My Veterans Day Post with Helmar..

Veteran's Day with Tamiko

 Hi Tamiko here ::waves:: .  This post was hard for me.. How do you create something to give thanks or tribute to people who put their LIVES on the line for YOU and the rest of the United States, on a daily basis?  I think of all the soldiers and the sacrifices they make to protect us.  Some have left families, not just jobs, but careers, school and much much more. Not everyone who went away, came home! Many went and came home with their lives changed forever.  I could go on and on about how thankful I am for men and women in the armed forces.. Right now.. You are here to see, what I created..

This is an open book card. For this project I chose to use the Helmar Craft and Hobby PVA Glue.  My entire project was all paper.. I felt this product would be more than appropiate for the task!

Besides the glue, I used just basic cardstock, flowers, flourishes and butterflies from my stash. I used  bookboard to dry emboss my pages and a few clamps.  :)

After I dry embossed all my pages with my Bookatrix board I began to add the Helmar Craft and Hobby PVA Glue to the edges.  It is very important that when you first apply, that you use a little pressure at first.

The glue adheres pretty fast.  I clamped both edges of the outter pages, while I did other things.

I wrote on my center page-  Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.  John 15:13   Soldiers do it everyday.. EVERY DAY!

Time to embellish!  Adding just a drop or two of Helmar Craft and Hobby PVA Glue, to the backs of my flowers and butterflies.  I am learning placement is important!  I hear friends in the back of my mind going.. use odd numbers, create clusters with large flowers and trinkle away with smaller ones  ::chuckles::..  I place even more flowers and more Helmar glue on the base of them. 

Here is a few close ups..

and one more..

To see the final project click here.

DecoArt Media Line Acrylics

This picture I began by writing a letter to myself..  A letting go.. of yet another person.  I dislike when it happens, but when you don't consider other people and how you can affect them. Eventually you will get tired.. and care less.. then slowly walk away.  

On the artsy part..   I told myself I would no longer use actual brown in my pictures anymore.  So whenever you see it, with me.. 9 times out 10.. it's a conscious combination of colors.  I used my media line fluid acrylics and after gessoing over my letter.. they were applied.  I used the tinting base to add and give variations of the colors.. mainly a magenta, a blue and a green.  To create this brown.. I did an orange and a drop of the ultramarine blue.. I did this skin tone 3-4 times.. it was too light.. then too dark.. then too streaky.. I just hoped i would ruin the image I had in my head.

I put it down.. and come back.. and I finally had something I was pleased with.  Deco Art's Media Line acrylics are fluid.  They are highly pigmented.. not sure if I can emphasize that enough.  When adding the tinting base.. I am able to not only stretch the life of my acrylics by allowing a little more drying time.. I am also able to play with the lighter hues of the color.  Anywho.. this is the picture I created...

Deco Art Media Line Acrylics and Mediums, #100faces

A friend mentioned to me the idea of #100faces.. It seems like a lot, but it isn't really!  If I work up the courage to share all the faces I create, I am sure I would exceed it!  Faces are something I practice, pretty much weekly.  I do not like to draw the more realistic versions.  I prefer cartoonish type figures, unless I am sketching.  When I sketch you are bound to see it all.  From bold deep dark lines.. to scribbles, cross hatching and side pencil shadings.

Today I am sharing a picture I created over the weekend. I started out with wet watercolor paper and some watercolor crayons by Stamp It Up. I sprayed the paper with water and just scribbled color on it.  Simple as it sounds.  Then I took my Deco Arts Media Line Acrylics and loosely scribbled features on the page.. I am using the term scribble more because of Dina Wakley.  In her radiance faces lesson and in her book Art Journal Freedom she refers to some of her drawings as Scribbles.  I can get with a scribble..  (smiles)  I love loosely creating images. Imperfectly creating images.  Setting the viewer up for what I call..The eye dance.  Giving the viewer a reason to question, if the artist meant to do this.. or wonder if there is a bit of an illusion and perhaps a image was somehow formed that is more than visable as a face.

For me.. I liked the idea of the loose scribble and I used it.  To me pictures like this are freeing.  No expectations.. No need for perfection.  No real accountability of size or shape.  Anywho.. let me post my picture..

Jennibelle 7 days Challenge- Day 1 Markers..

I decided to join my friend Sandy/Vicki on the Jennibelle 7 day challenge

Jenni says the object is to get 7 pieces of paper and to do one thing to them each day for 7 days..  By the end of the 7 days you will have 7 background pages to play with,

So I grabbed some Project Life grid cards I got on clearance at Hobby Lobby!

I don't do project life, but after doing ICAD (index card a day) with Daisy Yellow, these cards seemed more than perfect to do some mini. or index size art.. and it had grids... awesome for me!

Well these post won't be long or I will be discouraged from creating them daily for the next 7 days.. lol  Well day one on my grid papers.. I used markers!