4 x 4 ART pages Finished......

.....but it was definitely quite an endeavor!! Geesh!! Has anyone seen my brain....it has certainly left my body. Some days you just forget to stop and think things through....you know?? This was my first time making 4 x 4's. I knew I was to leave a left hand border of about 3/4" for binding. Yep, planned out the design, laid it out, left that nice border on the left hand margin on the front pages......flipped them over to do the back side ....and....well....I left the margin on the LEFT side again!! My darling hubby, looking at the FINISHED pages says: "Aren't you going to lose all these details when it's bound??" Argh!! "Well, yes, yes I am," I say while collapsing in a full swoon onto the sofa. Gee whiz Forest....stupid is as stupid does..... :::sigh:::

So, I redid my design, which actually works better in a weird "I didn't plan it out but now I like it" sort of way. I just have to remember to tell my hostess that what looks to be the front is really now the back. LOL

Anywho, here are the nitty gritty details. Theme: Under lock and key Quantity: 38

Of course I had to make something with pirates......they keep their treasures under lock and key! Well and sometimes their hearts....but let's just not go there shall we??

Please see my previous blog post if you want to know how I made the Cricut cut outs really "pop". Don't forget to click the pics so you can see all that sparkly treasure!! :)

I started with blue cardstocks. Side 1 was rubber stamped with a multi-blues ink pad and a large bubles background stamp. All shapes were cut from the "Life's a beach" Cricut cartridge. All pages were sealed with glossy Mod Podge.

Side 2 was water colored using my fave Peerless Watercolors. The treasure is made from Diamond glaze, tiny faceted jewels, gold rocaille beads and gold fine art glitter. The "treasure trail" is done with a black sharpie......I believe that Black Sharpies are to the ART world what Duct Tape is for the household.

So there you have it, my screwed up but now fixed 4 x 4 ART pages. :)

Preview of my 4 x 4 ART pages "Under Lock & Key"

I am working on a BIG little project. I am swapping 4 x 4's with 37 other ARTists that are being bound into a book. The theme is "Under Lock & Key". I have finally come up with my idea.....and am steadily making progress.

I decided to use my new "Life's a Beach" Cricut cartridge for the main components. So, I set about cutting all the tiny pieces times 38. After they were all cut out they were cool, but lacking. The Cricut cuts all these awesome shapes with great details that you can't really see. Hmmmm......they are very lifeless and flat. So I set about enhancing them. The background blue cardstock and the treasure chests were livened up with coats of watercolors. I used my very fave Peerless watercolors. www.peerlesscolor.com To bring out all the highlights of the sea shells, sun, sand dollars, treasure chests, skull and crossbones, palm trees.....I used similar colored ink pads and lightly swiped them across the cut outs. Wow!! The details just exploded off the page. Ta-da!! I am a happy camper now. To give dimension to the eye patch, skull cap and red"X"'s, and the coconuts, I used coordinating Sakura Glaze pens. www.sakuraofamerica.com/Pen-3d-pen I made the "sand" with some of DH's sandpaper!! Shhh!! :)

I'm sharing a few of the pieces today to show you the difference. Hopefully tomorrow I can share the completed pages.......side one is drying with a top coat of Mod Podge. Stay tuned......

Plain Cricut cutouts

Embellished Cricut cutouts

Plain treasure chest

Wow....what a difference
Peerless watercolors, Gold gel Pen, Black glaze pen (on lock)

Boring Palm Tree

Dimensional cool palm

No faced sun, invisible detailed sand dollar, flat skull

Sunny face, awesome sand dollar and dimensional skull

Plain blue cardstock

Gorgeous backgrounds from the Sea

Left - Peerless Watercolors

Right - blue ink pad, bubble background rubber stamp