Artful Journeys Week 2 - Selfie & More

Wow, we're in our official week 2 already, and 8 weeks into a wonderful, artistic adventure at Artful Journeys.

This week, we are exploring ourselves.  Since I always have my real "selfie" on my Facebook profile and most everyone already knows what I really look like (the good and the bad-- ha) I went a little different this week.  In fact, I made two spreads, several weeks apart and finished this one this evening.  Nothing like waiting to the last minute, huh?  My brother always says that it isn't procrastination if you plan on doing it later......

Why do we talk bad to ourselves?  There is nothing positive about that.  Is it a conditioned response? Approval seeking from others?  Whatever the reason, I vowed that this year I would do my darndest to focus on self-empowerment, positivity, gratitude and of course, simplification.  My inner critic is a crazy mad woman, so I am learning to talk bad to her, not to myself.  I listened to enough negativity growing up to last ten lifetimes.  I don't have to reinforce it, and I choose not to.  I know my worth in this world, and I know that I am filled with tons of good.  Way more good than bad, and a ton more positive things than negative.  I want to work on eliminating that negativity and focus on the positive, so here goes.

This spread is in my large Dylusions journal -- in fact, the first spread in it.  I had been putting off working on those beautiful, pristine pages.  It was time to play a little with the journal, the supplies and take on some self exploration.

First, I knew I wanted to do a resist for the words, and used a Sakura Glaze Pen in white to write out the words.  I then ripped a page out of an old hymnal and a 1949 US government book page, tearing all around the edges.  The vintage woman image I had printed out quite some time ago that I found online, tearing around the edges.  I smacked those down with a UHU glue stick, and smoothed them out with a credit card and let them dry really well for about an hour.  I have always liked the effect of torn edges. You can do a lot with those raggedy edges.

Sadly, I didn't choose a darker color for my initial spritzes with my Dylusions sprays and the resist work did not show up all that well.  It worked, but next time, I will start with a darker base color. First a few spritzes with Tangerine, Sunshine yellow and Postal Red and a blast or two of Bubble Gum Pink.  I used a smoothing pad in a few places where I got a bit carried away, and this did help speed up the drying process.

Once the paper was dry, I then set about with some burnt umber Liquitex acrylic that I watered down and put around the edges of the book pages and my vintage lady with my fingers.  I wanted a softer, more muted effect and the thinned burnt umber achieved the look I was wanting.

I then grabbed a bottle of Caribbean blue craft acrylic and brought in a little brighter color with some swooshes and squiggles.  These are technical terms, right?   Then some white circles and dots, and burnt umber circles with the cap off an old glue stick.  And I even threw in a little gold in there too, although it doesn't show up that well in the photograph.

Because the resist didn't show up that well for me, I used a White Uniball Signo pen and went over the descriptive words, followed by a black Uniball Signo pen.  The all-white just didn't cut it for me.
I did add a little more personal words in my text blocks in white, more to force myself to journal/write a little more.

Overall, I am pretty happy with the end result.  And I will continue to focus on the things that are positive in my life throughout the year.  This is a great reminder.

Be sure and visit the Artful Chicks blog and check out what the rest of the team made this week. You won't be disappointed.  See it here.   And be sure and post your journal spread over at Artful Journeys so we can continue to support you as a person, and your art!

Exploring Sharp vs. Blurry

Crisp, clear and sharp or soft and blurry?

We are talking about art, but are we also talking about life? Are we exploring that juncture  between what is clear and what is not?  Often, what is seen clearly by one is frequently blurry to another.  I think we have to wade through the blur to reach a point of clarity. Many would say the converse would be true, but I choose  the former.  Like wading through the mud to reach hard, dry land.  From the fog emerges a clear sky.

What brings all this on today?  Well, a prompt at Daisy Yellow where Tammy Garcia asks us to explore clear and sharp versus soft and blurry.  I immediately began to see parallels to real life.  More art imitating life or life imitating art?  Seems I have more questions than answers these days, but something to ponder over the course of a few days or months to be sure.

Working in my Graphique unlined pocket journal where I often explore different techniques, trial and error experiments, make notes, ponder ideas, document supplies and so forth (basically a junk journal of sorts), I immediately had an idea from this prompt. And I ended up trying many different things.







The first was the idea of dots and triangles holding and releasing color and draining down to the bottom.  Clear and sharp at the top, soft and blurry at the bottom.  The effect wasn't what I was going for, but it was not my intention to make something memorable. This is more of an exercise.

While my pocket journal is not particularly suited to a lot of heavy wet work, it will hold up to a light hand with watercolor, gouache and acrylic.  But you can't get too heavy handed with it or the paper starts to pill up.

And remember, I am not a skilled sketcher or drawing artist when you look at this next effort.  Especially when I have nothing to look at.  We're capturing the "essence" -- remember?


The idea was a running faucet and pooling water. Because I sketched straight in with a black pen, the big giant "drop" of water is well, horrible.  But remember, I am just playing and experimenting.  Coming out of the faucet hard and fast and pooling underneath.  I think I definitely captured the pooling thing, but the faucet and the giant "drip" -- not so much.

Okay, since that one was a fail, I decided to mix it up a little more.  More color.  Softer edges.  This time, I added a little lettering with a purple fine tip Sharpie marker.  Yes, I dragged my shirt sleeve across a few of the lines while they were still wet. Oh well.  I'm just playing.  No big deal.  I do like this one a little bit more.......

So, gee, that was fun.  Let' s make another.  Why not?  The husband is busy watching television and not talking.  More quality time.  Yee haw.


Back to drips and drops.  I had in my mind the words "Don't cry me an ocean".  Definitely got softer, blurrier.  My ocean goes uphill and it is windy on one side and smooth on the other.  As in life, nothing is perfect.  Move along little doggie.










So I decided vertical wasn't working for me.  Let's try horizontal. Still with the watercolors.  Blurry isn't happening so much with the yellow. It seems more of a "blending" from the last  horizontal stroke.  I did schmear it around while wet with my finger.  Not soft enough. Not blurry enough to suit me. too blah.  Kicking the proverbial doggie to move along yet again.

So, one last shot.  Dig out some Prismacolor pencils.  Soft and fuzzy, followed by definitely clear and sharp.  No blending stump available at my recliner. Too lazy to get up.  Hands were too cold and too clean to affect the pencil by rubbing.  But you see the concept for sure.  Maybe later I will add some ephemera, or maybe not.


Perhaps the next few pages I will play with doing this in acrylic. I can definitely get that "schmear" on with the fingers. Nothing more fun than paint on the fingers.

So, during this process what did I learn?  Blurry is definitely more difficult in art, at least for me.  Blurry is definitely difficult for me in real life.  I prefer order, clear and concise, exact and to the point.  Muddying up my art, like in my life is way more difficult.  But we all have to wade through the blur to get to clarity.

How about you?

Doodle Painting

What do artists do when we're bored, talking on the phone or waiting?  We doodle, of course.

An artist / doodler would never be good at a high security job where doodling was verboten.  I know I surely wouldn't be any good with that kind of thing.  I tend to doodle things I see; jot down words I hear and draw endless open boxes.  Yes, that's my primary doodle thing, open boxes.  Oh and arrows pointing toward things. While I didn't doodle any of those things here (this was a little more contrived doodling than normal), I still had fun filling up all those random boxes.











Spurred on by a post by Tammy Garcia at Daisy Yellow, and always willing to play with my watercolors or gouache, I grabbed up a black Sakura Gelly pen and made a bunch of random boxes on 9x12" watercolor paper.  No scary white page here.  Just make some random boxes of varying height, width and shape.  The tricky part of course is what you put in them.  Maybe you will actually do some random doodles. I wanted to put in some "sparks" and some fun into mine.


After all, isn't art about fun?  










After I had created all the boxes, I then set about with my watercolors to fill them in.  Since I was "sort of" watching a program on television with the husband (quality time, right?) I just pulled out my Koi Field Watercolor set. Plenty of choices.  And I fixed up a jar of water, brought in a paper towel and just used my #6 pointed round brush.  No rhyme or reason to the color choices, but totally random selection -- just like doodles. Random.  I had grabbed a Faber Castell Calligraphy nib pen to make all my "doodles". Some of the things in my doodle boxes mean something to me, others are just for out and out grins and giggles.

Create some random fun for yourself and give it a shot.  Do it in your pocket journal while you're waiting somewhere, or in your favorite experiment journal or as I did, on a whole separate page.  No matter where you create it, you will have some fun.

ARTFUL JOURNEYS - Week #1 - KEYWORD FOR 2015

I like identifying a keyword or phrase as a touchstone for the coming new year. I don't do well with resolutions and find that after a few months, they've gone by the wayside anyway.  But one single word, or a short phrase, now that's something I can relate to.  Brief, to the point, direct.  And having that little touchstone in my journal that I am touching all year long is a constant reminder of where I want my focus to be for the year.  Having it near the front of my journal is the perfect place, and having it as our first official prompt for week 1, well, it is perfect.

This year, my keyword is SIMPLIFY.  Keep it simple.  Declutter.  And I am definitely going to be doing a lot of that this year.  As a rampant collector of "good stuff" most of my life, I am feeling the pressure of all of those collections. The dusting. The packing. The Unpacking.  The storing.  It is just getting to be too much, no matter how much I love all those treasures. It is time for most of it to find a new home, perhaps to go live with some of the nieces, to pass down those family treasures that I have been the keeper of for most of my adult life. Perhaps they go live somewhere outside the family. Mother is gone. She will never know.  And if the girls don't want those "treasures" -- then surely someone else might.  But out they must go.  THIS YEAR.  I am committed and determined to make this the year I free myself from excess "stuff".

So in order to start the year off right, I started it off simply, after some not-so-simple thought processes of where I wanted this to go.  I grabbed my beloved Derwent Inktense Blocks and poised to begin.  Nothing is as simple as a circle, the concentric and eternal ring of life.  Perfect.  I made the basic start with orange, red and maroon and gave the 3 colors a good smooth-out with a couple of baby wipes, blending as I went along.  The baby wipe really does most of the work, and the blending is really quite easy.

I fanned out in concentric rings and bands of color until I got to the purple phase, and used some NeoColorsII by Caran D'Ache for these rings, and again with the baby wipes to smooth and blend.

I then turned my attention to my idea.  A single lone tree, in a hot, sundown sky (it does look like that, doesn't it?).  The sun behind a tree makes a wonderful silhouette and I just started it with a #6 pointed round sable brush and black acrylic paint.  The limbs represent all that stuff I am divesting from my cluttery life.  They will all be gone soon, much like the look of this tree, devoid of the clutter or fullness of the leave (my stuff).  The tree was filled in and feathered at the bottom to give the effect of tree roots.  Roots.  My family roots run long and deep. A constant reminder of where I come from and what is really important in my life. Not "stuff." Makes me focus on the plan, right?

And lastly, the word. The touchstone. The goal:  SIMPLIFY.  Nothing could be simpler.  Now to make it all happen.  Less commitments outside the house this year.  Fewer commitments that eat up my time.  Less time online and more time for myself and my art.  More time for the family.  My OCD is starting to kick in and take over like it should. Schedule that time and stick to it. Make an appointment with myself. Block out that special "me" time and family / husband time and get that "stuff" into those boxes and out the door, no matter where it goes.  Less dusting.  Yay.  I see this plan coming together nicely.

What keyword or phrase will you be focusing on this year?

She Sings

In life, as in art, we have to express ourselves based on what resides within us, whether we are singing, painting gentle strokes with a paintbrush, or dancing like no one is watching.  I am finding that the simpler things in life truly make me the happiest.  Am I facing my own mortality? I don't know for sure, but likely, given I have lived 6 decades on this earth and do not know what the future holds or how long I shall continue to enjoy this life.  Certainly something to think about.  Something I am thinking about these days.  But this post is not about such maudlin things as that.



Creating, for me, is something I MUST do.  I have to do it.  It doesn't matter whether I'm slinging paint and glitter or whipping up something delicious in the kitchen or refinishing and saving an old piece of furniture.  All of that is creating in my world.  I move the furniture around in the house to get new perspectives.  I rehang pictures.  I move around my collectibles to new locations, making them all fresh again.

These two postcards express all of that for me.  "She sings because she has a song" sums it up quite nicely.  We create because we have to do it, feel the need to do it, to get out that "something" within us that needs to be expressed.

Both backgrounds were generously sent to me in happy mail.  The red one is embossing on cardstock that I embellished with pastel and fussy cut out an image from an old pocket calendar I had been hanging onto.  Simple, but powerful.

The blue background is lovely and the layering of paint and paper and texture is quite satisfying.  It was a much larger piece, and once I cut it to size was more in love with it than before.  Again, I fussy cut out the back of that old pocket calendar and collaged to the background.

Nothing hard or difficult about either of these pieces.  I basically turned scrap into something beautiful and powerful. Create because you have to do it.  Create because you want to do it.  Turn play papers into something and change the perspective. This is what I did.

Both these postcards will be flying to their new homes on Monday.  I hope the recipients like them as much as I do.

Artful Journeys Pre-Launch Prompt #5 - January Calendar

This week at ARTFUL JOURNEYS our prompt is to create a January calendar in your journal.  I particularly like having a monthly calendar in my journal, even if I never write a thing on it. Of course, I also like to tart up my planners so that built in calendar of events, appointments and jotted notes isn't quite so boring and clinical.  I find that it helps to document the art I am creating in my journal in an orderly way, even if I forget to date each individual page I create.  I know that everything after that page was made in that particular month, so this is something I have always done in my journals.

This week, I used a credit card scraping method for application of my paint.  Doing this can give you a nice, smooth writing surface, as long as you don't leave big lumps of paint.  I particularly wanted this page to be smooth in the daily squares, so I was careful to make it nice and smooth.

Before I applied any paint, I inserted an over-sized piece of parchment behind this page so as not to get any paint on the back side or adjacent page.  It was a little slippery, but as I got to the edges, I held the page stable with some clothespins on the edges.  I started with some Diva Pink and placed a few small blobs of paint indiscriminately around the page and began scraping the paint, every which direction.   Then I added some Flag Red and scraped it in multiple directions as well.  And finally, a couple of blobs of Bright Magenta, and I let the whole thing dry completely.

After the paint was dry, and after referring to a small January calendar for the day placements, I gridded out the blocks using a ruler and a .07 mechanical pencil, using a very light hand for my pencil marks.  I edged with a fine liner brush using Laguna blue acrylic paint and the edge of my ruler so that I could get the lines perfectly straight.  I had a couple of bleed-throughs under the ruler as I was going along, but I had some cotton swabs handy that I just dipped into some clear water and wiped them right up.  I then used the same Laguna blue to do the hand lettering of the month, days of the weeks & the blue snowflakes using a #6 pointed round sable brush.  I then embellished with white acrylic, and added the "Let it Snow."

So, once all that was dry, I knew it needed something else.  Mid to late January is about the only chance we ever have to get snow in north Texas, and of course we're always dreaming and hoping that we get some.  Any amount of snow, no matter how little, is always cause for celebration here! And while beautiful pines are not indigenous to our area, pines and snow just go together in my mind, so I created a little mini-forest, again using Pine and Burnt Umber acrylic craft paint and added some snow with Bombay White India Ink and my #6 pointed round brush.  A little cold color was added with a light sky blue.

Once dry, I was pretty pleased with the overall effect, and I will be dreaming of a snow covered lawn.  If you're getting more than your fair share of the white stuff, send some to the DFW metroplex area, would you?

Stay warm & stay artful!
~~Betty

A Christmas Gift

Our big family Christmas gathering happened yesterday, December 20th  with children and food everywhere!  We have two new babies in the family and toddlers running around all excited.  Since I never had any children, I always enjoy watching the little ones, holding the babies (until they start crying or get the poopy diapers, ha) It is always so great to visit with those I don't get to see very often, and get all the Auntie hugs I can get. Sometimes those hugs and loves have to tie me over for a long time, so they are especially important to me!

Several years ago, we made the decision to stop giving individual gifts to the adults and we just buy gifts for the little ones and those kids under the age of 18.  The adults play a "Chinese" gift exchange where gifts can be stolen up to 3 times from someone and after that they are "frozen".  Each male brings a gift suited for a man, and each woman brings a female oriented gift.  Deciding what to bring is always difficult, given the wide age disparity of the adults in the family.  It is always fun when the stealing starts, and to see who ends up with what. Some years, the stealing is wild...others, more tame and less lively.  We always have fun with it, and sometimes some exchanging or swapping goes on after the exchange is over.

This year, we asked all participants to include something that they made or created, either as their sole gift or part of their gift.  I opted for the "part of" part with mine, and also include two nice bottles of wine and some pretty wine glasses.

My handmade part was this mixed media on a 9" oval canvas that I already had a frame to fit standing by!  My great niece ended up with it and seemed happy to have it, although we swapped out the wine and I gave her the gift I received which her mother had actually made.  My original idea for this canvas was to start with a dark red acrylic and move to a lighter color creating a "flame" effect.  The thing just kind of emerged organically and didn't look "flame like" at all when it was finished. I fussy cut out a vintage woman image that I liked, gave her some bright turquoise and lime Prismacolor pencil work and collaged it to the canvas using Liquitex Matte Gel Medium.  The "She" quote was hand lettered on 90 pound cold press watercolor paper with a Sakura Gelly Roll pen and highlighted with Prismacolor pencil in a bold red.  Adding the crown as an afterthought didn't really achieve the look I wanted, but it wouldn't come off easily, so I just left it. It did match the lady's dress pretty well and did serve to bring the quote  "She Always Wore her Invisible Crown" to life a little more.

We all have to remember to wear our "invisible crowns" more, and know that we are always in control of our own lives, our emotions and feelings.  I put mine on everyday and hope that it gives me the fortitude to push through the roller coaster of life every single day.

What are you creating this holiday season for people in your family?

Pre-Launch Prompt #4 - Holiday Madness

This week, our prompt for Artful Journeys is "Holiday Madness."

The "holidays" in general, are many things to me, and I will wax and wane poetic a little further on in this post.  But for the purposes of my art, I took a humorous and more artful approach to our prompt here publicly, and a little more intimate & theologically appropriate approach privately in my journal. We've all seen the hundreds of images of "Santa" racing across the moon in his sleigh on Christmas Eve...on the weather cast, on the news, on the internet everywhere we look.  And now, Santa is racing across my arty red moon in silhouette form against the backdrop of a screaming lime green "night" sky pierced with twinkling gold and silver stars.  He says, woo-hoo, what a ride and is heading home with an empty sleigh.  Sometimes I scare myself when I see what comes out on paper sometimes.  It is madness, isn't it?

This page is a composite of Derwent Inktense Blocks and acrylic craft paint, highlighted with metallic Sharpie pens and a black Signo Uniball pen.

I started with that big red circle.  I know it doesn't look really red in this photo, but it is...with a touch of burgundy / maroon on the edges smoothed out with my trusty baby wipe method.  And then 'round and 'round with the green Inktense block, again with the baby wipe.  Then, Caterpillar lime green acrylic paint, thinned with water and smoothed with a 1/2" flat brush, and again over the whole lime area with yes, you got it, the baby wipe thing again.

I searched for some kind of silhouette I could actually draw and found this rather simplistic one on Google.com and because the lines were rather simple, I actually managed to draw it and make it look reasonably like Santa in a sleigh with a reindeer.  Then, I just filled it all in with craft acrylic in black, and highlighted under the reindeer belly and sleigh runner with a silver Sharpie marker and some gold highlights on Santa's pom-pom on his hat.  Additional metallic embellishments added in the form of gold and silver stars and dots and some "rounding" on that Santa-red mood.  Lettering was done with a Uniball Signo bold pen in black.

The overall effect ended up surprising even me.  It is bold, bright and fun.  And even the hubs liked it.


See what my buds Tamie, Melody, Lynn and Terri did in response to this prompt here

Now for the waxing and waning poetic .......

Christmas in my world, first and foremost, is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.

I cannot imagine celebrating Christmas or the holiday season in general without my family and a wide circle of friends, both near and far. I cherish both immensely and the holidays would not be the same without either.   Our families bring the holiday season alive for us as small children, and the depth of our knowledge about the true meaning of the holiday season comes as we are educated theologically and scholastically.   As small children, we are enthralled with the concept of "Santa Claus" and his arrival on Christmas Eve and waking to the excitement of those special Christmas mornings.  As we age, we realize that part of the "Santa" charm is the mystique, but we are reminded of the true meaning of Christmas, and give thanks for the real reason we celebrate Christmas.  The commercialization of Christmas saddens me and with each passing year it does seem to get worse and farther away from that true and real meaning of what Christmas means.  All any of us can do is control what goes on in our own homes, believe how and what we are taught, and pray for those who have lost their way.

As we all celebrate "the holidays,"  my wish for each of you is to have good health, prosperity, good friendships, close family relationships, and a true sense of peace in your lives.  Having any or all of these things is empowering, fulfilling and rewarding.  I am blessed to have these things in my life and for this, I am truly grateful.  Thank YOU for being a big part of my life and for sharing life's adventures with me.  I can think of no better time of the year to express this feeling of gratitude and thankfulness.

I wish each an every one of you a joyous holiday season.

And now, I just have to say it..........  and to all a good night.

Experimenting With Chalk Pastels

Admittedly, I cannot draw worth a tinker's dam.  However, I had this little girl in my head tonight and she just came out on the page.  This is in my "Exploration" journal which is a modified sketch book that I do all kinds of weird things and experiments in.  This book has rather thin sketch paper.  Sometimes I work in it directly, as  I did this time, and sometimes I do tip-ins.

I was generously given some pan pastels by my friend, Susan Miller and I had been itching to play with them ever since they arrived a couple of weeks ago.  So just after eating dinner with the hubs and watching one of our "together" TV programs, this little cutie came out of my head and onto the page.

The pastels I used were Decorating Chalks Kit #3 (pan pastels) by  Craf-T Products.  Kit 3 has 9 colors ranging from pale yellow to charcoal, and Susan generously sent me 4 other individual colors -- a reddish orange, pink,  gold and a soft brown.

I applied all the pastels with a #2 flat sable brush, and rubbed some with my finger to blend.  The sketch was completed with a Sakura Gelly Roll pen in black.

Definitely going to play some more and see where all this leads me.

WINTER WONDERLAND

Nothing speaks to me of winter better than snow.  And snow is something we see very little of in North Texas, so I am always dreaming of it when the holiday season rolls around.

This week in Artful Journeys our pre-launch prompt is "Winter Wonderland" and this is my take on it. I prepared the background in my 9x12" Canson mixed media journal with Derwent Inktense blocks in blue and teal using a baby wipe and took pretty wide swaths of color with the blocks. I didn't want to smooth it all out completely, adding a little more dimension. The tree is hand drawn and painted with Prang watercolors as is the hat and snowman details, arms, "coal", and eyes.  I painted on the snow with Bombay White India ink and a #6 pointed round brush and used the dropper for the dots.

The snowman was created with graduating sizes of circle stencils drawn onto Bristol, then fussy cut and glued to the page. I used a light wash of gray (by mixing black & white) on the edges and around the head and belly to create more dimension and shadow.  I just used some orange cardstock to cut out the "carrot" for his nose and affixed with a glue stick.  Snowflakes were punch cut from white Bristol and vellum and glued to the page with a UHU glue stick.  The muffler is fashioned out of some beautiful yarn I received in a happy mail package.  Maybe he needs a few more snowflakes floating around, but I just have to edit myself before I put too much.

I can't wait to see what you come up to represent YOUR winter wonderland.  And send us some snow to north Texas for Christmas, would ya?

Letter to Santa

December Daily #7 - Write a letter to Santa.

Every year in our local, rural paper, they publish letters written to Santa by the children and I get the biggest kick out of all of them.  I remember writing these letters as a little girl and tried to stay up to "catch" Santa leaving presents under the tree, but of course I always got caught by my Mother.

A simple, childlike letter to Santa on sketch paper with Sharpie markers and a blackSakura Gelly Roll pen.

Makes me smile.  How about you?

Documenting Art Supplies

This week at Artful Journeys we are recommending that you give it a "go" at documenting all or some of your art supplies. Maybe, like me, you have documented many of your supplies already in journals, on index cards or as a separate reference.  I have done all of these at one time or another. Perhaps you want to just designate one page for the prompt and choose to document a specific set of inks, pens, markers, or genre of paint for this prompt.  Maybe you love having references and create a whole journal devoted just for this purpose.  However you choose to proceed is great. There is no right or wrong.

Documenting your supplies can serve multiple purposes. Having a specific medium on one page lets you see at a glance the color ranges available to you in that specific medium.  You are able to compare various hues and shades of one color for a specific project you are working on.  I have even documented all one color family from every available medium I have onto one page.  This is fun, and I use these pages the most frequently of all of my documented supply pages.  At a glance I can know instantly which specific shade of a color family I want to use in project.

For our Artful Journeys Pre-Launch Prompt #2

I have documented a set of Prang watercolors that I have never documented before anywhere.  I applied this cool grid stamp (Northwoods Rubber Stamps, Inc.) into my 9x12" mixed media journal and stamped it the appropriate number of times to use as the base and then applied each color from each pan to an individual box.  Since the colors are not named or numbered, I didn't give them either.  The edges of my blocks are filled in with Prang watercolor in black.  I gave the whole thing a light wash in a cerulean blue.

Since I always enjoy this type of documentation, and since I purchased a full set of Gelatos a few weeks ago, I decided to document those as well.  For this page, I made it a little more complicated.  I prepared the background first with  green & teal Derwent Inktense blocks and a baby wipe, then added some dots with Dr. Phil's Bombay Ink in white using just the dropper tip.  I used an oval punch and cut out the appropriate number of ovals out of 90 pound cold press watercolor paper to the number of gelatos in my set.  Using a broad tip Uniball Signo pen in black, I outlined the ovals and drew a center line, then applied the Gelato colors to each oval.  Then, I used my finger to "schmear" one side "dry" and used a #6 pointed round watercolor brush to the other half so that I would know the color intensity both wet and dry.  Each oval was glued to the page in the order my set is laid out in the box.








A close-up view of the bottom few rows of the Gelato documentation.

The paintbrush was sketched with a Sakura Gelly Roll pen in black, then colorized using the Prang watercolors.

Ta-daaaaaaaa.  Another handy reference is complete!

In case you'd like to see some of the other "documentations" I have done, here is a quick little peek.

Color mixing documentation

 

Koi Field Watercolor Kit            Single color family documentation

                   


 
Documentation of my set of Portfolio Oil Pastels

                        


























This little "flip chart" documents all my colored pens on high grade 100% rag cardstock. I did a water test on each brand to determine whether or not they were waterfast and permanent as stated, or not.

 

Cover Finished!

Last night I finally finished the cover on my new Canson 9x12" mixed media journal that I will be using this year at Artful Journeys.  I had already decided to go bigger this year, because in the past I have used both the Strathmore Mixed Media 5x8" journal and the Visual Journal the same size because of "big white page fright".  My confidence is much better this year, and I am not so intimidated by the "big white page"!  Using a larger journal will allow me to do spreads that would be the size of a double spread in my smaller journals without fighting the wire spiral.  I will also be using Dyan Reaveley's large size Dylusions Journal throughout the year. It still is in its pristine state, so we'll talk about that journal later!

HOW I DID IT:
First, I primed the cover with a medium coat of Liquitex Gesso and let it dry.  I used smooth and coarse brushes, just to give the extra smooth surface of the cover a little texture.  Then I applied craft acrylics by Folk Art and Apple Barrel in Turquoise, Violet Pansy, Lavender, Black and Fuchsia. Once the turquoise paint was almost dry, (which I applied first)  I wiped it in assorted spots with a baby wipe, removing some of the paint to let the gesso peek through, giving more dimension to the paint.  I went with Turquoise around the edges to try and blend in with the tiny bit of the cover color that would remain at the spiral. It is just too tedious to get in-between all those loops!

I salvaged the silhouettes from some advertising that came in the mail and fussy cut them out and applied to the painted cover.  I added Stickles in Crystal to the Fuchsia "fireworks" in the center of the page and went around the purple part with a black china marker and smudged with my finger and the eraser end of a pencil dedicated solely to china marker use.  The textile was sent to me from a friend in Australia and applied with Liquitex Gel Medium and dried for a couple of hours.  The chipboard letters are by K&Company and were hiding out in my stash.  They had a sticky backing, but I used some Elmers Glue to make sure they wouldn't come off during repeated handling throughout the year, and then applied more gel medium over the top and let that dry.  The year letters are turquoise and wonderfully glittery and are called "Thickers" by American Crafts and are also chipboard. I used the same method as for the letters for application.

White highlights and doodles were made using my broad tip Uniball Signo pen in white.  Once the whole thing had dried completely (with a little help from my heat gun), I then applied a thin layer of gel medium over the entire cover to effective "seal" everything.  This morning everything is really good and dry and ready to use over and over and over throughout the year.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the way it all turned out.  What are you doing to the cover of your journal for 2015?

Preparing for the New Year

Now that Artful Journeys is open and off to a great start, I wanted to share my take on our first pre-launch prompt which was to create a 2015 whole-year calendar.

So to start the AJ year off, I went bigger.  A LOT bigger!  I am presently using a Canson Mixed Media wire bound journal in 9"x12".  I love using mixed media paper as it holds up well to heavy wet work with all my assorted paints and is sturdy enough to support heavy embellishments and all those bits n' bobs we love adding to our journals.  While I frequently work on loose paper, having pages sturdy enough to hold more watercolor paper and embellishments is important to me, and this particular journal is the exact size of the paper I like to use.  If I work on loose paper, all I have to do it glue it into the journal or add as a tip-in with washi or decorative tape.

This page's background was created with Laguna Blue, Diva Pink & White Apple Barrel craft acrylic, applied with a large flat shader in broad sweeping motions.  In addition to these colors, I added in Kiwi to my circles, some of which were painted with my fingers, some with a #6 round brush. Accents in black & white were brushed in and dots applied quite easily with the tip of the brush.  I drew and then fussy cut the year, added some circles  and then just glued them onto the page.  Quite frankly, I'm not very happy with them and may gesso over them later and change their color.  The calendar part I got in the mail from one of my favorite charities. I cut the advertising part off, glued the whole thing down and outlined it with a black china marker, smudging with my fingers and the eraser end of a pencil dedicated solely to "china marker smudging".  Lord knows you couldn't erase anything with it at this point!

We were asked "why" create a calendar page in your journal.  Well, I like having calendar pages in my journals.  They are a great way to start the year off, are handy to refer to later, and as the year progresses, adding in a monthly calendar along the way helps to document when you create pages in your journal.  By the time the year is over, you have a clear, annual progression of all the art you created throughout the year and know exactly when you created it!  I  know no better reason than that.  Often, I forget to actually date my work, so I find a calendar quite helpful.

Each week, I will be far more diligent about sharing the work I've created with you, and give you some insights how I created it.  Certainly I have a lot to learn, so maybe we can all learn together.

A New Adventure Begins!

Today marks a day to be grateful.  Grateful for family. Grateful for blessings beyond measure. Grateful for wonderful friends.  Grateful for oh, so many things.  My family had a wonderful day together, filled, as always,  with lots of love, hugs, laughter, food & football.  What is a Thanksgiving Day without all that, right?  But in addition to all this goodness, today a new adventure also begins.


This evening, four other friends and I have launched a new art group, dedicated to art on paper, art journals and art in our daily planners called ARTFUL JOURNEYS on Facebook.  And to work in conjunction with the group, our beautiful new blog, ARTFUL CHICKS has been launched simultaneously.  The five of us are already managing ARTFUL MAIL GROUPIES together, our fun, close-knit mail art swap group, so this is just a natural progression of what we're already doing..... playing with our art supplies and our online friends from around the world.

So if you're looking for a fun group of arty people where you aren't just a number, this is the art journaling group for you!  We have weekly art prompts to spur on your creativity, mid-week pop-up art challenges, tutorials, guest artists and more art than you can shake a stick at!

Tell your friends, bring your journals, or your daily planner or just some paper and your art supplies and come get creative with us. If you've never journaled before, we'll help you with that too.  It is all about starting and putting the pen to paper.  No pressure, no deadlines. Work at your own pace and we'll encourage you the entire way!  You won't find more supportive friends anywhere.

Saturday Art Challenge

A quick little Artful Daily Craft Challenge by our own Lynn Jackson over at Artful Mail Groupies was to create a greeting card using some of your scraps.  Mine came together rather quickly and easily, so I expanded and got some more paper bits off my desktop and made two tags!

The GREETING CARD was made from on-hand white cardstock, cut to 5-1/2" x 8" and folded. I prepared the background with Portfolio water soluble Oil Pastel in green and smoothed it out with a baby wipe.  I had a long strip leftover from another art project that was created by scraping the acrylic paint background then finger painting and brush painting circles and swirls that I cut to size and adhered with plain old Elmer's School Glue.  The stamp is by Stampabilities and I used a Uniball Signo broad tip pen for the highlights and Special Black Copic marker for the edging.

TAGS:  90 lb coldpress watercolor scraps adhered to precut tags that came in happy mail. The sunflower stamps are by Hero Arts and Comotion. The swirl stamp is by A Stamp in the Hand.  On the large sunflower, I used Prismacolor pencils, Sakura gelly pens and Special Black Copic marker.  On the small sunflower tag, the background is made with Dylusions ink sprays on scrap 90 pound cold press watercolor paper scrap leftover from another project.  I added the swirl stamps, and finished off the sunflower with Sakura Gelly pens and Copic markers, and a scrap painted strip across the bottom that was just randomly in my way on my desktop.

This whole quick craft took less than an hour for all 3 pieces.

Spend a few minutes and make yourself something fun with ephemera laying around your art space.  You know there's something fun to use in that pile you've been meaning to sort out, so go have some fun for yourself today!

AMG Pop Up Art Challenge

I challenged our group members at Artful Mail Groupies to a pop-up art challenge today.

The challenge: create art just for yourself using any medium or substrate and using at least one "found" object.  Time limit was 45 minutes from start to finish.

So, in the spirit of fun and needing to make something just for me, this is my 22 minute effort. I used two 3x5" index cards glued together, adhered some scrap background paper I had leftover that was painted with Daffodil Yellow and Lagoon Blue craft acrylic and Tulip Fabric paint in Turquoise.  I have a whole big sack full of interesting "found objects" and used the first 4 things I pulled out:  2 silvertone hoop earrings, an acrylic heart charm and a clear glass marble.  I removed the bale and fish hook wire from the bottom one, and crimped down the little bits that remained so I wouldn't hurt myself later.  The charm and the clear acrylic dangly part on the bottom earring are both loose to give the piece motion.  Lettering done on a piece of scrap watercolor paper with a Signo Uniball Bold black pen and .05 Sakura Micron pen.

This was a fun challenge.  When the whole thing dries thoroughly, I will edge the card with a Special Black Copic marker to finish it off.

Won't you take the challenge too?

Shout Out!

Wow, I got a fantastic shout-out Saturday (10/11/14) on Kris Hubick's blog, Retro Cafe' Art Gallery about my trio of Frida Shrines! How exciting is that?  

If you'd like to check it out, I'd be so proud.  You can visit Kris' blog post HERE and you can find my little mention about halfway down the page.

If you missed my post about making these awesome shrines, just pop over to it by clicking here and see the process and fun I had making these darling shrines.

With the holidays coming up, I have picked a few things from their holiday collection to work on and show you, so stay tuned for more artful fun!

It is so awesome to get validation from others. So today I'm all puffed up and proud.

As always, I'm keepin' it artful!
~~Betty

SUNFLOWER HEAVEN

It is no secret that sunflowers are my favorite.

I draw them all the time,  paint them on every available (or suitable) surface in my home. There are big sunflowers, little sunflowers, purchased sunflowers, latex sunflowers.  I paint and share out sunflowers at every opportunity to spread sunshine into the homes and lives of many.  How can  you not smile when  you see a sunflower?  Such happy flowers!

This week is no exception.  This tag is of course, a sunflower, hand drawn on vintage 1949 school book text with my trusty black Sakura Gelly Pen and colored with Caran d'Ache NeoColors II (a birthday gift from the husband, that I selected, ordered and paid for with his credit card!--he hates shopping) The flower was further embellished with Derwent Inktense blocks, both wet and dry and a touch of water soluble oil pastels.  The background was prepared with acrylic paint and Derwent Inktense blocks.  It measures about 4" x 8" and was hand cut from a manila file folder. The Haiku, which I love to compose, tells a brief little story about the sunflower.


During the hot summer months here in north Texas, there were many fields filled with giant sunflowers. I wanted to wander through all of them, seeing those bright faces and reliving some childhood fun.  But it seemed I was always in a hurry to get somewhere.  Next summer, I'm taking time to stop.

So enjoy my little ray of sunshine today.  I hope it brings you a smile too.  This one will be winging its way on Monday to a new home.

Stay artful!
~~Betty

I won!

Yes, you saw that right!  I was the winner of the Mixing It Up Every Day Blog Hop and the fantastic prize generously donated by Cottonwood Arts!  My prize package arrived this week and my fingers are just itching to play with all these new wonderful goodies, but most especially the journal notebook.  The notebook is constructed inside of illustration board, has a lovely weight and lays perfectly flat when opened, a big plus in my book!

Also included in my prize package was a nice sample pack, a set of Laminated Coldpress sheets, a set of 5x7" rounded corner coldpress sheets and a nice set of rounded corner art boards.  All are designed to use with wet or mixed media, so I am excited to play with every single bit of it.  Stay tuned for the creations!  My good karma aura is really shining right now!    And many thanks again to Sandee Setliff & Tamiko McCurry at Mixing It Up Every Day for a really fun blog hop, and to Cottonwood Arts for providing such a great prize!