altered book pages

Last week-end I taught an altered book class in which we created "tunnel" pages.  I love this project because the pages are so interesting, so interactive.  I thought I would give you a peek at the beginning of my pages.  I will continue to "play" on these pages with my Frida Kahlo theme.  (I HAD to have an excuse to use my NEW Dina Wakley Frida stamps.)

"Altering" a book is a fun mixed media project...if you have never tried it, I highly recommend it.  Try it, you'll like it!

a fun opportunity

I have mentioned before that I teach a variety of art classes (to anyone who will sit still long enough to listen). ;)  Seriously, I just love it. And last week I had a wonderful opportunity to teach a mixed media lesson to an awesome group of young adults at Phoenix High School in Lincoln.  Here they are with their mixed media pieces (that will be used later as part of a different project).

Our project was creating a "master board," following step by step instructions with an emphasis on incorporating "found objects" (credit cards, paper towel tubes, sequin waste, dictionary pages, etc) as art tools...I am always super inspired by my students work when I teach because it is so fun to the same supplies, the same instructions "interpreted" so differently from individual to individual.  And young people create so freely...I think that they aren't worried about what is right or wrong or what people think...they just jump in and PLAY...did I say I LOVE it!?!  I am so thankful for this opportunity!

Follow their example and play at something creative today!  :)

playing around...

Playing around is all part of the process...and so I experiment with my supplies, and with different color combinations...here I wanted to try a "neutral" background.  I layered gray gesso, black gesso, and white gesso with a variety of circle themed stencils...

Then I smeared bright acrylics onto a dictionary page, and decided this would be a fun pop of color on this background...I wrote "art" and cut it out...

Then I tore strips to create a frame...what to use as a focal image?  I decided to use one of my own sketches (a Juliette Crane inspired owl)--sketched on deli paper with a Stabilo ALL pencil and then "activated" with matte medium...

That was fun!  Engage the process!!!
Have an art.full. day!

time flies!

Whew!  The days certainly fly by quickly!  I can't believe it has been so long since my last post...it has been very busy these past weeks...I have been blessed with lots of fun teaching opportunities, meeting so many new creative friends, playing on the pages of our journals together...Here is a peek at a page or two...

The above two pages are still in process since I will still add my journaling, and maybe a little "pen work"... always lots of mixed media fun!

Hope you can add a bit of creativity to these last days of spring...as we move into summer.!!!

that was fun!

I've been teaching altered book basics this year, and so this has been my "playground."  This is one of the pages I have been playing with...

Combining my love of letters, collage,wash tape, fun edges, doodling...it is still in process since I know that I want to add clip art or a stamped image...I will update you as I finish it...

Too much fun!!!

onto the page

I L-O-V-E art journaling for so many reasons...but you know that already don't you...I love it just for the joy of creating, but there are times when I am working through "something" and the processing is screaming to be expressed on the pages of my art journal...this is what happened with this page.  As I was "struggling," a picture of a cherry pie came to mind...hmmm...and so I hunted through magazines till I found just the right picture...and I propose that even that "hunting" helped with the processing...anyway, here is the process as it developed on the pages...

First, I "spilled" what needed to come out all around the edges, creating a border...

Then, since it wasn't "pretty,"  I covered over parts of the journaling with dictionary text and strips of a magazine page...

Then came the "antidote"...one of my favorite Scripture verses, written big and loose, some of the letters ending with an upward swoosh and some with a long finish line...

Next, I added some swipes of gesso over some of the journaling and the collage elements, plus some texture paste through a stencil, to unify the different elements... 

  

Since I knew I was using a cherry pie I decided to sketch some cherries over the verse and watercolor them with Tombow markers and a waterbrush...kinda scarey, but so much fun once I just committed, and did it...I had fun with the doodled leaves too!   :)  I also added a bit of shading around the sketches with a Distress marker (Antique Linen) and waterbrush...

Finally, I outlined the pie with a Fudeball pen-all squiggly-plus a Stabilo pencil and the same Distress marker and then blended with a waterbrush...

That's it!  I had worked it all out right there in my journal...it is hugely significant to me and the page will serve as a reminder and encouragement to me to engage and be faithful to the process. Once again, our art journals serve us well!  :)  Hi Ho Cherry-O!!! 

still in the making

Here is a peek at my process of a page still in the making...

Scrapbooking paper glued to my journal page...

A light coat of white gesso applied to center...

I used a Dina Wakley stencil and traced the girl's shape onto a dictionary page, cut it out, glued it to the page...

 



 I cut stars from a piece of newsprint that had over-spray from a previous project (yes, I DO save my "under-papers"...sigh)...

 

Next I outlined all of these with a Stabilo pencil and activated the lines with water...yum!...

 

Then I took an acrylic marker and dotted a border...

 

I'm happy with it so far, but I "know" it isn't finished yet...I will definitely add some writing, even if just a word or two...how would YOU finish this page?

thinking...

...in color...creating artful reminders...

 

you never know when you might need that visual "prompt"... 



pages

I thought it would be fun to show you a few of the pages we "painted" in last Monday's Creekside Studio art journaling class...
Here is what we were working with... :) ...it was a very happy mess of supplies...

 

 

Some of these are finished but (as I have said before) most are still in process...I will add journaling, doodling, shading with graphite or charcoal, highlighting with white pens and/or gel pens as I am inspired...who knows...just like me, they are still in-the-making...  :)

Are you "documenting" your process?  :)

in the clouds

I thought I would show you the "process" of a quick journal page I did recently...

I began with my favorite cloud mask and sponged blue and a hint of purple ink over the mask to create the clouds...

 

I don't know why I love making these clouds but I do...plus, it fills the page with a nice background very quickly...and hey! Just about anything will work with the sky!

 

Next I chose the stamps I wanted...chair, tree, and checkered corner...and stamped them. I masked the chair square and then stamped the tree and the checkered corner to achieve that layered effect...this was the result of playing with "masks" at the Mask Madness class here at Creekside Studio...fun!

 

 

I also "grounded" the tree with a torn piece of dictionary paper so that the tree wasn't just floating in the sky.

 

I must have still been thinking of Valentine's Day...OR wanted a little "comfort" on the page because I felt that I wanted to add a heart...so I punched one out of corrugated paper...and put it on the chair...

 

 

 

 

Just what I was looking for plus, I just love the texture. Then I taped it into my journal with washi tape.  Now all I need to do is "journal" on the clouds...I think they make perfect lines to write on.  :)

still here

I really am still here...just working away "behind the scenes"...on all kinds of things...some creative, some just necessary. I have been journaling in tiny increments here and there where I can, but still at it nonetheless...always!  I will add some of the pages I have done as I can...some of them are finished, and some are not...which is ok with me because my journaling is for me...

Last month my daughter and I took a class taught by Dina Wakley at the Stamp Art Shoppe in Roseville...It was a wonderful class and Dina is an amazing teacher...Her "Facing the Facts" class was a complete stretch for me since I don't feel very comfortable with my drawing skills, or lack of them  :)  ...BUT she taught us to draw a face and then challenged us to draw 100 faces...in other words, PRACTICE!  Well, the class was an encouragement to me (BIG difference between my "before" face and my "after" her-instruction face)...plus my daughter inspires me constantly with her drawings...anyway, I have been drawing faces (I think I have sketched 15 so far.)...I'm not confident enough to show all of them :) but this journal page represents this activity in my life right now....

As you can see, she is simple...basic...but I like her...
Like anything in life that is difficult, practice helps so much...sometimes my girls look like aliens...my husband called one of them 'horseface'  :)  ...but I am enjoying the process so much...I highly recommend it.  :)  Think of something you would like to learn to do, get a little instruction and then practice...alot...
                            ...and while you are at it, have a good time...laugh lots...enjoy the process!

the process

Its interesting when you think about "the process" of learning, growing, life...or any project or chore that we tackle...there IS a "process" involved...as I began October's journal, I pulled out paper that spoke 'fall' to me...and then I started to sort through it and narrow down what I would use this month...this is a peek at what that beginning process looked like...

 

...and a little closer look at the yummy papers, yummy colors...

I love that those hot air balloons kinda look like pumpkins.  :)

...then, inspired by our women's retreat preparations, I decided that this month I would make a small "file folder" to hold all the "pages" that I create...

I don't know if you can tell by the pic, but we are making small file folders to hold our retreat notes (the file folder on the bottom of the stack is a normal letter-sized file folder.  The pile of folders on the top are about 8 1/2 x 6 each...super cute!)...
...here is my October journal "folder"...made from Tim Holtz paper...

 

 So that was just the process getting started...Yikes! Its the 8th...I gotta get journaling!  I'll be back with the first page or two...

o.k.

It has been "interesting" around here...well, actually...hard.  I have been "in process"...

This verse was the beginning of my "vision" coming into focus...

As I always do when I want to process and record what is going on, I opened my journal and began...

I chose pictures that represented what was on my mind...a storm and this girl in her CUTE pink rainboots.  I cut the storm picture in two, and glued it and the girl to two of the three panels of this journal page...

 Then I added a bit of this Smash tape (to cover the text on my girl...and "ground" her).  I was a little disappointed with how much of her boots were covered though..oh well...

Next I punched a circle and folded it into a megaphone...she needed to proclaim "God is good ALL the time!" even (maybe especially!) in the middle of the storm.

 

 

All that was left to do was to "write it out"...so..ok...While I certainly don't understand it all, I am accepting...instead of agonizing, resisting, fighting these things that are "adverse" in my life right now...I am CHOOSING to give thanks for each worry, each heartache, each struggle...and as I did this, I DID find something to be thankful for in each...Amazing!  AND even though (there are still tears at times) and the hurts and worries didn't change, didn't go away, my perspective did...hmmm...my "SEEing" was altered!  Crazy!

God IS good ALL the time! and

ALL the time God is good!