Kickstarting Day #5

Today over at Smeared & Smudged, it's all about using scrap paper to make your background.  I have a file box next to my desk filled with folders of scraps, organized by color.  The final file is full of print papers.  I had no idea where I would go with this but I figured I'd see what I had and then what jumped at me.  Turned out to be easy.  It went something like this:

Open folder
2 great full-spectrum rainbow papers on top
Below, more striped papers with a range of colors
What goes with rainbows?
There's brown in here
Gesso will dull the brown
What goes with rainbows?
How do these papers look together on the base sheet?
What goes with rainbows?
Gold pots go with rainbows
Unicorns go with rainbows

Yeah.  You get the idea.

Kickstart Your Art Day 4

Today over at Smeared and Smudged, it's about growth.  Of course, growth can be positive... unless you're sitting in my twisted little mind.  In that case, not everything is about upward growth.

Ingredients:
Tweedle Dee/Tweedle Dum from Octopode Factory
TH Distress ink pads (Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Peacock)
Watercolor pencils
Sharpie
Uniball white gel pen (Yeah, I went back and added a bit of white to that 2nd G after this photo was taken.  yeah yeah yeah.)

Get it on paper

My 6yr old doesn't listen to me.  Not a word.  I have to repeat instructions over and over.  He came home early yesterday because of snow.  He was off today.  I just found out he's out again tomorrow.  We got 1" of snow by the way.  I miss NJ and how they can deal with winter weather.  This up there is something you look at, shrug at and ignore because it's only one frickin' inch!  Here, it shuts down cities.  It shuts me in with a 6yr old who is driving me mad.  Better to put it on paper than to take it out on anyone.  I think I just found a reason for art journaling.  Today's Smeared & Smudged theme is to use a lay-around item for the background. 

I:

1. gessoed
2. sprayed with Mr. Hueys (those buggers are a disaster if you haven't used them in a while!)
3. decided that the drips that occurred because the bottle was clogged looked like lightning
4. stamped circles on with 3 bottles (plastic seltzer, gesso, a glass water bottle that I got in the UK in 2004.  I still have the bloody thing!) and going grey/night of navy ink
5. drew/colored a cloud with copics/#2 pencil/micron pens
6. micron-outlined my lightning
7. wrote my frustration out
8. if it were later in the day and he was in bed, i'd add "went to have a large glass of some adult beverage"

Day 2 of Kickstart Your Art

So.  Day 2 of Smeared & Smudge's Kickstart Your Art. 

First, thank you those who commented on your kind words.  I really appreciate them.

Second, I realize that I was unintentionally not entirely honest.  I actually meant to mention this yesterday but was just so happy to post that I'd done something  artsy/craftsy again.  I did dabble in mixed media one other time, for one day.  While it wasn't much time, it was a rather... intense? significant? whatever event.  Donna Downey's studio is only about an hour from here so I went down there the other year and took a one day class from her.  In 6 hours or so, we made a 40 page mixed media "reference book."  Essentially, every page had a different technique on it- using print paper, paper towels, cardboard, etc. as a background; using pan pastels, acrylics, India ink, etc. as a medium; gessoing before and after inking, etc.  It was a one day crash course in mixed media techniques.  The class was about 2yrs ago and I don't think I've used a single technique again before this week.  It was interesting, informative, great reference, and just sort of showed me that it's not my type of thing to do on a regular basis.  I like many of the results of mixed media- the "play" is wonderful but my left brain/right brain war (every time I take one of those "which side of the brain type of person are you, I pretty much land dead center), means that most of the time I color in the lines while making darn sure I don't break my crayons- not traits particularly valued in mixed media.  I rarely share my art and craft supplies with my 6yr old- he'll mess them up.  Of course, when I was 6, I still wouldn't share my art supplies with my friends because they'd mess them up.  Had to have my art supplies but I didn't want them messed up.  Stupid ongoing brain war.  So.  There's the truth behind my mixed media past.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Today is all about hearts.  I kinda want the edges of this darker but other than that, I think it's what I was going for.

Thanks to Tit for the visual reminder that book pages make great backgrounds.

Ingredients: gesso, TH distress ink pads, Copics, SU watercolor crayons

A slightly different direction for the day

Smeared & Smudged is having a week-long "kick-start your art" challenge to create themed art-journal pages.  I don't art journal.  I'm not even a big fan of the mixed media trend.  However, I like the idea of trying something different and forcing myself to do something a bit creative every day.  So.  Out of my little box I pop.

Today's theme is: 3 PRIMARY COLOR DRIPS

Again, I'm not a mixed media artist so I figure it's more of a week to play with trying out techniques I generally don't use.  So (please forgive the curl- I haven't flattened it yet)

I laid down swipes of 4 TH stains on white paper (I don't have a book for this but I might bind the papers together at a later date).
I used clear EP to lay the SU Medallion stamp on top.
I dripped red, blue and yellow heavily watered down acrylic paints down the page from the top edge.
After dry, I wiped the paint off the medallion with a baby wipe (glad I kept a pack of those around!)
"it's time to pull back the curtain" was written with a large silver paint Sharpie and to make it a bit more legible, I wrote it again on top of the silver with a thin black Sharpie.

A new year, a new go?

Yeah.  October.  Last time I posted.  Needless to say that my mojo just didn't come back as I'd hoped last year.  So.  Let's start with Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year.  Always a good way to kick it off.

So.  First thing I needed to do?  Clean my desk and room.  Part of my issue has been that I just don't want to work in my space- it's way too full/cluttered/badly laid out.  I moved some things around to generally straighten and I cleaned up my desk. A part of that was overhauling what's in my storage cart next to my worktable.  It had been boxes of projects- one for Dec. Daily (2012 mind you- I didn't even bother with 2013) and one for our trip to Disney (Jan 2013.  Yeah.  Way behind.)  I put those elsewhere and instead put together a box of stamps I'd like to ink and my 6x6 paper pads since I never use them and want to get them in front of myself.

 

It may not look like a big change but just moving those boxes gives me a bit more view of the stamp shelf in the corner and widens my "space."  It's made quite a difference.  Enough that I actually made a card today.  Score!

I used the challenge over on Inky Froggies as my launching point for color and the SEI January challenge for theme.  While I'm not wild about the results, I experimented using my mica for the first time, inked the stamps for the first time, broke out my brayer and just simply made a card.  I'm happy with all of those things!  Yay! 

Hope to talk to you again soon!

Ingredients:
Stamps: Feeling Sentimental, Much Appreciated: Stampin' Up

Ink: Bliss Blue, Night of Navy: Stampin' Up, Black Momento: Tsukineko

Paper: Whisper White, Night of Navy, Brocade Blue: Stampin' Up
Misc: Mica, Embossing powder: Stampendous, Glass Glitter: Stampin' Up, Copics (to color rhinestones)

Challenges:
Inky Froggies: Blue & glitter

SEI: (silver, thanks, gradation of blues... though my brayering isn't as obvious as I'd like)