Crazy Amigo - black and white

Crazy Amigo has us doing a black and white piece today in the weekly challenge. I have chosen this Zentangle for my entry. A Zentangle is a sort of doodle, a mindless drawing. It's good for passing the time in the doctor's waiting room. Yesterday I did another kind of doodle. An eye. That was for another challenge. I have been doodling all my life. For other black and white entries go to CA.

Gothic Arches - Birds

Today's theme for the Gothic Arches challenge is Birds. Here is a card I just made using alcohol ink on glossy card stock. I used a lot of embossing gold on the background and also on the arch itself. The bird is just a cut-out. These colors are close to true colors. It's very vivid. 

SaWo - Sponge Bob or What???

Saturday's Workout challenge has us using sponges in our art this week. This background has been sprayed with alcohol inks and with Adirondack color washes. 

I used a piece of sea sponge to dab gesso across the center, so that it looks like foam in the sea. After I glued the fish on I made a number of bubbles using Glossy Accents. The seaweed at the bottom is acrylic paints applied with a makeup sponge. Check out the other entries to SaWo.

Sun and Flowers

The challenge this week for Crazy Amigo is Sun and for Theme Thursday is Flowers. I have chosen this sunny flower butterfly ATC to enter both challenges.

This ATC is 3 dimensional so I took a digital picture instead of scanning it. The background is built up with Omni-Gel and then gesso. Acrylics mixed with gesso were added to make a sunny look. The flower is a fabric one. The butterfly is a cut-out photo on vellum, bent to make it lifelike. Some fabric-wrapped wire formed the antennae.

This ATC was my entry in a swap with the Yahoo group Art Techniques ATCs.

The Get Well Soon card was made using plain white card stock, which I layered globs of Omni-Gel onto. When that dried I smeared on some gesso. The next step was to spray alcohol inks of red and yellow till I got the look I wanted. The sun is a paper cast I made this weekend, using a rubber stamp, toilet tissue and starch. It turned out perfect. The Get Well Soon is a piece of painted paper that I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder on. 

Sunday Gothic Arches - handwriting

This week's Gothic Arches challenge is to use our own handwriting in our art. My ten year old houseguest has done a card using a background paper and a collage of some dogs. She has written in her very lovely handwriting: Best Buds. 

My ATC has balloons and I have written: Keep looking up! The background is alcohol ink on glossy photo paper. I stamped with my hand-cut maple leaf

stamp in powder blue. The balloons are stamped and outlined in embossing powder.

The other ATC is one that she hand-drew in pens, her version of a colorful Zentangle. I was just blown away by how beautiful her Zentangle turned out.

SaWo - Spotlight

This week's challenge for 

Saturday's Workout is to

use Spotlight in our art.

I have done the green ATC "Joy" spotlighting the mother and child. My backgrounds are alcohol ink and Moon Glow mists.

The "Smile" card was made by my ten year old

houseguest. She is using a vintage photo as her spotlight subject.

Theme Thursday - Heart

The theme for this week is Heart. Continuing with the recent romantic themes in various challenges, I have put a Hearts in Touch stamp image in the middle of my cutout heart. I used Tim Holtz's distress ink.

Staples/Envelopes

What delightful challenges are presented to us today! For Crazy Amigo, the theme of the week is Staples. For Created by Hand, the theme is Envelopes.

Several weeks ago, my internet friend Merrie sent me oodles of tiny envelopes, along with some that hadn't been folded yet. Inside some of them were tiny surprises like these little hearts. I've been waiting for the right time to use these little gems. And here it is. I merely stapled the little envies to the big envie and have satisfied both of my challenges for Tuesday.