Riverside Rubber Stamp & Paper Arts Festival

I've had quite the day! I spent my afternoon at the Riverside Convention Center, at a scrapbook and rubber stamp convention. It was lots of fun, and I spent way too much money. Look tomorrow for a picture of all my treasures! This ATC was made by Kate at Invoke Arts. I loved their products and I learned a lot of new techniques by watching her work. I'm actually eager to carve out some time to play. She recommends three to five hours at a time, so that you have time to not just make a card or a few ATCs, but to really play with your materials and techniques. I'm not sure when I'll find three hours -- much less five! -- but I'm going to try to very soon.

I made this ATC in a class taught by Miss Jennifer of Auntie Amy's. It was so good to see those ladies again. I've really missed them since Amy decided to close her store. This ATC was made on a metal substrate -- how cool is that? In addition to using papers, stamps, and buttons, we used rub-ons, which I'd only used a couple of times before. Would you believe that a crop-a-dile made the hole for the ribbon? It was like butter!

Tonight, I was in such a mood to play with art that I gesso'd several pages in my new art journal. Note that I still didn't do anything actually creative, but I came a lot closer. Prep work ought to count! Even though I wasn't doing anything particularly expressive, it felt good to be smearing that white stuff around on my pages. My new art journal is a moleskine -- the lavender one -- and I'm already loving it. I'll have to work hard the next few days to get caught up at RAA and around the house, so I have time to play!

Collage Play With Crowabout Week #5

Here is my Week #5 offering for the Collage Play With Crowabout Challenge. I meant for the journaling to go all the way to the bottom, but I was having pen issues. The background is water soluble oil pastels and nothing really wanted to write on it; I finally just gave up. I have one more pen to try, now that I think about it ...

I am enjoying this collage group so much! So far, I've managed to participate in each week's challenge. In fact, I find myself looking forward to Saturday mornings, so I can get the new collage elements and start to "work". I try not to peak at the other member's offerings while I'm working, but I'm so excited about what is being produced that sometimes I can't help it. Everyone is producing such good work. I'm really amazed by the caliber of art being produced and I'm humbled to be a part of the group.

Collage Play With Crowabout Week #3

Here is my journal page for Week #3 in the Collage Play with Crowabout Flicker group. It's a private group, so I can't offer you a link to it, but you can get more information about it at the founder's blog. Every week, Nancy gives us a new sheet full of collage elements and we each make a collage or journal page using at least three of the elements. This the first week that I've done any personal journaling on my page. My lettering skills could use some practice, but all-in-all, I'm pleased with how it turned out. The background is one that I made following Suzan Buckner's background tutorial.

Collage Play With Crowabout

Here is my offering for Week #2. For details on the Collage Play Challenge, see the blog post below. Have a great evening!

New Art Journal Page

It didn't occur to me until just now that I ought to post this! I've been so busy sharing the art for my Featured Artist Show, that this just slipped my mind. I recently joined a collage group, hosted by NancyB, on Flickr (The group is private, so I can't refer you. Sorry!). For details, see Nancy's website. Anyway, the premise is this: Once a week, Nancy posts a collage sheet to the group and the participants have about a week to do some kind of collage with at least three of the elements from the collage sheet. Most people do art/visual journaling of some sort, so I thought I'd try my hand at that again. As most of you will recognize, this really isn't my style at all. I'm hoping to grow and learn as I work my way through this group.

If the concept strikes you as fun, why don't you join us?

I have week #2 almost done; I'm just waiting for my crackle paint to finish drying and I need to go to the office supply store to make some copies so I can do an image transfer of the text I want to use. Most people just write on their pages, but my handwriting is atrocious, so I thought I'd skip that! I'll post week #2's collage when it's dry and ready!

Change Journal Page

This was a quick journal page. I had the images in my stash, so didn't even have to take time to cut them out; I just used what I had. I had just watched a Louise Hay video on metaphysical healing, and was inspired to express my own willingness to change my life. It's not great, but it's the first thing I've created in ages.

Upcoming Class!

I just signed up for a class on art journaling taught by Samantha Kira over at a girl and her journal. The class is going to be eight weeks long and promises to help us find our journaling voice. I, for one, could use that kind of help! The class is a suggested $15 donation. For eight weeks. That's a bargain in my book!

Art Journal Tutorial, Step One

So, I spent most of my evening working through Julie’s art journal tutorial over at The Land of Lost Luggage. It was a fun tutorial. If you’re into art journaling at all, head on over there. I know this doesn’t look like much, but this is my page at the end of Step One, which was basically gluing down bits of paper until you get something that pleases you. It’s all probably going to be covered up with paints and layers, but it gives some interesting color and texture to start with. Mine are miscellaneous scrapbook papers that I like and an entry (Trance) from an old encyclopedia.

Art Journal Tutorial, Step Two

This is Step Two, where the real fun begins. Out comes the paint brush! Read Julie’s blog entry for the details. I used a wash of Golden Fluid Acrylic in Quinacridone/Nickel Azo Gold, and then sponged on Lumiere in Halo Pink Gold. After that was dry, I dry brushed white paint on it. My next layer was a light, sporadic coat of Adirondack Lights Acrylic Paint Dabbers in Shell Pink. I didn’t dab it on, but unscrewed the lid and used a paint brush. I liked this, but thought it needed something, so I dotted it with Lumiere in Metallic Russet and sponged the dots in. That was a lot of work for that layer! I was impatient, so I used my blow dryer to dry each layer before going on to the next. So far, so good.

Art Journal Tutorial, Step Three

Step Three was a lot of fun, but frustrating too. I probably learned the most on this layer. For one thing, walnut ink doesn’t seem to “take” very well on top of Lumiere paints. I sprayed it on and blotted it off three or four times, and could see almost no difference. In fact, I used more walnut ink tonight that I’ve ever used, altogether! I also learned that I need white spray paint. The Primer Grey was really just too dark, and the whole spread just got darker and darker as I tried to deal with it. I like it, it just isn’t what I had in mind.

I used: walnut ink, Krylon Primer Grey spray paint, and Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Oriental Poppy. On top of that, I sponged some Lumiere in Halo Pink Gold, and then some dotted on some Lumiere in Metallic Russet and blended it with a sponge. I then sprayed the Oriental Poppy Glimmer Mist on top of that.

Art Journal Tutorial, Step Four

Okay, those of you who know me probably already guessed that Step Four was my least favorite step. I hate doodling. I just don’t have any confidence about it, because I’m not a doodler. I don’t even doodle when I’m on the phone. Because I don’t doodle, the temptation was to copy what Julie was doing, but I didn’t. I wanted to try her aged paper technique, so I did decide to put strips of text on my layout. I used the first few lines of an e.e. cummings poem (i thank You God for most this amazing). I didn’t have any white cardstock, so I used index stock; it worked fine. I also couldn’t find my glue pen, so I used my glue stick anyway. It seemed to work okay since I was careful. I tried Julie’s rubberstamping technique. I think it would have worked great if my surface had been anything other than Lumiere paints, or maybe if I’d have waited until tomorrow to try stamping. Even with my StazOn ink, the stamps didn’t want to make an impression. I had to really ink them up and press really hard to get even a faint impression.

Art Journal Tutorial, Step Five

For the journaling in Step Five, I used my ZIG Memory System calligraphy pen in Chocolate. I didn’t have the suggested Sharpie pen. Actually, I had one in white, and it didn’t really want to write on my page! I suspect the Lumiere paints again. Maybe if I’d let the page dry overnight before I started journaling, the ink would have reacted better with the page. I don’t know. As it is, I can read it, and that’s the important thing.

All in all, I’m pleased with the final result.