My 1st REAL Foray into the Digital World...

OH-EM-GEEEE!

I am in love! 

I have been playing with PSE 10 & a little tutorial I found in my "Mixed Media Paint Box" book that I've had FOREVER!

I never even noticed that there was a digital project in there!

After browsing the web last night looking for fun, *FREE* brushes to play with for a background I wanted to create for my new My Laughing Magpie banner (check it out HERE - it still need some tweaking) for that blog, I created this last night while watching/listening to Master Chef:

There are some fabulous paint & texture brushes out on the Web for FREE!! AWE-SOME!!

After playing with some more brushes, the smudge tool, linear dodge & a crackle filter to give it that realistic painted canvas look, I got this tonight:

Then I added a few fun "images" from coffee stains & postcards brushes, the great flying umbrella man from Graphics Fairy & a quote from Mary Poppins for the final result...

What do you think? Not bad for my first try, huh?

Feel free to borrow it...I think I saved in a high enough resolution that you should be able to click on it to enlarge it & then right click to save to your computer! {But if not, contact me after the long weekend & I will try to forward you a copy if you wish!}

I am off to the cabin tomorrow afternoon with the Magpie & some family friends & I have decided NOT to bring my computer this time!

Hope you have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

Cheers!

Girl's Weekend! YAY!

It's time to go to the cabin!

It's time to go to the cabin!

It's time to go to the cabin!

To create & drink & eat!

Cheers!!

some news to share...

Just want to toot my own horn...I am FINALLY a Somerset Studios published artist!!

See my post over at My Laughing Magpie...

HERE

Cheers!

The Altered Spoon, a Blog Hop!

Good Morning, Afternoon or Evening to you, depending on where you hail from!!

Hope you are having fun hopping along with this Altered Spoon Challenge hosted by Susan Brown of SBArtist: Painting in the Dark! Happy 5 yr Blogiversary to her!!!

My name is Becky Voth & I am a design team member with Susan over at AlteredPages.com! I am also a mixed media artist living in Colorado. I like to work with all kinds of materials & for this challenge, I had so much fun, that I made TWO completely different spoons! I hope you find them inspiring!

First, I wanted to make one in a Halloween theme, but not your typical witches, ghosts & goblins type of Halloween theme!

My 6 yo daughter has decided that she will be a Fairy this year for Halloween!
So, I made this spoon to hang in her room after Halloween.

The scalloped brown oval is actually an accordion mini-album. I made it using the tutorial by Michele Kovack on her blog called Thoughts of a Cardmaking Scrapbooker as my guide, but I tweaked it a little. {You can find it here.} BUT, instead of making a little book that opens one way like she did, I had to make it more complicated & have it open both ways! So, when you open the book, this is what it looks like...

I left a couple of blanks for photos of my daughter & the rest of the images are from the Fairy Alphabet collage sheet at Altered Pages, spelling out Hall-o-ween.

{I used brown Co'odinations cardstock for the scalloped ovals (cut from a Spellbinders die & then sanded), layered with cream Bazzill Bling that I stamped & embossed with a Stampin' Up Mum stamp. After I added the little Fairy images, I used my finger to add some light pink here & there. I painted the whole spoon a pearly cream & also stamped the mums on the handle of the spoon & a little pink here & there too. It took a little engineering to figure out how to keep the book all together while it hangs on the wall - I added a 2nd length of seam binding onto the bowl of the spoon before attaching the book to the spoon. Then when I fold up the pages, I run the new ribbon under the cover of the book before I tie it all off together - giving me a double bow.}

It will be fun to add tiny pictures of my own little fairy later this year - as long as she doesn't change her mind! Then it will go up for sale on Etsy!! LOL!

And now for something COMPLETELY different!
My Angel Spoon!

I sanded the spoon a little & then hit my stash of vintage & altered goodies to "collage" linen, lace, scrim, appliques & rhinestone buttons onto the spoon. The image is again from Altered Pages, Renaissance Angels.
{Although, she looks a little bit more like a cupid, I thought she was prefect!!}

I used an oval embossing frame from Stampin Up & cut out the ovals with my Spellbinders Ovals again; glued them together & set it aside while I finished the lace work. When the handle of the spoon was dry, I glued her on with a couple of layers of 3D tape behind her so she wouldn't sink into the bowl of the spoon. Lastly, I added the angel wings.  {From Michaels in the doll-making aisle!} How PERFECT are they!!!
{I spritzed them first with some Glimmer Mist to age them a little bit.}

Here are a couple of close-ups of the top & bottom of the spoon...

I am totally in love with this girl now!!

Hope you had fun looking at my Altered Spoon Creations & I would love to hear your thoughts & have you as a follower!!

Below is the linkz to check out more artists creations & we'd love it if you'd play along too!

Cheers!

Presenting the artistes de spoon...

Coming Soon: Altered Wooden Spoon Blog Hop!

I'll be participating in this hop!

Hope to see you along the way!

Cheers!

FINALLY! I'm Gelli-n!!

What an awesome day!! First though, I have to apologize for the photo quality...the lighting was not so great at my moms dining room table! But hopefully you will get the gist of the fun we had!!

a table full of fun!

My mom, sister & I played with the Gelli Arts Printing Plate ALL day long {available here, at Altered Pages}!!! OMG! You have to get one of these things! It's so much fun & so very cool & versital!

We tried it the Gelli Arts Way, painting layers upon layers with texture in between...

I learned that you need to start with your darkest layer first, DUH!...my green was on the bottom & it barley shows through the other 2 layers!

 for this one, I just blobbed paint {very technical here!} onto the plate & placed my paper over it without brayering! It looked like an inkblot! Then I layered more green & yellow with the brayer onto the plate & then stamped a butterfly in black paint. It didn't quite work out, but kinda cool!

my little village?

mom's spooky house

 These two, my mom & I placed the paint where we wanted it, then stamped a Claudine Hellmuth foam house stamp into the top layer of paint. I like mom's on the bottom - kinda spooky!

pink bunnies & teeth?

 These two, I played with some pinks...didn't quite get the paint spread around on the top one, but still the pattern is fun. What do you see in the picture? I see a long pink bunny!

used a "funny brush" for the weird texture

 Below, is one of Kim's pages...very cool print where she layered light pink over a slightly textured blue & then stamped the image of the girl into the pink - all on a jumbo playing card! It's great to see that a very detailed stamp works in paint too!

Kim's girl card

had to try some poppies!

 Above, I layered black & red & stamped a Stampin' Up Poppy image into it. Below, mom layered & textured & masked some birdies. Then when dry, she added a text stamp {text prints in reverse on the Gelli!} here & there & then outlined the birds! Awesome mix!

Then, we tried another technique I saw on Youtube, where you place a dab of 3 colors on the plate in various places & then brayer it around & texture before placing your paper down. I have to say, this is the one we did the most of...

 Above, my first attempt...mom's below...

 Getting more interesting as I layered 3 colors, used a dot roller & a bird mask...

funky & cool, right?

 Blended the colors a little more on the next & then stamped with a giant butterfly!

Maggie had to play too...

a peel from one of my print

Just look at her awesome colors & placement of that feather stamp! Sometimes I can't believe she's only 6!!!

On this one, I did my 3 colors, then brayered an awesome grafitti stencil from The Crafter's Workshop; layered some bubble wrap over that & finally another circle stencil from Mr. Huey's. Not as much color as I wanted, but still very cool!

This is one of my favorites...I simply brayered a denim blue with white; added a little black to the balloon stamp & plopped it down. It's very dreamy to me!

So, things I learned about the Gelli...

1. It doesn't take a lot of paint, but may take more than you think! Some of my prints were kinda "dry" & others heavy...it's definitely a "Goldielocks Moment," to quote Julie Fei-Fan Balzar!

2. Don't waste your money on heavy, art papers until you are comfortable with your results! We started off with a 140lb mixed media paper, but switched to book pages & 65lb cardstock since we were just experimenting.

3. Stock up on good baby wipes! We went through an entire box today!! Between cleaning the Gelli & the brayer...wow!

4. Keep a tray of wet water near by to throw your stencils & unmounted stamps into until you are ready to clean them! Otherwise the paint dries & it's hard to clean off!

5. Have fun & just let whatever happens, happen!

Remember, there are no mistakes! Just ART!

Bedtime!!

It's all the Ra...ven

Ever have one of those days where you are super excited to sit down & CrEaTe something that has been rattling around in your head for days? Well, today was supposed to be one of those days. Instead, it was one of THOSE days!

Maggie was out all day at a swim park with friends...I ran a couple "quick" errands, as if going to Michaels is ever quick! And then had plans to sit at my desk ALL day & create a FABULOUS Halloween bottle so that I could make MORE fabulous Halloween bottles for a tutorial...well, my mind just couldn't tell my hands how to accomplish what it wanted!

So, below is what I worked on for several hours today & I am STILL not done, nor am I thrilled with the results so far...

The bottle on the left was my first attempt for the Ravens Blood bottle, but the colors were off, so I made the one on the right. It's better, but not finished.

(Raven collage sheet; I made my own labels using the Macabre Page collage sheet)

I wanted to whip through this bottle, so that I could get to what I REALLY wanted to play with today:

I have been watching videos for DAYS & am just itchin' to start playing with this Gelli Plate I got from Altered Pages!! Alas, it wasn't in the cards today!

But YESTERDAY was a totally different day!

I got together with mom & Kim to make some spooky mannequin girls inspired by Ranger's CHA 2012 Winter Designer Challenge that was featured in Somerset Studios this month. I had an idea in my head & I have to say, it came together quite nicely!!

This is my 

RAVEN MAVEN!

We started with a paper mache dressform from Michaels. I covered mine in black tissue paper & decoupage'd over her.  I added the feathers along the back of the neck - a feather pc meant for a mask that I cut in half, also at Micheals. Then I just started adding layers of tissue paper, lace, tulle & netting from a vegetable bag! The final touches were the Tim Holtz "31" placard, the wings on her back & the Raven on her shoulder!

Mom & Kim's weren't done yet, so I will post theirs when they finish them! What fun!!

I have a cool Halloween project that I'll be posting on the Altered Pages Blog next Tuesday, so be sure to stop by there & check it out!

That's it for tonight!

Nitey-nite!