From Inside The Art Journal of Lynne Mizera

Hello Wonderful World and welcome to All Things Susan Weckesser!  Lynne here today with my August project for the Susan Weckesser creative team where this month we are challenging you to "Explore Your World With New Eyes" and to use your Art Journal to share your findings - this is what I created:

My project today is something a bit different from what I usually make because I am sharing with you a page from my personal Art Journal. 

Now Art Journals are many things to many people, but for me my Art Journal is the place I go to create without barriers, and where I remove all my "should's" and "have to's" and I just make stuff from my heart.  It is private, it is personal and I don't usually share...

but not only am I sharing these finished pages with you today here on the My Sweet Earth blog, but over on My Own Blog I am also sharing the physical and mental artistic process that I go through as I create from this very personal place.

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my personal Art Journal today and I hope it inspires you to go out and "See Your World With New Eyes" and then to come back and create without boundaries something in your own art journal.

Scrapbook Lynne Mizera

for the Susan Weckesser Creative Team

Susan Weckesser Products used on this project:

Bouquet Card Stock

At Ground Level Unity Stamps

Autumn Grunge Unity Stamps

 

Color Burst Flower Card

Hi! Dana Tatar here today sharing a card that I created with the super fun Susan K. Weckesser Color Burst Patterned Paper and Autumn Grunge Stamp Set. The colored circles on the patterned paper were just begging to be cut out. I distressed the edges of each circle, punched a hole in the middle and then layered them to create flowers. The Autumn Grunge leaves have a create distressed quality that paired well with my blooms.

I cut the sentiment from the Live In Color Tags Patterned Paper and cut the small butterfly from the Beautiful Daydreams Patterned Paper. I finished the card with some doodles and colored twine.

Thanks for stopping by today!
~Dana Tatar - Susan K. Weckesser Designer

A quick card

I love red, white and Kraft at Christmas, it's so warm and cozy and makes pretty cards. 

Here's a quickie Christmas card made with the fern stamp from the Autumn Grunge stamp set with Unity.

I very simply drew a circle on my Kraft card stock.

Then stamped and embossed the fern all the way around.

I have to admit that I love fussy cutting things out and if you have the patience it's worth the fuss! Just layer it up with 3d foam pads and add a few sticky jems and a bit of ribbon from May Arts and it's done. 

Happy Christmas crafting.

Jaine with the Susan Weckesser Design Team.

One play, two projects.

Hello there, it's Jaine here again with the second of my two posts as Guest Designer and today I'm bringing not one but two projects from the same technique but with very different results.

I absolutely love it when a play session can result in several different finishes and that's just what I got when I decided to get out my Gelli plate and the Autumn Grunge  Leaves stamps by Unity.

After brayering acrylic paint onto the Gelli I stamped the leaves onto the surface. I started with a piece of watercolour paper already painted with a green acrylic paint colour. As I stamped the leaves into the paint, I then re-stamped them onto the painted paper to a) clean some of the paint off and b) so as not to waste a good opportunity to get a good print of the leaves. (Wash the paint off your stamps straight away otherwise the paint might dry on the stamp and ruin them for ever!).

I then laid the other half of the watercolour paper on the plate to get the print. I only have a small Gelli plate that's why I can only print small sections at a time but I rather like that duo tone effect across the page. 

To finish my page I stamped the leaves again this time with a Versafine ink in brown and used Susan's border stencil and a black pen to scribble the border and numbers. The heart and it's negative came from the second part of my play session.

Once I'd cut my paper down to fit my journal page I had an off cut from the side which I'd stamped my leaves onto. I took this piece and cut it into a tag using a Sizzix die and used several colours of Distress inks to blend over the tag. The acrylic paint from the leaf prints resisted the ink and the more I put on the more they 'popped' out. With some more of this off cut I did the same and cut the heart and this frame to go with my journal page.

I gave my tag a Halloweeny theme with some black ink and ribbon and used the stencil once again to add some detail.

Have a spooktacular Halloween and get playing.

Jaine x

Happy Autumn

Hello there, I'm Jaine and I'm thrilled to be bringing you my first post as a Guest Designer for Susan. I stress Guest as I've just been given one of the spots on the full time DT which I'm absolutely over the moon about. Anyway let me get on with a little bit of background.

I live in Luxembourg, a small country in the heart of Luxembourg which is almost totally covered with forest. At this time of year it's absolutely glorious with Autumn colours starting to take over throughout the forest. 

I've tried to capture some of those colours in a door decoration made using the 'Autumn grunge' stamp set for Unity.

To make my wreath I stamped the leaves with chalk inks from Color Box onto coloured card. I tried to stamp tone on tone for subtle colour play.

I spent time cutting out all those leaves which took a little time but was really worth the effort. I scrunched each leaf up in my hand and distressed the edges and creases with Vintage photo Distress ink.

The next stage was to cut out a ring of cardboard using two plates for a template. 

I used my glue gun to stick the leaves all around the circle. 

The finishing touches were some ribbon, wire and a touch of Smooch Glitz for a bit of sparkle.

 It's now hanging on my front door to welcome the season.

Thanks for reading and happy Autumn to you.

Jaine x

Making Your Own Patterned Paper...

Hello Friends! Lynne Mizera here to share with you how I made my own beautiful patterned paper using Susan's Autumn Grunge stamp set from Unity Stamps.

To create this page I used watercolor paints but you can use inks or sprays or gelatos for this three-step, embossed-resist technique.

 

The process involves laying down some color on a blank page and stamping and heat embossing twice more to create all these lovely colors and layers.  Follow along as I show you how I created the patterned page below. 

I used a sheet of 90lbs Multi-Media paper with a vellum finish.  The vellum finish is important because it will allow you to wet the paper over and over again without it breaking down. 

I start by painting the entire page with my lightest color and I make sure it is completely dry before I add my first layer of heat embossed stamps using a watermark ink and a clear embossing powder.

Here you can see the paint detail before the excess has been buffed off

After I am happy with my first layer of stamps I add a second layer of paint colors up to my medium darkest value, saving my darkest colors for the final layer.  I paint right over top of the embossed images.

Add caption

When the second layer of paint has dried slightly I use a wet wipe to gently remove the paint from the first set of embossed images and to blend and lighten the colors on my page if they are too dark; Make sure your page is thoroughly dry before you add a second layer of embossed stamps incorporating the new colors. I keep adding color, removing it slightly and stamping and embossing until I like the effect and I have enough images on my page.

On this page you can see where I used a wet wipe

Finally I apply my final layer of paint in the darkest values, allowing it dry slightly and then buffing off any excess paint from all the stamps so they really pop off the page.   

The darker the background color the more your stamps will emerge from the background. (see the detail below)

I love using Susan's Autumn Grunge stamps for this technique... this detail photo shows you the rich color and multi-layering on this page... the possibilities are endless.

Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing my very first post ... now go and make some of your own original patterned paper!

"Scrapbook Lynne" Mizera