Journal 52, Week 30, Positive Words and a Waste Not

Journal 52, week 30, Positive Words. It took me a bit more time to think of words that really meant something to me. I came up with two that kind of go together. Persevere and Patience. Now, if you know me, you realize what little patience I used to have. With hard work, I've gotten a bit better. As far as persevere, I am a close friend. Again, if you know me, you will know there has been a lot of opportunity for me to remember that word. I'm a firm believer that anytime life knocks you down, as long as you get up you've won. One foot in front of the other, one day at a time. And, with patience, "this too shall pass!"

I played with a lot of things on this one. I really wanted to use some of my Silks Acrylic Glaze. Don't you just love those bright background colors? I had several stencils and scraps (I throw cut out scraps into my spray paint box so they are handy.) that I used with some acrylic paint and some sprays. I used a bit of black chalkboard paint through drywall paint for the tiny black dots. This page makes me very happy.

Waste Not Cut-outs

Journal 52 is Fashion and Make your own Stencils, and a Gel Pen Notice

Journal 52, Week 29: Fashion. I have NEVER been into fashion. I love my jeans and t-shirts so much that I told my boys "If you ever see me in colored pull up pants, it's time to have me put in a home!" So yesterday, while I was browsing in Kohl's, what do I see? Pull up jeans!!!! Maybe today's younger people don't associate those with the elderly?

I made some of my own stencils using some transparency sheets and my new heat melting tool like you use for wood burning. I used the positive shape and taped her down to some tagboard. Then, I got out my spray box and randomly sprayed some Dylusions in yellow and orange. Rolled some paper towels over and then added a stencil of leaves and flowers that I picked up at Home Depot by the painting supplies for a whole lot less than stencils that are designed for artwork. 

I used a stamp for the shirt, colored the jeans, added some stenciled hearts with white acrylic. Blue color dots in acrylic. Words with Koi coloring brush pens and then just a bit of colored pencil embellishments.



The stencils were made by using a light box over magazine pictures and tracing on to the transparency.  Then the heat pencil was used to "cut" the stencil over a 12x12 tile that I use for any heat work. It really is fun and not difficult at all. Try playing with the tool before you do your real stencil so you can feel just how hard to push and pull; and, be careful not to burn yourself :)

This were the first pages that I used the stencils on.

Finally, if you live near a Costco and need some gel pens, I found this tub of 100 pens for only $20.00. You can go to Amazon and see them for almost double the cost. I did a sample on a simple owl so you could see the different blues as an example. Some skip a bit but not enough that I feel it is a problem. 100! WooHoo!

Journal 52, Creating Art at the Speed of Life, Derwent Academy

Journal 52, Week 28, Technology. As you must realize, a person with three blogs MUST love technology. Since I retired, I have jumped, with gusto, into the Internet's abundance of learning tools, groups, websites, challenges, dares, and so on. I love every one of them. Sometimes, just sometimes though, I get a bit overwhelmed by everything I have committed myself to. I was afraid that retirement meant boredom or even death from the lack of mental stimulation so I plowed into everything I could find to do. During my working years, I never had the time for my artistic interests. No more. If this sounds like a negative post, it really isn't. It's just an explanation for this journal page. My guess is that most of you can relate to this :)

Then, I finally finished the lessons from Creating Art at the Speed of Life by Pam Carriker. I loved doing each one of these. I learned so much and I would recommend it to anyone beginning art journaling. So many techniques were used and many times I just used her suggested materials and just went off on my own. The last lesson, however, was difficult for me so I kept putting it off. We had to do a self portrait with a lot of smearing of the black and then pulling back with an eraser to get subtractive works. Well, I finally did it and almost hesitate to post this because I hope I don't really look like this:

And, finally, I have shared this on Facebook, but if you don't follow me there, you should know about this. Derwent Academy is a site that, for free, offers art lessons. If you complete all six of the assignments and pass them, you get a diploma and a tin of your choice from Derwent. So, for me it was a win win win situation. I love taking classes and I love pencils and I love FREE. This is the set I got and they are beautiful pencils. They are a cross between colored pencils and a pastel. So soft but more precise than pastels. And, they also blend with liquid gamsol.

Journal 52, Week 27 - Nostalgia, and a Waste Not

Journal 52, Week 27, Nostalgia. Well, of course I think of something to eat. I love any kind of food and when I think of any trip or adventure, the first thing I think of is what we had to eat! But this time, candy was on my mind. Back in the day, many streets had corner stores. The best part was the candy case. You really could buy two pieces of candy for a penny and my friend and I often shared our penny. Yum yum!

I used a cream cardstock and an Inkadinkado canning jar stamp with gray Memento ink. I filled using Copics for the colored candies and black acrylic with foam brush dabs for the licorice. I added a bit of gold gel pen on the lids. Then, Copics for the counter and shading.

For this week's Waste Not, I took my leftover punched flower and heart papers and used them as a stencil for two different journal pages. I sprayed with Dylusions.  They make a fun background for some future journaling.