(Feels Like) Armageddon

 

The wildfires in Canada have been unusually severe this year; the smoke has been traveling hundreds of miles south into the United States and east into Europe. A few weeks ago, the air in large parts of the Northeast turned orange and the atmosphere was deemed extremely hazardous. This is a view of New York City the afternoon of June 6.

In the meantime, I had received my June kit from Tres Jolie, containing a lot of ingredients for masculine projects and a Mood Board Challenge with a Steampunk theme. I decided that this would be a perfect chance to scrap this event.

This was an easy page to put together. The patterns of the 3 Quarters Designs Vintage Men collection are so filled with images and textures that little needs to be done as far as embellishments go.

After selecting my base, I cut up another sheet to form layers. I tore some of the edges using a tear guide, then inked them all around. The photo and the layers were each backed with USPS packaging to give them some depth, then glued down.

My basic embellishment was the pair of chipboard gears from Tres Jolie that came in the kit; I also used one of the gears and two of the wings from the Finnabair packages. I finished it off with a few clay pieces from my stash that were coated with black gesso and then with metallic wax.

A few closeups:

***The wildfires are still ongoing, especially in the Quebec province. I’ve been keeping our Canadian neighbors and all of those who are working to control and put them out in my prayers. ***  

***************************************************

 *****Supplies*****

 ***Paper***

    3 Quarters Design – Vintage Men Collection

***Embellishments***

    Prima Marketing – Finnabair – Mechanicals – Metal Embellishments – Winged #962432

Prima Marketing – Finnabair – Mechanicals – Metal Embellishments – Steampunk Gears #963453

        Tres Jolie Kits – Chipboard – Steampunk Border – Black

***Mediums***

Prima – Finnabair – Art Basics – Heavy Gesso – Black #961459

Prima - Finnabair – Art Alchemy – Metallique Wax – Aged Brass #963965

Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Archival Ink #AMPK77947

***Tools***

Prima – Finnabair Collection – Moulds – Rusty Pipeline #968601

Prima - Finnabair Collection - Moulds – Vintage Light Bulbs #969578

We R Makers – Basic Tools – Tear Guide #660082

***************************************************

As always, I want to thank you for peeking into my blog; your visits mean a lot to me.

 

Maremi's Art Journal Challenge #1

Marta Lapkowska (aka Maremi) is hosting a great challenge on her You Tube channel, all about art journaling - just the thing to inspire me to grab one of my long neglected journals, roll up my sleeves and start creating.

The title of the first challenge is 10 Minute Art and that's just what it is - create an art journal page in just 10 minutes.

I'm going to admit to a bit of cheating. I'm using a sketch book that I picked out of the bargain bin some time back. The pages are just too thin for mixed media, so yesterday, I adhered adjoining pages together using matte gel and now they can take anything that I want to throw on them!

We are allowed to gather all of the things that we'll be using, so I selected a sheet of Kaisercraft pattern paper, a bunch of tags, journaling strips, a jar of trims, clear gesso, heavy gesso, seed beads, mica powders (Prima Art Basics in Teal and Pale Silver), a Blue Fern Studios chippie, a black ink pad, a stamp, and a stencil. Oh, and my focal item - a wood icon in the shape of a clock in honor of the 10 Minute Challenge.

Time to start, and I cannot believe how quickly I worked!

First, I gave the pages a very rough coating of clear gesso with my palette knife. I wasn't careful to coat the entire surface and I left a lot of small hills and ridges here and there. A quick blast with my heat tool and I was ready for the next step - applying heavy gesso through my stencil here and there around the pages. Another quick blast of heat to (mostly) dry the surface and on to the next thing - I ripped the paper into pieces and layered them with the tags, stapling them together when I was satisfied with the shape. (I learned this stapling trick from Cindy Brown and I use it a lot when I'm layering papers.) I used heavy gesso to glue on these layers and a bit more to adhere my chippie pieces, the trims and my clock.

And now came the fun - I dusted the mica powders around the page with an old brush, spritzing with water and tilting the book to spread the colors, then slightly drying. I did this several times to create layers of color.

Next, I spread a bit more of the heavy gesso around and left some of it bare and covered some of it with seed beads.

One peek at the clock and gahhhhhh! I'm almost out of time!!! Quick - a few dabs here and there with my stamp and - yes, I can do it! - a couple of journal strips and I made it!!!

I'm usually such a slow scrapper that I was really surprised that I could meet this challenge and end up with something that I'm pleased with.

Thank you so much, Marta, for coming up with this!!!! 
Interested? Here's a link to the challenge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_vQiIAjZI8&t=0s