Going Into August

  Oh why does the summer seem to fly by faster than any other season???? But finally my beach vacation is quickly approaching so I will be taking a little break from blogging after this post. Here's a little variety of projects I recently completed.

  First up is a bridal shower card I created for a friend. Her colors are black, white and silver.

   Products: textured white card stock, silver card stock (The paper Cut); white flower embellishments (Recollections); black paper flowers (Michael's); black crochet lace (vintage find); Versafine Onyx Black ink (Tsukineko); clear UM stamp-Mega Mixed Messages set (Papertrey Ink); Grand Calibur die cut machine and Impressabilities Flourish Embossing Plate (Spellbinders); pearl sticker (Queen & Co.).

  I'm also sharing my August calendar spread for Kate Crane's 2013 Calendar Challenge:

  Brushed Americana baby Blue and Golden fluid Acrylic in Cerulean Blue over top section of pages. I then added dots of acrylic paints (Americana Moon Yellow and Raw Sienna;  My Studio Dark Yellow; Folk Art Fresh Foliage) across the lower half of the pages and used a credit card to scrape and move the paints around. The credit card edge was used with Raw Sienna to create "reeds". I had seen something similar done quite awhile ago on Jill Berry's blog and loved that the colors reminded me of a beach scene.

 I prepared the pages using images and words from ARTchix Studio and numbers and lettering using several stamp sets.

 This is just a simple little journal page I did prompted by one of the Summer of Color 2013 color combos (aqua and pale yellow) which weren't chosen. I decided to continue to challenge myself even though this challenge is officially over. We'll see how many I get through :).

   I had this gelli plate print photo of myself (you can read more about some gelli plate print techniques in this post) lying in the stash of papers and they were the right colors so I worked from that. The watercolor journal page was dry brushed with aqua, light yellow and white acrylic paints after gluing down my print. I added some words from an envelope of magazine clippings I have along with a scrap of aqua tissue paper, some leftover aqua vellum stickers (circles), and a butterfly sticker.

  Here's the last journal spread I'm leaving you with:

  For the background I scraped yellow, then orange, then turquoise acrylics over the page allowing each color to dry before adding the next. Did some mark making with a scrap of corrugated cardboard, bottle caps and sequin waste with white acrylic paint.I stamped the red dots using acrylic paint and a stamp from Dylusions Basic Backgrounds set. I had this extra beach photo lying around so I glued it to the page then went over areas of it with some of the background paints to blend it in a bit. Added some spatters of black spray ink along with a piece of Smash Book washi tape. I printed the words over the photo digitally.

  Linking up to Art Journal Every Day, Creative Every Day, Mandarin Orange Monday, 2013 Calendar Challenge, and Paint Party Friday. I'll try and get around to visit as many as I can before packing and leaving. I will have some computer access but am limiting myself drastically during my break in order to soak up as much fun in the sun as I can with my friends!

  See you in August!

       "The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul."  Wyland