Hand Designed Papers for Nature Collage

Sarah Gardner presented this week's lesson of Wanderlust, Everything Art. She had us playing with paints and papers to use to cut out our own collage papers.

Often, I just have to use whatever is in front of me (a big follower of the laws of propinquity). I had a piece of Kraft on my desk, that I dabbed with white paint, a piece of purple cardstock, that I scraped with the leftover white paint. Some Kraft that I had run through an embossing folder and run over with Distress inks. Ripping and cutting produced this forest-like scene. The background was a page that had remnants of a used stencil, and the additional colors came onto the page from Pitt Artist brush pens. 

What fun! Thanks, Sarah, and thanks to anyone who visits!

Journal 52, Week 9 - Hate

Journal 52, week 9, prompt "Hate". Hate is a word that I try to avoid using in all seriousness. I will use it for silly things, like "I hate cold days", or "I hate chocolate" (WHat???? No, I don't hate chocolate LOL!). But, I won't use it to hate as in a person. Anyway, I had a pile of stuff, don't you love stuff?, all over my desk and thought, well, use it.
I had a background pre-painted in blues and greens. I added some spackle  that I mixed alcohol ink into for color through some punchinella. A dotted stamp, ephemera, dimensional paint, Dylusions Inks, a slop of white paint and some journaling filled the page.

Thanks for taking the time to visit. I love reading comments!

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

 Shared with:
Paint Party Friday 
Altered Eclectics  
Art Journal Journey

Show Some Attitude! Life Book Week 11

Life Book was hosted by Jane Davenport this week with a prompt of "Your Inner and Outer World". First we put down some collage of colors and things that we liked. We either drew or added a face that we had done in the past and cut out (this was my choice.) Then we learned (?) how to do a side view.  Below, you will find the first two steps. After adding some gesso and the face, I played with paints, and pens of too many different kinds to even begin to remember what I used. I kept changing her over and over. I love that you can do that. Layers = good thing in art journaling!

The letters and the word "always" came from a huge set that I got at Oriental Trading.
This is the "in progress" piece. Do you sometimes wish you had stopped?

Also shared with:
Paint Party Friday Self-portrait (Okay, so maybe a few years ago LOL!)

Surviving the Elements DLP Week 10

"Surviving the Elements" is the prompt for this week for The Documented Life Project. I couldn't think of what exactly to do even thought there were wonderful examples given. Before I start anything, I always have to clear off the clutter of whatever I have recently been working with and suddenly I realized, that clutter would be my "elements." This goes along with my "waste not" theory. I had scraps of all sorts. Some were from gelli prints I had done. Some was over spray or mop-ups. Some were flowers I had made and not used. The heart is the remains of a cut out heart. I had some die cut leftovers, and a crazy Zentange type flower that was colored with crayon and followed by watercolor. After gluing it all down with mat medium gel, I used my new word stamps from Dare 2B Artzy, added some journaling with my new Fude pen (I like it. It writes on anything.), added some doodling, Aquarella outlining, white gel pen highlighting and doodling, white music notes, and some gold Pearl Pen. I used all my elements and my desk was clean. Well, sort of LOL!

Also shared with:
Try It On Tuesday (I used liquid pearls in gold)
Altered Eclectics

Layers of My Heart

Tam had a great lesson today, for week 10 of Life Book, using hearts to make a fan style way for us to express the layers of our heart. Each heart was constructed separately and then joined with a brad to make a heart that can fold together as one or opened as below.I used sprays, paints, stencils, collage, washi tape, pens, and more.

Then, she showed us how to make a holder that expands to hold the width of this fan.

Also shared with:
Paint Party Friday
Altered Eclectics

It's Worth Repeating DLP 2015 Week 8

The Documented Life Project, Week 8, prompt is "It's Worth Repeating". Yes, and some things are. It does make for a more cohesive page. I really was inspired by Roben-Marie Smith's page and immediately pulled out some old acrylic painted gelli prints and my sewing machine. I added a bet of gesso down the center with a credit card, did some scribble word stamp with turquoise, then used my huge flower stamp from Stampin' Up inked with orange Memento in a repeat of three. I added some Pitt pens, a bit of journaling in one of the petals, some more stamping in black and turquoise, some white gel pen, white circles and the word LIVE. I really enjoyed working on this page.





Also shared with:
Paint Party Friday

Happiness Is Being Able to Put One Foot in Front of the Other

For The Documented Life this week, the prompt was "Going Undercover" where we continued to explore adding layers and covering up the "good stuff".

Here are the steps that brought me to this completed page.

Ephemera, gesso, acrylics topped with gel medium.

Paints through stencils and pressed with bubble wrap.

Covered the "good stuff" with white acrylic.

Here's where things went terribly wrong. NOT the good stuff LOL!

 

I used white acrylic and scraped over the ugly alien tree. I added some acrylics and a border. I added some purple acrylic to Stucco Paint effect and pushed through stencils. Used some stamps and a white gel pen. Added a shadow with an Aquarella pencil to complete the page shown above. (The running girl was done with black acrylic through a stencil that I made myself.)

Shared with:
Paint Party Friday

A Kittywampus Mushroom House

The second bonus for week six of Life Book comes to us from Violette Clark, Magical Mystery Tour.

I did an acrylic background with blues, lime, and purple. Added some clouds. Made myself a mushroom house to live in that was all  kittywampus with a nod to Alice. I don't like dragonflies, so a butterfly graces my mansion. I added some glossy accents to make the glasses reflect like my glasses do in photos. I loved doing this page.

Don't Stop Until You Get Enough

The Documented Life Project for this week had a challenge of "When Not To Stop" and a prompt of "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough!"  Mou, for Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft, also posted a challenge to do an art journal page with your favorite beverage so I added that to the mix. Lots and lots of layers going on here. I started with a matte medium to add ephemera to the watercolor paper. Then I added orange and yellow acrylics with ca credit card, stenciled with blue Distress paints, added gesso with a pallet knife, scraped yellow acrylic and removed with a stencil and a baby wipe. Then, I added orange dots through a stencil with acrylics, dabbed some Antique Linen Distress paint. I did the cup on a separate sheet of water color using Faber-Castel Pitt artist pens and cut and applied with Collage Pauge.I added some stamping using my own hand carved spiral and heart and finished with bold words and scribbled thoughts.

Stencils and Paint over Ephemera

Gesso Added

Also shared with:
Paint Party Friday