Journal pages…

Here are some pages I have finished. My Book of Days has morphed into a book of some days   I have been absorbed with the “Letter Love” class for the past two weeks. I was thinking to myself…how ironic that I’m taking a lettering class when I don’t use words on my journal pages all that often… but maybe I will now.  This page started with collaged pieces.  Then I used  gesso, colored pencils, and watercolors.  I finished with some marker and pen work. I’m not all that happy with it but I’m learning to move on and not dwell so long on one page. 

 

This is a fabric collage page I made while I was working on my quilt blocks.  It is four thicknesses of fabric that I stitched together on my sewing machine. Then I hand stitched it onto a tab in my journal.

 

This last photo is the stamp practice page that I wanted to save, so, I decided to stitch it onto a tab in my journal.  I really like my new Xyron sticker machine. I am using it to make my own paper tape.  It will take paper up to two inches in width.

…more letter love practice

I’m really enjoying the Letter Love Class with Joanne Sharpe.  We are half way through the class.  We have had a video or photo tutorial every day except for Sundays.  I need lots of practice making different kinds of letters.  As you can see with these practice pages…I am into the doodles…letters… not so much

I am also working on carving a set of alphabet stamps.  Julie’s Stamp Carving 101 class is over after this week. It will be open as an ongoing class for a long, long time, according to Julie.  I endorse both of these classes.  If you are like me and have taken a class or two that were total duds…I don’t think you will be disappointed with either or both of these classes. 

 

 

 

Letter Love

I said I was decreasing  the number of online workshops this year but I find myself currently enrolled in three workshops.  The latest one is “Letter Love.”  I love this class! Read about it over at Whimspirations by Joanne Sharpe.  It is Joanne’s first online class and she’s doing a tremendous job!  I have been using my Letraset Aqua Markers…love them! I have three colors and plan to order some more.  Joanne loves Copic Sketch markers.  I have two black ones.  Maybe, I’ll order some other colors, a few at a time.  I also have one Tombow Marker and it is a nice dual tip marker as are the Letraset Aqua Markers.   The Identi-Pen by Sakura is another great pen that has permanent ink.  I will also use my Crayola Markers because the colors are bright and they are inexpensive…that’s a plus!  We are using a composition book for a practice book.  The first photo shows the front cover of my composition book.  The next one is a practice page I worked on this morning.  I noticed I left out the letter “r” in the word inspiration while I was cropping the photo   The last photo is a page that will go in my journal…I was playing around with one of my carved stamps and some fabric scraps.

Doodle Journal page, etc…

I made a collage for the header above using several of the new stamps I carved.  The big doodle stamp on the far right above was inspired by the doodle journal page that I am posting this time.  I also finished another quilt block this week. I recounted and I have 18 finished blocks…yay, for me!

This week, we went to see the movie “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”.  I just finished reading the book a day or two before we saw the film.  It is a very moving story about what happened to one family after losing someone on 9/11 It’s very different from any book I’ve ever read because of the quirky photos and the type font that changes at the end of the book.  I finally figured out why I think the author (Johathan Safran Foer) did that after seeing the movie and looking at those pages in the book again.   We saw  “Everything is Illuminated”  on Netflix a while back.  It is another book,  made into a movie,  by the same author.  I also recommend that movie if you like quirky and different films.

I started the page above with torn pages from a phone book page.  I had cleaned my brush on the page….that’s why you see spots of color on the page.  I fully intended to gesso over it and do something else but changed my mind.  In the photos below you see the entire collage of the piece I made for the header….I could only use a small portion of it.

 

small bits and pieces…

I have spent a great deal of my time carving stamps this past week.  I have a large piece of  “the pink stuff” that I mentioned in the post below…but I’m saving it for when my carving improves.  I carved more stamps yesterday but haven’t taken photos of those yet.  I’m showing the first ones I carved.  I couldn’t believe it, our local Wal Mart ran out of the white erasers. Friday, I made a trip to our Staples (an hour away) and they had white erasers in a pack of four but I thought they were way expensive.  I did purchase  two packs and hope that WM will get some again soon…I mean….why pay over 8o cents per eraser when I can buy one  for sixty-one cents? 

I added more to the background that is in the post below.  Only one journal page in a week?  That’s all I could squeeze in this week.  I used lots of regular colored pencils, acrylic paints,   some spray paint, and some poster pens….yep, I threw everything but the kitchen sink at it   And after all that, I liked the  background best! 

I also finished another quilt block.  When I finish the quilt block I’m working on…I will have sixteen completed blocks.  I’m getting close to having enough blocks to put them together.

 

ICADS for July 11-16

We are halfway through the ICAD project.  Today…marks the halfway point.  I will post the card for today first.  For some reason… at the beginning of the week, the first few cards I made I was dating June and then I realized…hey! It’s July    The second card for Monday(7-11), is made from three separate doodles that I used parts of to create the card. The next card shows an altered silhouette that I cut  from a magazine.  The next two are doodles and foam stamps.  The last card is a collage of squares cut from magazines and a flower cut from one of my painted phone book pages.  Check over at Daisy Yellow to read about the great uses for index cards.

I have also been working on my handmade journal…I’m almost ready to show some pages from that….stay tuned!

 

Painted Papers

I have been working on some painted papers the past few days.  I almost hate to tear them up to use for collage fodder. I used mostly acrylic paint, some inks, and my foam stamps.

I got a new book this week, Real Life Journals-Designing & Using Handmade Books, by Gwen Diehn.  This is the third book by her that I have purchased from Amazon.  They are all great… I also discovered that she has a  blog now…only up since the first of this year.  Check it out here.  I hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

“Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.”  – Voltaire

Journal – #8

This person showed up as I was adding layers.  I started with a layer of white paint and added little puddles of blue, green and orange craft paint that I spread with a palette knife.  I added some collage pieces and black masking tape…then, more layers of paint along with black and white paint.  I only used a paint brush to draw the figure.  The owl-like creature actually begin as a dog   I used some of my handmade foam stamps on the page on the right.

 

Journal #6

I started with a base of white paint.  I found that the pages will curl up on the corners when I do not start with a gesso base.  I put down some dark blue and green acrylic paint.  I thinned some transparent red iron oxide paint with water and dribbled that down the pages.  I tried so many things that I can’t remember everything I did.  Suzi mentioned interference paints in one of her class videos.  I ordered some Liquitex Interference Gold from Dick Blick just to try.  It gives any paint you mix it with added shimmer and glitz.  I did a lot of stamping with some stamps I made from foam.  That’s what you see in the little house on the left and in the woman’s hair on the right.  I used some Caran d’Ache crayons to enhance the skin tones. I think that’s all.  NOTE:   I don’t know where the dark shadow  down on the lower right page came from and I didn’t notice it until after I finished the post  but I will leave it as it is.

 

 

Art Journal – Life

This is the latest completed page in my Moleskine.  I started with various shades of green acylic paint.  The collage elements went on next.  Most of them were altered.  The picture in the upper left corner was extremely altered with an emery board.  I like the effect it gave to the picture.  The emery board method works best on pieces that are thicker in weight than most magazine pages.  This one came from a catalog of expensive women’s handbags.  I bet one could use very fine sandpaper(I’ll have to try that).   I further muted most of the pages with Titan Buff paint by Golden.  Last of all, I altered the page with my photo program after scanning the page.  The original is actually more green than it appears here.