From Casa Azul to The Golden Gate Bridge

This week brought me not one, but THREE Frida Kahlo journals, and I've managed to complete pages for two of them.  As themes go, Frida can be a challenge.  Much as I admire the artist and the woman, her work can be disturbing and her life was no fiesta.  Having said that, the colors that evoke the spirit of Mexico found in Frida's paintings are brilliant, and the folkloric images are vivid and full of life.  Contradictions. 

Kate's journal has a sub-theme of Frida in San Francisco, and she requested that we all include some iconic image in our work.  I used two:  the Golden Gate Bridge and a cable car.

I did a simple background on watercolor paper with color washes, pastels, inks and mica sprays.  I then did a very loose sketch of the bridge and went over the pencil lines with an embossing ink pen.  Copper perfect pearls was brushed over that to give the bridge a kind of vague, through the fog look.  At least that's what I'm telling myself.

The cable car is a photo I found in google images, printed it out on plain copy paper, did some fussy cutting and a lot of pencil work to add some shading.  Diego and Frida were cut from a copy of one of her paintings.  I recall that Frida's father referred to the couple as "the elephant and the dove," so I decided to place that particular bird on Diego's head.  The cactus is a stamp.  Because Frida often included roots, vines, leaves, etc. in her work, I added those, and die cut them from a variety of papers.  Now, off to Casa Azul.

Janet created a portfolio style book, and asked that we include anything we think would have been found in Casa Azul, the home Frida and Diego shared in Mexico.  Well, I know Frida loved her elaborate folkloric dresses, and there had to be many in her closet, so that gave me the idea for my pages.

The title page:



 The blue strip was created by spraying denim color wash over a prima border stencil.  After it dried I went over the whole thing with faded jeans distress ink.  Then, of all things, I used a Stampin' Up wheel stamp of skulls over the top of it.  The area next to it is a collage of spanish text and sewing pattern paper, covered with a light wash of gesso and then peeled paint distress stain.  The wonderful letters are from an out of production stamp set, designed by Tim Holtz.  I love that set and am lucky to have snagged it when I did.

Whenever I'm starting a new round robin journal project I begin by gathering together materials I think I may use.....papers, collage sheets, charms, postcards, etc.  In my Frida box I found a strand of beads, handmade and of very colorful fabric.  I have no memory of where they came from, though I think someone sent them to me with a swap.  There is something very folksy about them and I thought they looked great highlighting the switch from the border to the rest of the page.  Plus, they echo the colors in the dress on the next page (that's me being arful and design conscious, LOL).   Speaking of which:

So, this is what is in Frida's closet.  For this background I did a series of the border stencils, each in a different color, by doing one at a time, masking off the surrounding areas.  Then I stuck some spanish text in between the border strips, and gave everything except the dark blue border a light wash of gesso.

The dress was created entirely from scraps from one of my many boxes of leftover pieces from previous projects.  The top is actually very fragile vintage wallpaper that I received as a RAK from my friend Angie.  I love that paper and have used it many times before.  The ruffle right below it was made from some paper towel that had been used to clean up after some spraying.  The bottom of the dress went through a few stages before I was happy with it.  It started out as a piece of sticky back canvas.  I covered it with a collage of text and then a coat of fired brick distress stain.  Then, using sharpie poster paint markers I drew a design similar to the one on the wallpaper top.  Some pom pom and bead trims finished it off.

The dress in on a wire hanger (with apologies to Joan Crawford, wherever she may be), and it is on a rod cut from a chop stick.  The lizard is a shrink plastic piece I did a while back, and I just knew it would eventually find its way onto one of these pages.  It was rubbed with embossing ink, then covered with gold UTEE before shrinking with a heat gun.  While it was still hot I sprinkled some beadazzles (a Suze Weinberg product that is a combination of micro beads and glitter) over top.

Now, I'm off to work on Maxine's Frida book.....with a theme of Day of the Dead.  Awesome!







Frida and New Eyes

As I've said many times before, one of the things that gives me the most pleasure is my participation in several collaborative art journals. This past week I completed pages for two:  Leanne's Frida Kahlo journal, and Sue's Journal of Dreams.

Leanne asked that we place an image of Frida somewhere she had actually been, so I chose her home in Mexico, Casa Azul.  And as a tribute to Frida's style, I have her riding a reptile.  (Riding a Reptile....good name for an indie band or a porno flick, huh?)

The backgrounds were done with the paper towels I put in the bottom of my spray box, so they have colorwash, glimmer mists, maya mists, perfect pearls mists, and homemade mists.  Waste not, want not (my fifth grade teacher was VERY big on proverbs, and for some reason, I've remembered just about all of them).

Frida herself came from a rubber stamp, stamped on watercolor paper, colored with Portfolios water soluble oil pastels, and then the clothes were pieced together from various leftover papers, fabrics, and ribbons.  She also has a necklace and matching earrings I made from annoyingly tiny beads.

The snake I drew freehand, and decorated with my version of pre-Columbian art, colored with markers, gel pens, and watercolors, and embellished with fabric and crystals.

Casa Azul is a photo I found on the internet.

When I sat down to work on Sue's JOD, I was (literally) up to my eyeballs in....well....eyedrops, having just had cataract surgery in both eyes.  Eyes were most definitely on my mind.  Images, I've always been drawn to (hence the vast number of eye stamps in my stash), and of course, the first three letters of my most oft used screen name.  Eileen, eyeleen, get it?  Not to mention, my mom always greets me with, "hi, ei."  

Not to digress too much; I just wanted to give a little background on where these pages came from.

Front:

The background was done on watercolor paper.  The first layer was a whole lot of spraying with various mists, then some tissue paper, ink, more spraying, rubber stamping, then stamping all the circles with gesso.  When dry, the gesso was colored with distress inks.  I used some vari-colored metallic threads to add some machine stitching.  Then some black crystal accents and a piece of optical glass finish it off.  All the stamps are either from Tim Holtz or Wendy Vecchi collections.

Back:

I sprayed the back page at the same time as I did the front, but left this side pretty much alone at that point (a little gesso, but no layers of tissue paper, ink, stamps, etc).

The eyeglasses came from a copyright free vintage image site, and I was tickled to find the quote, as my eye surgeon has most definitely given me new eyes.  I did the journaling with Sharpie water based poster paint pens (gold and black).

And, since I used machine stitching on the front, I gave this side a border of a zig zag stitch. 

Eye am pretty pleased with these pages.  (Sorry!  Eye couldn't resist!)

From Cruisewear to Casa Azul

So, there I was last weekend, relaxing on the couch, watching a recorded episode of NCIS, when I get an urgent text from my friend Heidi:  "Quick....turn on QVC NOW!!!"  Fortunately the remote was within reach, or this might not have happened (I did mention I was relaxing), and there was this very famous comedienne and jewelry designer hawking a very lovely necklace made of fabric flowers.
I knew immediately why Heidi wanted me to see this....not to buy it, of course, but because she knew,  WE COULD TOTALLY MAKE ONE OURSELVES!
It took a little thinking and fiddling with supplies, and of course I didn't make an exact copy, but I'm really happy with the result:

I had a roll of white tulle that I swear was leftover from a wedding project I did in 1996.  I cut a bunch of flowers from it with Tim's tattered florals die and stacked a lot of them together to make each flower.  They are held together with a running stitch which also pulled them into a more dimensional flower-like shape.  

I did say the tulle was white.  So, I concocted a spray with black reinker and a little perfect pearls for a hint of shimmer and sprayed them.  Just a side note:   those suckers took forever to dry and the ink has only just left my fingers.

The original design actually had five flowers, but honestly, I thought it looked more like a scarf than a necklace there was so much going on, so I pared it down to three.

Now, I feel a bit like I'm pulling back the curtain on the Wizard of Oz and revealing his true identity, but here's a view of the back of my piece, so you can see just how it was constructed:

Yep, the flowers are attached to flattened bottlecaps.  A pretty humble material, but it worked perfectly.

And this is now on my "must pack" list for the cruise.  Oh, and did I remember to point out that the "original" was selling for over $40+tax and shipping?

Casa Azul refers to Frida Kahlo's home in Mexico, and that was the focus of my pages for Lee in our Frida collaborative journal group.

This may very well be the first time I've used a ruler so much in a piece of art.  Not at all my usual thing, but my muse insisted on straight lines.  Here's the two page spread:

I drew and colored everything (except the Frida image, which is from a collage sheet....but I did rework it with colored pencils) with markers and oil pastels.  Everything done on watercolor paper.  From what I have read, Frida really loved that house, and it was the only place she considered home.  Closer looks at the individual pages:

Did you notice on the countdown on my sidebar that we're in single digits now, leading up to the cruise?  I noticed, and I'm so excited I can't think of much else.  Not just the cruise itself, or even the prospect of more classes with the one and only Tim, but also getting to see some friends who live very very far away.  I'm giddy!

Frida, Dominos, and a Blog Birthday Bash

Sox selected "Frida in Paris" as the theme for her journal in my Frida Kahlo collaborative art journal group.  I didn't know, until I read the handy reference sheet Sox included, that Frida was a very unhappy camper when she was in Paris.  I probably would have done some very different pages had I not learned that.
So, I had this vision of Paris through Frida's eyes.....cold, gray, totally lacking the warmth and vibrancy of her native Mexico.   And the only color would come from Frida's memories.

All the Parisian scenes are images from the Stampsmith Paris sheet.

The Eiffel Tower was cut from a Sizzix die, and the wonderful lizard....I'm having a brain freeze and can't recall where I found that stamp, but I sure had fun coloring (and altering) it.  There are also some Heidi Swap transparencies on the pages.

Speaking of altering, I joined an altered domino pin swap at ATT and here they are. (sorry how dark they photographed)  These are the pins I'm swapping:

 And this is the one I made to keep for myself:

My friend Stephen is celebrating his blog's 1st birthday, and he's having a fantastic giveaway.  Besides the freebies, you'll find some really cool art there, so check it out.

El Corazon

Translation:  the heart, and it's what I've called the page I just completed for Tracy's Frida Kahlo journal.
It's full of texture and rich color and my current obsession, transfers.

The packing tape transfer of Frida and the monkey allows the inked and stamped background to show through.

The three Fridas are not technically transfers.   They're stamped images on tissue adhered to the page with gel medium.  Again, because of the thinness of the paper, the background peeks through.

That's what I love most about transfers.

This Frida quote was stamped on ExtravOrganza, a product I read about in one of my many transfers-for-dummies type books.  It's actually silk on a paper backing, and you can run it through your printer, stamp on it, paint or draw on it....and when you peel it off the backing you have an incredibly sheer piece that can be glued or sewn onto your project.  It has very nice texture, which of course is lost in the photo.

Because of her many physical ailments, Frida often did paintings with fairly graphic representations of human organs, which is why I put the realistic heart within the romantic heart.

And here is the page as a whole:

Further details:

• background began with some distress inks applied directly to watercolor paper, then sprayed with water and blended with a paper towel.
• next, I did some stamping with archival inks (coffee and olive), most of which has disappeared under the ensuing collaging, but you can see the blades of grass peeking through Frida's face in the lower right corner
• all the images were applied with soft gel medium, and strips of stamped tissue were added here and there, in addition to bits of colored paper towels.
• I gave one of the Fridas a real earring to wear, and yes, to continue the theme, it does have a heart shaped bead.

I love all of the work that Tracy does in the various collaborative art journal groups we're both a part of.  I'm hoping she enjoys what I've done for her here too.

Four Tags, Six Canvases and Two Journal Pages

Had to do some tags with a wedding theme, and decided to use the Graphic 45 Romantique papers I've been hoarding saving.  Except for the bride image in the scallop circles, they're all the same, and here's a closer look at one:

I ran some Core'dinations paper (dark brown with a coral core) through my Big Kick, using a new SU! embossing folder called Vintage Wallpaper.  Very pretty.  Sanded the raised areas.  The bow on top is one of those bright brassy cheapo charms, and I toned them down with some shell pink and espresso alcohol inks,  The little bride and groom image inside the oval charm blank is from the Graphic 45 pad, and I covered it with glossy accents. 

I punched the bride image using the SU! scallop circle punch, and layered it with foam dots on top of two more scallops, these punched with the new SU 2 3/8" scallop circle punch.

The sentiment is from Wendy Vecchi's Homemade Art set, and I stamped it on the coral side of some Core'dinations scraps.

One of the swaps I recently joined is a 5x7" canvas swap at ATT.  I have to make 6, and Sharona, the host, will assemble collages for all participants, similar to the chaos swap.....except that all the canvases are the same size and done in landscape orientation.  I started working on this a while ago, and finished this past weekend.  

I love these collaborative projects, and tried to include many techniques and products in my creations.

The background is a collage of dictionary pages, lightly inked.  The large label was cut from grungepaper, using Tim's Styled Labels die.  There are two designs on the die, and I used them both.  I inked the labels with vintage photo distress ink, covered them with vintage photo embossing powder, and heat set.  Then, to add a little patina, I dabbed the pieces randomly with the distress embossing ink pad, drizzled some Ranger verdigris embossing powder from the Antiquities line over top, tapped off the excess, and re-heated the piece.

I topped it with a keyhole (with a tiny picture under the hole).  The label isn't really attached to the canvas with those tiny staples (I used sticky tape); they're just there for effect.

Over to the right....grungepaper border cut with Tim's Brackets on the edge die, embossed with Diamonds in the Rough Cuttlebug embossing folder, and inked with wild honey  and vintage photo distress inks. Next to it, a strip from one of Tim's Lost and Found papers.

Other embellishments:  two tiny bottles wrapped together with wire and decorated with a resistor, attached with sticky tape.  A key given a rust treatment with distress ink and distress embossing powder, and another key from my stash.

The leaves are cut from Tim's Regal Crest die....I just cut them apart into different lengths.

Under the four fragments on the bottom are elements from Lost and Found again, except for the largest fragment, which covers the eye from Tim's Oddities stamp set.

Finished it off with a corner in the upper left hand......well, corner!

Oh, and I attached a bit of chain underneath the large label.  I thought I'd have a charm dangling from it, but I think I'm going to just leave it as is.

My Frida Kahlo journal group got off to an on-time start, and the first one I received was Elena's.  I have a month to complete her pages and send it on, but as sometimes happens, I had an idea, and ran with it.  I've found when I don't do that, I usually just lose the whole thing.

I was thinking about the haphazard way we sometimes save the little bits and pieces that we call memorabilia. Some are stuck into a picture frame or around the edges of a mirror.  Some are in a box, maybe a vintage cigar box, and we open it up, we see a collage of photos, ticket stubs, dried flowers, postcards, documents.  I wanted the pages I did for Elena to have that look.  Here is my two page spread:

And each page separately:

Tags, A Button Fairy, A Cool Technique, And More

I just got back from the optham opthomol opthamol oh, crap, the eye doctor, and had my pupils dilated, so I'm writing this with sunglasses on, squinting madly and looking generally deranged.  Well, I don't care how I look; you can't see me, but I am a little concerned about what I'm writing, basically through one half shut eye.  I'm just warning you that I'm not responsible for typos today.
First, some tags I did.  On Saturday I went to a rubber stamp expo and scored some very cool Frida Kahlo stamps and used one on the tags.

A couple of close ups:

I did two variations on the chalkboard technique.  On the tag itself, I inked it thoroughly with chipped sapphire distress ink and let it dry. Then I stamped it with white ink and a flourish stamp.  I dabbed some pastels over the white ink.  That's variation #1, and though much of it is hidden, you can see some of it on the left side of the tags.

For the second variation, I stamped the Frida Kahlo stamp with versamark on dark blue cardstock, then dabbed all the stamped areas with perfect pearls.

Frida has a necklace made from a resistor.  She's attached to the tag with Tim's tiny attacher staples.  Peeking out on the right side are a couple of strips of tim's tissue tape (which I LOVE).  Other details include some rub ons, a little sparkle in the form of flat crystals on the top left corner, and the word "artist" spelled out in tiny letters that are under little domes.

Over at PID, our weekly challenge theme is "In the Garden," and my contribution is a garden button fairy.  How I got it to fit the theme, was by attaching some little flowers to the buttons.  Pretty clever, aren't I?  (Yes, right now I really am LOL).

Those wings that really do resemble stained glass, will be fully explained tomorrow on the PID blog (Technique Tuesday, my weekly contribution).

And that isn't even the cool technique in the title of this post.  A few days ago I posted a picture of a beach themed canvas I did, and asked that the creator of the grungepaper fish I used identify herself.

Well, she did, and I am happy to give you a link to her tutorial on how to use GP and glue to make this amazing little critter.  Look to your left and check out that fish!

 Thank you Linda!  Even if you aren't interested in GP and glue (and why wouldn't you be?), go to Linda's blog anyway.  She is talented and a hoot besides.

As a designer for PID, I create projects for specified themes a few times a year.  For our June newsletter, my topic was shrines, boxes, tins...things that can be opened and closed.  A couple of these projects have just gone up on the PID blog.  Check the out if you care to.

And last of all, for those of you following along with my altered book journey, there's a short update on that blog re: making your own glazes.

Now, stop reading and go make something.

Journal Pages, A Technique, and yes, A Giveaway!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I recently signed up to be part of yet another collaborative journal group, this one with Frida Kahlo as its theme.  The launch date is June 15, and I have done some more work on my journal.
First of all, I tweaked my cover art.   Here is the original cover:

And here is the new (and I think improved) version.  Can you spot the difference?

Well, I didn't think you could miss it.  I drew the lizard on grungepaper, cut it out, inked it and decorated it with gel pens, glaze pens, german scrap, and dimensional pearls.  His eyes are half pearls that I painted.  You can't see his tongue, but it hangs off the page and is made of a coil of wire.  Pretty cool.

I've also been drawing some folkloric images on paper handmade in Mexico (thank you Lori!  see, I finally used some!) and added some to this page, which may wind up being my back cover,  Or not.  But it will be in my book somewhere:

I needed some sort of sign-in page.  My journal is very small (6x6"), but I was determined to give the artists tags to decorate and sign.  And, I wanted to use my new friend, the sewing machine.  I covered a piece of cardboard with fabric, then sewed on strips of acetate to form pockets.  There are enough for everyone in the group, and I did one myself.  Remember, the whole page is only six inches square.  The tags are tiny!

Next, I just want to remind you that every Tuesday (that would be today) I post Technique Tuesday on the PID blog, and today we're using bleach as paint.  Hop over there and check it out.  Sneak peek:

OK. Journal pages, check.  Technique, check.  What else was I going to talk about?  Oh, yes, my giveaway. Well, yesterday I shamelessly bribed you for six more followers so I'd have an even 100, and you've outdone yourselves, people.  I'm now up to 108.  LOL!   Well, this is what I have to offer.   Back when Tim's new book came out, he was giving away very cool work aprons for those who ordered the book directly from him.  He had only a limited number, and I was one of the lucky ones to receive one.    Subsequently, I got yet

another one, a gift from my friend Elena, host of the wonderful Key Largo retreat.   So, I am giving away one of them.   It's a nice full apron with adjustable straps, two big pockets, and plenty of blank space to decorate, if you care to.

And, of course, the top is already printed with some of Tim's most popular stamps:

So, if you'd like a chance to own this limited edition piece, leave a comment on this post and I'll pick a winner next week, after the holiday weekend.  But please want this to use it.  If I see it on ebay I'll be VERY upset.  And upsetting a Brookyn-born girl is not recommended.

Frida!

I've been fascinated by the art (and the life) of Frida Kahlo for a long time, and when my Australian friend Lee proposed yet another collaborative journal with Frida as the inspiration, I jumped at the chance.  Yes, even though I'm currently in four other journal groups and have an overflowing plate.  Couldn't resist.
I decided on a compact size (6x6), as we are a very international group, and concerned about postage costs.
Here is my newly completed cover art:

I drew a (deliberately) crooked border and filled it with colorful doodling, my version of Mexican folk art.  Wasn't at all trying to be authentic, this is just what Frida's art inspires in ME.

Inside the frame I created the background with Portfolio water soluble oil pastels and torn paper used as a mask.  After buffing it with paper towels, I painted over it with gold mica paint, which I'm sure doesn't show up in the photo, but it is nice and shimmery.

The picture of Frida began with some clip art.  I put into practice the drawing technique Jen taught us on the retreat.  I lightly gessoed over the image of Frida and then drew and colored over the gesso, so the original image served as a guide.  Since it was a portrait, I added the skirt (which has dimensional flowers) and scarf (a piece of ribbon).

The wonderful letters that spell out Frida were stamped with black ink, using a great Tim Holtz foam alphabet set (sadly, no longer available), which I was lucky enough to get last year on the Mexico cruise.