Things I've Been Playing With This Week

I'm thankful that I like to dabble in a lot of different things. I never get bored or lack for something fun to entertain myself with. I've been dabbling with several things since I last posted. Following are a few of the works in progress that I'm working on.

Dollie Doll's paper sculpted face is coming along slowly. Can't wait to see her in hair and makeup! She will be a 36" cloth boudoir doll when she is finished.

A granny square afghan that I started around 15 years ago, hated sewing the squares together, got bored, and left laying until last week. I suddenly decided to finish it. I now have half the rows completed. I still HATE sewing the squares together! lol This is my first, and probably my last, granny square project. :/

I watched a paper cloth tutorial by Diana Trout and decided to give it a try. The bottom one is my first attempt and the top one my second. The cloth I used on the first one was a little too thick, but came out ok. I also used paper towels where I had wiped paint up, tissue paper, a phone book page that I had drawn a face on, a cut paper flower, and some rice paper on them. Now I can hand sew or machine stitch on them and use them in other projects. Since I was learning, I just used materials I had in reach, but I look forward to making some more using better materials.

 

I did a quirky doodle sketch just for fun! It took a while for the image to show itself amongst the pencil lines!

 



Playing and experimenting with my new gelli arts gel printing plate. These are a few of my trials, most of them are on toned card stock. I used stencils as masks and stamps on some. The browns on most of them is actually metallic copper, and I used mostly fluid acrylics and some heavier acrylics, whatever I could reach at the time.

Can you see the little copper stars in the blue around the butterfly above?

Metallic copper in the background on the butterfly above.

Metallic copper and turquoise. The stars are from the sole of an old house shoe, hence the footprint look.

A page of text that I had drawn a doodle face on with a marker. I used the stencil, after I pulled it from the plate, as a stamp to make her a mask. She looks a little wonky doesn't she?

Metallic copper, blue, and magenta in layers above.

Metallic copper and ultramarine blue above. The heart shape is cut from a clean piece of turkey netting.

 

"A Time For Tears" is a few layers of turquoise, yellow ochre, olive green, and it picked up some color and line off the previous print, which gave it some added texture and depth. I collaged the text with the title on top. I'm thinking I may add a layer of wax over it. I'm not a great photographer, and it looks better in person. I love it!

Hope you've enjoyed seeing what I'm playing with as much as I've enjoyed the playing!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who celebrate it, safe travels, and enjoy your family and friends!

What I'm Working On Part One

Hi All!

Praying for all of you in the path of Hurricane Sandy. May you all stay safe.

 I also want to apologize for having to put the word verification back on my comments. I hate it too, but spammers have to ruin it for everybody it seems. I guess they have nothing better to do. I took it off, but had to put it back, because I was bombarded with spam every day it was off. :/ Your comments really mean a lot to me and I appreciate every one. Sorry it has to be so much trouble to leave one. :(

Anyway, I thought I'd share some of what I'm working on this week with ya! OK? :)

This is a page where I used up leftover paint. I see a cowboy boot in there! I like it! :)

She has the beginnings of a nose!

These two pictures should be reversed, but the bottom one is a 36" bed doll that I have sewn and stuffed. Her arms and legs have not been sewn on yet. The top picture is the beginning of her paper clay face, using techniques I learned in a cloth and clay workshop with Jane Desrosier. I made a much smaller doll in the workshop and it turned out pretty good, so I'm trying it on a large one now. Fingers crossed that it works! For now I'm calling her Dollie Doll.

I've had this 5x7" gallery canvas painting started for a while. I worked on it some the other day, but it's still very much a work in progress. This was an image that emerged out of paint, and she forgot her neck, I think. Hope I can fix that! :o

One of my favorites! Three old friends!

 

It had been a while since I did any doodle sketches, so I've been doing one a day in my 18x24" sketchbook for a few days. These are a few of them.

 



 

This a doodle sketch in its beginning stage. I close my eyes, make several marks and swirls on the page, then let an image immerge. Nothing has stepped out in this one yet...but it will. Sometimes the images are a bit shy and it takes a while for them to show themselves. :)

I can use these images as a base for drawings, paintings, journal pages, tear them up for collage, or just enjoy them for what they are. They help keep my drawing/painting looser, plus it's good brain exercise and fun.

I was going to show you some more wips, but I had trouble uploading the rest of the pics, so there will be a part 2 to the blog. I'm kind of like a butterfly flitting from project to project. :)

The next part will include some prints from playtime with my new Gelli Arts Gel Printing Plate. I've been wanting one for a long time, and thought they were too expensive, but I finally broke down and ordered one. Love it!

I've worked some on all these projects, plus I put ANOTHER layer of paint on Contrary Angel's wings (Remember her? the very large canvas/mixed media painting I started months ago), wrote a poem draft, and brought down a Granny Square crocheted afghan that I started years ago to finish. The poem will be on my other blog when it's finished.

Hope you've enjoyed seeing what I'm doing. I'm sure having fun creating and learning stuff! :D

More Background Pages, A Poem Draft, & A Sketch

I've been playing with the Dylusions spray inks and found stamps and stencils some more. I need a few more colors, but I'm having fun with what I have. I haven't been creating a lot lately, or doing anything else much for that matter, and making background pages is a quick way to get some art in on the days I don't have time to really get zoned out into my creative place. Plus, I have a stack of pages already started to add to when I do have time to "zone out."

I love letting images emerge out of the ink/paint as it dries. Sometimes it takes a while for them to reveal themselves to me and sometimes they jump right out at me. I've drawn a light pencil sketch around some of the images that have emerged. That doesn't mean that I will keep them when I start actually working on the page, but it's a reminder of what could be.

This one was done with a paisley, or large comma shape, that I cut out of a sponge. I sprayed the inks directly on the sponge and stamped onto the paper.

I love these colors and used a variety of stamps and stencils, handmade.

This page started off with with an old cd, which I sprayed over (some ink ran under it and merged), removed, and then spritzed some other colors onto.

The paisley sponge stamp with 2-3 colors sprayed onto the sponge and stamped randomly around the page.

I wrote a couple of poem drafts onto this page, then stamped the backs of some stencils that had been sprayed over onto the page to clean them off. I like it. :) If you want to read the poems, as finished as they're probably going to be, you can go to my other blog http://scribblesfromrabbithop.blogspot.com/ , where most of my writing is.

Just a quick little sketch I thought I'd throw in. I was attempting something new in her head tilt. I didn't quite accomplish what I meant to, but I like it. Besides, today is another day, and I can try again! :)

Contour Lines Coloring Book

Disclaimer: The above page and the ones following are contour sketches for a coloring book for a drawing practice assignment in the Misty workshop, and they were done quickly, so don't expect too much. :)

They are supposed to be contour sketches, but mine turned out to be mostly contour/line sketches, done with pencil on a 9x12" mixed media paper. Each sketch is the base for whatever form of media I choose to use to develop a finished mixed media page, or, if I choose, I can just texture and paint them, etc.

I know, on the one above I didn't leave room for the flowers and they are quirky and squatting. I will fix that when I actually start working on it, probably. Or maybe not...I like quirky...

I stopped at twelve, though I could have easily kept going. For the time being they are clipped together in the order I drew them and to a page in my journal. Most of them are objects I could see around my work table. The faces emerged from my imagination. I can't wait to see how the pages develop when I start playing with them, she said, clapping her hands in glee.

Sorry, this face is not from my imagination. It's my little Pekingese angel, Kibbles Marie, my constant companion for almost sixteen years, who left us in 1997, and whom I still miss every single day.

I will try to remember to repost the sketch with the finished page as I do them. Hope at least one of them made you smile. :)

Soft Cover Journal

I hope you all had a wonderful New Years Day and that the coming year is a very blessed one for us all.

I am starting the year off with three workshops. I will try to post and share as often as I can what I create in them, but I'm sure they're going to keep me hopping for a few weeks. I also want to finish the canvas headboard for my bed that I started before Christmas.

Misty Mawn (see my sidebar for workshop details button) generously shared two videos on journal making with us before class starts next Monday, and this is my finished project for the soft cover journal. Misty used five signatures and I think it looks better with more than the three I used, but the good thing about this journal is that I can always add more. I just happened to stop at three.

The cover is canvas and is still the plain gessoed version, because I haven't decided how I want to embellish it yet. I left the selvage across the bottom to add some interest. I used printmaking paper for the signatures, because that's what I had handy, but for mixed media something heavier would probably be better. I'm going to try it and see though. (I have a mixed media journal on the way in case it doesn't work out though).

I also used waxed linen yellow thread to stitch with. It's easy to make, and I love the way it lays open so flat to work in. I never thought I'd like a soft journal, but I do, and I've found that I LOVE making journals too.

The cat is one my quirky doodle paintings and is a work in progress. I know the stitching on the spine is a little wonky, but that's me, quirky and wonky! :)

Start the new year off by sharing a smile with someone. I'm sharing a great big one with y'all! 8>)

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 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. :)

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! :)