21 Secrets-Scottie Dogs and Paper Angels

 From the workshop 10 Text Techniques with Spooky--I tore some pages out of an old beauty book by Linda Dano, which I had started altering a few years ago. It was a good book on all kinds of ways to look good, from hair to shoes, but I'm just not that kind of girl. Let me be clean with jeans, a tee shirt, and barefoot, and I'm good! LOL

Anyway, they made a great background for my doodled Scottie dog (I LOVE Scottie dogs!). Wish the scanner had picked up his pretty red glitter collar! He was doodled with oil pastels in my Moleskine journal, and the writing was done with a red Sharpie, which was not happy writing over oil pastels. Slippery!

There are nine more techniques to try, and I'm soooooo looking forward to it! Well, actually I already tried one other one, the transfer technique, but it hasn't been used on a page yet, so stay tuned! :)

More paper cutting experiments from the Chinese Paper Cutting workshop with Emma Peabody that I took! I love snipping! Who knew? Not me! I'm discovering all sorts of things about myself in these workshops. These were cut from a book page from Walden's Pond that I had scanned and printed out for another project and had left over. They are another variation on the butterfly, which I seem to be drawn to. I didn't realize that I had the paper doubled when I cut the angel and wound up with twins. Double the fun! The curlyque thing in the middle is what was cut out of butterfly girl's dress, but would be fun used on another project, as would the hearts, stars, etc. Perfect for inchies!

I have two other workshop projects underway also, close to completion. Will show you when they're done!

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? :)

Conversations With Self-21 Secrets

This is the journal page that i completed yesterday for Anglia Thompson's workshop on Conversations With Self in the 21 Secrets Playground. I wrote a letter on the page to a childhood friend, then painted and collaged tissue paper over it to keep it secret. It was fun, and I will definitely do some more.

 

Madamojell was my imaginary friend (one of two) when I was little. She helped me through some tough times.

I wrote  at the top with a marker over the gel medium. It wasn't quite dry and smeared a little when I brushed more medium over it, but that's okay. It adds character...or I can always paste something else over it! I'm gaining in confidence and the freedom to cover things up on these pages every time I do one. I'm getting almost fearless with my pasting and layering now. Yippee! :)

Letters, Tissue, & Splatters- 3 More 21 Secrets Projects

I have been busy with workshops and projects, and there are paper snips, tissue scraps, and paint spatters all over the dining room and me to prove it! LOL But I am having soooooooo much fun and learning so much! I attended my eighth workshop this morning, but haven't done the project yet. I decided to share numbers 5,6, & 7 with you first. The scanner doesn't pick everything up real good, but you get the idea!

The two above are from the "Layers of Tissue" workshop I took with Hanna Andersson. I used pages from the Doodlicious Daybook I created in the second class with Tracie Hanson to add tissue elements to. I love it! Now I know why I've been saving pretty tissue paper all this time! :)

These two pages, also in my Doodlicious Daybook journal, are from the "Positive and Negative of Splatters" with Johnathan "Blade" Manning. Throwing paint off a brush, or whatever, definitely helps get rid of any frustration that I might have had. What fun! :)

This page is in my Moleskine journal and is the project from "Typoholic" with Natalie Malik, where I studied different lettering techniques to use in journaling. I used the sole of my houseshoe for a stamp, then added lettering and paint spatters for fun.

There are spaces left on all the pages for me to write my thoughts down in when I'm ready. Meanwhile I'm so thankful to Connie at Dirty Footprints Studio for putting all these workshops together in one place for us to learn more about art journaling. Loving every second of it! :)

Chinese Paper Cut Journal Pages

I used each of the paper cuttings on one of the Doodlicious journal pages this morning with text. I glued the butterfly on one of my doodle drawings and added text, then I used the flower? as a stencil on another page with text. I see things that I could do better, but, hey, I learned from these pages to be more careful where and how to place my text, so it's all good. :)

Click to enlarge and be sure to read the text around the center to finish the thought. The flower is stenciled onto the scrapbook paper background with red fluid acrylic paint and embellished with a gold calligraphy pen and a silver paper clip.

The butterfly is cut from scrapbooking paper and glued on to one of my doodle pages.

I am having more fun than ought to be legal learning new things! I look so forward to attending class every day in these workshops! :)

More Paper Cutting...

I've been practicing more paper cutting!

The two above were cut out of coffee filters without a pattern. I just started cutting. The outside edge was cut with scissors with a patterned edge. The rest was cut with embroidery scissors.

The two below were cut with a pattern out of rice paper using embroidery scissors. This could be addictive! :)

Can't wait to use these in my journal!

21 Secrets-Chinese Paper Cutting-4th Workshop

 Butterfly

These are from my fourth workshop in the 21 Secrets Playground (see sidebar), Chinese Paper Cutting Meets Modern Art Journal with Emma Peabody. There were two patterns for us to practice on, a butterfly and a flower. I totally messed up the first butterfly I tried (the pink one above) by running the detail cuts together. I did much better on the second one, but I still need more practice. These can be used in lots of ways that Emma shared.

 Okay, the pink flower (above) went completely awry! I really do like the design and how it turned out, although I probably couldn't do it again if I tried. LOL

Flower

This is how the flower was supposed to look! It's all in the folding! I figured out that I folded one fold wrong, which rendered a completely different design. I also learned that the thicker paper is MUCH harder to cut, so from now on I'll be sure to use THIN paper. I used scrapbook paper on all but the flower, and it worked great. I used a cardstock decorative paper on the flower. Usable, but much harder to cut and not as delicate.

I know exactly where I'm going to use these too-in my Doodlicious art journal! :) 

I can't wait to design some of my own using delicate papers, like coffee filters...