" pink houses" tag for the music prompt at#onelittletag"

Hello my friends!
We are actually done with the music prompt at the one little take craft challenge, and on to a new week. But I had already started a few more tags for the music prompt, which I had tons of ideas for! So I am still going to finish off those tags, just because it's fun! This tag is based on John Mellencamp's song Pink Houses. First I created my background using distress ink.

I did some random stamping with some white ink and an inkadinkado stamp. The white ink did not show up very well, but you can see it. I also did a bit of random stamping with a local King rubber-stamp and a prima stamp using some distress inks.

I used a My Favorite Things die to cut out the little houses and accessories from some pink cardstock. A lot of little pieces!. I cut some out of white cardstock as well. I use distress ink to color the trees, and I watered down some distress ink and dragged the houses through it to just add a little bit of texture. I also use the Prima stamp to stamp the houses once they were dry just to add a little more interest.

I used a We R memory Keeper's die to die cut out the Sun from some yellow cardstock. I did some edging with some distress ink and a little bit of doodling with my white gel pen. I splattered some water on the background, because I love that water reactive quality of the distress inks. I use a glue stick to adhere everything down.

I used my label maker to create my words and I used an edge punch from my stash, I believe it is a Fiskars punch, to create the grass in the foreground.

I use distress ink to color and edge the grass, spritz with water and when dry I added my words which I also colored with some distressing. Once I glued that down to the tag, I punched out some flowers from some scraps and adhered those to the tag as well. Once everything was assembled, I glued the tag to a black net to finish it off. I once again enjoyed the whimsical quality of this tag. It took a while to put together with all the little pieces, but it was fun to do.

I hope you enjoyed my pink houses tag, thank you so much for stopping by to have a look! I will be back soon with more tags. I may have a couple more inspired buy some song titles, just because I like doing them, and I will be also creating some tags for the new prompt of the week which is wings!

Have an awesome day and I hope to see you back here soon!

Kim xo

" Castle on the hill" tag for music prom a t#onelittletag

Hello my friends!
As you can probably tell, I have been having a lot of fun with the music prompt atThe One Little Tag Craft Challenge Facebook group.  I created this tag based on Ed Sheeran's song "Castle on the Hill".

I created a back ground for my tag bye blending on some distress ink in blues and greens, creating my hill.

I die cut my castle from a spellbinders die set.

I positioned my castle on the hill without adhering it to determine where I wanted my pathway to be.

Then I created a mask ask for the pathway. I use low tack shelving paper to cut my masks from. It is inexpensive, I get it from the dollar store, and it works well. I did tap it on to my clothing before adhering it to make it even less tacky. I'm positioned my pathway with the mask and then blended some darker green at the edges of the path and splattered on some red and white dots. I use distress ink, which I smooshed on to the craft met and added water to for the red dots and I used my opaque Copic White, which I also watered down to splatter on the white. I also splattered on some clear water droplets because I love that effect with the water reactive distress inks. Then I removed the mask for the pathway and use the negative sections to create a mask for the hill leaving the pathway open. Then I blend it on various brown distress inks and added some water droplets and a little bit of water on a brush to create some horizontal lines, which ended up getting blended  out for the most part. I also splattered some gray ink and white dots on my castle, and did some edging with some distress ink as well. I used the distress ink and a pen for the castle door. And when I had everything out, I also splattered some distress ink and Copic white on some gray card stock that I cut down to use as a mat for my tag. I wanted it to look a little bit like stone, too match the castle.

I adhered my castle, and I used a little punch to punch out some flowers from some scrap cardstock I had. I used my label maker to print out the words. I edged those with some distress ink. I also used a little punch to create the butterfly from some scrap paper I had. I adhered the little flowers and butterfly, as well as the words, which I printed with my label-maker, to my tag.

I used a couple of my faber-castell Pitt pens to add some shadowing as well as my white Posca paint pen for some highlighting details. Once everything was assembled, I glued my tag to the gray mat that I had created, and then to the final black matte to finish it off. I really like how Whimsical this tag turned out to be, which was actually my intention!

Well I hope you enjoyed my castle on the hill tag. I really enjoyed creating it. Thank you so much for stopping by and having a look and I hope to see you soon with my next tag. Have an awesome and creative day everyone!

Kim xo

"Identity" A closer video look at my mixed media painting

Hello mu friends!  I have been making a few videos lately.  As you may know, if you have watched any, the are amateur as I am a newbie and just getting my feet wet.  Here is another very short video.  A closer look at my mixed media painting, "Identity"  I know  some of you have seen this painting already, but for those of you that haven't, please have a look.  For those of you that have, maybe you want to have a second look?
I have to say that I always feel a connection to my creations.  That doesn't mean I can't let go of my work as I know some artists have a hard time doing.  As a matter of fact, it really gives me a sense of joy and fulfillment to see one of my paintings, or cards, or tags or Gelli prints go into the hands of someone who loves them enough to take them home.  I know they will be cherished, which makes me feel wonderful.  The truth is though, that I do feel more of a connection to certain pieces.  For some reason, this is one painting that I feel particularly attached to. While I will certainly be ecstatic to see it find a loving new home, it will be bittersweet, as I will also feel sad to see "Identity" go.  Perhaps that is why I have posted it a couple of times and created this short video.
For anyone that likes this painting and is interested in seeing how I made it, please have a look at this post to see my process.
As for the videos, that is my goal for this year, to create videos and work on my YouTube channel.  There will be videos of my art, our shows, some haul videos and, hopefully my focus, art and craft tutorials.
If you like my few short videos and what I have been sharing here on my blog, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and give me some thumbs up!
And I know this is long overdue, but I am finally on Instagram for anyone who is interested. Find me  mimi.johnson358
Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have and awesome and artful day!

"Identity" The evolution of a mixed media painting

Hello my friends!  I have been MIA for a little while, I know.  I have been busy working on my latest mixed media creation, which I am excited to report, has made it into the Annual PRAC Juried Art Show!  My first real juried show! (I have done some juried events within our ACA group, but not an actual juried show).  

, I have been thinking of you all while I was working away and took several photos during my journey to the completion of this work, in order to share my process with you.

In this painting, my objective was to explore the female psyche.  We are strong, but fragile, real and complicated.  There are many other words I could have added into this painting if I had the room.  We are definitely a host of contradictions!  I did the eyes in blue, because my daughter has beautiful blue eyes and is just embarking on her journey as a woman, a time when I think our identities are the most complicated.  I wanted the juxtaposition of the flourishes and fanciful with the practicality and industriousness of the gears.  The mask represents our search for our own identity behind the veil of our other identities, mother, wife, daughter. My intention with this painting, was to embrace self-discovery.

I will give you a little insight into how my creative process works.  When I start a painting, any painting, whether mixed media, abstract or landscape, I have a general idea in my mind of composition and the elements i want to incorporate into my work, but I  don't know exactly what my finished work will look like.  All of my paintings evolve, as I'm sure they do with a lot of artists.  I am not a planner, I don't do detailed sketches or drawings, which I can't do anyways with my vision impairment.  I may know that I want a tree and wonderful clouds in a landscape, and I may know where I want the tree and an idea of the cloud formation, but I don't really know what those clouds are going to look like until I have reached a point where I feel they are done and I am pleased with them.  I don't even know what kind of tree my imagination is going to release at the end of my brush.  It amazes me how the creative process works.  Laying down one colour inspires me to lay down another..  I cannot stand back and take a look at my painting, because then I can't see it.  But, if I stand back just a bit, I can see a form and some colour and some contrast.  Some of my artist friends liken it to the artist's "squint", without actually squinting.  I think it actually helps me, in a way, to be able to just get an overall impression without being distracted by the details..

Now I will share the creation of "Identity" with you through photos and some of my thoughts, I hope you enjoy it.

An inspiration

I did a light layout in watercolour pencil on a 15 x 30" gallery style canvas

I did some stencilling

I painted in the eyes, fairly shadowed as they would be under the mask.  I also added some more texture with some impasto gel and some micro beads and crylstal beads

I added my words and built up a protective barrier with the impasto gel to protect the eyes from the ink

I painted over the entire canvas, except for the eyes, with a few different colours of acrylic paint

I used one of the gears that I created for my other painting "Inner Workings".  These gears have been "aged" but the one I used on this painting was not.

I adhered the mask and some other elements to the painting.  I really liked the way it was looking at this point, so it was difficult to start the next step because the inking is quite unpredictable.  You can control it to a certain extent by adding it where you want it and choosing what colours you want to use, but once you start moving it around it takes on a life of it's own and you don't really know what it will look like until it dries.

I added some more stencilling with gold paste and added more colour in layers, waiting for it to dry in between. Adding and fine-tuning values and contrasts. I also adjusted the "quiet space" to a level I was happy with.

And finally..."Identity"

Thank you so much for taking the time to let me share my art with you.  I would love to hear what you think.

Have an amazing and artful day!