Winter's Past

I haven't seen (or felt) snow for almost 15 years. But I do remember those bright, cold mornings when everything was quiet and peaceful in a frosty blanket of white.

Prompted by Simon's Monday blog challenge which is winter stamping, I've created this tag from watercolor paper, images stamped with archival inks and tinted with Distress stains and ink.

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I used a gel pen to frost the tree tops and a bit of white acrylic paint to blend out the snow drifts in the foreground.

Arches is a well-known brand of watercolor paper and full-size sheets are embossed with the lettering you see in the lower right-hand corner.

Stamp credits: LaBlanche (house), Inkadinkado (trees), Tim Holtz (car)

For Joseph

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Joseph Cornell was a brilliant artist and a pioneer of assemblage. If you are not familiar with his work, it's well worth your time to look him up.

Prompted by a challenge at Art Journal Journey to create something "inspired by the Masters," I collaged a page that mimics his Medici Princess box creation.

I used a frame from a magazine advertisement for a background filled with more magazine scraps, some rub-on letters and numbers, paint, gel pens, colored pencils, and embossed stamping.

I wish I could use symbolism more effectively in my art to give it a strong voice and invoke introspection. This is a skill Joseph Cornell mastered in a subtle, understated way and is what I appreciate most about his work.

Update:  I modified the original journal page posted here. Something was missing! The black vertical and horizontal lines in the original work were left out unintentionally. This simple addition made a difference and now I'm happier with it. (1/21/2015)

Peek-A-Boo

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An ink-resist technique was attempted to create the background for this tag which I later altered for better effect.

I stamped a piece of watercolor paper cut to the shape of a tag with archival ink. I brushed on tempera paint to resist the space in between the squares. Distress stains were used for tint then I washed off the tempera.

While the paint did resist the ink, I decided I wanted the spaces in between the squares black so I filled them in with a fountain pen.

I found an image that, thanks to the photographer, was easy to alter to fit this tag. Now the girls are smiling about more than just a game of Peek-A-Boo.

I'm linking to the Monday blog challenge at SSS where this week's theme is Inky Background.

Stamp credit: #8346 by Dawn Houser for Inkadinkado