The Last of the Art Swap Pages

I finally finished the last of the six art swap pages -- just in the nick of time!

 Do you see the little birdie hiding there?

The little lady bug is tissue paper on vellum-like tracing paper. The "hello" is a scrap of fabric.

I can't wait to receive the pages that will be sent to me through this exchange! 

Word Art Wednesday - July 25, 2012

Once again, the word art for this week's challenge is very relevant to my life! I found out that I am no longer a candidate  for a stem cell transplant because my PET scan showed a mixed response to the latest chemo: some tumours got smaller, but others grew. When you confront obstacles like that, it's sometimes tempting to throw in the towel and just give up. But that's not a healthy response! We should "never, never, never give up!" Here is my art to convey that sentiment:

Feel free to download and use the word art in your own work:

If you'd like to share your inspirational art at Word Art Wednesday, you could win an adorable antique floral frog from Karen Letchworth from My Cup Runneth Over. 

More Art Swap Pages

I have completed two more pages for the Art is . . . You Swap. This little birdie is made from a couple of swatches of upholstery fabric. The cool stitching around the border is a bit obscured by the layers of pastel I added, but it's more visible in real life. And you can't see it, but behind the letter stickers there's a piece of paper that has the title of a vintage book about nests and birds :)

The colours aren't as true in the picture below, but you can see the effect of the ribbon better:

The other page I created was inspired by Christy Tomlinson's She Art girls. I haven't taken any of Christy's classes, but I've watched a few of her online videos and I like her whimsical girls.

It's hard to tell, but my girl is wearing a bun ;) And that flower in the middle is supposed to be the sun! :)

I'm lacking inspiration for my last two pages, though . . .

Homemade Stencils/Stamps

The other day I saw the idea of making homemade stencils with hot glue on Traci Bautista's blog.  Well, I have a hot glue gun and I'd like to try playing with some stencils -- so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I used waxed paper, which didn't release the stencils very well, but it wasn't hard to peel the paper off. If I do it again, I'll use parchment paper as Traci suggests. 


Here is my little collection of hot glue stencils:

Pretty cool, eh? I think this technique could be used to make some kinda cool embellishments, too -- though it would be nice if I could think of a way to colour them.

 I didn't have any paint mists, so I watched a bunch of youtube videos and made my own with some water, a smackerel of ModPodge, metallic paint, and folk art paint. Then I played with my stencils! 

After I sprayed with the glitter mist, I flipped the stencil over and used it like a stamp:

Fun stuff!

Do you have any other ideas for making homemade stencils?

Any thoughts on how to colour the glue?