Junk Mail Art and a little more

So, one of the girls that I am in a group with, posted a video using junk mail for art...painting over the irritating ads that clutter up our mailboxes day after day, week after week.  Well, I gave it a try, but my first attempt I was clearly thinking WAY too much...but after a deep breath, I tried again....with much better results...

This was my 2nd attempt...and I gotta say, I really like it!  Well, of course, that just spurred me on, and I went hunting more junk mail!  Our apartment complex keeps trash cans next to the mailboxes for residents to chunk their junk mail into...they are the ONLY trashcans on the property where people DON'T throw other stuff that doesn't belong...so I went digging...and got LOTS of junk mail to paint on....I figure about the time I run out, a new batch will have arrived, and I can re-stock...lol.

But junk mail art isn't the only thing I've been up to this week...

I did this one for the youngest daughter....Her school's colors are red, black and white, so this one is for her...it will get put in her room....maybe in a frame if she really likes it.

And then I did this....

These started as a simple painted background using a brayer...smoosh the paint around until it doesn't move anymore...if your colors blend well, feel free to put them on the paper together then smoosh them around....if they will turn to mud, then you need to apply them individually.  We want color...not mud.  Then I took a #1 paint brush, watered down the colors I used, and began painting swirls...I watered the paint down so that there wouldn't be a lot of texture....I wanted to keep the paper as smooth as possible.  Here's another I did...but the colors in this one were TOTALLY conducive to blending, so I smooshed away

I used various oranges, reds and a deep pink on this one...then did the swirls with the deep pink, copper and a blend of the deep pink and bronze metallic.  I really do love how they came out, and the process was so relaxing for me.

Inspired by my success, I grabbed my art journal, and tried it in there, too...

I will definitely be using this again in my journal, and even my backgrounds that I send out in happy mail...the only thing that bums me out about this, is that I can't scan it to reuse it....the scan loses the shimmer of the metallic paint and the depth and "texture" that show up on the original.

So that's my artful journey this week...what's yours?