Definitely a mix up!

Twice through the new art studio searching for my lost camera made things very mixed up and messy so I cleaned up for the third go round.  A smaller, compact space does make cleaning easier.  lol The third time was not a charm and I was not calm and I started to carry on in a wrong way so...
I forced myself to keep calm and get some coffee.  ahhh!   ta dah!

See the door knob.  It must have slid to the bottom of the stack and down to the back of that shelf drawer!  :(

The unplnnner with Art to the 5th has new steps for the various sections each week so it'll be a bit before I'm fully functional but I do like it.  Lots of ways to do your own thing.

Wanderlust from Everything Art will be a year of mixed media techniques and tutorials so I'm choosing a binder for notes and examples.   I really do like working on loose pages which can be of various materials and I can make notes on the back.

They will host two challenges.  The first is just fun prompts, 24 in all.  A smaller sketchbook with thick pages is recommended and I was going to just make a simple one from one of my sketch pads.  But one example shown had a variety of papers in it and I liked that!  So I will change that up a bit and my bookmaking skills improve with every one I make!

The second is a very cool challenge.  On some larger substrate we'll work with monthly bursts of simple direction.  But no reveals until the end of the year.  I think this will be fun!  I've come far enough along to cover everything ugly with gesso so... 

I have been following Barb over at Joggles for a couple of years and really enjoy her videos.  She has a blog now. I made a last minute decision.  He who hesitates is lost!!!  This will be quick and fun, once a week.  I messed up my J and this is the creative solution.  ;^) 

I'm pleased with the amount of effort, expertise and instruction in these classes.  I will share what I can on this year long mixed media adventure.   Now- to breathe deeply and sip my morning coffee before I head off for Art 101 with the grand kiddies.  They got a cardboard house for meeting their school goals and I'm bringing the paint!  :)  oye, it is gonna be messy!

These boots are made for walking

As I surveyed the mess in the playroom I decided to tackle the 'next thing first' wisdom.  I grabbed my DYLP and caught it up.  I realized I was using my daytimer as a diary and not as a planner which means I was double entering again and planning was back on scraps of paper.  grrr.

So I put those walking boots back on and started again!

Ideas are not my problem but remembering them and doing them at the right time needs planning and it actually saves time when I am doing 'just in time delivery'! lol  I am back planning and I even got my 'puter desk cleaned off, again!  lol

I think I have a general plan for the DYLP and doing the preliminary on the pages on Sunday night has me ready for the daily entries.  I need to keep a place cleared for working/journaling in it daily.  Having it at the ready and happy with the way it is going means I can dance through it in the Ruby Slippers instead of stomping through in my mud boots!  I do like a skinny sheet of loose leaf or two depending on what's noteworthy that I can attach to a slim flap which leaves the 2 page spread for art! The journaling is easier when I'm not confined to square footage!

I got a head start on the weeks ahead as I tried a technique I'd seen while cruising my blogs. Not wanting to hide my circles I will put the flap on the other page.  I have my little flap ready to adhere and a slip of paper to remind me of the plan. :)

I had started with gessoing the pages but then decided to skip that set as the monthly tab's position bothered me.  I thought they were dry enough for my feeble attempt at keeping them separated.  NOT!  But happily they weren't totally stuck and I really hope next week's prompt has something to do with texture 'cause I got a lot of it!

Speaking of texture...  During a coffee run I glanced outside and saw SPARKLES!
 

 What great hoar frost!  I balanced my cup on the stair post, skipped outside in my flip flops and used my zoom to record the sparkle!

Today I am changing back into my 'boots' and clearing a space for the DYLP where I can have daily access and then moving on to the next thing which is sewing.  Here's to a sparkly day as I kick up things in the playroom!

Tuesday's try!

I haven't yet bought my 2014 calendar.  The free ones are not very pretty or else the spaces are small and they transfer marks to the brand new month underneath.  :(  Last year's pretty bought calendar barely made the monthly switches as I tend to look at the Rooster's plain and serviceable free calendar that is in the kitchen.   Planners for me have been the notebook type with a two page spread of the month that gets buried in the paper surrounding the 'puter.  :O   If I am planning my week I generally just scribble sections onto any available scrap of loose leaf found in the previously mentioned pile.  This year has a 'strict budget' on the top of the things to accomplish this year so I thought I just might draw my own grid.  I have some specific things happening in specific months and I need to know when I can sit around scrolling through blogs and when I need to be making progress on this year's commitments!  ;)

Then I saw Jan's postings on the her new journal, here and here.  I am still wanting to make art journaling more of a daily practice.  I did enjoy making  the 2 big binders from two years ago but I got behind at the very end and they just became way too big.  I also find myself organizing my week in a more purposeful way.  so...

I checked out the Document Your Life Project on the Art to the 5th blog.  I seriously need to curtail art supply buying, much as I'd luv the Moleskine planner.  hmm???   A search through all my mixed media sketch books yielded only one that qualified and of the 60 pages I still had 54 that were not tampered with other than some colourations around the edges.  Must be meant to be!  :)

So I am drawing grids and mapping out the week's focus AND making art!  At least I will be trying to!

I'm also trying to be a 'puter techie!  The tutorial videos are very slow so I thought to tweak my settings. HA!  I have given up as I went from slow to no go! This morning I hit the restore button. vbsigh!  I did try!  ;)

Getting in step

This NOT a tutorial. This is in line with the Process Pledge. My intention is to get started journalling and I need to start preparing the pages. This is what I'm doing and I can't claim to know what I'm doing. And I'm less than sure how things will turn out. But, I am creating. Messes? Well, maybe. But this is the first layer.

I opened up my work table as big as I could and covered it with plastic. Next time I would throw on an old blanket, the plastic and then an old sheet or possibly some fabric I'd want for later dyeing as the top layer. I have learned to put larger pieces of paper under the smaller ones to get the slops, spills and missed swipes.

The hard cover notebooks have lined pages that are too thin. I am gessoing them together. I use wax paper to put behind the page. I gesso it, turn down the proceeding page, add a sheet of wax paper and brayer it smooth. I close the book, stack them up and add weight. Inside one cover I tried to get a textured effect with gesso.

After an hour or so I grew impatient so I jury rigged my doors and drawers so the books can have their pages dangling and maybe dry faster. Some curl but I can stack and weight later, I guess. The picture is blurry but then I'm trying to get as much done as I can.

The three albums are nice heavy paper and there is rice paper (?) between each page. They were a sale item from some place that escapes me now. So I'm slapping acrylic paint in various and sundry ways. I'm leaving some blanks for some future bright ideas. These dry fairly quickly.

I like the effect of spray. But this isn't really great here in my sewing room. What a mess I make! One container had a crack and ... well, at least I didn't step in it and get it All over. This will take some practice. I have to hold the spray bottle upright but get the paper down before the drips happen. ;>)

I can see this being a perfect job for using The Shed To Dye For. Especially this preliminary stuff. I can then fine tune things on my wet counter in the playroom, it is at least on one side of the room and not dead centre.

So I am 'doing'! I can see there are lots of steps and even more options. I will probably need to get some more 'inventory' happening and then I can begin to think about the second layer. The gessoed pages have not even the first layer as they are only glued together.

I also want to make it known that I have quite the spring in my step, says she, with a few little fancy shuffles and a hop!

Stepping Out

Common Threads was a busy crowded place last night. I did not take my machine as I need to find a more efficient method of packing/traveling. But I did learn the basics of 'convergence'. That's pretty cool! I got some input into a colour class and I found lots of support, encouragement, and motivation. We are a great sisterhood, us women, whether we be 'net' friends or near neighbours. Thank you.

I am off to a good start. Typically I did something else. But this isn't necessarily a bad thing. I was looking thru my 'puter for some basic info that I've saved on journalling and sketch books. I know how the 'save as' function works but I never take the time to organize the info. So I was organizing while I looked. I did need the time to think because I had a few decisions to make.

I had started a couple of 3 ring binder scrap books for each of my kids but they look very juvenile to me. The album book I have is kinda small but classy. Might be too small. Hmm, what to do? A firm stamp with my boot and I am not going to postpone while I wait to buy the perfect book. So I'll use the small book but make lots of loose pages. Victory, YES!

I'm sure that lots relate to postponing the mending but the articles are all now washed and dried so that's where I'll begin. My farmer's over-alls.

I copied out the Loose Feathers list and I can't recall who or what Pippa is!!! But I know I am not alone. That Girl has a great post on finishing old projects. I think instead of viewing them as this large pile of dead objects, I need to lift them up, get some light on them, and give them a reason to live.

Time to get marching!

Blue Skies

This looks like the week to get out there and get things done. No rain in the week's forecast. I won't hold my breath but I will get busy!

I never got to the art store last week but I do have some supplies. So I opened up the 'text' book, and my journal and my paints. oooh, some are quite dry but I've learned they are redeemable. So this will be a work book and not an instant work of art, or should I say Elle!

I also forgot to mention the Peter Rabbit pot, the real deal by Beatrix Potter I found at the thrift shop. I offered it to my 2 fellow shoppers and they passed so I didn't. 8^)

Creativity 101 revisited

In the beginning I wanted to do some journalling/sketch booking and I still feel that is the place to start. I have Diana Trout's Journal Spilling book and I actually went and got supplies. I have a designated area in the playroom. But it and the floor where I'd stand are cluttered. Diana is starting a new creative endeavour but I'm trying to decide if I just need to do it, my own thing for a bit, rather than commit to another thing that goes by the wayside. vbsigh

I bit the bullet yesterday, even after it looked like the sun really would come out. I stuffed a garbage bag with all my 'important' collections of data. What good is it if I can never find what I'm looking for? And besides, there is Google! So I dealt with the piles on the floor. I need to keep my journalling toys on the counter so I can't put sewing stuff there.

The sun is still shining today but I think I will do some Triple F: focus, fiddle and FINISH while I decide what Creativity 101 is going to entail.

Out of the ashes???

Well, since I'm not burning anything except maybe some rubber off my sneakers, out of the dust shall rise a new beginning. From the ground up, so to speak!

Vacuuming puts me right into a ZONE! Good bye world, hello thoughts.

Can my muse, A Musing come out to play? I am so ready.

Great trip to the city. I stayed focused. I went back for the 2 pairs of C U T E shoes I left behind after I bought the gold ones. Actually, they're probably something A Musing would wear but I shall silence the inner critic that says, What if ya fall, get bunions, laughed at, etc. and STRUT! So I'll be looking cool from the ankles down and I'm trusting A Musing to come up with some serious creative solutions for the ankles and up. I am following some sewing blogs. I used to sew before quilting took over my life. hmm, I also used to quilt before art quilting and mixed media led me on a parallel path.

I forgot the BOM deadline so I need to get that next block done. I do enjoy making them. I'll be needing a creative setting for that set of blocks as we are approaching finish.

With a clean work surface I shall hug myself and pick up my biggest brush and turn to page 16, Plunge In! I'm using Diana Trout's book, Journal Spilling. It seems okay to spill so what else could I fear? I had also stuck to the list and got the recommended brushes, sorta on sale. 10% doesn't really impress me. I mean it hardly covers the tax! But forget the budget, I need to decide whether to use a journal or the recommended paper.

WIP for Wednesday will see me fiddling with these very cute Drunkard's Path blocks. 3 inches is as small as I'd go because they'd take more pinning in the smaller size and I try not to do pins. Three pins work and the trick is to have the arc on top of the lower corner when sewing. Seriously, not hard. So, that's all my what if's and if I want to actually get to them the dust needs to start flying.

AHHH Chooo!

VBSigh A Musing, that was not amusing.