You and me together

The Stampotique Designer's Challenge is sponsored by Kathi this week.  She is asking for entries with music as inspiration.  I was inspired by Dave Matthews song "You and Me" and had to put these two characters together.

Mela and Hunk by Daniel Torrente make a happy couple and even happier against a painterly mixed media background.

I used a combination of acrylic and Inktense on a gesso surface.  I love taking a liner brush with diluted black acrylic and create some accents.  That little pop of black creates a visual balance with the black outline of the characters. The stamped images are stamped with Stazon, clear embossed then colored with Copics.
 I typed my quote and wet tore the paper edges.  Watercolor and Pitt pen accents the frame that gets stapled to the background. 
Thanks for taking a look.
 

Hope

This has been a difficult month.
Three friends and a relative diagnosed with cancer.
The passing of a family friend from cancer.
The passing of a friend's parent after a long battle.

What is going on?

I pray for hope.  Recovery.  Complete recovery for our loved ones and others fighting this nasty disease.

I wanted to write a reflection of the last few weeks on a tag to include in my art journal. I used Stampotique's hope definition in black dye ink and my bird in a cage is stamped and colored with Copics.   The image is purposely offset for some writing.

The tag background is a combination of acrylics and dye inks with Bic white out pen.
I colored strips of muslin with my Inktense blocks to create coordinating "ribbons."  Once dried, the fabric was torn and attached to the tag. 

 
 

Who's around the corner?

Life gets in the way when Vera Lane characters want to come out and play.  Sometimes they are peering out of sketchbooks, scattered on the drawing board, or hiding under a cup of coffee.
They talk.
They giggle.
They decide when they are ready to come out.

Well, I can tell you this; I try my best to assist their entry into the digital world.  Some are very stubborn, but once they emerge, they are all personality and so ready for your interpretation. 

Monday, August 11th Vera Lane will debut some crazy little characters ripe for Halloween or anytime you need a good boo.  A whimsical and nutty duo, and a quirky character you may recognize from the silver screen. 

They are coming.

This is a warning.

New this week on Vera Lane

 

There are two new image sets ready for instant download at the Vera Lane Studio Etsy Shop.

Meet Char. She's a little painter complete with a sizable paint can and two quotes.  "See Beauty in every day" and "Go to your studio and make stuff."
Enlarge Char, print, color and collage to create a whimsical canvas for your studio or as a gift.

Paisley is a very sweet addition to Vera Lane. She has a sentimental look, perfect to pair with any sentiment or use one of the two included with the set.  Paisley can be standing in her garden or used by herself.  All Vera Lane sets  are designed to be mixed and matched, or used alone images on a crisp white cardstock.  Paisley's image makes for that perfect "thank you" card, "Just to say hello", 'A gift for you", or even an "I'm sorry" card.  Her facial expression and handful of lilies can be used for a wide variety of occasions.

I hope you like this weeks images.  Come back next Monday and see who is around the corner!

A little late on birthday greetings?  Why not use the Alice's Rabbit from Stampotique? 
This belated birthday card also uses splatter circle and 2 nuages.

Modern Woman; Clean and simple

After the mess I made last week I have something clean and simple.  As much as I love getting funky and messy, I am a huge fan of negative white space in a composition . 

For todays clean and simple card I use portions of two Stampotioque stamps;

modern woman - Janet Klein
splattered mug - France Papillon

I used post-it notes to mask off half of the modern woman image and stamped with black dye ink.  I used Bic markers to color the image.  A piece of scrap paper matched the colors chosen for an offset stamping of "splattered mug" with coffee Archival Ink.   I used Tim Holtz Distress Ink in brushed corduroy around the edges of the paper scrap.

I was pleased that gluing the cellophane wrapper (from flowers) with a UHU stick did the trick!  For balance, I added a harmonious piece of scrap to anchor the composition.  If you don't have and printed cellophane masking the area and stamping with a text block would do the trick. Stampotique has so many nice text stamps that would do the trick!

The woman in the stamp is Leah Klein.  I told her story in an earlier post using another stamp created in her image.  Find the story here.

Collage Box

 Last week I had crazy fun with one of my little art students.  I gave her a choice of things to do and she chose to learn the Gelli Plate.  We made so many papers and they are so fun to look at.  I made some more when she left and found myself with yet another pile of fun papers.

 

If you are like me you have boxes of your collage and printed papers that are put away.  You really need to see what you have, right?  When I used to teach elementary art I created collage boxes for the kids.  They were wildly painted and Mod Podged with scraps.  Real random, real fun. So I decided I needed to make one for myself. Then I thought, what a great gift idea for an arty friend!  I immediately knew to grab my Collage Definition and made the hang tag.  I brushed the edges of the tag with a damp brush and Inktense color blocks.  Then I added some tiny scraps, doodled some and added a ribbon.

 

The box was covered quickly with random layers.  I even enhanced some papers with my Random Acts Alphabet.  I stamped individual letters on the printed papers and cut some out for future projects.  I'll know where to look for them in my funky collage box.

 

After my box was dry, I added a decorative draw pull to the front of the box.  What a fun gift!  I'm so glad I made it.  I'm gonna make more.  And I think the little hang tag just tops it!