Artful Journeys - Week #33 "Bad Poetry"

What a week this has been.  I had a big spurt of creativity following a busy week with errands, grown up stuff and some real work.  It has been so hot here this past week, we are all suffering, and trying to hide out inside as much as we can. But thankfully, the last couple of days we have not broken 100 degrees F.  Our version of a cold front.  But I digress...

This week at Artful Journeys, our prompt for you is to create a spread using "Bad Poetry".  The concept of this prompt is to generally select a central image and then find random words or phrases (or let the image dictate your selection of words) in magazines, cut them out and include them on your spread.  You can go wild with this. It isn't supposed to make a whole lot of sense, but you would be amazed at how your mind works and puts words and phrases together that make sense on your spread.

My spread actually started with the cartoon image I had saved from a Geico advertisement. Then, while sifting through my box of clipped images, the clock showed up and I knew (why?) that this is what I wanted to work with.  I pulled out my box of found words, deciding on the above.

I worked really hard on this page.  I have always had trouble with the JAM philosophy (just add more) for fear of really messing up my hard work.  But this time, it created some magic for me!  Hooray!


I started the spread in my 9x12 Canson mixed media journal that I started at the beginning of the year and only has about 15 pages left before it is full!

I began by gluing down some dictionary pages that I tore all the margin edges off and fitted them to the page and affixed with gel medium.  I then tore some sheet music and placed them randomly across the page. Then, I added some random flower and leaf punch cuts on the page. The color didn't matter since I knew paint was going on top of them, and this would help to create texture on the page.

Next, I spritzed Dylusions Inks in Fresh Squeezed Orange and Funky Fuscia, followed by sealing with some hairspray, knowing I would be adding more wet media! (Dylusions Inks reactivate when wet).  I added some Bright Magenta & Spice Orange fluid acrylic on top of that with a baby wipe, and some Dylusions Acrylic in Sunshine Yellow with a credit card, blending as I went.

I was satisfied with the color of the background and moved on to stenciling.  The clock stencil is by Fab Stencils and it was applied with a watered down Titanium White acrylic with a cosmetic sponge, dipped and the dabbed off the excess onto my mop up paper.  I then added the square stencil, and added some black into the white to create a tonal gray and stenciled a little bit more for some darker contrast.

Now to play with my clippings.  I wanted that cartoon Muppet to be hanging off that clock, and that was a chore. I ended up having to work to fit him around that clock, glued him to the back and then affixed the whole thing to page with gel medium.  Sadly, I accidentally scraped across the clock and Muppet and distorted the image a little bit.  Words affixed to the page and outlined with a black china marker.

I am rather pleased with how it turned out.  The "poetry" is really bad, but somehow the whole thing works together.

Hopefully this gives you a little jolt of inspiration for your spread!

Have a great week!
Arty Auntie
~~Betty

Week #4 - Artful Journeys

Wow!  The whole month of January has just flown by!  We are already to week #4 and our prompts this week are:  "Favorite Sports Team" and/or "Under The Sea".

 When we came up with the initial prompt, we were thinking about the Super Bowl, the Pro Bowl and all the fun things that happen with sports in the winter time.

We aren't big sports fans in my house, unless you count the hubs' total fascination with Nascar.  Not my cup of tea (either one).  Now, if the Dallas Cowboys were playing in the Super Bowl, I would so be right in front of the television cheering them on.  But since they literally dropped the ball during championship game, the fizz went out of my brewski.  No fun for me if the hometown team isn't playing, so it is easy to get involved with something else.

I racked my brain for ideas.  No mojo.  I let it rest and went on to something else.  Tick tock. The clock was ticking and time was running short.  So just a short 3 days ago, I struck upon this idea to run with the "no sports" thing.  I finished it last night.  Nothing like waiting to the last minute, right? A deadline is a great motivator!


SUPPLY LIST

• Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylic Paint - Chromium Oxide Green, Brilliant Yellow Green
• Craft acrylic paint - White, Bright Yellow, Spring Green, Caterpillar
• NeoColor II watersoluble crayons - black, cadmium red, dark blue, pink, green, orange, bright yellow
• Watercolor paint
• Black China marker
• Copic Marker in Leather
• Chipboard letter "N"
• EK Success 1-1/4" circle punch
• EK Success small oval punch
• Sakura Gelly pens in black, red, dark brown & white
• Bold Uniball Signo pens in Black & White
• Faber Castell black Calligraphy nib pen
• Corrugated cardboard as a stencil
• Green tinted sisal twine
• Alene's Tacky Glue
• Credit card for sraping
• Medium flat sable brush & #4 filbert brush
• Vintage lady image found on Pinterest

When I initially started the background in greens, I was thinking about turf grass.  If I had it to do over, I might choose another base color. But there it was, and I just kept letting it unfold organically.  I added 3 different greens and scraped them all on this way and that with the edge of a credit card.  Then I added some stencil marks all over it with a dark Pine Needle craft paint with the inside "corrugated" part off a coffee sleeve I salvaged from Starbucks that I just painted with the acrylic paint and stamped away here and there all over the page.  I find tools and inspiration everywhere.....especially when drinking coffee!

I kept looking at that page. Now what?  I knew I had printed off some vintage ladies and began rummaging through my vintage ladies box to find one that suited my mood and attitude. There she was.  I snatched her up, fussy cut her out (she was on slick cardstock).  I used some NeoColor II's to add color highlights to her to make her stand out a little more on the page.  I adhered with Alene's Tacky glue that I spread on very thin, and used the edge of a clean gift card to spread it out and smooth it down.

How to tie in the sports?  I'm not loving this prompt at all and still wasn't much enthused about it.  Then it hit me.....what about some floating balls like my lady was thinking about all those sports and how much she detested them.  So, punch out some circles and an oval.  Baseball, basketball, soccer ball & football.  Researched Google for some images.  I found drawing the soccer ball the hardest of all.  You wouldn't think it would be so difficult until you put that pencil down.  But I managed to get something that sort of resembled a soccer ball.  I chose these because their images are so iconic and easily recognized...as opposed to a ping pong ball or golf ball, which I knew I would never get to look like a real golf ball.  LOL So I got all that going and done and affixed to the page again with Alene's Tacky Glue, smoothing out so there would be no wrinkles.

I didn't like all that dark green, so I mixed up some white and added a dot of Chromium Oxide Green and Brilliant Yellow Green together and brushed it on in broad, loose strokes sort of down the center left of the page.  I needed a place to do some slow journaling.

There.  That was better, but I pretty much covered up all of the corrugated stenciling.  Oh well.  Such is art journaling!

Still boring.  I dipped my finger in some of the leftover mixed-up paint and made some dots around the page with my index finger. Dried with the trusty heat gun.  Remember I am in a hurry now... whipped out the trusty white and black Uniball Signos and went around some of those dots with some circles and made some more.  Better.

What to say?  I wanted whatever she said to be a little snarky, a little sassy and a whole lot of me.  I don't like to sweat.  I am not good at sports that require sweating.  (I do excel at water sports!) So, I just started, thinking of a sweet southern belle sitting on the veranda on a crisp, cool evening sipping a little mint julep.  Ahhhhhh, that is heaven.  So I just started with her talking, "No, sports for me, darlin' -- I don't DO "sweat."   That was pretty snarky and sassy, right?  Can't you just visualize her sipping away and laughing at the boys playing tag football on the lawn??  I surely can.  She tires of watching all that activity and asks "Pass the mint juleps please".  There.  That's it.  That's enough, and it says it all, at least to me.

I had a big blank space left at the bottom so I doodled up some quirky little flowers and colored them in with NeoColor II's to represent her lovely garden, just a step off that veranda.  The smell of blooming flowers wafting in the air against the crisp, cool evening.  Heaven on earth.

Should I doodle a border?  No border?  Paint it?  <sigh>  Back to the stash.  Digging. Rummaging. Aha!  There's a big spool of green dyed sisal twine.  Dark green.  Perfect contrast.  Since I love swirly, swoopy lines, I made some squiggly glue lines with Alene's Tacky Glue and began to cover that with the sisal twine.  Perfect. Great contrast on the page. Texture.  A little more visual interest.

All in all, it turned out rather well, considering my disdain for participating in or watching organized sports that require sweating or large crowds (I don't suffer those well, either).

As an alternate prompt - in the event YOU don't do sports either, we give you "Under the Sea" to work with.  I have previously done some journal pages with this theme, so decided to pass on doing another.  Here's a peek at a collaborative journal page with this theme that I did much earlier this year.  The page owner, Martika Patton did the watercolor background, and I added all the fishes and creatures from stamped images I had received in Happy Mail, coloring with Copic Marker and then fussy cutting them all out and applying to the watercolor page.  I then sent it along to the next person to add their "touch"

As an alternate prompt - in the event YOU don't do sports either, we give you "Under the Sea" to work with.  I have previously done some journal pages with this theme, so decided to pass on doing another.  Here's a peek at a collaborative journal page with this theme that I did much earlier this year.  The page owner, Martika Patton did the watercolor background, and I added mermaid, the fishes, & creatures from stamped images I had received in Happy Mail, coloring with Copic Marker and then fussy cutting them all out and applying to the watercolor page.  I then sent it along to the next person to add their "touch"

Here is a padded mailer I did with an "Under the Sea" theme in acrylics with a cute (and el cheapo) little fishy foam stamp and a Uniball Signo pen in white.

Have a look at what Melody Elzy, Tamie Wilson & Lynn Jackson contributed to this week's prompts on our blog:  Artful Chicks

Can't wait to see what you all come up with this week.  Be sure and share your images on the group feed at Artful Journeys~!!