Tuxedo Muse

Muse30 no. 3 was TUXEDO. Well, I automatically think of Fred Astaire and I found this other dapper gentleman in a 1960 MacClean's magazine. My talented daughter, Allison, helped me design the letters last night at dinner. She did an awesome job. I traced stencil letters and then copied her ideas, cut them out and voilà. The background is acrylic paint and the stamps around the edges are from Stampin'Up!

Create something everyday.

Joan

Muse30 prompts

Daisy Yellow has a new set of prompts that she's working on - Muse30 Prompts.  The first prompt was simply the word "Print".  I found some old writing book pages and created a collage around the page.  Using the Big Shot, I cut out the letters from different styles of print, adhered them to the page and then outlined and highlighted them.  On the lines I wrote synonyms for the word "print" using a thesaurus.  The ABC letters are chipboard and I found the old typewriter in Tim Holtz's "French Industrial Paper Stashes.

The second prompt for Muse30 was "space".  Honestly I first thought of outer space and then I thought of lines and spaces of the music staff.  So - I delved into my box of coloured markers, which rarely get used, and started writing the word "lines" five times in each section and the four spaces I "highlighted" with a different colour.  I like how they're woven together!

Don't be afraid to to literary sources to help you spark your imagination.

Create something everyday.

Joan

Butterflies finished; and more….

On my last post you saw a pile of butterflies waiting for their antennae to be put on.  This is a piece that is now on canvas, but it started out on one of my journal pages.  It's fun to make things bigger, although it can be a challenge. My journal page had only one bigger butterfly, where this canvas was big enough to hold three big butterflies and a bunch of smaller ones. 

This piece is a replica of one I did a number of years ago with only one bird on it.  That bird was also done in a patchwork of scrapbook paper.  I like these guys better!  And that's what should happen as you work each day with different pieces; learning new things and growing.  I used a number of Stampin'Up! products for this canvas also - the flowers are still current, but the letters and the bird die cuts are retired…..I'm glad I do keep some of my purchases.  The stamped words are also a retired Stampin'Up! set - and I'm a bit annoyed that I lost my "create" word!

I did "this piece" once before on a canvas, but it has evolved quite a bit because of the larger canvas board.  I'm happy with the way that the letters turned out, and the addition of the tiny heart at the bottom of the treble clef.

Don't be afraid to re-work something you've done in the past - or to add right to it.  Keep it fun!

Create something everyday.

Joan

Butterflies everywhere

Today was a butterfly day!  I finished colouring in the bodies and added the bead bodies and heads on the large butterflies.  During the afternoon I put antennae on all of them, and this evening I attached them to the canvas I'm working on.  All this wonderful weather is getting me in the mood for spring, but I know I shouldn't be too quick about it.  Anything can happen between now and May long weekend!

Here is the canvas, completed.  I'm finding it both challenging and fun/exciting to take something that I created in a journal and putting it onto a larger substrate.  I'm also glad I have so many different butterfly options open to me in my Stampin'Up! products!

Create something new everyday!

Joan

Listen to your Heart

This is my rendition of the Artist Gang exercise this past week.  I didn't have exactly the same paint colours that Jennifer Engle used, but they were close.  I did have the same Donna Downey stencil for the circles but not for the script.  I didn't have the butterfly stencil that she used, but I have tons of butterfly stuff in my Stampin'Up! stash.  

Finally, for the circle, I didn't have the same acetate sheets, so I used the Big Shot to cut out a circle from one of my window sheets, stitched around it with the pink thread, and then covered it with the Candy Dots that I still have, but are retired from Stampin'Up!.  I did have the Tim Holtz Small Talk stickers.

For the butterflies, I used the Swallowtail, which I cut out by hand, and Papillon Potpourri so I could use the punches that matched the stamps. I added little pieces of wire for their antennae and for the body of the Swallowtail, I strung some beads onto a wire along with a pearl for it's head.

So don't be afraid to do a project just because you don't have EVERYTHING the artist has used.  When you use your imagination and use what you have on hand, it truly becomes your piece of art.

Create something everyday.

Clean and Simple Inspiration Wednesday

This week's art journal spread for Inspiration Wednesday with Donna Downey was clean, simple and quick to do.  On Donna's spread, she used pages out of a book, where I used some sheet music.  We added gold around the edges and I put my "release" word with letter stickers.   I wanted a bit more added, so I included a stamped dragonfly and embossed it in gold.

The second side of the spread included a small one staple collage.  I haven't done one of those since "Index Card a Day"  I love the fat ribbon with the peacock feather, and the treble clef was a little trinket I had which, of course, goes perfectly with the sheet music.

Create something everyday - using stuff that you've kept stashed away!

Joan

Round, and Round, and Round…

I've noticed I've been working with a lot of circular shapes lately - not sure why.  The above is Prompt #59 - Textured Stamp.  I took a retired Stampin'Up! stamp and chose pieces out of magazines that had a lot of texture.  Some were stamped in black and the others were embossing in white.  I'm a bit sorry that I made the circles so close in size to the medallion because the texture in the photograph is lost.

I saw a similar painting done with spheres, so I thought I'd give it a try.  Some of the circles have texture added to them with either molding paste, glass bead paste, fiber paste or crackling paste.  The crackling paste didn't work well at all - the surface wasn't hard enough for it to do it's thing.  It was fun to do and I found the painting very calming.

Create something everyday.

Collages

Wow!!!! I guess I've caught a bit of collage mojo the past number of days - I do actually enjoy creating them because they help use up those little bits and big bits that are hanging around.  They can have a theme, or not, it doesn't matter.  This one is a Prompt 60 - Mail Ephemera.  I created a background with the corners of the envelopes that I soaked stamps off of, added a variety of stamps and then used watercolour crayons in matching colours around the stamps to add a bit of extra colour.

Release is my word for the year  - so for Prompt #58 - definition or encyclopedia excerpt - I found the definition and centred the collage around that.  I created the background with watercolour crayons and the big flower on the left actually flips open and I have a list of the things I would like to be released from this year.  I find release in dance, music, nature, so those are depicted within the collage.

I found a fantastic antique market in Edmonton and decided if I'm going to spend money on buying ephemera - then I darn well better use it and not "horde" it.  I used to do a lot of sewing and I love vintage things - so this little booklet of 1945 patterns  was perfect.  The buttons are from Tim Holtz ideology called "Crowded Attic."

Have fun with stuff you have around the house and create something everyday.

Joan

Releasing…twice

One of our projects for the Novel Approach workshop was to create a grudgy background using NeocolorII crayons and covering it with bits of acrylic paint - you can see the scribbles in the background.  Release is my word for the year - so I decided to doodle it onto the page.  I ended up misspelling it - but I was able to sneak the A in and incorporate it into the doodle.  Yay.

I quite enjoy doing these grids with the little pictures I am forever cutting out and keeping.  This was an exercise for our Novel Approach workshop, but instead of just leaving the painted background, which was green in this case, I did a favourite zentangle over top and I quite like the effect.

Try something new from time to time when you create something everyday.

Joan

Busy, Busy, Busy

I have been doing a number of pages or projects in the past little while and apologize for not having posted them in a timely fashion!

On the above piece I painted the background with  a variety of different colours.  After the paint was dry I drew circles all over the pages and then took Payne's Grey to cover the background except where the circles were drawn.  Because the background was drawn beforehand, I could choose where I wanted the circles to be based on how the paint looked; thus choosing my favourite spots to highlight.

               

I'm really not sure how I feel about this one - I like the process, just now how my bird turned out.  I created the background with yellows, pinks and greens.  The bird was created using a stencil, but only colouring in the sections that would create the birds wings and body.  You wouldn't be able to do this with a stamp - getting the reverse image for the two wings.  I then drew around the stencil to get the image of the bird, highlighting it with more paint.  The words were added with molding paste and a stencil.  A stencil was used for the white squares in the background, and I used the edge of an old gift card for the blue stripes.

These are the pages I did for my last "Inspiration Wednesday" with Donna Downey.  There is always a little "page" included in each spread which makes it interesting when building the spread. I used spray paint for the random numbers on the page - that was a first and sort of fun because you get the "faded" look to some of them.

This is not a page I'm completely pleased with.  I attached the little tags onto the pages a long time ago, then  I covered them with blue paint after highlighting some words on the adjacent page….which  then covered lightly with orange.  Finally I decided to do a zentangle in each of the tags and multi-crossthatching in the background.

Prompt 59 was mail ephemera so I covered the background with corners of envelopes I ended up with after soaking off stamps. I then covered the page with old postage stamps and added a bit of colour around each on in the end.

Prompt 56 - Fortune or Horoscope - well, I guess I actually opted out for using Zodiac since I'm an Aquarian.  I had fun using inks and alcohol inks on the left page  to create the different waves/drips of blue to write the characteristics of an Aquarian.

Prompt 60 was simply - Scribble.  Children scribble all the time as they learn to hold writing/drawing tools and before they learn to control the tool to create a straight line.  I think once we've learned to control the tools, it then becomes a bit difficult to let loose with the tools and just scribble.  It took me a while .  I kept doing "repeated designs" until I just let go and scribbled.  The circles were done on purpose with the different pen colours.

This is a mandala I did in a new little book.  It's a bit different than then other mandalas I've done because I alternated designs within a "round".  I like the way it turned out - except if I was to do it again, I would not add the swirls around the edge…..sort of took away the effect of the rest of the mandala.   Try and learn.

Well, back to work….

Create something everyday.

Joan