The start of a soul journal journey

Fate sometimes intervenes when we need it most. I have been thinking more and more about art journaling, but had much trepidation about starting. Serendipitously, through an altered paper swap delightful, talented artists, I was introduced to the Soul Journaling group on yahoo. You'll see some samples of their papers in earlier posts. I have finished my first prompt, which was to create a weaving of some of our hopes and dreams for the coming year. I wove mine with strips of vellum for the vertical elements, some paper I painted and some resist stained with Nancy Curry's technique for the horizontals. The thought process really helped me solidify some of the ways I can be most positive and useful. In my case, I placed the weaving on the top of a mailing envelope so I can store little bits I might use in my journaling.

More pages for Fiona's book

Fiona was November's "IT" girl in the Art Venture group. She's probably wondering if I've lost my calendar. Each month, one member of the group is IT and chooses a theme. Other members then create something that incorporates it. Fiona's theme was 'What Inspires You'. I have always been captivated by the idea of flight, both literal and figurative, so have been making a small book with all sorts of winged ideas. Here are the latest ones.

More Inspiration from Altered Papers

I am participating in a Snowflake ATC swap on ATCs for all. And, I received even more inspiration from the altered papers mentioned in the last post. Here are the results!

Chunky Trees

I was fortunate to be able to trade altered papers with an extremely talented group of artists. Their papers provided much needed inspiration for four tree-themed chunky pages I needed to create for an ATCsforAll swap I'm participating in. I'm sure all of the papers will be making appearances in upcoming projects.

You can view the blogs of some of these talented artists at
http://www.clevelandgirlie.blogspot.com and
www.creativeinspirations.blogspot.com and
www.opheliasart.blogspot.com

Another page for Fiona's book

I finished another page in Fiona's 'flight' book. The background for this one was done with gold and turquoise Lumieres.

Brayered and Gessoed Altered Paper

Ophelia (http://opheliasart.blogspot.com/) is moderating a quick altered paper swap and is allowing me to participate.

I created some papers using a Creole Spice rainbow pad, some distress inks, and some gesso, along with a few Paper Artsy and Stampers' Anonymous stamps. I can't take credit for this class, I learned the technique in a class created by Julie at our best local stamp store - Cornerstone.

Step 1 - I brayered with the rainbow pad, going randomly in different directions.

Step 2 - Apply a coat of gesso using either an old credit card, or I use an old room key from one of my work related travels (they're good for something after all). Don't worry about making the layer completely even. Missing some spots makes it more interesting.

Step 3 - Stamp some background stamps with coordinating colors. I used distress inks for this, because I evenrually want the images to be barely visible.

Step 4 - Finish by adding another layer of gesso, and some ink direct to paper to give some depth.

Brayered and Gessoed Altered Paper - Step 2

Brayered and Gessoed Altered Paper - Step 3

Brayered and Gessoed Altered Paper - Step 4

Architecture ATCs

I am participating in an architecture ATC Swap for a group called ATCs for all. For these swaps you can create all your cards the same, or make different ones.

In this case, I chose to do three different designs. The first is colored with Stewart Superior Memories mists and then stamped with Adirondack Pesto. I used a Basic Grey rub on for the white design. For the second, I used Nancy Curry's resist technique on white glossy, stained with Distress and Adirondack Inks. The last one was colored with gesso and dye inks, and stamped with Versafine.

Flapper Fairies

Another page in Fiona's IT book. For this page, I painted the background with some purple and blue Twinkling H2O's and then stamped some swirls for interest. The images are from etsy.

You have wings

I loved this quote, and decided to pair it with one of my favorite images.

In case you can't read it in the scan, here's the quote:
You were born with potential
You were born with goodness and trust
You were born with ideals and dreams
You were born with greatness
You were born with wings
You are not meant for crawling, so don't.
You have wings
Learn to use them,and fly.

I'm not even sure whose stamp this is anymore, but I think it might be Lost Coast. I stamped the image on vellum and applied it to the page which I had colored DTP with Distress Inks. The paper in behind the quote was some pearlized text weight paper I had left from making wedding invitations this summer. I embossed a design from a Judikins bolio, but it was too subtle. I rubbed the paper with some copper Brilliance to get this effect. Happy accident!

Getting a start on Fiona's IT

The next IT girl project I'm working on is for Fiona. Her theme was inspiration, something that inspires you. I've chosen to do a little book on flight and wings. Art is one of the things that gives me wings and lets me fly to places I love to go!

The front of the book is coated with gesso and distress inks. I stamped a few background designs with distress ink, and then applied another thin coat of gesso to make the designs more subtle.

Experimenting with Paintstiks

I recently purchased some Shiva Oil Paintstks. These are oil paint in solid form, and can be used on both fabric and paper. They come (as the name would imply) in stick form. You simply peel off the outer layer and either paint directly with them, or use them with a stencil brush. In this case, I used a Dreamweaver stencil and first dry embossed the image. It's been a while since I've done any of that, and part of the reason is that I felt in the past it was a little restrictive, since you needed paper that was light enough to see through to the stencil. Now that I've discovered the radiant rains, that's a problem easily solved - I sprayed the paper after I'd finished stenciling. Then I turned my paper over, and placed the stencil over the embossed image again. Not being the smartest sometimes, it took me a while to figure I needed to flip the stencil over to make it line up again. But, once I got that done, I scribbled some gold painstik onto my craft sheet (that way you don't waste any paint since it doesn't absorb) and used a stencil brush to apply it to my embossed design. The paint can take up to 24 hours to dry completely, but this seemed ready a lot sooner. I used a little gold embossing power on the edges to get a border.

Chrissy's Nature IT

Getting caught up with the Art Venture IT girls, little bit by little bit.

I have finally finished Chrissy's item, with a technique I was fortunate to learn in a Tim Holtz class a few weeks ago. A store near here won a contest, the prize for which was a weekend with Tim Holtz. I know some of you have attended classes with him before, and what a treat it is. This class was for a shrink plastic mosaic technique using the melt pot to coat clear shrink in UTEE and shrink it at the same time. The resulting tiles are then colorized with alcohol inks and images glued to the back. You always know it's a good class when you can't wait to try the technique again, and here's the result. Hope Chrissy enjoys it.

Finally back to creating (and scanning).

I've been in a bit of a creative funk lately, and the things I have done, I haven't even remembered to scan. With the leaves almost all off the trees, time for me to turn over a new one. I finally finished Adrienne's IT Medieval gift.

I started with a plain cardboard slide mailer and after several finishes I didn't like, finally settled on coating the outside with several layers of embossing powder to get a faux metal finish. I added a collage image and some bling to finish it off. I painted the inside with gold and silver Lumiere paints, and applied a little magenta in the slide holders for a pop of color. I overstamped a design in copper and added some collage elements to finish. I was a little worried about using glass slides, since this is mailing internationally, so I used some transparencies to create the effect instead. Hope Adrienne enjoys it! And I hope it truly is better late than never.

Double Deuce Dare You!

Thanks to Pea on CC Swaps, I got to participate in one of the most fun and challenging swaps you could imagine. In my mailbox, I received an AOL tin, stuffed with all sorts of amazing bits and pieces. Our mission - make something with it!

I fretted for a very long time, but finally my inspiration came from the scrabble tiles the came in my package. They spelled 'UNIQUE'. There were also lots of images - the ones I chose were of a boy, a man, and a woman. Hmmmm, boy goes to school, journeys around the world to seek his fortune, is smitten by a lovely lady, marries, and lives a rich and colorful life in between. That's what my package (and my muse) said to me.

Here is what I made, along with an explanation of what I used and what I added.

First, the tin....
I sponged the tin with Lumiere paints and painted the scrabble tiles I received with Twinkling H2O's to give them some sparkle. The bottle cap and the metal charms were also part of my package - I colored those with gold Krylon pen and added some images and words to begin telling my story. I lined the inside of the tin with some papers I had on hand, and started to work on a tag book I wanted to place inside. I decided I'd like it to fit diagonally, so I trimmed the bottom corners to get it to fit snugly. Both the image and the twill tape on the front were included in my Double Dare.

Double Deuce - Our Hero Seeks His Fortune

On the next page, our hero begins to seek his fortune. In my package were conveniently placed a fortune telling card, with a swami, a slide mount, and some travel images. The swami fit perfectly in the slide mount, which I finished with some distress inks and a text stamp. Everything on this page, with the exception of the postmark came in my package in some form or another.

Double Deuce Dare - Love is in the Air

The next page started out with a silver german scrap shrine and a mysterious woman. These were both in my package as well. I used alcohol inks to color the shrine, and the hearts are part of another image from the previous page.

Double Deuce - Fulfullment

Our hero experiences love at first sight, and marries his dream girl on the next page. These are images that I had on hand, and they seemed to fit. At the end, he's looking back on a fullfilling life, time has flown by too quickly! The watch face was included in my package, and the little beauty that is my thoughtful older man came from Adrienne in a previous swap. Fits perfectly - thanks Adrienne!!

What a fun project this was - thank you Pea!