Use those Colored Pages!!

Ya know some people have asked besides coloring adult coloring book pages what do you do with them....  This past weekend I shared a couple of fun ideas on how to jazz them up using Imagine Crafts products.  Well today I have a few other fun ideas.

First off you can turn your coloring book pages into works of art!

Once I finished this coloring book page I mounted it on a black canvas.  The black background really makes the flower pop and IRL the translucent quality of the StazOn Studio Glaze adds texture, depth and dimension to the picture as well.

Here's how it was created...

First off I removed the page from the coloring book (Lesiure Arts) then I began adding my color.  I started off by painting a thin layer of Cactus Green Studio Glaze over the flower center.  It dried almost immediately which is so nice for people like me (I can't stand dry times - LOL!)  Then I went back in with more green and Gold Studio Glaze and added lots of dots for texture.

I then painted the petals of the flowers again using Studio Glaze....

From there I outlined the flower with Jet Black and Blue Hawaii Studio Glazes.  I "pulled" the colors away from the flower with a wet paint brush and watercolored the background using the glaze.  It mixes wonderfully with water and creates an amazing look once it dries....

After the page had dried, I trimmed off the excess paper and applied a layer of book binding glue (dries very flat) to the back of the page then adhered it to a pre-painted black canvas.

So easy yet it produces striking results!

It's also fun to share your coloring pages with friends and family by incorporating them into cards as I did here!  Of course colored pages are great but why not spice them up a bit!

I colored this page with a combination of various colored pencils.  Yes, it took me quite a while but it was so much fun!  And well, it was very "Spring-y" as well which helps combat Mother Natures mean streak (we had snow over the weekend and more to come!!!).  

But it's also fun to kick things up a notch by embellishing with some Imagine Crafts products - Here I have used Radiant Neon Electric Yellow Amplify.  It's a fun medium that puffs when heat activated.  It was added to the centers of all of the pink & white flowers.

I then used White (Wedding Dress) irRESISTible Pico Embellisher to the centers of the red berries and Clear Pico was applied to accent circles in the background which I sprinkled with fine glitter.  Once the Pico had dried I shook off the excess glitter and my page was ready to adorn several cards!

There are just so many fun ways to incorporate non-traditional mediums into your coloring book pages to make them not only a great way to relax but also a fun way to share art with the world!  I hope you take a moment every so often to enjoy coloring just for fun!

Supplies:

Leisure Arts - Coloring Book Pages

Imagine Crafts - StazOn Studio Glaze; irRESISTible Pico Embellisher; Radiant Neon Amplify! medium

Other - glitter, colored pencils

Coloring Book Fun!

Today over on the Imagine Crafts blog I have a post up on how to use Imagine Crafts products to create a fun card. To see how I made this card please check out the post - 

Adult Coloring Books + Imagine Crafts = FUN!

I also have a few other fun projects made by pairing the two that I'll be sharing over the coming days.  Today in addition to the card I wanted to share a fun page I colored in my Sea Life coloring book by using Memento Dye Inks and Ink Potion No.9 to create watercolor paints!

Start off by adding a drop or so of the desired colors of inker plus a drop or two of Ink Potion No.9.

Mix 'em up and you're ready to start painting.

I painted this page using Memento Danbue Blue, Lady Bug, Dandelion, Tangelo and Grape Jelly Inkers.

Once your page has dried, you can go back in with Memento Dual Tip Markers to add highlights and shading to really bring your image to life.

For an added little pop of color and dimension I used Electric Blue irRESISTible Radiant Neon Pico Embellisher to color in the dots on the page.

And here's how it turned out...

You might be thinking that watercoloring in some of these coloring books won't work.  Not so...Since this is actually a bound book the book closes nicely which will help flatten out the wrinkled pages.  

Here's another page I created using a variety of blue and green Memento inkers plus the Ink Potion.  You can create a wide range of color from a single color of dye inker by varying the ratio of Ink to Ink Potion No.9.   The pink shells were painted with Angel Pink inker then a top coat of Silver Delicata was added over top to give it a shimmery quality.

I'll be back soon with more fun ideas for creating with Coloring Books and Imagine Crafts.

Supplies:

Imagine Crafts:

Memento Inkers; Ink Potion No.9; Memento Dual Tip Markers; irResistible Radiant Neon Pico Embellisher; Silver Delicata

Skyhorse Publishing - Sea Life Coloring Book

Birds of a Feather

Today starts a new challenge over at the Just For Fun Rubber Stamps blog - 

Birds of a Feather!  

We challenge you to make any sort of project that is rubber stamped and bird related - could be birds, birdhouses, feathers, nests, etc.  If you use a Just For Fun Rubber Stamp in your creation you will be eligible to be entered into a drawing for a gift certificate to the JFF Stamp Store!

The team has created all sorts of fun projects to inspire you and the following cards are what I have made...

Here is the Inspirational Photo Collage to give you a few more ideas...

Hope you decide to head on over to JFF and check it out!

Have a wonderfully inky day my friends!

Vintage Mixed Media Collage

My pc had a fit over the weekend so I've been using my lap-top for everything since Saturday.  It's my back-up computer that I used mainly for photo manipulation and taking it with on vacations.  It doesn't have office on it which I really need for lots of stuff.  You know that feeling when things just aren't right.  Well it's put me in a funk so I've not been feeling real creative.  

So today I thought I'd try something different.  I decided to try and create a vintage collage and limit it to a single color palette....

This is what I created so far....I had a few false starts but after I left it set for a bit I finally got to a point where I'm liking it.  It might be the colors that threw me at first.  I wanted to go browns leaning towards a vintage rose color in the flowers.

So here's what I did....

First I pounced VersaMark through some lace...

Then sprinkled on clear ep and heat set to melt.

Next I stamped on a few flowers

and set about painting with some Prima watercolors and stamped on the rest of the flower with StazOn inks.

Next to add the browns - I scribbled on Prima Water Soluble Oil Pastels.  I used a waterbrush to  blend and spread them over the canvas.  I used some of the pretty peach color (see the previous photo) in the large open area to blend it all together.

I pulled up some of the color in areas with a baby wipe through a stencil.

Here is one of my screw ups - sort of.  I thought it needed some gold so I applied some Creative Medium over my distress harlequin stencil.  As you can see when I hastily removed the stencil some of the CM came up with it...  @(*%&@(*&%#  That's when I left to take a break.

So I came back after supper and peeled the CM off completely - I really like how it looks now!  I stamped some text across the canvas and then stamped the bunch of roses.  Once the roses had dried I added a bit of watercolor to the flowers.

I stamped one down in the corner too.  I added some black modeling paste over a really pretty flourish stencil from Deco Art (one of my fav. stencils!)

I then took a black colored pencil and sketched a bit around each of the roses to make them pop a bit. 

And that's where I'm at with it at the moment.  I'm not sure what to put in the open area.  I thought about using a stamp to add an important word but all of my word stamps (dream, inspire, etc.) are all too small.  For a fleeting second I thought about attempting to write something but hand writing on an almost finished canvas scares the heck out of me.  Any suggestions?  

I did get word this evening that my computer is done!!!  YEAH :)  They had to replace something and re-install windows.  I may have lost some info but I don't care - it's done and I will be back in business tomorrow!!!  Can't  wait - it's like an old friend that has been missing

Supplies:

Blick Art - Canvas

Imagine Crafts - StazOn, VersaMark, Clear Embossing Powder, VersaFine

Deco Art - Stencil, Black Modeling Paste

Prima - Watercolor Paints, Water Soluble Oil Pastels

TCW - Stencils

JFF Stamps - Text Stamp

Deep Red Stamps - Rose Bunch

Altenew - Peony Stamps

PrismaColor - Colored Pencil

Paris Flea Market Blog Hop

Welcome friends to the Club Scrap Blog Hop for March.

This month we are celebrating the kit - Paris Flea Market!

I absolutely love this kit,,,I think it is my most favorite kit ever.  I had a hard time trying to decide what to make so I ended up making 2 different projects, one using mostly the stamps and the second project using mostly the papers. Funny thing is both are in the form of a box....

My first project is a Paris card in a box.  This fun little creation uses lots of the stamps from the kit plus a few images cut from some of the papers.  I used black script print on the outside of the box and pink on pink harlequin for the inside of the box.  I ended up making 4 inserts inside the box to hold all of the goodies I wanted to layer in.

Of course with so many layers, when folded up it doesn't exactly lay flat in the envelope but it does still fit into an A2 sized card envelope.

My next project also starts out as a box...

But when you remove the lid...you find a fun explosion album with the Eiffel tower stuck right in the center!  The tower is actually a flat die cut that I made into a 3d piece by cutting 4x.  I glued one edge of 2 die cuts together then glued the other 2 together in the same way.  Once the glue had dried, I opened up each set and glued them together making it into a dimensional piece.

This box has 3 layers - the white script print in the center...

The pink print for the largest box...

And this lovely floral print that reminds me of vintage wall paper.  It makes up the mid-size center box set of album pages.

Hope you've enjoyed my projects...

it's time to head on over to 

Julie's Blog

to see what she has created!

Don't forget if you get lost along the way the complete list can be found here: 

Club Scrap Blog Hop

irRESISTible Pico Embellishers

WOW, talk about causing a stir!  Many people have asked about the Pico Embellishers that I talked about yesterday on the Zet Dot Rock post.  I guess I didn't realize that they were still a hidden gem so I thought I'd introduce you to them and tell you a bit about them.

irRESISTible Pico Embellishers are these nifty bottles of goodness.  The medium is the same as the irRESISTible Texture Spray in a convenient bottle with a needle nose tip applicator.  This applicator allows you the freedom to write, draw, color or simply create fun dot embellishments with the same dimensional resist medium.

The fine tip allows you to create tiny dots the size of a pencil dot to virtually any size you want/need.

I tried to show the dimensional nature of this medium.  Hopefully you can see how tall the final dot is compared to the rest.  Once dry the medium retains this height unlike so many other dimensional mediums out there.

Here I wanted to show how easy it is to write with the Embellisher.

This fun medium comes in all sorts of colors....7 colors to match the Radiant Neon Pigment Inks,

Bronze, Copper and Gold Metallics...

Black, White, Shimmer and Clear

As well as 23 additional colors that match the Memento line of inks.  Each bottle is 1 fluid ounce of medium which goes a long way!  One of the things I love about this medium is right in the name...it resists other mediums.  I like to use this medium in conjunction with watercolors or Color Burst / Brusho color pigments. It's such a fun and easy way to make certain areas pop with an alternative color or  to "white out" some areas in my project by using white, clear or shimmer Pico and add dimension at the same time.   

The dimensional nature also lends it's self well to mixed media projects. I especially love the black and metallics for mixed media type projects because the gloss aspect adds another dimension to what can be a rather matte looking finish.  I have actually painted acrylic paints over the top of Pico before and polished it off to create an amazing contrast between the two.  

Black or White Pico embellishments used on the same color of cardstock is beautiful because the contrast of the white on white (or black on black) creates a classy, rich look not easily achieved with just paper and a single medium.

So there you go, another must have medium for your crafty tool box.