I'm still alive...and active elsewhere.

I just wanted to pop in and let anyone who stops in here know that my art and I are still alive and well, but more so over at my Tumblr blog. To see more of my art and other endeavors, visit me at The Sketchy Life. I hope to see you there!

ICAD: Days 15 and 17-20

Here I am again, playing ICAD catch-up. To make a long story short, here are my index cards for Days 15 and 17-20:

Day 15. The prompt for this day was Route 66. Using that concept, I used Distress Ink (Black Soot) to create a road on my index card. Then I tore some pieces out of an old road atlas and used Mod Podge to adhere them to the sides of the road I had created. I polished it all off by adding more and more Distress Ink (Black Soot, Walnut Stain, and Vintage Photo). On a whim I was then compelled to whip out my white Sharpie poster paint pen, and you can see what happened after that. "Oh, the places you'll go!"

Day 17. The prompt was wabi-sabi, which essentially puts emphasis on seeing beauty in imperfection. So, I used an index card that I had days earlier smeared some leftover Distress Ink on, and then I went from there. "A beautiful thing is never perfect."

Day 18. The prompt was treehouse. I was in a bit of a whimsical mood that day, so I found a pretty magazine page with a whimsical-looking tree, drew some houses on a book page, cut some slits in the magazine page, tucked my drawn houses into those slits, and them adhered that all into place with some Mod Podge. After that, I took some embroidery thread and more or less sewed the edges of the index card. Needless to say, I had a lot of fun with this one.

Day 19. The prompt for this day was snowglobe. I'm honestly not very pleased with my contribution for this day, which involved creating my own makeshift snowglobe out of index cards decorated with Distress Ink (Black Soot) and white Sharpie poster paint pen splatters, a piece of clear plastic, a snowy cutout from an old calendar page, white paper and a hole puncher, and lots and lots of staples and Mod Podge. Honestly, it looked so much better in my head.

Day 20. This day's prompt was color wheel. I wasn't really in the mood to make an actual, genuine color wheel. So, I instead made a colorful wheel of flowers, and then attached it to a Distress Inked index card using a brad.

 I'm trying to get my creative juices flowing with these. All in all, I'm having a blast!

ICAD: Day 14

The prompt for Day 14 of the 2015 ICAD challenge was salt and pepper. My love for dogs compelled me to translate that prompt into this mixed media piece:

I used Distress Ink (Black Soot) for the background, and drew hearts and dots on it using my white Sharpie poster paint pen. I drew the Dalmatian and wrote the quote on cardstock, used some more Black Soot Distress Ink along the edges of the quote, and then adhered the cardstock pieces to the index card with my Mod Podge.

I hope you like it!

And remember, if you want to see my index cards displaying my more traditional drawings rather than mixed media, visit my MissAdventureArt blog by clicking on the tab at the top of this page!

ICAD: Days 11 and 12

Shame on me - I just keep falling behind in photographing and posting my index cards. Well, better late than never, I guess.

For both Day 11 and Day 12 I went a largely mixed media route. The prompts were lime and mango and parsnip and kiwi, respectively. As per usual lately, I only loosely used these prompts, and only when choosing my color scheme.

Now, without further ado...

I used this index card to experiment with more texture and materials than I usually do. I did draw the house and wrote "Home Sweet Home" on my usual book page canvas. But, I branched out some more and used torn pieces from magazine pages for the sky and sun, and some spare sparkly green tissue paper for the grass. I used Mod Podge to seal it all together.

The night before I made this particular index card I went to a garage sale, where I bought a beautifully packaged roll of pink and brown scrapbook paper. I've never really done any true scrapbooking, but the paper was so beautiful and I immediately felt compelled to use it for an art piece. So, I used that paper for the background of this cute kitty-inspired index card, although I did decide to adhere a piece of white tissue paper over it to dim it down a bit. I love cats - can you tell?

Fun times, as always!

More ICAD catch-up...

I experimented with some more mixed media techniques for Days #8 and #10 of the ICAD challenge. The prompts this week have been primarily based on color and/or food. For Day #8 the prompt was grapefruit and cherry, and for Day #10 it was eggplant and ginger. I've been only loosely using these prompts this week, mostly for the color influences they offer, as you'll see here:

For this one I leaned heavily on my beloved Distress Inks (Black Soot for the background, and Walnut Stain for the tree). I used the prompt by drawing red (cherry) and orange-red (grapefruit) hearts on little pieces of a book page and then using Mod Podge to adhere them amongst the tree branches.

For this one I once again used my Distress Inks (Walnut Stain and Vintage Photo) to cover the entire index card. I drew the door panels directly onto the index card, and then drew the wreath and door handle on cardstock and adhered them so as to make them pop off the index card a little. I wanted a glossy effect for the door handle and the wreath's berries (these are where I brought in the eggplant and ginger prompt), so I applied glossy Mod Podge over them.

It's been really fun letting loose for this ICAD challenge, as I'm learning and experimenting with a lot of new techniques. I can't wait to see what other techniques I learn over the next two months!

ICAD: Day 7

For Day 7 of the ICAD challenge I had some mixed media fun. The prompt for that day was period table. If you've seen my mixed media art tags, you might remember that I've created a couple of them using an old chemistry catalog along with toying with entries of the periodic table of elements. Needless to say, I did a similar thing for the seventh day of the ICAD challenge. Here's the result:

LiFe, chemistry style.

Going in line with my typical mixed media style, I used Mod Podge to adhere the chemistry catalog cutouts to my index card. Instead of drawing on the catalog pieces like usual, though, this time I made my drawings on some cardstock, practiced some serious patience by cutting them out with an X-Acto knife, and then adhered them in place with yet some more Mod Podge. After everything had dried I applied some Black Soot Distress Ink along the edges.

As usual, I had a tone of fun! Join in on the ICAD challenge if you aren't already doing so!

ICAD Catch-up

I've been keeping up with creating my index cards for the 2015 ICAD challenge, but I've been failing to get them posted to my blogs in a timely manner. I have a couple to post now, from days 3 through 5. I completed my sixth and seventh index cards on their respective days, but I still need to photograph them so that I can post them. Just think of it as building suspense.

I'm posting my index cards for days 3 and 4 both here and on my drawing blog, MissAdventureArt. These two are mostly drawings (and writing, as you'll see), their primary medium used being pen, but since I had some Distress Ink fun with them I'll also post them here on my mixed media art blog.

The third day's prompt was to draw a map. The fourth day's prompt was mailbox. And the prompt for the fifth day was owl.

Being the animal lover and human counterpart to a number of four-legged furballs, I drew a map more or less representative of my home. I crumpled it up and used Distress Ink (both Antique Linen and Vintage Photo) to give the map an aged look.

I decided not to draw a mailbox itself, and instead I scrawled a quick letter, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. I spruced it up (more like roughed it up) by crumpling it and applying Distress Ink (again, I used Antique Linen and Vintage Photo).

I created the background with my Black Soot Distress Ink, and to create the stars I splattered it with my white Sharpie paint pen. As you can see, I ripped up some more of my trusty old book pages and on them drew an owl and wrote, "Spread your wings and soar." As always, I adhered them to the index card with my trusty Mod Podge.

I am having a blast creating these index cards. It looks like I'll be doing the ICAD challenge every year!

Fun with ICAD (Index Card a Day)!

I have never before partaken in any ICAD (Index Card a Day) challenges. I always thought it sounded fun, though, so this time around I'm actually giving it a go. The Daisy Yellow 2015 ICAD Challenge began on June 1st and will go until July 31st. I check that website daily, as prompts and ideas are offered there. Knowing myself, though, I admittedly may sometimes only loosely use the prompts, if even at all.

That being said, the first day's prompt was chevron. However, before even looking at this prompt I already had an idea for a piece of index card art in my head, and so I ended up just going with that rather than the prompt.

Here is my first index card for the 2015 ICAD challenge, completed on June 1st:

The journey never ends.

I'm telling myself that I want to vary between more traditional drawings and mixed media art pieces for this ICAD series. For the first one, as seen above, I immediately fell into my mixed media habits, albeit only mildly so. I created the base black road and brown dirt using my trusty Distress Inks (Black Soot and Vintage Photo, to be exact). I used my drawing pens to create the hand drawn cloaked figure and the "FINISH" and "START" signs on card stock, and then I cut them out and used Mod Podge to adhere them to the index card. Using my favorite Faber-Castell pens, I drew some rocky-like texture in the dirt and wrote, "The journey never ends." At that point I felt that it looked like it was still lacking something, so I used an empty yellow tissue box to create some dividing lines for the road. I had a lot of fun creating this index card art piece!

Yesterday I created my second index card art, and for this one I actually used the prompt: carnival. I'll admit that I somehow had even way more fun with this second index card, and once I get it photographed later today I will share it. I stuck strictly to drawing for this second ICAD piece, so I will be posting it to my other, drawing-centric blog. Remember, you can visit my MissAdventureArt drawing blog by clicking on the respective tab at the top of this blog.

Is anyone else partaking in the 2015 ICAD challenge? If not, perhaps give it a try. It's a lot of fun!

Tasty Tags

There are five new mixed media art tags available in my TrashToTreasuresArt Etsy shop! Apparently I had food on my mind when creating these five new tags:

"Keep calm and eat cupcakes." This one goes along with my dessert series, of which I have already created tags representing cookies, cake, pie, and now cupcakes!

I also felt compelled to create a fruit series, and this was my my first fruity creation. "Peachy keen."

"Strawberry delight," the second art tag I created in my fruit series.

"Go bananas!" was the third fruit piece I created.

And here's the fourth piece in my ever-growing fruit series. "Apples to apples."

I hope you like them!

To visit my Etsy shop, where all of these pieces can be found, just click on the Etsy shop tab at the top of this blog.

A Blog of Their Own

I have created a new blog separate from my first one, MissAdventureArt (you can visit this blog via the tab at the top of this blog), which I initially created to share my drawings and illustrations. As I began to dabble in mixed media art, I began sharing those pieces on my original MissAdventureArt blog as well.

Fast forward a couple of months, though, and my mixed media art has taken on a life of its own in my art studio. I have also opened a shop on Etsy dedicated solely to my mixed media art, this Etsy shop being called TrashToTreasureArt, in honor of the fact that my mixed media art is built heavily upon recycled and upcycled materials. I also still have my original Etsy shop, MissAdventureArt, where you can find my traditional drawings and illustrations. Just as I separated my works into two Etsy shops, I also decided to divide my works on two different blogs.

So, here you have it. Welcome to my Trash to Treasures Art blog!

Now, to give you a brief history on my mixed media journey...

After stumbling upon and thoroughly enjoying a number of intriguing mixed media art tutorials on YouTube, I decided I had to try it for myself. For the longest time I could never picture myself working in mixed media. I was always certain that I would keep my artwork to drawings and illustrations, always resorting to my trusty pencils and pens. But that's certainly changed now.

My first pieces of mixed media art were very experimental. I bought myself some Mod Podge and started chopping away at magazines. Of course, even for these pieces, I ultimately couldn't help but do a bit of drawing as well.

My first batch of a mixed media Mod Podge mess.

For this one, I printed up some lines from Poe's "The Raven", as well as drew a raven with my trusty art pens, and then slapped them on with yet some more Mod Podge.

To this one I also added a quote and a drawing.

With this and some more experimentation, I somehow ended up with the desire to create my first art tag, using mixed media art, of course. I started by grabbing some scrap cardboard and cut it into the shape of an art tag. I had seen on multiple YouTube videos artists using old book pages in their works, and the bibliophile in me loved that idea, so I decided to do the same. And, of course, I grabbed my art pens as well. This was the result:

I really do love to draw, so it seems that drawing will always be incorporated into my works. For this first mixed media art tag of mine, I drew a teapot, tea cups, and leaves, as well as wrote, "You're my cup of tea." In line with my love of using recycled goods, I also grabbed some empty tissue boxes and a hole punch, which resulted in the decorative red and brown dots upon this tag.

I really enjoyed creating that tag, but upon finishing it, I thought that it just looked so...unfinished. So, I went back to YouTube, watched some more expert mixed media artists do their thing, and in that way was introduced to Distress Ink. I immediately bought myself some, starting light with a 4-pack. I also saw some artists work some serious magic using a white Sharpie poster marker, and so I got myself one of those as well. Armed with my two newest pieces of mixed media weaponry, I recreated the tag above. Here was the result:

I was much happier with this one.

After that, I couldn't stop. That being said, here are some of the other mixed media art tags I've created since then:

The nerd in me also decided to create some tags using torn out scraps from an old chemistry catalog, and so these have also come to be:

Those last 11 tags are available for sale in my TrashToTreasuresArt Etsy shop! You can visit my shop via the Etsy tab at the top of this blog!

I have so many more tags in the works, as well as plenty in the planning stages. What's more, I've finally started to branch out my mixed media art even more than tags. I have mixed media signs, boxes, and other goodies planned out. And I can't wait to create them, and to share them here.

Until next time, bloggers!