A Week in my Life

The Documented Life Project September Theme is Journaling with Photos. The September 26
Art Challenge is Storyboard. The Journal Prompt:  A Week in the Life...

 I printed out some of the things that I did this week and added them to a Gelato background. Then I added some words from Hero Arts and some "splats" from Prima.

DLP Silhouettes

The Documented Life Project September Theme is Journaling with Photos. For September 19, the
Art Challenge is Silhouettes, with a Journal Prompt:  There is no shadow without the light...

I pasted a photo of one of my sons into a Word document. Then I edited it to look like above. I used black gesso for the background and gel pens to stretch the tree up the page and add some journaling. Live is for good memories!

Amazing AZ Sky

The Documented Life Project September Theme is Journaling with Photos. The September 12
Art Challenge: Digital Imagery & Design, and the Journal Prompt:  What Makes Your Heart Sing?

I downloaded the app suggested by Lorraine, Distressed FX, and grunged up this beautiful photo that I took a couple of weeks ago, then I added, using another app, Phonto, the word Amazing, and printed it out. After adding to my journal, I did a bit of journaling with a white Signo pen. That sunset certainly did make my heart sing!

A Room of My Own

The Documented Life Project September Theme is Journaling with Photos.
September 5 Art Challenge: Photo Transfer.  Journal Prompt:  From Here to There

I was quite excited to try some photo transfers. I did several and they were all a total fail for me. Really not what I expected. I'm sure I was doing something wrong. I decided to just go with some printed photos instead. I used some Color Bursts for the background, added some torn maps, photos, stamp lettering, and stamps to show the journey from an empty room to my quite overstuffed and well loved studio. There is also some black and white gel pen for journaling and accenting added.

 Thank you for stopping by. I love reading your comments.

Mirror Mirror Me

The Documented Life Project (August Theme Faces, the Human Form & Characters, August 29 Art Challenge: Self Portrait Journal Prompt:  Mirror Mirror) had several really great ideas to work with the prompt of mirror. My first attempt was to use a black and white photo and recolor it. But, the idea of doing a value study without worrying about having a perfect likeness kept nagging at me. So, I wound up doing it that way too. I really enjoyed pushing myself a bit and I learned a lot.

The Goddess from Avalon

This week's Life Book lesson, week 34, comes to us by Alena Hennessy and is called "Painting the Muse." Currently I am reading The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley and am enjoying it thoroughly. I have been having an image of The Goddess going through my mind as I read and I chose to paint her today.

I used acrylic paints for the background with a credit card and my fingers. I added texture with the moon using joint compound which I later covered with Texture Luxe Gold. (Note to self, always remember to put a layer of petroleum jelly around the edges of jars that will glue themselves together if you don't!) I used watercolor crayons, white and black Stabillo pencils, gold and silver Wink of Stella, and some gel pens in gold.

The Documented Life Project for August 15

The Documented Life Project for this week had a Journal Prompt of  "How do I face my biggest challenge?" Well, head on with my eyes wide open, of course.

 Such great inspiration from all, but I found myself just drawn into Mystele Kirkeeng's approach to painting. No stress, no expectations, just fun!

August 12 Tags of 2015

I was drawn to the tag that Tim Holtz made for the 12 Tags of August and thought I'd give it a whirl. I tend to look at tutorials as a suggestion rather than a must do, and this is what I came up with.

With all the issues of copyright infringements, I went to Morguefiles for the silhouette. The background is an old book page. I colored twine with the same Distress Inks that I used for the background. And, in case you can't read the Small Talk Stickers, it says "Delight in magical stuff". Magic stuff always lives in books. Do go to Tim's site and see what he, and others, did with this tutorial (linked above).

Materials Used

Thanks for stopping by. I love reading your comments!

Saving Your Memories

The Documented Life Project, August Theme is Faces, the Human Form & Characters. The August 1 Art Challenge: Expressive Faces, with a Journal Prompt:  What I see clearly now.

I already had a double page spread that had paint wipe offs on it ready to go. I also wanted to try out the 1.75 pt tub of all purpose joint compound that I got to try as another way to add texture through a stencil. For less than $4.00 for this huge tub, I'd say it is a bargain. You do need to wait for this to dry longer than the molding paste and don't forget to clean your stencils immediately or it will dry like cement! I'm not sure you can even see that I used it on the tulips, but I did and then went over the white with nNeocolors and added some white gel pen dots. The face started from a partial magazine picture. One eye is from the magazine the other is my own drawing. Even using a magazine picture as a base, she still looks like something I would do on my own. After I repainted on her and used china markers, and Neocolors, I added some bright blue hair with Dylusions paint. Then, I went over the whole face and hair with white gesso to make her look a bit more "misty." I used some stamps and stencils and a white paint pen for the journaling.

Hamsa and Zentangle®

Life Book, Week 31, Traced Hand Hamsa Protection Symbol with Rachael Rice is probably my favorite lesson so far this year. I loved that it was short and to the point with just enough encouragement to get us going but allowing the creative juices to flow without getting drowned in them. Of course, as a Certified Zentangle Teacher, the design work was meaningful for me. I loved playing with watercolors, markers, pens, colored pencils and pastels for this one.

Letting Go and Letting In

For week 30 on Life Book, we had a fun lesson from Flora Bowley on Letting Go and Letting In. Sometimes I find making messes like this freeing, but this week, I really didn't want to let go or let in. But, I did and this is what happened:

Mom Loved to Sing and Dance

The Documented Life July Theme is Ephemera. The July 18 Art Challenge: Photographs & Memories. The Journal Prompt:  "All that I have to remember you"-Jim Croce

My mom loved to sing and dance and she loved her polka dots! This photo, printed in black and white, was taken at my eldest son's wedding. She was in her early 70's at the time. She is long gone, but I will always think of her whenever I see anything with polka dots!

The paper polka dots were cut from a piece of gelli printed paper. I used a pencil eraser to add dots to mom's dress. Small white dots are molding paste. I used my Ken Oliver click letters for the words. I used a stencil for the smaller colored dots and Dylusion paints. Black is stamped dots, and Bingo daubers completed the joyous mess!

Time Actually Does Fly

The Documented Life  July Theme is Ephemera. The July 11Art Challenge: Focal Point vs. Layering with a Journal Prompt:  Time keeps on ticking. Wow! Yes, time just keeps on ticking away. I sure wish there were either a way to slow it down or to get more of it somehow!

Don't you just love the new Fresh Lime Dylusions Paint in the background?

You Will Never Know What I'm Thinking

Life Book, Week 28. Layers of You. We started with a collage and wound up with this:

 The "doodle" is Frost Flowers, a tangle by Kerry Heun. The large "button" is chipboard with Crackle Paint and Silver Pearls.

 

 

 

 

Original Collage

Steam Train Ephemeral Memories

The Documented Life July Theme - Ephemera - July 4 - Art Challenge: Using Old Maps, Letters, Tickets & More - Journal Prompt:  Life...with a history

A beautiful trip on an old steam engine recently left me with some brochures and ticket stubs that I wanted to save. This prompt was perfect. I made a little holder for them (removable) with the train in the front and, the beautiful aspen trees for a background.

I used a page with leftover black gesso smears all over the page. I added some white gesso with a credit card and made scrapes through. I added swipes of blue with my fingers, dark green with my fingers (I don't like to wash brushes LOL!) and added leaves with a sea sponge. The train and upper emblem were added with gel medium.

Warrior Princess

Life Book,Week 26, is to draw our Inner Warrior Princess with excellent instruction from Andrea Gomol. I immediately though of a princess who, like me, is inspired by music and uses it to motivate herself.

I pulled out my Neocolor Watercolor Crayons, some Dylusion markers, my Fude pen, some silver Pearls, a musical stamp, white paint pen and a fine line Sharpie. I like her determined look.

There's No Place Like Home

The Documented Life Project's June Theme is Travel Journaling and this week's prompt is There is no place like home. I can agree with this wholeheartedly. I love everything about being at home.

I started with some Pan Pastesl, collaged on some maps, added black gesso stencils, Distress Paints blue birds, wrote with a thin tipped bottle of black paint, did some doodles and gel pen embellishments, added some Perfect Pearls to the butterfly and Neon Amplify white dimensional dots.

Travels by Train

The Documented Life Projects for June are all about Travel Journals. This week's prompt was The Road Less Traveled.  Perfect timiming as the hubby and I have been gone for this past week for a lovely get-a-way. We drove up to New Mexico and grabbed a train to Colorado. This was a full day trip and it was a sunny and beautiful day. We spent the night in Chambres in a lovely room, with a balcony overlooking the train station. The next day, we took the train back to Antonoto and we got lots of clouds and rain. Perfect. So, my "travel" page, for both weeks was done in my Smash Book.

If I Were a Man?

Life Book 2015 - Week 23 - Magic, Vulnerability & Courage with Tamara Laporte

Hummm, draw/paint a male. Interesting. I watched the first two videos and then just went off on my own because I was on a roll. I have heard that you always draw yourself, maybe your inner self, and I think "he" looks more like me than a lot of my other paintings. I used lots of different types of colors. Neocolor ll, acrylics, Distress and Tombow markers, Fude pen, and paint pens. I added stamps and a plastic heart.

It's a Lovely Day for Make-Believe

The Documented Life Project May Theme is: Touchy Feely (Texture), and the May 30 Art Challenge is: Textured Paper. The Journal Prompt is:  I'm So Not Feeling It! 

I had so much fun doing this piece. I started with some Distress Paints blended with a baby wipe for the base. I die cut corrugated cardboard for the butterflies and then I used my embossing folders to get texture on cardstock for the die cut flowers. I made the texture "pop" by adding some Distress Inks over top. The white is texture paste through a stencil. I added Gold Pearl Pen dots to the center of the flowers and then used it to define the butterfly bodies. All pieces were outlined with Distress Markers. I just wish you could touch it!

Dealing with Criticism

Tam, Willowing.org, had a free lesson called "Feeling Feelings Through Creativity!" Of course, I went my own way, but I was really happy with this until my hubby came into my studio and asked why I was painting an Indian. Then he asked if I knew how to divide the face up so that my eyes wouldn't be crooked! Talk about bursting one's bubble. I was so happy, and now I am vaguely sad.

I used acrylics, Neocolor 2 crayons, Posca white marker, Pitt pens, white gel pen, graphite crayon, Dystress and Tombow markers. I added some bits of a pretty napkin for the designs.

So, how do you handle criticism? I, of course, laughed it off seeing as he doesn't really understand what art journaling is all about. But, it did hurt for a bit.

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Never Look Back

The prompt for The Documented Life this week is "say cheese"! We were to use cheesecloth in our journal page and I think, perhaps, I went just a tad overboard. I don't know how I will close the book when we reach a year's worth of projects. Suggestions?

I sprayed the cheesecloth with different colors of Dylusion sprays, covered my page with gel medium and put every bit of it down on the paper. I added some white gesso through some stencils, and paper letters that were stamped and colored.

Opposites Attract - Playing with Spectrum Noir Aqua Markers

Life Book, Week 21. Bonus: Black & White Cookie with Lynn Whipple. Great lesson in comparisons. All about the lights vs. darks, the good and the bad, the shadow side of things. It made me think of "opposites attract" and so I went for the storm, the flowers and the rainbow that bridges the two. 

I got my new set of Spectrum Noir watercolor markers yesterday and was just itching to play. I did the technique where you color on your stamps and spritz with water before stamping. That was a lot of fun. These flower stamps, from Totally Tracy, gave me the space to do some tangling as well. I did add a white paint pen, but everything else is my new markers.

Puttin' on Those Big Girl Panties

The Documented Life Project, May Theme = Touchy Feely (Texture) - May 16 Art Challenge:  Modeling Paste - Journal Prompt:  Rising to the Occasion

 Gesso, paper scraps added with gel, Poster paints, black Gesso with Molding paste through letters, old book with discard paints to cut out panties, lace, elastic, Pitt pens, stamps

Always Look Twice

Week 20, Unravelling through Mark Making with Jenny Doh, really had me excited to just let the lines flow. The base went down perfectly. I wanted to do a face with a pallet knife, like Jenny did. Oh, what a disaster. I looked in horror at the black mess on my paper. Not going to let it beat me! Nothing is is stone! This is fun. Smeared some white acrylic (with my pallet knife) and filled a fine tipped bottle with black acrylic and let the face come out as it pleased. I am loving this!

Laugh the Pain Away

The Documented Life Project: May Theme = Touchy Feely (Texture) May 9 Art Challenge:  Stitching
Journal Prompt:  "All that I'm after is life full of laughter."

Great lessons. Lots of ideas! It made me think of a photo that was taken by a friend. (A bit fuzzy, but just look at that joy!) We both realized, at the same time, that we were taking pictures of each other with our iPads. We got to laughing so hard. It was a special moment. I truly believe that laughter IS the best medicine!

 Sewed the two added pieces randomly around the edges in black. Added stamping in black and white with a bit of scrawled journaling and some faux stitching.

Photo for Page

Gelli Printed Background

The Choices We Make

 Life Book, Week 19, Stamping Shadow and Light with Jessica Swift.

I love handmade stamps and have a bit of a collection, so this was fun to do. I wanted to just one page and have the transition from dark to light, as life usually happens. I wanted the dark to represent what we are not in control of, the swirls represent how life can toss us about, and the light represents how we deal with those things.

The two stamps on the top, I did today. The ones on the bottom are older ones. I had intended to use these but wound up not using the bottom star and adding a curved piece that I carved but had not photographed.

Here's Looking at You

Life Book, Week 18, Here's Looking at You!, with Kristin Van Valkenburgh. We had our childhood self write a letter to our current self. My childhood names are on the paper doll dress as well. I kind of went my own way with this one. But, don't we all? That's the fun of art journaling, no rules! 

I used acrylic for the background, added my own washi style tape, Peacock feather and clock stamps, dress stamp by Dyan Reaveley colored with Spectrum Noirs and Neocolor ll crayons. My childhood names were added in black. She was fussycut and outlined with a china marker and then a gray Neocolor ll. White for writing and accents.

A Rip in the Fabric of Your Life

The Documented Life Project had a prompt of "The Fabric of you Life." Well, I know my fabric has been torn apart many times over. I think, instead of try to fix rips, you should just get up and get some new fabric. It's worked for me.

I used Dylusion Sprays, dimensional paste in white and gold, gold pearls, actual torn fabric that I attached with gel medium, stamping in colors using a peacock feather stamp, black stamped letters, pen written journaling, and white drizzle paint.

Inky Goodness

Documented Life Project, Week 17 - Challenge = Ink, Prompt = Before the Ink is Dry

Fun challenge. I managed to get ink everywhere, as I usually do when I play with inks.

The odd shape in the middle is a glue skin and the butterfly in the middle is a diecut that I did with foam.

Feel the Moment - A Portrait

Week 17, Feel the Moment: Painting an expressive portrait with Jenny Wentworth. I'm starting to see a common look to my face paintings. I wonder if I am painting myself? I can change the hair and the eye color, but they still look like I put a wig on them and it's really the same person. It must be the way I see people. Eyes are more important than anything else as they reflect the soul, health, and happiness of a person. Words can lie, but eyes can't.

I used many layers of acrylics and, at the end, used some Cray-Pas, colored pencils, Pitt pens for details. Her hair was done with acrylics and a sea sponge then scribbled with a brown pastel pencil. The words are with a Fude Ball pen and roughed up with sandpaper.

Enjoy Your Today

Week 16 for Life Book is  "Quick be here now painting with Alena Hennessy".

 
 This was an interesting assignment. We were to take only 15 minutes to just let the paint flow and do what it wanted to. Alena used Yupo paper and I happened to have some since I use it for my alcohol ink work, so I thought I'd give it a try. There was no way for me to do this in only 15 minutes though as acrylic just doesn't dry quickly on the Yupo. And, I also have a life, phones ring, dogs need to go out, or hubby interrupts with whatever happens to be important to him LOL! However, I did let everything just flow with whatever it wanted to do without preplanning or much thought. For some reason, a conversation I had with one of my now grown sons when he was just a young boy kept going through my head. At bedtime, he would ask, "When will it be tomorrow?" To which I would reply, "When you wake up in the morning, it will be tomorrow." Yet, each morning, when he asked if it was now tomorrow, I would have to tell him that no, it was today. This went on for some time until one day he finally looked at me and very sadly said, "It never is tomorrow, is it?"

Enjoy your today!

Creativity

Creativity. What does it mean? I read a lot about creativity before I found this quote from Ken Robinson, "Creativity is putting your imagination to work." Well said.

I used acrylics, molding paste, stamps, stencils, washi tape, glitter glue, cut-outs, Inktense pencils, Dylusion sprays, Distress paints, DeliWrap, Aquarella pencil, and gesso.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having a creative day :)

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Sisters of Craft

It's the Little Things

Week 15, It's the Little Things, Life Book
This one was difficult for me. I kept "messing up" which means more layers. That's not always bad.

I used some Neocolors around her face and thought it was just too much.

So I grabbed some gesso and some pattern paper leftovers and covered it up, for the most part.

I did some background word stamping, added some gelli prints done with the new round one, to which I wrote "the little things" that make things special. I also stapled on part of a tag where I put the theme. I had some fun with my new Rebekah Meier stencil and Abandoned Coral Distress Inks.

Thanks for stopping by. I love reading your comments!

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Sisters of Craft
Paint Party Friday
Altered Eclectics

It's Water Under the Bridge

The April 4th Documented Life Project is to use watercolors and the prompt is It's Water Under the Bridge. My first thought was the song, Like a bridge over troubled water, I will ease your mind (Simon and Garfunkel). 
I started with some Gelatos and gesso for the background. Then, I used a colored pencil to draw out the bridge. I mixed some Stucco Paint with Adirondack Color Wash in Espresso and pushed it through a dollar store dish drainer (amazing what you can find for art at a dollar store). Then, I crushed some blue Gelato with Golden Molding Paste and used a piece of acetate cut in a wave shape to push off some waves for the water. I topped the waves with some gesso. I then used my Koi watercolors to add the brown between the bricks, for detail in the sky, for more movement in the water, and for the background that you can see through the bridge. Fude pen for words and doodles, white paint pen for accents, and a stamp with tiny dots to add texture to the bricks completed the piece.

Field Journaling Some Feathers

Life Book, Week 14 Field Journalling with Alisa Burke. I haven't done field journaling in years, and it's about time I began again. This was very motivational. I found several feathers in my back yard do to a recent altercation between a neighbor's cat and our visiting birds :( But, they were great to work with. One of the feathers was one I found online, the one on the right, and used because it was more interesting.

I used my Koi watercolors on Arches hot press watercolor paper. a white gel pen, Prismcolor Verithin colored pencils, and a fine, no bleed Sharpie in black.

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Crafting With an Attitude

Go Where the Wind Takes You

 The Documented Life Project with a March Theme Making Your Mark (Doodles & Mark Making) March 28 Art Challenge:  Make a Custom Element (I made two.)

I had wanted to do the feathers, kind of like Rae Missigman, but once I got started, I just followed the wind. So, I was about to carve a stamp when I remembered that I had the Tim Holtz Feather Duo set from Sizzix. I had not used it yet so I'm not really sure how you are "supposed" to get the embossing folder to work with the die, but somehow I made it work. (I sprayed them with my Copic air brush system.)  I also used his lattice die cut to create the flying squares. For dimension, I cut these from craft foam sheets. The base paper is Gelatos over and under a pale patterned napkin with gesso. I used my new Recollections letter stamps, the tiny bird is from Penny Black, the leaves from Inkadinkado. I added some Crayola glitter glue, white gel and paint pen, Koi Coloring brushes. I finished with a swipe of Gelato around the edges, doodles using a black gel pen, and some black acrylic paint splatters.

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Art Journal Journey

Whimsical Giraffe

Life Book, Week 13, Happy painting with Juliette Crane. Juliette gave a great lesson using her favorite, an owl. My favorite, because it is my totem, is the giraffe. I usually try to make giraffes more lifelike, but Juliette encourage us to keep our animal whimsical.

I started with lots of acrylic paint that I smooshed about with a credit card (mostly because I don't like cleaning brushes). I added some shreds of deli wrap printing I had done (the dark rasberry). I drew out an outline of the giraffe with a white Stabillo pencil, added many layers of paint, used my fingers for the spots. The tree trunk was a solid dribble of green acrylic that, after dry, I added some sea sponged greens for leaves. When dry, a bit of the tangle, Meer, and white gel pen accents. Then I added some more Pitt pens to the giraffe and to the edges.

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Altered Eclectics

Coming Into Focus

The Documented Life March Theme is Making Your Mark (Doodles & Mark Making). This week the Art Challenge: As a Focal Point, and the Journal Prompt: Coming into Focus.

 I started with a page that was covered with Tim Holtz tissue and gesso. I added some Distress Inks. Then I grabbed some Gelli prints that I made with my new circular gelli plate. I cut out many circles and used two different punches to cut out the Gelli printed papers. The main flower, or focal point, is layered. I also played with some Payons, or water color crayons that I have had for probably 30 years LOL!

 

Sentiments are from Hero Arts and stamped with Ranger Archival Ink. The white stamping is also Hero Arts. The stamped edges and smaller stamps came from Oriental Trader, and the bright yellow centers are Silks that I added with my fingers. White gel pen adds accents and Pitt pens add shadows.

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