Fall

This is something called a MOO...Wednesday Stamper's challenge this week..not sure why, but it is small.. something like 1.1x2.8". I couldn't figure out anything to put in that small space, it was difficult for me. So I chose one of justjohanna's new fall images. I know it looks simple, but if it's any consolation, there are 3 layers of Golden acrylic paint there and I colored the pumpkin with prismacolor pencils..lots of color layers.

I am burnt out. It's been a rough week here. Luggage World is taking a break to re-group. We'll be back sometime next week. Have fun!

I am in L O V E again!!

I was at the Wild Animal Park today. This is a close-up of the toy the Carry-On selected on the way out..she is in love with him!

I am in love with a macro camera lens I borrowed for the weekend! Take a look at my broom! (This isn't the broom I use to get around town..that one is in better shape.)

Take a look at my doggie!

This is a flower on my porch...

Look at the innards of the flower! The flower feels violated... You can see its nose hairs!!

World Card Making Day!!

I could not believe my eyes when I saw the details for this sweepstakes! A grand prize worth $250??!! You guys always tell me how much you love the images I use (over and over I use them...lol), now you can have your own for FREE!! This is one day you won't want to miss!!

CLICK HERE!!!

IF: juggle

I never said I could draw...

Golden Acrylic background with stitching, Caran D'Ache Neocolor II's and Pitt.

Vintage Kitty and a treat!

Thank you all so much for your comments on yesterday's collage! I am having fun playing with all of the ephemera I have been collecting over the last year! So much so in fact that I have made an other journal page with vintage finds and justjohanna images. Do you like it?

Here is a blank copy you can download and use in your personal artwork! If you decide to use it, please link back here so I can see! You can make a journal page or crop it up to use it as a background on a greeting card. Have fun!

Collage

I guess when you have a daughter, and you make things, it's kind of hard not to make things with your daughter in mind. I made this for my daughter because it says "Shower Luncheon". Just kidding... My daughter is only 20 months old. I guess she'll have a shower one day, but hopefully not until she's 45.

I am working on a fabulous challenge for you all! As soon as I figure out the technical details, you'll be the first to know!

vintage ephemera, justjohanna rubber stamps, Golden fluid acrylics, sharpie paint pen.

Ask a male guest to...

Hi everyone. I am still soldering. This is attempt number 3. This is my best attempt yet, probably because the edges on a domino are not as squared off as on glass. I am happy to see progress because this takes a long time! The edges here look terrible in the scan, but I assure you in person, there is great improvement. I will keep trying!


The text in the domino project came from a Better Homes and Garden Entertaining book written in 1969. It's a fantastic read! Don't you just love the serving suggestion above for holiday breakfast? I was glancing through the book and looking at text to use when I read something about asking a "male" guest to help pass food trays around...hehehe..oh, and in case you're planning some entertaining soon, don't forget to place a tray of commonly used personal items on your bathroom vanity: hairspray, a new comb, a pretty box of facial tissue and a light cologne!

Silvergleem and Johnny Cash

I am going to talk about music again, and I would appreciate it if you, readers, would refrain from telling me about the drug using, crime ridden, womanizing ways of Johnny Cash. I like him and I don't care what you all say. I'll watch the movie "Walk the Line" any time it comes on and I listen to the soundtrack and Johnny's greatest hits every time I sit here. While I was making these, I was listening to "Hurt"- his cover of the great NIN hit. I am mesmerized by his voice in that song and I can't stop thinking about "...everyone I know goes away in the end.."

Now- what they don't tell you about soldering. It smells. Thankfully it doesn't stink up your room and stay in there, but it surely emits an unpleasant odor while the process is underway. These are my first two attempts- 1.5x1.5" mini-collages a la Sally Jean. The winged dude was my first attempt, the K followed this morning. They're ok...not fantastic, but I am learning. I used some random solder on the first one to get started and then the Silvergleem on number two. I need to buy some metal polish this afternoon and see what happens. If you're keeping score, I still have 9 fingertips left and only a small hole in my pant leg.

Cheers!

Untitled

Artword: Water

5x5" original canvas

I am wondering...if you've already been there and done that is that all that there is?

Here we are in the deep...

Ha! This was one of those field guides to identify fish. The text read "Know your fish", but I like my version much better. Three lipstick wearing fish know what you did... I love the eeriness of this canvas if I do say so myself..

justjohanna stamped scroll, acrylic paint background and lipstick fish. See you tomorrow. (I think I've been watching too much Sponge Bob!)

You are tres sweet!

It is hard to find someone that isn't on a diet...or that will admit to it anyway..so I thought you could pass little cupcake cards out to your dear friends just to tell them how sweet they are without the extra guilt!

justjohanna cupcake image- available in my etsy shop.

Remember me?

I dug out my alcohol inks yesterday to make this card. justjohanna image and machine stitching. I also took the plunge and opened up an etsy shop! It feels nice to be making things in order to attempt to make some moolah...

See you tomorrow! Thanks for stopping by..

Gothic Arch: Gold

Je laisserais tomber une averse de roses.
Je dépenserais mon paradis en faisant du bien sur Terre.

Thank you, Rima!! Thank you for your help with my French!!

For my St. Therese shrine, I started with two arch cut outs made with pearlescent champagne cardstock. I covered each with a wash of gold acrylic paint and then stamped on the text. I cut an opening in the top layer for the St. Therese transparency. Next, I folded little fans of peach colored tissue and machine stitched them around the arch. Once the stitching was in place, I opened each of the fans to make the flowers. I added a little gold paint to the tips of each flower. The French text is printed on gold metallic paper and aged with graphite pencil. A little charcoal and artist crayon surround the arch. I joined the two sheets together with pop dots for a little dimension.

Making these arch projects is new to me and very enjoyable! You should check out the Gothic Arch blog and try your hand at one today!

See you tomorrow! It was a great day for trash today..I've got a lot of new cardboard to alter!

Happy 30,000!

Thank you loyal readers! The Land Of Lost Luggage surpassed 30,000 hits tonight! I am so happy! Thank you dearly for coming to check out my stuff!

What better way to celebrate than with brand new justjohanna images? There's a spankin' new Halloween and Harvest release in the pipes! Here's a sneak peek to tide you over until the images are available. Check out www.justjohanna.com for more information!

See you tomorrow!

Artword: Home

Somehow I missed looking at the Artword site last week and wouldn't you know it, the theme was my entry! The horror! I whipped this up a minute ago, I am supposed to be cooking for a bunch of people who are coming for football at 1:00...mama mia...

It's about 12" tall, recycled Cheerios box painted with Golden acrylics and I stenciled on some modeling paste for the swirls.. pen, artist crayon and justjohanna flower. I am so embarassed this is so late!

Uphill

The Carry-On and Luggage Dog yesterday

The Carry-On is 20 months old.

IF: Weddings

Small collage this week...yes, those are pictures from my wedding...no, nothing written in the collage actually took place at my wedding. There is no Uncle Bobbie...except for everyone's favorite Uncle Bobbie on TV, but that's another story....

Mission: Collage {final instructions}

Since it's Saturday and there are only a few steps left, I decided to list the last remaining steps today so you could finish up over the weekend if you wanted to! Here are the final 5 steps:

1. Scratch: Use a sharp instrument to scratch anywhere on the surface of your collage.

2. Text: Sally lists specific examples of what to do with a book page during this step, but I am going to open it up and say that you can place any text (as long as it is not magazine, since we already used that technique) onto your collage.

3. 3-D: Apply something dimensional to your project..any embellishment you like as long as it is not flat.

4. Write: Write any word or phrase, in any medium you would like: pen, pencil, ink.

5. Surprise! One last step that you can use to add your unique spin to your project! Let your imagine run wild with this one!

Now that the steps are all out of the way, we need to get down to business. I drew names to pair everyone up today and here are the results:

Kim + Karen

KJ + Julie

Emilia + Philippa

Tami + Liz

Neda + Hazel

Everyone has a link on the right side of the blog. Please reach out to your partner to exchange mailing address so you can ship your collage to them. So that it is fair to everyone, let's make it a date to ship our projects no later than 9/22. I would hate to hear someone was left out in the cold, so please make sure to contact your partner!

I'll post my finished pieces tomorrow! See you then!

WS: Tryptich

This was one of my all time favorite projects! Wednesday Stamper's theme is "Tryptich" this week. These are three 2.5x3.5 panels sewn together. I used justjohanna images and Golden acrylic paint. I also wrote a tutorial explaining how I colored these flowers! You can read it by clicking here.

All of my stamps are packed up and I am working out of a collection that fits inside a shoebox! This should be interesting!

Have a great weekend!

Mission: Collage {Update Tres}

~in progress~

~in progress~

I am all caught up! Here is look at my projects after completing the last 6 steps! There are only 5 steps left! That means that we should be ready to mail these off to eachother within the next few days. Tomorrow, I will draw names out of a hat and post the partners so you can begin contacting eachother with your swap information! This is so exciting, I can't wait!

Thank you for stopping by today!

Mission: Collage {Number 4}

Hey hey! We made it though the new carpet...except for the smell. I hate "new" anything smell. I've got the windows open, but unfortunately Mother Nature decided that Southern California needed to swelter again, so I am not sitting here painting away...I am a step behind on Mission: Collage! Gasp!! Here are the next steps in our collage process:

1. Pattern: Use any medium you want and make a pattern on your collage- lines, dots, secret message in Morse Code...anything you want.

2. Draw: Fancy sketch or simple drawing; use pen, pencil or ink to highlight something that is already on your collage or draw a new shape on your project.

3. Sand: Go out to the garage and grab some sand paper! Use the paper to make a distress accent on your collage.

Isn't this fun?! I love doing this Mission with you all! I'll be back tomorrow to show you my projects using the last 6 steps we have talked about. Until then, have fun!

Mail Art Mail Art! Destination: France

I struggle with mail art. I am embarassed by the mail art I have been sending out... Until tonight I have been hung up on making something double sided. Tonight I told myself "wabi-sabi, Julie- stop being a jackass...just make something and then fold it into an envelope.

Voila! Here is the piece I came up with. My mail art curse is over! The top photo is what the piece looked like unfolded. Middle and last picture are what we (my personalities and I) came up with once it was folded.
Art Heureux De Courrier, Tova ! Jusqu'à ce que nous expédiions encore le mois prochain !

Tag!

I made this tag to tie onto a present for my best friend. I put the letter "m" there to censor the picture. Just kidding! I was hoping to have it look like the baby was holding the 'm'. justjohanna images, vintage sheet music, machine stitching, charcoal and watercolor background.

It's interesting being the parent of a toddler...I enjoy finding goldfish crackers in my shoes and looking at the food tray to find the bowl upside down and the food du jour stacked up on top of the bowl. I find that last example especially funny because I am a child of generation Poltergeist.

Until tomorrow....oh..new carpet is on the way..we'll be back as soon as we can! (Who's this "we"?)

Mission: Collage {Part Three}

Alright- time for another installment of our collage steps! Here are the next three steps for your collage:


1. Smudge: Wet your fingers and smudge any of the chalk, pastel, crayon, charcoal on your project.

2. Magazine: Attach a page or piece of a page of magazine to your collage and then use a damp cloth or baby wipe to remove areas of ink from the magazine you put on your collage. Cheap magazine pages work the best. Scrub a dub dub!

3. Stamp: Anywhere, anykind, any amount. Caution: be careful about what kind of ink you choose to stamp with...there may be wet areas again on the project before we're finished!

I enjoy seeing your works in progress as I surf around the blogs!! How fun and exciting it is to see everyone's collage come along!

Did you know?

Maybe I am the only one to catch on regarding this...but did you know that if you select "enable email address" in your profile, when you leave a comment on someone's blog, they can reply to you via email? It's mind blowing to me...Zorana pointed this out to me. When your email is enabled, instead of seeing that "blogger-non-reply" type of email in your comments, you get the person's email address! Think of how much more chatty we can be now!

Oh..the journal is finished, but I am taking it apart so I can add more string. It was feeling a little wimpy when I was finished stitching, so I am going to toughen it up. I'll show you once I am finished.

Mission: Collage {Update Number 2}

unfinished I

unfinished II

Here's another peek at my two collage projects after steps 1-6 have been completed. I went back to each piece and washed the sheet music with paint to age it a bit and then added steps 4-6. I used gel medium to attach the pictures to each canvas and then added the masking tape for effect only. I hope you are having as much fun with your project as I am! Please feel free to give us a sneak peek of your project too!

Tomorrow I will post steps 7-9. There will be a slight delay in posts on Wednesday and I hope to be back up and running on Thursday. Casa de Luggage is getting new carpet on Wednesday.

Have a great week and thank you for stopping by!

Journal

I bought a book on making fancy journals at the Somerset clearance sale a few weeks ago. The journals have been haunting me...it is time to get off the fence and try one myself. I love to look at journals that my art friends make. I love the worn and tattered pages that come with age and various art techniques. My "art book" never came to fruition. I think it was because the format was too large for my taste. This journal is going to be 8.5x11, folded in half. I don't have any book twine, so I am going to use yarn...I'll let you know how it turns out!

It would be simple to use the zutter binding system I bought earlier this year, but spiral binding is not what I envision... I am not sure if I will ever use the zutter... it got packed up yesterday and put into the garage in a new box entitled, "craft storage".. maybe one day, if we move, the zutter will rejoin it's crafting buddies. Now, everything is thinned out even more and packed away even more tight... waiting for that one buyer to come by...

Mission: Collage {part deux}

Ok! Now we're off and running! If you missed the first three steps to our collage, you can find them here. I hope you had fun with them!

Here are the next three steps:

4. Chalk/Pastels/Artist Crayon: Apply to random areas of your project- you can draw, add shapes or simply add color here and there.

5. Photograph: Use a new or vintage photograph and attach it to your collage. You can sew, glue, staple, transfer..you name it. Your picture can have neat, crisp edges or you can distress the edge, use decorative punches or scissors.

6. Charcoal: Use charcoal to add another layer of depth to your collage. You can color any areas you would like with the charcoal! The other day I posted a quick charcoal how-to here.

Don't forget these steps are outlined in Sally Jean's book. If you want to explore more in depth, don't forget to check it out next time you're in the bookstore!

I have butterflies....

Britney Spears will be the opening act at tomorrow night's VMA's. I don't normally watch the VMA's, but I will tune in to see Britney. I am so nervous! I want her to do well. I had two dreams last night. In the first dream, she wowed the audience and nailed her performance. In the second dream, she slipped because the stage floor was polished to oblivion. I hope she does great! My fingers are crossed for her.

Britney- if you are reading this- don't forget your underpants!

Mission: Collage {Update One}

unfinished

Here is my collage after the first day. I chose canvas panel, 6x6". I used Golden fluid acrylics for the "paint", vintage sheet music for the "paper" and some gold metallic "ink". I held the ink dropper way up high and was looking for some spatter...but alas, not so much.

I am not looking ahead at the technique list, so I hope somewhere down the line I can distress that paper a bit. It's a little too crisp for my taste.

I hope you all are having fun with the "mission" so far! By the way, don't worry about being the odd man out..I am making two collage projects since we have an odd number of swappers. Double fun for me!

More techniques tomorrow! Until then..

WS: Handmade Paper

I knew there was a reason I bought a one pound package of scrap handmade collage papers! It was because I knew a year later I would have to use one of the sheets! I am glad for this challenge; otherwise I would have never opened the package to see the beautiful papers inside...

Thanks, Wednesday Stamper!

Prismacolor pencils, justjohanna images, vintage text. The stitching came with the paper.

Mission: Collage

Yeah! It's the moment you've been waiting for! Our first installment for Luggage- Mission: Collage. What? You didn't sign up? You still can! It will be a blast. I can't wait to see all the interpretations of the instructions!

Before we start...I want to make one thing clear: This is a "do whatever you want the rules are out the window feel good about yourself and your art" swap. Please do whatever comes to your mind when you see the techniques.. my suggestions are only suggestions to get the ball rolling; there will be no right or wrong projects and when we're finished, everyone gets their own original piece of art from your partner!

Your collage can be on any surface as long as it will "take" the techniques. For example, cardboard, canvas, cardstock, etc. I am not sure your collage will work on glass or metal.

Having said that, he we go! Today's techniques are: Paint, Paper, Ink

1. Paint: Anything you can apply with a brush. Place paint on your surface to be the starting background of your collage. You can use all one color, mix and match, whatever!


2. Paper: Attach paper onto the painted surface for an accent to the background. Any type of paper will do!


3. Ink: Doodle, spill, splatter, dab, you name it! Add some ink to any areas of your collage.
   

I think what I will do is post the techniques every other day and post my collage in progress on the days when I don't post the techniques. Is that fun? If you want to show your piece in progress, feel free to post it on your blog and link to us in the comments here so we can all see!

Have fun today!

Mission: Collage

It's not too late to sign up for the first ever Land of Lost Luggage swap! You can read the details here. We start tomorrow!

Untitled

I am making a series of ATC's for my review blog. This is the first in a series of 4 on how to distress your projects. justjohanna image, acrylic paint. A mini-collage!

Our collage swap starts tomorrow! Don't forget to sign up!

Relief

Finally. The high pressure that has been locked in over us has moved to the east. Sorry east. This is the first time in over a week it has not been sweltering by 9:00! Thankfully, I can open all the windows and recharge my batteries. We can get out of here and go to the park! I am taking today off of "art".

I am so happy to see my blue arch as part of the Wednesday Stamper Sampler! Thank you so much to the WS team!! It really makes me happy!

Don't forget to let me know if you want to get in on the first ever Land of Lost Luggage swap! Mission Collage: one-for-one. How easy can it be?!

You'll see three or so techniques posted on my blog every day. For example: day one may include: paint, picture, pencil. One two three and you're finished! You can ponder the details here. I hope you're inspired!

See you tomorrow!

Now hear this! Now hear this!

You wanna make a collage? It's the first ever Lost Luggage Swap! Mission: Collage.

This will be easy! All you need to do is make a project- any sized project- on a canvas, on recycled cardboard, on an ATC, on cardstock, on a match book...you get the idea! Your collage must contain the following techniques that I read out of Sally Jean Alexander's book- Pretty Little Treasures: Paint, Magazine, Text, Paper, Chalk or Pastels or Artist Crayon, Charcoal, Pencil, Stamp, Scratch, Wipe, Ink, Pattern, 3-d, Write, Photograph, Smudge, Draw, Sand, Surprise. If you have a copy of this book, instead of drawing the techniques randomly out of a hat, I am going ot follow the order listed on pages 15-19. For those of you without the book, never fear, I am going to list about 3 of the techniques every day here on the blog; I'll explain ways you can interpret each technique, but the rest is up to you!

So, by my calculations, it will take about 1.5 weeks to list the techniques. You can make a little of your project at a time, or sit and knock them out all at once. It shouldn't take too long! I find that if you sit and think about something for a long time, it is more stressful than just letting the art flow from your fingertips!

Once the collage is finished, you can post it on your blog or flicker and leave a comment here linking to it. After everyone is done, we'll put everyone's name in a hat and draw partners. You ship your collage to your partner and your partner ships their collage to you! One for one. What a fun time we'll have!

There is no need to rush out and buy the supplies on the list. For example, paint can mean acrylic, watercolor, h2o's, with re-inkers, etc. Just let the ideas flow!

If this sounds like fun to you, please email me! (My address is to the right--->) We'll get going with the techniques on Friday's blog post! Yeah!

Witchy Woman

I've had that song stuck in my head now for 2 days. The problem is that it is not the entire song, it's only "oooooooooo wwhhhhoooooooooo witccchhyyy woomann ssee that look in her eee yyyyysssss". It is making me crazy!

Some of you asked me about the patterns I bought at the flea last weekend and what was I going to do with them? Paint them of course. Here in the background is some of one of the patterns. Since the patterns are so tissue like, they give a nice effect. I've got some others on the table for this week too. So stay tuned!

MaraZine

Ok- so something I've been wanting to get better at for a while now...photoshop. My pal Rima has a photo type gallery blog where she posts the original photo and the blog readers change up the picture. This is my first attempt with photoshop effects. It's ok, but I get frustrated because I can't move around fast enough to make the ideas in my head come to life.

I'll keep at it, Rima! Keep posting those pictures!

Gothic Arch Challenge: Moon

If you're looking for something fun and different, take a look over on the Gothic Arch Challenge blog. There is a free template there so you can make your own arch! Here is my project for this week's "moon" theme.

Acrylic paint, justjohanna image, vintage French text, stitching and stardust pen.

Thanks for coming by!

Don't tell me those are rubies.....

....unless you really know those are rubies. I was flea marketing this morning and an unsuspecting vendor mistakenly made a point of telling me that a medal contained real rubies and that I had good taste for picking that one up. My response: "Really? (reaching into backpack...) Because I am a gemologist and I am going to check right now." Much backpedaling ensued. The "rubies" were indeed NOT rubies. Case closed. It was a feel good moment for me because I could easily tell under magnification that they were indeed not genuine stones.

Hulabuhloo aside, it was a fantastic day at the flea market! Lots of great treats!

patterns for making backgrounds...

this is a mystery at the moment..the price was right though..I suspect these are genuine tourmaline beads with a pressed glass center drop..weird combo. Pretty!

vintage millinery for halloween arrangements..

envelopes addressed to Helena Rubinstein from all over the world..

old cigar boxes from Grandma and an old book from the flea market..

vintage holiday tags & labels..yum!

There were also a couple of religious medals (sans rubies) and some ribbon, bias tape, etc. It was a lot of fun today in the heat!

Thanks for stopping by!

IF Alphabets

So the theme this week is "alphabets" and I immediately think "alphabet soup". I was in the mood for something bright and cheery since last week I focused on death. See how versatile I am? Ha! Honestly, it's so hot, I had to make a 5 minute project. That's the truth. I can't sit here and swelter.

Acrylic paints, justjohanna butterfly and scroll, pen. 5x7" canvas panel. I used interference violet on the bowl and swirl of soup; it looks neat-o in person.

Thanks for stopping by today!