Saturday, June 27, 2015

Artful Journeys Week 26 - and a little more, sort of...

Wow!  Week 26...it seems, sometimes, like we just got started on this little endeavor, and yet, sometimes it seems like we've been slogging thru this FOREVER!!!!!

Our prompt for this week is "4th of July/Independence Day".   And for this prompt, I broke out my India inks to have a little fun...  In playing with them, I discovered that there are a few different ways to go about them, and honestly, I didn't like them all, but I sure like the effects I got when using them!

Here's a full shot of my spread:

India inks in Turquoise and Cherry Red, washi, tissue paper, burlap, and some printed bits, as well as some white India ink for the splatters and a white uniball signo for the stars.

And here are the shots of each of the individual pages:

Left page

Right page.

Also, for your viewing pleasure, I had some fun with ICAD and coloring...yes, coloring.

The following 3 pictures are the index cards I made this week.  I am still behind, but since I have figured out what my huge block is, I am hoping to get myself all caught up this week.




Most of these were made just using bits and bobs that were laying around on my table....I really like creating like this as it's more freeing and even a little more challenging.

And here are a couple of pics that I colored this week, just to relax.
Image by DiceBird - colored with PrismaColor and Crayola colored pencils

Image by DiceBird - colored with PrismaColor and Crayola colored pencils

And that's what I've got for this week.  Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Artful Journeys Week 25 and more!

So, this week at Artful Journeys we dove into a whole new arena for our prompt....shaving foam backgrounds!  As far as I know, only one of our admin team had done these before this week...the rest of us were shaving foam virgins.  It was AMAZEBALLS!!!!!!!!!!!

I never realized how much fun you could have a with a can of shaving foam and some ink or craft paint.

So what we start with is some shaving foam in the bottom of a shallow pan, spread into a relatively smooth layer, then sprinkled/drizzled with ink or paint.  Once you have your paint/ink drizzled around, you use some sort of tool (i used the end of my paintbrush), to "drag" your ink or paint around.  Once you're happy with it, you lay your paint in it, press it down gently, and then pull it out.  Grab a scraper of some sort, and drag all the shaving foam off, leaving just the color behind...like this...






How freaking cool are those???  And so fun and easy!!!!!!  I will DEFINITELY be doing this again!!!

And now for the index cards I've gotten done this week for ICAD 2015 -








I haven't been hugely creative this week, but I have been trying.

Happy arting and thanks for stopping by to take a look!!!

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Artful Journeys - Week 24 - Sail Away

It's hard to believe we're almost halfway thru the year already, and at Artful Journeys we're still have a great time working thru our prompts...well, most of the time.

This prompt...well, this prompt really had me stumped...I don't draw...at least not well, so drawing a boat for this prompt was out of the question unless I used a template...but as I was cruising around Pinterest for a free template of a sailboat, I found this super cute origami boat that I knew would work perfectly for the idea that had finally come to me late yesterday evening!  So I got busy...

First, I painted both pages of my spread with Delta's Ceramcoat in in Caribbean Blue...then I sprayed a couple of paper towels with every blue/teal/green/turquoise spray ink I could find in my box, and even spritzed a little purple down on it, too.  Once those were dry I tore them into wonky strips and glued them down at the bottom of the spread to be the "waves" of my water.  Not bad, but I felt like it lacked depth and dimension, so I grabbed this amazing textured scrapbook paper I found at Michael's, and cut out some more waves, and glued those down between my strips of inky paper towels.  Next, I grabbed a 12x12 sheet of scrapbook paper (nothing too thick here, or the folds won't work out right), and cut it into four (4) 6x6 pieces to make my boats...then glued those down in the "water".  I have to say, I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.  Here are some pics for you, including a few close-ups.

Here's the spread...you'll notice, I did the right side first, not thinking about creating some texture and dimension with the paper towels as I went.  Oh well!

A shot of the left page






I am also including a few of the index cards I completed for the 2015 ICAD Challenge.  I really had a lot of fun making these, and even though I'm behind, I am NOT giving up or quitting.  

Nothing too fancy or detailed here...a painted circle from a book page, a paper doily, a paper circle with some stacked writing, some washi and a stamped quote from a dear friend.

I can honestly say I spent more time painting the wood die cut than on the card itself, lol.  If those were real glasses, I would totally wear them!

Acrylic paints, masking tape, bubble wrap and some India ink

I think this is my favorite from this week.  I wasn't too keen on the original background, so I decided to add more by pressing it down onto my damp inky paper towels, to give it some additional color and depth...one more layer never killed anybody - I'm just sayin'.  I then cut some partial circles and glued them down, added some washi and hand drawn marks, along with the word, "Love".  I used my TH tiny attacher to staple the card to the tag, then glued it down on to the index card using ZipDry.  

This week has been a busy week for me.  The hubby and the kids went up to OK to see his mom, and I stayed behind with the dogs to get some much needed and WAY over-due cleaning/purging done.  My closet and bedroom and the youngest daughter's room were at the top of the list.  When I was done, 13 bags went to charity, and 11 bags of trash went to the curb...it was fucking awesome!  I have one more bedroom and 2 more closets to do, not to mention my "studio" (please read this as the dining room - as that's where all my arting gets done), but instead of trying to do it all in 3 days, I can space it out over the next couple of weeks.  I'll be sure to share pictures of it all when I'm thru.

That's all I have to share with you this week, but I hope you'll take the bull by the horns and work to create a daily habit of creating something new everyday.

Later, y'all!

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Week 23 - Song Lyrics

So our prompt this week was Song Lyrics, but I have been immersing myself in music for YEARS, and I honestly could NOT pick a set of lyrics!  So instead, I went my own way, and pulled a quote about music that I love from one of my fave artists from the 80's.

It's not much, but it's all I could come up with, lol.




I started with turquoise and titanium white, then added some strips of sheet music, and then came back in with my broad point UniBall Signo in black to letter my quote.  Very basic, but it's so very true.


Thanks for visiting!