Inspiration Wednesday 8/25/10

Once again, it's almost "Inspiration Thursday..." but I'm working on it, really, I am!!  :)  Today's page was a bit of a challenge for me.  I actually STARTED it last Saturday, when I was stuck on bedrest, and was playing with my watercolor crayons and watercolor pen/brush thing-a-ma-jig - in bed.  I had painted one half of the page orange and the other half pink, and planned to build on it for this weeks IW page.

Then on Monday of this week, once I got off bedrest (another story for another day), I decided I wanted to try doing some modeling compound on the page, so did a little more work.  I used Donna Downey's HUGE foam tree stamp and first stamped the trunk and branches using some Folk Art brown of some shade; dried that, then stamped the leaves using Golden fluid acrylics Phtalo Green.  After that was all dried, I used Golden  Molding Paste with the leftovers from some butterflies I had recently cut on a Cricut machine (I kept them for this purpose) and created 3 butterflies on the page - a large, medium, and small one.  I knew they would need time to dry, so I left them to dry for a couple days (it doesn't actually take that long).

Finally, today, Wednesday, the day I look forward to every week...Inspiration Wednesday.  I couldn't wait for my kids to go down for a nap.  I watched Donna's video in awe...I always love her work.  It's always inspiring.  It also made me long for fall, for some reason, and I suddenly hated the extra-bright colors on my page even more than I already had been when I woke up this morning.  So I took some Golden fluid acrylic Nickel Azo Gold to darken the orange some, and a mixture of Golden fluid acrylic Quinacridone Magenta and heavy body acrylic Ultramarine Violet, and carefully spread those over the page, making sure not to accidentally paint my butterflies before I was ready to.  I painted right over those green leaves that were just way to springy and summery for my fall-wishing self.  And still, it was all too bright.  So out came the Golden Titanium White airbrush paint - time for some drippage!!  Finally - things got toned down!!  I still wasn't sure I was going to love the outcome, but at least we were getting somewhere.  I think the next thing I did was actually to run the top of the page through my new toy, the Zutter Distrezz-it-All.  And then I added a couple lines of stitching with my sewing machine along the right side of the page, just because it felt right.

Then, finally, I was ready to paint the butterflies.  I debated over whether to use paint - and if so, what kind?  But in the end, I decided to try something new - why not?  I wasn't loving anything else really so far, so why not try something else new?  So I got out my blending pens which almost never get used, and my new Ranger alcohol inks to see if they could be used together.  I didn't actually Google it.  I just went for it.  And it seemed to work.  I actually really like how they turned out, and how I was able to mix colors.  I used Wild Plum and Butterscotch, in case anyone is wondering.  Cool thing I learned?  When the ink dried out in my little palette, I added a little denatured alcohol to it, and I was able to pick it right back up with the blending pen!!  After each of the butterflies was painted, I added a Cricut-cut paper butterfly on top - using Beacon 3-in-1 craft glue - love that stuff!!  On this top butterfly, I covered the paper one with Tim Holtz's Rock Candy crackle paint - LOVE - and when that was dry, down the center, I added some orange flocking and a line of clear Stickles. (Don't mind my inky finger - they seem to look like that a LOT these days!)  The second butterfly (the middle sized one) is above, and I just added a store-bought paper butterfly to it.

This one below is the smallest of the three molding paste butterflies, and again, I added a store-bought ephemera butterfly to it.  Loving the pink and orange.  You can see the incredible build-up and texture of the molding paste.

This next pictures shows the stitching, as well as the edge of a tag I added to the lower right part of the page.  The tag also came from my ephemera box.  I ran the edge of the tag through the Distrezz-it-All (LOVE that thing!), and stitched another paper butterfly onto the tag (also covered in Rock Candy crackle paint). I also used distressing ink around the edges of the butterfly and the tag.  

After how much I struggled with coming to LOVE this page, (which I finally did come to LOVE), and truly experimenting with new things...I couldn't think of a better quote stamp to put on this page!!  This is another Donna Downey stamp, and is in the "She Said" stamp set.  (A fabulous set if you are going to buy just ONE of her sets, though they are ALL fantastic!!)  I wanted this quote to really pop, so I used my VersaMark embossing ink pad and black embossing powder - but I also tried something totally new.  First I added a strip of some totally random black pipe tape or something to the page (really, I have no idea what kind of tape it is!).  Then, I wanted to make sure the word "BELIEVE" was on a piece of masking tape - it took a little extra work, but wasn't too hard (if you want details, let me know, and I'll explain how to do it).

A look at the entire tag.  I have a lot going on in my life right now, and a lot of it is new...so the "change is good" quote is fitting.  I have, because of my fumble fingers, pretty much quit trying to tie ribbons through holes, so I am totally loving the Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher (no, I am not getting paid by either Donna or Tim, though you would think I am by how much I mention their products, eh?!).  Seriously - this little tool is THE. BEST. TINY. STAPLER. EVER.  When someone else said that, I thought, "Come on, how good could it be?"  That good.  Really.  Get one.  You will not regret it!!  So now I use my Tiny Attacher to staple my ribbons to my tags - SO much easier than fighting to tie ribbons through holes!!  I attached the tag to my page by sewing it right to the page!!  (I was in a sewing mood today, I guess.)

The next two pictures give you a better look at the "white" mini-pom-pom fringe I glued to the bottom of the page.  I love how it turned out.  It really did start out white.  That was before I dunked it in a little bowl with some water and a few drops of Wild Plum alcohol ink, followed by some time in front of my blow-dryer (did I mention my heat gun died mid-way through this page?).  Then I spritzed it a couple times with Tiger Lily Glimmer Mist and blow-dryed it again (trust me - SO not as effective as a heat gun - I think it was still slightly damp when I glued it onto the page).  

I learned my lesson today.  Never make up your mind until your art is COMPLETELY finished!!  I was convinced I was NOT going to like this page!  And now I think it's one of my favorite so far!!  :)