November 1, 2015. Good luck!!


More Halloween cards

Hi there!  Just a brief post to share three quick and easy Halloween cards made with collage images from Altered Pages.

 

 

Sometimes, quick and easy is the way to go.  Especially when they turn out cool like these!

Happy crafting!

Greeting cards today

Hi, it's Robin here today with a some greeting cards to share.  I've been in a Halloween mood lately.  The decorations are going up all over our neighborhood and in our office, too.  The days are cooler and some of the leaves have already started to change.  The first card I'd like to share today is  a Halloween card, and features an image from the Ravens Take Flight sheet.  I combined this trio of birds with black paper from my scrap bin and some paper flowers.  Simple, but the black card makes the ravens really stand out.

My second card is a 6x6 Steampunk collage.  Several different colors of StazOn ink were added to the cardstock using a sponge sweeper.  Some were sponged on through stencils. 

The color was very dark and I added a white wash over the top.  A white gelato with a water brush toned down the colors just enough!  Images were added from various collage sheets (see the list below). 

Items used:
Royal Aqua-Flo Water Brushes
StazOn ink in cool and warm colors
Gelatos
Your favorite black Halloween paper - check this one out!
Paper flowers in two sizes
Scor Pal

Altered Pages Collages:
Vintage Paper
Ravens Take Flight
Brown Collage (ticket)
Fly with Steam
Steampunked Machines
Eclectic Alpha O (ferris wheel)
Eclectic Alpha E (fleur de lis)

 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Check out Altered Pages Artsociates each day to see what the design team has to share with and hopefully inspire you.

Bonus fun cards!

 



 

 

Gift giving with a personal touch

Hello friends!  My project for you today is a hand-decorated gift box for that special friend who appreciates a personal touch!

Would you believe this shiny jewel-tone box started out as brown Kraft chipboard?  Here's how it made the transformation.

Check out How to Decorate a Brown Cardboard Box by Robin Horasanian on Snapguide.

I love visitors.  While you're here, please drop me a line and say hello!!  And stop by the Altered Pages Artsociates blog to see what projects the rest of the design team has in store for you.  We hope you'll be inspired to create your own One-Of-A-Kind projects.

Supplies:
 Gesso
 Art Anthology Dimensional Paint – Shamrock, Imperial, Coral
 Crystal Lacquer Mica Mixers  
 Bazzill Paper Flowers  
 Chipboard Gears  
 Texture Spray  
 Time Travel 12 inch stencil  
 Tacky Glue  
 Bazzill Mini Borders  
 White Cord

 

No more boring brown book covers!

Hi everyone!  The start of school means the task of wrapping each book to begin the school year.  My mother used to save up brown paper bags over the summer so that she had enough large paper to do the job.  They were sturdy and gave me an awful lot of room to doodle, but they sure weren't pretty.  I bought a roll of plain white wrapping paper last year from a school fundraiser and today I'm using that as the base of my project.

I cut a sheet of paper large enough (okay, I cut it way too large) to cover the history book.  I chose two different sheets of architectural collage images from Altered Pages and printed them in as full page, 5x7 and 4x6 sizes.  I chose black and white images for a reason.  Each page of images had several square images so I cut each square and inked the edges of each one just to give the book cover a hint of color.   I kept the color consistent for each individual image regardless of size.  The letters were freehand-cut and then inked.

Schoolbooks get handled a lot so you’ll need a pretty strong glue to attach your images to whatever paper you use for a base, whether you choose grocery bags, wrapping paper or store bought book covers.  If you have any edges that are giving you a hard time, either tape them in place or simply glue another image or embellishment over that spot.  I chose to keep these books flat so that they would stack well together on a shelf as well as in a backpack.  There are so many different embellishment choices at Altered Pages that you can be as creative as you choose! 

  

 

Composition books all look the same.  Why rummage around in the backpack looking for the right one?  I made a cover from a sheet of computer paper to match the history book.  No more guessing which books are for which class.

 

 

Oh, you want to know why I chose black and white images.  If your child is anything like me, these buildings will all be colored in by semester break.

Project supplies:
Vintage Architecture collage sheet
Architechtural Drawings collage sheet
15th Century Alphabet collage sheet
StazOn midi ink pads
Dauber
Thin double-sided adhesive
Black Bazzill Border
Glue Sticks or other adhesive
Seemingly Endless Embellishment Opportunities

Until next time...Happy Crafting!

The Wonderful World of the Wizard of Oz

Did you have a favorite book, or series of books, when you were a kid?  Was it something you read or something that was read to you?  For me, it's the wonderful collection of Oz books by L. Frank Baum, Ruth Plumly Thompson and John R. Neill.  Mom used to read them to us until she could barely talk.  I've been fortunate enough to meet a small group of people who enjoy these stories just as I do.  One of my new friends recently retired, which gave me the perfect opportunity for some Oz-zy crafting!

The card and bookmarks below feature a variety of products.  Scrapbook papers from Graphic 45 and others, Altered Pages collage images, stencils, rubber stamps, paints, inks and embellishments were used to make this fun retirement gift of a card and 7 tag bookmarks.

Retirement card - inside says "There's no place like home"

 

 

More of this fun Graphic 45 scrapbook paper went into making a birthday card for mom. 

 

 

 

About 15 years ago I used an Ozma rubber stamp and a LOT of glitter to make this birthday card for her. 

 

I have a lot more collage images from Altered Pages and more embellishments so there will probably be more Oz art to come!  Until next time...Happy Crafting!

Scrapbook cover page

I love country music.  You need to know that to understand how excited I was to take this trip.  Several years ago, my husband and I took a vacation in Nashville, Tennessee because we wanted to see the Country Music Hall of Fame and a couple of Nashville Predators hockey games.  We couldn't plan for a time when our home team would be in town so we chose to see games with the Dallas Stars and the San Jose Sharks...in case you were wondering why a Detroit-born girl is wearing a sharks T-shirt. 

I made a scrapbook for our trip when we got home but it has just been in a plain three-ring binder.  BORING!  The photo pages have been moved to a binder that allows artwork to be displayed on the front cover so I made this collage page with the help of Altered Pages.

It was just us on this vacation so almost all of the photos are of either me or hubby, but not both.  We finally asked someone to take this picture of the both of us.  It's the only one we have of us together in Nashville.  I printed it as an 8x10 to cut up for the cover art.

There are wax museums in the back of several gift shops and other shops have different kinds of memorabilia.  It was an odd feeling to walk around to the back of each shop and see their little museums.  There are the "real" museums, too.  I'm sharing this photo because I know how much people love Elvis.  His Solid Gold Cadillac is on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame.  The roof has been detached and an arm raises and lowers the top of the car so that people can look inside.

Jean, this one's for you!



Elvis was ahead of his time.  Even back then he had a TV and telephone in his car.

Another highlight of our vacation was a short 70 mile road trip to see the Jack Daniels Distillery.  It was an interesting tour and, since it's a dry county, the bar at the end serves the best (alcohol-free) ice cold lemonade!

Products Used:

Tennessee collage sheet

Old West collage sheet

All That Jazz collage sheet

Yellow Alphabet Tags collage sheet

Sheet Music