/* */ Beulah Bee: July 2015

July 31, 2015

Cecil


Cecil's death this month made us more aware of lions on the brink of extinction so perhaps some good will come from this senseless killing.

I've made this tag to honor him and hope you'll visit Lion Aid's facebook page if you'd like more information on what can be done to save them.

I began with a page from a very old cookbook (copyright 1887) pasted to the front of a manila tag.

The paper is so old it crumbles so a layer of acrylic medium was used to stabilize it.

An image transfer of Cecil was applied and features his distinctive black mane (which was his trademark).

I stamped the wing/crown image (Tim Holtz) on a scrap of tissue paper then embellished it with gel pens and colored pencils.

There's a strip of washi tape behind the Industrious sticker frame and a glaze of paint and Graphitint pencils added background color.




I'm linking to Simon's Monday blog challenge where this week's theme is no ordinary paper.

July 25, 2015

Ikat


i·kat  ˈēkät  /  noun

fabric made using an Indonesian decorative technique in which warp or weft threads, or both, are tie-dyed before weaving.


Beginning with a Distress-stained background (Tumbled Glass), I stamped damask-like patterns in Iced Spruce then drew many fine lines using gelly roll pens to imitate ikat fabric.

The girls were added via an image transfer but their faces got lost so I cut-out new ones and pasted them over the transfer.


I distressed the tag edges with a black Fude Ball pen along with some tiny stamped text and added a shadow beneath the girls with a colored pencil.

Credit for my inspiration comes from Simon's Monday blog challenge where this week's theme is the letter i.

July 22, 2015

Pronouns

My take on Simon's Monday blog challenge?

First-person singular pronouns, of course!

The letter i is this week's theme and yes, it made me think of them.

I altered a favorite image (previously used here) which I think may be of triplet sisters.

Their expressions are so serious, their outfits so plain and my, such severe hair-do's!

It was time to lighten the mood.

Myself went crazy with new Souffle Gelly Roll pens and there's a scrap from the Wallflower paper stash along the bottom.

Me thought the word amusement was a good fit.

The bird cage is a stamp from Tim's Tiny Things set.

I also used a strip of Industrious Stickers but they are hard to recognize since me covered them with Gelly inks.

(Scroll down to see the tag in full view.)


July 19, 2015

Renegades


The joy of play and uninhibited creative expression is the reward for keeping an art journal. The pages are not meant to be "works of art." Instead, the freedom to explore (and learn) elevates it to a much higher plane and the confidence gained may carry-over to more serious pieces. So I say, get busy and be a renegade!

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A new set of Gelly Roll pens, exposure to a couple of technique videos and a cool new song by X Ambassadors called Renegades fed my inspiration for this journal page spread.

First, the technique videos merit reference in case you want to watch. One is by Piarom (blog link, video link) and the other is by Jeanne Oliver (video link, requires creating a login to view).


Both artists use figures cut from magazine pages which they transform in different ways. Mine didn't go in quite the same direction but their videos did inspire me to try.

I also used some other magazine scraps along with paint pens, colored pencils, stencils, a Tim Holtz scroll stamp and some of his tissue paper.

I'll close by saying that I love, love, love my new Gelly Rolls (called Souffle). They write over anything including fluid mediums and waxy colored pencils and are waterproof. So useful!

I think I'll link this to Simon's Monday blog challenge - this week's theme is anything goes (mine will be entry #521 - whew!).

July 16, 2015

Papillon


I splurged this week and bought a set of Gelly Roll pens and experimented with them on this tag.  They are called "Souffle" because they're pastel-colored and can be applied thickly for a 3D effect. They write on anything, including acrylic mediums, which is a big deal for me.


I began by distressing my tag with inks and paints then applied an image transfer to create the background and also added some stamping of grass near the bottom. I fussy-cut the girls (inking the edges with a Pitt pen) and pasted them on top.

I played around with the gellies to add color directly to the surface and also by diluting with a water brush. They are very opaque and also waterproof when dry. So, where I felt there was too much color, I used an Exacto knife to scrap bits of it away. In some areas, subtle color changes were made with colored pencils.

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This isn't the best example for illustrating how the new pens can be used but I'm very happy to have them in my arsenal of supplies and know you'll see lots more of them in future work. Stayed tuned ;)

I'm linking to Simon where this week's theme is anything goes.

July 12, 2015

Merriment


Torn scraps of pasted papers left-over from other projects became the background for this tag along with tints from acrylic paint, colored pencils and walnut ink-stained edges. The lady and flower are image transfers and I used a stencil to break-up the background with just a few tiny squares.

I painted the area just behind the lady's face with off-white paint before transferring the image to keep the background from showing through this transparent layer.

July 09, 2015

Here is Now


An image transfer on an old postcard is the main feature of this collage tag which I embellished with a tiny figure, some Remnant Rubs and stenciled dots.

The bottom border was cut from the back of a Found Relative photo. The tag was tinted with colored pencils and the edges were distressed and dotted with a Gelly Roll pen.

I made it for linking to Simon where this week's theme is coffee or tea.

July 04, 2015

The Fourth


Tim's July tag celebrates Independence Day and what better way to spend the holiday than to play along? I haven't any blue print stamps but except for the postage stamp and typed text, everything else here is Idea-ology.

The boys are from the Occasions photo pack, the red papers are from the Merriment paper stash, the blue is from Correspondence and the snippet of the word "July" came from Lost and Found.


The "Credo" stamp is a US commemorative from 1960 which depicts a quote from Francis Scott Key:

And this be our Motto, in GOD is our TRUST.

"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" are words from the Declaration of Independence and our reason for celebrating today. 

Happy 4th of July!

July 03, 2015

Swimming

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The daytime temps here in the desert have been hovering between 105 and 110 degrees for the last three weeks.

So, the only way to get outside and stave-off cabin fever is to find a swimming pool!

You have to park your flip-flops right at the pool edge because the ground gets so hot you can't walk barefoot.

I'm posting this journal page to celebrate a favorite summer pastime which was prompted by this week's theme at Simon Says Stamp.


The ladies are an image transfer and I used a variety of stamps, stencils, acrylic paint, colored pencils and ink pens to make it. My hubby calls my hobby "coloring" and the term really applies here because I did feel the joy of creating like a kid with this one.

I inscribed the words from a song by Loudon Wainwright III called "The Swimming Song" to decorate my pages and thought I'd post the lyrics below since you can't read them too well in the photos.

This summer I went swimming, 
This summer I might have drowned 
But I held my breath and I kicked my feet and I moved my arms around, I moved my arms around. 

This summer I swam in the ocean, 
And I swam in a swimming pool, 
Salt my wounds, chlorine my eyes, 
I'm a self-destructive fool.

This summer I swam in a public place and a reservoir, to boot, at the latter I was informal, at the former I wore my suit, I wore my swimming suit. 


This summer I did the backstroke 
And you know that's not all 
I did the breast stroke and the butterfly 
And the old Australian crawl, the old Australian crawl. 

This summer I did swan dives 
And jackknifes for you all 
And once when you weren't looking 
I did a cannonball, I did a cannonball.