Fractured and Crystalized

 

The inspiration for my May Artfirmations came from a post that I had seen on a Facebook group.  It was a miniature book that had been crystallized and placed on a cupcake sized pedestal topped with a glass dome! I was instantly mesmerized and driven to find out how this was done.

I soon learned that you could crystallize just about anything using Borax detergent.  I scoured the internet for the recipe (4 Tbsp. Borax per cup of hot water) and after a quick trip to Walmart, I was well on my way to experimenting with making crystals!

Since I still had those National Geographic magazines out (from my April Artfirmations), I began to search for images that would look really cool crystallized!  Since I was crystallizing pages, I used a 9 x 13 glass dish.  (Use deeper jars to grow large 3-D crystals).  I boiled 4 cups of water and added 12 Tbsp of Borax in a pyrex cup.  Once the Borax was completely dissolved, I poured it into the glass dish.  I slid the magazine pages into the dish and made sure they were fully submerged.  I was able to fit two 4 x 6" pages into each dish.  You don't want the pages touching each other or the sides of the dish. As the mixture begins to cool, the crystals start to form.  I left one set overnight and got larger crystals.  My second batch formed smaller crystals after a few hours.  I think the size of the crystals depends on the saturation of the Borax and cooling time.  

It is important to try to remove your pages from the glass dish without bending the pages.  My magazine pages were very flimsy after sitting in the solution.  I learned that when the page folded, the crystals broke and slid off the page.  Perhaps removing them with a wide spatula would help keep the crystals intact.  I let the pages lay flat to dry before mounting them onto 140 lb. watercolor paper which provided a stiff backing.  Finally, since these pages were going to be mailed, I generously sprayed each page with a sealant to hold the crystals in place and give the page additional strength. Although I personally like the look of the larger crystals, I loved the process and was very happy with how each of my pages turned out.

Be Alive in Everything You Do

 

For my April Artfirmations, I played with CitraSolv and old National Geographic magazine pages.  The process morphs the photos into haunting, ghostly apparitions and mysterious cosmic worlds.  The CitraSolv pages were the perfect backdrop to share this quote.  I used Glimmer Mist sprays to bring the quote into the page and better unify the two elements.  Plus, who doesn't love a little glimmer?

Love

 

As I mentioned previously, I took an on-line Art Journaling Challenge back in August in the hopes of getting some fresh inspiration or maybe learning some new mixed media techniques.  There were 5 hour-long lessons in which we learned how to create 10 art journaling cards.  The instructor showed us the basic idea and she strongly encouraged us to use what we already had on hand (substitute, substitute, substitute!) instead of investing in a bunch of new supplies.  It did not disappoint!  I only wish I had the luxury of working in real time along with the videos, but the reality is that I work very slowly.  It takes me forever to figure out what color palette to work in, what look and feel I want to create.  My OCD insists that everything be coordinated just right.  If you knew what my craft room looked like at the moment, you would understand that it is very difficult to find what I am looking for right away.  I have a good idea of what supplies I have, just not where I stashed them.  And yes, sometimes I surprise myself when I find something I had no idea I had.  Can you relate?

So, this LOVE card used a technique from one of the cards we learned to make.  It uses a corrugated cardboard background.  I had no idea it was so easy to make your own corrugated cardboard.  You simply mist the cardboard and after a few seconds, it's very easy to pull off the top layer exposing the corrugated texture below.  Now I know what to do with all of those Amazon Prime boxes...

Next, we applied three colors of acrylic paint to the corrugated cardboard.  The instructor used white gesso as one of her colors, but I chose I neutral palette and applied ivory/cream, sienna brown and muted gold acrylic paint with a cosmetic sponge.  

Next, I took a manila tag and inked the edges with tea dye distress ink.  I stamped the background of the tag with a text stamp for added interest. Since I was going to use a bronze-colored "love" charm as my embellishment, I chose a heart stamp for the tag.  I affixed the tag with a piece of adhesive foam to give it some dimension.

Lastly, I took some hemp fiber and wrapped it around the card three time (rule of 3's) and added the "love" charm.  That was how my March Artfirmation LOVE cards were born.

Remembering a dear friend

 

For our February Artfirmation care swap, I made these cards to honor a dear friend I lost last year.  After attending her beautiful celebration of life, I was inspired to make these delicate butterfly die cuts out of the pages of an old hymnal book.  I purposely did not glue down the wings so they are free to move.  On the back, I included a poem she once shared with me.  She loved all creatures, great and small, but butterflies held special meaning for her.  I like to think she is happily floating with butterflies now...

Distress Ink Wildflowers

 I ordered a number of mini distress ink pads and was curious to see what the colors looked like on cream cardstock.  I made several sheets applying a random swath of colors like Peacock Feathers, Mustard Seed, Pickled Raspberry, Tumbled Glass, Crushed Olive and Spiced Marmalade.  You can see how the cream colored cardstock mutes the colors.

I was also playing with three different sets of Wild Flower Thinlit Dies.  I cut out as many as I could from the colored cardstock and then reassembled them into 6 different bunches to use for my January Artfirmations cards.  

My backgrounds were created on watercolor paper cut down to 4 x 6.  I used a credit card to apply a neutral palette of acrylic paint in shades of Cream, Fleshtone and Titanium White.

I needed something to anchor the wildflowers but struggled to find a color to complement them.  In the end, instead of throwing out my scraps, I re-purposed them to create a more interesting "landscape" for my wildflowers and then added a banner that expresses my hope for the New Year. 

And A Few More Christmas Cards

 I had so much fun making these one-of-a-kind cards.  I hope each special recipient will love them as much as I do!

Book Folding Continues...

 I decided to fold a few more books to give away as Christmas or January birthday gifts.  Part of the fun is finding a book with enough pages for your chosen design with the perfect title!

I chose "The Gift" and folded a heart into the pages for a grab bag gift:

How about "Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake" with a star design to honor a New Year's Day Birthday?

I folded "Dad" into the book entitled "Q" (his nickname):

And for a classmate who follows the teachings of the Dalai Lama, I folded "Peace" into the pages of his "The Art of Happiness" book:

My Latest Obsession: Book Folding

 

What started out as an idea for a grab bag gift with a "Spark Joy" theme became my latest obsession:  Book Folding!  How fun!

I found free patterns on-line and watched a few video tutorials in order to figure out how to read a pattern, how to choose a book, how to count folds, how many pages are needed for a particular design and where to start folding!

After some trial and error, I decided to make a few others to give away as gifts.  It's a bonus to be able to match the title of the book to the folded design.  Here, I folded a heart in a book entitled "The Art of Abundance."  I folded a star in "Come Let Us Adore Him."  And for a special friend who treasures "A Walk Along the Beach" with her furry friend, a paw print.

Wish

The road to these December "Wish" Artfirmation cards was unexpected.  I had picked up this cute little gift book from my favorite thrift store called "This Little Piggy Went to Prada."  The pages have a nice weight and feel.  The book rewrites nursery rhymes with a fashionista twist.  The illustrations are drop-dead gorgeous. I just had to find a creative way to use them!

With the holidays now upon us, I pulled out my Christmas-themed dies and started making die cuts.  I had these luscious metallic tri-fold cards that were perfect.  I made lots and lots of different Christmas trees, reindeer, snowflakes and holiday words.  Before I knew it, I started to remove pages from the book and began to reimagine the illustrations in a winter/holiday setting.  I made several more cards by embellishing the pretty pages with die cuts and swarovski crystals.  I think they make festive Christmas cards! 

The American Dream

With the November election looming heavily, I began to think about things like patriotism, voting rights, women's rights, immigration, etc.  This led me to reflect on how my parents came to this country as immigrants over 60 years ago.  As I thought about the cards I would create this month, I wanted to pay homage to the countless number of individuals who decided to leave their native country in pursuit of the American Dream.  I often marvel at the courage my parents had, in their early twenties, just after completing school, to pick up and move halfway around the world to start a new life for themselves.  America was a place they had never even visited before, with a wildly different culture.  This was a truly a foreign experience for them.  They had one-way tickets to the promised land and there was never a thought of going back.  Neither of my parents came from great wealth, so not succeeding at this new life was not an option for either of them.  It was in Baltimore, Maryland that they started their life as a young, married couple.  That was where my brother and I were born.  After spending 9 years in the East Coast, however, my parents "returned" to Hawaii to settle and raise their family--a place they had seen only once before on a brief layover on their way from the Philippines to the East Coast 9 years earlier, a place that felt like their native home, but was still in America.

To start my cards, I used a selection of Tim Holtz washi tapes to create a striped background.  I had a pack of Tim Holtz Paper Dolls and chose the figures that represented different kinds of people who emigrated to America.  I adhered them with foam squares for a 3-D effect.  I used a simple black strip of cardstock to "anchor" the figures, otherwise they would look like they were just floating on the page.  In each of their faces, I see the promise of a bright future, prosperity, and the hope that in America, all of their dreams can come true.