21 Secrets, AEDM, Tea, Pears, and Paper Cuts

 

Monday, Nov 1, was the first day of Art Every Day Month on the Creative Every Day blog, but I have decided to post once a week what I've created for the week, at least for now. I'm still very involved in the 21 Secrets Playground and still loving every minute of it, so I'm kind of working the two together. I've been creating every day, not necessarily finishing anything, but I'm writing down a list of my creative activities and I will scan what I'm doing to share at the end of the week.

I kind of got a head start Sunday night by practicing my paper cutting while watching TV with hubby. I learned this from Emma Peabody in the 21 Secrets workshops, and I love it. I've just been snipping everything, most of it freehand.

These were all cut from book pages except the cross, which I cut from a coffee filter. That accounts for the different look. I used unruyu paper to lay behind them for scanning purposes, but I'm sure they will eventually find their way into a collage or something. :)

This page is in my Doodlicious Daybook using techniques I learned from Kelly Warren in her "The Things They Say" workshop. This was meant to be done with children doing a page alongside you, learning the techniques together, but since I have no children or small children near, I pretended to have a tea party with a child and used stuff that I thought a little girl might use that I usually don't, like a paper clip, tulips from a dixie cup, stickers, a found tea packet holding a splenda packet with a message, a paper towel (instead of a napkin), my first experience with glitter glue, lace rice paper scraps, etc. I don't know if you can tell, but the background is one of my doodle pages and is part of a face with yellow hair and a pink hat. You can click on the picture to enlarge to read the writing on the cup, in green marker, which I rarely use. It seemed fun for a little girl though. I had fun with this. Can you tell? LOL

This is a project using used credit cards to manipulate the paint and one of my linoleum block prints that I had already posted in a previous post, but thought it needed something else. I added the black sponge lettering, which doesn't show up that well here, but the words are Trinity, Trio, Three, and 333. I don't know if they helped that much or not. One thing I've learned in these mixed media workshops is if you don't like it  you can cover it up with something else, and I am proud to say that I have gained the confidence and freedom to do that! LOL

Hope something on here made you smile!

21 Secrets-Carded, Soul Mirrored, Jet Setted, and Paper Cut

These are the pages from the last three workshops at the 21 Secrets playground that I attended, plus another paper cut butterfly girl that I designed and cut, expanding on the butterfly pattern used in the Chinese Paper Cutting class with Emma Peabody. Unless otherwise noted, I use Golden Fuid Acrylics and matte gel medium on my pages. Also, I am not sharing everything I've learned, but merely how I myself chose to use what I've learned in my attempts to put the info into practice. I hope you enjoy my attempts! :)

Jet Set Journaling: Soul Journal Style with Sarah Whitmire-A journal page in my Moleskine journal, using art materials, put together in a kit that fits in my purse, to take with me when I'm traveling or sitting in waiting rooms, etc, so I can do art anywhere. I don't like to do art in front of people though, so mine will probably be used mostly down by the pond. :)

The butterfly girl is another one of my paper cuttings, cut from pale pink parchment paper. The quote is torn out of a book by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The word down the side is kind of a stylized "FAITH", using a zig calligraphy marker. I used watercolor pencils for the background and ink pads over the top.

The Art Journal As Soul Mirror with Effy Wild-This spread is also in my Moleskine journal and I did it using the the meditation and writing about finding out what my purpose/passion is in the workshop. I love writing stream of consciousness thoughts down and then covering them up with paint. Who knew that I would love that?  I gessoed the pages, then wrote all over them, spread red, yellow, and magenta paint all over them with an old credit card, used gel medium to glue down tissue papers and a magazine picture and words (a Renoir portrait and an ad from Marie Claire Magazine), and stamped the other words on with Stazon ink and alphabet stamps. I purposely left some of my writing showing through. I got the word Confident a little crooked, so I just went with it and deliberately made the other words crooked, and I like it, because, after all, I am a little crooked and quirky myself. :)

Chinese Paper Cutting with Emma Peabody-This is the first butterfly girl I tried, where I expanded on the butterfly pattern shared in the class. I cut her out of pale yellow parchment paper, and she turned out too large for the page I had intended to use her on, so I put her on these pages in my Moleskine journal. The background wasn't gessoed. I had used up some blue excess paint to cover the pages, then later used an old credit card to work magenta and yellow paint over the blue. I like it! I may, or may not, add some words later...or some other embellishment, but I kind of like it simple and plain. We'll see...

Get Carded with Dawn Sokol- (Using old credit/key cards in art)-Okay this piece has a whole other completed piece underneath, and I was finally free enough and brave enough to completely gesso over it and start all over, because it wasn't working for me and I just did not like it. I've never been able to cover anything over before, and I'm so proud of me! :) Underneath the pears and green background is a red, yellow, gold, and white piece, containing a paper cutting, both positive and negative shapes, but somehow it just didn't work, so I bit the bullet and obliterated it. :/

This piece is on a heavy watercolor paper. I think it's like 300# cold press. Anyway, I gessoed over the first piece and let dry, then using an old credit card, turquois and yellow paint was dripped and smeared over the gesso, leaving some of the gesso textured paper cutting showing through. I used pinking shears to cut one side of the credit card, which made it jagged for making lines. Then I snipped off the tips to make them squared instead of pointed. I used this side to make lines in the drying paint for texture and some pattern. The pears are an original linoleum block print that I did on unruyu rice paper (I LOVE unruyu paper!) a few years ago. I tore the paper around the edges to give it a softer look and glued it down with matte gel medium. I'm happy with it too and am thinking I might frame it.

Okay, you talked me into it! LOL This is the piece that is underneath the pears above. The two paper dolls were cut out of the round shape, and all the gold spots are cutouts. I used a credit card to spread the paint background, to glaze over the paper cutting, and to make the red stripes. The lettering, swirls and doily background are gold metallic paint. The more I did to it, the worse it looked. I liked it better the second it was covered in gesso. LOL I'm liking the pears MUCH better!

I am still having more fun than I can tell you in these workshops, and getting freer and braver all the time with my art. Can you tell that I'm enjoying myself with all the other creative souls in the playgroud? :)

EDM #44, 10, & 245 and CED-Connecting

This doodle cat emerged from a page full of lightly drawn shapes, lines, and swirls in my journal. It is for the EDM challenge #44-Draw an animal. I call him Cat-Man 3, and I like him a lot.

These little pink ladies would like to remind you that it's breast cancer awareness month. As you see in this entry and the next two, I've been playing with my hands, the ink pad, and a sharpie. Don't mind the smudged thumb print at the bottom. She was just passing by. ;) This is EDM #245-Draw your choice

Best Friends Forever (there will be writing on the bottom) and my partial right hand print. The whole print is actually there, but only half scanned. Was just playing around.

Someone on EDM shared a site with a doodle hands project and I loved it. Of course, I had to try one. This one was done quickly in my sketchbook with sharpie pens. It was a lot of fun, and it's my #10-Draw your hand. My hands are not small and delicate, but they have always served me well. It's kind of hard to tell, but the leaves are green. I toyed with the idea of putting a couple of mounds of red on the palette and decided not to. Looking at it on here I think it might have added to it. Oh, well!

The background on this page in my journal was made by using leftover fluid acrylic paint. I had some left from a canvas project and didn't want to waste it, so I swirled it on the pages. After it dried, I stamped the linoleum block print onto it. Can you see the heron like swirls behind the swan? I may add more to this when something comes to me. Until then, I'll enjoy it like it is.

I thought I'd show you how I'm decorating my journal cover. It's not a new idea, but one morning I was having a banana for breakfast, and I peeled off the sticker. For lack of a better place to put it, I stuck it on the front of my art journal. I did this for a few mornings in a row, and I like it. It reminds me of an old suitcase with the travel stickers all over it. Anyway, I just felt like sharing it with you.

The Creative Every Day challenge this month is connecting, and I've been connecting with both new and old friends, new art ideas, challenges, and experiments, emotions, pets, and many other things. Lots of connecting and re-connecting in both art and life. It's a good thing!

I haven't been working on the 40 inchies project for the last few days, but when I get back to it, I hope to finish it, and I will share it then.

Hope at least one thing made you smile! ;)

CED-Ducks, Experiments, & Inspiration

Ducky Blue Napping was an experiment in finger painting. I used watercolor and inktense pencils to color the doodle drawing in my Moleskine watercolor book. You know I like darker, more intense, colors, don't you? Anyway, then I dipped my finger in water and made little swirls all over the background, merging the colors together. I also used my finger to paint the duck. His feathers are fingerprints. I used a black pencil to emphasize some of the feathers. I like him!



I hadn't carved a linoleum block in a while, but I was INSPIRED by Dandelion 's block prints on her blog to get mine out and start carving. I had some small pieces of linoleum already cut, so the swan is atc sized and the hat lady is just a little larger. I drew with a pencil directly on the tan linoleum, then carved the lines out. I usually carved everything out but the lines, but Dandelion's pieces were so delicate and pretty I decided to try it that way. This is a trial run on an old envelope, and they need tweeking a bit more, but I decided to share them anyway. I had fun doing them!

Walking the Peace Duck is a drawing born of doodle marks and imagination in the Moleskine sketchbook. It is drawn in regular pencil, and I digitally enhanced it make it darker. You can see some of the doodle lines remaining that I pulled the image out of. I will probably eventually color it in, but right now I love it as is.

I also have a blog post for Every Day Matters of a pencil drawing of a pear from five different angels if you'd like to see.

I seem to have gotten a jumpstart on CED's September theme of Inspiration. I have been inspired all week to try different things. I even took the plunge and opened an Etsy shop. Now I need to get inspired further and get it all set up and something in it for sale.

Hope one of these made you smile! :)

Sunday Morning Clowns and Haiku

First, I want to thank all of you who have visited my blog so far. It’s still new and I’m still trying to find my way, so please be patient with me. OK? Thanks, also, for the comments left and emails sent. I appreciate so much your taking the time to read my efforts and tell me what you think. I hope you will continue to visit often. :)

Yesterday was a gorgeous fall day here, what I call a magic light day. The air was clear and the colors gloriously intensified under a cloudless bright blue sky. One of those “it’s great to be alive” days. We finally got some much needed rain for three or four days last week, and seemingly overnight it looked like a different world. Everything is green again instead of dead and parched. The ponds and streams are full again. We won’t have to sell our little herd of cows, which are more like pets, because we can’t feed and water them. It seems like a miracle and I’m so grateful. I was so happy when it was raining that I wanted to just get out in it and dance and twirl around, but I didn’t. Another opportunity not taken advantage of. I did get soaked coming back from checking on the cows on the 4-wheeler though. That was fun, but I still should have danced in it.

This photo was made while riding the 4-wheeler through the woods to the pond to check on the cows after the rain last week. It was early morning and everything felt so clean. The sun was filtering through the remaining fog and trees. It was kind of magical.

I wrote the haiku poem three years ago while daddy was taking antibiotic treatments in the hospital. It was a gray stormy day and I watched out the window as yellow leaves fell out of a huge tree nearby every time a gust of wind came. It reminded me of golden glitter as bunches of leaves fell loose and swirled to the pavement below. I put the poem and photo together for this month's mojoart challenge "Dreaming of Fall". The poem reads:

a quick gust of wind
golden leaves fall like glitter
shaken to the ground

" A quick gust" has been changed to "sudden gust" since entering it. Much better, I think.

I had to ask for an extension on my writing assignment because it was due yesterday and I’ve barely started it. It’s the second chapter for my novel, started several weeks ago. I got sidetracked, and just yesterday started working on it again. I first studied my text book requirements for this assignment, then I just dove in and started typing stream of consciousness, my favorite way to write. I was trying to make the transition from chapter one to chapter two, but I think chapter two has now turned into chapters two and three. I’m already way over my word limit and I'm not through, so I’ll have to go back and cut a lot out and do a lot of re-writing to pull it together and try to make it interesting. A challenge and a lot of work, but also enjoyable to me once I get focused.

My art doll pattern is still glaring at me (I shouldn’t have given her a face yet), because I still haven’t found suitable body material for her, and now she’s insisting on tiny wings for her ample body. We’re still debating that one. She’s going to be as difficult to please as Mollie Be Muse was (art doll previous post). :o

Art wise, I’ve been experimenting some. I read where someone uses a piece of watercolor paper under her stamping and painting projects, which invariably gets ink, paint, and stamp images all over it. When it gets enough on it, she cuts it up and uses it for backgrounds for atc’s, altered books, etc. So, of course, I’m having to try it. Some pretty interesting effects so far.

It reminds me of once when a friend was looking at my oil paintings and she really liked the one on the easel, which wasn’t a painting at all, but a canvas board which I put behind my stretched canvases while painting. Of course, it had all sorts of paint smudges where I had painted off the sides of several canvases, cleaned the paint out of my brushes, practiced brush strokes and paint mixtures, that sort of thing. When I looked at it through her eyes, it was pretty interesting looking though.

The other day I carved an atc sized piece of linoleum and made several trial prints in my sketchbook and other papers. It is of a Pierrot clown face with a harlequin motif background. I love the painted faces of Pierrot clowns, mimes, the Cirque de Soleil and Cats characters, etc. Not as crazy about regular clowns. Anyway, I drew it right out of my head directly onto the linoleum with a pencil (not always a good idea), and then went over the places I wanted to show with a black sharpie. The rest I carved out. Since I don’t do this on a regular basis, I forgot and carved a line between the eyebrow and the iris in her eye, which of course left a blank line when I printed her off. Thus, she looks kind of frightened unless I make an adjustment with a brush and ink.

To the right is a picture of a sketchbook page with a few trial prints, which are really plainer than the photo shows. The black one is done with printer’s ink brushed onto the design, then stamped onto the page, which doesn’t leave as sharp an image as it does when it’s rolled on and a barren used. The other three are dye ink pads stamped on. I’m not real happy with the way the design wound up, but I am going to make some real prints (probably altered) with it before I toss it…or not. Now that I look at her again, she does have a unique character about her. :)

Enough rambling for now. Ya’ll have a blessed week, and a creative one.

Sharon

Over The Slump

Well, I did kind of get over my creative slump finally. I wrote a three and a half page piece which has nothing at all to do with my writing assignment which is due in nine days and I've barely started (the second chapter of my novel). I just can't seem to get focused on it.

That's probably because I've been focused more on art the last few days. I have an art doll pattern cut out and the face drawn on (she's standing nearby glaring at me), but since she refused to be made out of the fabric I had in mind, I'm still looking for something to suit her.

I've also been re-working some artist trading cards that I wasn't happy with, plus I started a couple of new ones with my new face stamp. Love it! And I love my new alphabet stamps. I'll post some pics when I get the atc's finished.

This month's mojoart challenge is "Dreaming of Fall". I'm beginning to have an inkling of an idea for it. I have written a haiku poem, now I have to come up with a background collage for it. Only have a few more days though, so I'm going to have to work fast.

I read an article in the last Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine about making paper beads that I just had to try. They were gorgeous and really easy to make...and addictive. I made a dozen in just a few minutes. I just made the basic ones, but the article showed how to dip the basic ones in powders, tiny beads, etc, to make them even prettier. You can also cut really small strips of words, really thin wire or fiber, etc and wrap around the basic bead for decoration to make them more interesting. They're pretty sturdy too. A great way to use up pretty scrap paper. I plan to use mine for decorative purposes on altered art, journals, whatever, but they make pretty jewelry too.

For the basic bead you cut a triangle (1-1/2"x around 7" or 1/2"x 7") out of decorative paper, magazine pages, etc., wrap the wide end around a straw, knitting needle, etc a couple of times, put glue (I used gloss acrylic gel medium) on the back of the rest of the strip, and roll it on, trying to keep the point centered. You can rub a small amount of olive oil on the straw every so often to keep the beads from sticking to it. I also put a coat of gel medium all over the outside of the bead before drying. Hang on a string, wire, or I used a wooden skewer laid across something to dry. The gel medium makes them relatively hard, so they don't crush easily. You can also make them out of rectangle strips the same size. The thinner the paper the longer the strips should be, and the thicker the shorter. No two are exactly alike. Once dry they make pretty jewelry or decorative beads for art projects.

Plus, I did a simple design of three pears on a thin piece of linoleum and cut it out, which left a positive and negative pear trio design. Then I made prints of on various papers and in my sketchbook. Very simple design, but I like it. Thought I could use some of the prints for cards, collage, etc. I have several sizes of linoleum pieces cut out, ready to draw the design on and carve out. I just love making prints.

Also printed some in an altered book on printed pages, a work in progress, which looks cool, and a couple of hot pink ones in the sketchbook (my red ink wasn't handy, besides it's oil-based and would have taken forever to dry.

Sketchbook

pages.

I always have a bunch of things going at once. Sometimes I wish I could focus on one thing and get to be really good at it instead of being kind of good in so many different things. I want to try every new art technique or media I see, so I dabble in a little bit of everything. But sticking to one thing wouldn't be me, and I would get really bored, so I will continue to be a dabbler, or a Jill of all trades, I guess. :) Have a happy, creative day!