Altered Art Playing Card Challenge - Week 3

I realized after I posted last week that I totally forgot to give credit to Claudine, the talented lady who has given this challenge. Check out her blog here - http://claudinesartcorner.blogspot.com/ and there is a link to the playing card challenge on the right.

I'm having a lot of fun doing these so far. I have more ideas in my head than I know what to do with. But since I'm a bit new at this, they don't always translate to the cards as well as I'd hoped. I have a few with weird backgrounds and I've just been staring at them hoping that inspiration will pop into my head. I know it will.

Onwards!

Here are my two cards for this week. This first one started with a weirder background using alcohol inks. I'd never used them before and they're pretty funky to work with. This was red and yellow swirls and the longer I stared at it the more I saw a brick wall. So I added a mix of brown and red acrylic paint and added the grout lines with a white gel pen.

This second one is a little bit milky way. I used metallic and regular acrylics for the background and a white gel pen for the stars. Due to the metallic it didn't really photograph well, the stars are more visible. To be totally honest, I'm not sure it's done, I kind of feel like it's missing something.

Altered Art Playing Card Challenge - Week 1 and 2

So I've been gone for way too long once again. I have some tangles that I may post later, but for now... new project... new source of inspiration. My hubby's aunt posted a link to an Altered Art Playing Card Challenge and I thought that it looked like a good way to get into altered art... because, hey... I need one more hobby, right?  In any case, so far I love it! We're doing two cards a week, but all these ideas popped into my head so I've kind of sketched out a bunch already. Plus, two cards a week should be easy to get done, so away we go.

First step was to prep all the cards. Most of them I just used gesso with various textures, but some of them I put some mesh (kind of like tulle, but not really) onto the cards for an extra bit of I-wonder-how-this-will-turn-out punch.

My mind has been on travel quite a bit lately and when I saw this challenge, that's the theme that popped into my head. All my cards will be travel and here are my first two. The one on the left I used metallic acrylic paints for the background. The cityscape I found online, cropped it, printed it, then cut it out by hand - yikes! The one on the right I used Dylusions Ink Spray for the background and stamps for the feet.

I am really enjoying the project so far. I will be doing a couple things differently for future cards though. To be honest, I'm not sure what I was thinking... I used regular printer paper for the words, the cityscape, and the heart. I used Modge Podge Matte to glue everything down. And let's just say... the ink on the right really doesn't work well with the Modge Podge - I think it's just too wet. Plus my words got a bit warped - again, too wet. So my card stock is now sitting by the printer so I don't forget.

On to the next two!

Seriously?

I had no idea it had been so long since my last post. I got completely distracted over the holidays and just never got back to doing anything. I have done some drawing but not nearly enough. I'll have to get some stuff posted one of these days.

In the meantime, here is one in progress.  It needs some shading and I haven't been able to get to it yet.

A few doodles...

This week seemed super long. I'm not sure why, it wasn't particularly bad or anything, just seemed to drag. When I sat down to draw this week, I drew a curvy line to start a string and it turned into this...

Anxiety - by Angie Wallace

So I'm guessing that's how I felt this week since that's what came out of my head for a random doodle.

This one is for the diva challenge this week. Possibly due to the feelings illustrated above, or maybe for some other reason, I wasn't particularly inspired by the designs, but I did it anyway because that's the whole point of a challenge.

Flaming flowers - by Angie Wallace

I figured I would try a second one to see if I could come up with something else, but when I started to draw again my mind was completely blank and this is what came out of that session.

Trickle - by Angie Wallace

Drawing tiny circles is relaxing. Is that weird?

Pointillism

This week has been awesome. The weather is finally starting to chill out and it's starting to feel a bit like fall... at least in the mornings. I've actually been able to drive to and from work without turning on the air conditioning so that's a good thing. It still doesn't feel like mid-October though - I'm not sure I'll ever get used to the non-seasons of living in Arizona.

This week the diva's challenge was to use pointillism. I have tried this in the past but never really stuck with it because it seems to bother my wrist after too long. I ended up doing three smaller tiles this week, although the last one isn't finished.

This was the first one I completed... geometric with shading.

Geo - by Angie Wallace

For this second one I just started doing random shapes and I really like the way it turned out.

Swirly - by Angie Wallace

My last one isn't finished yet - I think I should add some plants and flowers or something but I'm not sure yet, so it will get finished later. It's actually on a 6x6 tile but I cropped the photo since there's nothing else on the page yet.

This last picture isn't mine, but I figured this would be a good place to show it off. The quality of my picture isn't great, but it's one of my favorite pieces. My friend Sarah, who I've been friends with for almost 30 years, made this in high school and gave it to me for my frog collection. She used pointillism with micron pens and prisma color for the eyes.

Frogs by Sarah Babcock Dudley

Challenge Accepted

This week we've been catching up on How I Met Your Mother season 8, so I wrote the title in the voice of Barney Stinson.

Moving on...

Today I learned that even though tangling/doodling/whatevering is supposed to be relaxing... it isn't if your husband is super frustrated at a video game and keeps snapping at the TV. "What??!!" "Oh, come ON!"  Yea... just doesn't work for me. In spite of that fun, I did manage to finish yet another Diva Challenge on time! Whoohoo!

This weeks challenge was to use the 8s Parte Dos pattern. I tend to stay away from patterns this complex because at some point it becomes work instead of play. The perfectionist in my wants everything to be in exactly the right spot. So I admit to cheating a little with this one - I drew a grid on my paper before putting the dots down in ink. I couldn't help myself. Once the dots were down, I erased my pencil lines and drew in the curves so it looked like this...

The beginning...

I finished that part on Thursday. Then I just stared at it for a day with no idea where to go next. Again, the perfectionist in me didn't want to mess it up... yes, even though in this type of thing there is no such thing as mistakes. Ongoing battle. Anywho... this is what I ended up with and I really like the results.

Complex Ain't So Bad - by Angie Wallace

Maybe complex patterns aren't that bad after all...

Diva Challenge #138

Two weeks in a row! It's probably a record. It's been a nice relaxing week. My folks came for a visit and we did some sightseeing and hung out. They took off on Thursday morning and hubby and me had appointments to go to. Yesterday though... nothing on the schedule, no plans whatsoever... and I finally had a whole day where I could stay in my pajamas. Yes, all day. It was lovely. We caught up on some shows and I finished a couple doodles.

So here are the two I completed for the Diva Challenge this week. This first one is the second one I finished - 3x3 tile using micron pens and watercolor pencils.

Borders 2 - by Angie Wallace

This one is my favorite of the two. Used micron pens and an HB pencil for shading. Before the shading I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but I really like the results.

Borders 1 - by Angie Wallace