A bright all occasion card from Helen

Hello there scrappy friends, 
I've been MIA due to ill health, but have found time to create a little something for the September challenge at Scrap Matrix, using Art Foamies.





Have you seen them?   They are quite thick and spongy; and they work brilliantly with paints and gel plates.  Just the thing to make a big hot mess!

I set out to create magic with my gel press and fell flat on my face in a big pool of mud!  

So, I started again, much more carefully with the colour mixing, still not magical; but I managed to salvage these three blooms by fussy cutting them and adding some leaves.

I'll be back later in the month with an at an Art Journal page - fingers crossed.

Products used from Scrap Matrix

Art Foamies by Marlene, Leaf Geo

Art Foamies by Marlene, Small Poppy

Dylusions paints

Paper Artsy paints

Thanks for looking. I hope you will feel inspired to join in and perhaps win a gift card from the Scrap Matrix store.

Art Foamies - My Imagination is Endless.

 Hi!

 I felt very honoured when Vicki asked me to be a guest member of the Design Team. 

The excitement soon kicked in and then the fear. 

So I hope you all enjoy the projects I share with you.

I thought I’d share a little about myself first.  I live with my husband and two kitties just outside of the beachside community of Kurrimine Beach in Far North Queensland, about an hour and a half south of Cairns. It’s the wettest part of Australia and when it’s not raining, it’s perfect, though a little hot and humid.

 I don’t really have a ‘style’ as I’m constantly trying new techniques.  If anything, it can be described as chaotic and impatient.  I rarely have a plan, and if I do, it never works out that way, (chaos) and it usually only takes me and hour or so, (impatient) as my ideas seem to flow faster that I can commit them to paper.  I make more ‘mistakes’ (or lessons titled ‘Don’t do that next time’) than projects I’m happy to share.  

So here goes.  My first project…

                        

You will need:

Watercolourpaper

Gesso

Art Foamies – Circle Salad

DistressOxide Inks – Blueprint Sketch, Cracked Pistachio, Twisted Citron

Craft sheet/ piece of acetate

Water Spritzer 

Any dragonfly stamp

I’ve used the first page in my Art by Marlene journal.  I’ve sponged gesso onto my art foamies and stamped them randomly at the top left and bottom right corners.  

It’s a little a hard to see. 

I then stamped the Twisted Citroen ink onto an acetate sheet and spritzed it with water.  

I run my fingers through it so it loses its square shape, then stamp/smoosh it over my gessoed shapes. 

Repeat with Cracked Pistachio and Blueprint Sketch until you get the desired effect.

I then inked the art foamies with oxide inks and stamped them around the edge.  (I didn’t like the cracked pistachio and covered it with the blueprint sketch).

I then wrote my quote down the right side of the page, but I hated it.   

I ended up printing it out on my computer and covered up the ugliness.

 I then used the dragonfly that was an extra for a card I had done.  ( It was made by blending the above colours onto a piece of card and stamping the dragonfly onto it. I then cut it out and covered the wings in Ranger’s crackle accents.)  

This was actually my second attempt.  I bungled the first page by stamping my intended image crookedly. I’ve since covered it up and while not entirely happy with it, thought I’d share it with you. 

So there it is.  My first ever blog post.  I hope you like it.

Cheers. 

Jen.

'Faith' Art Journal Page by Elisa Ablett

Welcome to September and Spring!

Is it just me or does it seem like this year is flying past?

This month we have the awesome Art Foamies challenge over in 

the Scrap Matrix Shares Facebook group , 

make sure you enter this one with a fab prize up for grabs and great inspiration to be had.

I wanted to create with the gorgeous Gothic Window Art Foamies on a colourful art journal page.

Art Journaling for me is a great way to put my feelings and emotions on paper and journal about difficult times. With both my mum and mother in law not well at the moment, having FAITH and reminding myself to believe that things will get better in a creative way is helping me through this tough time. The window stamps reminded me of the gorgeous stain glass windows you see at churches and coupled with my quote about having faith, it says all that I am feeling at the moment. 

So don't forget that Art Journaling can help as a therapeutic tool during times when things are going crazy in your life and you need to ground yourself with some creative time. 

Let's take a look at the products I used from Scrap Matrix to create this page ...

 

 

 

http://scrapmatrix.com/shop-by-category/add-some-colour/paper-artsy-fresco-finish-paints/

http://scrapmatrix.com/art-by-marlene-journal-medium/

http://scrapmatrix.com/rtr-gothic-windows/

Balzar Design Art Foamies - Train Track

http://scrapmatrix.com/shop-by-category/mixed-media-art-journaling/art-by-marlene/die cut blocks

http://scrapmatrix.com/watercolour-set-2-whimsy-bright-art-by-marlene/

http://scrapmatrix.com/th-ideology-small-talk/

Other products include:

Sari Silk offcuts, Black Hessian, Music Paper, White Sharpie, sewing machine

Let's take a look at the finer details!

Stamp your Gothic Windows using black waterproof ink and let dry, paint with bright watercolours and a fine round brush and sharpies and or paint pens.

Create a layered garden by popping a few die cuts out from the Art by Marlene Die Cut blocks. Layer in and around your photo. Glue a few of the larger pieces first and then maneuver the smaller pieces around until you are satisfied with your design and then glue the rest down.

Create your background using an a4 size gel plate and Paper Artsy Fresco Paints. Each print should be unique and different and that's the beauty of the Gel Plate and monoprinting. 

Add that something 'special' by sewing offcuts of interesting material like sari silk and hessian onto music paper. 

All things that mean 'something' to me, colour, texture and music....all help with stress and anxiety.

Thanks for stopping by the blog today.

Hugs 

Elisa x

Some Foamie Inspiration with Lisa Amiet

Hello all! 

It's Lisa here today to share some inspiration with you.

This month's challenge is all about Art Foamies,
 and this is the layout I have created.

I have kept my layout quite simple,

 as I wanted the Art Foamies to be the feature of my page. 

I have used a white card stock background. 

I have then used the 'Balzer Leaf Vine Small' and my 

Paper Artsy Fresco Paint in 'Granny Smith', to stamp out the vines.

I have then used the 'Art by Marlene Rose Small',

and to stamp these I have mixed 'Dylusions Post Box Red',

with some Paper Artsy Fresco Finish in 'Turquoise',

 to make a deeper darker red. 

I have then also used some of this red to splatter my background. 

I have then fussy cut all the leaves and roses out. 

I have then started by building up a 'bed of roses',

for my photo to sit on :)

I have then added in my leaves, tucking them under the edges of my roses. 

I have added a half rose in the bottom corner, layered with leaves. 

I have then used one of the quotes from the 'Dina Wakley Media Collage Words'.

I have adhered them to white cardstock and cut them out. 

I have then scattered them in among my roses. 

I have only glued the centre of the roses, so you still get a bit of dimension. 

I hope that you like what I have created. 

I can't wait to see all your fabulous entries!

Until next time!

Lisa 

Scrap Matrix Products Used:

Art Foamies Balzer Leaf Vine Small 

Art Foamies Art by Marlene Rose Small 

Paper Artsy Fresco Finish 'Granny Smith'

Paper Artsy Fresco Finish 'Turquoise'

Dylusions Paint 'Postbox Red' 

Dina Wakley Media Collage Words

Art Foamies!! What do i do with them?????? - With Tanya Froud

Hi there! Tanya here,

I thought I would start the month with a quick intro into Art Foamies and what can be done with these versatile little wonders for those that aren't familiar with these... (that way there is no excuses and there will be lots of entries into this months challenge hey??!)

First of all my art work has been done with a combination of these techniques so if you look carefully you maybe able to pick which ones...

The Products used in my art work and samples are as follows are as follows...

Dina Wakely Heavy Body Acrylics

Art Foamies

Ranger Brayer

Ranger Gel Plates

Dina Wakeley Collage Words

Now onto how to use them, In my samples pictures you can see the stamped image and I have written next to them how I have used my Art Foamies.

Art Foamies can also be used with ink but personally I feel they are best with Acrylic paints as they have a good bright coverage and are PERFECT to use on your Gel Plates.... (I used the small circle gel plate on the samples)

I hope I have inspired you to try out the art Foamies and to experiment with them, You will love the I promise.

Please share your creations and experimentation's with us on our page for a chance to win some great prizes.

That is all from me for now!

xxxx

Foamies... A Male Card with Karen

Hello Everyone,

How excited am I to be a guest on the Design Team for Scrapmatrix ?? ..... super excited!! 

I have been a card maker for too many years to mention and have added art journaling to my loves since attending classes with Vicki at Scrapmatrix.

 My personal challenge within the monthly challenges this year, was to complete each challenge  in card form, as I love card making. 

As Father's Day is part of this month, I have decided to make a male card. Using foamies made this so easy and we as card makers, often struggle with male cards.

. 

For this project, I have used two sets of foamies : RTR Wine Tour and Balzer Writers Block.

I started with painting a background with dylusions melted chocolate and stamped over using the cork pattern from the RTR wine tour set with  Dina Wakley tangerine. 

The next layer is the foamies grape block in Paper Artsy Mulled Wine .... What an apt paint name for this theme!!

On a separate paper I have stamped the vine leaves in two tones, using Dina Wakley Lime and dylusions Dirty Martini  and another bunch of grapes. 

I fussy cut the leaves and a few grapes to add to my card.

 The foamies wine glass has been stamped once in black and then over stamped with Vivid Ultra Metallics acrylic paint which has given a nice shine.

I have stamped the foamies writers block  onto my base card. 

What a great stamp for backgrounds and tone on tone stamping.

Here we are...  One card for Father's Day or male birthday! 

Cheers, Karen.

Tam's creation with Foamies!!

Hi all

Tam here today to share my first creation for our current Art Foamies Challenge!!

So much you can do with them!!

I thought I'd go with a layout first....I've got a few ideas for Art Journal Pages though....

so watch this space....

This one was inspired by a circle and floral layout created by our very own Elisa Ablett a few months ago.

Thanks so much for the inspiration Elisa.

So I began this layout by stamping a few of the circular foamies.

I added paint directly to the foamie and added a couple of colours at once.

I then stamped this directly onto some cardstock.

I used Dina Wakley paint in 'Lapis' and 'Lime' and 'Black'

and Paper Artsy Paint in 'Cerise' and 'Beach Hut'.

I blended a couple of them to get some different green shades too.

I used the following Foamies on this layout:

'Doodle Centre'

'Balzer Writers block'

'Balzer Ring Fling'

'Balzer Dino Skin Small'

'Art by Marlene Leaf Geo'

I then cut them out, and punched out some circles from the 'Writer's Block' and the 'Dino Skin' - I'll use these for the centres.

Here's what I cut out......yummy!

Once I'd cut out the circles/florals, I felt like they had a real fun child like vibe to them, so this then became the inspiration for my layout.

My journaling follows this too.

Yep up until this point I had no clue what I was doing!!!

So once I saw these, I was reminded of the layout by Elisa, so suddenly I had direction.....

Using my fudeball pen, I traced a cirlcular shape repeatedly onto my cardstock, adding in some scribbles and some black paint flicks.

I then added my photos, and began layering all my cut out pieces around one edge of the circle.

I stamped one of these phrases from a Dina Wakley stamp set for my title,

and added journaling  both around the title and along the edges of my hand drawn circle.

I added in an embellishment from 7Dots Paint Chips Die Cuts, and a couple of MAMBI chips as centres of flowers, along with some of the circles I punched earlier.

Simple yet effective.

Full of naive youth and vibrant colour, just like these beautiful teenage girls....

The journaling reads....

Enjoy these little moments.

All too soon you'll be off living your lives and these gatherings will be fewer and fewer...

don't take these moments for granted

enjoy them all

savour the moments and the friendships

and also....

You breeze in full of giggles and long legs and then you breeze out again and I'm reminded of the beauty and freedom of youth. Another life ago.

Well that's it from me today.

I had so much fun playing with the Foamies, they stamp beautifully, and I love that they stamp so well with PAINT!!!! cause you know me I'm all about colour and paint.

You just don't get these results with stamps.

I can't wait to see your creations....

Just head to our Facebook Scrap Matrix Shares Group and upload your creation in the 'September Foamies' Album and let us know what Scrap Matrix Products you used in the comments.

Oh the possibilities!!!

I'll be back again soon with some more Art Foamies Inspiration....

Much love and foamie fun

Tam

xxx

Scrap Matrix Products used:

Art Foamies - Doodle Centre, Writers Block, Dino Skin, Leaf Geo, Ring Fling

Dina Wakley Paint - Lapis, Lime, Black

Paper Artsy Paint - Cerise, Beach Hut

Dina Wakley Stamps

Fudeball pen

Mambi chips

7Dots Paint Chips Die Cut