Wednesday, August 12, 2026

Wednesday Art Post

      Hi everyone. Happy middle of the week. Today I am sharing a couple of pieces of art for a few challenges. 

      My first piece is for my In The Good Old Summertime challenge over at  Art Journal Journey .    

   I'm also linking this up to  Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge #129. Their theme is always Anything Goes


   I used some yellow striped paper to represent a beach towel or blanket on the sand. I hope it looks that way. 😏  To make the background I first painted yellow stripes to coordinate with the ones on the beach blanket/towel paper. However, together they looked terrible.  I had to fix it, so to do that I then inked the whole page with some juicy yellow and light yellow-green inks. Now the page was starting to look better. To finish the background,  I rubbed some brown ink  to add a bit more sand texture. You might also notice that I inked the striped paper that was the beach  blanket/towel too. If you wonder why I didn't leave the blanket/towel paper uncolored, it was because it was dark yellow and white, and the white just seemed too stark with all  my other coloring additions.

  In the middle of the page I added my take on the waves at the beach. I used some blue ink on a Hero Arts background stamp. I thought the design looked like water and waves, so I cut out a strip out and added it. Then I used a sheet of Graphic 45 paper and fussy cut the fish.  The starfish are a very old Sizzix embossing folder. After I embossed them I inked them to highlight the embossing. Then I fussy cut them.  I also added a little gemstone detail. The scallops are both stickers and some fussy cut ones from my Ciao Bella ephemera book. The die cut quote is another oldie from my stash, and then I finished my page with a couple of fussy cut sentiments from the same ephemera book  that the scallops came from. 

   I also have a tag to share. I'll be linking  this up to this month's Fashion challenge over at Tag Along (and ATCs too). Pinky is hosting and if fashion is not your thing, they always accept the theme of Anything Goes also. 


   My tag is all about Back to School fashions, although I have mixed feelings about the way my tag looks. Not the tag itself,  but how it photographed. I always find I have a hard time getting things that are red to look in the photo like they do in person. 😉

   I used an AALL&Create tag die to make the tag itself. I also used an AALL&Create back to school stamp set by Janet Klein for all the images. The little student is mounted first on some notebook style paper that I then fussy cut around the image. I found this made her stand out more on the page than just gluing her down directly.

  I  added a scrap of paper along the bottom and some leftover small scraps of door screening that were laying on my work table. On top of the screening,  I added a few plastic confetti apples to go along with the stamped and glittered glued apples on the tag.  I also had this tan scrap of paper on my work table. Since one edge looks like it was pulled out of a spiral ring notebook, I added it to the bottom. It seemed to fit the back to school theme of the tag. 

 That's all for me today. I hope you're having a good week, and thanks for stopping by my blog.


23 comments:

Tom said...

...yes fun in the sun, but at the moment I'd love some fun in the rain!

Distortus said...

Both are brilliant!

Angie's Recipes said...

I like both..well designed. The tag is super cute.

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

The sun's a bit too hot here, but I love your fun beach page. This is a charming entry for your theme at Art Journal Journey.

I really like the back to school inspired tag. It's well done, too.

Soma @ InkTorrents.com said...

Like the patterns in your first page. The second one just fun, specially those glasses.

-Soma

Debra She Who Seeks said...

I love the design and colours of "Fun in the Sun," especially those delightful fish!

Modrina Neba said...

So nice Erika... I like the first picture the most!

sirkkis said...

Beautiful art. Especially like the fun rich tag 👍😍

brenda said...

The first piece inspired by the Ocean is beautifully done Erika, the choice if contrasting colours works beautifully.

Now for your tag, love the idea of sporting her new school uniform for the fashion option and all the school related elements to build up the theme. So pleased you shared with us at Tag-Along (and ATC's) challenge, many thanks.

And I seem to be missing that A&C rag from my collection, I must be slipping!

B x

Katerinas Blog said...

Wonderful creations, my friend!
I know they require a lot of effort and creativity.
I’ll try to steal a little time and take part as well.
Good luck with the challenges.

DeniseinVA said...

These are great Erika and I always enjoy you sharing the process. Thank you so much! Wishing you a happy continued week.

Linby said...

Your fun school tag has so many wonderful details with that very fashionable student too. Thanks for sharing with us at Tag=along (and ATC's).

Jamie Ghione said...

I like the "Stay Curious, Stay Smart" tag.

Iris Flavia said...

I love them both! Curious and smart especially - have a great, oh... Thursday already, hugs

Christine said...

Lovely page and tag!

R's Rue said...

I love your work. Well done.

DVArtist said...

Wow! That yellow is fabulous!!!!! I do love that piece. Before I even read about the tag my thought was, "Oh back to school." A great piece of art for sure. Have a nice day today.

peppylady (Dora) said...

Never did much with inks.

Barwitzki said...

A starfish and a fish... well, fish always delight me :-)) Add the beach and sun to that, AND gliding through the water myself... Lovely!
Back to school—wow—my goodness, it starts here for us this coming Monday... today is the last day of the holidays... how glad I am to be retired...
Warm regards, Viola

Shari Burke said...

I love the blue fish in this piece--reminds me a bit of sashiko.

EmmaT said...

Very creative beach towel design, it is very effective. Living in Cornwall this is right up my street and love the shells and fish. Thank you for joining us at Creative Artiste again this month.

Mia said...

Both your creations are great, Erika. Especially the page looks really fun. Hugs, my friend.

Anita said...

Love your pieces, Erika! Beautiful colors and textures on both, and I really like the summer / beach theme of the first. (And before I forget--thank you for joining the Creative Artiste challenge with the project.) My comments here will probably be a bit sporadic over the next couple of months due to work, but I hope I'm still able to visit and enjoy your creations. Have a lovely weekend! Anita xx