DLP Week 7: Going Under Cover...

I love how the weekly prompts in DLP 2015 get me thinking outside of the box and trying new things while incorporating some old favourites that I haven't used for a while.

This weeks challenge was to 'cover up the good stuff' so I started by using Sakura Gelly Rollers to journal some thoughts in overlapping 'patches' of script on black gesso.










I then used some hand-marbled paper and a piece of scrapbook paper to tear strips to cover some of the journalling.












I cut some hearts out of the lining of an envelope that had the word love repeated in a variety of fonts. I drew in the lines suspending the 'love' hearts using a Liquitex paint marker and with a black water-soluble stabilo pencil, I added some shadows to give more of an illusion of depth and layers. A red Neocolour II crayon accented some of the circles on the marbled paper and the doily heart.



Finally I added a bit of doodling in black and white and called it done!

StencilGirl Blog Hop Featuring Seth Apter's New Releases

Welcome to another fun StencilGirl blog hop stop!  Today I'm using Seth Apter's new stencil called Inside Out for a mixed media encaustic piece.

I started by lightly misting a sanded board (see here re: my use of recycled art boards) and then using Caran D'Ache Neocolor II wax crayons to create the first layer.  Since these are water-soluble crayons, I sprayed the piece with a fixative before adding the first layer of encaustic medium.

Some layers of tissue paper, one on which I had written a quote, were added next.

In my fibre art group, Group of Eight Fibre Artists, we participate in two challenges each year. The current challenge is "Secrets", so although I have another piece I'm doing for the challenge, I thought I'd also use that theme for this piece.

The quote reads, "...there are two types of secrets...the kind you want to keep in, and the kind you don't dare to let out."





Seth's stencil, in addition to having many fabulous design elements, includes the words 'inside', 'out', and 'secret'.  Perfect for the quote right!?

I used oil pastel to add some of the elements from the stencil onto the surface, and then used a heat gun to slightly melt and fuse the pastel with the encaustic medium.

I drew some simple dots with the oil pastel and doodled circles around them with either a permanent black pen or my Signo white pen, again fusing the ink into the wax.

Great news...StencilGirl has a giveaway! 

Two lucky winners will each get a set of Seth Apter's newly released stencils!

All comments left on the hop are eligible for the giveaway so 

the more blogs you comment on, the more chances you will have to win. 

Have fun and GOOD LUCK!

The giveaway will close on Sunday, May 4th at 11:59PM Central Time. 

Please Note: Although this is considered a one day hop, 

you have the ENTIRE week to comment to win the prize.

Note about replies during blog hops: Blogger seems to cut me off at a certain number of replies (no sure how many) and then stops letting me post comments from you. Since I want anyone to have a chance to win the giveaway prizes,  I have decided to only reply if someone asks a direct question.  

Please know that all of your comments are much appreciated.  I do read them all, and I thank you for all of your kind and thoughtful words!

Blog Hop Order

StencilGirl Talk

Seth Apter

Mary Beth Shaw

Mary C. Nasser

Linda Cain

Carolyn Dube

Kirsten Reed

Linda Kittmer--YOU ARE HERE

Janet Joehlin--next stop...

Judy Shea

Leslie Tucker Jenison

Paula Phillips

April's Calendar...

I can't believe it's already well into April! And fortunately, although it's still quite cold, the snow is slowly melting and there are some definite signs of Spring.

I'm a little behind in my art journal calendar, but I finally got the spread done and coloured in, following the awesome idea from Joanne Sharpe in her online course Draw Your Awesome Year.  This is a fun idea for journalling, and luckily I write very small so I can still document a fair bit inside these fun number spaces.

The transition from black and white to colour is always fun.  Once those bright colours are on the page it just seems to pop.
(sorry for the 'black out'...it suggests I might lead a more exciting life than I really do, LOL. I just can't reveal a secret that's not mine to tell!)

 We've had a lot of rain lately...as one would expect in April, and my purple crocuses have peeked out among the dirty snow drifts so I just had to add them to the page.  And with Easter coming there just has to be a cute, fluffy little chick.

I used my Caran d'Ache Neocolor II to colour this page. Since a lot of the areas were small, I found it easier to scribble on my craft mat, and then use my water brush to activate and pick up the pigment for 'painting' on the page.

Photo Art Meets Journalling

Bonnie's challenge this week for Photo Art Friday is 'self portrait' so I decided to combine some digital photo work with some hands on art journalling to create this spread. I started with a very low res. image that included me in a group shot that someone had posted on Facebook.  I printed it at the size I wanted to work in, and used it to trace the key shapes (head, eyes, nose, mouth, glasses).  I then used various media including Inktense pencils, Neocolor II watersoluable wax pastels, pan pastels, acrylic paint, black Pitt pen, and white Signo pen to recreate my face as well as the background and journalling on the facing page of the spread.

I took a photograph of the finished journal spread back into Photoshop Elements where I did a minor level adjustment and then place it onto Bonnie's 'inspiration' texture.

Calendar Journal in the Works

In a previous post I mentioned that I was starting to work on a calendar journal for 2013.  In the last couple of days I've added a bit more to the first couple of pages.  As you can see, for now I'm using circles as my little journalling spaces for each day.  That may change, but for now I'm just having fun playing around (oh, that's awful...sorry).

Here are a few pictures of where I'm at right now.  I think they need more texture or something, but time will tell.

 I've been using a variety of media, including, pencil crayons, Intense pencils, Caran D'Ache Neocolour II watercolour crayons, gesso, a black Pitt pen and a white Sakura Jelly Roll pen.

And, in case you worry about me being lonely while I work, rest assured I have my assistant  very near by at most times...