I'm Allowed

So, I've been working in an art journal and have a hard time writing over my art. I don't know, am I crazy it is after all in a journal and not on a canvas? So, this week I gave myself permission to just do the art and not write if I don't want to. So far this week, three pages done and in the past it would have taken me 2 weeks to fill 3 pages. I'm feeling a little bit better about this and it does help me learn new techniques.

This week was all about finding inspiration from Donna Downey. You can check out her blog HERE. She has a great video each Wednesday and a collage on Monday.

This one is a collage of postage stamps that I painted over which I think gives it a cool texture. I'm just calling it Abstract Flowers. This one is available for sale as prints or cards on Deviant Art. http://djam50.deviantart.com/#/d53dfsl  I already ordered some cards of this one, so some of my special friends just might get this in the mail from me.

Another abstract painting of a leaf. This one is also available as print or cards. http://djam50.deviantart.com/#/d53dh3a

This one I finished today... more leaves. I still need to scan it (this is just from my camera but it will be up on Deviant Art soon).

I hope everyone is having a great week. I'll try to post more pictures later this week.

Journaling - Layers

Yes, I know it's been awhile since I have written a post or shared some of my art but I am still here. For the past several weeks I have been knee deep in jewelry.. so I guess you could say I was still doing art.

I just signed up for the Book of Days premium (check out the link on the right hand side) and have been reading so much and ready to get into some of the special lessons Effy has for us there. But first, I did clean off my crafting table and get all my wonderful paints and supplies out to do some more journaling. I just finished this page today and my intention was to do some layering of paint and texture..which I did but the page spoke to me or maybe it was my Muse and she wanted to say a bit more about Layers.

I wrote "It is about more than what is in the book or what is on the paper. It is digging deeper into what we hold precious, the wrinkles we encounter in life. As we dig, when do we find our soul?"

We all are multi-faceted and have many layers to our life, some of us encounter obstacles or wrinkles and for others it is smooth sailing. We have bumpy roads which cause us to question our decisions and sometimes to make changes. Art is Life and Life is Art. I'm sure someone somewhere said this, I just can't remember who.

I believe we should embrace life with all it's layers and celebrate the choices we made getting there. It's never easy but it should be your choice and in the end, what makes you happy. If you aren't happy, then change the course of your life or add a new layer.

This page started out with just some gesso on paper and with some paint, collage and pen, I changed it. Just think of what you could do with your life with just a little paint.

Have fun and create ART.

Into Buttons

If you are looking for the Button Blog Hop... click Here.

Have fun hopping around today and Happy Mother's Day.

Into Faces

As you can tell from my last post and now this one, I'm into faces. I belong to a Facebook group that is trying to do 29 Faces for the month of May. So far I've only done 3 but I may do another one today. I figure if I can do 29 or more they may start looking like something.

This first one is done with acrylic paint on canvas board and the other two are just pencil sketches.

I'm not sure that precision is my strong point for faces so I may go more towards the whimsical. We will see.

Have a great day and enjoy your Art.

All About Faces

More practice. They do say practice makes perfect right? Well, I'm am not perfect and my faces are definitely not perfect but I have a feeling they will get there eventually. I worked on these yesterday. Really love the fashion ladies but my Tangle gal is my favorite... these are just the ones I'm willing to share. You can not imagine the number of faces I made that I threw away or erased.

The fashion ladies were inspired by a book I have called Collage Couture by Julie Nutting. The book looked fun and I had fun putting them together. Kind of like making paper dolls only a little bit more intense.

I did finish another journal today and now I'm wondering what I'm going to do with all these journals I've been making. This was my first one using the Japanese Screw Punch and it worked well to punch the holes but they were too big, so I'm gong to have to order a smaller tip. It's still usable but if using paint, I may have to put tape up the middle of that page to prevent the paint from seeping to the binding or other pages.

Before the signatures were sewn.

Fabric that I put on the spine to add a little interest. I left the cover as it was in good shape but it could be embellished or painted over.

Most of the pages are pastel paper, watercolor paper, scrap paper or some handmade paper from India.

I hope everyone is having a great week. I have to get ready for a show this weekend so probably not so much art but more jewelry designing and organizing for the next several days for me.

Inspiration

I've been meaning to post for a couple of days now but just couldn't seem to get to the point. I've been finding lots of inspiration from an on-line class I'm taking with Effy Wild called Book of Days (BOD). I really am trying to be more free in my painting... if you know me, you know that my background is watercolor and very structured. On Effy's last live stream she painted a girl that was symbolic to the BOD group. Now I'm am horrible at faces but I do plan to practice daily my sketches.

Here is my first one, using Effy's inspiration that I feel confident enough to share.

Effy's class tends to bring out more feelings and emotion than other's I have taken. There is a lot of acrylic paint, some collage, stenciling and I used a black waterproof Pitt pen for drawing the face.

Here is one other small girl that I will probably use as a tip in.

A lot of these paintings I'm doing on watercolor paper and will bind them into a journal when I'm finished along with some extra pages for some writing.

If you want to check out Effy's class here is the link.  http://bookofdays.org/ It's a year long project so you can join anytime. There is a free version and a premium (pay) version. I decided on the free one since I had already taken several classes this year already on-line.

I find I am still struggling to find my voice in ART but the more I do the better and easier it will become.

Sticky Stuff

I'm having his love affair with tape. Did you know that you can get tape in all kinds of patterns and colors now? Since I've been working on my art journals I've been looking and finding so many that I love. Here are  a few of my favorites. I've got some Duck brand tape (love the black and white), Smash tape and some Tim Holtz Tissue tape. I don't think I'll ever go back to regular scotch tape again unless I have to wrap a package and why not use one of these colorful ones?

Speaking of art journals, I finished another one this morning. This one will be a gift.... not telling who for. I did outside binding and added velvet tabs. It looks pretty good but I really need to get better at the sewing part. I can't wait until my order from Dick Blick arrives with my screw punch... I think that will make a big difference.

This was an old hymnal, as you can see, and I salvaged some of the hymn pages and glued them in the book. I figure they could use it as a daily devotional book, take notes at bible study or just use as a regular journal. I'll take pictures of the finished product and post them later.

Here is the kids book journal that I showed you in processing on Sunday and now it is finished. I saved the spine and reinforced it then added the material on the outside. 

My newest one (started working on this afternoon) is also an old children's book with the spine in great shape so it will have a similar feel to this one. I think I'm addicted to making these things. I find it is very relaxing cutting out the paper and folding it to just the right size. The only frustrating part is the sewing and I think that will get better the more I make.

If you are interested in learning all these book binding techniques, I highly recommend Mary Ann Moss's on-line class "Full Tilt Boogie" which is where I learned all this fun stuff. She also has another one called "Remains of the Day" which I'll be starting soon. Sale going on now until May 1st.... so take advantage.

As DH and I were out shopping yesterday at Office Max... don't you just love office supplies, I found these great little tags. I think I'll be able to alter them and add them to some of my journal pages. So cool.

You can see they are quite a bit smaller than the craft ones by Ranger. I can't wait to get started so off I go.