Challenge # 214 and Envelope Swap

Challenge #214 Earth Day

The challenge this week is quite obvious by the title :)  You can see The Diva's challenge and everyone's entries here.  I haven't taken a look yet, but I'm sure they are wonderful as usual.

My entry is quite simple... I tried to use tangles I rarely use or have not used in a long time a  I had a lot of fun with it. 

Envelope Swap

I was asked if I wanted to participate in a painted envelope swap.  It sounded very interesting and challenging as I have never been involved in one or seen very many around.  So, I decided to go for it, and was actually surprised how much fun I had creating these envelopes.  There are a lot of pictures coming up, so you can skip them if you're not interested :)

Instead of using bought envelopes, I decided to make my own so they can be colorful all over.  So, I grabbed some Americana Satin paint and an old credit card and got color on both sides of printer paper (and 2 deli papers as well, just to see how they would turn out).

As you can see... completely random and... not pretty :)

Here are the same papers, now cut into the envelope shape from a template I created.  Once cut, I grabbed some of the stencils I designed and cut, and with a cosmetic wedge and some of the same paint, got some designs and shapes on top of the painted paper.

Starting to look a bit more interesting
with a stenciled layer

How they are looking now folded and glued.  You may see some others here as I was trying some with regular Americana acrylic paint (not satin).  I like the feel of the satin paint better, it feels smoother to the touch, so those are the ones I used for the swap.

Front of envelopes waiting for the next layer

Next each envelope was stamped with a couple of hand-carved stamps to add another layer, and a bit more interest (maybe too much in some cases :)).  Then I grabbed pens, brushes, H2Os, Inktense pencils and started playing.  This is what I ended up with.

Front of envelopes after all the playing -
deli paper envelopes are on the top (middle)
and the one on the bottom.

Some other views of the finished envelopes.

Instead of writing my name and information on the envelopes, I saved some of the paper each was created with, stenciled something on one side and wrote the info in the back.  

I hope you enjoyed looking at these colorful envelopes and cards.  It was my first try, but I really enjoyed the process and it worked well with my lack of time (a few minutes here... a few minutes there...)

Earth Day and Cloth Paper Scissors Challenges

Earth Day Challenge - Diva's weekly challenge #164

I'm really enjoying participating in these weekly challenges; it forces me to do something every week, and also post consistently on the blog :).  You can see this week's challenge and all the wonderful submissions from other participants here.

Because the challenge was for Earth Day, I decided to use recycled paper - used tea bags - and because the Earth is round, I went with the round tea bags.  I used Sakura gel pens, Inktense, and colored pencils.

The challenge for me was then to create nature inspired art with tangles.  Some are very obviously organic in nature, but I enjoyed using others which may not be so obvious.  I definitely could keep going, it was so much fun!!!

Top:

• Left - Sedgling Forest
• Center - Angel Fish Tree
• Right - Isochor Flowering Trees

Center:

• Left - 'Nzeppel Flowers
• Center - Rain trees
• Right - Tipple, Printemps, Amaze, and Flux Mountains 

Bottom:

• Left - Aura-Leah Plant
• Center - Flux Plant
• Right - Eke Plant

Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine Reader Challenge

Cloth Paper Scissors is one of my favorite magazines; I absolutely love it.  Last year they had a challenge to create a mixed-media stitched square (6" x 6" - around 15 x 15 cm).  I decided to enter and submitted my piece below, which was then published in the January/February 2014 issue.

So, here is the finished piece and some of the in-progress pictures.  I hope you enjoy them.

Finished Piece

Finished Piece - close-up

Background - started with a piece of my husband's old jeans
and layered old book pages, stamped and drawn-on tea bags, gesso, and inks. 

Drew and stitched a tree, and then started adding flowers

Close up of the tree branches and flowers

In the end I added more color with Inktense as you can see in the finished piece and stitched it to a piece of felt.

It was so much fun to open up the magazine and see my art in it :)