art and the city

There’s a challenge at Moxie Fab World – cityscapes are on the rise – that ends tonight. When I first read about the challenge, I thought of a minibook/card that my daughter made for “a friend” (wink) for Christmas. Brianna pieced a series of cityscape stamped images on to dark blue snowflake paper. The city in snow scene was striking – sorry, no pictures to share – and I told her that I planned on borrowing the idea one day. This challenge would have been the perfect time to incorporate that design, but I couldn’t find a scrap of the paper she used. (I think Brianna hid it, so that her project would be unique.) It was time to come up with another idea.

Bits and pieces of ideas floated about. The stamp was sure to be cityscape by A Muse. I fell in love with the image when I first saw it used on this card by Courtney Kelley. I thought that Glimmer Mist or some such spray could add interest, particularly after seeing it used by MandyKay Starner on this project, but still was having trouble coming up with what would make my card a bit different. During some brainstorming, graffiti came to mind as a type of art that could make up the buildings. Then the sentiment was eluding me. Would you be surprised if I told you that everything I tried was too wordy? So, Google came to my rescue when I searched for city and art quotes. “Nothing else exists when art does” is from an episode of Sex and the City. Here’s the realization of all of those bits and pieces.

Since I had never worked with Smooch Spritz before, I practiced a bit, trying to get the effect I wanted. Even with practice, I am not in love with my background. It’s too evenly covered for the grungy look I wanted, but decided to leave it as is rather than risk ruining it. I told myself that it gave a feeling of nothingness around the buildings that worked with the quote. I thought it would be fun to share a couple of my practice sheets. (Blogger wouldn't let me place all of the pictures where I wanted, so they are limited to two.) I’m going to tuck all of them aside for that day when I start art journaling.

This is my favorite of all, a simple B&W design.

Seeing how colored buildings looked against the black.

Back in January, I made a card that was “a little bit country” and said that I would try to channel my inner rocker. This card is it, since this is as close to rock as I get.

nancy

supplies:

paper:  avalanche c/s (Bazzill); white c/s for the buildings (Staples)

stamps:  cityscape (A Muse)

ink:  tuxedo black dye (Memento)

extras:  black velvet Smooch Spritz (Clearsnap); graffiti from online image; quote from SATC; Sharpies fine line pen