Hello Again

Hey, Hows it going? Yeah I know. It's been a while. I was actually spending some time outside & enjoying the sunshine. But our weather here on the east coast has changed to cool/cold, windy & rainy. So inside days.

It seems odd to me that I have to force myself to get back in the Art habit! So I have been doing a lot of backgrounds or maybe they are just visual pages. I will have to see. I just read this great quote......

"Art may never be finished, but at a certain point you let it go and call it done"

by Julia Cameron

author of The Artists Way & many other helpful books

This page had some paint & ink leftovers wiped on to it. I added the rest as a listen to your gut (maybe I should refer to it as intuitive). I used what ever color paint, pen & pics my hands went to first.

This is my version of a shabby flower. It includes fabric, ribbon, lace & yarn. I used hot (low temp) glue. I watched a video on Vimo by Robin-Marie Smith. And she used a much better glue- fabric tack. I like this technique! You work with what you have & the results are a little different each time.

Helpful Critiques = Journal Pages

Here is a more finished version of one of my "needs something" pages from yesterdays post. I think I'm happy with it.

I want to thank the ladies who commented on the last post. It was very helpful! By the way the rest of you should go check out their blogs & flickr pages. I was wowed by their work!!



This is another journal that I have. This was a kind of fun, playing around spread. To help me remember things about a book I'm reading Better Boundaries, Owning and Treasuring Your Life by Jan Black & Greg Enns
I haven't finished the book yet. It has a positive spin about it. Do you know what I mean?


At Christmas my sister got one of my grandson's a Memory game. After she punched out all of the cards she was left with these big square grid looking pieces. She knew I'd use them for art stuff. And she was right. That's what the grid is from on the above page. I tried stazon ink first - didn't work. Acrylic paint did though!!



On this page I did gel medium transfers of magazine pics. I wasn't sure how they would work because this is very textured paper. But I like how they turned out! I am liking playing with my dip pens & ink again. I want to get a smaller nib/tip though.

See what happens on a snowed in day. While my husband goes out and plows the snow I stay in and plow thru my art supplies! I make him hot chocolate when he comes in!!! Oh and I'm trying a new recipe. It's beer bread. I hope it's good!!!

See I Do Still Art Journal & An Ink Question For You

I have been watching the wonderful Milliande work in her art journal. You can see her here http://www.milliande.com/Art-Journal-January-2010.html .

These 2 pages are done by putting masking tape on the page first. Then some ink & acrylic paint. Remove the masking tape. Which is the fun part, trying to decide which pieces went on last down to first!!! I saved the tape & put it in another journal. Then I sprayed the pages with food coloring (the blue). Then I used some Golden Interference blue (fine) on a stamp. Which shows up really well in these pics!? After all of that dried, I doodled with my black cat ink & dip pen. I still want to add more doodling to this.


This is also in response to Milliande. Her circle prompt. There's some security envelope, junk mail (that's where the heart came from), some painted pages, acrylic & gouache paint. Lastly some ink & my dip pen. This also needs some journaling on it! I like this first heart page better than the snowflake page. I ran out of the blue-grey mix of paint I used on the first page.



This is from an altered book. I love using books this way. The journaling "paper" on the right is a dried up baby wipe (a CLEAN one!!!) that I use to clean my brushes off on.
Does anyone have experience with the acrylic inks or drawing inks in various colors? I see Milliande uses them a lot. If you have used them is there a brand and/or color that you like? I was given a Dick Blick gift card for Christmas! I have a list going. So far I have Pan Pastels & the "knives" for them, sharpie poster paint pens in white (med & fine point) & maybe some Blick studio by Fabiano sheets of paper.

Scrappy Journal

I took Mary Ann Moss's Remains Of The Day on-class. It is an EXCELLENT class with PDF's, video's, class blog, yahoo group, & flickr group. You can find info about the class & her other classes on her blog .

http://dispatchfromla.typepad.com/dispatch_from_la/

In this class the pages are from paper scraps that gather in your stash & can't bear to get rid of. They are then sewn on or together to make the signatures. There are places for journaling, tucking in receipts or goodies from your day, pockets & anything else you want to add.

The cover has a paper base with the fabric being a kind of slipcover. The idea for the cover is to again use the fabric scraps in your stash. Then sew it down "guerrilla" style. A Mary Ann Moss phrase.

My pics are in the reverse order that I wanted. Oh well. This one below has my first "ticket" from my new POGO printer, a Christmas present from Sam. Plus some fabric & painted paper scraps.

This is one of my favorites. The butterfly is a note card.

This has a clear pocket.

This is my first page. Mary Ann had a pic of herself on her first page. I did the same thing!! I found this in an old Smithsonian mag.

Here is my cover. All wrapped up & cozy.
I had made some journals inspired by Mary Ann's. But they just didn't have "it". Now I understand her methods. She has the amazing ability to make order out of chaos. I think a lot like her but am unable to break it in to steps like she does.

She's my Art Hero!!!

Stuff & Nonsense

I realized that I haven't been posting much & am trying to fix that. I wanted to show you what I have been doing. I have been playing around with this little scraps journal. It has fabric, paper, paint, marker, yarn & trim throughout it. I saw that I had only a few pics of it so I was off with camera in hand to find it. Well, I can't find it!!! I think it knows that I fell out of love with it and is now hiding from me! I listened to that inner critic and thought that it was just another one of my failed experiments.

When I find it I shall finish it and post a pic or two.

Handmade Journal - Guerrilla Style

This was inspired by Dawn at http://on-the-banks-of-bay-creek.blogspot.com/ check out her flicker site as well. There you will find the pics of her visual journal volume 10. I loved looking at that journal she made (as well as her other art). Dawn referenced Mary Ann Moss http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341bf79853ef011571f2345a970b And I found that Dispatch From LA is a great place to wander around! She gives classes on her techniques. I just found her so haven't taken any classes yet.

This one went together so fast for me. So maybe next time I will remember to take pics along the way!

For a base I used the "fabric" that I made ironing those pesky plastic grocery bags together. I learned how to do this on Threadbangers on YouTube. I started by gathering some papers I had in my stash & on my art table. That determined the size. I sewed paper towels to the inside of the front & back. Then I sewed the denim strip on the outside spine. (from my 15 yr old jeans that just got to thin to wear) Then the next black strip is from one of my husbands ties. The white is the plastic. I added ribbons to it. Took it outside and spray painted with a couple of stencils & then flipped over the stencils to use all of the paint!

The next step was to sew in 2 signatures of my papers. Folded each paper really well, assembled about 6 pages each & sewed them down the middle using a straight stitch.

This is my kind of sewing - guerrilla sewing (to quote Mary Ann Moss). Next time I will neaten up the edges. Oh and I added a pipe cleaner to the front edge to help keep it straight.

This is becoming a visual journal of sorts. I have added stickers off of fruit, tags off of a backpack for my grandson, labels off of a shirt. And I used Sarah Whitmires technique of claiming my journal on the first page. I am not questioning myself . I find a picture or anything else that catches my eye and glue, staple & stick it on the pages.

A Few Pics

This is the first page of my Hell Yeah journal. I splurged and bought a watercolor book. I wanted one half the length and thicker. But AC Moore only had that size in sketch paper. I guess I'll look on the Internet or make my own that size. I have never made my own book.

Well my recycled journals are "bound" with note book rings.

My sister just gave me a circa set from Levenger. I'll play with that and see if I can use that for my Journals!!

AAAAHHHH !!!! I just lost the pic of my first page. CRAP!!! I just don't understand how to manage the pics.

Each time I play with the text the pictures move & I can't get them to stay in the order I want!!!!!

Anyway, these are some pages & parts of pages. I love how watercolor paper plays with the different mediums.

An Addition to My Recycled Journal

I am working toward the create everyday way of thinking and doing. I have to remind myself that to create everyday does not mean I have to finish something everyday. I want to incorporate more of my drawings into my art. I usually avoid drawing in my altered books because then it would have to be permanent. (Yes I question this line of thinking too. The stable voice in my head says you could just rip the page out or gesso over it you know.) So I did this piece on another ripped out page of that yucky art book, to add to my recycled journal. I will do something else on the other side, hhmm what will it be? I am growing to like my green girl.

I finished my first attempt at a new style. eeaaah....it's ok. I will definitely be trying this again. I can see using this in my doodle journal.

Oh my ,I have 4 no, 5 journals going at this time!!

I have started a recycled journal. Similar to Christy http://averageamericangirl.com/blog/ and http://ingriddijkers.blogspot.com/. Now I have even more reasons to save things!!!