Melted Crayon--2 versions

How in the world did it get to be Wednesday already?!!  I had great plans for Tuesday and apparently they never happened because I was all set to get them done today!!  Now, I guess I'll just have to resign myself to the fact that Tuesday is lost and Wednesday is moving right along with or without me!!

Since making my journal cover, I have had a couple of ideas floating around in my head for my next journal entry.  I decided to take the plunge and give one a try today.  

I keep seeing these Melted Crayon pieces all over Pinterest.  In those version, crayons are glued to the top of  a canvas, blasted with a heat gun until the crayons start to drip down.  Some versions will add a silhouette to the bottom of the image, giving the illusion that the dripping crayons are "raining" on the silhouette subject.  

I didn't go that route.  I pulled out my mini craft iron and applied my crayons directly to the iron.  

It didn't work.  At. All.   

Well, that isn't entirely true.  It did work, but not for the actual idea that I had hope to create. Despite failure number one, I went with the moment and continued on.  

Can I just say that mistakes can lead to happy dances?!  You can click on the photos for a larger view.

Notice the very small brown smudges into the red on the right?  Yeah.  No big deal, I know, but they bothered me.  Lesson One:  learn when to walk away.  I thought it couldn't be that difficult to just add a little bit more red over the top of them and make it all nice and clean.

Wrong.

I ended up with a somewhat stormy to the piece.

While I like this version too, I have to say that I liked the original "sky" better.  Remember Lesson One?  I walked away.

This is created on a 8.5" x 11" piece of glossy card stock.  Various crayons were applied directly to my little mini craft iron and swiped across the paper.  The grass was made the same way, but the iron was pounced on the paper and then twisted on the edges to create the grass lines.  

I'm going to try and make a goal of adding to this journal at least once a week.  Cross your fingers I figure out how many days are in a week! haha!!

Thanks for stopping by and Enjoy Wednesday!! 

The Journey

Happy Monday Peoples!!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!  Today I'm sharing a project that I actually made LAST weekend but never had the chance to upload.

While posting these  pictures of the Grand Canyon, I remembered an idea that I have had stored in the recesses of my noggin for over a year and decided to try and finally see if I could put it to paper.  Now, my original idea was  do a mix media project on canvas.   That may still happen, but for this project, I went a different route with results that I just love!!

Let me just say that I am just tickled at how this turned out!!  I started with the melted crayon background technique on glossy card stock. The cool thing about this technique is that you can keep remelting the crayon until you get a look or texture that you like.  Wellll.....within reason!  LOL!! You can muddy up your colors if you drag over them too much!  I used mostly white with a touch of light blue for the sky and some brown, red, apricot, green (and who knows what else I grabbed!) for the "canyon". 

I wanted this to have more dimension so I stamped the Indian from Rubbernecker Stamps  on a folded piece of transparency with Archival Jet Black ink using my stampamajig so that I could place him where I wanted on my edge of the "canyon".    Sorry, I could not find the image on the site.  I don't know if it is no longer sold.  I colored the back side of the image with copics, letting the layers of color dry between so that I could add some slight shading.  Using the alcohol based copics on the transparency is not like coloring on paper.  You will start to pull off color if you try to "work" it too much while it is wet.  I added just a tad bit more shading beneath the horse than the image has to give it a more realistic look. 

I thought I had been clever stamping the Indian on the folded piece of transparency.  My thought was that I would adhere the transparency layer between the main image panel and the card base.  Welllll, the "front" flap did just that~~FLAP.  It did NOT lie flat, which totally ruined my scene of the Indian on the Canyon edge.  I tried to use a bit of clear drying glue just barely along the edges.  NOPE.  I finally used some spray adhesive that I had and lucky for me, it did NOT smear the alcohol inks and worked to adhere the transparency to the background.

I then stamped the pine tree from SU's Lovely as a Tree with Archival Jet Black ink on the front of the transparency to create more of a balanced look to the scene.  I will admit I was TERRIFIED that I would ruin my scene with this last step, but I think it was just what was needed! Supplies:  Paper:  Glossy card stock, SU's Close to Cocoa.  Stamps:  Rubbernecker (Indian) and SU's Lovely as a Tree.  Inks:  Archival Jet Black, Copic Ciaos.  Accessories:  transparency, spray adhesive, crayons, craft iron, stampamajig. 

Thanks for dropping by again today!!  I hope that you will run with the lesson that I learned from this project:  Inspiration is EVERYWHERE around us.  But if you just lock away the inspiration instead of beginning the journey of exploring the possibilities of creativity  that the inspiration can bring, then the "view" becomes just a forgotten picture in the mind.

Have a CREATIVE day! Till next time~~

Playing with my Crayons

Happy Friday Peoples!! We are down to 7 more days until school is out and boy!! Are things ever crazy here!! 

Friday also means it is time for the Just for Fun® Friday Color Challenge.  This week Sandy gave us the following colors:

Believe it or not, I did not make anything NEAR the idea I had floating in my head!! It would seem, that with all the hoopla going on right now, I became a deer in the headlights!! For the life of me, I could not come up with the energy to "go all out" on this week's project.  BUT! I did revisit an old technique that is making the rounds again, thanks to the recent tutorial on SCS on the Encaustic technique.  I do not have any of these waxes (YET!!) but another alternative is the Melted Crayon technique, which is what I used on this card:

I used glossy cardstock for my main image and  melted a mix of orange, red/orange and red crayons for the top of the card.  Black, brown and a touch of orange was used for the "ground". I stamped the Brushed Wildflowers and the Leaf Sprig with Berries with black Stazon ink.  I think my mind is so cluttered with LIFE stuff, I can't figure out how to add embellishments!!  I played around with a couple of different ideas, but the way I stamped the images, the "scene" did not lend itself to having more on it.  So!! CAS it is!! The card base is 6"x 4 3/4". 

The design team would love to have you join us in this challenge!! You don't have to use JFF stamps if you don't have any as of yet (hehe) in your collection!  Just link your creation using Mr. Linky on the JFF blog.  For more inspiration, check out what the other team members came up with!

Margarita Ybarra

Broni Holcombe

Glenda Brooks

Kat Tucker

Beth Moore

Sandy Sandrus

Roni Johnson

Terre Fry 

and

Sherry Cheever

I really appreciate you stopping by again today!  I'm in the middle of several projects that need to be done like NOW!! I'm basically done with the 8th grade gift bags, but debating with myself if I should add some curling ribbon or just let them be.  I've got a card idea layed out for DS to help me make for his piano teacher (for his last lesson tomorrow! AAACCCKKK!!) and I need to make DS's b-day card before Sunday. All of this, of course, is in between laundry, cleaning and all the other yaddayadda that is happening over the next couple of days!!  I'm tellin' ya~~ I REALLY admire those of you who work full time and still pump out all the wonderful creative projects!!

Ok!! Off to tackle another "must do!!)  I hope you all have a CREATIVE weekend!!