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 - Week #22 - Resists!!!!!

Hey, y'all!  Well, I'm back again, and this week over at Artful Journeys we did resists.  Now I am no perfectionist by any stretch of the imagination, but even this one originally pissed me off...lol.   

I started by trying a crayon/watercolor resist....can you say, "EPIC FAILURE"?  Here, let me show you!

The bottom one was AFTER I tried scraping some of the paint off the crayon, but I am going to say that my crayon was just defective...yeah, that's it. HA!!!

But!  I didn't let it get to me (that's not true - I cussed.  A lot.  Enough that it got the attention of my sailor husband, lol)  but I kept going.

So, just for shits and giggles, I tried it again, this time in my large Dylusions journal.  Um, no, this was even worse than the damn index cards, look

Here's the entire spread...what do you see?  You can SORT OF see ONE damn flower in the middle of the left page.

Oh, look, a swirly, that you can see if you get about 3 inches from the damn page

Here's part of a flower

And I believe this is the flower you can see in the pic of the whole spread.  Gah

So clearly the defective crayon went to a place we shall call "File X".  So, I walked away for the night, disgusted and discouraged and not entirely sure how this whole thing was gonna work out.  How can I blog about a resist if I can't get any resistance?

So, the next morning, after the hubby went to bed for the day, I pulled out some gesso and some Dylusions spray inks.  I KNEW this one would work, because I'd done it before after seeing it on Pinterest!  Grabbing a couple of index card dividers, I tarted them up with my gesso.

Nothing too fancy, just a paintbrush, and a credit card...it was fun!  Then of course, I had to wait for it to dry...luckily I had to go get the kids from school (or unfortunately depending on how ya look at it), so there was an hour of built in drying time...woohoo!!!!!!!!

Next came the inks!  Lemon Zest and Vibrant Turquoise on one, and Ripe Tangerine and Funky Fuchsia on the other!

How damn cool is that!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!

Encouraged by success, I moved it over into my journal on a larger scale, and came up with THIS awesomeness!!!  

Here's the full spread...sweet baby Pete how I love the way this came out!

The left page

The right page

Another shot after I added a couple of elements...I know it's not finished...DEFINITELY needs more, but for now, I'm good.

A stamp from a set called All About Me by Kaiser Craft that I was led to by the amazingly talented Tracy Scott.

It's funny how sometimes, when you're dismantling a dictionary, you come across a few definitions that seem to be talking to you, or about you.

Further encouraged, I took the advice of my dear friend, Betty, and grabbed a white wax pastel, and tried THAT with some watercolor, and got this surprising (to me) result that I also love.

I did this on a big chunk of watercolor paper.  Looking at the picture I realize it's kinda hard to see the white in the yellow, but I assure you it's there!  

That's not all I've created over the last couple of weeks, either!  Check these out!

This is what happens when you art just to art, lol.  I decided to screw around with a different color combination (definitely one I do NOT normally play with) and really shocked the hell out of myself with this spread.  I absolutely LOVE it!!!

This page actually started with that little piece from a journaling card and some leftover pink paint smeared all over the pages.

This one came from me forcing myself to create something when my muse was busy ignoring me.  I figured out later that she didn't care for the way I had rearranged the dining room table (my studio).  Once I put my stuff back where it belonged, I could immediately feel the difference.

So, that's what I have to share with you this week...although, before I go, let me just show you what crazy rainfall will do!

See those black poles, just past the yellow caution tape?  That is where the edge of this parking lot actually is...Those trees are way underwater.

See the fence?  That fence is running down the 3d base side of a softball field...that is completely under water.  Crazy, right?

And as I type this post, it's raining...again.  So, I'm gonna go grab my rain boots and dance in a couple of puddles, y'all go create something beautiful!  Thanks for stopping by, and please, leave some blog love!

Week 21 - Circles

So, this week over at Artful Journeys, our prompt is "Circles"!  Now, generally circles are right up my alley, but for whatever reason, THIS week, I just was NOT feeling it!  I tried painting them, drawing them, cutting them out of painted paper and cutting them out of book pages...still, I hated them all.  So, finally, a phone call with my dear friend and suggestion from her, I had an idea....so I got busy...again.

I started with some medium magenta and titanium white, and got busy on the first layer of my background, then added some craft acrylic accents in ocean reef blue, turquoise and parakeet.  Then grabbed my "bubbles" stencil by Dyan Reavely, and went back over the background with my medium magenta...so that it looked like this.

So far so good...now using my craft acrylics, and an assortment of discarded lids, I started making circles on top of what I had so far, until I got this.

I actually liked it here, but thought it needed more...so I added more.

Not really liking it anymore...I think it's the white...but at this point, I've decided that I just can't take anymore circles and move along.

I added my quote down in the bottom right hand corner..."I've wasted time, I've wasted breath, I think I've thought myself to death."  Kind of appropriate considering all the hell I've gone thru since I started trying to do this prompt.

Here are a few close-ups of the page...thanks for coming by and looking!

The quote is actually part of a song by The Kongos

Artful Journeys - Week 13

This weeks prompt was damn near the death of me!!!  For our prompt at Artful Journeys we had - Northern Lights/Stars.  Now I love the Northern Lights.  Would love to go see them!  Painting them however, proved too much for my limited talents and abilities, so I dropped back to the Stars part of our prompt.  I must have tried painting the Northern Lights at least 30 times, and every time my paintbrush went flying across the room in frustration.  My dog could have done a better job trying to paint them, and she is NOT a smart dog...doesn't possess any real talent, and gives no indication, on most days, that there is even a working brain in her head (much like me after a day of teenagers fighting).  So I did what I always do when I need some inspiration and a kick start.....I went to Google!  I started by searching for "nebulas"...and found a SUPER cool infra red pic of the Eagle Nebula...and I got to work!  Here is the picture I used for my inspiration....Gorgeous, isn't it?  And of course, it's just my color scheme!

 So, I started with Liquitex Basics in Mars Black and covered both pages in my small Dylusions journal.  Then, I flicked some watered down Basics in Titanium White all over before adding anything else.

 Here, I've gone in with Amsterdam in Turquoise, using my large round brush by Dina Wakley and began slowly adding my colors...this was by no means a quick spread.  All  told it took almost 3 hours from start to finish...that's a lot of painting time for me...lol

Here it is with most of the turquoise done....

The turquoise is done, and now I went back in with Diox purple (Basics) and began the process all over with that.

As is par for the course, I got caught up in what I was doing and forgot to take pictures as I started each new color, but I also added Basics Med. Magenta, Quin Magenta, and Bright Aqua Green.

Then I came back with some pearlescent acrylic ink and some watered down Titanium White and flicked it at the spread again.

I discovered, during the flicking process, that I suck at flicking...lol.    I got more paint on me, the laptop and the dining room table than I did the damn spread, but I did finally get what I felt was an adequate amount of "stars" onto the paper.

Then last, but not least, using a black water based Sharpie paint marker, I added a quote that just made me smile....

I was informed that I don't use my own writing enough, so I did....lol.

And there you have it!  My take on Week 13's prompt!  I hope you enjoyed it, and thanks for stopping by to look.  Please share some blog love and tell your friends to come on by, too!

Later, y'all!