What Bear Chick's Been Up To Lately

I didn't want to post this until my best friend got the card I made for her birthday. But she's got it now and says she's putting it in the box where she saves things... Believe me, she's not a clutter bug, so when she saves something, it's a compliment!

Similar to my Party Dress ATC, I outlined a dress and "colored" it in with molding paste I'd mixed with red acrylic paint. Then added micro beads that I gently squished into the wet paste. I used Pearlescent and iridescent Gold Golden paint splashed on for confetti in the background.

For the wording, I created a swirly font I had fun lettering with a Crayola retractable pencil, which was really soft and easy to use.

My plan is to make more of the dress ATC's and maybe even some cards. Right now I'm doing a couple of cute Halloween ATC's and I'm also working on new necklaces with chain, charms and lots of dangly color. Here's the first one I made of those, which is actually kind of subtle since I've made another that's absolutely loaded...

This necklace was heart-centric, with it's red theme.

But other necklaces will be more freeform and chunky, like this cat themed one (which is MINE, by the way).

I'm on a jewelry jag right now, thinking of and trying new things. You know me, I don't want to do the same things for too long or I'll get bored! Wire seems to be a recent fave material.

Finding the time to be creative and manifest all the ideas in my head (and on dozens of sticky notes and scraps of paper in my purse and around the house), along with doing things around the homefront and working full time is certainly a challenge! Plus, I decided to separate my jewelry from my art on Etsy, so when folks visit my shops, they'll make more sense and look more organized. BearChickART.etsy.com is open softly (meaning it's not looking great yet but there are some things for sale) but will have a Grand Opening at the end of the month.

But the Big News this week is that Bear Chick has finally come into the 21st century with High Speed internet! Etsy's now working wicked fast and uploading pictures like a champ, so expect a lot of new items in the next few weeks. I'm planning to take lots of photos tomorrow in preparation to add to both shops in Etsy over the coming weeks. Think Holiday Shopping!

www.bearchick.etsy.com

www.bearchickart.etsy.com

Molding Paste ATC’s

At last, I finished some more ATC’s.

This first one is a bit dark but there’s a reason for that. I wanted to show both dark and bright because, as the quote says, we ARE all fighting some kind of battle and wouldn’t it be nice if through some small simple act, we could brighten someone’s day. The background of molding paste was swirled around and painted with black and gold paint. The glittery piece at the top is a bit of old jewelry I stumbled upon, probably at a garage sale. I added the saying printed from my computer over, can you guess, a piece of foil from The Husbands’ Rollo.

I love this second one. I mixed the molding paste with blue acrylic paint and “painted” it onto an ATC mat board, within the lines I’d drawn in pencil. While the top was still wet, I poured on some tiny beads for bling. When the paste dried, I outlined the dress with a silver puff pen and added the frame and confetti with a silver ink pen. This may become a series, since for some reason I enjoy creating clothes. I did a series of paper clothes ATC’s and artwork earlier this summer.

Hope you like them.

www.bearchick.etsy.com

Adventures in Light Molding Paste

Last time I wrote, I mentioned working with the light molding paste. This week, usually at 6:45AM, I did some painting and experimenting. Here are some photos:

This is a great example of the texture and depth you can create with the light molding paste. I dry brushed acrylic paint onto this ATC-sized mat board in pastels.

On this one, once the molding paste was dry, I wet the entire surface, then dripped acrylic paints onto the mat board, ala Pollock. When the paint hits the water, it spreads out and makes beautiful, bold patterns. The full piece looks really groovy, man!

As much as I loved smearing the molding paste around on the mat boards, I wanted to do something a little different, with a bit more control. So I fashioned three long stripes, to see what I could make of them. A few days ago, I wondered what these inchies would look like between the stripes and this morning, I was inspired to take my gold leaf pen and highlight the tops. Now I have to find a good quote to fill the top and bottom and get everything adhered.

My plan is to eventually embellish these backgrounds with quotes, words and other interesting things. Two of the mat boards that I’ve played with but didn’t photograph yet have metal embellishments molded into the paste and I’ll tell ya, they ain’t comin’ out and I know that because I tried with all my might to pull 'em out!

I did get some more earrings onto Etsy last weekend and I’ll try to get a few more things on this weekend.

Thanks for comin’ by!

www.bearchick.etsy.com
www.flickr.com/photos/bearchick

*Sigh* Paris Dreams

It’s been a rather uncreative August. I have a few things in progress but here’s one thing I’ve actually managed to finish:

This ATC encompasses my own personal Paris Dreams (see my sister blog, maresjourney.blogspot.com, for more on that…), eating at sidewalk cafes, the iconic Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, the cute little gargoyle. Someday…

I’m sure this must be someone else’s sigh inspiring dream too, so pretty soon it’ll be on Etsy.

Last week I was finally experimenting with some molding paste I've had for months. It’s interesting to work with because it’s a soft consistency, like un-sticky marshmallow fluff, and you can make waves with it, stick things in it to make designs and paint on it, among other fun things. I’m planning to play with it some more, as I create backgrounds for some of my favorite words and inspirational sayings on ATC’s.

The Day Job is going well but we’ve already been warned there’s going to be a ton of OT during September as we’re merging a couple of units together, so creativity will be a challenge. But life, and art, will go on!

www.bearchick.etsy.com
www.flickr.com/photos/bearchick