By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
I found a box of printable sticky labels at a Value Village the other day and the first thing I thought of doing was to paint on one of these pages. I just randomly painted, stamped, wrote and painted some more until the page was filled without worrying about composition. This page can now be torn or cut into sections when I need a bit of something on a journal page, the backing pulled off and stuck straight onto the page. I am now working on another using left over paint etc to cover it. When it’s full I will have another page. I loved just getting down and arty without having to worry about whether something looks balanced or the colours merge properly simply because it doesn’t matter. I can also use the image for digital pieces over and over without destroying the original piece.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
The Just Art site had a wonderful challenge this month which included a background and a few elements with which we create another background and then create a page with it. This is mine.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
Gabbi’s Creation gave us this beautiful Daydreams mini kit for the challenge at the Just Art site. I used a photo of the castle and created the sketch effect by first putting it through the poster edges filter and then using blending modes until I got the effect I wanted. The flowers in the kit were also blended to create a fireworks blossom to go with the fireworks in the photo.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
The Digital Scrapbooking Studio’s progressive scrap brought us this beautiful kit to work with. The drama the deep colours created reminded me of vintage movie posters. Here are some of my favourite stars from those years when drama was Queen.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
My latest piece for Life Book 2015 was so much fun. Jeane Oliver had us scanning magazines for patterns to tear and add to our page. I am a pattern junky and have been saving patterns for years as well as creating them in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. She also took us through using a transfer as well as a printed copy of ourselves as a base. I do not own a laser printer so opted on a painted face and stamps for this piece.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
I love creating ATCs … these were made for the Art For the Creative Mind Yahoo Group. Pearled water paints on home made paper made the background. The angel fish and the sea horse were made with a stencil and a mix of modeling paste and acrylics. Seaweed was pulled from a piece of shiny cord and the bottom was made with a piece of burlap.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
One more piece created with one of Tamara’s lessons. The eyes are still not the same and they were when I sketched them. It is when I paint them they seem to morph. I like her though and the pages. Painting faces is getting easier with each one I do.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
Country Charms was created for the colour challenge with ADB Designs at the Digital Scrapbooking Studio for May. Loved the colour palette which shouted vintage to me.
Country Charms
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
This week’s Life Book 15 lesson brought us a discussion about light and shadow with Lynn Whipple plus a lesson on light and shadow while drawing an apple with Tamara Laporte. This was another fun lesson, as I love light and shadow which adds so much depth to a piece. Thanks to Tamara I am becoming comfortable with graphite and using it as an art medium rather than just as a pencil for getting a sketch down on paper. I ordered a graphite stick and used it for the first time on this piece and I love the freedom the stick gives me.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
Bird plates, I love vintage birds pages…the images are always so colourful. Here are four that again come from an old vintage book out of copywrite. They are 4 inches in length and perfect for your swaps. Personal use on this page as well please, no commercial uses.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
Forest Glade is a another compilation of photos from the Morgue Files site. I just can’t seem to stop doing these, it’s like a kid in a sandbox with lots of toys. I just opened up several photos I liked, picked the forest for the background. Blending modes and transparency were used on every layer along with some Gaussian blur.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
These images are free to use for your personal use. If you want to use one for a swap that’s fine too but not for sale. Each image is 4 inches high and big enough to use on most swap pieces. The colours are fantastic but the images themselves are a bit soft which will bring a grungy and worn look to anything you may use them on.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
This piece was also created using photos from the morgue files site Morgue Files. When I first found this photo of the old man I knew I had to create something with his image. He has a wonderful face, full of time and history. Again filters and blending modes as well as transparencies were added to make the dream state. Is there one of us who has not had our dreams changed or shattered along the way and morph or change as we grow older ?
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
Home was created for the ‘scrap a word’ challenge at the Just Art site. I used images gleaned from the morgue files site Morgue Files. Filters, blending modes, transparencies and colour curves were all used in this piece. The sparkles are a brush provided with my PSE 11. This is a joyful piece full of romance and mist just as home should always be.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
We were introduced to Jenny Doh earlier in the year with an interview and this week we watched her play with her paints and inks. Awesome playfulness became this Fantastical Awesome Gilded Awk … not Auk because my guy is awkward but splendid. I turned my page and he came calling. He whispered that he was a gilded awk and of course I had to oblige. His little buddies came about after I had thought I had finished and was drying the piece. Out they came with their part of the story.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
I have carved several rubber stamps for my mixed media pieces and then thought they may work well for digital grunge type creations so made the brushes. Feel free to use them for your experiments and personal use but please do not distribute them in a package or claim them as your own. They were created in PSE 11 and are high resolution at 600 ppi.
Rubbert Stamp Brushes
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
This page was done with the kit so generously given to us by Robyn of Red Dog Designs. The only piece that didn’t come with the kit is the duck tail although it was created with one of the papers. Lots of filters and transparencies went into this piece and some colour changes as well. A lot of fun to create .. thanks Robyn !!
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
Carving stamps is one of my favourite things to do. Making stamps of any kind is a blast and you know what you get is what you are looking for because you made it that way. The play of light and dark blues is a perfect setting for these carved stamps. Once one stamp was carved I turned it over and created another on the back. Not as detailed and deep as the original but fun just the same. Value is the word I picked for Life Book this year … to remind me to value myself as much as I value everybody else. That’s not selfish, but self preservation so I can serve those around me and keep on doing it.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
Robert Frost is one of my favourite poets and this poem, A road less traveled is a favourite. I try to take that less traveled road as often as I can. This piece was done for an May challenge at the Just Art site. We could not use an image or photo. I used water colour brushes, brushes I created from old out of copywrite books, filters and transparency. The colours were used from a Copic colour palette, I love how vibrant and real the look in the piece.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
April brought us very pretty pieces from that month’s mega kit. It was perfect for my flower garden…the bees in the photos are highlighted as they fly through my white snapdragons from last year with their legs loaded with pollen. I love all the flowers we were given to play with.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
This lesson with Kristen Van Valkenburgh took us back to our younger selves when we would just play with absolutely no boundaries, just for the joy of it. I loved just letting go and working on this piece. I at first used a more recent photo and worked with it but I didn’t like what I had created … it wasn’t free enough. I started over with this little photo from my first school years and I was able to be back there again and play.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
Nine to Five, those hours when we get to go to work and bring home a pay check or sometimes it’s longer or overnight, depending on where you work. This kit was made for a designer challenge at the Pixel Scrapper site.
Nine to Five
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
The first challenge posted by Robyn of Red Dog Designs was to use at least one of the 4 edge overlays she gave us. I had already created a background from a crackle paint piece for my fat book page earlier in the year. I used two of the edge overlays … Pretty Edgy One Edges 2 and 3 and changed the colour of my background to match the photo that comes next.
This is the next step of the piece I created. I’ve always loved this photo I took at the museum of the cave drawing. The earthy colours along with the background rock is magnificent and I knew I’d use it and want to play with it. I selected the image using a feathered edge of 118 to give a soft opening to show the crackle background and moved it onto the background.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
Theses two little critters were so much fun to do. As soon as I saw this lesson I knew I had to do a dragon and both the owl and the dragon are busy whispering in my ear and will soon have names and stories to go with their new found images. I forgot to add the second wing to my owl but she’s cute none the less and the little dragon looks like he’s trying very hard to look just like his great big daddy.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
At the new Just Art, a digital art and scrapbooking site we were discussing mosaic filters but in Photoshop Elements the technique for using this filter on a layers mask is not possible without creating the mask first. I have created this one to test out how well it would work using a black and white image, putting it through the mosaic filter and using that as your mask. This is how it turned out. I changed the mask colour to one of the sky colours and used the multiply filter on it as well. I am including the mask if you would like to try it yourself, just right click and save to download it. The photo I used is of our Canadian Parliament Buildings taken from the back, across the Ottawa River at the Museum. It is an interesting effect. The link for the new site is: Just Art . Come on over if you want to share and learn with the rest of us, you will be welcomed.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
Trees have always been a favourite of mine. They do so much for us and share everything they have whether it is their life’s blood …. sap …. or their fruit …. nuts, apples … and they breathe for us, cleaning our planet each and every day. What do we do to them? We cut them down in outstanding numbers. Do they feel the teeth of the saw cutting through them? We don’t really know because we can’t read their “language” and they can’t tell us. I feel they must. How can they not? On this page I have drawn a ghost tree to represent all the trees that we have obliterated on our quest for progress. The two trees in the foreground were stamped using stamps I cut from foam, the leaves were done with modeling paste that I covered with pastel chalk after the paste had dried. I used gel medium to cover them which smeared the chalk and created the depth of a forest just budding out in the spring.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
These two little ladies were created from lesson 17 with Jenny Wentworth. It is amazing to feel an actual person appear under your fingers. My two both look a little like they have toothaches and they are not perfect but then who is and getting it perfect is not the goal ever. I think they have character and a story to tell me. I am starting to trust the process and can now work and rework a piece without feeling like I’m going to crawl out of my skin. I am learning from so many different artists. This is the art course for anybody who wants to have fun, maybe do a little soul searching, meet some wonderful artists and learn a whole lot of techniques along the way.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
Yellow and bright were the guidelines for April’s 4×4 fat book page at the Art For the Creative Mind yahoo group. I went right to the Beatles yellow submarine. I love both the movie and the song and when I found the psychedelic paisley washi tape in my stash I knew that is what it had to be. Added some glitz and glitter to finish it off.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
Lesson 14 of Life Book 2015 brought us Alisa Burke and journaling while in the field using water colours, acrylic paint, pencils and fine line markers. I didn’t concern myself with composition on these pieces but concentrated on the sketches themselves. Drawing mainly with markers rather than a pencil was a challenge. I chose the colours of Prince Edward Island beaches … the deep red/browns of the dunes, green of the grass on the dune tops and the blues and pinks of a sunset/sunrise. It is the beautiful island of Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maude Montgomery.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
What a great lesson with Alena. We got our hands down and dirty with paint creating marks and working the background and when we finished with that we then went on to bring out a drawing on top. I used a brush pen to create the flowers and sun. We were also to challenge ourselves with a 10 minute time deadline. Anybody who knows me knows I can’t do that …I am the proverbial turtle. I get things done but can’t do it quickly so I didn’t stress myself out trying to fit my art into the time frame.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
Baby Love has a wonderful and soft palette. It is another kit done for the colour challenge over at The Digital Scrapbooking Studio with Dianne of ADB Designs. I decided that Sun Bonnet Sue and Sam needed to be part of this baby theme along with the Dresden Plate quilt. Happy scrapping !!
Baby Love
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
The March journal page for the Art of the Creative Mind yahoo group was ‘trust’ with a nature theme. I created a field of spring tree blossoms. The background was painted with watercolour crayons on gesso. The tree blossoms are modeling paste and stencils. I then painted the birds, leaves, grass and tree trunks with acrylics and the clouds are a bit of sponged gesso. I added a bit of sparkle just as there would be on a bright spring day.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
The first month for the Just Art Challenge on Facebook brought us a challenge to use a coloured image along with outlines of that same image. There have been some wonderful pieces done. This is my piece along with a sample of different filters and effects done in PSE 11. The terra cotta horse was one on display at our museum several years ago. I fell in love with the fellow which is approximately the size of a pony. An amazing piece of art. I used a filter from the sketch series, a background, two horse shapes along with some effects and transparencies and the brushes in eraser mode to first bring out the clay horse and then to take away some of the background of the horse image.
This is a sample I did using several different filters and effects before working on the piece itself. I did not however, use brushes on this piece. The original image without filters is in the middle.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
Meet my Inner Artist Guardian, a painting lesson for week 11 with Tamara Laporte. She will protect me from my inner artistic self when she decides to listen to her inner critic. I did not focus much on the background because I want to concentrate on painting the faces. When I first started working with a 2B pencil on top of the paint I wasn’t sure I like it but as I get used to working this way and leaving behind all my ideas of using pencil and different kinds of paint in one portrait I am loving it. Sketching is my first love and this combines paint and sketching so all is good.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
Spring … how I wish it were actually here … no more snow ! Please !! …. the background is corrugated cardboard that has a layer of gesso, a layer of water colour crayon and then another layer of gesso brayered on …. I love how the last gesso layer picked up the lines of the corrugation. The bird and butterfly were cut from a piece of watercolour paper that I had used as a palette for something else … waste not, want not …. the picket fence was made from tags cut with a die.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
These busy busy girls can be used for personal pieces only. Please do not sell these or tag them as your own. I’d love to see what you have done with them. You can see what I have done with them here: Joy and here: Affirmation, I am beautiful
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
This journal page was done last year for the Art for the Creative Mind group. The theme was ‘affirmation’ which to me meant affirming that no matter what I am beautiful … each and every one of us on this earth is beautiful. I used a combination of acrylic paint, white glue and cornstarch to create the texture of the silhouette.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
This kit was created for the colour challenge over at the Digital Scrapbooking Studio with Dianne of ADB Designs. I also created a layout using Dianne’s kit. I love the soft colours of this month’s challenge and creating with the palette was a ‘joy’
Pretty Lady, my layout for Dianne’s colour challenge for March
Joys of Spring
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
This was an interesting exercise and I definitely want to do more of these. Jane’s lesson had us create just the top part of a figure but when I saw this poppy tissue paper I knew she needed a dress of poppies so went for a half-sized figure instead. My faces are getting better but when I was finished I found she looks a bit cock-eyed. This is somewhat like I look when I first get up in the morning … especially my hair lol
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
This page was created for the Digital Scrapbooking Studio’s progressive scrap for March 2015. When I saw the colours of the kit I knew exactly the images I was going to use. The circus images are from a vintage Barnum and Bailey poster that I scanned in last year. It’s amazing how close the colours are and of course I had to use the elements overblown because it is the circus!
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
Another wonderful, fun project. Lesson 10 brought us a thoughtful piece, a gratitude heart book. I didn’t have to stop and write down what I am grateful for. My blessings are many and I feel so fortunate that at this time in my life it is possible to know what they are.
By Susan on 3-13-2016 in digital art and scrapbooking site, Digital Images + Collage, Just Art, Just Art Challenge, Original Quilts
This does not look anything like Tam’s but when comparing my little girl with my tightrope walker from January she is showing improvement which pleases me. I watched the video and then didn’t work on the piece for a week so didn’t get all the steps in at the right time. This meant I had to fudge it a bit in places. I left her with no shoes because that is how I love to walk … barefoot in the grass, wiggling my toes and feeling the coolness of the leaves.
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