Category: Mixed Media

Art Inspiration, Mixed Media, Techniques

Tea Dye Play

Ruth Cooper

Hi Angels!

I spent the first couple of days this week catching up on some extra chores and did a bit of unpacking & purging today. We still had about 7 boxes from our move we never fully unpacked and we moved 7 years ago. Most were knickknacks that we simply had no where to display, some keepsake items & a few odds & ends. Three boxes are heading to the thrift shop. For the knickknacks, we picked up a display cabinet from Ikea and I’ll be deciding what will fill the shelves soon.

Also over the past couple of days I’ve been tea dying paper. I forgot I was brewing tea the other day, so it ended up quite strong, so instead of pouring it out, I opted to tea dye. I’m really picky about vintage style stuff and tea dye is much softer than coffee dyed. After dying about 20 regular sheets, I pulled out the Color Burst Powders and played with the next dozen sheets.

This is just a small sampling of the papers I created. They will make interesting pages in journals.

I hope you are having a wonderful week but staying cool. I know a lot of the states are experiencing wicked high temps.

Blessings!

Art Inspiration, Bible Journaling, Faith Based Art, His Palette, Mixed Media

One Day at a Time – Bible Journaling

Ruth Cooper

Hi Friends!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and have a great week ahead!

Hubby & I ran errands & hung out Saturday and Sunday I did some more serious purging/organizing in the studio. So after my regular Monday house cleaning today, I worked on another Bible Journaling page.

This lesson on His Palette by Lynn had several verses to choose from and a great message to take each day as it comes.

I chose Isaiah 43:18-19 to place my artwork.

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. NIV

We wrote our fears & worries underneath our art and then covered them up with mixed media. I collaged some map patterned paper down and added acrylic paint with stenciling over top. Added my His Palette Printable Moving On and added hand lettering which proved difficult over all the mediums but I persisted.

Hand you cares over to God this week and enjoy each day one by one.

Blessings!

Art Inspiration, Bible Journaling, Faith Based Art, Mixed Media, Open Journey

Return To Me Lent Journal

Ruth Cooper

Hi Friends!

I hope you are having a wonderful week!

Last week was so unusually busy for me, plus dealing with allergies & asthma, that it took me awhile to complete my first journal entry for my Lent studies. I have made it the highest priority to do the study part each day but when you are out & about, it doesn’t leave much time for creating. Add to the fun, I’m doing 2 Lent studies. I’ll be digging into God’s Word a lot the next few weeks.

Return to me is based on Joel 2:12-13. In Hebrew teshuvah means “to turn back toward”, “repent”, “return to me”.

I created a watercolor wash background over my page, pulled some elements from my Open Journey Come With Me 2 kit, created a pocket with the main image, added the focal verse with the basic Hebrew definition & added the title. I then made a tag booklet insert & added some thoughts from Ingrid’s post & my own study to make it more personal.

I’m having a blast digging into some of my handmade papers, fibers, ribbons, stamps & more to create more interest & texture. It’s been awhile since I’ve done collage style, mixed media art.

Remember to spread some cheer, sunshine & kindness where every you go and pray for our chaotic world.

Blessings!

Art Inspiration, Bible Journaling, Creative Retreat Kits, Faith Based Art, Mixed Media, Open Journey

Come With Me Lent Art Journal

Ruth Cooper

Hi Friends!

I hope everyone is staying safe & warm in these winter storms & events. It’s a bit frigid here in Oklahoma at the moment.

Been a bit busy and hubby has a few days off so not a lot of time to create. However, I ordered the new Open Journey Come With Me 2 Lent Bible Journaling Kit and along with the 40 day study, I’ll be joining Liz Curtis Higgs The Women of Easter Study. I don’t usually do much for Lent but both of these appealed greatly.

So I found a steno style watercolor journal in my stash and decorated it with kit elements from the Open Journey kit.

Ingrid’s physical kits are wonderfully packed with a devotional, lots of collage images & pieces, fibers & a stamp set plus there is a digital version available too. This time I also ordered an additional coordinating stamp set & the boat charm I added to my journal. I used the “folder” that was holding all the pieces to create the front & back of my journal along with some of my hand painted paper for the sides. I used both stamp sets that matched the kit and the Tapestry of Grace stamp set from this month’s Creative Retreat Kits to add the collage feel to my covers. I love how it all came together.

I have the Creative Crate event this weekend so there will be more creating going on, then it’s back to organizing & purging some more.

Stay safe & warm.

Blessings!

Art Inspiration, home & holiday projects, Mixed Media, Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps

Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamp-a-thon Anything but a Card – Ornament

Ruth Cooper

Hi Angels!

I was finishing up one of the other Stamp-a-thon projects so posting a bit late tonight.

The 4th challenge was anything but a card. Since I have been sorting & organizing, I had just put some ornaments in their new home so pulled one out to create with.

I had to take a picture in different lighting, the cute pink nose & cheeks were washing out. I stamped with permanent ink & heat set on the porcelain, then colored with alcohol ink markers. The color was quite pale so I went back over the coloring with colored pencils, then sprayed with workable fixative. I used a retired SNSS stamp set Cozy Friends.

Enjoy your Thursday & do something nice for someone, the world can use some extra kindness right now.

Art Inspiration, Bible Journaling, Faith Based Art, Mixed Media, Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps

Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamp-a-thon Teabag Stamping – Glorify

Ruth Cooper

Hi Angels!

Challenge 3 for the Stamp-a-thon was one I hadn’t done in quite awhile, teabag stamping. Right about now some may be asking, huh? It’s fun to see what different things you can create with & stamp on and through the years I’ve tried a lot through various art lessons.

If you are a tea drinker, like I am, you can dry out your teabags, gently open them up, brush away the tea leaves & have a thin tissue like tea stained piece of paper to stamp on.

The fun thing about this Stamp-a-thon is it wasn’t just cards. With the teabag stamping lesson also was collage & mixed media. I decided on a page in my Praise & Glory journal and dug into my collage box for my background. I used the teabag to stamp glorify from Sweet ‘n Sassy Words of Life: Actions & Flower Garden for the butterflies. I’ve been gathering verses from the Psalms as I read & chose Psalm 83:19

Let them know that You alone – whose name is ADONAI are El Elyon over all the earth. TLV

El Elyon is translated Most High.

The teabag piece is translucent on the page like vellum would be. If I can get some more of the studio in order, I’ve been toying with doing more mixed media/collage work. I forgot how fun it is to play with “outside of the box” art supplies.

With the chaos in the world at the moment it is good to remember God is above all and still in control. Praying for Afghanistan & our troops.

Art Inspiration, Classes, home & holiday projects, Mixed Media

Beautiful Spring

Ruth Cooper

Hi Angels!

Last night’s card was actually a teaser for tonight’s post.

Beautiful Spring is the 3rd installment in our 4 seasons 12 x 12 frame project that I have been designing.

Taking the picture was very challenging today, that’s a reflection on the end of the word spring not part of the design.

I pulled out several flower/grass type dies from a variety of companies. Some are cut from handmade papers and hand painted backgrounds. The others were cut from white cardstock & colored in distress inks. I have been seeing several cards with white diecuts on white and decided it was perfect for the clouds to give the flowers center stage.

Now I have some bright cheery spring flowers in the house and the Angels will have lots of fun putting their layout together because I have quite a variety of handpainted papers to work with and they will decide what colors they want their flowers to be. Just makes each one more unique.

Thanks for stopping in.

home & holiday projects, Mixed Media

It’s Fall Y’all

Ruth Cooper

Hi Angels!

It’s been a wee bit busy around here & then there’s the allergy issue so a bit more sporadic on posting.

I did spend the past three days creating this wonderful fall artwork.

First I want to thank Leona for sharing info on this free online class by The Social Easel. I have very few fall decorations & this came out perfect. It is entirely freehand, no template was provided. Also the original didn’t have a saying but I wanted one.

Second if you know me well, shabby is not my usual style. As an artist I do feel it’s important to step outside of your usual comfort box & play with something different. It can also be good to do if you are stuck in a rut or your muse has gone walkabout.

Third play with something different I did. This is a pallet board frame. It is rough, has lots of splinters & was entirely a challenge to create on. I just dug in & went with it. It’s done with brushes, palette knife, acrylic paints & Posca Paint pens for the lettering.

I hope you are having a wonderful fall week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Classes, home & holiday projects, Mixed Media

Joy Filled Canvas Class Part 1

Ruth Cooper

Hi Angels!

I meant to post last week but was busy chilling. Hubby encouraged me to schedule one week a month for me, no appointments, errands or teaching classes & use that week each month for professional development, to work on my business & upcoming classes. So I played with some backgrounds, took a couple of personal classes, checked out some Creativation & technique videos, decided on my February classes, started painting our tiny upstairs bathroom & worked on the canvas class. I think it’s going to be a good addition to my schedule this year.

I saw a pin on Pinterest a few weeks back of a multiple canvas wall collage featuring words & phrases & thought it would make a great class. On Saturday we created our center focal canvas in class. I used my word of the year, Love, for my center canvas.

I am so happy with how it turned out & each participant’s canvas is different based on their color choices & themes for their own displays. Several also used hearts & a couple went a different direction.

This canvas incorporates sponging techniques, stencil work & hand lettering. I worked with acrylics, glaze, molding gel, gilding polish & paint pens.

It is going to be so much fun to design the next set of canvases to compliment this center design.

Take some time to breathe this week. It’s important to rest & take care of you.

Classes, Fun Stampers Journey, Mixed Media, Simon Says Stamp

2019 Calendar Creation – Part 3

Ruth Cooper

Hi Angels!

Sorry, was planning to post this yesterday & was in the studio creating for today’s class & lost track of time. Technically it’s after midnight so 2 nights ago, but it’s not the next day until I get to bed & get some sleep.

Let’s take a look at the last 4 months of calendar pages.

 

September’s page was created with another Clarity Stencil I found on Simon Says Stamp. Just love it. Since it doesn’t cover the whole page, I  added in one of the greens to the bottom of the page. This one ties a close 2nd to my favorite April page.

October had the Create-A-Palette Swirl Technique on the base & then the leaf stencil in 2 colors over top to create more depth in the background.

 

 

November had a liquid color background, which actually came out lighter than I had hope for, but looks great with the woodland stencil over the top in Oatmeal Cookie ink. Reminds you of the fiery changes of fall some trees showcase. One of the drawbacks of many of my stencils is that some manufacturers don’t mark their stencils. So once I open it & start creating with it unless I know the brand well, I can’t tell you where November’s stencil came from.

December’s page is pretty classic Christmas with the poinsettia stencil from Tim Holtz in reds & greens. And, yep, that’s a bit of blue in the center. Sometimes class samples get exposed to other colors during class use. I wasn’t redoing the whole page over a bit of blue. As Bob Ross says “It’s just a happy little accident.”

I hope you have enjoyed this look at my 2019 Calendar designs. Really truly pure fun to create.

Stay tuned for more creative inspiration, I have plenty to share. Rumor is there may be a video on Facebook in the next day or two.

Create something that makes you happy!