Inspired

This evening I was hoping to play in my journal a bit, but wasn't sure where to start. I often feel like I use the same colors on just about every page so I wanted to try something different. 

I turned to my Pinterest boards for inspiration. One board is titled "Color Combos". I'm sure you can guess what it consists of. LOL I scrolled through & found one I liked. 

Aren't the colors gorgeous! So... I set about creating a page around these colors. (Or at least the closest I had/could make with my paint stash.)

I really like how it turned out! I'll be hitting up Pinterest for inspiration more often, now! 

new art journal page

For some reason I've been in a bit of a funk when it comes to playing in my art journal. I've still been in my craft room almost everyday, but I'm usually making cards, or trying to organize my goodies.

Tonight I decided that no matter what, I was going to work in my journal. It felt really good to get in there & get my fingers dirty!

I'd seen several people use washi tape on their pages but hadn't tried it yet. I have quite the washi collection (obsession?) and picked some cute ones.


I started the page with some Tim Holtz tissue paper & covered it with some iridescent turquoise paint.

 Washi!

Stencils, stencils & more stencils. I chose paint colors based on the colors in the tape.

I'm not sure if it's quite finished; maybe it needs a quote or something? But, I really like how it's turned out so far.

rediscovering an old love

Back in the day, when I used to scrapbook, I loved making cards. For a long time now, I've pretty much just gone the lazy easy route and purchased any that I needed. Even after all this time I felt kind of guilty, like I'm capable of doing it, I'm just not choosing to do so. (Guilty is probably too strong a word, but you know what I mean.)

Lately I've been getting sucked into the black hole known as YouTube a lot. As you know, that's very easy to do. One of my favorite card making bloggers/YouTubers is Jennifer McGuire. I think my friend Rebecca told me about her.

Anyway, I could sit and watch her videos all day (though I won't admit whether or not I've actually done so). Her videos have inspired me so much that I've been making a few cards here and there again.

My sister's birthday is this weekend, so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to continue getting my feet wet again. My card was quite obviously based on the one Jennifer McGuire posted today... If you watch her video, she does a great job explaining how to do it.

Now I'm just trying to come up with reasons to make cards! I had kind of forgotten how fun the are!

challenge

When I sat down at my table tonight, my only goal was to put paint on paper. I've been working on a couple of other projects the last week or so, and haven't worked in my journal at all.

As I put the first color on with an old card from a conference, I decided to do a little personal challenge and not use any paint brushes at all on the page. It was a lot of fun and actually came together really quickly. Of course I had to take photos as I went...


The first layers were done with the card...

The circles were done with an old toilet paper tube and a Pringles lid, the lines with a piece of corrugated cardboard! Then I just spread the orange paint with my fingers. I love how this paint is iridescent.

And last but not least, a Sharpie paint marker for a little journaling.

Do you ever give yourself little challenges like this? I'd love to see them!

oops!

So, Friday I promised I tell you a funny story about one of the faces I've done. This girl...

When I started the page, as usual, I didn't really have a plan as to where I was going with it. I just started by painting the background, using some stencils and then some stamps. I used a few of the stamps from this Bo Bunny set. I used the "scratchy" one and the coffee stains one. (I know you don't see the coffee stains one, keep reading & you'll see why. LOL)

After creating the background, I {obviously} decided there needed to be a girl there. So, I drew the girl and proudly showed the page to one of my friends. (We were having a crafty day.)

She looks at it and says basically, "Um, why does she have such huge boobs?!" I was like WHAT?! 

I hadn't paid any attention to where I was drawing the face in relation to the stamps that I had used and this was the result!

Oh. Em. Gee!!! We were all rolling laughing. I hadn't even realized what I'd done!

Needless to say, she got a bit of a makeover. And... I pay a bit more attention to what I'm doing now. LOL

playing around

I was playing around in my art journal yesterday & decided to take pictures as I went. I missed a step or two, but hopefully you'll get the idea. ;)

As I've been experimenting over the last couple of months with different products in my journal, I've come to realize I'm not a huge fan of using sprays. Or at least in the way they're intended to be used. The splatter-y look just doesn't seem to work for me. I like it in other people's journals, just not my own.

In an effort to expand my horizons a bit, I used Dylusions Inks to create my background. My friend Rebecca gave me a Studio Calico kit box to help prevent over spray. It works really well!

Then I used Liquitex Matte Gel to spread the spray like paint. I like how it didn't dilute the gorgeous color!

While I didn't really mind the brush strokes, I wanted a bit more texture, so I wadded up a piece of plastic wrap and pressed it into the spray/gel. I LOVE how it turned out!

 (I changed to my actual camera so the pictures look a bit different now.)

Next I sprayed green in the center, spritzed with water & moved my journal back & forth to let the ink drip.

I tried a technique I've seen on various videos, blogs, etc., where you sprinkle salt on top of the ink. It soaks up the dye and leaves little circles of lighter color.

Once it's dry, you brush off the salt to reveal the mottled texture. To be honest, I wasn't super happy with how it turned out.  Maybe I used too much salt, or let it sit too long before brushing off. I debated painting over it, but decided to just roll with it.

A few days ago, I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out some stencils. LOVE that I can do this, btw. One that I cut was a kind of doily shape. (You may be able to see where I stamped some images on the background... that would be the step I forgot to get a picture of. Oops!)

The one on the left was just begging me to draw a girl in it. LOL Who am I to not listen?

This is how the page looks as of now. I want to add more to it, possibly a quote or something, but I'm just not sure what yet.

I kind of enjoyed taking step-by-step pictures as I went. Tell me what y'all think. Would you like to see more posts like this?

faces, faces, faces

Not long after I started art journaling I decided I wanted to learn how to draw faces. I vaguely remember liking to draw as a child/teen, but had never "officially" learned.

One thing I know about myself is that I'm a visual learner. Tell me how to do something? It's like my brain has short-circuited. SHOW me how? I can just about do it immediately. So, I knew I needed to watch videos and take classes.

The video/class that made the most difference was from my favorite artist, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. She has a DVD in the Interweave Store called "All About Faces: How to Draw, Paint, Stencil and Collage Faces in Mixed-Media Art". (It can be purchased as a DVD or downloaded to your computer. I did the latter.) I learned SO MUCH from this video. She talks about everything from the proportions of the face to shading and different products you can use. I love her philosophy that perfection is overrated. So freeing!

Another favorite is "The Whimsical Face" with Jane Davenport. She is so much fun, and I could listen to her accent all day!

After these and a few others, I began to feel more confident when drawing faces. I still feel like they need a lot of work sometimes, and I DEFINITELY need to work on the hair, but overall I like how they're turning out. I now have one journal that I've pretty much exclusively done faces in. My own "facebook" if you will. LOL

Here are most that I've done so far...

I have a little "funny" to share about this girl, but I'll save that for another day. ;)

This is the one I did after watching Jane Davenport's video.

I did this girl with one of my favorite products, Faber Castell Gelatos. Originally, I had intended to define her features, but found I really like her like this!

There are still a few classes I'd like to take, mainly "FACEcinating Girls" with Andrea Gomoll. I love her style and can't wait to see what I can learn from her to incorporate into my own art.

Thanks for stopping by & I hope to "see" you again soon.