Common Denominator

Images that caught my eye were printed and pasted, then Tissue Wrap, stamping, stenciling and bits of Dapper paper stash combined with Distress ink/paint and many dots from a Gelly Roll pen became this journal page assembled over the weekend.

For me, the fun of "journaling" is I don't have a plan, I just take what interests me and begin. I never know where it will lead me and along the way I always learn more about what works and what doesn't.

Here are some close-ups (click for the larger, lightbox view):

The papers designed by Tim Holtz are ideal for collages but can be a little too thick for some applications. But no worries, as I have found they are easy to modify into a thinner version perfect for pasting.

I just use my fingernail to separate the front from the back then use a tiny amount of water to soften the paper so I can gently rub more paper bits off the back. In the image above, the paper on the left is the original, thicker version, the right one is how it looks after my delamination process.

I really, really enjoy the challenge of trying to create a sense of depth in my work and with this page, using warm reds at the bottom, cool blues and blacks at the top and the lightest values in the center along with modifying the size of the people helped to accomplish my goal.

And, if anyone is curious, the guys in the white uniforms--they were Coca-Cola salesmen from the 1930's. Perhaps the common denominator here is the love of a good cola?

Stamp credits: Tim Holtz Dots & Florals, Inkadinkado Newsprint
Stencil credit: Crafters Workshop Art Is

Turning Point

Today I am pleased to share some exciting news (for me, anyway) along with a journal page made from magazine scraps.

It features a photo, taken at a drinking fountain in a park in Chicago at the turn of the last century, of my two great aunts, Esther and Ada, and some girl friends (click the photos to see a larger version).

Collaging scraps from magazines really triggers my creativity--there are so many odd and interesting images to be found and I highly recommend it when you need a little "play" time. I use a glue stick as it works well to keep the thin pages from wrinkling.

I've enjoyed paper crafting for quite a while now, stamping, pasting and coloring but the world of die-cutting was never a part of it.

However, the introduction of some mixed media thinlits by a famous craft designer has finally compelled me to enter this arena and I've ordered a Big Shot machine and some dies!

Thankfully, the craft blog world is full of fabulous tutorials that I plan to review because I don't know much about die-cutting but I'm very excited just the same and hopeful that the pleasure of using them will be worth the investment. I'll keep you posted... ☺

Ten Degrees

Here's a journal page to share with you today. I've been working in a large Dylusions journal creating two-page spreads--it's almost one-third full and getting much too thick to manage.

So I removed the completed pages and made a separate binding for them. Now my journal is nice and flat again and this time, I will work on just one side of the page and see if I like it better.

Today's page was inspired by this photo from a blog I've recently started following. It began with a background made from the corners of envelopes clipped by my great Aunt for her postage stamp collection (when I removed the stamps, I kept the corners to use for collage projects).

I applied the photo via an image transfer and used Postale tissue paper (Tim Holtz) in the foreground. The top of the collage was stenciled with texture paste (Tim's Dot Fade).

To enhance the areas the girls are standing on, I added additional lines with a permanent marker and used a bit of white paint to lighten the squares.

I wanted to retain the vintage colors so very little additional tint was applied except for some minor shadows made with a black colored pencil.

I am really grateful to this unknown photographer who captured such an inspirational image (and to the website for sharing it). Working on this page was really a pleasure. I wish I knew what a fisherman's store is but think it may be a warehouse. Can anyone enlighten me? Then I wonder what in the world these girls were doing there!

The Red Chair

The journal page I share today was prompted by Simon's Monday challenge, Take a Leap Into the Unknown, and it was all that and more!

I took several photos of each stage so my post is longer than usual but I hope you'll enjoy seeing the process. As always, you can click on the individual photos to see a larger version.

I found this lady's image on the net and know nothing about her but wanted to give her a bigger presence because she is so captivating.

I took a leap and cropped out the frame, reversed the image, then printed the photo in a larger size than I normally work with so she'd fill up the page.

I applied polymer gel medium over my trimmed laser-printed photo, placed it on the page and once dry, began the process of rubbing off the paper to transfer the image.

I penciled-in a scene then went over the lines with a black paint pen.

The next photo shows how I used various stamps with black archival ink to create a pattern for the walls, an orchid for the window sill, and a face and frame for the picture on the wall. I also filled in her dress using black and gray paint then took a leap and decided to add bits of tissue paper to her skirt to give it more interest.

Then I took another leap and decided to use oil pastel crayons to tint the window because I knew they would be easy to smear and help create the look of vintage glass.

I used chalk pastels to tint the wallpaper and brown acrylic paint on the wall base and floor. The orchid was tinted with colored pencils because the design is so small a paintbrush wouldn't be practical.

The wall base looked too plain so I stamped a row of images using brown archival ink. My last color decision was the chair and yes, I took a leap, and painted it with bright red acrylic.

I wasn't too happy with the lady's skirt so I dug out some black tissue paper which I added in strips and then finally opted to trim the skirt with washi tape.

Here's one more look at the final outcome (so you don't have to scroll to the top) and in case you're wondering, my journal is the large format Dylusions by Ranger (each page measures approx. 8" x 11").

To learn more about my image transfer technique, click here for a post that further explains the method I use along with some tips. Maybe you'll take a leap too?

Moulin Rouge

Click to Enlarge

The challenge at Simon was simple: "Love is in the air" + red. So ... Paris is known as the city of love and the ladies of the Moulin Rouge (that's French for red mill) are doing did their best to promote it.

 

 I began with an image of a medieval map of Paris and a silhouette of the skyline. And I couldn't resist the Can-Can girls so I looked for an image of the Moulin Rouge to accompany them.

 

As far as technique goes, I thought I'd explain the background. The map was busy and most often, artists will use a wash of gesso or white paint to blend back an image creating subtlety. But I wanted to try something different.

So I used white and red paint pens to draw lines over the surface of the map and I rather like the effect.

 

I always try to create the illusion of depth and the vertical and horizontal lines help to achieve this along with using lighter brighter colors in the foreground and darker colors in the back.

The scale of the objects also helps create some perspective since the ladies are larger than the buildings.

In case you are wondering, this is a two-page spread in my large Dylusions journal which is 9" x 11".

Morning Glory

It's illegal to grow Morning Glory flowers in Arizona. Too bad because I really like them. They grow fast, attract hummingbirds and open and close each day which is pretty cool to see.

My attempt at drawing them came from a Haiku poem I thought especially appropriate for the new year and was my inspiration for this journal page. That, along with a photo I fell in love with of two charming children gathering sea shells that I placed alongside a very old Japanese print of a grasshopper.

It felt good to spend time in my journal and I couldn't help but contemplate various New Year resolutions as I worked. Like how I should try to draw and paint more (which is harder) and paste less (which is easy).

The only thing I know for sure is that time passes by way too fast so I better stop wasting it!

Life Mind

This month I worked through a blog challenge presented by A Vintage Journey where participants were asked to incorporate Tim Holtz techniques, style and/or products into their art journals.

Using the large format Dylusions journal, my first page was completed a few weeks ago and features a stamp from Tim's Flower Garden stamp set. It coincides with an online course I just completed on the subject of Mindfulness.

For the second page, I used only Tim Holtz stamps and if you don't count the Remnant Rubs text and some paint, I stayed true to my goal. I'll admit that the subject matter might have been a bit more interesting if my stash were larger but it was great fun just working with what I had.

And so, I'm also linking this post to Simon's Monday blog challenge--this week's theme is Throwback where you make something from a previous challenge. I picked the first challenge from July, 2013 called A Little Stamping which is what gave me the idea to use only stamping on my journal page.

To see more detail as you browse my images you can click on them to open the larger, lightbox view.

Journal Page No. 1

Journal Page No. 2

Renegades

The joy of play and uninhibited creative expression is the reward for keeping an art journal. The pages are not meant to be "works of art." Instead, the freedom to explore (and learn) elevates it to a much higher plane and the confidence gained may carry-over to more serious pieces. So I say, get busy and be a renegade!

Click to Enlarge

A new set of Gelly Roll pens, exposure to a couple of technique videos and a cool new song by X Ambassadors called Renegades fed my inspiration for this journal page spread.

First, the technique videos merit reference in case you want to watch. One is by Piarom (blog link, video link) and the other is by Jeanne Oliver (video link, requires creating a login to view).

Both artists use figures cut from magazine pages which they transform in different ways. Mine didn't go in quite the same direction but their videos did inspire me to try.

I also used some other magazine scraps along with paint pens, colored pencils, stencils, a Tim Holtz scroll stamp and some of his tissue paper.

I'll close by saying that I love, love, love my new Gelly Rolls (called Souffle). They write over anything including fluid mediums and waxy colored pencils and are waterproof. So useful!

I think I'll link this to Simon's Monday blog challenge - this week's theme is anything goes (mine will be entry #521 - whew!).

Swimming

Click to Enlarge

The daytime temps here in the desert have been hovering between 105 and 110 degrees for the last three weeks.

So, the only way to get outside and stave-off cabin fever is to find a swimming pool!

You have to park your flip-flops right at the pool edge because the ground gets so hot you can't walk barefoot.

I'm posting this journal page to celebrate a favorite summer pastime which was prompted by this week's theme at Simon Says Stamp.

The ladies are an image transfer and I used a variety of stamps, stencils, acrylic paint, colored pencils and ink pens to make it. My hubby calls my hobby "coloring" and the term really applies here because I did feel the joy of creating like a kid with this one.

I inscribed the words from a song by Loudon Wainwright III called "The Swimming Song" to decorate my pages and thought I'd post the lyrics below since you can't read them too well in the photos.

This summer I went swimming, 
This summer I might have drowned 
But I held my breath and I kicked my feet and I moved my arms around, I moved my arms around. 

This summer I swam in the ocean, 
And I swam in a swimming pool, 
Salt my wounds, chlorine my eyes, 
I'm a self-destructive fool.

This summer I swam in a public place and a reservoir, to boot, at the latter I was informal, at the former I wore my suit, I wore my swimming suit. 

This summer I did the backstroke 

And you know that's not all 

I did the breast stroke and the butterfly 

And the old Australian crawl, the old Australian crawl. 

This summer I did swan dives 

And jackknifes for you all 

And once when you weren't looking 

I did a cannonball, I did a cannonball.

All the Flowers

A day spent gardening has produced this journal page

made with stencils, stamps and paint.

Click to Enlarge

It was good exercise, too. Each time I placed an image, I had to go to the sink to wash the paint off my implements and, as you can see by the number of impressions, I made a lot of trips!

The lettering was done with Sakura gelly roll pens which work well over acrylic paint and I highly recommend the Bright White 0.4 mm (medium) point.

One thing's for certain, this type of garden won't ever need water again and my blossoms should last a lifetime.

I'm linking to Art Journal Journey where this month's theme is favorite poems and quotes.

Middle Ground

Click to Enlarge

mid·dle ground

noun

1. an area of compromise or possible agreement between two extreme positions, especially political ones.

2. the middle distance of a painting or photograph.





I have a journal page for your perusal today made for the express pleasure of experimenting with a new stencil. As you can see, I got a bit carried away but what better way to see just what it can do?

The ladies were cut and pasted down first, then I painted the sky and ground and added the stenciling last. I went back in and adjusted some of the values to try and give it more depth which included adding the lake and mountains in the distance.

This lovely little glass trinket was my inspiration for the slightly unusual tint. Yes, I could have used more traditional landscape colors but I wanted the challenge of trying something different.

I'm linking to Simon's Monday blog challenge where this week's most excellent theme is in the middle.

Stop Writing

This month's theme at Art Journal Journey is a favorite poem or quote and I made a page to show how the words of a poem can say one thing but really mean another.

The poet is not writing about laundry or woman's work. She's writing (as if talking to herself) about the pain of losing her husband.

To illustrate, I pasted the real meaning of the poem in tiny white print over the images and since my photos are hard to read, I've written the poem below along with some of the tiny text:

I Stop Writing the Poem

to fold the clothes. No matter who lives

or who dies, I'm still a woman.

I'll always have plenty to do.

I bring the arms of his shirt

together. Nothing can stop

our tenderness. I'll get back

to the poem. I'll get back to being

a woman. But for now

there's a shirt, a giant shirt

in my hands, and somewhere a small girl

standing next to her mother

watching to see how it's done.

Something very serious has disturbed the poet's life (she's stopped writing). Someone close to the speaker has died (no matter who lives or dies). She uses busy work to keep from thinking about it (has plenty to do). Death won't stop them from being close (brings the arms of the shirt together).

She senses that her creativity and expression, as well as her sense of being a woman will eventually return, even if they are altered by the experience (I'll get back to the poem/being a woman). There may be a pause in her writing, but his departure is forever. The size of the shirt (giant) equals her vast sense of loss.

Her strength comes through because she knows how to regain her confidence. She needs a mentor and will find someone to lead her out of her misery (a small girl standing next to her mother watching to see how it's done).

---------------------------------------

It's amazing how so much is said in just a few, well-chosen words!

Poetry is an elevated art form I have always appreciated and it was fun to create using paper and paint to compliment it. I hope you will journal about a favorite poem or quote this month and link up with Art Journal Journey so I can see what inspires you!

Rosie Evening

I am happy to share this two-page journal spread with you today thanks to a prompt from Art Journal Journey where this month's theme is things with wings.

I know I should draw more but I just don't enjoy it as much as cutting and pasting. I have to work at it and I guess I'm lazy. But I thought I'd give a go at drawing these birds using a text book as my guide after creating a background from stamped papers.

The white stamped squares were made with acrylic paint using a silicone pot holder similar to these.

The birds look very much like a pair of House Finch that currently enjoy the sunflower seed feeder placed right outside my window. While most of North America is covered with snow right now, many of our avian friends have come to the desert southwest for a visit.

Cactus Ballet

This is a collage piece I pasted in a moleskin journal using magazine scraps and book pages. It's just glue and paper and a bit of fussy-cutting. I'm linking it to this month's challenge at Art Journal Journey where the theme is birds, beasts and humans.

The cactus are Saguaros and only grow in the Sonoran Desert. I have one in my yard. It grows about one foot per year and it takes a very long time before they get "arms." They are protected by the government so they don't become endangered and provide food and shelter for a variety of desert birds. When they die, they leave a skeleton of woody tubes which hold the precious water they need to survive.

My Paradise

Click to Enlarge

When I was a kid, my family spent every weekend in the summer camping in the mountains of Colorado. But I married a man who doesn't share my love of the outdoors and roughing-it so, that is that.

But when prompted by the Monday blog challenge at Simon Says Stamp to create a piece of paradise, I just couldn't help but paint a journal page about my ideal.

Nothing would make me happier than to pack up a home on wheels and spend the rest of my days traveling round the countryside.

I gessoed a two-page spread in my large Dylusions journal, penciled-in a sketch, went over it with magic marker, and used plain old craft paint for tint.

The only rule I followed regarding color choices is one I always keep in mind--warm colors appear closer than cool colors:

• The moon is white (cool)
• The windows in the camper are yellow (warm)
• The mountains are blue-ish purple (cool)
• The grass is olive green (warm)

It was more than the usual amount of fun to make because it struck such an emotional chord. I have to thank the Design Team at SSS for a great prompt this week!

For Joseph

Click to Enlarge

Joseph Cornell was a brilliant artist and a pioneer of assemblage. If you are not familiar with his work, it's well worth your time to look him up.

Prompted by a challenge at Art Journal Journey to create something "inspired by the Masters," I collaged a page that mimics his Medici Princess box creation.

I used a frame from a magazine advertisement for a background filled with more magazine scraps, some rub-on letters and numbers, paint, gel pens, colored pencils, and embossed stamping.

I wish I could use symbolism more effectively in my art to give it a strong voice and invoke introspection. This is a skill Joseph Cornell mastered in a subtle, understated way and is what I appreciate most about his work.

Update:  I modified the original journal page posted here. Something was missing! The black vertical and horizontal lines in the original work were left out unintentionally. This simple addition made a difference and now I'm happier with it. (1/21/2015)

Polaroids

It's cold in many places this New Year's Eve--even at my house (in the desert southwest) where my frost tender plants have been tucked in for the night with a layer of blankets and I'll be celebrating in a quiet way with the cozy comfort of a space heater.

I'm sharing a journal page (linked to Art Journal Journey, where this month's theme is Collage) that I made today with left over paper scraps pasted randomly to fill every inch of the background. I washed it out some, applied color, added scrolls, visualized a carriage, image transferred a horse, and stamped the face and wheel spokes.

I added the lines of script just to see what it would look like and it's an interesting effect. In white are the lyrics from a song I discovered this year that's become a favorite. It was released in 1992 (I don't know how I missed it) by Shawn Colvin called Polaroids. I wrote some personal thoughts about the new year in black.

This holiday is another reminder of how quickly time passes and I've noticed a common thread among the bloggers I follow who wish they had more time to make their art.

So, as I express my thanks to you for stopping by to see my creations this year (I really do appreciate it) I'm also sending my wish that you find all the time you need to be creative in the new year.

Rose et Noir

As the year comes to a close, I've begun my annual clean-up of the many bits of paper left-over from art projects made during the last 12 months that were saved "just in case." Some will be tossed, a few will be kept but most will be pasted on journal pages to commemorate, I suppose, what amused me this year.

This page began by randomly pasting old calendar stickers and later, dabs of white paint onto a pink tinted background. I used an adhesive silkscreen for the first time (by Martha Stewart) and it worked really well (lower left corner). You'll also see a bit a random stamping (Lace by Anna Griffin) and script (made with a homemade stencil) along with lots of tiny dots (Zig paint pens).

One thing led to another (which is my favorite part about working in art journals) and even though the end result would look better cropped, I'm happy with the color scheme just the same. The are no rules in art but I seem to prefer abstract collages with a stronger focal point than this one has.

I'd be curious to know if others save their scraps like I do and how they manage them. I could easily keep everything but the risk of being buried alive forces me to purge now and then. Now all I have to figure out is where to keep the accumulation of art journals that stand in their place. Pity the poor relation that will have to toss it all when I am dead and gone.

(I'm linking this post to Art Journal Journey, a blog I've just discovered that offer's monthly challenges for artists worldwide and a most clever way of displaying the work via Pinterest.)