Muse30 Prompts

I think I skipped posting this Muse30 prompt - which was Disco.  I drew the staffs onto the black paper and then filled in the first line of some disco songs onto the lines.  Then  I surrounded the staffs with names of disco groups added a couple of "disco balls" and some other bling……one of which was caught in the light of the shot.

This prompt was pebbles, and I just happened to have some napkins with pebbles printed on them.  I love using napkins in my art because they become so transparent.  I ended up just putting more pebbles inside the pebbles for this one.

This Jetsons prompt was a bit of a loss for me.   Yes I watched the cartoon, but I had no idea how to go about it so I had to think for a few days.  Finally, I pulled out my "circuit board" stencil by Donna Downey and sponged metallic paint on. Then I connected the lines with marker and drew little tiny robots.  It was kinda fun actually.

Create something everyday.

Joan

"The primary benefit of practicing art, whether well or badly, is that it enables one's soul to grow."

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Big Blue Shoe

I came across this blue shoe in a magazine and immediately thought of a very dear friend.  She absolutely loves shoes. Now, I'm not sure if she'd wear one this  full of bling - but perhaps.  I gave it a metallic blue background and then went looking through my stash for things that were blue.  For the quote - amazingly so - I googled "quotes Jimmy Choo Shoes".  Amazing what you can find on the internet!

Create something everyday

Joan

"Do one thing everyday that frightens you"

Eleanor Roosevelt

Cardboard Book

I've been reading "Taking Flight" by Kelly Rae Roberts and have ended up creating a little cardboard painting at the end of each chapter……which, for the most part, she has given instructions to.  I may collage the background, or just paint it.  I like giving all the girls wings and there seems to be a butterfly on each page too - if only I could find as many dragonflies!

I added a little trinket from a necklace my daughter no longer wanted. The post card is written from my Grandfather's cousin in Scotland - and I was lucky enough to meet up with his daughter again this summer.  We had been pen pals as girls, and now are friends on Facebook.  She said she recognized her father's writing right away when she saw this page posted.

That's all of them for now.  The substrate (base) for each one is the cover of a Reader's Digest Condensed book.  The perfect little size for this project.

Create something everyday.

Joan

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by then ones you did do."

Mark Twain

Quotes

I got a couple of quote pages done in my quote book the last couple of days.  I have a lot of prepared backgrounds, and a little pocket at the back of my book where I stick quotes when I find them so I have a stash to pull out and doodle with on the empty backgrounds.

Make a books for yourself - large or small - where you can keep inspiring quotes, prayers, quick thoughts.

Create something everyday.

Joan

"Fear is the reason for making art.  It is a means to freedom."

Ilya Kabakov

Mystery

One of the prompts for Muse30 over at Daisy Yellow was "Mystery"  I immediately thought of Nancy Drew because I read all those books as a girl, then Agatha Christy, Sherlock Holmes, etc.

I got out my box of pre cut magazine pictures (as opposed to the box I have of magazine pages that have pictures on them that need to be cut out).  I was also going through old magazine when I came across the little girl with the magnifying glass - so she became my focal point; and because she was younger than Nancy Drew, I decided she was Harriet the Spy.

The telephone dial made me think of "Dial M for Murder" - which made me think twice about my red background, but by that time I was committed.  The gecko just looked like he was throwing up his hands saying "I don't know" - and I had to stick a pair of glasses on him!

The woman in white has been in my box for a very long time.  I think I had wanted to do a black and white page with her at some point, but she caught my attention, pulling down her hat and so I stuck some white glasses on her.  (yes, I have a little box full of sunglasses!)  I couldn't decide if she was the culprit or if she was on a stakeout.

Lots of fun!

Create something every day!

Joan

"What I emphasize is for people to make choices based not on fear, but on what really gives them a sense of fulfillment."

Pauline Rose Chance

Tags Project

The following are the last 4 tags to go onto my project

Actually, this guy looks different on the finished project….I added a double layer of wings to him and he looks much better.

I think this is my least favourite of the bunch, and since I collect feathers and love feathers, I'm a wee bit disappointed in myself!

This tag was fun to make using some ink to dye the cheesecloth.

And here is the final product with all the tags mounted on a painted and splattered canvas.  Lots of fun to do.

Create something everyday.

Joan

"If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always gotten."

Anonymous

Tag Project

Yesterday, I started working on some tags to go on a background I've had painted for a number of days.  I'm trying to keep things as simple as possible for each of them.  However, the special thing about this tags is that the colour in the background is created for attaching part of a paper towel that we used on Saturday at a Divas and Demos stamping event I was at at Tamye Dunbar's.   So it didn't get thrown away - it got "up cycled".

I traced this flower from one of Donna Downey's stencils; and painted it with alcohol ink.  Actually, most of these ideas for the art on the tags is from the video this week for the Artists Gang Tuesday in conjunction with Donna's "Inspiration Wednesday".  The artist, Dee Dee Catron, created small ACTs this week.  My tags measure 5.5x4 inches.

I dropped some alcohol ink (Mermaid) onto the tag and swiped it around before it dried.  I then stitched on a button and stitched around the word "Trust" on the paper I'd stamped it onto, stitching through the lace as well.

You can barely see the white embossing of a stamped image I added to this tag.  The Mermaid and Pool alcohol inks did interesting things around the embossing - especially when I spritzed it with water before adding the stamped words and the little rosette flower and button.

Well, here I was just playing with ink and then I added a few scraps of the fiber paper I used as a background for the "Wonderful" card.  In hindsight, I should have embossed the key in black to add a bit more texture; and I am loving these big word stamps!

That's what I did yesterday - hopefully I'll get around to posting today, what I do today - and the first thing on the agenda is to finish up 4 more of these cards.

Create something everyday - even if it means you get messy.

Joan

"Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it."  Andy Warhol

Time...

I had a lot of fun working on this piece, although it took a while before I knew what was going to evolve.  The canvas sat for quite a while with the collage of watches on a white canvas.  I finally added a dark wash over the watches and the canvas and left the huge black watch out of the mix.  As soon as I stuck it in a "Rule of Threes" spot, things began coming together quite quickly.  I added the black molding paste of clock pieces and "punched out" the gold pieces.  Once I had picked out a quote and decided to use my Big Shot to cut out letters it was a done deal.  I used my Stampin'Up! gold foil paper for the word "Time" and for the gold pieces.  I'm very happy with the way this one turned out.

Create something everyday.

Joan

"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see."  Degas

Mission Inspiration for February

I've been enjoying doing these little missions with a list of 10 prompts to go through that need to be incorporated into the piece.  So far I've read the requirements and then watched Mike Deakin's video and I haven't veered much from what he's done.  So, I think for the next one I'm just going to read the prompts and go from there. It's always up to personal interpretation anyway - right!

Create Something Everyday.

Joan

" If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced."  Vincent Van Gogh

Mint

The next Muse30 prompt I had to do was "mint".   I thought of the whole mint gum thing...but then my brain went down another road...the Royal (crowns) "Canadian" ( flag) MINT. Then I covered the page with "coins" because our mint has produced commemorative coins for over 73 countries since 1908. And because this page has to do with the Mint - either in Ottawa or Winnipeg - I am dedicating it to my friend, Amy.  Who is a Canamaniac!!!!!!

Create something Everyday!

Joan

Frida for a friend

The woman who got me started with all this art journaling and mixed media really likes the artwork of Frida Kohlo. I found a tiny self portrait of Frida in one of my magazines and thought of Emily right away - so I dedicated this page to her.

The background was already complete in my journal and had been done with leftover spray inks.  I added the little portrait and then embossed the ivy design around it; then doodled the leaves on the adjourning page.  I usually doodle in-between the leaves, but I didn't want to cover up this lushes background.

Create something everyday.

Joan

"Children, like animals, use all their senses to discover the world.  Then artists come along and discover it the same way all over again."  Eudora Welty

Pros and Cons and Butterflies

This was fun spread to do for Muse30.  I tried going through my box of words - but couldn't come up with everything I wanted.  So I  just went to magazines and cut the prefixes of the words that went had "pro" or "con".  I also used my label maker to add words that were more difficult to find, but which I wanted to have added to the spread.  A stencil with sharpie was used for the headings and the "winning" banner was made with a piece of linen ribbon written on with sharpie.

This was another page that I had a lot of fun doing!  I follow Mike Deakin  on Youtube and decided to try one of his "Mission Inspiration" - what fun.  He gave a 10 point criteria that had to be completed on the journal spread - step by step.  However, I had the 1st and 10th criteria already in my journal waiting to be worked with - so I started from there.  It's fun to see all the different ways that people interpreted the list too. Tons of fun, and I really enjoy his other videos.   I will probably go back and do some of the other Mission Inspirations.

The butterflies on this spread are punched with our Stampin'Up! punch and the flowers were cut out of a seed magazine .  The greenery is stencilled and then outlined. Swishes of paint and credit card markings of paint also. 

Create something everyday.

Joan

More Doodling...

A couple weeks ago I was working with Dylusions Spray Inks, but I was painting some lines (dribbles) with the inks.  So I had squirted a little of each ink colour into a little plastic container.  When I was done, I didn't want to waste the ink, so I dribbled it down the pages of a journal and spritzed it a bit with water.  I then decided to do zentangles on the pages - but on the left page I doodled only in the white spaces, and on the right page I doodled in the coloured spaces.  White space can be a good thing - although it's a hard thing for me to leave along.

These flower prints have been waiting in my Paper Bag Book for a long time.  I had extra paint one night, so I put the saying on - and then I decided just to doodle (scribble) around the petals of the flowers.  You may notice that there are different layers of paper on this spread - so some where along the line, some of those flowers will be incorporated into another doodle spread.  Fun, fun, fun.

Create something everyday.

Joan

Journal to Canvas and Paisleys

This is a piece I did in one of my art journals and now have transferred it onto a 10x10 beige canvas.  I kept everything the same about it except I added beads for the butterfly bodies instead of just drawing them in.  I glued the different papers onto pieces of cardboard before cutting out the butterflies with the Big Shot.

I'm still in the process of finishing my "Prompt60" book and am getting very close - this paisley page is one of the last and I really like the effect that the net zentangle gives it in the background.  Looks like I've been fishing for paisleys.

Create something everyday!

Joan

Surrendering Fears

I completed this little page after reading the second chapter of "Taking Flight" which was entitled "Facing your fears".  Not really about life fear, but about the fears you have about doing your art.  Her dress is made out of a leftover paper towel from the Art after Dark I was at a couple weeks ago. The substrate is the cardboard from a discarded condensed Reader's Digest and I added gold foil to her wings.  I'm enjoying g working on these little boards.

Write down your own fears and then write down how you could surrender them or overcome them, because we should all try to….

Create something everyday.

Joan

Inspiration Wednesday….on Thursday

I wasn't feeling all that great today, so I pretty much hung out in my art room doing a couple of projects.  This is for the Inspiration Wednesday class that Donna Downey is putting on right now.  Lots of layers, lots of paint and molding paste - and lots of drying time in-between.  I didn't have the gel that she used for her numbers, so I was able to get ride of a couple of numbers in my stash of chipboard!

Here's the flip side to show the rest of the quote and the second page.

I've decided I don't want to over use this treble clef, so I think I'm going to have to carve one!

Create something everyday.

Joan

Spray Inks and Stars

I sure had a battle with this particular piece!  The word Music has been put on with molding paste, so it's raised, and picked up the colours of the inks as they dripped down from the top of the canvas.  When I started working on this I had painstakingly stencilled the words with black molding paste.  However, some letters came through cleaner than others and by the time I got to the beginning of the word Problem - I had had enough of smudges and such.  So, I took a paint scraping blade and took all the words off, re-stencilled them onto paper with a sharpie, placed them over their "original" spots and highlighted them in white.  Once the words were on, then I took a painted with someMedium Matte gel from the top to the bottom so that the spray inks flowed down the page and over the words.  Believe me, this is not how I had first envisioned this page, but I'm happy with it - especially since the gel helps the colours to pop!

For this piece I painted the background with two purples and a metallic silver by dragging the colour with a card. Once it was dried I added strips of some current Designer Series Paper from Stampin'Up! at different lengths.  The original paper was a silver marbled look, but by the time I highlighted the pieces they turned purple and blended in with the background.

To be honest, the choice of orange and pink stars was really a matter of begin lazy at the time and not wanting to make a matching gelli print - which is just as well because I really like how these stars pop off the page too.  It was a brave choice to go with, but I'm glad I did.

Create something everyday - and be brave!

Joan