This And That

In between classes I've managed to do a few artsy things on my own.  Without further ado, here are some of them:

Michele of Little Bird Creations hosts ATC swaps, and I've enjoyed participating in them.  The current one has a circus theme, and did I ever have fun with that!

I started with this image.

 

And a sheet of circus acrobat images I found on the internet.  A lot of coloring and fussy cutting later.....

 

 

 

Doing multiples for a swap can be boring, so I like to keep to the same design but change things up enough to keep my interest.....in this case, coloring each clown individually and differently, and using different acrobat images.

 

Over at the Everything Wendy Vecchi group, the monthly challenge is to use Wendy's embossing paste, but mix it with something else.  Since I belong to a birthday card club that sends 4x4 cards, I did my challenge piece in that format.

 

 

 

 

 



 

I mixed gold embossing paste with some green paint for the flowers (one of Wendy's stencils).  It didn't do much to change the paste, so I went a bit bolder on the swirls and dots (a Crafter's Workshop stencil) and star (a Tim Holtz stencil).  For those I mixed white embossing paste with a little Silks acrylic glaze in pomegranate.  The Wendy stamp I used is the small weed from her Botanical Art set.

 

 

 

I saw some absolutely gorgeous roll up brush holders at that Jane LaFazio watercolor class I wrote about recently.  They were made of fabric printed with Jane's gorgeous designs, and sewn together by a professional.  Like I said (twice), gorgeous.  I didn't buy one, because what I really wanted to do was see if I could make one myself.  Also, Jane's were sized for the water brushes she uses, and I wanted one large enough to accomodate some of my taller brushes as well.

 

I stamped some plain fabric with my own carved stamps, using archival inks (mainly the new colors under Wendy's name), because they are permanent.  I wouldn't want a still wet brush to muck up the stamping. 

 

 

 The outside:

 

 

The inside:

 

 

 

Rolled up, ready for travel:

 

 

 

I'm not saying mine is anywhere as beautiful as Jane's, but it is mine, and that makes me proud. I was happy enough to make another, this one for Teri's birthday.

 

 

 

Last of all, I recently received my friend Jen's field journal.  She calls it the Sisterhood of the Traveling Beaches, and everyone is to do a beach themed spread.  I've spent many a vacation in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and that's what I recall here:

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed my little potpourri of projects.

















Dr. Livingstone's Daughter, I Presume?

My friend Sue's field journal continues the explorations of the famed Dr. Livingstone, but this time it is his adventurous daughter Anna Mary traveling the earth.  When I received the book, our heroine was in Africa (Namibia, to be exact) and it is the late nineteenth century .  I decided to keep her in the continent, but moved things along to Morocco.  Many years (decades, really) ago I spent a week in that fascinating country, and I enjoyed looking at some of my old slides to get in the mood.

 





Field Journal Project

Another round robin journal begins.......Journey of Dreams.......we're doing it field journal style.......small books, sized for easy transport, and containing the notes of people (real or imagined) on some sort of journey.  I constructed my journal months ago, but with a launch date of August 15, only very recently decided on my theme.  Click HERE if you'd like to see how my book was made (it's a very easy, no-sew method).

Here is the opening page of my journal, revealing my theme:

 

 

 

 

 

My adventure begins in Japan.  Totally imagined, as I've never been there.  But if I were fortunate enough to take such a trip, these things could  happen......

 

 

See that little sketch of me with the sushi master?  Well, it was tweaked from this one that my good friend Pat (aka Pat-Zee in this field journal ) did a few years back for our Tim Holtz cruise to New England.

 

 

 

A little gesso, a little drawing, and the stamp pad became a bowl of rice and the stamp, chopsticks.  I've been on so many artsy adventures with Pat, I just couldn't resist including her in some way. 

 

 

 

As for the other images, I just trolled the internet for photos of sushi (and Tokyo) and did my best to sketch them.  Now, Kyoko and Naomi are real.....two wonderful women from Japan who have been on several Tim cruises with us.  And I know if I visited their country I'd do my best to meet up with them.  So although this entry came from my imagination, it is something that could happen....and maybe someday will.





 

 

 

Teri's field journal arrived in my mailbox, and it was such fun to work in.  She and her husband recently returned from a trip to Hawaii, where she snorkeled for the first time.  Obviously, sketching underwater is not an easy task, so she asked that we help her fill her journal with ocean life that is endemic to the Hawaiian islands.  It just took a while with my friend Mr. Google, but I found three interesting creatures to sketch and write about.

 

 

 

Yesterday I handed both journals off to Pat (who was tickled to see her alter ego serving up some sushi), and I look forward to seeing how she continues them.

 

(BTW, all the sketches were done initially in pencil, then my Micron pen.  Nothing too difficult for the coloring.....just markers and paint pens from my stash.)



 

 



Getting Ready to Hit The Field

Not baseball, but field as in field journal.  Along with some of my usual art journal peeps, I'm getting ready to begin yet another one of our collaborative efforts.  We're calling this one Journey of Dreams, and it will be in the form of the sort of journal a scientist or adventurer would carry around to take notes, do sketches, maybe attach a bit of ephemera to the pages.  We'll each establish a character embarking on some sort of a journey....maybe to far away places; maybe all over one city; maybe even all in the mind.  As our books travel from artist to artist, the journey will continue.  I'm so excited about this concept I already constructed my journal!

It started with this box of watercolor paper, creased down the center to form a card.  Who says it has to be a card?

 

 

I've used these papers before to construct journals, and they make one of a decent size, about 6x8".

 

 

 

But I wanted this one to be smaller, really pocket sized, so I just sliced the folded pages in half;  I now have a book that is about 6x4".

 

 

 

The construction couldn't be easier; the folded pages are glued together, carefully lining them up at the spine.  This results in double thick pages, sturdy enough to withstand the rigors of the journey.  The two end papers, which are single thickness, are glued to the covers (I just used heavy cardboard for those).

 

 

 

I found a decorative napkin in my stash that had a travel theme, tore it up and used it to cover the cardboard, keeping the journal nice and simple.  No bulky embellishments in this project!  I used fluid matte medium, over and under the pieces of napkin.  The shine you see comes from a bronze glaze I used over the whole thing to give it a little extra color and protection.

 

The same bronze glaze was used on the end papers, just to give the book a more finished look.

 

 

I used a very strong glue (Ailene's Super Thick Tacky Glue) to attach the pages to one another, and weighted the book down until it dried.  The bond is really strong, but what I like best about this method (besides that I don't have to struggle with sewing signatures), is that the pages lay pretty flat when the book is opened, making it easy to work in.

 



 

 

Then I decided to make a removable cover with some sort of closure, like a journal sweater to keep it safe as it travels.  Again, very easy to do.  I started with a rectangle of felt (not craft felt, but a good quality wool felt), about 2 1/2 times the length of the book.  I did not measure anything; the size was estimated.  It's very much like those paper book covers we used to have to cover our text books with in school.  At this point I did open my sewing machine, though the stitching is very basic.

 

 

Here is the front; I added a little decoration in the form of another piece of felt and some ultra suede.

 

 

 

I'll get to that ribbon on the side in a moment.  Here is what the cover looks like opened flat.  You can see that I just folded over a bit on each size before sewing all around, creating slots that the journal covers slide right into.

 

 

 

The closure is a long length of tattered silk ribbon.  My friend Pat gave me a beautiful button that I attached to the end.

 

 

 

All you have to do is wrap the ribbon around the book a couple of times.

 

 

 

Then slide the end with the button under the wrapped ribbon, and voila!

 

 

 

I don't think this project will launch for a month or so; in the meantime I've been scouring Pinterest for images of field and travel journals.  I created a board; if you'd like to see what I've found so far: 

 

























http://pinterest.com/eileennyc/travelfield-journals/