/* */ Beulah Bee: February 2016

February 20, 2016

No. 141



What is collage if not upcycle/recycle? Using found bits of ephemera and images from books is common practice for me and so I'm linking this tag to the Monday blog challenge at Simon Says Stamp in honor of this week's theme.

It's another exercise in working through the long, narrow format of a tag and attempting to create a sense of space/depth in the composition. It started with the remainder of a Found Relative photo that I used in another piece.


Book pages, an image transfer, stamping, Tissue Wrap, Remnant Rubs, and a bit of washi tape were used to complete it along with various inks and paint.

All I can say is the best part was placing that tiny airplane in the sky.

Stamp credit: Tim Holtz Components - Flourish

February 16, 2016

Oliver


Recycle/upcycle is this week's Monday blog challenge at Simon Says Stamp. So, I used a paper bag Valentine's Day luminary that was marked down after the holiday for the background of this tag.

(You can click on the photos for a larger, lightbox view.)




This was a chance to use my very first mini-Distress inks--I purchased Group #13 and think it is a great color combo. The darker brown at the bottom was made by combining the two complimentary colors, Abandoned Coral and Cracked Pistachio.

The flowers are from the Wallflower paper stash and the sun face was cut from an image of a Tarot Card.

You might notice in the pre-paste photo above that there are white strips attached to various flower parts. These are intentionally cut to hold the delicate parts of the flower together and I remove them immediately after I paste it down (before the glue fully dries).

The best glue to use when pasting something this intricate is an aerosol spray adhesive and I never, ever, ever use it indoors!

The portrait is of my grandfather who passed away several years before I was born.

February 11, 2016

Mildred & Maurice


Love is in the air with Valentine's Day just around the corner so imagine a long-distance romance between pen pals, Mildred and Maurice, who made plans to meet at Le Grand Hotel in Monte Carlo.

My inspiration for this creation came from Tim's February tag and features images from his Photo Booth collection.


I distressed the photos and scratched over the surface to create some texture and design. That, along with a variety of paper ephemera helped to complete their story.


The background technique is worth mentioning as I really like the result. Made by covering black cardboard with sewing pattern tissue paper, it gives off a vintage tone which seems perfect for this ensemble.

February 04, 2016

Orbital


Simon said "stamp," so I did. Same style/technique as the tag in my last post only this time I added my hand-carved owl stamp.

The drawing was copied from another, similar British Library image--this one came out of a Boston school atlas published in 1831.

Mine is decidedly more colorful.

I will again link to the Monday blog challenge where this week's theme is a ray of sunshine.


February 02, 2016

Eclipse

An eclipse cannot exist without a ray of sunshine.

Click to Enlarge
Sorry, Simon. While inspired to make this tag from the Monday blog challenge prompt which is ray of sunshine, I didn't use a single stamp in the process.

Instead I drew a diagram I stumbled upon at the British Library Flicker photostream (a favorite place to look for inspiration) and tried out a technique using oil pastels that's been on my to-do list for awhile.

Here's a link to the tutorial, the artist's name is Loretta Grayson.


Oil pastels are fun but messy which is the main reason I don't use them too often. That, and the fact that they resist water-based paints so are less desirable in mixed-media projects. Still, their resist quality can be useful and Loretta's tutorial helps to illustrate that fact.

They have two qualities I really like--they are smooth as butter and the pigments are strong. Here in the US, you can purchase a student-grade box for a reasonable price (I used Cray-Pas). If you've never tried them and like to experiment, then perhaps I've tickled your interest.