Journal Mania

This past weekend was spent constructing journals.....a thoroughly enjoyable two days at Michele's studio, with great friends, and putting together two different books under the guidance of the very talented and lovely Dawn DeVries Sokol.

Saturday was Tape  and Doodle Stew.  I brought along about 50 pounds of tapes; masking tape, tissue tape, duct tape, washi tape.....lots and lots of tape.  Which is what we used to bind the pages together, as well as decorate many of the pages.  The covers were made from a flattened cereal box, and the pages themselves, an assortment of papers, bits of previous projects, and items my friends and I kept swapping back and forth.  Oh, and of course, a bit of doodling too.

 

I used some favorite papers, and leftover pieces from a Lynne Perrella workshop, Julie Fei-Fan Balzar's stamp carving class, and some art done by friends.  I think that's what makes this book so appealing to me.  Of course the question (for me) always is......will I actually use this as a journal?  I'll let you know how that works out.

 

Sunday was Jingle Journal, advertised as a holiday journal, but I really don't celebrate anything so I opted for a winter theme instead.  For this book, we deconstructed a hard cover book and used the covers (painted and otherwise decorated), substituting our own papers, done with a very simple sewn binding, and only one signature.

 

 

 

A weekend of art, wonderful.  A weekend of art with friends, priceless.

 

 







Many thanks to Michele for organizing these classes, and to Dawn for a great two days.  Oh, and thanks Michele for the classroom photos, which I swiped from your Meetup board.  :))  Speaking of which, why not go and join Michele's Meetup group so you'll find out about future classes.  She always has something going on, in the works, or on the calendar.



Things To Do With The Rosette Die On A Chilly Afternoon

Okay, so it doesn't have to be chilly, but it is here, and I'm happy being indoors with my creativity hat on.
I spent much of the morning and into the afternoon playing with Tim's fabulous rosette die.  I don't know what it is about making rosettes that is so much fun, but it's like an addiction.  You can't just make one....
And I love the challenge of finding new uses for things.
I started out by cutting some of the width off of the die cuts before assembling, so I could have some layers.
And here is my three tiered flower:

I'm reminded of those little cocktail umbrellas when I look at a rosette, so that was the next project.  I glued a circle on only one side of the rosette, weighed it down, and when it was totally dry, I formed the umbrella shape and glued a smaller circle on the other side.  I used a Maya Road stick pin as the umbrella handle.

Not that I have any immediate plans to use the umbrella; I just wanted to see if I could make one.  Right now both it and the layered flower are just decorating my bulletin board.

My final rosette challenge of the day....bird feathers.  Yep, you heard me right.

Start with a rosette strip.

Cut it into two pieces, one a little larger than the other.

Run a line of glue across the straight edge.

 Do the fan fold and secure the glued edge with an alligator clip.  Do this to both pieces of paper.

While secured by the clip, fully fan out the rosette piece.

On the smaller one, cut each fold on an angle and separate the paper at the perforations.

Use the larger piece as tail feathers and the smaller as head feathers.

I'm thinking this is only the beginning.  I just KNOW that there are even more things to do with the rosette die on a chilly afternoon.

Art Journal Updates

The collaborative art journal groups I belong to have given me some of my most pleasurable moments in the studio.  Every time I see a priority mail box outside my door I am a very happy camper.  What will I be called upon to create.....pages inspired by a color combination, by dreams,  by the life and art of Frida Kahlo, or maybe by the opulence of Marie Antoinette?

Last week brought three arrivals, and I have completed pages for two of them.
First, for Jacquie's IDIC (I Dream In Colors) journal:

Jacquie's chosen colors are blues, browns, and a touch of metal.  I did these pages right after my Lynne Perrella workshops, and you can see that Edgar was still on my mind (and apparently still on my work table).

My backgrounds were done in the gesso/collage/texture style I've learned from Lynne and love so much, and most of the images are toner copies of internet graphics.  There are also some stamped images in there.  The color....mainly from my much used and loved Portfolio water soluble oil pastels, as well as my other favorite, distress inks.

The next project was for Marita's Marie Antoinette journal.  Instead of embellishing and altering an image of Marie, I decided to do something a little different this time: 

 

First, a few words about the backgrounds.  They are collaged and colored with the Portfolios and distress inks, but the papers I used for the collage are almost entirely papers I've received from friends.  Many were done by my good pal Lillian, and several were done by Nancy.  I love the idea of incorporating the work of my artist friends into my own.  Thanks Lill and Nancy!

Marie and the hot air balloon were both done with free hand paper piecing, again using scraps from my friends' papers as well as bits and pieces of my own backgrounds.  There are a very few fabric and metal embellishments, but I'd say 95% of these pages were done with paper scraps.

Waiting in the wings.....Gina's gorgeous Journal of Dreams.  Hmmmm......what will my dream be?

Flowers Everywhere

I was reading Suze Weinberg's blog post about seeing flowers everywhere, and it's the truth.  In fashion, in jewelry, in home decor, in scrapbooking supplies....flowers and the stuff with which to make them are everywhere lately.  I even got an email from West Elm today regarding an installation of the work of designer David Stark....flowers and flower-related items, all made from the pages of old books.

Last night I met with friends to share some techniques and make some art, and without pre-planning, we all brought flower projects.  Heidi showed us how to make some floral embellishments (I'm thinking they'll make great pins) made from twisting and rolling strips of fabric....just like the old fashioned rag rugs.  Instead of sewing, though, we used a glue gun.  Check these out (the first two are mine, the rest are pieces Heidi made for me as a gift

The great thing about this project, is you can use up some ugly fabric, because after all the rolling and gluing, we sprayed the flowers with Glimmer Mist, which totally transformed them.  Then we embellished them with leaves, feathers, and assorted other bling.

I was watching this week's Taco Tuesday video on making metal flowers and was inspired to bring this project:

It couldn't be easier.  Strips of Ten Seconds Studio metal are loosely folded, accordian style, and manipulated to form a flower shape.  A bottle cap is glued to the center.  Using a 1" circle punch, cut some paper for the inside and then cover it with a layer of Glossy Accents.  Add a pin back  for a brooch, or a magnet to dress up the refrigerator, or use it to decorate a special gift package.

And now for a sneak peek of the upcoming Technique Tuesday for the PID blog.  No directions yet.  You'll have to visit that blog this week for that.  But all these flowers are made from circles cut from a variety of papers.  

Like I said, flowers are everywhere.