Florence Turnour's Blog

Inspired by a little trading rack at Studio 626 , in Corvallis, Oregon, I made some ATC's to trade. I didn't take a photo of the ones I traded there, but I was on a roll so I made some more. The background is a Gelli Plate print on multimedia paper, and drawings are done in ink, and colored with Prismacolor colored pencil. Thanks for looking! Mean Fish and Barn Mean Fish and Barn (front) Mean Fish and Barn (back) Lip Fish and Orchid Lip Fish and Orchid (front) Lip Fish and Orchid (back)

Today I enjoyed reading Mr. Schu's interview with Lizi Boyd , author of Flashlight and Inside Outside , wordless picture books with room to explore. Both of these books include cutouts that allow parts of the next illustration to show through, inviting you to turn the page. Mathew Winner also interviewed Lizi Boyd in his Let's Get Busy podcast .  In the interview, Matthew suggested that Lizi's illustrations invite children to create art in her style. In particular, in Flashlight Lizi presents spreads drawn with white paint on a black background, except in the flashlight's beam, which she paints in full color.  Matthew envisioned children drawing with white pens on black paper to imitate that look. I thought that was a great idea, and stored it away for future use. Today, my mother and kids walked in while I was watching the trailer for Flashlight on Mr. Schu's blog. "Oh, I love that book!" Art project time! We cut white triangles for the parts...

I am experimenting with color using this sketch, which I compiled from drawings I did at the beach. Thanks for looking!

This is a practice gelli print that I made when my mother was here. Off and on we talk about collaborating on a project in which I provide window fabric and she sews it into something wonderful. This print is on deil paper. I drew on the print with a thin liner, and then added color with colored pencils. High rise  This image was inspired by the children's book, The Curious Garden, by Peter Brown . Thanks for looking.

Carla Sonheim (author of Drawing Lab for the Mixed Media Artist -- support the arts; buy from the author  http://www.carlasonheim.com/books/) published a short video tutorial called Crazy Birds. On a whim, in the middle of the night, I gave the exercise a try. Here is what I made. Here is the Crazy Bird Tutorial:  http://carlasonheim.wordpress.com/2014/05/31/crazy-birds-tutorial/ I liked the bird very much, so I made him into a stamp, following the guidelines in the book Making an Impression, by Geninne Zlatkis (http://blogdelanine.blogspot.com/). In this impression, I colored the image with my colored pencils.  I've never thought about coloring on my stamps with large solid areas before, but I am delighted with the gradient and texture. Carving rubber stamps is going to take some practice, but I'm so impressed (ha ha, or should I say lol?) with Geninne's work, that I'm sure I will keep at it. 

The Blockheads Stamp technique challenge this month is to make a little book, using a string for binding. I didn't want to make a blank book, and it took me a long time of sitting in my craft room, before I came up with a theme. I wanted to use  Lost Coast Designs ' set, " Miscellaneous Anthropomorphs ," and after long debate, I decided they would constitute the 2012 graduating class from I.U. (Institution Unknown). Mini-year book I used my Spellbinders dies liberally to cut the shapes for this project. In the  tutorial , the pages were made by folding rectangles. I did that, and then ran them through the die cutter with a circular die. Otherwise, I used the first technique in the tutorial (thanks, Trisha). I stamped the words on the front using  JustRite 's system to make custom text. The crown is Blockhead's Regal Crown from the crown border (which I couldn't find on the site). To make the brown layer on the cover, I cut a circle with a Spellbin...

My dress stencil just turned die cut. I'm using the cut-out this time, to make these magnetic dress tags for the JustRite Challenge #77 "Tag you're it!" Magnetic Dress Tags I drew the dresses in Adobe Illustrator and cut them out on my Silhouette cutter (to make stencils, originally, here are some stenciled dresses ). I cut out some dresses from white card stock, and another set from magnet paper. I stamped and sponged them, and then colored them with my Prismacolor Pencils, blending with so called Odorless Mineral Spirits. On the purple dress, I used a stamp from the JustRite Original set called My Garden Set . I love the flowery dress; I was going to do them all in flowers, but I decided to shoot for variety.  The To and From stamps on all three dresses are part of a stamp in the   From Our House Set , and cut out with a die from JustRite's  Vintage Label and Banner Dies . Magnetic Dress Flower Tag On the Christmas dress, I used a snowflake posta...

Star Lady decided to forgo tradition for this year's 4th of July party. She reached into the back of her closet and pulled out her most festive pair of lederhosen. I have so many more JustRite stamps than I did last time I entered a Friday Challenge that I had a hard time choosing which ones to use for the Stars and Stripes Friday Challenge project. Star Lady's lederhosen were made from the Stitched Ribbon Background Stamp with suspenders and rhinestone studded belt from the matching border in the Classic Scallop Borders One set. Her party hat is another of the border stamps in that same set. Star Lady accessorizes with a handbag stamped "Live your dreams," from the Going Places Vintage Labels set, a sentiment that she felt somehow justifies her outlandish choice in wardrobe. Her purse dangle is a Tibetan Silver cat charm. ( Tibetan silver is a zinc alloy that is made into charms and findings in China and sold on ebay for very good prices (though it comes...

This week's Wednesday tutorial by Elaine Hughes at Splitcoaststampers was about coloring in a stamped image without the lines showing. Elaine does an impressive job coloring in one of those cutesy doll-faced images that are so popular with stampers who like to color. Poking around in the gallery, I found Lydia Fielder's tutoral , in which the shading process looks a lot more doable. Before I found Lydia's version, I decided that there was no way I was going to get my Copics to behave that beautifully, and took out my pencils to color this truck.  Look Ma! No lines! Want a Ride? I had my first go at using "bling" on a card. The flourish is a sticker that I had a really hard time applying to the card neatly.  I might go hunting for a tutorial on that in my copious spare time.

I'm having a tea party. Want you join me? We're going to drink tea out of huge cups, and cut and paste paper circles.  Nested ornate paper circles appeal to me. They always have. I can remember coveting paper doilies as a child, thought I never knew what to do with them once I had them. Now, however, they have a new purpose in my life: the desire for them drives me to buy more and more crafting equipment so I can make those lovely nested circles whenever I want, in all sizes (stepping up by 1/8 inch increments). This tutorial for a Telescoping Card from Beate  at Splitcoaststampers.com , and all of its nested circles, continues to inspire me. This weekend, I had both my Silhouette Cutter and the Cuttlebug making shapes for me to complete my own version of the Telescoping Card, "Tea Caddy." Tea Caddy, telescoping card, closed Tea Caddy, telescoping card, open I stamped my images and colored them in using colored pencils (and Odorless Mineral Spi...