Sorry it has been so long

It is getting harder and harder for me to blog. I'm not sure why, but I think I'm using my energy to actually do Art Journaling and taking classes in it, and I don't tend to have enough energy left to write about what I am doing. Not sure where this is going to go, but I do have an update.

I did make a cover for the Altered Backgrounds journal that I used for the class I was taking at the Art Geek's site. This is the front cover. I never got the beads on the long strings but I still hope to do that.

And here are my 7 favorite ICADs. I finished them on time. I was actually a day or two ahead during the last couple of weeks because I kept making a second card or even a third on some days. Once I got started I could not stop. One of the cards is the second or third I made but most of these were done later in the process as I got a better handle on how to do an ICAD.

And yes, I do miss them. There are two other regular small projects that are out there. One is to use Rolodex cards. And a second is to make a box to hold slightly larger cards and to do those. Neither is a Summer only project and neither expects you to do them every day for a specific period although a few people are doing them daily or almost daily. I have index cards that are way too big for the ICAD project and I am considering using those because I have so many of them.

 The next three layouts are rather odd, because each of them was made using either a loose sheet or in a separate book.

I've never done a loose sheet Art Journal layout before. I probably should have done this one in one of my commercial Art Journals, but it was possible that it was going to be one of several. This was for a challenge on the Jennibellie ning site. The idea was to do something you wanted to attract into your life, and I took something that is already there that I want to keep in my life.

I really am Just plain Happy to be creating every day, and I want that to continue.

I did I Choose to be Happy in my smaller Strathmore Visual Journal which has 140 pound Watercolor paper and is a joy to work in, but for some reason I am more interested in making my own journals right now. Still, from time to time I come back to this one and to the larger one.

I really do CHOOSE to be happy. It was something I learned you can do back when I was taking care of Joe at home. I could have sunk into depression during that last year, but I found several books on how to be happy, anyway, just because you choose to find things in your life to be grateful for or to enjoy. You can allow joy into your life even when things are bad, or you can sink into it. It really is a choice.

 A 4 page booklet arrived as part of my junk mail a week or so ago. It turned out that it wasn't even stapled together, but just held together with glue. I taped it together and I ended up with a little journal. I was experimenting because all of the others I had made so far, either from booklets of some sort, or with sewn signatures like the Altered Backgrounds Journal, had gesso on the pages. I only used paint on this one and then collaged some stuff onto the various pages. I'm going to try and paint flowers on the pages. This is my first attempt at a flower, and I'm reasonably happy with it.

 Most of my time during the last two weeks has involved taking classes over at the Art Geek's site. One of the classes is the August Obsessions class where we are making a journal out of single sheets of cardstock. Other people in the class are using file folders but my paper cutter is a very old one, and it would not cut file folders, so I ended up using card stock instead.

This is what the two sides of my new journal look like front and backs of all the sheets just put into a pile. They already look different since I've added another layer to them, but since I will be adding two more to them this weekend I didn't update the photos.

It is going to be interesting to see how the binding method will go, but I'm not ready to try that out yet. We will see what we will see.

 I am also taking the Eclectic Journal class at the same time. I already had a journal made out of a church magazine. This class is about either using a magazine or a book and altering it in ways that are different from using gesso or paint. I had one spread and the cover from my old magazine journal so I decided to try the new system on that.

I could only use the full system on the back cover since everything else had some gesso on it. The front cover does have a partial new system on it. All I can say is that I've become a believer because this is the easiest thing I've ever done with making my own journal.

 The photo above is the front cover. The one to the side is the back cover. The idea, also from the class is to use your own previous journal pages to produce things you can use in your new journals. The girl on the front cover is a copy of one of my two painted girls. I got to do some additional pen work on the copy, and I think she looks even better than the original did. I cut her out and pasted her on the cover and put a boarder of a painted paper of my own around the page. I added a fussy cut flower spray as well. The background is painted book pages and a painted paper that I had made quite a while ago.

I used one of the techniques from the Altered backgrounds class when I made up the back cover. I also recycled both the bird and the bird stamp from a previous layout. Using elements from my own art was interesting mainly because there isn't all that much of it yet. I've only been doing art journaling for a few months. But no question that I'm going to be making copies and scanning a lot of what I will be doing in the future so I can use parts of it again. Looks like Photoshop is going to get a workout.

And finally here is the last spread in that journal as well. Like every other thing I did in it this is experimental in some way. I used a dyed paper towel at one end, and washi tape. I doodled and I put some collage on the page but did not cover the entire thing. The hearts were from a deli print I had doodled on. I'm pretty happy with it overall.

So that is what I've been up to. Take care all.

Junk Journals, Doodling and ICADs

So yes, that says Junk Journals. In addition to the two books I sewed up and the one book waiting sewing, I've been trying to turn a Church magazine into a junk journal. After all, once one has read all the articles, the only thing one normally does is throw it away. My local garbage company doesn't recycle magazines or white paper.

This is my third attempt (fourth?) at turning something like this into a journal. I finally succeeded and you can tell because there is paint all over the cover although I have not yet painted the cover.

The magazine is a short one. And it is made of unusually heavy paper. The entire thing is made out of paper usually used for the covers.

I put masking tape on the cover and inside all of the pages to keep liquids from destroying the magazine when I gesso the  pages or paint on them. That is what happened to the other attempts.

So this was where the first journal page was when I went to bed several days ago. It felt finished to me, but I knew that this journal like the others I've made was intended as a place to experiment. And the experiment I needed to do was doodling, which you can see I did quite a bit of, and layers. There are a bunch of layers on this piece, but I wanted more.

This is the same page, several layers later You can see bits of the previous layers in between the blue. More stamping and stenciling, some collage, more doodling, more paint and some oil pastel crayons. I liked the first set of layers, but I like this set too.








This is the second spread in the junk journal. I forgot to take a photo of this spread before I added the collage. It wasn't finished. Even I didn't think so, but it was an interesting first set of layers.

The collage layer is book pages and some painted magazine pages.

I did a bunch of stamping done on top of that.

Then stenciled butterflies and doodling. And at this point I just could not paint over it and do more layers. I intended to, but just could not.

I was watching someone on YouTube finish up her spread and I watched what those finishing touches were. I had already drawn around the butterflies first with marker (see above) and then with the oil crayon and smudged. I'm not sure I like the oil crayon here. I had doodled inside the butterflies with white and I added more doodling in black, which I like the look of. I also added the smudged border around the spread and I'm not sure what else at this point, but I know that as I watched, I got up three times and just did some of what she had done.


I have also been doing ICADs. (Index Cards A Day) which seems to be a Summer event every year. The idea here is that you have a cheap, small surface and you do something with it every day. Basically the idea is that if it is cheap and plentiful, you will be able to work with it even if it isn't perfect.

Here are the first 5 out of what is supposed to be 60, made during the months of June and July. I started a day late, but since it was just one card I decided to catch up.

I've been using supplies I have in the house that I have not used either at all or much. Oil markers on the flower including gold and silver markers. The theme for the red card was supposed to be Circus and I put in the lights that used to be strung in country fairs. The green one is a play on my name which is Stella, which means Star and I did a Starry, Starry Night. Both of them had glitter which I didn't like, so I tried to wipe it off and instead the entire card got covered in a light coat of glitter, which I did like. I did the red one first and then did the blue/green one as well. The next two cards have writing on them. Like a lot of people I don't like my handwriting so I'm forcing myself to do some writing on some of these cards.

Another thing that I've been working on is doodling. I had a bunch of gelli printed delli paper that frankly were going nowhere, so I pulled them out and pulled out some markers and this is what I got.

I practiced all kinds of doodles in white and black markers. I had one extra heavy black marker and you can see some of that on the bottom picture.

These were always intended as papers to be collaged with and now they are interesting enough for that to actually happen.

I did them this morning and I really like what happened.

But I know I need to do more of this before I'm really comfortable doodling. And this is a great way to turn some gelli prints into something I'm likely to use.

Take care all.

   

A Small Haul and Learning

I've been watching a lot of YouTube, possibly too much YouTube, but it seems to fit my learning style these days. I've always learned from books, but that was mainly because there were no teachers available and also because visual learning was also not available in any way. But with YouTube I am discovering that I really learn very well from watching someone else do something. It helps to have some pdf files to go along with the videos, but usually those tend to be minimal, and that also is working.

But one of the things that happens on YouTube is people showing off their "Haul" from various stores, so this is what I bought from Hobby Lobby and Tuesday Morning last week. I didn't take photos of yesterday's Hobby Lobby and Dollar Tree shopping, but it also wasn't as photogenic.

I'll be showing off another layout and some learning experiences after these photos.

This was from Tuesday Morning. The bottle in the plastic bag is Collage Podge in its old labeling at less than half the price I would have paid in the new labeling. There are two packages of napkins, 4 packages of what I thought was fancy black and white tissue paper, but which wasn't, a stamp pad, package of adhesive dots, and a bottle of what I think is an extra glossy medium by Martha Stewart.


I went to Hobby Lobby with a list. I got the big pad that is the background for both photos. You can just see the spiral binding in the upper left corner. I had bought a craft mat, but it was way too small. I've noticed on YouTube that a lot of the video makers there buy two or three of them and tape them together, but a lot of them have moved to the pad of heavier than copy paper but not too heavy. I found a very happy medium at Hobby Lobby and bought it with a 40% off coupon.

I got transfer paper (in the wide package) and a new steel ruler (in the narrow package). Cutting with wooden rulers is dangerous and the only steel ruler I could find was 18 inches long and just too big for a lot of jobs. The two background stamps were on Clearance and I liked them and just got them.

The latest, but one, layout. Love the colors and love that I painted the flowers. I'm not sure it is finished but if I add something to it, I'll post the new photo and this one (again) so you can see the difference.

I learned to make the flowers when I was painting magazine pages. I learned I could trust myself to paint a simple flower. I love the way they came out.

Which brings me to my way of learning. It turns out that I tend to pick a lower priced way of doing something, like painting on magazine pages, or making stamps out of craft foam, or the printing plate I'm going to be talking about soon, and I just keep working on that particular method until I run it out before I go and do things the more expensive ways. Like a good printing plate or making stamps by cutting them out of rubber with real stamp cutting tools. I seem to want to know how to do whatever can actually be done the cheaper way. And frequently a lot can be done.

I've already done a lot with the stamp making, but I've got several addition techniques I want to try. I haven't done it yet so I have nothing to show. Just ideas floating around my head.

I had ordered a printing plate several weeks ago, but it didn't arrive until Friday. I bought from a place that does odd lots of craft supplies, so when I heard the second bad review of it on YouTube I knew I could not send it back. And, of course, since I got a deal, what I bought wasn't the same plate everyone on YouTube was using. Yesterday I tried the plate I had bought. And yes, the one stencil I tried on it did not work. What did work was making marks with various texture tools. One of my home made stamps also worked but I didn't try several ideas I was sure would work with the stamps I've got, or the ones I intend to try to make. I had to make the photo large so you can see the mark making I did try.

I've got lots more ideas of what can be done with this printing plate. Last night I saw two things on the videos on printmaking with the other plate that I watched. About all the video makers did was use stencils, and all of the ones they used had large holes. The one stencil I tried did not have large holes. Who knows if it would have worked if I had tried one with large holes. Lots of things to try out.

These two photos are also about a learning process. I bought a new printer a few months ago and was curious if the copy function included making the copies bigger and smaller than the original. The last printer did copy, but it could not do what I wanted. For that I had to open Photoshop and manipulate the jpeg file there.

Well this one does. The original is the biggest of the three faces in this photo. I have not learned how to actually do what I wanted to do, but I was half way there when I found I had one copy that was about the size I needed. So I stopped when I was ahead.

The background is the blue one I did with one of my home made stamps several weeks ago and did not know what to do with. Next step trace her face on tracing paper and add hair and then use the transfer paper I bought last week (see above) and get her on the page so I can start painting.

And I've gone full circle from the "haul" to what I'm doing with some of the supplies.

Take care all.

More First Steps

I've begun the first steps in working on real physical art projects. I bought a 4 foot folding table which is now sitting  near my computer desk. It gives me a U shaped work area with the computer and desk stuff on one side and the art stuff on the other side.

In the past any art projects I did were digital, and I got very good at that, and at Photoshop, but there is this desire to play with real art materials. I had to hold off of that while my husband was still home. I could close down a digital project very quickly, but the clean up from paints and other wet materials would have been difficult problem. My health issues over the last couple of years also kept me in the recliner so this kind of stuff would not have been possible.

 I took this photo while sitting in the desk chair, but as you can see I've begun to bring the art stuff into the Computer Room.

Not all of it however. There is a huge amount of art stuff to be moved from my closet in the bedroom, and from other areas. I think I had stuff all over the house.

I am going to be pulling books out of the bookcase that I am now willing to give up. There are a lot of books I'm ready to release into the world. They will either go to Goodwill or to my local library, but I will need help to give them to the library so it is likely to be Goodwill.

Then I will have room to store the art supplies in what will become the Computer Room/Art Studio.

As you can see there is even more stuff still coming in. I'm calling a halt on any additional purchases until I start using the art supplies. I'll have a better idea of what I will be using and what I don't much care for.

I also have been doing some drawing. Faces are the thing I want to do on my art journals, but what I also have been most afraid of. But I don't think this one, which I just drew from my head is all that bad. Time to start adding color to these things.

Time also to do some other things. Today I want to make my first backgrounds. I have several sketchbooks, watercolor books, etc. and I also have some card stock that is loose. I'm going to start with the card stock, I think, while I catalog what else I've got.

I also have bought two video classes. One for drawing faces, which is where the technique I used on this face came from. Another is on drawing with pencil. I have one "chapter" on the face video to watch, and the entire drawing video. The face video shows 3/4 and profile faces and she paints the faces as well as drawing them. I'm going to need to watch the painting parts several times before I actually do her technique. It is a great video from Interweave by Jane Davenport.

I've got my new Roku box set up to show me YouTube videos. And I watched several mixed media and one face video last night. All three of them were quite long. I'm one of those people who learn by attacking what I want to learn from multiple viewpoints. Multiple books in the past, and now multiple videos.

Take care all.

I DID IT!

Hi all. Today I did it. I sat down and actually used some of my art supplies. I copied a bunch of tulips from a book of flower drawings. The author says you learn how to draw (or how to draw again) by drawing. And I've decided to go with it.

It was supposed to rain, but instead the sun came out. I decided to go to CVS to buy a couple of things I needed since I had a 20% off coupon. I looked over at their art supplies (not much) to see if they had drawing pencils since what I thought were pencils turned out to be charcoal pencils. They didn't have any so I went to Hobby Lobby. Got the shock of my life when one of the two handicapped spaces was empty. I ended up doing both stores with carts and not with my walker. I'll admit when I got home I was dead tired.

So I bought a bunch of drawing pencils in a package which I have not opened yet, and found the Kindle copy of a book on DRAWING FOR THE ABSOLUTE BEGINNER, and my intention is to spend a small amount of time every day learning to draw again.

I'm also taking a Craftsy Class on Colored Pencils. And now that I've got the materials for that too, I'm going to start the exercises she shows in Lesson 2 that are intended to teach you how to use the pencils. I'm going to be doing some exercises with the drawing pencils as well. The idea is to learn how pencils of all kinds work.

Take care all.