AEDM Day 12-Altered Record Album Back Cover Plus

I put my creative efforts today into the following three projects.

 I hand cut a couple of butterflies out of an old devotional book and dripped inks on them, then pasted them to the back of the altered album cover. The word GRATITUDE is across the top in gold metallic gelly pen. Washi tape was added to the spine and overlapped on both sides of the album. I have worked on this, adding and subtracting stuff, until I'm just frazzled, so I don't know if I'm calling it finished or not. Anyway, this is how it is right now. Except for maybe some tweaking here and there, I'm thinking my album file folder may be done. It's been a lot of work, but it's worth it. I like it!

I think I also finished this page today. It's one I had started during Katie's workshop. It started out as a self portrait in an outdoor setting and morphed into this, which looks absolutely nothing like me, but that's ok. It was a fun experiment, and I like her. Notice the pair of eyes looking over her? Her dress started out as a painted tee shirt, but I took an old embroidered scarf (I love the coarse material and crooked stitches) that I got at a yard sale, cut her a dress top, and used x heavy gel medium to paste it down. The blue between the eyes and the bow at her neck are a different fabric. Fun stuff!

Oh, yeah! There will be words on this one. I just haven't decided which ones yet. :)

This gallery canvas is in no way finished. I've had it started for a long time, but, for some reason, decided to play with it today while waiting for some gesso to dry. This started as one of my quirky doodle drawings and has already morphed a couple of times. It will probably morph a few more times before I quit on it. :) The middle heart has gold metallic strings like a harp/guitar, kind of, which she is plucking. I have no idea where it's going from here, but this is the way she is for now...

It's been a fun day of playing, but I'm tired and hungry, so I'm calling it a day. Have fun with your creative efforts!

Hope something on here made you smile. :)

AEDM Day 10 & 11-Altered Record Album Front Cover & Doodle

I worked on the album cover yesterday and today, and this is where it's at for now. I'm not completely happy with it, but I'm calling it done (unless I figure out what needs tweaking) and moving on.

I wish the copper metallic paint on the cross, the door knob, and the cat's eyes showed up better. It looks much better in reality, especially when the light hits it.

I also added some color to one of my left-handed character pages with with some water soluable oil pastels and crayons, quickly and loosely, for a base page.

Several of you have commented on the record album idea. I put it on a couple of other posts of the album, but, in case you missed it, mine was inspired by a project in the Layered Impressions workshop with Katie Kendrick, which I took online during October. So, even though it's not the same as hers, I got the idea from her. :)

I still lack the back cover, and it will be done, but I'm feeling the itch to do something else for a day or two, so we'll see how that goes. Either way, I'll be enjoying it! :)

AEDM Day 9-Left Handed Characters

I was hoping to finish the front cover of the record album today, but I way over slept this morning and haven't had time to work on it yet. I did, however, do some quick sketches in an old book with my non-dominant hand and a magic marker for practice and to loosen up. Besides that, they're fun!

This exercise was also inspired by Katie Kendrick in her Layered Impressions workshop. I can use these as bases for journal pages, collage, or whatever else I can think of. In fact, every page of the altered record album started out as a character sketched just this way, the whole page glued to the base with gel medium, and layers of "stuff" added to them.

These are going right into my box of handmade backgrounds and collage pieces for future mixed-media use! Not perfect, but quirkey and interesting, I think! :)

AEDM Day 8-Altered Record Album Cover

In case I don't get anything else done creatively today, I'm posting what I have done this morning. The cover of my front record album cover has gone from this...

to this. The cross, which is a paper cutting, isn't showing up, but it now has a layer of metallic copper on it. I'm liking the whole thing better already, but I'm not finished yet. Who knows what will evolve in the next session? Not me! :)

AEDM Day 7-Altered record album

This is the inside front cover of my altered record album, inspired by Katie in her Layered Impressions workshop, and I have worked on it some for three days now. I wish I had thought to photograph it at the end of each session and post it, but I didn't. It's gone through a lot of transformations and layers over the past three days. Somehow, the Amish looking women I started out with (see day 1) transformed into burlesque looking women, who morphed into puppets, of a sort. The buttons and lace are glitter glue if you can't tell.

It's wonky and quirkey and I like it! lol

Hope it made you smile too! :)

AEDM day 4-Altered record album

I worked on the front side of the middle pocket of the album today. I was listening to my mp3 player and John Mayer happened to come on singing "Say What You Want To Say". I love the song and it seemed to fit the page, so I "borrowed" the words.

If you look back at the whole album on day one, the pink rabbit is now white. There are multiple layers of images and paint in the background with lots of stuff going on. So I now have half the album sides done. I was hoping to get the other inside cover done today, but it didn't happen. Maybe tomorrow!

AEDM Days 2 & 3-Altered Record Album File

I've been working on two facing pages of the altered record album I shared on day one. My file pockets are on the sides, but it could also be altered to have them at the top. I'm thinking I could write a story to go with each page and file it in the pockets if I wanted to.

I had the bird page so dark and brown that I wasn't sure I could pull anything out of it, but I managed to keep adding and subtracting until I did. Titanium Buff is my new favorite color. I stenciled the morning glories and checks on using the TB, then when it dried I used charcoal pencils to add a touch of color. I tried to crackle the flower pot, but wasn't happy with it. This morning it came to me to add a door and windows. The writing up the side says, "So my tail is a little crooked. Nobody's perfect!" I'm thinking I may be done with this page, and it's what I worked on for day 2 and a little bit this morning (day 3). I like it!

The rabbit page has been my project for today. The rabbit turned from blue to pink today. Right now, I like it like it is, but in the morning I may add some tweaking or something. Anyway, this is how it looks for now. I also added a strip of artist tape with a strip of washi tape on top to reinforce the glued in middle sheet on both sides. Now that I'm looking at it, the first B in rabbit looks a little pale and washed out. I'll have to do something about that. But probably not tonight. :)

Looking forward to doing more tomorrow! Hoping something made you smile. :)

AEDM Day 1- WIP Altered Record Album File

Today is the first day of art every day month, hosted by Leah Kolidas @ Creative Every Day. This is a work in progress that I started in Katie Kendrick's workshop. I didn't have one of those nice 78 record album covers with several sleeves in it, so I improvised by taking a regular double record album cover that I had on hand and gluing a sleeve in the middle.

The cat is the front cover and the tulip is the back cover. I took some of the paint off the front cover today. All of the sides are comprised of layers of paint, altered magazine images, journaling, drawing, stenciling, cut papers, stamping, and whatever else strikes my fancy. The images may look nothing like these when they are finished. I just add and subtract until I get the image I like, and most of the time the finished piece looks nothing like the started one. I love the element of surprise at how they turn out and how much I can relate to them. I guess that's where my intuition and wonkiness comes in. :)

Inside the front cover and front side of the sleeve. I did some more collaging and drawing on both. Some of the drawings were done with my non-dominant hand, adding to the wonkiness.

Back side of sleeve and inside back cover where I did some more collaging today. I also sprayed espresso ink on the sleeve and re-drew the bird, because I hated the colors I had on the background. Now I have it too dark and brown to suit me, but I'm learning and having fun. All six sides still need a lot of work,  but when it's finished I'll have a file with three large pockets to hold my treasures.

So that's my art effort for today! Looking forward to playing all month with you all! :)

People, Places, Things

I got most of the projects in the Layered Impressions workshop with Katie started enough to learn the processes, but didn't take the time to finish them at the time. Now that the workshop is over, I'm finishing up what I started in class, plus I've started a few more. This is a page I've just finished using people, places, and things, plus some words. The place is nature, and the word that the scanner cut off is tranquility.

Notice the rabbit head in the sunglasses. I put that there! Katie showed me how. I love it! :)

The page is nowhere near perfect, but I like it just the way it is, so it will go into my journal that way...as soon as I figure out how to combine the pages into a book without punching holes in them. But first I have a few more pages, a cardboard book with several pages, and a record album with six pages to finish, so I'll worry about the journal of finished pages later. I may combine this workshop and the pages I did in the 21 Secrets workshops all together in to one large journal.

You know, when I look back, I've done a large pile of journal pages in the last year, and I'm very proud of myself. I truly appreciate the generosity of, and all that I've learned from, all the amazing teachers in both workshops.

Sending you all a huge smile. :)

Intuitive Collage & Painting

A page of intuitive collage and painting inspired by Katie's workshop. I love doing art intuitively, and am constantly surprised at the outcome and what the images and words mean to me. This is a combo of magazine images, drawing, painting, and whatever else came to mind while I was playing. Everything on the page symbolizes something in my life, and I like it a lot, plus I've given you a glimpse at how wonky my brain is most of the time. :)

I tried glass bead gel medium on the wings and the whitish egg, but it was too much, so I scraped it off the egg and re-painted, giving it sort of a muted marbled effect, which I like. Still not sure about the wings, but I guess they'll stay that way, and I learned something new with the glass bead gel.

Hope something on the page made you smile!

Collaged Face 3

Here is the third collaged face that was inspired by Katie Kendrick's workshop. Unfortunately, the scanner didn't pick up the glitter and metallic pen very well, and the tiny stars in the background look like black dots, but nonetheless, here she is.

I love the Pierrot clown faces, so I tried to do my own version. The next finished page will be something totally different!

Collaged Face 2

This is my second attempt at a collaged face journal page in Katie's workshop. The words haven't come to me yet. They will be added when they do.

This one kind of shows how chaotic and busy my brain is.

Working on finishing the third one, which is totally different from the first two!

Collage and Waxing

I finally finished another of the mixed-media projects from Katie Kendrick's workshop Layered Impression, which I really hated to see end. I learned about collaged faces. I thought I was finished with this one, except for the words, but yesterday morning I started tweaking things and wound up revamping much of the background, and I like it much better now.

It's funny how I pick out things and place them intuitively on the page trying not to think too much about the outcome, and then when I call the page done I can see a lot of repeated symbolism that relates to me in a personal way. For instance, I tend to use tulips a lot since my dad died seven years ago. They were one of his favorite flowers, thus in my journals they have come to represent him. It's not intentional. They just seem to appear. It's the same with teardrops. They started appearing about the same time.

Lately, eggs have started appearing in some of the pages, I think they represent the children we never had. The tear, on this page, is for the ones we never had and for the one we got so close to adopting before the mother changed her mind. It was a long time ago, it wasn't meant to be, and we have had a blessed life. Despite all the blessings and chaos going on in the background, there is still a kind of sadness in our hearts that will probably never go away. So this page turned out to have deep meaning for me, even though I wasn't aware of it while working on it.

The little penguin is a quirky doodle drawing that I did a few years back in watercolor. One of Katie's classes was in putting a wax topcoat on pages, book covers, etc. Since I didn't have a project from Katie's class finished to practice on, I used this one and, also, one that I have shared before from the 21 Secrets workshops with Connie Hozvicka.

This is my first attempt at waxing. The wax kept having dull spots and shiny spots (still does). I thought I was doing something wrong. It finally dawned on me that I hadn't prepped the paper with gesso before working on it, and the paper was absorbing the wax. The back is also waxy. Lesson learned! lol

Yep, I can relate to the little penguin that I pulled out of a bunch of random marks and squiggles. I am an only child, and I have often felt like he looks. :)

This is my second attempt at waxing. The paper had been prepped with gesso, plus several layers of collage, paint, and medium. Unfortunately, there were a couple of dips in the page, which allowed the wax to be thicker in a couple of places. I attempted to fix it after it dried, then decided to leave well enough alone. Waxing takes practice! I still love the page and can totally relate to it. :)

That's it for now!  Back with more as I finish them! Hope something on here brought a smile to your face! Happy creating, and don't be afraid to try! :)



WIP Cardboard Book

I know it's been several days, but I've been very busy with a lot of projects, all still wips, which I will share with you as I can. Hope you enjoy my first handmade book tour, even if it is in a prelimanary state! :)

This was the last project in Katie Kendrick's Layered Impressions workshop, a cardboard book. My book is very much a learning experience, so there are boo-boos, but I am very proud of what I learned and accomplished. The covers and pages are out of brown cardboard, and there is a fabric insert of four pages. The whole thing still has a lot of stuff that I want to do, but I thought I'd go ahead and share it now, then again when it's finished.

Above is the cover with a niche and carving in the cardboard. The niche has a background and a wild turkey feather with a copper band within it. I now know that I should have used a light background so the feather would show up better. The "window" is made of mica stitched on with copper metallic embroidery thread, because I couldn't find my bookbinding thread. I also didn't have cheese cloth, so I glued fun yarn to the page and cover edges on three sides and used cotton fabric on the spine, which will be covered with something else when it's finished.

This is the back cover, which will have more work done to it when finished.

The first two cardboard pages with the basic layer done...The scanner bed is not quite long enough to pick up the whole page, but you get the idea. The pages are all already stitched into the spine. The face was drawn with my non-dominant hand and will look much better when it's finished, I hope. There will also be text on the pages at the end.

The next two pages, cardboard on the left, fabric scraps on the right. I plan to add buttons, stitching, and other elements to the fabric pages before hand stitching the sides together. I love my polka dotted cat!

Next two fabric pages: The one on the left is an old hand embroidered picture that was in a basket of stuff I bought at a yard sale years ago. I knew it would come in handy sometime!

Fabric page on the left and painted cardboard on the right. Part of it is cut off, but it's a large tulip. For now, it's white, but who knows how it will transform as I work on it!

Painted cardboard pages: The face was drawn with my non-dominant hand and has a long way to go. The right page has magazine images, which will be transformed as I go along, pasted to a painted background.

The last two painted pages with a germ of an idea and more left handed drawing, plus a hand cut paper dog.

That's the tour! At least for now! I've had a ball getting the book to this point. Closed, it is almost two inches thick, and I love all the hairy turquoise yarn on the edges! So happy that Katie included this in her workshop, and I am so excited to finish the pages and make another one!

Hope something on here made you smile! :)

My Work Table Currently...

I'm working. I really am! Actually it's play to me. :) It's been a few days since I posted anything, so I thought I'd show you my work space and all the mixed media journal pages that I have in different stages of progress using techniques I'm learning from Katie Kendrick in her workshop Layered Impressions.

None of the pages you see are finished. They are in varying stages of progress right now. Katie feeds us a video, info, and an assignment every day, and I've been getting a page started to learn that day's lesson. This is the third week of the online workshop, and there's only one more week before it ends, so I have paint, paper, scissors, etc, flying everywhere, as you can see. The white sheet on the left is for yesterday's lesson, which I was about to start. It was a fun technique! I'll share the page at another time.

The page with the cat on it is actually the cover of a double record album, which will be a journal, of sorts when finished! I am having so much fun and learning so much! Can you tell that I'm having fun? lol

It's a messy workspace, but I wouldn't be able to work any other way. The mess feeds my creativity. Isn't that crazy? :)

I will share all of these again, plus some more, as I finish them, and hopefully they'll look better and you can tell more about them. I won't guarantee that my workspace will be any neater though! lol

I've just attended today's class on intuitive painting and palette knife painting, so I'm off to start another page or two! Hope something on here made you smile! :)

Layered Impressions Workshop-First Two Days

Monday I started a four week online workshop with Katie Kendrick at http://joyouslybecoming.typepad.com/joyouslybecoming/ . The first three days have been awesome. Following are the drawings that I did with my non-dominant hand the first day and the same drawings colored that I did the second day. Today's assignment is still in progress.

It was so much fun watching these characters evolve. I was late in registering because I couldn't make up my mind, and I had to order supplies, which didn't come in until just a few minutes ago, so I've had to improvise for the first exercises. That's okay though. I learned the process and had fun, and that's what's important.

This is a background made by using rubbings, which didn't turn out quite like I wanted it to, but it's still usable and can always be added to. Besides, now that I have my supplies I can try another one. It's a fun process. :)

I still have a couple of prepped face drawings. Who knows? They may show up here later too! Hope one of my little characters made you smile.