Sunday, August 21, 2011

The Altered Alice Chapter 6: Painting the Roses Red!




 
'A large rose-tree stood near the entrance of the garden: the roses growing on it were white, but there were three gardeners at it, busily painting them red. Alice thought this a very curious thing, and she went nearer to watch them, and just as she came up to them she heard one of them say, `Look out now, Five! Don't go splashing paint over me like that!'  -- Chapter 8, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland 
The club cards were painting the white roses red to avoid angering the Queen of Hearts, so your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to use PAINT on your creation! Of course you can paint it RED like the design team will be doing, but you can also use other colors. You need to tell us what item was painted and what technique you used!

We are sponsored this month by Creative Inspirations [Store | Blog], makers of wonderful shimmering paint which comes in almost 60 colors, including clear iridescent Fairy Dust. They also carry hot fix Jeweled Inspirations and Metallic Inspirations; I am particularly intrigued by the latter as they look like brilliant nail heads. The Altered Alice design team will be using Garnet paint, a bright sparkling red, and I hope the Creative Inspirations design team might decide to play along! The winner of this month's challenge will receive five colors of their choice.

Be sure to enter by 11:59 p.m. EDT (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC -4:00) on Friday, August 26. The winner and honorable mentions will be announced the last Sunday of the month on August 28.


My Art Journal Page


I have wanted to try art journaling for a long time and decided to jump in with supplies I had on hand, namely a 40 cent composition book and some big ideas. Like fellow design team members Erin and Terri, I had to use this fabulous Stampin' Up embossing folder with big bold roses. (My sister is an SU demo and offers a lot of specials, so if you *need* this folder let me know!)



I used a piece of heavy acetate (I actually recycled a Spellbinders package) and embossed it.  Then I followed Barbara's method of painting with the shimmering Creative Inspirations paint from the back side of the acetate. At first it was very streaky, but the paint dries very quickly, especially given that it was a non-porous surface. I gave it about four coats and it has the most unbelievable glistening radiance in real life. The garnet paint is a bright gleaming red but the shimmer is a deep fuschia pinky-violet color! Fabulous! From the front, I just went over all the raised lines with a black Sharpie and trimmed it out. I LOVE this look! Spellbinders Foliage rose leaves complete the focal point.


As this was the cheapest of cheap paper, first I coated the whole page with Ranger gesso. Then I used my airbrush with Copic markers to tint the page green at the bottom and blue at the top. My foam brush still had some white gesso in it, so I dabbed in some clouds.




Next, I used a Plaid rose stencil and pounced gesso through it using a foam brush. When it was dry, I partially painted my white rose red and added some drips of paint. I outlined the drops and segments of the rose with a black sharpie felt tip marker, and added some white gleams on the drops with a Posca pen.  Then I took a 0.3 Copic Multiliner SP to write in the quote from Chapter 8 about painting the roses red. I tucked in some other words here and there. I really like how this turned out! At this point I had the stenciled rose on the left and the acetate roses that would be placed somewhere to the right but it was missing something. I had planned to use two stamps I had of the card characters that were painting the tree, but they were way too small to hold up against all my huge roses.


I purchased this amusing Queen of Hearts from Mo's Digital Pencil. I wanted to print her larger than the normal, so I used a FREE program called SmillaEnlarger to blow up the image a bit. I think this program does a better job of enlarging than Photoshop; it is a great utility. This allowed me to print it at a blown up size without the least hint of jaggy pixels.  I colored her in with Copics then trimmed her out with a bit of a margin.  But when I placed the cutout on my page, she fell right into the busy background stenciled rose. So I used my black sharpie to color all the margins black, which gave it a nice bold outline. Now it can hold its own amongst the other elements.




I couldn't resist adding this snarky comment, just for fun! It makes me laugh as the Queen looks so out of control!


I hope you have enjoyed my first foray into art journaling as much as I have! After creating this page, I did some "research" (a.k.a. pestering  design team member and art journal expert Sue Roddis!), and have now ordered a Moleskine sketchbook of my very own! Two actually; a red one for Alice and a black one for everything else. I got them for a fantastic price on Amazon!


If you decide to buy some, please use the links above to do so. I will get a small referral fee and you will get the same great price. It is a small way you can help to support this blog and The Altered Alice. Eventually it might cover my Linky Tools and professional Photobucket subscriptions, LOL!!!


I love hearing from you; please let me know what you think about this page, about embossing acetate, art journals, smarty-pants remarks, or anything else you like! Then hurry up and PAINT something and link it on The Altered Alice! Time is running out. . . tick tock, tick tock!

12 comments:

  1. Hi my dear Lynne,

    This is abolsutely perfect.
    A big applause from me. Wonderful coloration. I´ve missed my words.

    Have a lovely sunday my friend.

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  2. What a fabulous page....and your first in a journal YAAAYY!!
    Was glad to help with the journal choices :) Hope you like them when they arrive!

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  3. Lynne, as always your work is a masterpiece. I love the rose. It has a wonderful effect. If you haven't said that it was your first art journaling I wouldn`t have thought it. LOVELY!!

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  4. Absolutely fabulous journal page Lynne, gorgeous gorgeous colouring and I love the queen and quotes. I think you are a natural with this journaling lark. Tracy x

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  5. Yay! and WOW! haha....You jumped in with both feet and all I can say is, WOW! Your first journal page is stunning! Don't you just love the ease of using the Creative Inspirations paint? I'm definately going to try it on acetate. You've captured their brilliance and sparkle in your pictures. That's a feat in itself...lol. Love the text saying, and the Queen you've used. Congrats on a job well done!

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  6. OMG, Lynne! this is breathtaking! I've tried to do some journal pages, but so far the really aren't fit for public show. This is amazing! Love how your written the story line around the stenciled rose and the acetate ones are just fabulous I sure can see the sparkle! And outlining the queen in black really makes her pop. LOVE this! HeeHee on the snarky comment. xxD

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  7. Lynne, I can't believe this is your first ever art journal page ... it looks like the work of a professional!

    The colors your used are fantastically bright and bold; and your Queen ... suffice it say that you've led me to another stamp I'll be picking up.

    Your back-painted acetate is inspired and I can't wait to try that technique myself ... maybe now ... while I'm waiting for some laundry to dry ...

    p.s. thanks for "researching" the art journal question ... been wondering myself ...

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  8. Ah, and I LOVE your "anger management" phrase ... perfect!

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  9. Lynn, I am glad you started an art journal. You needed one because what you create is ART. AMAZING,fabulous, inspiring art!
    Hugs and smiles

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  10. Lynne, Your artwork is unbelievably fabulous. Your journal page is amazing. Thanks for the acknowledgement, by the way. I always look forward to seeing what you create.

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  11. Lynne, this is BRILLIANT. I am in love (I think I say that every time I stop by here). And seeing this has given me the kick up the backside I needed. I've been meaning to explore art journalling for...oh...about 18mths or more. I now have the gesso out, and have dusted off the pile of journals I've been hoarding!

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  12. I absolutely adore what you did with it & I need to learn those techniques you are talking about! I will have to become a follower & stalk you now. hehe ;)

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