4 Helping Us See

This two page spread is for Orly Avineri's 2009 Art Journal Round Robin. Here is a link to her original post regarding the Round Robin. Orly is a wonderful supportive artist and friend. She has been published in Artful Blogging. She is going to be teaching at Teesha Moore's Journalfest this fall. I am attending her Art Journaling Classes at Harmony Works on Wednesday evenings. Click on the image for a larger view.

The eyes are a gel 'skin' image transfer I did using Regular Gloss Gel. I printed the image on plain cardstock and applied the Regular Gloss Gel and waited over night. Once it was dry I spritzed some water on the paper, rubbed off all the paper and then cleaned up the image transfer. It was actually really easy to do and you get a wonderful result. I then applied the 'skin' to my journal page with Soft Gel and it worked like glue.

My pages also include scrapbook paper, vintage ephermia, stenciling and spray painting & glimmer mist for some shine(and grunge)... enjoy! Give image transfers a try.

Stranger in a Strange Land

An Alice in Wonderland ATC for the Itty Bitty Book Swap I belong to.

Here is the front and back designs of the ATC.
This is an image transfer I did using gel medium on my visual journal for The Art Journal Stimulus Project

Here is my first page of my visual journal. I titled this page "Stranger in a Strange Land".

Red, White & Blue ATC with Crackle Paint Background

Red, White & Blue ATC Crackle Paint
Originally uploaded by bkasstle

This group of ATC's has a background of Tim Holtz Picket Fence Crackle Paint(white), it is for a Red, White & Blue ATC swap for the Itty Bitty Book Club I belong to. Have a fun day and create something today!

Red, White & Blue ATC Spray Paint Background

Red, White & Blue ATC Splater Paint
Originally uploaded by bkasstle

This group of ATC's is for the Itty Bitty Book group I belong to for a Red, White & Blue ATC swap. I spray painted the bacground behind the flags. On the stars and stripes I used some Tim Holtz Distress Stickles in Blue. Enjoy!

2 pages, plastic lace placemat

2 pages, plastic lace placemat
Originally uploaded by bkasstle

These pages may end up being backgrounds but I like how complex they are as is...enjoy!

Inspired & my Large Visual Journal.

Good morning! I have been overwhelmed by the traffic and comments to the blog since joining Seth Apter's Buried Treasure on The Altered Page . "Thank you!" does not do justice to how much I appreciate your kind words. You can click on any photo for a larger view of it.

This page uses one of my favorite wall stencils above Afro Girl's head and some lace cut number scrapbook paper, Afrom Girl is from Stencil 1 book.

This page uses dragon from Stencil Me In and wrestler from Stencil 1, a Tim Holtz mask on the top. I tend to do pages in twos, I am going to bind these loose ones in a book.

I have large 11" X 14 1/2 " Journal I have been using as a visual journal. It has been so fun to just spray right on it! At first I was first a bit hesitant but I just jumped in and it is working out to be great!

These pages use a lace plastic placemat on the left and stencils from Stencil Me In book.

This page uses bug stencils from Ginny's Small Studio and a stencil from Stencil 1 book, punchella. Everything has been oversprayed with Glimmer mist in copper. I love how it came out all grungy and aged.

The inside cover, with punchella and stencils from Stencil Me In & Stencil 1 books, Heidi Swapp masks.

This page is only a spray painted background. All of my pages start out like this before I spray on them. Have a great day and go make a mess and make some art today!

Buried Treasure

My internet friend Seth Apter over at The Altered Page is doing a collaborative project called "Buried Treasure" in which invites bloggers to find special features of their past blog entries and repost their favorite posts. I have started blogging relatively recently so my favorite post is actually a very recent post. I have very recently taken up being creative and expressing myself through "art". I actually believe I did was not fully aware of how important creating and expressing myself until I took Mary Ann Moss's "Pure Experimentation: Stencilry" class over on Dispatch From LA. It freed me of many of my fears of color, and and my need for perfection. It allowed me to just play... And it freed me to fail and just spray over something I did not like and start all over again from the same piece of paper. More importantly it is just plain and simple fun in the sun... Increasingly these spray paint art features are becoming more and more personal for me.

Here is the original post "This is a some artwork done with a stencil I cut of an old picture of my Great Grandpa Barley on my father's side. I still need to do some work on it and I need to get better at scanning these but you get the idea..."

This time I have decided to include the original photo of my great grand father Barley.

My blog has led me to make some amazing artist friends I may never meet but their support is very important to me. Thank you for stopping by.

Family Stencils Part 1

The first of my hand cut stencils in my Family Series. This is of my sister Sheila, it is her high school graduation portrait. I will probably recut it again I was not too happy how her right eye turned out. I have not had time to do anything creative in a while so it felt good to do some spray painting.

I certainly enjoy spray painting in my beautiful back yard on a nice summer evening.

Summer Fun!

Here is an ATC I did for my Itty Bitty Book Group I belong to. This time around the theme is Summer.

Here is another one I did for the Summer themed Itty Bitty Book Group. I hope your having a great summer! Today is a beautiful day! I am going to do some stenciling and enjoy my yard.

Sad News

I was so sad to open my email this am to find out Strictly Scrapbooking store in Cerritos, CA is closing it's doors. It was/is my favorite and first scrapbooking store. I took my first class there from Mary Ann. Sophia the owner, my friend Joe have always been so supportive and inspirational in my creative journey I am so grateful for them. Support your local scrapbooking/crafting store.

Learning...

Brandi, Tim and I

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to take two Tim Holtz classes up in Elk Grove, near Sacramento at Stampers Corner. It was a blast! I went with my good friend Brandi, we had a great time. Tim is an amazing teacher and Mario did an amazing job keeping us organized. The staff at Stampers Corner did an amazing job with the event! Brandi and I took two amazing classes, "Exploring Alcohol Inks" on Saturday and "Nostalgic Metal Memories" on Sunday. The Sunday class was 4 hours long! It was like two classes in one. The first class was about making hand made books. The second part was learning about working with embossed metals from

Ten Seconds Studio. We had a fantastic time.

My first handmade book and the sample we made during the Exploring Alcohol inks class.

A detail of the cover of my handmade book, made with embossed metal and Tim Holtz embellishments.

And last a detail of my hand stitched spine of my book, using Tim's "kettle stitch".

And today I signed up for an art journaling class from Orly Avineri at the South Bay School for Adults. I am really excited to start the class next week!

Care For A Cup 'o Tea?

These are some tea cups for an itty bitty book group I belong to. I did some stenciling for the background and then added my image, I also added some Tim Holtz Crackle Paints to them as well. These were very labor intensive because I had to cut out each individual image, front and back. They were a LOT of work but worth it in the end. I just sent them off. I can't wait to receive my book when they are finished, I will show you when I receive it. Click on each image for a larger view.

A video to make you smile

Last night I went to dinner @ Mazzo Pizzaria and then to an "UP" screening with Ed, Patricia, Christina and her boyfriend's son Cameron... Ok, I cried three times during the movie... it is going to be a HUGE hit for Disney/Pixar! Very cute with a lot of heart! Bring your hankies... very sweet...

Here is a video to make you smile... copied from Mary Ann Moss's blog... very cute

The Lost Tribes of New York City from Carolyn London on Vimeo.

Thank you!

I get up for work at 3:15 am for work, yes an UN-GAWDLY hour... I have my coffee and the cats usually meet me and I hop on the internet and parooze some blogs... what do I happen upon this fine morn but my dear Dylan has featured lil' ole me on her blog! She is awesome! Check her out checking me out.... http://www.dyan-reaveley.blogspot.com/

Great Grandpa Barley!

This is a some artwork done with a stencil I cut of an old picture of my Great Grandpa Barley on my father's side. I still need to do some work on it and I need to get better at scanning these but you get the idea...