more chunky pages!

i've been so impatient for these to arrive, because i was so excited about posting them here!

they were both made using the silicone transfer technique that i was talking about the other day, and damn, it's slick!

these pages were for rackycoo, who's just too bloody amazing for her own good, and i got all stressed out and had to send her two, i just couldn't make up my mind!

the first page is the red winged blackbird page, titled mother nature's art (i tried to put the word "art" on all the pages i did for this swap)

i painted the background a strong orangey red, and then used the silicone transfer technique to transfer the red winged blackbird. i added black and gold ink around the edges, and then decided it needed a bit more, so i used crackle medium over the ink. i added the cigar bands just because they're cool, and i wanted a bit more gold in it.


the back is very simple, a piece of joss paper with this stamp from invokearts.com.


the fibers were fun - the charms are all shrink art stamped with staZon ink using the stamp from the back and stamps from this set at invokearts. the lettering comes from this set.

and the second page was a circus themed page, titled "the art of childhood"


the base is mat board, and i did a silicone transfer using an actual bingo sheet instead of a reversed photocopy, so the numbers are all backwards, which just adds to it in my opinion! i think next time i'll paint the matboard, because it needs a bit more protection from the water than just the silicone. after the transfer had dried, i lightly painted it all yellow, and rubber stamped it with a cheapy stamp i'd bought micheals for $1.50 using purple pigment ink. it used to say PARTY down the side, which i hated, but i loved the diamond design, so i carefully cut the party part off (not that careflly - i stabbed myself while doing it!). i embossed the diamonds to adda bit more depth, and used green pigment ink to create a bordre around th eedge of the vintage playing card. i embossed that as well, mostly because the pigment ink didn't want to dry on the gloss of the card. i added the orange ticket and th red bingo chips, and a piece of a tim holtz distressables card, which i sanded lightly and edged in blue pigment ink. the bing chips have the letters A R T stamped on them using staZon ultramarine, which basically looks black!


the back was again very simple. a piece of patterned paper, brushed over with orange pigment ink to make the colours brighter and deeper, and the title with my name and stuff. the word art on this one is a stamp from alphastamps.

but the fibers! ooh, the fibers. i went a little overboard! as racky put it, the fibers are a circus all on their own!

polka dot and stripey ribbons, bright variegated wool and left over dyed green twill tape from an earlier tip in page, all strung with brightly coloured pony beads, bingo chips, a little strawberry button, a plastic hamburger, a bow, a few plastic flower beads, a little plastic scottie dog and at the vey end, a bell, same as on the jester's hat.

the silicone transfer technique is very cool, it came from the Collage Discovery Workshop by Claudine Hellmuth. i had to special order the silicone from a hardware store in the US, because we don't have the elmer's brand that's brushable up here. i'm really loving it.


i also sent her a copy of tim holtz distressables, which i picked up at a spring sale at clipper street in langley and never got around to sending her. i got a copy for myself as well, and it's quite a cool book. thought it's obviously all about using his supplies, it's got some awesome ideas in it as well.


and in other exciting news, i won a giveaway today! cynthia at big girl feet had a draw for her blogaversary, and i won! she's been doing her blog for 3 years now, which is awesome. i've only been blogging since september 12th 2007! i actually first saw cynthia's work about 8 years ago, when we were both selling at the same local store, and i fell in love with it then. i realized that she was on craftster, and found her blog that way. i managed to get a couple of her pieces a few years ago when she was doing a studio clean up sale, and they're both hanging in my studio now.