DLP Week 4: How a Page Can Take Over...

This week on Art to the 5th's Documented Life Project, the Art Challenge was 'Writing' and the journal Prompt was 'Words with Friends'. I always start my spread by setting up the journalling boxes along the right side of the spread so that I can 'document' my life for the week even as I work through the process of creating the art on the rest of the page. That way there is no pressure to hurry the art along and theoretically even if I don't finish it during the week I can always come back to it without falling behind on the actually recording of my dailies.

Because of the challenges, I pulled out washi tape that was postage related or 'writing like' and then put some actual postage stamps to use.

I have several stamps that contain various kinds of scripts so I were used to get me started filling the blank white pages.

Using two different blues and a purple pen-all I wrote 'letters' to friends, family and even myself in the spaces left by the stamps. I quickly began to overlap the script areas and stamped script in all different directions.

 I then adhered some bits of collected paper: part of an envelope in which a letter was sent to me by a friend, a little gift card envelope and a beautiful little tree. The diamond shapes were cut from a paper napkin (I take the layers apart and only use the top, printed layer).

A bit of black was added in the form of some bold black circles. These were inspired by some art I saw in a display window of a clothing store in a mall.

At this stage I started adding layers of paint, doodles and collaged elements and words. It's during this process that the page kind of took over and went from being all about letters to being more about books and words.

Because of one of my dailies, in which I wrote about the 'puppy pants'* I made using a pattern I found on this wonderful site called Mimi & Tara: Dog Clothes Patterns, I made a tag that includes a couple of pictures of Yoshi modelling her fancy pants. The tag is tucked into the little gift card envelope.
*(Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides breeds their own puppies, and since the females in Yoshi's litter are being considered for the breeding program, they are all being kept in tact until after they are brought back to the training school. As such, she may go into heat while she is still with me.) 

Blog Hop - VIVA LasVegaStamps and StencilGirl

I'm excited to be playing along in another StencilGirl blog hop, this time with VIVA Las VegaStamps.

Although my summer studio is confined to a tiny table on the deck and a small bin of supplies with which to work, it has a stunningly beautiful view and a lovely breeze off the lake!  In addition, with gates at both ends of the deck, it acts as a giant playpen to contain Yoshi, my Dog Guide Foster Puppy so that I can work without worrying about her getting into trouble!  She's even got a little wading pool to play in. LOL

I chose to work with VIVA Las VegaStamps Plate O' Rubber #1399 (Mary Vogel Lozinak's design) and Mary Beth Shaw's Gears Stencil.

I started by randomly putting paint down on my page using blue, orange, black and a bit of green.

Then, using a semi-dry brush technique and an antique white, I applied paint using a small brush and the Gears stencil.

I love how this worked...not as heavy as if I had filled in the entire stencil with paint, but still giving me all of the wonderful detail of Gears. I don't usually use the entire stencil on the page, but in this case it was exactly the background I was going for!

I tore a couple of strips of marbled dyed paper I had in my stash, tearing from the front to achieve that bit of a white border along the edge.  Those were adhered to the page using matte medium.

I stamped some of the stamp images onto deli paper, using dark brown ink.  I then tore them out, added them to dictionary paper using matte medium and an old credit card, and when they were dry I tore them out leaving a bit of a border around them.

Before adding the stamped images, I traced around them and painted a blue background to help them pop a bit more.  They were adhered to the orange strip so that they'd look like they were rolling downhill.

I decided to trace some of the key features of the stamps with a permanent black pen to give them a bit more definition.

Some white lines were drawn in (see last image) to represent motion.

Using my paint bottle as a pen, I wrote the large text. This took a long time to dry because of the thickness of the paint.  If you try this, be patient so you don't mess it up by touching it too early!

When that was dry I doodle outlined the letters with a fine permanent black pen.











And here's the final page:

GIVEAWAY!

All comments on the hop (ALL WEEK) are eligible for the giveaway. 

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

GIVEAWAY will close on Sunday, August 24th @ at 11:59PM Central Time.

GOOD LUCK!

Here's the blog hop order for today...enjoy!

StencilGirl Talk
Gwen Lafleur
Kirsten Reed
Linda Kittmer-You are here!
Karen Knight
Amy Lassiter
Viva Las VegaStamps!

If you missed the beginning of this week long blog, head back to this link on StencilGirl Talk to find the links to the first day!

Blog Hop with StencilGirl and Lost Coast Designs...

I'm so glad you've come along for another fun blog hop. Can you believe we've got 15 stops on this hop!  Wow!!!

Today I'm using some StencilGirl stencils along with Lost Coast Designs rubber stamps.

It's been a while since I played with my Gelli Plate, so I decided to get it out for some fun!

I used the Joy (dictionary page) rubber stamp on the Gelli plate to get a bit of text (and texture) onto my background.





Using Pam Carriker's Journal Texture #1 stencil and Journal Texture #2 stencil I added some additional texture while also lightening up the page. 

Being in that circle mood, I decided to pull out Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch's Bubbles Stencil to add another layer.

Looking at this, you might not know that I do in fact have a lot of paintbrushes...but, sometimes there's nothing like a little finger painting! I just squirt a drop of the selected colour onto my finger and make marks!  I got so carried away with this that I'm afraid I forgot to take any more pictures during the process, but you'll see them in the final shots.


Using Lost Coast's Shrubbery stamp (this comes in two different sizes), I added some background grasses to the lower part of the pages using StazOn Timber Brown.  I then loosely doodled over the design using both permanent black and white pens to add more layers and depth the that areas too.

I added the Feather Bird stamp  using black StazOn and quickly applied black embossing powder while the ink was still wet.  I like how the embossing powder gives this fun, wonky bird more depth and a nice shine!

 Bird Bones stamp was added on the other page of the spread, and I used a fine black pen to extend the branch to the edge of the page, and also to 'finish' it at the end that extends into the page.

A message was added using a black Copic brush tip marker.  I added shadow to the text using a grey Copic and gave the letters some highlighting with my white Signo.  The white pen was also used to randomly trace around some of the circles that had been made with the stencils in the earlier part of the process.

A red Copic was used to make dotted lines to 'cross out' the skeletal bird....*








And there you have it...

[*no actual birds were harmed in the making of this art journal spread!]

One lucky winner will get two 9"x12" StencilGirl stencils 
and a $25 gift certificate from Lost Coast Designs!

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!

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

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

The giveaway will close on Sunday, March 30th at 11:59PM Central Time. 

Blog Hop Order

StencilGirl Talk

LeighSBDesigns

Mary Beth Shaw

Mary Nasser

Cherri Robb

Judy Shea

Bibiana Martinez-Ziegler

Linda Kittmer- You are here

Carolyn Dube-Your next stop...

Leslie B. Turner

Janet Joehlin

Karen McAlpine

Leslie Tucker Jenison

DominoARTblog

Lindsay Weirich

Maria McGuire

Repurposed Map Book = Art Journal

I dropped by Waste Wise the other day and I picked up a map book with a great coil binding.  It will make the perfect repurposed art journal since the pages lay perfectly flat when open and the bonus of course is that the full page maps will make for a great first layer as I add paint, stamps, stencils, etc.












So far all I've done is the outside cover.  I used my Gelli plate to create the green textured background on both the front and back of the journal.  As you can see in the close up of the back, between the spiral stencil I used and the actual paint texture, it looks really great (I think :o)) so I've decided just to leave the back with only the bit of a doodled border.

On the front, I've used some sprayed and stamped paper on which I had written "Create" using matte medium (mixed with some black paint).  I cut up some extra bits to add spaces to write the other words and to create the little circles.  The doodled border you see is the same on the back of the journal.

Cost of my new art journal:  .50¢
Daily art journalling enjoyment:  Priceless!

A Thank You Art Tag

I made a little Thank You tag using some of my spray inks and stencils, a bird stamp and some embossing powder.  I forget how much fun embossing powder is to play with!

These small tags are a great way to do a bit of art when you only have a little time to spend but you just have to have an art fix. :o)

May Art Calendar Journal

My May art calendar journal spread is ready for the journalling.  I started by using various spray inks to give the page a gently mottled look.  I then added a variety of old silk flowers and a few paper flowers to create masks for each of the days of the month and I sprayed over them with green.  I removed the flowers...getting my fingers all inky :o)...and let that layer dry.  When that was totally dry, I came in with my Micron pen and did the lettering and a bit of soft sketching around the flower shapes.  After stamping the leaf shapes and the birds, butterflies and dragonflies, I used my Micron again to draw in stems and swirls to connect the leaves.  Finally, I did a bit of colouring with my Peerless watercolour pigments...and you have May flowers to follow the April showers.

What I Was Up to Today...

Sadly some sort of a computer glitch has caused all of the images in this post to disappear, and I am unable to correct the problem.  Sorry!

Back in February, I posted a tutorial about making your own washi tape.  Well, I was running low so it was time to make some more, but having had some time to think about it, I have made a few changes to the process.

I started by cutting my tissue paper into smaller, more manageable pieces.  I made them about 6 inches long and the width of 4 strips of my double sided tape, plus a tiny bit more for wiggle room.  I then put the four strips of tape, side by side, on the tissue paper.

Last time, I stamped the tissue before taping it (with not protection on my ironing/work surface) and you can see I have a permanent record of that day's efforts! LOL

Today I put the tape on the tissue paper first, which I found made the process faster and easier (and less messy).

I also lined my work area with newspaper, just in case, but with the tape on the back, the ink doesn't come through.

Here they are before and after I cut them apart.  Aren't all those wonderful colours just the best!

The other 'studio' time today was spent doing some tidying and organizing.  A few years ago I found this wonderful old post office unit at a big outdoor antique market.  I thought it was perfect for housing fat quarters, and smaller pieces of my hand-dyed fabric.  There are 90 little cubbies in the unit, so I've found there's room for some little bins of various art supplies too.  The glass doors keep the dust out but still let me see what I have inside.

 Today I got busy reorganizing and labelling those bins.  Here's a close up of some of those wonderful little bins of 'stuff'.

And my nicely filled bin of washi tape!

Preparing a New Journal to Go

 I've been preparing a new journal to take along with me on a bit of an 'escape'.  I started with 9" x 12" sheets of watercolour paper.  I folded them in half (one at a time to get the best crisp fold), nested them into one another and then sewed them together by stitching down the centre fold on my sewing machine (I used the longest stitch possible and a good strong thread).

The next step was to pull out some stencils and my watercolour paints and just start to play.

I love the tone on tone effect of these numbers overlapping one another in various shades of aquas and blues.




This page got a bit dark at one point so I used a dampened paper towel and brought it back to what you see here.  I also like that it resulted in softer lines and shapes.

 I started this page by stamping the stamp using a deep brick coloured stamp pad.  I inked the stamp once and then stamped it five times, letting it gradually fade out as it went up the page.  I then reversed it on the facing page so that the dark image is at the top fading down to light.

 This page was all about creating lines and streaks in those beautiful pink tones.  I can see using some of those lines for some beautiful lettering.

 I see some Van Gogh 'Starry Night' coming out of this page.  I went a little further with this page, already adding some more stamping to get more texture.

 Simple pale blue with a bit of brown stamping.  I love that stamp!

I'm craving a Tequila Sunrise...hmmm, I haven't had one of those since my misspent youth! LOL

 I was playing with colour mixing here, but the green really didn't come through as much as I might have expected.

Not sure what happened here, but this page might end of being a close-up of some weird face or something.  I feel some funky eyes looking at me...

More stamping and a fun bit of striped gaffer tape on the spine of the journal.  

The next step is to add more elements, texture, stamping, etc. to the pages before I actually start to journal.  Of course, it's been made to fit perfectly into my 'Journal on the Go' cover so I can take it with me while I'm travelling, pens, markers, homemade washi tape and all!