Snowman Punch Art Card & Breast Cancer Awareness

Isn't this little guy cute?! I took a challenge to make  either  a Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas card using at least 3 punches. I chose to make a Christmas card. This cute little snowman took 9 punches to make him. The inspiration for the snowman came from SU demonstrator Dawn Griffith. Check out her tutorial HERE if you would like to know what punches to use and to learn how to make him.

I used some Stickles to glitter up the hearts and snowflakes  but it was a bit hard to get that to photograph. Hopefully some of these additional pictures at different angles will help to show the sparkle.

While I have your attention, I would like to take a moment to talk heart to heart with you all. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I'm sure you all have been seeing all the commercials on TV for breast cancer awareness, radio commercials as well as pink ribbons everywhere by those who support breast cancer research. Some of you might even be tired of it already....but don't be. As the commercials are saying, "1 out of 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer". That is a pretty scary number. I found out last month that I am that "one" when I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

It does not run in my family, in fact, I am the first to be diagnosed with it. I did not feel a lump, nor did my doctor during my yearly exam. Thankfully though the routine yearly mammogram caught it. An ultrasound followed the mammogram to confirm that there was a mass. Biopsy followed confirming that it was cancer. I had surgery last week and I have further treatments ahead of me. Although I have some health issues that make it harder to treat me for breast cancer, I have the fact that it was caught early in my favor.

I'm putting this in my post today with the hopes that my story will encourage those who don't have a yearly mammogram to go get it done. The key to winning the fight against breast cancer is early detection. Don't be lazy, don't be scared and don't be stupid.....schedule your yearly mammogram and get it done if you haven't already. Do it for your family and friends....do it for you.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my punch art snowman!

Mixed Media ATC Tutorial Using Gesso

ATC or artist trading card is a fun way to create a little piece of art that is all about you and then trade  with other artist / crafters for an ATC they created. Some people like to use ATCs to decorate a scrapbook page or to use on a card. I like to trade and collect them and keep them in a binder and enjoy them as the little pieces of art that they are.

I joined an ATC swap where we have to  make one ATC for everyone in the swap and we are allowed to make any theme, design etc of our choosing. I chose to make a mixed media collage design for my ATC.
Supplies I used:
A Manilla File Folder
White Gesso by Liquitex
Distress Inks by Ranger, Colors used: Wild Honey, Barn Door, Brushed Corduroy and Black Soot
Colorbox Pigment Ink: Gold
Burlap Stencil by Tim Holtz / Ranger Industries
Brass Dragonfly Stencil by Dreamweaver Brass Stencils
Eye image rubber stamp by Stampabilities
Art word image rubber stamp by Hero Arts
Prismacolor fine line black ink pen
Sakura Clear Glaze pen
Lightweight chipboard
water
adhesive

I began by cutting the base of my ATCs, which is 2 1/2" by 3 1/2", from a manilla file folder. I then placed a small amount of white gesso onto my craft mat. Using an old gift card, I dipped the edge of the card into the gesso then ran the card down the front of my ATC very lightly so that the gesso would be in random splotches on my ATC base. I then let the gesso air dry.

Once the gesso is dry it is time to add some ink. I applied Ranger's Distress Inks with a foam blending tool. The colors I used are Wild Honey and Barn Door.

After I had the inks applied and blended to my liking, I then spritzed a fine mist of water onto the inked ATC.

The gesso will act as a resist. You can take a paper towel and wipe the gesso areas off more if you like before spritzing with water. I liked that my gesso areas had some slight ink to them and chose to leave it. The water will react with the ink and create a fun look. Before going any further from this point, you will need to let the ATC dry. You can let it air dry on its own, or if you are like me and impatient, you can dry the ATC with a heat guu. Once the ATC was dry, I inked the edges with Distress Ink Brushed Corduroy.

I now took my Art word image rubber stamp and brushed a portion of the stamp with Distress Ink Black Soot and stamped onto the upper half of my ATC.

Using the foam blending tool and Distress Inks Brushed Corduroy, I then stenciled the lower portion of my ATC.

Now it is time to stamp the eye image, twice, with Distress Ink Black Soot.

Before going any further I made sure all ink on the ATC was dry. This time I left it overnight to dry but you could also use a heat gun. Once I was sure the ink from each step was dry I positioned my dragonfly brass stencil onto my ATC. I used a low tacky masking tape to hold the stencil in place while dry embossing the dragonfly using a lightbox. After dry embossing and before removing the brass stencil, I then stenciled the dragonfly with Colorbox's gold ink for the wings. I used Distress Ink Black Soot for the body of the dragonfly.

For the final step, I used the Prismacolor black pen to go over the word "ART" in the top left corner to make it stand out more. I gave it a couple of minutes to dry then I went over the word again this time with the Sakura Clear Glaze gel pen. Now the word ART not only is bolder but also has a shine to it.

I finished the ATC by adhering my creation to a lightweight chipboard, added a cream color cardstock backing with my artist info and then inked the edges front and back with Distress Ink Brushed Corduroy. The finished ATC pictured is not the one used in the tutorial pictures but was made using the same method.

Here is one more ATC using the same method and same products but a different layout.

I hope you enjoyed my ATCs and enjoyed seeing how I made them.
Thanks for stopping by!


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Recycled Candy Box Journals / Notebooks

 I have been having some fun with recycling candy boxes and turning them into paperback style journals or notebooks. 

 They are fun to make using paper and PVA glue.

 The DOTS candy box has been one of my favorite to work with. I used paper the colors of the candy to create dividers in the book.

 Love the spine on the Sno Caps candy box. It is cute and whimsical.

 

 All have ribbon bookmarks permanently attached in the books.

 And of course the part of eating the candy was just as fun as it was to make these books. :) These can also be found in my etsy store as well as some others that will be added very soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

CMYK and Favorite Quotes

 I recently have been enjoying exploring and working with CMYK. What is CMYK, you ask?

"Short for Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black, and pronounced as separate letters. CMYK is a color model in which all colors are described as a mixture of these four process colors. CMYK is the standard color model used in offset printing. for full-color documents. Because such printing uses inks of these four basic colors, it is often called four color printing."

I have had so much fun creating with these four colors with white as the background, that  I chose to use this color combo for my new adventure of opening an etsy store.  I'm using it for my packaging as well as my business card. Here is the front of my business card:

Look familiar? I used it as well for my blog header. I need to figure out something other than what I am currently using,  to go on my sidebars to work with my header.

CMYK was also the inspiration for the cards I made featured in today's post. Both cards were made for a challenge that required using a favorite quote. I love quotes so I actually have several favorites.

This first card features a quote by Walt Disney.
"If you can dream it, you can do it."

 The next card has one of my all time favorite quotes but unfortunately the author is unknown.
"Attitude is the world's paintbrush. It can color any situation."

Would you like to see some more CMYK? Check out my CMYK pinterest board. There are some fun pins on there! Hopefully I have inspired you to try creating with CMYK too.

Do you have a favorite quote?

Thanks for stopping by!

New Blog Name & Art Work of Tommy Hirsch

Tsunami

I'm making some changes! I have a new name and a new address for my blog. I recently decided to open an etsy store. Doing so I decided to have one name for both my etsy store and my blog. Introducing:

My Mindful Creations

Over the next few days you will notice a few more changes as I do some cleaning up on my blog. A new design...a new header...and I will be sure to have links on my sidebar to my etsy store and Pinterest boards. I am looking forward to my new adventure and I hope you will stop back often to see what I am up to and I would love to have you check out my etsy store. Currently I only have two items listed as I was in a mad rush to get things going and get it open. I will be adding more items very soon. You can find my etsy store HERE

As promised in my last post (sorry for the delay), I would like to share some photos of work that my son created. My son who is an artist was asked by a friend of his to participate in a fine art show that she was organizing. Normally this is not something he would do but he wanted to help his friend...so he agreed. Normally he does fine art photography and sculptures, but this show was more about functional art. So it was quite the challenge for him to make items that would be functional but also have a bit of fine art sculpture to them. In some cases it was one or the other. All the pieces though that he had at the show were all nature inspired. The picture above is of a piece he calls "Tsunami" and was my favorite of this show. Here are a few more of my favorites:

Copper Wire Vases

Crocus Vase

Ribbon Vessel

Safari Vessel Duo

Orange Speckled Vessels

Red Dot Vessel

Two Tone Vase

These next three I wish you could see in person as the glazes used on the outside and inside were both designed by my son. They can't be found anywhere else. The darker glaze on the inside of the shells has beautiful hues to it and even a hint of threads of gold can be seen. For now he is keeping it a secret on how he developed the two glazes.

Shell

Shell Platter

Spiral Shell

Lastly, this next piece was inspired by a leaf he found in our front yard and is part of a series he currently is working on.

Leaf

I would love to share more pieces with you but it would end up being a rather long post and a bit picture heavy! Eventually though, these and other pieces will be on my son's web site with more than one view of every piece. I will be sure to post a link to his web site once it has been updated.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting with me! I hope you will stop back again soon.