MOO Art Greeting Card

Hello friends!  It’s Trending Tuesday over at the Altered Pages Artsociates blog.  Every month a different crafty trend is highlighted and the whole team joins in the fun!  We are teaming with Unruly PaperArts and Leaky Shed Studio in April to bring you some fun projects with … MOOs. 

A MOO is a small piece of art that can either stand alone or be part of a larger project.  The monthly theme over at Unruly PaperArts is “Mail Art and MOOs” so I’ve incorporated mine into a greeting card with (faux) postage today.

I found this wonderful cream colored paper from Art Papers Online.  Textured paper is a great way to add some dimension and interest to a card project.  Several layers of the three Colorbox chalk inks shown were added to it.  These are the only inks used throughout the project.  I started by simply rubbing the stamp pad over the ridges.  Then I used sponges to add more layers.  Finally, I dipped the edges in the dark brown ink pad to give it a defined edge.

Because my theme for this card was “Paris” I chose to use the rubber stamp set from Altered Pages’ sister company, The Mailbox Muse.  These wonderful red rubber stamps were part of the All Things French kit.  The butterscotch ink was sponged onto a sheet of cream card stock and then stamped with three stamps - “evening in” “Paris” and the Eiffel Tower in the dark brown.

Two collage sheets of faux postage from Altered Pages were used for the images on the MOOs.  I was so excited to have a reason to use my patterned scissors!  Using the postage stamp edged pair I cut out several of the more colorful images that I thought would blend well with my color scheme.  I brushed the edges with butterscotch ink to highlight the fancy cut. Each MOO is 1 1/8” by 2 3/4” and two images fit perfectly on each one.  They were adhered with an Elmer's X-treme glue stick and then I trimmed the excess and inked the edges.  A wide band of burnt sienna went around each of the MOOs and then a thinner band of dark brown on top.  After dipping each side into the brown ink pad, a Fleur de Lis brad was added to one on the corner to balance the flower attached to the other side of the finished card.

I smooshed the Leaky Shed Studios crown down onto the dark brown ink pad so that it would have an even coating of ink.  Once it was glued onto the card three tiny Prills by US ArtQuest were added to it over the laser engraved pattern.

Everything was adhered to the textured paper using Helmar 450 Quick Dry glue.  I went with liquid glue because the paper is extremely bumpy.  I wanted to be sure the images stuck well.  I admit that I did weight the whole thing down with a sheet of bubble wrap and a heavy book…just to be sure!

And what would mail art be without an envelope?  The space for the receiver's name is reserved by using my favorite (retired) tea cup image from Auntie Amy.  Then I stamped the Stampendous! crown at an angle and added a little Stampin' Up steam.  Both images were colored with Bic Mark-Its permanent markers.  After masking the cup, the same three Colorbox chalk inks are sponged around the cup and the rest of the envelope.  Two textured stamps inked with the butterscotch ink were added at random to give it a little texture.

Be sure and come back on Friday for my next design team post!  Happy crafting!

Supplies:

Paris Faux Postage collage sheet

Art Faux Postage collage sheet
Paris red rubber stamp set

Leaky Shed Studio crown

Fiskars Postage pattern scissors

Art Papers Online

US ArtQuest Prills

Brown flower – Michael’s dollar bin
Tea Cup stamp from Auntie Amy
Crown stamp by Stampendous!
Steam stamp from Stampin' Up
Mini Circle texture stamp from Sin City Stamps
Diamond Grid stamp by Stamp Camp

Oriental Trading Company Fleur de Lis brad

Colorbox Chalk ink – butterscotch, burnt sienna, dark brown

Helmar 450 Quick Dry glue

Be sure to visit Unruly PaperArts for additional inspiration

Be Brave in your art journal

Be Brave and Take a Chance was the theme of this next layout.  My bravery on this layout was mainly the use of mustard yellow!  That color took me out of my comfort zone.  There were a lot of techniques going on for this layout.  Hey, you can catch Terri Sproul's art journal tutorial #3 over on YouTube if you'd like to play along on Tuesdays and make your own brave layout!

First I tore large sections from a sheet of scrapbook paper.  It was a brown paper with copper hexagons.  The brown paper really drove this layout, which is ironic because I used so much paint that it almost doesn't show.  Only the shiny copper really comes through.  That's a shame because it was wonderful paper. 

After the paper was down I spread on a generous amount of Elmer's glue and a little touch of copper color glitter glue.  You have to let that start to dry and then paint over top.  While the paint and glues dry the paint begins to crack and split.  Because the paint got away from me I tried to wipe some of it off.  A couple of things went wrong at this point.  When you blend the glue and paint it doesn't really crack.  Also, because the paper was saturated with paint, when I began wiping it off I was also wiping off the scrapbook pattern!  So I stopped wiping and decided to go with whatever happened.  I sprinkled on a few of the turquoise mica flakes that came in the mail that day.

 

Because I was being Brave. I wanted to do something different to add interest to the page.  I took my largest mica tile and split it into two pieces so that I could have the same shape on each side of the layout.    The "Be Brave" tile has the yellow paint on the back and the words and my thumbprint on the top.  The "Take A Chance" tile has the yellow paint on top so it's not as shiny.  Both tiles were attached with Helmar 450 glue.

 

After the paint was thoroughly dry I  added a couple sections of USArt Quest's 101 Heavy on two different stencils.  The first was an Asian symbol for energy, which was decorated with their Mica D'Lights.  This wonderful stuff is like glitter, but it's all natural.  It also matched the flakes so I thought it would be a nice burst of color.  I stamped a couple of flowers with glue and added more D'Lights.  Then I added some checkerboard sections just for fun.  I stamped some additional background images and let the whole thing dry...again.

 

So this is my page.  There is a lot going on and it is different than anything I've ever created.  I like it for that reason alone!  One more step along the new creative path I'm taking.  I hope you like it.  

Please leave me a comment or follow my journey using the links here on the page.  Happy creating!