Monday, July 28, 2014

Compendium of Curositites Vol.3 Challenge Week No. 7


For the 7th challenge at CC3C (this time sponsored by Inspiration Emporium), the technique is "Painted Industrial" from page 46 of Tim's book.  This is my project with the vase (which is actually a tin can rescued from the recycling bin) illustrating the technique.

Here it is up close:


The flowers were so much fun to make using foil tape on cardstock that I diecut with the tattered florals and tattered leaves dies and a rolled rose My Favorite Things die.  I used alcohol inks on them, mixing a bright color with snow cap white for added opacity, and then embossed them with folders giving them texture. Finally a little bit of sanding brought out highlights and made the texture even more evident.  The stems are chopsticks and bamboo sticks, and I added bits of curled wire just for fun.  I just hope my cats don't think it's a fun toy to chew on! My chosen colors of red, orange, yellow and purple are all the colors of the flowers currently blooming in our yard.  Always fun to be inspired by what you see outside your window, don't you think?




Thursday, July 24, 2014

LifeBook 2014 week 17

This LifeBook 2014 lesson is by Tascha Parkinson. It gave me yet another chance to try out someone else's drawing style with faces.  Although it's not like what I draw, I really liked painting her with watercolors and the blending achieved once they dry.  It was also a fun page to do trying out different lettering styles - I always like that, of course! : - )

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

The Documented Life Project week 20

I will admit that this week's prompt at the Documented Life Project took me some time! We  were to use a stamp in an unusual way.  Now, I'm a pretty experienced stamper, and I try just about any technique I run across because I find that lots of fun, but I did find a technique I hadn't tried from a Red Lead newsletter where you take tracing paper and pastels and use your stamp as a rubbing plate under the tracing paper.  A very cool effect! I did need to spray it with a fixative (I just used cheap hairspray) and backed the tracing paper with Xyron adhesive and adhered it to an old book page. I added a couple of other stamps in the regular way, too ; - )

Monday, July 21, 2014

48 weeks: week 17


OK, this time for 48 weeks, my word says it all....... I can't even remember how many times I created the background, added a glazing layer of paint, found it to be too much, so I painted over it with gesso and tried again which didn't give me the look I wanted, so out came the gesso yet again! I love the page now when I look at it, but when I was working with it......let's just say it went through some REALLY UGLY stages.


I do really like all the textures and especially the embossed texture from the letter stickers and the debossed texture from the stamping. I also am really liking the Payne's Grey color especially combined with Burnt Umber.



Friday, July 18, 2014

The Documented Life Project week 19


This planner page for the Documented Life Project celebrates a random act of kindness. I had been playing around with a fringed watercolor brush in another art journal and thought it made fantastic petals. So I created a flower shape and while the paint was still wet I dropped in a second color - the red at the base. It actually looks quite ugly when you first do it, and you are sure you've ruined it, but when it dries it looks so cool! I made a bunch of cards this week using this idea of adding flowers over a gesso stamped background with watercolor washes, and found myself thinking of a couple friends that I had not thought of in quite awhile so I put cards in the mail to them for no reason at all, other than to say that I was thinking about them.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

48 weeks: week 16



Another face page for 48 weeks.  This time, I felt that the crazy colorful background would have competed with a fully painted face, so she is done with Stabilo pencil and gesso with just a touch of Golden High Flow acrylics in places.


Wednesday, July 16, 2014

LifeBook 2014 week 16

This LifeBook lesson was given by Traci Bautista - I think I've come late to her work, as she's been around for awhile and has 3 published books. Her approach was a lot of fun as she encouraged you to just play with color and make marks.  I like how her style looks so complex, but is done in simple steps creating wonderful additive layers. This page also had a few different really cool resist techniques which I enjoy. I do always try to think about composition and need my elements to relate to each other somehow, so I'm sure that doesn't let me be completely free to just play and not care about the end result, but I still really liked my outcome with this page.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

The Documented Life Project week 18

The planner page prompt for this week for the Documented Life Project was to add a quote.  I love collecting quotes because they make for fantastic lettering practice and are fun to ponder on while you are doing the lettering. I saw this one which was new to me on Pinterest.  Some weeks I absolutely have to follow this advice, but always wish I didn't have to come up with so many contingency plans!

Monday, July 14, 2014

48 weeks: week 15


I enjoyed drawing my glamorous figure with a huge feather boa for this spread for 48 weeks. I thought you'd like to see my pencil sketch and how she evolved:

Kind of Venus De Milo-esque at this stage, right?


A close-up of the face - this is all just graphite pencil that's blended with a paper stump.


...and here are close-ups of her painted:



Sunday, July 13, 2014

Compendium of Curosities Vol. 3 Challenge Week No. 6


This is my altered burlap panel for CC3C #6 based on page 39 of Tim's book which is sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique.  I have been playing with a lot of texture in my journals using joint compound and chose to try a couple of techniques on my burlap panel.  My background has the joint compound pressed through a stencil (one is a bubble layering stencil by Tim Holtz and the other is a Crafter's Worshop Balzer Bits stencil) which was colored with both Distress Paint and Stain once it was dry, and I also used joint compound on muslin strips to create the dress skirt for my embellished vintage image of the beautiful Lily Elsie. I let the edges of the skirt drape over the end of the canvas - I'm not sure if I should leave it that way or cut it off level with the edge of the panel.  What do you think?

Here are a couple of close-ups of the texture. I highlighted the high spots with Old Silver Inka Gold rub - it gives a cool luminance to it.



Thursday, July 3, 2014

LifeBook 2014 week 14

This LifeBook lesson was by Dyan Reaveley and used her scrumptious spray inks!  I love how vibrant and rich the colors are.  You might not be able to tell, but the flowers are a bit dimensional with curled petals and are stacked in places. I've been fortunate to take one of her live classes in the past here in the US and really looked forward to her LifeBook lesson - she makes art journaling so fun and accessible.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

The Documented Life Project week 17

I used a TAP transfer of a photo of my feet in my running shoes for the Documented Life Project prompt for this week to feature your favorite shoes.  I have never ever (seriously....ever!) been the athletic type, but a few years ago I decided that I was going to try running and found that I really enjoyed it - who knew? I really like running in cold weather, and I'm working up to running with my dog - she wants to go faster than I can maintain - I suppose she's a good trainer for me!

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

48 weeks: week 14

I really loved this collage spread for 48 weeks.  It has great white space and I had a lot of fun pulling together pieces of ephemera that I loved and that meant something to me.  You'll find a book page from the Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery, my birthdate numbers, postage stamps and airmail stickers I've received in my mailbox, old collage images from French Kissed Postcards and ArtChix, scraps of book text, sheet music and a ledger paper with fabulous calligraphy, along with black and white striped washi tape and circle rubber stamps from Tangie Baxter. I had a lot of fun with these pages.