The Self Portrait Experience-21 Secrets 2011

The mixed media covers for a journal titled "Metophorical Me" that I did in Connie Hozvicka's 21 Secrets classes last year. It is to be filled with self portraits in various categories. I haven't gotten that far yet...but I will. :) Now that I'm seeing it on here, I'm not sure that I like the gesso I rubbed over it to tone it down. It looks a little chalky to me, at least moreso than I wanted. I'm thinking I may take some of the whiteness back off it. I do love the covers though, and look forward to adding the pages between them.

See the kitty in the lower corner? That's my favorite stamp, and I've lost it among all the clutter in my workspace. :/ Hoping I find it when I start organizing...



Doodlicious Angels Among The Pages

A few more Doodlicious pages from my first journal. Fluid acrylic paint smeared onto purple cardstock with an old credit card, a scrap of painted watercolor paper glued on for a pocket, words torn out of a magazine, and Dove bite size candy wrappers with messages on the inside. I sewed two pages together with fun yarn and a needle just for the fun of it and to see if I would like it. I did! :)

Green cardstock with fluid acrylic applied with old credit card. Torn scrap paper with lines to write on. The words haven't presented themselves to me yet. The paper on the left is folded so that the top lifts up for writing on the inside too. I used zebra duck tape to hold two pages together...and because I LOVE zebra duck tape! :)

Same as the page above, except the tape is in a different place to hold two pages together. This one shows the jagged credit card edge more in the paint. Yellow cardstock. I really like these colors together. Is that weird? :/

This page is part of the large paint-doodled pages of poster board that I did to start the journal. I love music and I found these napkins at Wal-Mart. I seperated one so that I only had one ply, tore it up and glued it down with gel medium over the doodles. I love all the notes and turquoise squiggles. The words haven't come to me for this one yet either...but they will! :)

Ok, this one is part of a two page spread (second page below) and it started out as a thick textured scrapbook paper, which I painted over. The angels and hearts are cut out of a paper towel and glued on with gel medium. The cut-out design has been filled in with paint. The angels and hearts were originally painted black, like silhouettes, but they looked too Halloweeny, so I put a strip of zebra duck tape across the bottom, which didn't make me like it any better. I mixed a little red acrylic into some white gesso and painted over both, right over the tape, to make them pink (I love pink), added a face, hair, and arms. Then I glued white unruyu paper over the skirt, used a white gellyroll pen to squiggle over the bodice, and glittered the wings. The hearts were filled in with a red marker and squiggled on with a gold gellyroll pen. Everything was outlined with a Zig black marker, and I wrote words with a white gellyroll pen.

Doesn't she look like she's just itching to get into something?

This page was made the same as the other one, except that it's on a 6 x 9" manila envelope with a smoother surface, giving it a slightly different look, and, since it's an envelope, I can hide "stuff" in it! I really like these two pages, and I had fun figuring out and trying to get them to where I could live with them, let alone, like them!

 And I really did meet an angel in her sock feet once! :)

I still have some pages to finish in this journal, but I'm also beginning to work in a second Doodlicious journal, and I'm adding the finishing touches on a needle felted doll, which has also been a lot of fun. I'll show you when they're ready!

Hope you're having as much fun as I am with your creative endeavors! :)

Word For the Year---NOW

For a few years now I've seen various artists online, in their blogs and artwork, pick a word for the year to focus on for inspiration and/or motivation. Many of the words are action words.

Anyway, this year, I decided on one for myself. It's not an action word unless you put other words with it, but it's a word that's been in my conscious for a while now. The word is NOW.

I'm 61 years old, and not in the greatest of health, although I'm very thankful that my health is as good as it is. I say this, because even IF I live to be 90 years old, I don't have that many years left to live, and maybe even less to be creative.

Hence, the time to do the things I want to do or create is NOW, as in:

DO IT NOW!

NOW IS THE TIME.

NOW, THIS MOMENT, IS WHAT MATTERS.
DON'T PUT OFF WHAT I CAN DO NOW.

I CAN'T GO BACK TO YESTERDAY, I'M NOT PROMISED THE NEXT MINUTE, SO NOW IS WHEN GOD HAS GIVEN ME TO LIVE AND CREATE.

LOVE AND ENJOY LIFE AND CREATIVITY NOW! MY WORLD COULD TURN UPSIDE DOWN TOMORROW, OR TODAY FOR THAT MATTER.

CREATE NOW!

LAUGH NOW!

DANCE NOW!

LOVE NOW!

So far, I've created two projects using my word. The last one (top) I created is the one I decided to put on my sidebar. It started out as a watercolor with the letters drawn and painted in my large A4 Moleskine watercolor book. It wasn't going very well, so I pasted torn scrap papers with writing on them onto it with gel medium, added some acrylic inks, white fluid acrylic, and writing in black zig marker and gold gellyroll pen. I wound up cutting the large letters out of white cardstock, covered them with clear gesso, then shimmering gold acrylic ink, then some white gesso in spots where they got smudged during the gluing down with gel medium. I added dots and outlining with the Zig marker and stamped dancing mice to make it fun. I like it a lot now. :)

The first one I did (bottom) in the Moleskine journal by applying leftover paint with an old credit card and drawing in the letters. The largest letters are painted, then outlined and "stitched" with metallic pens, which I also used to fill in the smaller letters. I wish the metallics showed up better in the scans, but unfortunately they don't. :/ I love dragonflies, so I stamped a couple onto the NOW and added a couple of sponge stamped hearts for a bit of whimsy.

I plan to apply this word liberally this year, so look for it in future projects. OK? :)

Doodlicious Journal Pages & A Llama

A few days ago some friends emailed us a photo of their new baby llama. It was so cute that I couldn't resist trying to draw it, using my sketch and wash pencil in my Moleskine journal/sketch book. I seem to have a penchant for not leaving room for feet, no matter what I'm attempting to draw. Nonetheless, I decided to share my first attempt at drawing a baby llama. I'm proud of myself for trying and I actually like it! :)

Baby llama is an off white color with a black spot on both back legs and woolly fur.

When my neice and neice-in-law gave me cookie cutters for Christmas a couple of times, they had no idea that I would use them for everything BUT baking cookies. :) Cookie cutter shapes and metallic pens in Moleskine journal with ideas for their different creative uses.

A page out of my first Doodlicious journal, using clorox on damp fluid acrylic paint, inktense pencils, white gellyroll pen, and a starry gold ribbon.

Double page in Moleskine using left over fluid acrylic paints spread on with an old credit card, white gesso on starry house shoe sole used for a stamp, and a black Zig marker for the letters, hearts, and circles.

A double page in Moleskine using leftover paint squished around with a large round bristle brush, blocked on with a flat brush, and  lettering is brush and Zig marker.

Another double page Moleskine testing some colored markers I got for Christmas, lists, a drawn bird sitting under a Frappucino label, a 50s themed napkin with notes and turquoise squiggles, leftover paint smudges, bubble wrap stamped in pink, and Zebra duck tape just for the fun of it. I love these pages of odds and ends!

That's it for this post! I'm having loads of fun playing in my journals and sketch books this winter, and I'm also finishing up my first needle felted doll, which I'll share as soon as I tweak her a little more. Also, more Doodlicious pages to follow...

Hope you enjoyed visiting as much as I enjoyed having you!

Journal Pages and a Zen-Doodle

I've been sharing some of my background pages with you, so I thought I'd share some finished, or not, pages from my first Doodlicious Daybook. I've been learning, applying, and experimenting with different papers and techniques that I've learned in the 21 Secrets workshops. It's not a book of polished or great work, but a book where I've been playing and having fun freely, just letting myself go without worrying about the outcome.

The personal writing will come later, or I may just finish all of the pages and leave this one as is. I already have enough pages for at least three more journals stacked and ready to be assembled. Some of these pages were shared in the previous posts.

I've really taken a shine to the zebra duck tape I learned about. I recently found some cheetah patterned duck tape too, so look out! :)

I stitched two pages back to back with fuzzy fun yarn just for the heck of it!



A double-page spread-Swimming As Fast As I Can-One of my favorites!

This is a doodle on metallic gold poster paper. I don't know if you can notice the writing at the top or not. It says, "Which One Do I Chase?" Too many balls, too many goals and dreams can be overwhelming sometimes!

Hand crocheted lace, done by my mom or my Granny, off a worn out pillowcase. Look, there's a smidgeon of cheetah under the heart!

Sparkly eye torn out of a magazine ad and the skinny cow off an ice cream box. What can I say? I love the cow and the sparkly eye, so they found a home in my journal!

 

 Another one of my favorites-a double page spread. I've shown this before, but I went over the writing with a white gellyroll pen and added cat tracks to make it show up better. Behind the closed door is another cat, and on the back of the door I wrote, "Sometimes A Gal Just Has to have Some Time Alone."

 Paint doodles and paper napkins I found at Wal-Mart torn up and glued down. I may add more stuff, but I kind of like it as is.

 Swirly metallic pen marks not showing up! Neither is the writing under the strip, but they're there!

 Fun Page! The dog is also magic!

                                                          Notes to self!

 Words haven't come to me yet for this one. Still working on it!

 Glitter glue and I have not become fast friends!

 Metallic poster paper. I closed the book and the glitter glue heart on the left page shared itself with the right page, so I just incorporated into the page. Oops! There's another smidgeon of Cheeta tape!

 Zebra and regular duck tape, bubble wrap, cellophane, and scrap paper=a good time!

A page out of the second Daybook, made out of watercolor paper. More of the fuzzy yarn on the pocket. Love that stuff!

I didn't take time to crop the pictures to make them neat and tidy, because the journal is messy, and I kind of like the messy photos to go with it. :o

This page is not in a Doodlicious Daybook, but it is in my Moleskine pocket sketch book, which I took with me on a daytrip to the Toyota dealer yesterday. It was a four-hour round trip, plus two hours in the waiting room with a lot of other people, a service dog, and a baby. I plugged my mp3 player into my ears, took out my Moleskine and my Zig marker and just doodled away. The time went by quickly and I wound up with a full page zen-doodle? :/

If you're still with me, I hope you enjoyed  your visit and that you found something interesting or something that, at least, made you smile. :)

Inking and Marbling Text

I've been at it again! This time I'm learning and experimenting with acrylic inks on book pages and text. The words are Oriah Mountain Dreamer's and the pages are from her book "The Dance."

I've never been able to tear a book in any way until lately, and it is in no way a sign of disrespect for the author. I enjoyed the book, and I like the text to use in my personal journaling. These pages can be used as whole page backgrounds or torn into shapes and collaged onto pages, whatever my imagination can come up with for them.

Acrylic inks are very concentrated and bright, which I love. I am just learning to manipulate them so the pages are kind of messy, but I like them. :)

 A utube video on marbling prompted the above experiments. I put a little water in the bottom of a glass platter, layed the page in it and let it soak up the water, then dripped different colored inks onto it. The lightest dots are a shimmery gold, very pale, gorgeous. I wish it showed up better.

Too much water on the left page let the ink run too much. In fact, it ran right off the page into the water!

Too little water on the right page didn't let the ink run enough and it soaked into the page too quickly and couldn't be manipulated much. I sprayed more water onto the top and spread it a little more. The text is upside down, because the design resembled flowers that way.

 Because the pages couldn't lay flat in the bottom of the platter, I tore the middle out of a page (right) and sprayed a mist on the platter, layed the page down, the sprayed water on the top before dripping the ink. I like it! :)

The page on the left is where I decided to try marbling with the ink. I used the shaving cream technique learned in the Everything But the Kitchen Sink workshop with Heidi Dilley in the 21 Secrets Playground. I have been doing this with fluid acrylics. I like the results I got with the inks though. Each has its own attributes. I'm finding that I can take a brush handle and make different designs too. Fun!!!

 More marbling above, different designs...

 Back to dripping the ink. The left page has cerulean blue hue, metallic irridescent copper, and shimmery pale gold. It's gorgeous in reality. I'm beginning to learn how to control the water and the inks!

For some reason I decided to tear the margins off this page and just go for it. A little bit of everything thrown in colorwise. I'm learning that I can also draw with the ink eye droppers. See the squiggles in the copper paint? I love this page with the ragged edges! :)

Now I'm off to see what I can learn today! Hope something on here was useful to you or, at least, made you smile. :)

Doodlicious Daybook #3: Marbled Pages

Well, I've been playing with color, shaving cream, paper, and a credit card again! I started out making these background pages to mix in with Daybook #2, a couple of posts back, but I don't really like the way they look mixed in, so I've probably got daybook #3 here. That's ok though! One can never have too many art journals to play in! Besides, making these background pages is addictive.

I bought a new color of fluid acrylic, called Quincidine Burnt Orange (love it!), plus a few bottles of acrylic inks with some money I got for Christmas. I had painted one full sheet of cheap watercolor paper on both sides with watercolor doodles and splashes a couple of days ago, and then I tore it and a blank white sheet up into 5" x 71/2" pages, but then, as I said before, I didn't really think they mixed in too well with daybook #2, so I stacked them up for a seperate book.

Yesterday morning I decided to play with my new inks and shaving cream, so I took all the blank white sheets out, and started marbling. I used drops of the burnt orange fluid acrylics, mixed with drops of Thalo green (bluish), irridescent copper, and olive green acrylic inks to make all these varietions.

There are two pages to a picture and they are not in the order that they will be when I put the book together. The effect on the soft textured wc paper is not as sharp as it is on a slicker harder surface like cardstock anyway, but the colors are actually a little darker than they scanned. I like em! :)

Below are the pages that I had previously watercolored and drawn over with brush and india ink. I wondered what they would look like marbled over. I like it! :)

These are two of the watercolored pages without the marbling, just for variety.

Below is a page that I've been working on from book #2. The background is white with black india ink brushed on to make squares. Then I sewed a strip of scrap paper from a painted page across the bottom with fun yarn to make a pocket. The bookmark in the pocket was included in a card that I got from mychildhood friend on my last birthday. I had to tear the bottom off for it to fit, but it added to the design to place it under the bookmark at the top. Hole enforcements were added for color...and because I tore one of the holes out the side. :o

There isn't a gray strip around the bottom and side. I just wanted to show you the hairy yarn I sewed the pocket with.

Hope something on here made you smile!