A Documented Life - What Inspires You?

Such is the journaling prompt this week in The Documented Life Project. Do a page based on something/someone that is an inspiration. I chose the watercolor sketches of Jane LaFazio, one of my favorite artists. Check out Jane's blog here. I love Jane's style; her sketching and painting is natural and intuitive, and surprisingly easy to follow. I've had the great fortune (and pleasure) of taking classes with Jane. There were several people in one class that had never sketched or used watercolors before, and by the end of the day even they were producing wonderful pieces. If you can't get to one of Jane's classes, she also teaches online. You can even find some short tutorials that are free. Click here for one of those on YouTube.

One of my favorite things to do is sketch everyday objects. I see it as a way to document a moment in life where too many (if any) words are unnecessary.

My page, followed by some closeups.

The process:  sketch with pencil (I used 98lb. bristol paper and a plain old #2 pencil) lightly, then draw over the pencil lines with a thin permanent pen (I used a Micron, tip size 01). Erase the pencil lines, then paint. If you've never done this before and want to try, do watch Jane's video. I have a travel sized Sakura watercolor kit, but you can use any brand you have. According to Jane, even a child's set will work just fine.

This is where I have found my inspiration today. What is inspiring you right now?

Journal of Dreams -- Round and Round We Go

My friend Marita constructed an amazing book for us to use....it is large, and it is round. Marita's pages were all black and white, and many of the artists that came before me kept to that scheme. Sometimes I know ahead of time what I'd like to do in a journal, but I had no plans for this one.
We often discuss where we get inspiration for our projects.   Well, I was listening to music and  heard, for the first time in YEARS, "Legs," by ZZ Top.  And that, boys and girls, is where these pages came from.

Of course I found an excuse to use my new best friend, the sewing machine (for attaching the lace trim).  The background paper is from Stampin' Up, and the legs are from all over the place, but several come from Graphic 45 papers.  There's bling and there's embossing too.

The back of this page continues the theme (and provides some lyrics):

The background paper is Stampin' Up again (inked and distressed a bit), and all the images are Graphic 45.  

This journal is full of amazing pages, and Miz Marita will see it very soon.  It will go to Gina this week, and she will be the last to work in it before it returns home.

Hope you love it as much as I loved working in it my friend!

Self Portrait Stencil

The miserable weather the northeast has had this weekend kept me indoors for most of it.  I had the chance to catch up on some favorite blogs and was happy to visit Jennifer's.  She is one of my co-collaborators in the art journals, and I love her art.   Her blog post was all about creating a self portrait stencil.
First, go to this site where you can transform a photograph of yourself into one that can easily become a stencil.   Jennifer used the cartoon feature, but I opted for the one called stencil.  (There are a ton of other options that have nothing to do with making a stencil, but look like a whole lot of fun.  You can change a photo to give it a grunge look, or an impressionistic look, or......well, go there and see for yourself).
I used the photo that you see right here on the blog (though I left out the cosmo in the finished stencil).
This is what the stencilized version looks like:

Take the print and lay it under some acetate.  Color in all the black areas with a sharpie, directly on the acetate.  Then using a craft knife (TIP:  use a brand new VERY sharp blade for the best results), and working on a self healing cutting mat,  cut away all the areas you've blackened.

You're left with a stencil and that's where the fun comes in.  I did just a few samples, but definitely plan to make some more and incorporate them into my art.

This was done with distress ink and a blending tool.  Very easy and neat.

The next one was done by spraying with Adirondack Color Wash.  Not as crisp, maybe, but I like it.

The last one I did today was with acrylic paints...I used two colors and just dabbed them over the stencil with a stiff brush.

Next I'll try combining some materials and see how that works.  I'm thinking about dabbing versamark over the stencil, removing it, and then sprinkling embossing powder and heat setting it.  I also think ink and perfect pearls would be nice.

Well, thanks Jennifer for the inspiration!

A Wendy Vecchi Inspired Challenge

A new challenge was posted today on the EVW (Everything Wendy Vecchi for anyone who doesn't know) yahoo group:  make something inspired by anything in Wendy's new book.
Easy.....there is one project that I keep going back to look at.  In case you have the book, it is the one on page 39, called it's all about style, and it features some stamps from my favorite new set.  Love the little skirt and blouse!
This is what I did:

I had a lot of fun with the details here.  I put the skirt and blouse together and "hung" them on a mini wire hanger.  Some grosgrain ribbon and one of Tim's snaps belts the outfit.

Those little scissors started off very differently.  They were bright orange plastic.  Call the Good Taste Police!  I fixed them up with some black and silver alcohol inks.  The thimble is a genuine one, but since I don't sew, it was easy to sacrifice it for the sake of art.

The buttons are also all from my stash.

Don't know where the little spools I put on the hanger came from.  I know someone sent them to me, probably along with a swap, but I can't remember who.  I thought they were perfect for this piece.

I put the words  celebrate with style  on my hanging, thinking I could use it as a birthday card, or really any sort of occasion where celebrating is OK.

New Stamps are Inspiring!

When I returned from my trip a large box was there waiting for me.  Inside.....the new Wendy Vecchi stamps I'd pre-ordered.  New toys always inspire me, so I pulled stamps from different sets and did a tag and a pin.  Both are on their way to a friend in the EWV yahoo group and I hope she likes them!

 

The tag has several new stamps and my favorite "old" one -- the art chick.  She is wearing a grungepaper rose that I received from Susan in our GP rose swap.  Lots of distress inks, some perfect pearls spray, Maya Road trinket pins, and accents with gel pens.

 

 The base of the pin is a grungeboard key that I colored with KAT's "drunken scotch" technique.  The grungeboard wings have distress inks applied with a sponge, then some heirloom gold perfect pearls brushed over top.  The face and word are both new Wendy stamps. 

Gifts.....Given and Received

I was the host for a special gift exchange for the Gotham City Stampers, and this past Friday at our quarterly meeting, we exchanged gifts.
If you remember the inspiration board I made in Wendy Vecchi's class on the cruise, that was MY inspiration in making my gift.  I was very happy when I drew JennyB's name, as I knew for sure she'd appreciate it.
Here it is, with some (fuzzy....sorry!) closeups:

 

  

  

  

  

Heidi altered a journal and lucky me!  She picked my name.  Here I am holding up that beauty:

A Little Bit of Inspiration

This plaque is for a mingle.....won't say which group, and don't know yet who is getting it, so it can remain a secret.  Had fun making flowers from grungepaper.  They were all done with different sizzix dies.  The dragonflies and flourishes are from grungeboard. The sentiment is from a Wendy Vecchi set. The background paper is SU, and I paid attention to my friend Sherry and got some platinum stickles for highlights here are there.  You were right, Sherry.  The platinum stickles rock!

This shot is a little dark, but shows some of the dimensionality.

 

  The plaque is supposed to inspire and motivate.  I find the colors soothing.  Is that the same as inspiring? 

Marty's Sunday Sketch Challenge

Another Sunday, another great sketch from Marty:

This is what I did with the sketch:

Now go to Heidi's blog to see what the rest of the Gotham City Stampers design team created.

Collaborative Journal

One of the collaborative journal groups I'm in, Through The Eyes Of An Artist, seems to be at about the half way mark.  I received Karen's book last week and there were so many wonderful pages already done to look at and relish.
In some of the groups our journals have themes or color restrictions, but TTEOAA is totally "artist's choice."
I so enjoyed working with beeswax on the cruise, so decided that my pages for Karen would use this medium.
I also included some of the leftover dress pattern paper from Wendy's inspiration board project, some vintage papers and other embellishments I bought in the market place on the ship, and some of Tim's idea-ology pieceds as well.
So, like I told Karen, although the work is mine, there is also a little bit of Tim and Wendy in these pages:

an artful voyage - day 2 at sea

Tuesday, October 13th
We were supposed to be in Cabo San Lucas today, but a tropical storm has changed our itinerary.  So, today is a sea day, which means my group has Wendy's mega class, 8:30am-12:00 noon.
We made inspiration boards.  The top half is for decoration, the bottom is cork for hanging whatever we need to look at to move us creatively.
We covered the boards with dress pattern paper, then grungepaper flowers, leaves, and other embellishments.  We could add whatever title we wanted, so I used my blog's name:

I love it!  It's already hanging in my studio.

And now, some random shots around the ship:

The dining room where we ate every night at 6:00.  My table was #300, and what a great group of women!  By the end of the cruise we were friends, and calling ourselves Club 300.  We all exchanged email info and even have club nicknames.  For some odd reason (hah!) I'm called Bronx.  Hmmm...wonder why???

All the ship elevators have a small insert that is changed daily.  At first we all thought, "duh," but after a day or two no one knew the day of the week without looking at the elevator floor.  Can I get these for my apartment???

How cool is this?  We had the entire conference center for our group alone.  Tim's and Wendy's classrooms, the deadly-on-the-checkbook market place, and the wonderful fully stocked, always open art studio.

More later....

Lynne Perella, Part 2

First a little background in how I came to do these workshops. One of the collaborative journal groups I belong to was inspired by a project that Lynne participated in; the project produced a beautiful and inspiring book called True Colors.

I read it, fell in love with it, and was eager to join the color journal group, which has now been going on for about 5 months.

When I saw that The Ink Pad was sponsoring two of Lynne's workshops I immediately registered.

Both days covered the same techniques with different themes. On Saturday we used asian images, and Sunday's workshop used medieval images as a starting point.

Lynne's paintings and collages are richly colored and layered. Many times throughout the weekend she talked about how we are what and who we are not because of one experience or set of circumstances, but of many. We are layered, and if you pull one layer away there is still something interesting underneath.

The art we produced is like that. The first layer was all the texture and dimension we added with the gesso.

After our lunch break we began adding color. We squirted acrylics on the dried paper, brushed and brayered it, adding more, scraping away some, using some metallic paint. This layer was another opportunity to add even more dimension. I added some tissue paper and covered it with paint. Others added netting, stencil waste, scraps of paper. We also continued to make marks with various objects.

Some people used masks, stencils, rubber stamps and other objects that acted as stamps.

In addition to the paint we made good use of the Portfolios (water soluble oil pastels), a wonderful product, and one that I will surely use again and again.

Remembering the morning exercise, we could also add bits of paper, tiny scraps, whatever we wanted.

The next layer consisted of images. We'd been asked to bring in toner copies of theme-related images, and colored images from books, wrapping paper, newspapers, scrapbook paper.

Some people adhered their images in a seemingly random fashion.

Others used a kind of grid pattern.

Lynne showed us how to make them our own by coloring, cutting, masking them and altering them in other ways. I enjoyed coloring an asian-inspired scene and then cutting it up into small pieces and adhering them throughout my paper. Kind of like the image exploded and reassembled in a totally new order.

More of this wonderful collage journey next time.

Generosity

I have been thinking about this word ever since Tracy was sweet enough to pass on the Karma Award to me. A generous blogger shares ideas, doesn't look for fame or fortune. Some have the skills to post videos. Many offer generous giveaways in the form of contests or blog candy, or random drawings.

Is this the only way to be generous in the blogosphere? I think not, and though I love to share my ideas and often give my stuff away, I think I have been as guilty as many others in one very important area. Which is the reason for this posting. You know I normally just upload a photo of a project and give some information about how/why it was made and credit to the stamp company/collage image creator, etc. This kind of post is different for me, but I hope you will continue reading.

How can I be more generous? Every day I receive updates in my mailbox from feedblitz. Usually over 20 at a time. I scroll through quickly, read the posts and move on. Useful, a good time saver, but when I don't actually go to the blogs I miss the opportunity to show a truly generous and grateful spirit. I miss the chance to leave a comment.

I am not speaking for everyone, but talking to other bloggers I know I speak for many when I say how much comments mean to us. It makes us feel like we're not talking to ourselves (not always a bad thing; I do it all the time), and that we have, however briefly, touched someone out there.

How many times have I read an amazing blog post and did not take the time to let that blogger know it was amazing to me?

I know, I know, you're busy. We all are. But my vow is to improve myself on this score. If something I read informs me, touches me, tickles me, inspires me, even annoys me, it's all good. It means it made me think and/or feel. So I will acknowledge that posting with a comment. I will take the time. I will let someone know I value what was written. I will let someone know someone was out there listening.

How about you?

Jewelry Inspired by Tim Holtz

I'm sure you've guessed by now that I love Tim's work. In a recent blog post, he wrote about a project that he's involved with. Along with MANY other artists, Tim was asked to create a charm that would be part of a larger work to be raffled off for charity. All the completed charms were attached to an almost life sized art doll, and the money raised will be donated to cancer research. A worthy cause with or without the incentive of possibly winning this awesome doll.

I was not only moved to make a donation, but to create a charm (which I turned into a pin) myself. I loved the little bird's nest Tim did and have blatantly copied that idea.

For the text...my mantra: "art saves lives"....I used Scrabble Tiles, scanned the words, reduced them in size, and attached them to my inchie charm base.

Do check out Tim's blog, click on the link to the "Ties That Bind" charity, make a donation, then scroll through the site and admire some of the most beautiful pieces of jewelry I've ever seen.

Through The Eyes of an Artist -- Circle Book

A while back I posted about a wonderful project I'm involved in. Click here for the details.

I received my second book to work on....Sarah's journal...and the beautiful pages already done by Sarah, Lillian and Val inspired me to think outside my comfort zone and try something new.

I had no idea I was so drawn to Alice Through The Looking Glass, but amid all the nonsense are some memorable quotes. I incorporated some into my pages, and had a blast doing them.

Can't wait for the next book to arrive.....not to mention the Colors circle book I'm also in, and which has just begun its journey as well. Many of the same artists are in both groups, and all I can say is that this is going to be a very creative summer!

Use What You Have Challenge!

Here is a challenge I made to the other members of my fabulous SU team: find something you love, something you must have, can't live without, but really can't afford. Hmmm, pretty easy to do that, right? Then, use what you already have and make it yourself!

What inspired me was a visit to a very nice but very expensive scrapbook store. I fell in love with these paper flowers:

I love the irregularity of the edges, and the use of sheet music. They are kind of grungy and edgy, and I really wanted to buy them. But....after tax they would be about $2 per flower, and I just thought that was nuts.

So, I went home, pulled out some scraps of sheet music, some inks, glimmer mist and patterned paper, a few brads, and created these:

What do you think? I'm liking my knock-offs a lot! And I didn't spend a dime.

Last Call!

I heard from Nancy and Carolyn, and their prizes are packed and ready to go to the post office. But not a word yet from Angie, the HS art club teacher. And sadly, I have no way of contacting her. So Angie, if you're out there, please send me your full name and address so I can get your prize to you too. If I don't hear from you by the end of the week, I will pick a new winner.
Angie, as a former art teacher myself, I was very pleased that the random number generator picked you....I loved the idea of your wearing my piece to inspire your students. So contact me!!!!!

My Blogoversary

In just 3 days it will be one year since I started blogging. When I began it was a struggle to upload a photograph. I didn't have a clue how to add a link. No one visited and left comments. I've learned a lot in this past year, made new friends (mostly due to OWOH), and have come to really enjoy keeping this artistic journal.
I've been thinking about my blogoversary give away. I want to entice you, and yet I want it to be a bit of a surprise.
Yesterday I was looking at Wendy Vecchi's blog and was blown away and inspired by what she's done with a few bits of metal embellishments, the kind we often see in scrapbooks, cards, altered art.
I've been working on my versions of her project. She did wall hangings; I'm doing jewelry and that will be my giveaway. Check out Wendy's awesome blog for a hint, and come back Wednesday for a chance to win.

Great Blog and Giveaway

If you're like me you already spend a whole lot of time catching up with all the great blogs out there. You probably don't need to hear about yet another one. But......I urge you to visit Bluebirds Living In The Meadow. Not only is it a visual treat, but there is a wonderful Blogoversary giveaway going on right now. C'mon, you can make room for one more blog visit...

My Paper Crafts Group

Once a month I meet with some members (whoever is interested that month) of my friend Heidi's Meetup group (http://rubberstamp.meetup.com/264/) to share our unique interpretations of projects from the current issue of Paper Crafts magazine. (http://www.papercraftsmag.com/). We each prepare two projects and bring enough supplies for everyone in the group to make one as well. One of the projects we select ourselves, and the second is picked in advance by Marty, Heidi's fiance. I love seeing how everyone interprets the second one. We're all looking at the same item in the magazine, and each of our designs is completely different.

Today's inspiration piece, selected by Marty, was an advertisement that featured a white Christmas tree and silhouettes of people and lots of flourishes. Here is Pat's card:

This is how Heidi interpreted the ad:

And finally, here's how I saw it:

I am fascinated by the way the three of us looked at the same page and came up with three totally different cards.

Now for the cards that we did based on projects that we selected ourselves. Here is my French-themed Christmas card:

Heidi's fabulous peacock card:

And Pat's stunning card which featured a wonderful camo technique from TJN (http://patstamps.blogspot.com/), and beautiful watercoloring: