Fairy Girl and Her Little Bird

I haven't been able to get into my studio for awhile. It's unusable temporarily, so I've not been able to paint in for what seems like forever. I miss my paintbrushes! But I felt like doing something creative this evening, so I decided to work in one of my small art journals.

I used my Jane Davenport Magic Wand Pencils for this. I love how smooth the colored pencils are. And of course, I always love creating some sort of Fairy Art. That's always fun. Just something quick to do while I have the energy and time to do it. One of the fun things about art journaling is that you don't have to obsess about anything, or worry about trying to make it perfect. There's not really any right or wrong with an art journal. It's just about doing what you feel like doing. 

I hope I'll get to use my studio again soon though. I'm kind of going through paint withdrawals. In the meantime, I'll keep doing some art journaling here and there until I can use my studio again.

Seattle Believe Art Journal Spread

Well I was back in the studio again after a little bit of an absence and I was in the mood to add a spread to one of my Art Journals. I chose Seattle as as my subject, and added a little bit of magic.

First, let me say that this spread was inspired by a tutorial video I watched on the Silas Art YouTube channel. I like hers better than mine! But I still had fun creating this. She has a lot of beautiful art journal spreads, so be sure to check them out if you want a little inspiration. I didn't copy hers exactly, of course. But her video gave me the inspiration I needed to create this. I like the sky the most here. I think I need to create more art with skies!

I chose Seattle for my spread because I grew up partly in the Puget Sound area of Washington state. Went to high school there and was married there as well. I still miss it so much and will always consider Washington my home. So it was an easy choice for this spread. I used acrylics for this, and the fairy images are stamped on. And I just added a little reminder to always...Believe.

Drawing in My Travelers Notebook

I'm planning to get into the studio to paint again this weekend, but for now I've been content this week doing some drawing in my Traveler's Notebook. I have an insert with black pages that I'm trying to fill up. So, I made a couple of additions this week.

I have a thing for flying pigs!

And you know I love fairies!

Here's hoping I fill up this insert in the next couple of weeks! What have YOU been creating this week?!

Believe in Your Own Magic Mixed Media Girl Fairy

I can't tell you how glad I was to be able to get into my studio two weekends in a row for a change! My weeks are still busy with grad school and hanging out with the grands, so I can't always get into the studio during the week. But getting in on the weekend will do!

I wasn't sure what I was going to create, but I was in a Mixed Media mood. So the first thing I did was to cover my 12" canvas with some different scrapbook papers and some printed tissue paper as well. I like to use at least 3-4 different papers when I do this, and I use matte medium to adhere the paper to the canvas.

At this point, I decided I would do a Mixed Media Girl, so I whipped out my drawing pad and started drawing. I keep my drawings fairly simple, since I'll add all the important details with paint. Once I was happy with the drawing, I used transfer paper to transfer my drawing to my canvas.

Once I get the face on the background, I brush over it with Clear Gesso. This helps to give me a good surface to paint on, and it helps keep my drawing in place and prevents smearing while I paint. It can smear a little bit during the gesso process, but that doesn't bother me. It's not really enough to worry about it. Once my drawing is gesso'd, I'm ready for the fun part: painting!

I tend to use the colors of the background papers as inspiration for my painting's color palette. I don't think you *have* to do that, but that's just generally what I do. So this Mixed Media Girl, who became a fairy (as I am wont to do), took her color cues from the background. Some pinks and greens mostly, with black and white accents. And this is the end result.

I'm pleased with how this fairy came out. I added the text digitally, because sometimes that's just easier than painting. I really thought the painting needed some words or something. And as it says...

Believe in your own magic!

Trumpet Flower Fairy

As I was out in the garden watering this morning I saw that my Trumpet Flowers were still open. They open up at night time and they are often closed by the time I'm out watering. But it was quite cool over night so they must have been responding to the cooler weather. So I decided to snap a few photos while I was out there.

I took these pics with my iPhone. The pics are always better on my digital camera, but I thought these came out pretty well. I got as close as I could to these flowers, which are quite large.

There is something really beautiful about trumpet flowers. I love how the petals curl up at the ends.

Every once in awhile it's nice to see a black and white photo too.

For this one I think I spy a friendly little fairy visitor enjoying the trumpet flowers as well. ;)

Destiny Fairy Mixed Media

With so much to do before the start of my first week of my return to teaching upon me, I'm surprised I let myself spend the day in my studio yesterday. But I really felt the need to get in there and be creative. I wasn't sure what I was going to create (I seldom am), but I ended up creating this Destiny Fairy in mixed media painting.

I used a combination of acrylics, Neocolor II crayons, and colored pencils. And the stars were stenciled on. I found the quote online, and it seems to be attributed to Shakespeare. I liked it so I added it to my painting. And hey, I didn't do pink hair this time. LOL. She seemed to need blue hair for a change. 

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves.

Fairy Lanterns

Recently my daughter sent me a link to a video about a Fairy Lantern project. She thought I might like to do the project with my granddaughter, and she knows I love fairies. So my granddaughter, Destiny and I made our Fairy Lanterns last week. 

We didn't create our fairy lanterns exactly like what we saw in the video. We looked at several Fairy Lantern videos on YouTube to get lots of inspiration and then we just did our own thing. But you'll see in this video that they used paint on the inside of the glass to give it a frosted look. That is what Destiny did with hers. In other videos, most people used tissue paper that they Mod Podged to the outside of the jar to create the frosted look. That is how I created mine, so that we'd have experience creating them both ways. 

Here is Miss Destiny with her finished Fairy Lantern, which she loves.

We added some twine and roses to the outside of our jars, and a little glitter here and there. And we used flameless battery-operated votives for our lights on the inside. We also added a few star stickers on the inside. 

Here's a pic of my Fairy Lantern--the one with tissue paper on the outside.

By the way, the fairies we used were pre-cut cardstock fairies that I purchased from a shoppe on Etsy. You can find those by clicking here: MentalEpisodes

I really love how both of the lanterns turned out. They both have a different look. If you want a smooth finish then I'd suggest that you use the paint option on the inside of the jar. We just used regular acrylic craft paint. I like how the tissue looks on the outside though too.

If you need more inspiration, just have a look around YouTube; there are tons of videos on how to make your own Fairy Lanterns.

Outside Art Journaling

I had planned to go into my studio on Sunday, but since it was such a nice day I decided to grab some supplies and an art journal and just go get creative on the porch. There was a nice breeze blowing and the Hubs was working in the yard. And since I was surrounded by flowers I guess that inspired my first bit of journaling. 

I just used some watercolor pencils and water, and a black pen, and just drew what came to my mind. Pink and blue flowers, in this case. :) After that I started working on a fairy. She's not finished yet, but at least it's a start.

So I didn't accomplish a whole lot out there on the porch, but at least I got to be creative. And since I don't have a lot of time for that right now with my grad courses going on, I took advantage of the little bit of time that I had. And that was enough.

Lilacs Fairy Dance

Well since my granddaughter and I attended the local Lilac Festival today, I was in the mood for Lilacs. So I created this digital art from a photo I took of my Lilacs. Nothing like a little fairy dance to bring some magic to May. 

Hoping to get into my studio tomorrow to have some messy creative fun, but in the mean time, a little digital art is always fun too. :)

(Fairy girl image by sussieM Designs)

Fairy Nicolette

I have a beautiful and fabulous niece named Nicci. Well, technically her name is Christina Nicole (she was named after me, because my given name is Christina), but she goes by Nicci. And Nicci's birthday is on Valentine's Day, just like my sister. How cool is that? And this year she said she would like for me to paint her a fairy for her birthday. Ask and ye shall receive, as they say. So please meet Nicolette, the fairy that I named after Nicci. :)

She was created primarily with Neocolor II crayons, but I also used some paint pens and some stamp ink and stencils too. Nicci is fond of purple, and even though it looks a little more pink in this photo, she really has a lot of purples too. And I was only too happy to create this little bit of magic for my sweet Nicci!

Rainy Day Fairy

It's not raining, but I must have been thinking about the rain...and fairies, when I created this Rainy Day Fairy Art digital art. Every now and then a fairy has to make an appearance in my artwork (digital or otherwise), or I don't feel quite like myself. :) 

You may recognize the lovely Lily Elise, who was the vintage photo inspiration for this piece. She makes regular appearances in my artwork. She was quite lovely, don't you think?

Hope this fairy art brings a little magic to your day, as it did to mine.

Wedding Fairy Digital Art

Since I've been getting back into my Digital Art again, I thought I'd do something fun--so I turned one of my daughter's wedding photos into fairy art! I just love fairies. So what could be more fun than turning my daughter into one? :)

A unicorn, some flowers, an enchanted setting, and a little fairy dust, and my daughter is a fairy. Fun, fun, and more fun to create!

Don't Forget to Fly Art Journal Tutorial

Since I haven't posted any tutorials for awhile, I thought I'd create one for you. So while I was in the studio over the weekend, I decided I'd make it an art journal tutorial--since I was going to be creating a new spread anyway and using some new fun supplies to boot. Who doesn't Love (with a capital 'L') new art supplies, right?! And all the more artsy fun to use them in my art journal.

Sooooooooo--this is the 'Don't Forget to Fly' art journal spread that I created, along with the fabulous new (and not-so-new) art supplies that I used in the process.

Artsy Materials: Faber-Castell Gelatos (Snow Cone and Kiwi colors), Prima Finnabair Elementals 'Bubbles' Stencil, Prima Finnabiar 'Don't Forget to Fly' Cling Stamps, Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Faded Jeans color), Stayz-On Ink (Black), Faber-Castell Pitt Pen (Black), Uni-Ball Signo UM-153 Gel Pen (White), white acrylic paint, Liquitex Gesso (White), Liquitex Matte Medium (Fluid), and Tissue Paper (not shown). Oh, and I'm also using a Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media journal; it is hard-bound and has 90lb paper pages that are deliciously smooth and perfect for the mixed media journaling that I love to do [and makes me feel like a real artist when I use it, ahem].

I will preface this all by saying that I had no real plan for this art journal spread when I began--other than that I was going to use my new cling stamps, and some Gelatos. Most of the time when I'm art journaling, I like to fly by the seat of my pants...which seems appropriate for the theme of this spread anyway. :)

Artsy Deets...OK, let's get this art show on the road!

1.  Gesso the pages. I almost always gesso my pages if I'm doing mixed media. If I were doing watercolor or just simple drawing, I'd leave them as is. But I wanted the pages to be ready for whatever I might do here, so I gesso'd [that's right, I just used 'gesso' as a verb--I'm crazy like that]. And that's what you see here in the photo--two primed pages, ready for anything. I also used my heat gun to speed up the drying process on the pages. What can I say? Patience is not one of my strong suits.

2.  Crumple up the Tissue Paper and adhere to the pages with Matte Medium. I decided I wanted TEXTURE on these pages. And I love to use tissue paper to add texture! So, in the next few pics that's what you see--the crumpling process, and the adhering process. And again, I sped up the drying process with the heat gun.

Crumple.

 Add Matte Medium to the pages.

Add tissue and then add Matte Medium over it.

This ensures the tissue is well-adhered to the page.

  

3. Gesso the tissue-covered pages. Since I knew I'd be using Gelatos, I wanted a good, non-porous surface to work on with the Gelatos. So I gesso'd over the tissue-covered pages to make them ready for the Gelatos...and for whatever else I might do or add to the pages later on. Check out that texture, people! It looks cool, and it feels cool too, and it's so easy to do.

4. After you finish admiring your texture, it's time for Gelatos! I had no idea what colors I'd be using at this point. I have many Gelatos and I love them all equally (we don't want any of them to feel left out, after all). But something drew me to the Snow Cone blue color, so that's what a grabbed from my stash and then I just scribbled it around the edges of the page. Again--I had no plan here. I just decided on the spot where I'd add the color. And after adding the Snow Cone, I grabbed another color--Kiwi--and added it too.

 Snow Cone blue added.

 

Kiwi green added.

5. Ponder the colors. Then blend. Once I had those two colors down, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do next. And what do you do when you're not sure? That's right: you ponder. So I did that for a bit and then I decided to blend the colors with a spritz of water and my finger. BUT....I didn't like it. So, I grabbed a baby wipe and blended with that instead.

 

(Dang, that's perty, I thought.) So I blended it all on both pages. And I was so into what I was doing I totally forgot to take a pic of the finished blending. I'm not used to stopping to take photos during my art journal time, so I got a bit distracted. :) But you'll see in the next pic how it looked as I began the next step.

6. Use the Stencil to create circles of Negative Space. I loved my blended Gelato colors, but I wanted to do something before I started doing any stamping. So since I had a new stencil I hadn't tried yet, and I still had a baby wipe in my hand, I decided I'd use the stencil to create some negative space. All I did was use the baby wipe and wipe away color in some circles through the stencil while the Gelatos were still not dry. Gelatos are permanent when dry, but before then you can really play with them, wipe them off, etc. So that's what I did here.

Wipe away color.

 Now you have Negative Space circles.

7. Use some Gelatos to add a darker color around the circles. I used the Snow Cone Gelato for this. I just scirbbled a bit on my non-stick painting mat. Got a thin liner paintbrush wet with water and wet the Gelato color a bit. Then I took the brush and just sort of outlined the circles in a subtle way, to help them pop a bit more.

8. Stamping time! Next I grabbed my stamps and had a ball. I did the fairy lady stamp first, then added the circles and butterflies.

9. Scrape some paint with a credit card. Before I moved on to add some details to the pages, I felt like I needed to see a bit of white here and there. So I grabbed an old credit card and some white acrylic paint and scraped the paint on here and there. I just held the card at and angle and scraped it to hit the high spots of tissue paper.

If you look close, you can see it.

10. Add details and embellishments. I used my Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen and my Uni-Ball Signo white gel pen to add details. You won't see them all in the next photo...again, I got so focused on what I was doing that I missed another photo opp. But you'll see them at the end.

11. Add more cirlces using Distress Ink and the Stencil. As I stood back and looked at the journal spread, it just didn't feel finished to me. I liked it, but I thought it needed something more. So I grabbed the stencil and the Faded Jeans Distress Ink and added circles all around the pages. 

12. Don't Foret to Fly...the happy ending! After the circles were on I was happy. But I did add some thinned out gesso to a few of the stamped circles here and there for some contrast. And then I knew it was time to call this journal spread complete.

Final thoughts on this journal spread...

I made mistakes along the way. The fairy lady, for example. When I first stamped her I accidentally moved and the image was blurred. Urgh! But i didn't fret. I simply gesso'd over her, let it dry, added the Gelato colors again, and then re-stamped her. Mistakes happen in art. Sometimes you can fix them, and sometimes you just have to find a way to love them for what they are. I have never re-done an art journal page. To me, however the page ends up when it's finished is how it is meant to be. An art journal is just like a regular writing journal, in my mind. I'd never re-do a page my writing journal--so why would I re-do a page in my art journal? Even though I can look at this journal spread and see a few little "mistakes" that I don't totally like, it's finished and I love it just the way it is.

You have to learn to love your art, flaws and all. An art journal especially is not meant to be perfect, so perfection should never be your goal. Nor should you compare your art (or art journal) to the art of anyone else. Your art journal should always be, first and foremost, your means of creative self-expression. And as such, it can never be wrong. It's Y-O-U!  

Love it.

Love yourself.

And Don't Forget to Fly!

Hope Art Journal Spread

I have a job interview on Wednesday with a nearby school system for a grades 3-6 Art position. I am very excited about the possibility of teaching again. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high, but I am all about having a little hope and a positive attitude. So my journal spread for the weekend was inspired by that hope.

Hope is the thing with feathers

that perches in the soul

and sings the tunes

without the words--

and never stops at all.

-Emily Dickinson

Here's to hope. And maybe new beginnings.

Blue Fairy Art Journal Spread

It was a beautiful Spring day yesterday and I spent it painting in my studio with a cool breeze blowing in on me. It was wonderful! Spring truly is my favorite season of the year. And as I was in the studio, a fairy came to life in my art journal.

I used another technique from Jane Davenport's book, Beautiful Faces, this time using Gelatos to scribble in colors on the face and then blend it with gesso for a more painterly effect. I did the background with a stencil, and some sprays from Dyan Reavely. I also stamped on a few flowers too. 

Notice that I did blue hair this time, instead of pink! :) It was a wonderful, creative day!

The Sky's the Limit

I haven't done a Three Muses challenge in awhile, so I decided to participate in this week's challenge, which is called The Sky's the Limit. I didn't create something brand new though. Rather, I took a page from one of my art journal's and transformed it into new digital Fairy Art.

My original piece is called BECOMING YOURSELF. <--If you click on that it will take you to that original blog post. I cropped the photo a bit and then added my digital magic. And of course, this digital art features the art of one of my favorite artists, Maxfield Parrish. I turned his lovely lady into a fairy. And I really like how this art journal page turned digital art came out.

Fall Fairy Dance

The latest challenge at Lunagirl has Autumn as its theme, so I've created this Fall Fairy Dance digital art for that challenge. (Fairy by by Lorie Davison of scrapbookgraphics.com)

Be sure to check out the Lunagirl.com website if you're in need of wonderful digital images. She has many wonderful images and CD's of images there!

Fairy by Moonlight

I felt like creating some digital Fairy Art this evening, so I just thought I'd share my creation.

Hope you have a magical weekend...

Sparkle Fairy

It seems that I just can't get away from my Fairy Art girls. I just keep getting inspired to paint more. And I love working with various media and improving my skills with them, and with portraits in general. I love how my Sparkle Fairy came out this weekend.

I used mostly Neocolor II Crayons for this artwork this time. There is some white acrylic paint marker for details, and also some black pen and black rubber stamping as well. And also a wee bit of stenciling with distress ink was done in the background. It was a great, productive day in the studio.

She Could Fly Fairy

I finished a new Mixed Media painting in the studio over the weekend. And another little fairy is born. :)

She loved to DREAM

for in her dreams she could FLY

I messed up her hand and had to put a flower on it. LOL. But nobody's perfect, right?