Artful Journeys Week 35 - Sweet Memories

It's funny.  When I first started planning this prompt, I was grousing and grumbling about how I was already over it and hadn't even started the damn thing yet, lol.  But once I got started painting it, I knew I had to finish it, because the memories it brought back were ones I had almost forgotten and now I never will.  Before my folks split up in 1976, we used to go to the lake all the time to fish and camp.  One of my most favorite things to do was to catch fireflies after dinner, and while my mother was freaking out about ticks and whatever else she could think of, my daddy was in the bushes with me, helping me catch fireflies.  I never kept them for long, certainly not more than an hour, but that hour was long enough, and the memories are so wonderful...sometimes the most irritating noise, or a seemingly aggravating prompt, can refresh our memories and bring a smile to our faces after all.  

So let me tell you what I did...

I actually painted over a background in my altered book because I didn't like the way it had turned out, so down went 4 shades of red, some orange and some purple...once all that was dry, I then went across the bottom of the page with black, making trees and bushes for my fireflies to play in.  I used a nail art tool and a toothpick to create my little fireflies, then added some acrylic inks to give the image of the setting sun reflecting off the clouds in the sky...I added a few stars as well, then my little quote.  I ended up having quite a bit of fun with this quote even though I was not even close to being jazzed about it when I started.  

The initial layer

After the "trees" were added.

Here it is after the acrylic "clouds" and fireflies were added.

And here with the "stars" and the quote.

Left page

Right page

close up of the quote.

That's usually how it goes for me, although occasionally I will find one that I still don't like even after I'm done with it.  But that's what art and this group is all about...pushing yourself to step outside of your comfort zone and try new things...even if they're only new to you.

So there you have it....my take on this week's prompt.  I hope you enjoyed it, and thanks so much for stopping by.

Later, y'all!!

Artful Journeys-Wk 34-Take a look

When you think about it, how many windows do you see every day?  Do you even know?  Do you ever wonder what goes on behind those windows?  Maybe you can see from the street, if it's dark out, the lights are on and the blinds open.  Of course, there are some folks that go to extreme lengths to look into windows even when they shouldn't, lol.  My spread this week is a reminder for all of us, that just because we're at home, we might not be alone....

For this spread I started with my usual papers and gesso, then came back at it with two shades of red and a couple of different images....the image on the left is from Va Va Voom..., and the one on the right, behind the window from a bill envelope, is from the back cover of a magazine...a little stenciling and a quote, and I was done!

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Week 33 - Who's "Bad"?

Oh, man, let me tell you what....this has been a hella crazy week artistically speaking!  Altered playing cards, journal spreads and challenges, and of course, this week's prompt...all have seen some work on the "studio table" (insert "dining room table" and you'll have an accurate description of my "studio".  I don't really mind having to work in the dining room until a certain spouse, or children start pestering me about feeding them...then it's kinda a pain in the ass.  Can't lock them out of the dining room....sigh, but, sometimes I get lucky, and in just over a week, the kids will be going back to school and the house will be mine alone during the day!  Can you say "happy dance"?

So, anyways, back to the prompt for this week...."Bad Poetry". Let's get to it, shall we?

So I started with these supplies:

Yup...that was it...minus the paper, glue stick and gesso.  The thing that took me the longest for this spread, was finding the words to use for my "bad poetry".  I've recently been dismantling magazines, cutting out images and words for using in my art journal, and even my art for swaps and to sell, and so I have a small bucket that I'm keeping words, phrases and more in...so I went to digging in it to create some "bad poetry"

I started by creating my background.  Artist's Loft Turquoise and Liquitex Basics Titanium White, laid down over various papers & gesso.  I then grabbed a few stencils and still using the same two colors, did a little work with those.  I got turned on to the restricted color palette work by a challenge we did earlier this past week, and really fell in love with it, and knew it would be something I would be doing again.

Left page

Right page

Once the background was done and drying, I started looking for something to "write" my "bad poetry" on...and found this cute little folder/envelope that was made for me by my dear friend, Lynn.  I glued down my w

ords and called it good.  But upon further thought, I had decided it needed something more...it just looked unfinished.  Another friend agreed, and I went to work with a Neocolor ii, and my Tim Holtz mini distress pad in black soot...I outlined the words and went around the edges of the spread with the Neocolor, then edged the pages again with my mini pad.  I put down some washi tape, too, just for some added interest, and called it a night.

The folder with the poetry.

The entire spread.

A close-up of one of the pages showing the detail and how great it turned out.  

I have to say I was very pleased with how this spread turned out, even though I'm not sure  my "poetry" was worth a damn, lol.

In other artistic pursuits from this week I got busy creating some altered playing cards...Still working on them, but they sure are fun, and I really like the ones I've gotten done so far.  Here's a shot of them before I started the final stages:

And here are some of the ones I've completed so far:

And last, but not least, here's the spread I did for the limited palette challenge on Artful Journeys...the challenge was to create a spread using black and white...it was great!

And there you have it!  My creative endeavors since my last post...thanks for stopping by!

Later, y'all!!!

Artful Journeys Week 32 - Resistance is futile

So many techniques, so little time...so when you have the opportunity to try something new, how can you resist?  Especially if it requires no purchasing of supplies because you can use stuff you already have!

So this week we did a watercolor/salt resist...WET is key...mist the watercolors, mist your paper well, put the watercolors on the paper, spritz it with more water, then drop some coarse ground salt on top of the WET page..then wait.  It's gotta dry completely before you brush of the salt...Here's what mine turned out like.

 Two different watercolor backgrounds after salting and drying.

But wait!  I'm not done!

So while talking to a friend on the phone, I asked her if you could do this with the Dylusions ink sprays...she said she didn't know...maybe if the paper were wet enough...so I got a hair up my ass and decided to give it a go...just to see what would happen...well, AWESOMESAUCE happened!!!!!

How freakin' cool is THAT?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

So, for the spread, I took one of the watercolor pages, did a little lettering on a squared index card and came up with this!

But that's not the only fun I got to have this week!  Check out some of the other stuff I created!

Those are 3 spreads I've created this week...the top 2 in an altered book, the bottom one in my large Dylusions journal...Loving those colors!

Then there were these little motivational altered playing cards I created for a swap:

These were SOOOOO much fun!!!!!!  And my Muse was just screaming at me to keep going...don't stop...grab that...use that stamp.  It was just fantastic and I was so very pleased with the way they all turned out.

I really had a very artfully productive week, an I am looking forward to many more in the future.

What did you create this week?  I dare you to share it with me!  Leave me some love, and as always, make sure to go see the other girls in the team and see what they have to share with you this week!

Later, y'all!!!!!

Artful Journeys-Week 31-Kissed by a Rose

This week's prompt damn near drove me mad!  Go organic.

Really?  It's the first of August in Texas...everything is brown...brown leaves, brown grass, brown dirt, brown flowers and brown plants!  And the last thing I wanted was to put something in my journal that was just gonna crumble and make a big-ass mess for me to contend with every time I open my journal.

Well, it finally hit me while I was at the store, walking by the flowers, that I could just get some flower petals and put them down.  So that's what I did!

Using gel medium on a 7x10 sheet of mixed media paper, I laid down some rose petals in pink and yellow, making sure to leave some of them raised off the page, to give plenty of texture.  Nothing fancy or difficult...just 3 ingredients!

I'll be honest with you....I did NOT have fun with this prompt.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that if I ever have to do another prompt like this, I will vociferously, and respectfully decline.  

Now, onto other things!  So this was the last week for ICAD 2015 - and I managed to complete the entire challenge, creating 61 index cards of art for 61 days!  I was so pleased!  Here are the ones I created this last week:

I've gotta say I was very proud of myself for pushing myself to see this challenge thru till the end.  Last year, I think I got 3 cards done...just 3.  This year I just kept telling myself it was about the creating, NOT the prompts offered to us for inspiration!  

Thanks so much for looking, and have a wonderful week filled with art!

Later, y'all!!!!!