Wishing you all much...

On Sunday I bought an eraser and today I went in search of Daniel's linoleum cutter and made my first ever eraser stamp. I'm sure it won't be my last... 

♥♥♥

As Promised, a New Art Tag

Another tag, painted on both sides. I love the colors I used here - they were sort of surprising, but I liked the woodsy feeling of the tag. The woman has a sort of stunned look on her face (lets call her serene), but I still love her. The face was a little difficult to paint because I had given the tag some wonderful texture with light molding paste.
The back, I painted with titan buff, then covered it with sap green hue and lifted the sap green out with stamps to reveal the titan buff underneath. I love that sort of weathered look. I then added some reddish and gold dots. What do you think?!

The tag is available in my little shop!

A New Tag

I am still fascinated by painting tags and especially painting my women portraits in that long format (2.625 x 5.25 inches). I covered the tag with two layers of gesso and then some loosely applied coarse molding paste (I love that stuff!) for a bit of gravelly texture for this pretty blond woman.

This time, I tried just painting one side so that the tag is actually useful as a gift tag, but I just couldn't stop myself and had to paint the other side as well... I guess, mine are art tags rather than gift tags.
"Live & grow" - a good motto! If I had had more space, I would have put "live, grow & have fun," because I think fun and joy are important ingredients in living our lives well.

This pretty girl with her inspiring message is available in my Etsy shop (I'm trying to keep it updated a little more regularly).

Thank you so much for all your encouraging comments on my last painting. You all are the best and kindest art critics ever!!

Illustration Friday - Ahead

Go ahead! Spread your wings and fly!

Tag (5.25" x 2.625") - front & back

Collage, image transfer, stamps, stencils, & acrylic paint.

I hope you all had a great weekend. Ours was rainy both Saturday and Sunday with visions of the summer's humidity awaiting us...

Because of the rain, I did get to work on my art a good bit, and am almost done with another women's portrait. It just needs some background work. I hope I can show it to you tomorrow!

In the meantime, I wish you a great start to your week!

Another ATC

I enjoyed creating this little trading card. At the very beginning, I colored some molding paste with a dark yellow and slathered it on part of the ATC. I then stamped an ivy foam stamp into the wet molding past and couldn't be more pleased with the result. Can you see all the little raised veins in the leaves? After it dried, I painted, stamped and stenciled some more.

And then, for good measure, I painted the back side as well and added a little saying.

Here's a question for you (as I am confused about this). What is the difference between an ATC and an ACEO?

Remember Her?

I call her my dippy woman, because I entered her in Illustration Friday's challenge for the word "dip." Well, yesterday, I was playing around with some paints and stamps and stencils. Suddenly I saw her laying there, just begging me to give her some stamped beauty!

She didn't have to ask me twice. I got out my brayer and some beautiful paints and created some haphazard smudges all over the background. After that, I added some stamped and stenciled loveliness and... Voila!

I can't say she looks any happier (somehow I was at least expecting a smile), but I like her new background!! What do you think?

More Experiments...

Thanks for all your great comments on my little experiments. Here are a couple more. I'm having fun to just play with patterns, texture and color. This one has the most scrumptious colors, even richer than this scan.

This next little painting features mostly colors that I usually don't paint with. I tried out some new stamps I got and like the sort of weathered look I achieved when it was finished. The ink smudged a bit and I like it!
Do any of you work with distress inks? I haven't yet and I wonder if I'd like them. Any thoughts?