Mixed Media Monday – Art

This week’s theme at Mixed Media Monday is ART…

On considering the topic of “art” I come up against the same question often – When is craft art? Can I really call what I do “art” or is it just fancy craft stuff? As I was putting this art journal layout together, I realised that many of the arts / crafts I had listed were “ing” words – doing words (aka verbs!)….

Does this mean that the process of crafting results in art? The verb creating the noun?

Anyways, I started with a painted art journal page, done in monotone greens.

I added “craft” and “art” using Making Memories mixed font foam stamps in white and black paint. “When” was stamped using the Basic Grey alphabet stamps with grey paint. Text was handwritten in black, white and silver gel pens.

Thanks for stopping by…

x Michelle

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Gothic Arches – Birthstones

Gothic Arches has started 2010 with a theme of Birthstones. With my birthday in August, my birthstone is Peridot; not up there with the diamonds, emeralds or sapphires in the precious stones world, but still a striking green. And one of my favourite colours.

Stamps by Collections (alphabet set and checkers), See-Ds Boutique Grunge (swirl and crown) and Studios Astarte (post marks and “Air Mail”). Stamped in Graphite Black Staz On. A little Gesso for fun, applied with a dry brush, over the black stamped images. Image from Go Make Something. Also Making Memories Rub on alphabet set in white. And some of my collection of green beads.

Thanks for visiting – you are most welcome to leave a comment!

Michelle

GPP Crusade No 36 – Braving the elements

The Green Pepper Press Crusade has returned for 2010 to Brave the Elements. Now these northern hemisphere girls are braving the cold of winter and thinking of snowflakes. Snowflakes!?! I think I may have seen snow once – brrrrr! too cold for me!

Here we are braving the summer elements; scorching hot sun, blustery northerly winds that dry your eyes out and still in the middle of a drought. And my Tomato Jungle is surviving in these conditions.

I had an absolute ball creating this today and am very pleased with the results. I think I have stuck to the one hour time frame, although not in all one sitting. Can you see the ripening tomatoes peeking out? They take so long to turn red, even in this heat. Here are some more of the details.

The stencils were cut from scrap paper, using a real tomato leave as a template. I had one that was much bigger but it was just too big for the layout. The tomatoes were stenciled using a 1″ hole punch to create that template.

The stenciling with gesso didn’t give much contrast and neither did the light green, but the dark green paint provided the best contrast against the background.

I’ll include some details on creating the background and the gesso resistance technique over at the Mixed Media Art site.

Thank you once again goes to Michelle Ward to helping us to rise to the challenge and sharing her passion for simple techniques that give stunning results! And for giving us a time frame! No excuses this time.

*smiles*

Michelle

4×4 Friday – Favourite Colour

My favourite colour is GREEN! So I had heaps of fun creating this piece for the 4×4 Friday challenge this week.

I had already created the green background, using Folk Art’s Hauser Light Green. “Green” was stamped with the Making Memories foam alphabet set, in Brilliance Pearlescent Ivy. As green is my favourite colour I had lots of green embellishments – it was just a matter of choosing the greens that went together. The buttons are from my Grandma’s collection. The green and gold star beads were from the local $2 Shop. I don’t remember where the other bits came from. Gold highlights added with Brilliance Galaxy Gold and a gold Marvey Marker. All bits were stuck on with Folk Art’s Papier Glass Finish.

Can’t wait to see everyone else’s favourite colours!

Michelle