Intention Cards

In early 2019 I was introduced to new idea in small art: Intention Cards. My friend Karen Musgrave had been making them, and we decided to trade a few. We have been cyber friends for years, first "meeting" in art quilting groups, then being part of several splinter groups that traded small art like ATCs, tags, bookmarks and prayer flags.

We decided to trade five, but made them double sided so there were 10 designs in all. There would be enough for each day of the week plus a few extra. I debated about whether to use inspirational quotes or just a word or two, and ended up keeping the words very simple. Rather than choosing a word and making art to illustrate it, I chose to make the art, then let the images inspired the words for each card.

At the top of the post, side one of the Intention Cards, and just above, the flip sides.

I used a combination of my favorite techniques: stamping, stenciling, and collage. Most of the stencils were from StencilGirl, especially from one of my favorite artists, Gwen Lafluer. I used grunge techniques that I learned during a workshop at Ink Pad NYC with the fabulous Seth Apter, and embellished many of the cards with my go-to supply: embossing powder. Vintage images from The Graphics Fairy were printed on paper and used in the collages.

I also added strips of washi tape and dots of Nuvo Drops and edged the cards with Archival Ink in sepia and/or black, using a fingertip dauber. The words were added last, hand written or hand printed. I debated whether to use pre-printed words, word stamps, word stencils...or whether to try and use perfect calligraphy, but in the end, I threw caution to the wind, grabbed an ordinary Sharpie and wrote freehand on the cards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The idea is to place one Intention Card in your home in a room where you will glance at it several times a day, and change them daily. It is intended to be a gentle reminder. I chose reminders to be myself, to not be afraid of expressing my feelings, to notice the little things that are beautiful and often forgotten in our daily rushing. Some people choose to make their intention cards with religious quotes or universal symbols. Whether religious or not, the cards should be positive, inspirational and gentle.

I am busy making more cards to add to my collection, and hope to teach a class on Intention Cards later this year at The Ink Pad NYC.

Faux Antique Ephemera Box

Serendipity would have it that for my very first StencilClub Voices post, I had the joy of working with some brand new Stencil Club designs that were a collaboration between Seth Apter and MaryBeth Shaw. Using Seth's grunge technique and his Emerald Creek Baked Texture Embossing Powder seemed like a perfect compliment to the new designs.

I live in a small space, so storage solutions have to be both functional and attractive. I keep many of my supplies in decorative shoeboxes, which are then artfully arranged on my tables, bookshelves and closets. Since I had recently purchased some new clogs, there was a nice clean Dansko box waiting to be transformed.

Last winter I took a class given by Seth at the Ink Pad NYC. (And I am happy to announce that I am now teaching there! Can you see me happy dancing?)  The class was called Radiant Rust. I decided to apply the grunge and bling techniques I learned from Seth to my humble shoebox.

Ready to paint the shoebox with black gesso.

I started by painting the outside with black gesso.

When it was dry, I began the grunge process.

The box was dry and ready for the "grunge" process.

Color 1 was applied with Seth's special technique.

Color 2 was added.

Color 3.

Almost done with the grunge technique.

Grunged box, ready for the "bling" of Baked Texture through the new stencils.

Once the grunge effect was dry, the magic began: I added Ancient Amber embossing powder through the new set of stencils. I used a VersaMagic stamp pad first, then sprinkled on the powder, tapped off the excess, and zapped it with a heat gun. I repeated the process all over with most of the January StencilClub set. When the light catches it right, the effect is magical, like petrified wood in an ancient forest.

The VersaMark goes on clear, but is sticky and holds the embossing powder.

Ancient Amber embossing powder was generously sprinkled on.

Excess embossing powder was tapped off, leaving the stencil design.

After a few minutes with the heat gun, the embossing powder melted and shimmered.

A closeup of the new stencils over the grunged background.

 The effect was great, but I felt that a central focus was needed, so I pulled out one of my "go-to" stencils: a fleur de lis compass rose, which was part of Gwen Lafluer's recent StencilClub set. This time, I used Patina Oxide embossing powder. The fleur de lis compass rose was just what the box needed to add some extra magic.

One of the stencils from the July 2018 Ceramic Tiles design set was added to the box.

I added the fleur de lis compass rose on the top and half on the front.

An extra touch was a keyhole shaped brad that I placed in the center of the outside.

I decided that it needed just a little something more...maybe legs? Maybe a knob to open it? I searched around my art storage drawers and found a set of beautiful aqua floral knobs that I picked up on sale a while ago. The color worked...the design was not a perfect match, but the shape and color were right. I threw caution to the wind and poked a hole right through the center of the compass rose fleur de lis shape.

 

It was just right!

 

Now the big decision: do I fill the box with stamps? stencils? pencils? paper scraps? Decisions, decisions! Maybe I'll have to make a few more of these Faux Antique Boxes since I'm always adding to my art supply collection!

Turmeric Flip Journal

A lot of artists are hoarders--not the kind on television that need intervention--but we are savers of bits and pieces of pretty things. Sometimes we save ugly things because they are just so very interesting. We save pieces of pretty paper, yarn, fabric, metal, rocks, sticks and weird stuff from garage sales.

One of the many things I save is teabags--used, dried, and emptied of their contents. They add a nice vintage look to a page. (You can see some of my past creations here and here.) My husband recently switched to turmeric tea, and I loved the golden color of the bags, so he started saving them for me. (Is he a good husband or what?!)

Like many, I have boxes and drawers full of unfinished artworks. It turned out that a lot of them were 6"x6"...probably because that is the size of my geli plate. I decided to use the scraps up and put them in a journal.

These are some of the leftover hoarded and unfinished artwork that became book pages.
The center pages were part of a card I received from artist Jeanne Draachreider.

Recently an artist posted a journal she made that had a simple ring closure. So simple. So efficient. I loved it. I ran out to my local office supply store and snagged a package.

One of the problems with most bound journals is that once you start adding layers to a page, it gets fatter and fatter and eventually won't close. Often some of the back pages go unused because the journal just can't hold any more. Some people remove every other page, but that seems tedious and wasteful. A ring-bound flip journal seemed like a perfect solution to the "fat journal" problem.

 

First, I tried out the ring on my Index Card of the Day collection. I loved it. The cards flipped easily, and I could add and subtract pages without a problem. The cover was made of leftovers from a mermaid doll project.

I used some of Gwen's stencils in shades of blue and green as the base for the fins, and also used some of the embellishments from silk sari scraps plus a seahorse and starfish from the downloadable Stupendous Sea Life collection and a few Turkmen jewelry parts.

The dolls I made for my art doll trade group came out great too. Below are a few of them.

I wanted the turmeric journal to be a little more elegant than the Index Card of the Day flip book, so I decided to make the cover one continuous piece, with an inch or two for a spine, and have two rings. I got to work, cutting watercolor paper, smearing (with the side of an old credit card) matte medium on the paper, and layering the teabags. I was in my zone, working madly and happily like an elf at Christmas.

 

 

 

  

 

I especially liked the imperfections of the tea stains and the unevenness of the shapes where the teabags overlapped. I also liked the little snippets that were cut off so that the tea could be removed from the bag.

I criss-crossed the small strips on the book spine to enhance the rustic effect.

The wet spine of the book, with tea bag end strips forming loose crosses.

I left some of the pages with only the teabags. For others, I covered them with the geliplate prints and other small, unfinished artwork.

On some, I had to experiment with a new mandala stencil of Gwen's from the Boho Collection, and tried it several ways.

 

 

 

 

When everything was dry, I punched holes in the pages. For the holes on the front and back cover, I added some grommets for strength.

I tried out a some of Gwen's Fabulous Floral Embellished Trim on the cover as well as some of the German Dresden Trim, but they were too fancy with the utilitarian ring closure.

The sea-green and gold trim was pretty with the cover, but didn't work with the ring closure.

The Dresden Trim accent was gorgeous with the turmeric teabags, but the rings looked clunky next to it.

I loved the new mandala stencil so much I used it on the book cover with some of Seth Apter's Emerald Creek Radiant Rust embossing powder.

When I put all the pages together and attached the rings, it looked great. The circular design complimented the ring closure and the little grommets, and the warm rust effect went nicely with the turmeric's golden color.

 

So far, so good--but there was a problem. The journal didn't flip very well. The spine of the cover prevented the pages from laying flat, and the curve of the ring also inhibited the page-turning.

This page has a StencilGirl design by Andrea Matus DeMeng done in Deep Sea Baked Texture Embossing Powder.

This page has a StencilGirl design called Lacy Lotus, by Jessica Sporn.

The left page has a Damask design by Michelle Ward  printed on deli paper.

I tried some substitutes for the rings. A fiber closure was a fail. I tried some jewelry pins with wire twisted through both ends...also a fail. I tried taking apart a D-ring but the metal was too difficult to bend and even if I had been able to get the pages on the straight part of the ring, I wouldn't be able to open and close it.

 

 

I decided to go with function over beauty, and cut all my pages, as well as the cover and spine, apart. Now the pages flipped perfectly and the book would open completely and lay flat.

To finish, I dangled some of my favorite Turkmen jewelry parts on the rings. They go nicely with the rustic look of the turmeric teabags, and add a sweet, soothing tinkling sound. This just may be my new favorite journal!

The new journal, open flat, showing the back (left) and front (right)

A side view of the Turmeric Flip Journal

The finished Turmeric Flip Journal, with Turkmen jewelry parts dangling from the ring closures.