Art Journaling

Art journaling combines my loves of sketching, writing, quotes, and notebooks. I love how every art journal you see is so different, just like every artist. I was looking for a new notebook to start a special art journal in, with thick pages and no lines, but I realized that it doesn't matter what the journal looks like, I can glue the pages together to make them thicker, and I can either use the lines or ignore them. So I grabbed a journal that I've had for years and started having fun. Here are some of my pages.

Disney's Maleficent Inspired Box

I recently fell in love with Disney's "Maleficent", a re-telling of "Sleeping Beauty" with much more focus on the "evil queen". The film is beautiful, as is the story, and when I was looking to transform a little hinged box that I'd been saving for years, I decided to go with a Maleficent theme.

SUPPLIES:
box
acrylic paint
polymer clay
paper and pencil
feathers
crystal/stone
charms
glue

1. Look at images from the film on the internet or watch the movie to get a feel for the magical scenery and creatures. The colors also inspired me. For the front and back of the box, I traced silhouettes of Maleficent so they would line up towards the "spine" of the box. On the front I went with her wing-less dark queen silhouette from when she curses Aurora and on the back I did her happy, winged, long-hair silhouette from after she saves Aurora. Inside I did one side as a night time scene from the moors and the other side a woodsy daytime scene.

2. Add accents like polymer clay, charms, stones, crystals, and feathers. I made black polymer clay thorns and a raven for the front of the box and brown/green tree branches for the back. (After I took photos) I super glued a white quartz stone inside and plan to add some brown and black feathers also. Other charms and stones might come later as I collect "magical" things.

3. DONE.

DIY Disney CARS Piston Cup

In preparation for my son's Disney CARS themed birthday party, I built a Piston Cup for a centerpiece. 

Here's how:

MATERIALS
- plastic containers (I used one margarine and one sour cream container, plus their lids)
- foam core board (optional)
- cardboard
- paint (gold, black)
- scissors, glue, pencil, other basic supplies

1. I started with a photo of the Piston Cup and enlarged it so the size matched my plastic containers. I created templates for the side "wings" and the stem of the trophy. I cut six of each piece from foam core board (cardboard would work also). Glue all six layers of the stem together. Glue two sets of three layers of wings together to create the two wings.

2. I made the base of the trophy by stuffing the margarine container full of balled up newspaper (to make it less squishy) and gluing the lid on it, then gluing the lid of the sour cream container onto the bottom. Flip the entire thing over and paint it completely black.

3. For the "cup" of the trophy, I made a cylinder of cardboard and glued it around the sour cream container. For the bottom of the cup, I cut an oval of cardboard and curved it to fit.

4. Glue the wings to the sides of the cup and the stem to the base of the cup. Paint the entire assembled trophy gold. Add the accents, stripes, and words.

5. Glue the trophy onto the base. DONE.

Dragon Bottle

While walking last summer I found an interesting green liquor bottle. It was too pretty to take to the recycling depot so I kept it for a craft project. Here is what some polymer clay, floral wire, charms, and acrylic paint turned it into:

I started with a blended cane of polymer clay and cut it into equal sections, removing every second one and keeping both piles in order, so I could do both sides of the bottle the same.

I started at the bottom of one side, pressing the little cylinders I had cut into teardrop (dragon scale) shapes and beginning to layer/stagger them.

Next I made the "label" for the front of the bottle, mixing a couple colors of clay and rolling it smooth, then distressing it. I used rubber stamps to do the letters and added the embellishments by pressing them right into the soft clay. After baking the bottle to harden the clay, I rubbed some brown acrylic paint over the label and allowed it to pool in the indented areas while wiping it away from the smooth parts.

For the bottle cap, I covered the entire cap with a thin layer of clay, making sure that it covered all the metal but not letting it extend too far below the cap, so the bottle can still open. I pressed a plastic gem into the center of the top, then added the four "claws" to hold it in place. Thanks to the fact that polymer clay is baked at such a low level, the plastic gem was not damaged by the heat from the oven.

After baking, I used two colors of floral wire to decorate around the bottle neck.

I also added a little dragonfly brad to one side before baking the clay.

Artist "Shout Out" - Eileen Gidman

This evening I thought I would check up on what my super-talented artist friend Eileen Gidman has been up to - WOW HAS SHE BEEN BUSY!

Check out her website here: Eileen Gidman

And view her blog here: Eileen Gidman's Blog

Eileen has pioneered this fantastic technique of painting on fabric with permanent dyes. You have NEVER seen stuff like this anywhere else. Each piece is 100% unique and they are all beautiful.

Don't these raspberries just look good enough to eat?!