Catching up with JF365 and finding orange...

It is April so that means the Journal Fodder 365 group @ Ning is now on Chapter 4. One of the prompts for this month is Solitude and here is the page I made for it:

The other page I made for this group was using one of the month's techniques: overwriting. It is something I have done on other art journal pages too. I like it because it is possible to write out something that maybe I need to say but don't want anyone else to read. The technique is to write one line then write over it as you go down the next lines. I tend to go over it all a few times, and this time I tried it with various colors of paint marker pens over and over a few lines. The rest of the page isn't very pretty as it was mostly a test of the paint marker colors and some previous stenciling.

I was looking back through some of my travel photos from recent years (looking for art inspiration) and found a few that I wanted to post for all the orange challenges I have been doing lately. Seems I am very much called to the color orange lately so these excited me to see again.

The inside of a church in Prague:

A post box in Prague:

A mosaic bench on Green Street in one of London's East Indian neighborhoods:

Breakfast salmon in Estonia:

Beautiful flowers at the Midsummer Fair in Riga, Latvia:

The beautiful terra cotta orange tiles of Trakai in Lithuania:

Ok, I think I like the color orange! (And many more travel photos another time)

I love a Linky Party!

Linked to: Mandarin Orange Monday, Color Connection, Art Journal Every Day

More stencils...

Here are some of the stencils I have made the last week or so since I got my SIlhouette Cameo. If they are the light blue, then I have not used them yet. Otherwise the acrylic paint that I used is on the stencils. Once it dries it doesn't come off onto anything else and it seems to make the stencil a little more sturdy so I don't clean them off too thoroughly.

Many more ideas to make, and much more journaling and other fun uses to put them too... I need another Spring Break to play again!

Having fun making stencils...

It is a really simple process! I am so glad I got this machine because not only can I make a new stencil whenever I think of one, but also my hands do not have to go through the agony of cutting stencil material with an exacto blade. And of course now I can make much more intricate stencils than I could by cutting them myself!

First make a design on the Silhouette software:

Then cut the stencil with the machine. It is a bit noisy!

After it is cut, take it apart and you have the stencil and all the parts from inside to play with as well. What I like about this is that I can resize the same design and make a couple of stencils of various sizes to use.

Next prep the gelli plate. THis time I used some pink and purple cheap craft acrylic paints.

Making a print: The bottom part is weird because I wiggled my arm and it didn't print exactly smoothly but no big deal, I just use it as it turns out!

And later making a print from the inside parts of that same stencil:

It doesn't always have to be printed with the gelli plate. Here is another new stencil that I used spray inks with:

Linked to: Gelli Party (Carolyn Dube)

Another Mandarin Orange Monday...

Not at all sure what these will grow into but the last few days I have been adding blotches of orange, gray, white or black to these and just playing with the colors. For all I know they may get mostly all covered up eventually but for now, they are blotches of orange which pleases me.

And here are some cut up gelli printed labels my friend Leslie and I did on Sunday with my new Silhouette Cameo machine. I need to stop playing long enough to write more of a post about that thing, but it is so much fun I just can't stop using it to blog about it!

This is a gelli printed label page (using some of the new stencils I have been making):

And another art journal background page, this time for my new larger 9"x12" journal:

Here are 4 of the bunch of stamps we cut, actual size around 2" x 1.5", made from a stencil of postage stamp designs I made with my new Silhouette Cameo. Cut out of gelli printed label paper:

Linked to Mandarin Orange Monday and Carolyn Dube's Gelli Print Party

New journal pages...

Slightly out of my comfort zone on the doodle front, but I wanted to get working on a couple of online classes/Ning groups I had joined. So in between learning how to use my new Silhouette Cameo (update soon I promise!) I worked on a couple of doodle-ish pages. Is that a word? Well it is now!

And I finished a collage page that is not really my style but I had some pretty scraps I wanted to use somehow.

WOYWW

WOYWW stands for What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday, a long running linky party I just discovered. And it is really cool to see what other people are either working on or their work areas. Mine is definitely a mess today but...

That was actually the point of my photo!

Ok, it's a mess, but I took this photo partly to link to a What's on your Workdesk Wednesday and also (big pointy arrow here) to remind myself that the newsprint pad under my work often gets really cool looking and I should use it instead of throwing it away. And sometimes I don't remember things like that until I focus on them. So right after I took this photo I tore off the paper and set it aside!

Thursday morning update: I had forgotten I had used a piece of my newsprint work paper in a journal a couple of months ago and loved how it turned out...

Linked to: WOYWW

I took the leap...

and bought a Silhouette Cameo to make my own stencils. I had been debating this large purchase for a month or so and decided yesterday to go for it!

It arrives tomorrow and I cannot wait!

I can hear you asking, "Why would I spend that much money to buy a machine that cuts out stencils?"

Well have you priced stencils lately? Small ones @ $5-$7 each and larger ones @ $14-$15 each. Plus postage! AND... they aren't even my own designs!

Not that I don't love a lot of the stencils out there... I have a TON of Crafter's Workshop stencils already... but really... you know you can look at a piece of art that used stencils and know immediately if it was a Dina Wakely or Julie Fei-Fan Balzer stencil... not that there is anything wrong with that but... I don't want anyone looking at my art and knowing whose stencils I used anymore! To me that takes a lot of the originality and creativity out of the work.

So for the price of the Cameo and some .007 thickness stencil mylar I can make 20 large stencils and I have already paid it off! And they will be my own designs or words or anything I want to make, no one else's!

Watch out art journal!

Playing...

Had a wonderful time yesterday morning meeting and chatting with a new local art friend, Felicia. Go see her art @ Pinky's (54th & H Streets)
Then started to play -- 9 days off for Spring Break and my plan is to do some sort of art every day!
Trying out a few things with diluted inks. Here are some snippets...

Left to sit overnight. Gotta dig out my watercolors to play more.

And playing with taped edges...



Linked up in Mandarin Orange Monday.

Mandarin Orange Monday...

I am so inspired by this Mandarin Orange Monday challenge! I actually really like orange and it is fun to find things to add to this challenge blog!

Here are a few newer Gelli print pages that are screaming mandarin orange:

and one more gelli print...

and finally an art journal page looking very orange (with a gelli print background)

Linked to Mandarin Orange Monday and Orange You Glad It's Friday.

Spring makes me want to garden...

I spent a while outside this morning and cleared out some weeds (tons more to go) and planted a few flowers we got yesterday at Green Acres Nursery...

Ranunculus: one of my favorites! Planted a cheap gallon pot just for the jolt of color!

Eagerly awaiting the freesias... these have come back from past years.

And some snapdragons (new)...

And ushering out some of the last poppies...

Also planted some hollyhocks and carnations from little 6 packs. We shall see if they grow. I am usually better transplanting the 4" plants. Between me being too rough and the soil being too yucky (clay) the little ones often don't take. If they haven't I can always get some others when I am on vacation the week after next. Looking at the soil in the flower area though I think the first order of business when I am on vacation is to add more organic matter again... that clay is persistent!

Craving color...

And the desire to find my old travel photos and add them to Flickr and maybe post a few here...

And I was so craving color this evening I thought I would start with these from a trip to Spain in 2003 (these were from Seville).

Anyone know what these fruit are called?

I have a gazillion old pix to sort through and these were just at easy reach but I will get a lot more of them on Flickr soon. I have photos from Spain, south of France, Czech Republic and a summer in Italy that I never put on Flickr so I think it is about time!

Oh and by the way... a small request:

If you happen to be on Google+ and visit my blog, please join by clicking the Google "Join the Site" bar to the top right under the heading FOLLOWERS. I would love to have you as a follower! Thanks!

A new TED discovery...

I have always loved the TED talks and this weekend I discovered a couple I had not yet heard (although apparently half the world had already). And the amazing thing is that I found one of them through one of the online art classes I am taking (but now of course when I go looking for the link I can't remember where it was!).

Anyway... HERE is the main TED talks link.

And it was Brene Brown who I just found out about this weekend and loved her talks: HERE (Vulnerability) and HERE (Listening to Shame). And HERE is her website Ordinary Courage).

I didn't do much artwork this weekend, it was more a mind work weekend with some time off for a bit of reading.

Then my friend Leslie bursts ahead on the Lettering Class which reminds me I have some lettering to do, so I think that will be the focus of this coming week!

Working on a Painting... and Jeopardy Swag!

While I was waiting at home today I spent some more time on a painting I started the other day. It started out with some gelli printed background, then stenciling, and various acrylics, neocolors, dyes and inks over and over... I feel it still needs something but not sure quite yet. I am sure it will come to me eventually! It is the largest canvas I have tried in recent years (12" x 16").

So why was I home from work anyway?

I took the day off work today because...

A month or so ago I took and online test to be a contestant on Jeopardy and I passed! I got an email saying the second round would be held in Sacramento today so off I went...

Luckily the tryouts were held in Sacramento so I didn't have to travel but there were people in the room from as far away as Vancouver, BC and all over the Bay Area. We took another test -- 2 actually, one was the test that counted and the second one was a new test they were trying out and wanted to see if there were glitches so they were giving it to the contestants in this round all over the country to standardize it (or whatever that word is when you get a lot of different results for a test to see if it works for everyone). Then we played a little bit of a mock game and had interviews. Since I am a teacher I also get to be considered for the teacher tournament! Now if they want any of us there is an 18 month window in which they might call us... hope I get on! The whole process took around 2 and a half hours. AND we got parting gifts!

Russian Nesting Dolls...

Testing out some transfers that didn't show up very well on the very patterned background. I need to work on how to make better transfer images. Meanwhile I was looking at my little matryoshka on my shelf and thinking how at times I am like one of those nesting dolls... you gotta peel off the layers to get to the real me.

A few new Gelli backgrounds...

Can't seen to stay away from that Gelli plate! Made these tonight... wanted to use some orange on one of the paintings and decided to also do a little gelli printing.

I really like how the orange one made shapes through the stencil (roundish holes) as it pulled up from the plate.

Linked on Mandarin Orange Monday.

Inspiration Journal Page...

Trying out some new pens I got.

The ones on the top are both Prismacolor -- so nice and dark! The bottom one is the FudeBall 1.5 I got from Jet Pens. It looks so washed out compared to the Prismacolors. Collaged elements and stencils on a gelli printed background.

Looking at it now I wish I had done more with the lettering -- after all I am taking a lettering class! But I wrote it quickly while the thought was on my mind and didn't worry about the writing. Eventually I hope to learn how to slow down (I can always jot down my thought on a scrap and rewrite it nicely later)... eventually.

Sunday Introspection...

I was told when I was younger that I "think too much"...

I didn't really know what that meant at the time but I see it now when it comes to my art. It is hard for me to be loose and free -- to allow all that spontaneity that art sometimes demands, I guess in that thought I can answer my own question of why I do art journaling... it allows me the space to be free and open and at the best of times, spontaneous.

With that said however, I still think too much and take a lot more time looking at other people's art than doing my own. I tell myself it is for inspiration and ideas and then later say I don't want my art to look like or be anyone else's... Where do getting ideas and being derivative separate? I need to be there.