September Papertrey Blog Hop

It's the September Blog Hop for Papertrey and I was so happy to have a moment to spare so I could play along.

This is the inspiration photo:

Here's my cards:

Thanks so much for visiting :-)

Stamps: Fillable Frames #1 and #11

Two-Step Stamps: Guest Post at Balzer Designs

Pinch me as I must be dreaming... 

I'm guest posting over at Balzer Designs today!!!

GO SEE IT

(can you spot the stamps? There's two different designs.)

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I'm sharing my two-step stamps taken even farther - you can make them using a stencil (for us non-draw-er types) or free-hand.

To see the original two-step stamp post please CLICK HERE

Thanks so much for sharing this exciting moment with me. Julie is pretty much my favorite creative person on the planet so I'm over-the-moon honored to be on her blog.

Warmly,

Nicole

Art Journal: Fight Club

Please, please, please click on the pic so you can see it in it's glory *wink*
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Fight Club is one of my favorite books and I used to read it ever year. It reminds me about the power of spare, effective writing and it speaks to me the way Jane Eyre speaks to other people.

I've been working on this page for ages. I made the background at a triathlon waiting for Chris to finish the bike leg. Using Aquarelles and a spray bottle. I'd draw thick lines in three colors and then mist them with water so they would drip down. Then I'd hold it over my head up to the sun to dry and then repeat with three different colors in the opposite direction. I kept doing this, building up layers until I was satisfied with the look.

The two images were added to the page using Mod Podge transfer. I'm so totally enamored with this technique. It's amazing to be able to transfer the image without covering up the background. I chose this transfer method because I wanted to create the impression that Ed Norton (right) was receding and Brad Pitt (left) was emerging. Hopefully that came through.

In other news:

Friendship Scrapbook Page

Here's my layout for Sketchy Thursdays, this time they teamed up with Scrapfit and their theme is 'F is for friendship'.

This sketch really intimidated me until I thought of using mists for the burst and then it all came together.

All the embellishments are from Cupcards {to go}, you'll be seeing peeks for the fall kit very soon. 

As Seen in 'The Art Journal Journey'

I had the honor of being published in The Art Journal Journey's August Issue.

Didn't they do a gorgeous job with my tutorial?

Be sure to visit Artella and their magazine.

Original Post: Recycled Storage Solution for Tall Paper

P.S. Don't forget it's Talk Like a Pirate Day - aargh!

Wedding Shrine

I've been wanting to make a wedding shrine for Chris and I ever since I started making them a year or so ago but I was intimidated by the importance of the event and didn't want to do it wrong. So silly!

Then, a few months ago I thought up the theme that I wanted the shrine to have and it all came together.

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I wanted to make a piece that spoke to the glamor of a wedding and the blissful utility of marriage. What better to represent blissful utility than an old well-used and truly worn cake pan? Cake, what we celebrate our occasions with, how we delight our children and fill our husbands stomachs? It was perfect.

So I scouted out the thrift shops until I found the perfect pan with the right amount of distress.

Then, employing paint stir sticks, an old wedding topper, skulls from a dollar store garland, Tim Holtz dangly sparkly expensive embellies and more hours then you'd ever imagine, I ended up with this:

Be still my beating heart!

This is a project I will treasure for the rest of my life. So pleased it came together.

Just an FYI, I have some extra architectural elements (the big plaster flourish) that I'm thinking about adding to my Etsy shop. Is that something any of you would be interested in?

Here's a picture of the plaster attached to the cake pan to give you an idea of how they look plain:

Linked Up To:

Tatertots and Jello

Whipperberry

Blue Cricket Design

House of Hepworths

Fireflies and Jellybeans

Tip Junkie

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Family Ever After

Momnivore's Dilemma

Art Journal Page: Be Enough

I'm so excited to finally have another completed art journal page to share with you. While I've been resting, I've made oodles of backgrounds but haven't got them all finished.

Please click on the pic so you can see it at a decent size.

left side

I did a Mod Podge transfer to get the torso onto my page. It's such an effective technique and it really integrates the image a lot better then just gluing it on. I got so excited about how well this technique works that I gave myself a blister rubbing all the paper off the backs of image after image. LOL.

right side

On this side, I used alcohol ink, doodling, misting watercolor through a punched border (my other favorite technique) and the red heart is cut from a pair of flip-flops and stamped with Claudine Hellmuth's red acrylic paint. I love the texture!

I'm still struggling to "get" glaze pens. They work great for resist but the colors really got swallowed up on this page. You can see it but it doesn't add a ton of punch. 

Thanks for stopping by :-)