30 days of Get Your Art On

I took part in Traci Bunkers 30 Days Of Get Your Art On.  You can check out her blog HERE.
I did good on the art part, but the posting art, not so much.  At one point I was getting all stressed about how behind I was and finally figured out how that was working against me.  The point was to spend time making art each day and I was doing it for me.  So I gave up on worrying about scanning or photographing and posting.
I really got into the habit of making art every day.  Made me remember how much I like to do art.  It's my comfort zone.  Makes me happy.  And we all need all of the "do things that make me happy" thing, right?
I like doing art, I like thinking about the art I did before I go to sleep at night, and I like waking up in the morning and going into the art room to look at what I did yesterday.  And Getting My Art On everyday gives me a chance at all those.  So I thank Traci for getting me on track with that.  And hope that any time in the future I get slack about being creative I challenge myself to another 30 days to get the habit back!
Here's a few journal pages I did during my 30 days:

This was done with craft acrylics, dye inks, stencils, punchinella, and rubber stamps.  The circles were stamped with bottle lids.  The word were printed on ledger paper and cut out and glued down with acrylic matte medium.

This background is craft acrylic paint and then punchinella and pigment ink over that.  The owl was drawn with Inktense Pencils.  The whites of the eye were done with white watercolor crayon.  The owl was outlined with a black water-based Sharpie paint marker.

This was done on a watercolor wash green background.  I wanted to play with some new Crayola Slick Sticks .  They are so creamy and smooth and colors blend very nice.  I used them for the circle background.  I used a rubber stamp and black dye ink for top and bottom borders.  The Peace sign was something I had leftover from another project.  It's a watercolor background and lines are drawn with a Sharpie. The blue along the right edge is a piece from a wooden fan that was coming apart.  It was natural wood color but I colored it with the blue Crayola slick stick and glued it down.  Page looks kinda groovy, huh?

I have alot more to share, several projects are for swaps and I don't want to spoil the surprise for anyone by showing them yet.  A few others I need to scan or photograph (I'm really bad about getting around to that!)

Thanks again to Traci Bunkers for inspiring me to Get My Art On!!!

Hope you are all having a creative weekend!

Great mail from Inkwell-Coffee and Art in the Morning

I found an envelope of really fun mail in my mailbox yesterday...yay!  It was from Dede, known as Inkwell on Ustream.  She streams a couple times a week and has some giveaways and I won a great postcard that Kare had sent in for Dede to give away.  Here it is:

I love it!  Love the humor - cracks me up.  Thanks so much Kare and Dede!

Dede's Ustreams are alot of fun.  And she is an awesome artist and shares so much with us.  You can find her HERE on Ustream.  An especially fun stream she did not too long ago was Coffee and Concrete Art in the Morning where she made some decorated background papers in her driveway.  It was a blast to watch!
And lucky me - she sent a piece of that background paper along with the postcard.  Check this out:

Thanks so much Dede!  I love it!  See you on Ustream.  You are a sweetheart for all you do and all you give away!   And I LOVE your laughter!
Hope everyone has a creative day!

Guess what color...

I'm making some 4x4s for a swap with some of my Ustream art pals.
Just finished the backgrounds.
Can't show them to you yet so as not to ruin the surprise for anyone.
But I'm guessing you can figure out what color they are from this pic:

Yes I am a messy artist!  And I think it's more fun when I make a mess...lol!

Get Your Art On - days 4,5,6,7, & 8

Okay, finally time to post some more Get Your Art On days!  Blogging is definately going to be the challenging part of this for me.
Day 4
Decided the Tim Holtz die cut gears would make great fireworks.  Kinda difficult to see on the scan but made them sparkly by gluing on sparkly bits and glitter glue.

Day 5 and 7
I worked on these pages Tues and Thurs and forgot to scan in between.  Now I'm trying to be sure to scan what I did that day each night, whether done or not.  They are in my Bird Altered Book.

Day 6

I had alot of appts and errands this day and was pretty worn out when I got home.  My art for this day was art preparation.  Time to recycle some magazines so went through cutting out words, phrases, and images.

Here's a few words:

And a few images:

They'll end up in some fun collages one of these days.

Day 8

This is a journal page inspired by song lyrics:

I'll put the lyrics on the opposite page of my journal.  I don't know how I ever found this song and lyrics cuz it's not my usual style of music.  Just goes to show...step out of your usual now and then, might find something you really like!  You can check out the song on YouTube HERE.

Today's Get Your Art On is outside drying and not done yet so it'll get posted another day.
You can read all about 30 Days of Get Your Art On HERE.
Join in!  You can start your 30 days at any time!
Thanks to Traci Bunkers for the inspiration!

Have a GREAT weekend!

30 Days of Get Your Art On - Days 1,2, and 3

I am taking part in Traci Bunkers 30 Days of Get Your Art On.  You can read all about it on her blog HERE.
I can get my art on everyday, not a problem if I just focus and I REALLY want to do that.  But blogging each day just isn't going to happen so will post every few days (or maybe weekly).  But that's okay, this isn't about daily blogging!
My goal is just to spend some art time each day - minimum 30 minutes to whatever works for that day.  And to have fun doing it!
My first three days were playing in my art journal.
Here's Day 1:

The background is watered down craft acrylics.  The tree and trunk is Derwent Inktense pencils.  The small trees at the base are stamped with pigment ink.  And the words are hand written with a Sharpie pen.

Here's day two:

I first covered the page in gesso.  Then a layer of Golden's Diarylide Yellow fluid acrylic.  Drew on the flames shape and then highlighted those with Derwent Inktense Pencils.  Once done I used Golden's Dioxazine Purple fluid acrylic for the night sky.  Even though it looks black in the scan it is a very dark purple.  

Here's day 3 (completion of what I started on day 2):

I'm not sure why I ended up with a Halloween type theme in July, except that I let my muse take me there, and I really like Halloween stuff, especially skeletons.

I stamped the skeletons in white acrylic.  Cut out the big heads from some scrapbook paper I had leftover from a previous Halloween page (you can see it HERE).  Stamped the stars with lavendar pigment ink.  Then glued the heads in place.  Last thing was to stamp the words with a black India Ink inkpad.  

So there's the first three days!  I look forward to lot's more art in the next 27 days...hopefully it'll be a habit to fit art time into each day by then!  It's a peaceful and relaxing activity for me.  Not only helps me to quit overthinking all the negative thoughts in my head, but it's fun!!!

Join in!  You can start your 30 days at any time!  Once again - you can read all about it HERE!   

Thanks for taking a look!

Island Hopping, Aloha and Passion Flower

Seems I've been more into art journaling than blogging lately, so, have a little catching up to do.

I've been hanging out in semi-sunny Oregon making journal pages about Hawaii.  My mom and a couple cousins are planning a trip to Hawaii that is coming up soon.  I like their approach to the whole Hawaii theme!  But a trip there is not in the stars for me right now...maybe another year.

Here's the first page, titled Island Hopping:    

The background is iridescent acrylic paints and Color Wash.  The white strip is decorative tape (which I had to get as it has one of my fav tropical leaves and a Sea Turtle-I adore Sea Turtles-on it).  The maps of the Islands are images I got off Google.  The full image of Hawaii is a postcard I made from the front of a  tablet I got in Hawaii.  I've also stamped some tropical images here and there.
And, as you can see in the following image, the postcard flips up the reveal the Island Hopping title and a stamped postoid of the state fish of Hawaii, although I did take it upon my artistic self to alter the colors.  And, as you can see the opposite side of the postcard shows a Hawaiian scene with palm trees and a hammock I wish was outside my door!

Next is a page I made from an ad I saw in a magazine the other day.   The background is again iridescent acrylic and Color Wash.

I tore the main image out, then tore strips from around the edges.  Usually I would color the white edges but in this case I really like the way they look left white. Before I glued the image of the surfer down I stamped the wave 3 times with acrylic paint.  I had the letters left from a set of grungeboard letters and I painted them white with a Ranger dauber bottle of acrylic paint.  Then glued them down.  Last thing was to put a Hawaii postage stamp on white cardstock and then cut out with postal decorative scissors.
And, Voila!  It was done!

The last page is one I made using an image from the cover of a catalog that I have been saving since 1997.  Yep, I said 1997!  I was surprised when I saw the date on it...whoa was that ever TREASURING!

I made the background using two shades of green acrylic paint.
Then, using a technique I learned from DeDe of Inkwell Studios I tore the image out, glued it down with gel medium (it wrinkled more than usual-I think I got it too wet...).  Then went back with the 2 shades of green acrylic and painted around the edges.  Alot easier than fussy cutting - I think that's what had me treasuring this picture all those years.  No way I could cut around all those stamens or whatever they are.  Then I drew the letters on with pencil, painted them with acrylic, then outlined in black with a Sharpie pen.
I still need to do a little touch up where the torn edge is but wanted to post it here before I move on.
Dede's blog can be seen HERE.  She is an amazing artist and shares so much knowledge on her UStream shows.  You can find the link to those on her blog.  She is alot of fun to watch!

Thanks for taking a look!
Hope all my Canada friends had a wonderful Canada Day!
And hope all of us enjoy the Fourth of July weekend!

Go create something!

GPP Street Team Crusade No. 52

Michelle Ward of Green Pepper Press host a Crusade every month called GPP Street Team Crusade.  You can read all about this month's Crusade HERE.
This month her challenge to us is to think about how the change of seasons affect our choices when creating.  Like we pull out our summer wardrobe, do we pull out or summer colors?
I love all colors and there are some I use all year long, but I also don't make a big change in wardrobe from season to season.  Living in the Pacific Northwest, we don't experience much extreme weather.  Winter requires a coat and summer (usually and hopefully) doesn't.
But even though I still find my art is influenced by summer.  I think the added hours of daylight have a big effect on me.
Green is about my fav color and I use it alot.  And when it's sunny outside I think I tend to reach for lime green often.
In the summertime the trees in my art are full of bright green leaves , in the fall the leaves in my art reflect the fall colors, and in winter the trees in my art are bare branches.
My art is heavily inspired by nature, and the seasons have a direct effect on what I see in nature.  I love to check out a few favorite trees each season and witness the beauty of each unique season
Looking through my current art journal I find some definite influences in different season.  For example, a page created this month, a summer or tropical theme, bright colors:

 A page from last October, a flower theme which could reflect summer but a dark background:

This was a thought provoking Crusade.  Was interesting to ponder how the seasons affect our creativity.
Thanks for the inspiration Michelle!

Violet Green Swallow

I just did a simple page in my Altered Bird Book using one of the backgrounds I had already prepared.  When I can't get my creativity flowing I sometimes just go through a journal or altered book and do some backgrounds.  Doesn't usually take much time for the ideas to start coming to me for more creativity.  Making backgrounds might be my fav part of the process most of the time!  Then once I'm ready to add something it's fun to go through looking for a background that'll work.

This time I found a black background with some iridescent green paint on it.  I sprayed over it with Wild Plum Color Wash then wiped it with a baby wipe so it was streaks instead of dots.
I had a postcard I've been saving to put in the altered book that my friend Debbie sent me.  She had added the words "Birds of a feather"  and I added the stamped feathers.  I lightly colored them with violet colored pencil but it didn't show on the scan.  I taped the postcard in at the top so I can flip it up and read the message on the back.
I think the page turned out great.  Thanks Debbie for the cool postcard!
Well, back to some major reorganizing of my studio area...I've been at it a few days but had to take a quick break to do some creating.
Hope you all are enjoying your summer.
Thanks for taking a look at my blog!

Stencilage Journal Pages

I've been having a lot of fun playing with stencils.  They are especially fun to use with some of the sprays out now - Glimmer Mists and Color Washes are a couple.  Stencils are also fun to play with with spouncers or foam brushes and paint or ink.

My very talented friend, Paula, aka Journal Artista, is hosting a contest and will be giving away some Crafter Workshop stencils.  To be eligible to be in the drawing for a stencil you need to make some art using a stencil and share a link to it on her blog Linky.  You can read all about it on her blog HERE.

Back to the fun I've been having...here's a page I finished today:

The background is all craft acrylic paints,  The design in the upper left corner and lower right corner were made with a Tattered Angels stencil.  I kinda grunged them up with some extra paint and Color Wash spray.  Decorated the background with dots made with pencil eraser, circle made with rx bottle and some stenciled flowers with a stencil I made with the Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Florals die.  I never completely plan my journal pages, kinda let them evolve as I go.  And this time I had some die cut flowers laying around on my art table, as well as a couple scraps of colorful watercolor paper.  I liked how the bright colors looked with the dark blue so played around with placement and glued stuff down with matte medium.  Looked through a list I keep of words and quotes to use in my journal someday and decided "If not now, when?" was a good choice.

Guess maybe I use prompts backwards...most people pick a prompt, then do the art.  I sometimes know what I want to say on the page, but usually I do the art and then decide what it's saying to me.

I'm really liking that Tattered Florals die.  Here's some more stenciling with it:

And still more:

These both came about with what us Journal Artista Ustream friends call Paulaisms.  "Use what is around you on your art table".  Probably not her exact words but close.

For the gold and blue page I was painting book pages with watercolors and then die cutting the flowers.  After cutting out the yellow ones I set the leftover paper aside and it was on top of the book page I had painted blue.  Looked pretty cool!  So an idea was born!  I painted the gold background, glued the blue page down, then the yellow.  Looked sort of plain so added some cut out flowers.  Still needed something so used some of the die scrap as stencils abd sprayed with bright blue spray I made by mixing Glacier Glimmer Mist with some bright blue Memories reinker ink.  

I used matte medium for gluing down all the pieces on these pages.

The green page started out as a background page I was going to post to show the stencils.  In addition to the flowers I also used sequin waste (or also called Punchinella) to stencil the dots.  I did that first, then put the flowers down and sprayed over them with Color Wash.  (fyi - I get my sequin waste HERE)  I love sequin waste and use it all the time.
Here's the background page:

   I got a magazine in the mail today and saw an ad with those ribbon flowers (do you all look through magazines thinking "I could use that in an art project!"?  sometimes the ads catch my attention more than the rest of the magazine).  Right away I was trying to think what to do with those and thought the bright colors would be great on that green background.  So while watching the Artistic Bikers Thursday Ustream from the fabulous Oasis Studio I fussy cut the flowers.  And Blade was talking about summertime and things that represent summer so I thought summertime would be the perfect title for this page.  I've been wanting to see how ledger paper would feed through my printer so once I got the text how I wanted it I printed a page out of an old ledger book I got off ebay for 99 cents awhile back.  Worked out great and I'm really happy with the page.
You can get links to The Artistic Biker Ustream and YouTube from his blog HERE.

And if you want to see more stencil art,  check out a page I did a little while ago - Click Here
This page was definately Paula inspired with the many layers added to it!

Thanks Paula and Blade for all the inspiration I get from both of you!

If you read all the way through to here I applaud you.  If not, I understand, it got pretty long.  Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Kingfisher(s)

I seem to have a "thing" about Kingfishers with this book.  The cover is covered with Kingfisher postage stamps from Australia.  As well as a couple more Kingfisher stamps on the spine.
I finished up a couple pages in the book last night that are all about Kingfishers.

The first thing I did when I started these pages was glue a 12x12 scrapbooking paper to the pages with matte medium.  I've been working in this book off and on for a couple (or maybe even a few) years and some of the pages are starting to fall out so glueing that paper in reinforced these pages.  Also I've been taking advantage of numbers already in the book so cut out a window for the 7.  I used stamp decorative edge scissors to cut out the borders for the stamps as well as frame for the 7.  I could only find six of those stamps and needed 7 so scanned and enlarged one to get the seventh.  Arranged the stamps and glued them down.  Then stamped the word KINGFISHERS.
For the other page I thought since it's a Kingfisher I would use the crown on the scrapbook paper to embellish that point.  The image is drawn on a piece of Fabriano paper with Prismacolor watercolor pencils.  Then smoothed out with water and a paint brush.  I went over the blue with metallic watercolor paint.  Once completely dry I painted background with very light green and edged with a bit darker green.  Glued that down and then stamped the word KINGFISHER.

Here's a couple other pages I've done in the book using the numbers in the book:

The other thing I did to the book this weekend, in addition to glueing in 12x12 paper to reinforce pages, was to go through the book and use patterned packing tape to put loose pages back in the book.  As well as using the tape to reinforce pages coming loose.  Here's an example of one of those:

Thanks for taking a look!
I hope you are having a creative weekend!

something to CROW about

Although I've slowed down some I've been trading ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) for quite a few years.  And I have a couple huge notebooks full of them.  And they are a lot of fun to look through every once in awhile.  I trade alot of cards with my friend, Debbie (she's hosting a great giveaway on her blog, you might want to check it out by clicking on her name).  And they are all great ATCs but there is one from a couple years ago that is my favorite.  And I decided it needed a place of honor in my bird altered book.  So here it is:

I had a black background page already and mixed up some acrylic paints to get colors to resemble the ATC background and the moon (which is a plastic bingo game piece) and used punchinella/sequin waste to color the background with dots.  Then stamped a crow on 3 small pieces of card stock and colored the edges with a black ink pad.  I glued down the ATC and the 3 stamped birds.  Needed something more and after some thought decided to stamp the bird directly on the background a few times to balance out the page.
So that's the favorite ATC and the page I created around it.  I like having it in a place of honor!
Thanks for taking a look!

Owl

Owls are just about my fav animal and bird.  I think they are beautiful and fascinating to watch.  I've been watching a couple families of Barn Owls on UStream the last few months.  From eggs hatching to the young owls fledging.  Really fun to watch (except when they tear a little critter apart to eat...I know it's part of their reality but I chose not to watch those parts!).
Inspired by those beautiful owls, and a desire to play with my new watercolor pencils I drew this owl:

I drew it on a card of smooth Fabriano paper.  I had a page in my bird altered book that already had the copper and platinum background paper on it.  Sometimes when I can't come up with an idea or am not feeling very creative I just play around with backgrounds in a journal or altered book.  Then the background is all ready when something comes along needing a page - as in this case.  I adhered the owl drawing to the background with triangle shaped dark copper brads.

Thanks for taking a look!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

A Whimsical Little Bird

A friend gifted me with a set of 24 Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils that she never uses.  Yay!  They are really nice!  I wasn't even aware Prismacolor makes watercolor pencils.  I really enjoy playing around with watercolors.
Here's the first thing I drew with them - A Whimsical Little Bird:

First I drew the little bird with a pencil.  Then filled in the color with the pencils.  After I took water and brush to it the first time, I went back over it with a white pencil to add some shading/highlighting.  I was drawing on a piece of cream colored card stock.  I tore the edges with a ruler for a sort of deckled look.  Next I put some of the blue pencil on a page in my bird altered book.  After smoothing the the pencil marks out with water and brush I sprayed the page with a mixture I made of Glacier Glimmer Mist and blue Memories Reinker ink (careful if you try this - if you get any on your hands it doesn't easily wash off-takes days to wear off-is it a bad thing to have blue hands???).
Next I found a piece of decorative paper to layer with the bird.  I fussy cut some of the flowers to put along the bottom side of the bird picture, as well as a couple more here and there.  And called it done!
Thanks for taking a look!
Hope you have a creative weekend!

Seven and Seventeen

Doesn't everyone eventually draw pears in their art journal?  Well, I just did.  Here's my pears drawn and painted with Derwent Inktense Pencils:

I've said it before but worth saying again - I LOVE Inktense Pencils.  The colors are so vivid!  They also now have Inktense Blocks.  I don't have any of those yet but they look like they would be lots of fun.
I rubber stamped on tissue paper and glued it down with matte medium.  I use Daniel Smith Matte Medium for gluing down lightweight paper items.  I then glued down some postage stamps with a pear image.  I did that to help tie in this page to it's facing page where I did a Pear collage.  Here it is:

    I did the background with several layers of craft acrylic paints and gesso.  Both pages were started off with a layer of gesso so the medium I applied wouldn't sink into the paper.  I used some punchinella (sequin waste) to add some dots interest to the background.  I stamped the pear/poire stamp (Stampers Anonymous) on tissue paper and glued them down with matte medium.  I stamped the sketched pear stamp (Art Impressions) 3 times on decoative paper and cut them out and glued down.  Then added the three postage stamps with pear image to the lower left corner.  Collage didn't look done..needed something on the top left.  I was walking by the buffet and there's a bowl of tickets my niece use to play with and noticed some that seemed the right color of yellow so grabbed them.  Glued them down and softened the edges with an inkpad and stencil brush and called it done!
This was a good exercise for me as I pretty much never use yellow.  Green - all the time but not much yellow.  Always good to use a color you don't usually use.  Helps me to appreciate the color more.  Also, always good to try to draw something...practice makes perfect, right?  Not that I want to be perfect but hopefully keep improving!
Thanks for taking a look!
Enjoy Memorial Day Weekend!

Color Wash, Gesso, and Stencils

I am enamored with spray colors in my journal!  I'm having fun with a couple dif kinds but I have to say Adirondack Color Washes by Ranger are my favorite.  The colors and the way they react with Gesso just make them way TOO COOL!
I've learned so very much about art journaling from my friend Paula, aka Journal Artista. Check out her blog HERE.   Not only will you see some great journaling but you'll find links to her YouTube and UStream videos where you can find a wealth of info on art supplies, techniques, and art journaling.
One of the key things I've learned from Journal Artista is about layering.  I'm nowhere near as fearless as Paula when it comes to layering but I'm working on it!
Here's a journal page I made using many layers of Gesso and Color Wash:

I used Wild Plum and Stream Color Wash.  And I was using White Gesso made by Daler and Rowney.  The stencil I was using is a Tattered Angels stencil - from their Ironworks package of stencils.  

I started off this journal page with a layer of Gesso on the page.  Next I just played around with spraying over the stencil with Wild Plum and Stream Colpr Washes, and Gesso.  The cool thing about Color Wash and Gesso is that when  you paint Gesso over anything with Color Wash the Color Wash bleeds through.  My final layer with the stencil was where I sponged Gesso over the stencil in an area where I had got a little heavy handed with the Wild Plum and it was really dark.  Be sure to either let each layer dry or dry with a heat gun if you want the colors to not blend together.  

Along the left side I  painted a vertical stripe of Gesso and while still wet rubbed with baby wipe to blend some of both colors of Color Wash.  I couldn't stamp over it as Color Wash would bleed through the Gesso and the stamped letters would be hard to see.. So I used some Grungeboard letters from a Tim Holtz idea-ology pack called "Mixed Minis" for the word COURAGE.  The little key and the two florishes are from that same Grungeboard pack.  Painted them all white with Gesso and glued them down.  Hit it with a few light sprays of the Color Wash so Grungeboard pieces aren't so stark white.  

You might need to click on the picture to enlarge if you want to see it, but, I hand wrote "Courage is KEY" as that is what I was thinking about as I made this page.

Thanks for taking a look!

Hope you are all having a creative week!  

What I want to try next is Tim Holtz Distress Stains.  Looks like one could get some cool backgrounds with those.  I don't have any yet but I noticed they are on sale at one of my favorite online stamp companies - Red Lead Paperworks.  Check out the sale HERE.  Soon as I have some spending money I'll be heading there!   

Sing Sing Sing

Seems like every once in awhile I forget how much I like to create with tags.  Before I got into art journaling and atcs and was mostly a stamper I used tags ALL the time.
So this week I have been playing at creating with tags.  Here's one I used for a page in my bird themed altered book:

The book is filling up and getting thick and has stuff sticking out of the edges like the ribbons and yarn on this tag.  Love it when an altered book or art journal starts to get to that point!  I don't know...maybe makes it feel more cherished to me.
For this page I chose a page that I had already put some leftover patterned paper on - I do alot of backgrounds ahead of time, using leftover paint and papers from other projects.  Or sometimes just to try a backgound paper idea or technique I want to try.  Also helps me sometimes when I can't get started or come up with a creative idea to just start out by making backgrounds.
I took a standard shipping tag and covered it with sheet music using gel medium as the adhesive.  Once good and dry I cut around the edges of the tag to trim off the sheet music.  Then repunched the hole, stuck one of Tim Holtz idea-ology reinforcer stickers over the hole,  Next I stamped the "sing sing sing".  I screwed up the second "sing" so had to rescue that by gluing a K & Co bee over the G I messed up.  Then glued the K & Co bird and nest image onto the tag.  I had a strip of scrapbook paper with music notes on it.  Tore the edges for a more shabby look and glued it to the background.  Found some coordinating ribbons and yarn for the tag.  Once I had those attached through the hole I glued the tag down.  That's it!
Thanks for taking a look! 

Crate Label Birds

Happy May Day!
Here's a spread in my Birds of a Feather altered book.  The crate label images are from a little calendar a friend sent me.  I decided it was time to quit hoarding, eeerrrrr, uhhhmmmm, I mean TREASURING (I don't hoard!) and give them a place of honor in my book!

For the First Pick page I applied Golden acrylic to the background with an old hotel key card.  Scraping the paint on this way is my current favorite way for putting down acrylic phint in my altered books or journals.  Then I used sequin waste and a heavy inking of a foam brush to make the black boarder.  I stamped the word "spring" across the top and stamped a bird themed postoid rubber stamp all over before glueing down the label I had cut out with deckle edge scissors. (you might need to click on the image to enlarge it if you want to see the stamping as it didn't show up so well in the scan)  I glued everything on these pages with matte gel medium.  I glued a flower I had die cut out of an old book page and then painted with same red paint as the background in the upper left corner of label.  

For the Kentucky Cardinal label page I chose a page I had already covered with black patterned paper and glued the label down.  I die cut a bunch of flowers using Sizzix's Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Florals die.  Sprayed them with Cranberry Color Wash (made by Ranger).  I glued them around the label, and cut one in half to glue on the side of page to sort of pull the white edge into the design.

Thanks for taking a look!

I hope you had a creative weekend! 

It's okay to color outside the lines!

One (of many) things I've learned as a mixed media artist is that precision is not always necessary or desired.  I need to remind myself often that "Art has no rules".  And, while I'm sure many artists would disagree with that I know it is how I want to create.
Having an art journal really helps me with that.  I love to experiment in my art journal.  Especially with backgrounds.  And since it is MY journal there definitely are no rules.  If I mess something up I can look at it as a flopportunity and go with a different idea or adapt my original.  It's not like I ever have to show it to anyone - that's up to me.

Another way to free things up and let the attempts at precision go is to color outside the lines as I did in the postcard you see below.  

I doodled the image first with a fine point black Sharpie.  The design was inspired by a blog I get alot of inspiration from - Geninne's Art Blog.  She share's great examples and ideas of color, texture, shapes and design in her art and photography.  Once I had the flowers drawn I painted the whole thing blue (didn't show up on the scan) and left it pretty wet so I could let the other colors bleed onto the paper.  I love playing with watercolors and watching how they run together on the page.  I really like how it looks when colored outside the lines.

Another fun way to make these flower doodles is to make the background first.  You can "splotch" some splashes of different colors.  Then you can use those splotches to decide where to place flowers (or not-remember no rules!).  I have the background page painted for a journal page:

  I'll be doodling on it the next couple days and will share the journal page when done.

And I'll keep reminding myself to not worry about how precise it is and not take myself too serious.

Art has no rules!

Thanks for looking at my blog!  Have a great and creative weekend!

 

DIY Postcard Swap 2011

Here's examples of the postcards I made for ihanna's DIY Postcard Swap.  I made 10 postcards for the swap and they were all a variatiom of these 4 designs.  They were all sort of a spn-off from some pages I was doing in my bird themed altered book (I'll post those soon).
They all started with watercolor backgrounds.  I sprinkled then with salt while wet to make some fun designs.  Then found some of my fav bird stamps, stamped them on tissue paper with permanent black ink, then tore them out.  This is a trick I learned from a journal artist friend, Kerri .  Once you have the tissue paper image you can "glue" it to your background with gel medium.  I like to use matte medium.  This process makes for a lot sharper image when putting an image on cold press watercolor paper which has a rough texture.  I stamped or wrote the words on each card.  They went out in the mail on the 8th so are making their way to thier new homes!
Thanls for taking a look.
Have a fun and creative weekend!