Backgrounds

To start, I gesso most everything.

I've been told that gesso is a good primer and stops buckling.  I'm doing most of these backgrounds for my calendar journal which comprises manila folders so that's what I'll be illustrating.

I use acrylic craft paint and this is the second layer.  Too thick I think!

I tried to drop alcohol on and I'm wasn't impressed.  I tried the alcohol ink and it was a bit better.  I spritzed with water and that was more exciting.  I think I need to study inks or something!

Now I'm already learning that spreading acrylic with a plastic card works pretty good but if I want texture a dry brush on a few drops works slick!

Then I shook some watered down acrylic unto the pages.

I did this several times and the last time I also added some dots to the lower left page with the end of the brush.  I'm kinda into dots!  These were a little thicker and as each new layer should dry I decided to go ahead and try some bubble wrap on the right page.

That turned out pretty cool!

Then I brushed acrylic onto a stamp I'd made with a foam circle glued to cardboard.

 

I want to point out that the left hand background was started on another day.  My calendar pages are two page spreads and they should somewhat relate.  So I am using common colours and shapes to tie them together.  I'm not really wanting matchy matchy, though.

Ink:  I was up for trying ink again!

I removed the wrapping from my pen and nib and dipped into orange ink and wrote a day of the week.  So far so good. I decided to outline some circles.  This could have been edgy but...  I was raised in the school era where you had to master the straight pen before you could load up with the fountain pen and it was a few years before they allowed ballpoint.  It is like riding a bicycle.  You never forget!  lol  I may have to find a caligraphy book.

A few stamps. 

The yellow is going to be too subtle but Burnt Copper stands out.

Back to acrylic.  Who knew that toilet paper rolls were so cool!

Or the side of a plastic card!

My next try was to stamp first.  I also collaged some bits of torn paper which I adhered with gel medium.

Then I added first one colour of acrylic and then the other.  These are dry brushed.

Then I stenciled on some glimmer mist onto the left page.That is the positive image.  I flipped the stencil onto the right page and pressed the stencil down so the negative image would be on the right.  No waste!  This page is not finished but I am learning that they don't all need to be done in a slam bam manner!  lol  Let's just say I'm thinking!  ;^)

Now that turned out so well that my first journal page is not looking so cute anymore. I should have done more thinking!!!   I first viewed the adding of many layers to cover up previous layers as a bit wasteful!  But not everything goes as planned and that is why there are paper towels or baby wipes available to remove, soften or blend.  This time I won't even batt an eye! 

Company's coming!

My oldest daughter, Laura, is coming and these kinds of deadlines are really great for getting some things finally done.  Last year  I had bought 3 frames for the summer decor in the front entrance hall.  I wanted faeries!  I found some decoupage images at Michaels and I bought a sheet of shiny aqua background.

I am so pleased and they took no time at all.

I cut the image out and just glued it lightly in a few spots on the background.   It doesn't bother me that the mat should be smaller although I can certainly change that later.

Sorry for the glare.  I didn't actually think about documenting this at first.  But they are so cute.  One is a boy faerie.  I have one faerie left over as the sheets came with 2 per sheet.  They are embossed  and quite detailed.

I'm not sure how my time will be next week so I wanted to get a quick post in.  I have also been  working on my journal and backgrounds.  That is so much fun.  The cleaning is also going well because it is much easier to sort stuff when I know the colour of the room and the style/theme where it should go.  So I'm not keeping stuff just because I like it and what if...  It is going if it won't work!  I  can't quite explain how freeing that is.  I figured out that my creativity will find lots of expression in my journals so I can narrow down my options for home decor and simplify the tweaking so it is a day and not a whole week when I feel the need for a change.  I now need that extra time to make art!    I'll post on Friday some of my summer decor.

The faeries have arrived and the daughter will be here in 24 hours! 

Have a super Saturday and Sunday!

Creativity with Dots and Circles

The dot and circle family have been a fun bunch to party with!

Some shapes are more user friendly than others in terms of drawing but the point is to begin to be aware of subtle differences.  Practicing will make them flow without those jagged edges that hesitation brings.  The key is just to GO for it!

We did some large movements with our finger on a door, then practiced on paper and finally on some fabric.

Somewhere in blogland I read about a magazine journal which is perfect for a young gal so we began to modge podge some pages together placing wax paper between pairs until they dry.

We added some gesso to cover over some of the page and placed the fabric onto the page.  We'll probably add some gel medium to the fabric next week.

We did some stamping on another piece of fabric and 'cleaned' the stamps on some scrap doodle paper.  It will all be useful for the mixed media magazine journal!

Wow- I'm a calendar girl

I'm a bit kerfuffled because late at night, with the Rooster crowing beside me I deleted what I thought was the 'initial post' that replaced the final one.  Guess what???  It was the original.  What a way to start my new calendar year! 

So:

I have been working on some backgrounds.  But I will re post about all that later.

Today I am showing my new Calendar Journal. 

                                                            This is the front page.

I had an early morning mission in the Grand Kiddies home town yesterday and after that was done we did the main street stroll.  I got a few things for the journal at the Scrapbook store,  particularly themed for a great beginning.  lol  I went in for some letters and numbers!  8^0  I need to remind myself that this is MY journal so I don't want the scrap booking ephemera to take over. I want more of a mixed media art journal look.

The manila folder was gessoed and some of the layers are on.  I want more layering.  The floral paper on the right is some wrapping paper I have saved for a long time and I'm wondering about incorporating it on the binder cover and throughout the pages.  I wonder how to attach it to the vinyl surface and then protect it. 

The back of the introductory page is the first page, June 6th and I made a pocket.  I need to add more to this page and glue the pocket.  I don't know if it is clear enough but I got the weekday stamps because the designer is Elle's Studio and I can use that for sure in my pages! 

One week will be a two page spread and the rest of the week, 7,8, and 9 will be on the right page.

This is actually a pretty action packed week, what with weeding and getting the place spiffed up for DD#1's visit from Alberta.  

I did stroll through the thrift shop and I feel so much better now that I've discovered that there are lots of people who buy craft supplies, barely use them and recycle.  I hardly look at housewares now!

Voila! 

Three books on lettering and creative doodling!  And a couple of nice rolling stencils that I figure I can stick a pencil through to roll.

 I had made made similar quilts for Josh and Eliana.  Josh has cows and flowers and Eliana had the hearts and flowers.  Their room was aqua.  Now the new baby will be a girl and they will have a yellow and pink room. I strolled through the fabric store and we all felt this fabric with bugs and butterflies will work.  Funny, as Eliana is the bug girl. LOOK!  Inchy Spider!!!   and she is right down close.  lol  It is all good!

Then I knew we shouldn't go into Ten Thousand Villages.  Well, it is my birthday month!!!  The necklace was half price and I now know the price of beads!  Beside, it'll be a good prototype for our next beading day.  ;-)

I will save the photo of the 26 cement pavers for the new front walk which was the inital reason for the trip.  lol

So the deep cleaning is continuing here in the studio and I have piles to sort through all around the keyboard and thank goodness for saving drafts automatically as something must have slid onto the keyboard as we had a quick shut down in the middle. yikes!  I made myself some coffee and closed my eyes while the screen reloaded!

I'm linking to my Canadian blog friends and I'm awaiting my girl, Jenn so I can show her my new stuff and we can begin a magazine journal for her.  It should be PLAY from here on in!

Happy Day!

Hearts and Roses

We got some serious weeding done among the flowerbeds, Then we had to get over to The Hutterite Colony, Heartland, where the Rooster works.  A young fellow that he works with was bringing his bride-to-be from her home, Roseland  and they wanted two employees to be part of the big welcome.  They have quite the sense of humour and wanted them in work clothes and carrying signs.  I waited in the lunch room where the balloons were being sorted out and passed to the youngsters.  The colours were purple and green and much of the clothing was in those colours.

 The drive way was lined with signs and balloons.

It was quite a cavalcade.

We were invited back Sunday afternoon for what I would call a songfest.  We were early enough for me to get a picture.  The decorations were lovely. The girls had peeled young tree branches and sprayed them dark purple, lime green,and a few black were interspersed in tall glass vases with small black seeds as filler.  Choirs from visiting colonies sang and there was some impromptu singers as well.  Two uncles sang a duet, "Where are you going, pretty bird?  I am ...,  young maiden!  So cute!   They all harmonize wonderfully.  It was an enjoyable few hours.

The bride wore a blue chiffon over another fabric.  It was pretty much in their regular style.  She chose to wear a long sleeved matching jacket. There were blue beads embroidered all about the the bottom half of the skirt and on the jacket. Very elegant!  The groom wore a black suit.  Very handsome!

I wish them both well, the strength of steel and the soft fragrance of the rose.

Clarifying and Consolidating the Calendar

There is something that is very appealing to me about recording the passage of time.  And of course, I luv planning things.  ;^)  Ha, it is a good thing my peanut gallery isn't watching me over my shoulder as I type!  But his focusing mantra really is starting to have some effect.  And I really am simplifying.  Focus, where was I?

I have done some record keeping in various forms and with some success.  Then I store away all the info.  I don't seem to be as successful at going back to look at it though.  But the memory isn't quite what it used to be if ever it was!  And just perhaps it might be of interest in the future, at least some of it.

 I leaped into the Calender page project that I saw some bloggers doing and I tried the calendar page layout and allowing for initial excitement I did keep it up and liked it.

I tried a different format and allowing for a week of flu time I still didn't really like just writing down what was happening.

Scrapbooking has never quite appealed although I have managed to accumulate a few scrapbooking supplies. 

I had thought to make my own scrap books for my kids but that has stalled as I felt it was too, well, amateurish.

The art journals and altered books are wonderful but I wondered about incorporating old photos in a pleasing manner.

Then I came across a post on the concept of a hybrid scrap book which includes traditional and digital scrapbooking.  I haven't quite mastered Photo shop Elements just yet!  lol  But putting photos onto the page and adding elements definitely has possibilities.

Then I travelled on further and deeper into blogging and found something called Project Life- a back to basics approach to memory making.  You can find out about it here.  I thought, Eureka!  I even went so far as to pick out my preferred binder and colour scheme, and ...   Well, you get the drift.

My birthday is in June and I thought why wait till January; I could do 'my' year.  Birthday to birthday.  What to do while the kit wound its way through my budget, the order system, and the postal system!   ???

What if...

I made my own?

I dug around for a spare binder.  Thank goodness I hadn't sent them all off to the thrift shop.  It can be decorated.   The individual pages need to support my mixed media messes.  I had saved all the file folders that I'd used for home schooling.  I'm a file fiend and I have lots.  I can slice the 1/4 inch off to fit the binder, I can make the holes with the hole punch, I can gesso them in preparation for all kinds of fun,  AND...

I can create weekly pages.

I can see how everything has led to this Aha! moment.  I can now sort, simplify, and organize all the loose memorabilia I have for each family member and work on them as I'm inspired by my own weekly page.  I can empty one whole filing cabinet drawer, keep everything in the one place, and impose some kind of limit on all the ephemera.  It is a good thing it is a legal sized drawer because I think I'll need to add the grand kiddies!  lol 

Now I have to make a full disclosure.  I still like the stuff over in the store over at Project Life  but it'll only be to enhance what I'll be already started on.  I also need to confess that the playroom/studio is one huge mess as I empty drawers, sort contents, gesso folders, and plan for the beginning of my brand new creative year.  I hope to have some good stuff to show for July 1st because time waits for no creative calendar girl!