MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - Art Bar Journal Prompts

Hi everyone!

Having a blast with the girls. We spent 4 days in Springfield last week. One entire day (yep- 6 hours) of touring the amazing Wonders of Wildlife Museum at Bass Pro. Some seem to think the prices are a bit high but not in the least... not for all you get to see AND DO. A lot of things are very interactive and Johnny Morris has done an amazing job of offering up a spectacular attraction. I'm considering a season pass for myself just so I can go whenever I want when I'm in Springfield. some of the exhibits in the Wildlife portion will change periodically. Then there's the whole petting the stingrays thing. I could live at that tank. LOL

Okay... Mixed Media.  A few months ago, I was invited to join a FB group called The Art Bar. Denina is very active in the group and in LEADING the group. Every time I turn around, she has another LIVE on YouTube... she just turns on the live and plays all day, interacting with folks as they come and go.

Saturday, I finally got to play. She drew 6 cards from her Art Journal card deck... something I intend to make in the future. 
We had:

Something Shiny
Repetitive Pattern
Privacy Envelope
Animal
Postage Stamp
Paint Chip

I pulled out a fresh 6x8 spiral art journal and decided to designate just for Art Bar. This way I'll have one ready to go any time I can sit and play with the group.

Here was my 2 page layout:

I started by swiping School Bus yellow paint all over the page then came back with Yellow Citron. My paints are old and clunky. They don't mix up well so after spreading them as best I could across the page, I swiped them with a baby wipe. Then I wiped the baby wipes off on other pages in the journal to start new base pages.

I pulled out those new Tim Holtz stamps from my haul to stamp the butterfly and the swirl from Urban Chic in Gorgeous Grape. I stamped between the butterflies with a stylish swirl from Mini Ornates

I tore a section of the privacy envelope off.. keeping just the part with the window. Then swiped Pumpkin Pie paint on both sides. 

The butterfly is a  napkin transfer on a paint chip that is folded so that part of it tucks into the top of the envelope. I covered the back of the paint chip with more of the same napkin.

When you flip the envelope open, you see this:

The sentiment on the envelope is from the Urban Chic collection.

live in the

moment

and make it

so beautiful

that it 

will be worth

remembering.

I have items for the new Just Do It June Junk Journal Challenge. I will post mini challenge # 1 & #2 next week... maybe even #3. As of writing this on Saturday afternoon, Julie still hadn't posted the new challenge.

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - Getting Started in Art Journaling

Good morning, creative friends.

I didn't get to my Wacky Brave Girl journal this week. Between helping an author friend fix multiple errors in her manuscript before the book released today and working on my own revisions there just hasn't been a lot of play time.

In the past, some of you have commented that you don't know where to start. So today, I've pulled a great beginner video from Dawn DeVries Sokol. She's a bit nervous in front of the camera but a wonderful teacher. The video below is an abbreviated version of the class she teaches on CraftDaily.  

I have one of her videos - Art Journaling- Pages in Stages - that I ordered from ClothPaperScissors several years ago and watch it whenever I need to get back in the art journal groove.  They offer a wide variety of videos on just about any creative process and often have great sales.

I'm working on my presentation outline today so I'll leave you with this video:

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - Art Journal Page

The girls had fun using ink on glossy cardstock yesterday. They puddled ink, spritzed with water, tilted paper, blew with a straw (grandpa's suggestion) and had a really good time. Abby's came out a bit muddy but blotting with a roll of paper towels revealed a very pretty background.

Unfortunately, those pictures are on my phone and not on my regular camera. But, I do have a plan for those backgrounds so I'll show everything in a couple of weeks.

Now that the girls are acclimated to their new surroundings, this week we begin a regular routine. A routine that requires integrating their 'summer schooling' and weekly library trip in with my already established household routine.

So in the business, it's nice when I can take some 'me' time as I did yesterday.

Using some of the negatives from items I'd cut out to include in ATCs (which I will show as soon as recipients have seen them first), I created the second layer of an existing background (sunflower yellow)

I also used the relief from the labels that go on the backs of unmounted rubber stamps from SU.

I love using the negative spaces to create journaling and doodling blocks on my pages. 

I taped the edges down with blue tape...

and got busy with (Folk Art)  Red Violet, Light Blue, Yellow Citron and Podge Pink

After drying, I removed the stencils and started doodling with my Precision Pens from American Crafts. 

I outlined everything except the burgundy tag in the bottom left with a 08 and did most of the lettering with a 08. The tag was outlined with a signo white as well as the embellishments to the pink floral doily at the top. I colored in the doodle snake with Studio G paint markers from Michaels.

Not much of a page but was relaxing to just sit and play while we watched tv before bed. 

Do you doodle? Art Journal? play with paints? Link me to your creative goodness in the comments below. Inspire me!

Creative Blessings!
Kelly

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY RETURNS! - Playing with Scraps

The above picture is a shot of what's left from all the cardmaking I've been doing the past couple of weeks. I don't throw anything away if I can get at least one more use out of it.

I saw the negative space in the punch remains and thought how great they'd look scattered around an art journal layout as stencils.

So here's what I came up with this week:

You'll see hints of color coming through the Sunflower Yellow base. That is where I test-sprayed the Light Blue.

Here's the layout:

I took another picture after I sprayed the Light Blue but the picture wasn't on my memory card. (the camera has been doing that a lot lately)

Far from finished. I want to work with the Pitt Pens or something a bit, but I have a base to work from. So next week I'll show progress, including having the negatives removed and a bit of pen work.

What do you think?  Do you use other things for stencils? Please leave a link in the comments so I can see what you're working on.

Creative Blessings!
Kelly

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - The Documented Life

While looking at others blogs last week I came across an incredible piece of art. I can't show you a picture but if you click on Art to the 5th, you'll see what I mean. This is called The Documented Life Project.

This journal is the brainchild of Lorraine Bell. The book is actually 3 books in one.

A Dayplanner
An Art Journal
Diary

Lorraine and most of the other over 1200 members of this project use a softcover Moleskine Weekly Planner.   With the planner as a base, the concept is to have something to track your daily life, include art and make it YOUR OWN.

Well, you know me... I have to invent the wheel. Partly because I don't want to wait to start putting mine together - we are already into Week 10 of the challenges and additives. The other reason is I've discovered the one thing that works best for me as a dayplanner - well two things - a Monthly Planner from the Dollar Store and a Composition Book. I use the planner to keep track of Bob's schedule but my daily tasks are written on a page in the notebook. I'm thinking The Documented Life Project will let me combine these two items into one AND give me the opportunity to include some art in my day - something that has been lacking of late.

And if you're wondering how THIS planner is working out.....

It isn't. I've not even had it out of the bag since Week 2. I'm not sure why other than the composition notebook and I seem to connect. I'm a list maker and I think the preset planner took that away from me.
The Documented Life Project will allow me to still use my composition book, to make my lists but I hope to incorporate pieces of the disinherited planner.

I've been gathering supplies while I try to get the studio in order so I hope to show you the beginnings of my book in 2 weeks. There will NOT be a blog post next Monday as I'll have nothing to schedule and I will just be getting back from a road trip (unless weather turns, keeping me at home). We'll see.

Artful Thursday... plus

Plus I'm backing up to actually show my Teapot Tuesday card for this week. It was another one of THOSE weeks where what I had in my head just would not transpire to something tangible. I finally ditched my original concept completely and found a new jumping off point.

The card this week goes to Betty. She lives in AZ and has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. She loves flowers and her nickname is Sunshine. So I went with Daisies and yellow.

I chose a sketch from the SCS Sketch Challenge (SC36) and tweaked it by adding the sentiment bar at the bottom. I also went looking in the SCS Color Challenge (SC36) and found the pairing for the base color of Daffodil Delight I'd chosen to work with. SC36 suggested Concord Crush and Pear Pizzaz. I LOVE Pear Pizzaz and have been ordering a pack every time I place an order because it's an In Color and will be gone this year. The sentiment stamp is from a set from Studio 112. The Daisy is one I picked up at $Tree years ago.

Then there's the Art Journal project Michelle over at the Paper Dog and I are playing with. After Saturday's fiasco of trying to draw a face on the cover, I'm stalled. I loved my cover then after I attempted the face it looked horrid. No, this wasn't the inner voice. I truly looked like an alien. So I painted that area back over with white gesso, then a layer of vintage rose acrylic before adding a piece of the original paper back into place.

Next week when I'm not so focused on working on my current novel, I'll have time to sit and play with the face more. Only after I've sketched something I can look at, will I add it to the cover... hopefully for next Thursday's post.

In the mean time, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the collage.

Creative Blessings!

Amazon Order

I have to say, that with the holidays approaching, the Amazon sellers I've been dealing with lately have been... FABULOUS! I ordered 2 books and a DVD last week. Everything arrived this week. The first item was a book that is part of a trilogy. I'd been unable to find the book locally so ordered it. I want to read it then share the entire collection with a friend as a Christmas gift. She doesn't mind 'used gifts'. We're good that way. LOL The DVD was to replace my husband's VHS of the John Travolta movie classic, Pulp Fiction. Sorry, I don't see the appeal of this particular movie but hubby likes it and has been searching for a replacement for months. If it will make him smile, that's good enough for me.

The third item I ordered was The ART JOURNAL WORKSHOP by Traci Bunkers. It comes with a Live Time-Lapse Video of the projects being created. Pretty cool. I know... I don't NEED another art journal workshop book but I love looking at different takes on the same techniques. Every artist brings their own vision to the table.

Now when you order from someone on Amazon, it's a good thing to notice the SELLER RATING. Ideally, you want to work with someone who has 4-Star or higher, or 98% Success rate. HOWLING FOREVER BOOKS has a 5-STAR rating. And with good reason.

The art journal book was well packaged - maybe too well. It had been packaged so tightly - within bubble wrap, mind you, that the CD in the inside front cover cracked.

The first thing I did was take a picture of the cracked CD, still in the plastic sleeve inside the book cover. Then I emailed the seller at amazon, explaining that although I had already given them a 5-star rating I have since noticed the broken CD. When I checked mail the very nex morning I had a response from Howling Forever (via Amazon) and they had already refunded my purchase price. The felt the CD was an integral part of the book and wanted me to have the funds to purchase a new copy of the book locally that would have a workable CD. Wow! They didn't ask for the book back (that would probably cost more in postage than it was worth). They simply said Merry Christmas!

Granted, it wasn't their fault the USPS has to stomp on our packages, but Alex and his team did the right thing! And that's all the counts. I will work with Howling Forever Books and I hope when you're shopping at Amazon, you'll check their store front and know what you're ordering will be handled with professionalism.

Now.. to make time to play with Traci's book!