Day 26: 30 Day Journal Project

” You could not step twice into the same river; for other waters are ever flowing on to you.” ~ Hericlitus

This is what I wrote in response to the question, above:

I feel like I’ve just started a crash course and so far we’ve gotten an overview of the topic: Art Journaling.

Now I can continue learning, copying, trying things out and when I’m lucky – flowing.

My images have been very literal. I’d like to be more metaphorical sometimes too!

I’m trying to find and maintain balance with my art, my health & my life.

To curate, to keep a space ready for creativity, and to keep journaling (but NOT daily).

Thank you to my friend Margaret for the beautiful and unique old stamps that I used as embellishment on this page. We crafted together on Friday when I was working on Day 24.

Cheers and hugs for everyone who is still hanging in with the #30DayJournal project! I’m now caught up with both the journaling and blogging.

Day 25: 30 Day Journal Project

“When I am…..completely myself, entirely alone… or during the night when I cannot sleep, it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence and how these ideas come I know not nor can I force them.”

~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

This picture is from the back cover of a magazine. I love the graphic black and white and extended it onto my page.

The quote and prompts for today, Day 25 of #30DayJournal, are about tracking creative patterns. My journaling (in white ink) mostly got lost when I did the grey ink wash over the sides of the page, but I wrote about this: my ideas flow best when it’s quiet, when I don’t feel rushed and generally when I’m alone.

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Sometimes I appreciate the feedback from others, bouncing ideas around and having some company, but most of the time, and for the most productivity, my ideas flow best when I’m solo.

When do your ideas flow best?  Thanks for stopping by.

Day 1: 30 Day Journal Project

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” ~ Louis L’Amour

More about this project here. Thank you for the visit.

#30DayJournal Day 1

Art Journal: Rarely Tidy

Creative minds are rarely tidy.

No doubt there are plenty of creative people out there who are very tidy.  I’m not one of them.  When I saw this quote I knew I would use it someday in my art journal and over the weekend I finally did.

I haven’t been crafting as much as I’d like.  I’ve been busier than usual at work recently and I’m trying to keep up with my daily fitness goals day (hello, Fitbit).  Crafting has been neglected.  As usual my craft desk has gotten piled up with supplies and tools because when I do have a few minutes to make a card or decorate an Easter egg, I always choose creativity over cleaning.

Did I ever share these?  I think I made them last year after Easter than put them away for this year. Sigh.

My friend Margaret and I got together to spend an afternoon playing with paper, glue and ink.  I didn’t have anything in mind so decided on making a few backgrounds.  With low mental energy I was looking forward to several long, luxurious hours crafting.  After a delicious lunch, we both spread out our supplies.  As usual I had brought more than I could possibly need or use, but I wanted to have plenty of options.

Do you do this?  You buy some interesting tool or supply but you aren’t sure how to use it so it just sits in the corner.  I felt I needed to pull out my small collection of stencils and start using them.  I watched a few crafting videos with tutorials on stencils  so I planned on doing some experimenting with some of the techniques I saw on YouTube.

I apologize for not getting more pictures of the process.  I used gesso to wash the page with a thin layer white so the type on the page still shows through in places.  Than I took two colors of pigment ink from a ColorBox rainbow stamp pad. Each separate color can be lifted out and used individually.

Taking out several shades of blue, I daubed the ink on the pages and used a wet brush to smear it around a bit, than dragged a plastic card (credit card size) through it.  You can see the results here, around the edges.  So far so good though if you are paying attention, you might note I didn’t even touch the stencils.  But I liked how it looked.  Yes, I used them later but not while I was creating this background.

I went on to work on two more backgrounds.

Again, I used gesso over the pages then on this one I painted on some watercolor and stamped on ink  in a rich magenta pink shade, than wet it and closed the book.  Pulling it open I got a kind of inkblot effect, which is now somewhat covered by the orange and white stenciling.  I’ll show you more of that one in a later post.

The last page I worked on that afternoon was made with strips torn from magazine pages.  The thin magazine pages are laid over a plastic stencil than gently sanded with a fine sanding block  (used sometimes for manicures).  This takes away some of the ink from the picture and allows the design of the stencil to come through.

The stencil shows white where you sand the magazine page – I liked it with fairly dark photos or rich colors.

I tore the sanded pages in strips and layered them into my journal.

Again, I’ll write another post with more about that technique and page.  It looks great as is, kind of like a landscape with water and hills.  I started trying to make the quote work with this page but I realized it wanted something messier to go with it.  I think I still want to do more with this page but I’m not sure what.

That evening after dinner I pulled my journal out and opened it to the first background.  After playing with the stencils with the sanding block technique, I wanted to used them with paint, ink and sponges.  I started added some layers to the pages.

I just started playing.  My favorite blues and purples came out as well as some bits of paper for layering onto the page. I put a stencil on the background I’d made earlier and sponged ink over it.  I then flipped the inky stencil over oto another place on the page and used a brayer to roll across it, transferring more ink.  This gave me two variations for each stencil: the negative and positive shapes.

For the word CREATIVE I had tried the sanding technique over some alphabet thickers (dimensional stickers usually made from chipboard or foam), but the resulting word was too soft and subtle.

So I used another technique, using the thickers as masks and painting over them, drying the paint, than removing them. I saw it here at Pine & Plum, my friend Carson’s wonderful blog (yes, you should check it out!) Follow the link to where she has a guest post on another blog.  I also used it on another page here.  I picked up the letters at Dollar Tree.

Carson also inspired the bit of thread I twisted under the scrap of paper that has the rest of the quote.  I like how it adds a new element to the page.

I added some splatters of ink and paint, loading up the watercolor brush and flicking it at my open journal. I was clever enough to remember to cover the area around the book with some paper towel first.

White pigment ink daubed rather messily through one of the stencils was my final detail on the page.  I took some photos and headed to bed.

The next morning when I opened the journal I was surprised to find the last ink I’d added to the page was still sticky! I don’t know if it was the gesso coating on the paper or what but even when I used the heat tool it didn’t dry.  I also decided both pieces with the quote on them were too neat and tidy looking

A piece of paper towel that I’d used to wipe painty brushes on had dried. I ripped pieces from that and covered some of the sticky white pigment ink. This added a new texture as well as a little deep orange which looked great with the blue.

I added more pieces of the painty paper towel.

Rusty-orange watercolor paint got streaked and splattered on the page to go with the other orange.

Gold embossing powder covered more of the still-sticky white pigment ink.

I’d already used a little washi tape, and added a few bits with orange patterns.

Orange Dianne dots, gold embossing powder, and a sequin embellished the Creative title.

Now I was really finished. It felt very satisfying to be creating in my art journal again.

And, from the earlier pictures I took before, you can see how rare tidiness is in my creative world.

Yes, it’s a mess. But at least it is my mess.

Thanks for stopping by.  I really do appreciate every visit.

Crafting on the Road

No, I don’t paint while driving but I did bring craft supplies on our Yosemite/Gold Country vacation.  We didn’t have the whole trip planned out and I find crafting very relaxing, so I wanted to be prepared to get creative if the opportunity came up.

One afternoon we strolled through Jamestown and I found a few interesting bits of paper ephemera for sale, items that were originally meant to be discarded, like tickets or menus, but have become collectibles.

I picked up a small Farmer Memo Book from 1958 with charts on seeds and planting, and helpful information on things like tractor work calculation and gestation periods for farm animals.

I bought an April, 1938 local bus schedule for Iowa and Illinois, an order book from Rosa Baking Company circa 1937 and a one-inch map of South East London published in 1946 that has “Jim’s” written on it. I also purchased a few postcards and picked up brochures of places we were visiting.

One afternoon I asked Rem if he’d mind a break from sightseeing and he was very accommodating to my desire for craft time.  He watched a movie while I spread my supplies out in the dining room of the Sonora Inn and put together these two Art Journal pages.

A shuttle map, a postcard and a photo from a local travel magazine filled the pages for this Yosemite spread.  I covered a little tag and added a bird sticker and some color.

For this Sonora spread, I used a Little Red Church picture from a brochure, and other bits and pieces to pick up the red color including craft paper and washi tape that I brought along.

Business cards, labels and brochures bring back memories from our relaxing and scenic trip.

After we returned home, my mom requested a card and I used some of the ephemera I’d picked up in Jamestown for this tag card.

The low-key afternoon of crafting was a chance to sort through my old and new supplies and create something that included pieces picked up along the way.  It was also a nice change-of-pace from walking around and exploring Sonora and the area and some time alone.  This combination of being on vacation, a relaxed schedule and a few creative hours with paper and glue made me feel a peaceful happiness.  What more could I ask for?

Thanks for your visit.

Day 27: Do Something Creative

Day 27: Do Something Creative. This is my inside front cover which, in this book, is pretty much like my title page.

I was thinking about what I wanted and knew I wanted to have my name on it – in essence, this is where I’m signing my work.

I looked at my desk and saw several sheets of grid paper, paper I use under my projects.  In part to cover up my work surface but also to scribble on, test a pen, try out a font, stamp ink off a rubber stamp, test a color, or put a wash of pigment down with a water soluble oil crayon and water that I can pick up with a brush and use on a page.

So these sheets of paper are both desk protector and palette.   They had all sorts of interesting swaths of color, bits of washi tape, smears and scribbles and random words.

I decided that pieces of the grid paper, with their bright colors and detritus from many of the projects in the book, would be the perfect paper to use for my “title” page.

Borrowing the slogan from The Paper Source, I wrote out the quote on a scrap of paper and colored in some of the letters.

“Do Something Creative Every Day!”

The exclamation mark is mine.  I also added an asterisk and the word “often” below the quote because I know that sometimes life gets in the way and it can be a real challenge to do anything EVERY day.

I added my blog address on the right side.  The word “love” and the word “homemade” were already on the grid paper.

Mod Podge was my collage medium – I just brushed it on the back of each piece of paper and some down on the surface of the page, placed the paper where I wanted it and brushed some more over it.

I really enjoyed creating this page from paper that I normally throw away when it is either too sticky with glue or coated with paint to be effective.

For Day 27 last year, I did a spread on creativity in my Image Journal, the precursor to my current Art Journaling.

The year before I made these Photo Cards.

Thank you for your visit.

Art from the Heart 2013

Rem and I exchanged our annual Art from the Heart Valentine projects.

Read more about this tradition that we started about 11 or 12 years ago here with pictures of many previous creations.  See the 2012 heart-art here.

I had my idea but didn’t start on it until the Sunday before Valentine’s Day.  Luckily it came together fairly well.  My original idea was simply a dartboard with a heart in the center or maybe I should call it a heart-board.

Rem listens to some British radio shows and I heard a chat about darts one day and that got the seed of an idea planted. I picked up some cork tiles and wire and looked up images of dartboards.

This isn’t meant for real games of darts but I wanted to capture the look of a genuine dartboard.  It is a little less than 12 inches across (the size of our dinner plates, one of which proved handy for tracing a large circle).

I hadn’t planned on making a dart but when the board was done I realized it needed one to hit the bullseye.

Half of a bamboo chopstick, wire for the point with washi tape and some gold embossing powder for decoration and red paper hearts for the flight – or what I thought of as the feathers at the back end and I had a dart.

Wire numbers and letters spell out the date and my simple message.

I asked Rem about his creation, which he calls the Love Shack.

He was inspired by some aluminum loaf pans we have in the cupboard and he thought of making a little house.

Rem wanted a larger surface to work with than the loaf pans and found disposable aluminum cookie sheets at the grocery store.  He liked the textured surface.

A small heart punch (he knows his way around my craft desk) worked well for windows with red and pink paper glued on the inside of the shack.

He devised a series of tabs and slots to hold the folded foil house together.

Both of us spent hours on these creations which will be added to the walls on either side of the bed.  Some of the projects over the years didn’t lend themselves to being on a wall, but many are there.

Creations I’ve made for Rem are on his side.

And the ones he’s made for me are on my side.

Rem also made dinner for Valentine’s Day using a recipe from the cookbook I gave him for Christmas, Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything, The Basics.  We had Pasta with Sausage and Broccoli (delicious.)

He surprised me with deep, dark chocolate brownies for dessert, also from the cookbook, and homemade vanilla ice cream.

Warm, gooey and really chocolatey.

Which is directly related to my decision to trot trudge up and down these stairs Saturday morning.

Oh, we also made cards for each other.

I used a strip of pictures from a photo booth we visited at the Groundspeak offices in Seattle while we were on vacation last fall.

Thanks for the visit.

 

Letting My Inner Goddess Out

Photo by Jim Arnold

Yes, I still dress up for Halloween.  I work at a community college and can wear my costume to work.  Here I am with my friend Nicole who looks super-glamorous in a feathered witches hat.

I get ideas for costumes and I’m lucky enough to have a mom who sews.  Then I work on the little details that take it from an idea into a whole character.

This year I wore a costume from a few years back but slightly changed the concept from “Stamping Goddess”  to “Creative Goddess”. I had to explain to most people that the “stamping” was for the rubber stamping I did.  Having to explain isn’t a good characteristic for a costume.  I decided that being a “Creative Goddess” would be easier to understand.

To make it even more clear, I carried business cards. I originally made the template for these during 30 Days of Creativity  but updated them with the job title of Creative Goddess.  Each was decorated with differing stamps, washi tape, Dianne dots and other embellishments.

A long, classic tunic with a purple drape was the base of my “Creative Goddess” costume. I was calling it a toga but when I looked up toga I learned that it would be more accurate to call it a “stola”.  The purple drape or mantle is a palla.

Photo by Faby Guillen

The wreath is made from designs of leaves and ferns stamped on fabric, cut out and glued back-to-back with a wire in between and then wired together. One thin wire connects all the way around and is mostly hidden under my hair in front.  I wanted that crown-of-laurels effect.

Photo by Rem O’Donnelley

I wore some of my hand crafted jewelry and made new accessories to add to the costume this year.

I created the pins on the palla with aluminum tape and card stock using the same technique as these charms with the addition of pin backs I attached with hot glue.

I embellished my sandals with little disks made using copper tape and paper, like I used here for pumpkin pins.  Copper polish on my toes added to the look.

Stick-on crystal jewels added sparkle and color to my accessories and I wore one on my forehead – bindi bling.

Glittery eye-makeup with black eye-liner, coppery shadow and lots of mascara completed my Creative Goddess look.

It was lots of fun letting my inner Goddess out for the day but I don’t have the time or patience to adorn myself like that every day. I’m happy to say I won the costume contest at work.  Next year I’ll be one of the judges but I’ll probably still come up with some kind of costume.

Do you wear a costume for Halloween?  This is what I wore last year.

Thanks for stopping by!

Papa’s Stone

Most of my immediate family got together a few weeks ago.  It was the first time many of us were together since my dad’s memorial service back in June.We were putting a stone on his grave.

It was an informal gathering without any ceremony.  Dogs were running around.  Fog was rolling in.

The view down the hill is of an elementary school.

A spot on the hillside a short distance away affords a beautiful view of Mt. Tam

Some of these photos are from a previous visit to the site.  The hillside has old eucalyptus trees.

We had a little picnic with bread, cheese, fruit and homemade cookies.  Some of us stood and some of us were sitting on blankets.  It is hard to imagine a family gathering without food and it was something my dad did: fed the people he loved.  Or even liked.

We also planted a few flower bulbs.  The pink amaryllis that my dad was so fond of we all know better  by their more common name: naked ladies.  The dirt was very hard with rocks and roots but we all worked to give these bulbs a chance.  It may be a few years before we see blooms but I think my dad would enjoy the flowers and love the idea of being surrounded by naked ladies.  I believe the sight of these flowers will always remind me of him.

The hillside were my dad’s ashes are buried is in the green part of a cemetery that also has a conventional area.  In the green area, cut and polished grave markers are not allowed.  Small  natural boulders can be used to mark the final resting place of your loved one.

One of my sisters collected several large rocks from a beach at Sea Ranch, the location of a family vacation home and many wonderful, relaxing visits.  I’m really not sure how she and her friends got the rocks up the path but somehow they managed it. The one that was picked weighs over 26 lbs so it was a labor of love.  It feels right to have a rock from this special place as the grave stone.

In addition, she had the wonderful idea of using dad’s signature for his name on the stone.  A piece of abalone shell was incorporated in the design.

The result is unique and creative, an appropriate marker befitting the man whose grave it rests on.

Shells and rocks that had been temporary markers now sit around the heavy stone.  We lay flowers, shook out the blankets, and walked off the hillside.

Thank you for your visit.

Day 21: Bleach Pen T-Shirt

As usual with these projects, there is a certain amount of learning curve.  I’m trying a whole bunch of different things that I’ve never done before.  On the one hand, I’m pretty creative and crafty and I’ve worked with different materials so I have an idea of how something will work (or not), on the other hand, when you are doing a different project every day for 30 days, it’s easy to become overwhelmed!

This is a t-shirt that has the lyrics of a favorite song written on it with a bleach pen.  I first wrote it out in chalk.  I was inspired by this. I actually did this whole project this morning before work.  The only problem is I was using an old bleach pen and I didn’t realize the bleach had evaporated.  It had a fairly mild smell and I should have realized it wasn’t bleachy enough. So after getting the whole thing written in chalk and written over in bleach pen it didn’t work.  I got a new pen after Jazzercise and started over.

I loved the way it came out the second time around anyway, so I guess it’s just as well I decided to redo it.

I lay some plastic shopping bags into the shirt so the bleach wouldn’t go through to the back of your shirt.  Smooth out the wrinkles as best you can.

I wrote out the lyrics of one of my favorite songs on the shirt using chalk.   It was recently sung at my father’s memorial service by the Threshold Choir.

To Dream Again

By Wendy DeMos

I bow to your magic.

I fall into your grace.

I move toward a prayer.

Your fields and rivers waiting.

For the dawn the shadows breaking.

To dream again.

To dream again.

To dream.

As lovely as the lyrics are, it is the music that is so incredible.

There are pictures online of other wonderful bleach pen projects but I wanted to try this song.  I might do a peacock feather next.  I can imagine a mendhi-like design being particularly effective.  (Mendhi is the temporary skin decoration made of henna and often seen in elaborate designs on hands and feet of brides in India).

I wrote on my cotton t-shirt with chalk.  I read that the bleach from a bleach pen can spread and the chalk helps to slow the spread.

I didn’t have that issue (I’m using a gel bleach pen) but wanted to write it out first before jumping in with the bleach.  The chalk is actually a little harder to write with than the bleach pen, but it was helpful to follow once I started with the bleach pen. I also wrote out the song on paper because I’ve found when you are working slowly on a craft project  and in this case focused on getting the chalk to write on the fabric, it is helpful to have something to look at to help stay on track.

You might consider using either an old t-shirt or picking one up from a thrift store (maybe one that already has a spot or two of bleach?) because this does have the potential for wrecking a shirt.

I kept some paper towel on hand to wipe the tip of the bleach pen.  Sometimes I would get bubbles but I just kept going.

Open a window for ventilation and shake the bleach pen well.  If it doesn’t smell very bleachy, you may find, as I did, that the active ingredient has evaporated.  I got a new pen and it was fine.

Start at the top and use a steady hand.  I tried to keep writing if I was on a roll than go back and add connecting lines, dots on the i’s, etc.  Wipe the tip of the pen with your paper towel every once in awhile.

Different fabric and dye will respond differently to the bleach pen.  I was concerned about damaging the shirt but actually found it was not as bleached -out as I expected.  The bleach gel medium is a little tricky because it looks very white and bleached-out on the shirt but when you run it under cold water you learn it is just the dried or drying gel  that is so white and the words underneath aren’t that light.

After running cold water on the shirt, rinse out all the bleach, than wash.  I used gentle liquid soap that I usually use for lingerie.  I wanted to see the results so after rolling it in a towel, I used a hot iron to press (and dry) my shirt.  I actually went back and wrote over some of the words near the bottom that hadn’t had the bleach on as long as the words at the top. I let the bleach sit for about 5 minutes than rinsed it out, washed it again, wrung it, rolled it in a towel and finally ironed it dry.  The hot iron seems to enhance the bleaching effect.  You could also  throw it in the wash once you’ve rinsed out the bleach.

I’m delighted with the results.  I just wish I’d achieved them earlier this morning before work.

Last year I created Cards with Charm on Day 21.

Thank you for checking out my latest creation.  Nine days left in the 30 Days of Creativity project!