Give-a-way Winner and some Mixed Media Art

Congratulations, Vivane!!!!  You are the winner of my fabric give-a-way.   WOOT WOOT!!   I’ll be in touch to get your address.

Well, I did get up in the studio this weekend.  I started to play around in one of my small water color notebooks.. about 5″ x 4″.   I smooshed around some paint then added some old dictionary pages to the surface.  I began to draw a face.. nothing fancy, as I am not a good drawer.. just funky fun.. and it grew into this little girl with a dictionary dress and arms.. then I kept going with colors and embellishments.  Look how she turned out..  She a cutie patootie.  I plan on mailing this to a family member of mine… surprise.

This happens to me all the time.  I have a slight plan to start a project then I get up in studio and I do something completely different with no planning whatsoever.   So…. I picked up a large blank pre-made journal (8″ x 11 1/2″).  It was all black and very lonely.  I decided to mix media the heck out of it.

Here’s how it evolved:

Here is the journal.. very basic.. inside is just lined pages.

I began to glue the following:  left over paper towels from clean up, lace papers, fabric pieces, doilies, decorative papers, lace, polymer clay, resin music paper, burlap, coffee filter pieces and tissue paper casting (center piece) that I made.  I added some paint (cobalt teal) in spots that were white or bare..  Then I added a strip of checkerboard duct tape to the binding.

Watch the progress:  and click on picture for close ups and then juicy close up towards the end.

Juicy close up alert on the following pictures.. click and click.

I sprayed PYMII on all my work to seal it.

I hope you enjoyed that progress of my journal cover.  It felt good to get messy again and up in the “Judio”.

Thanks for stopping by.

Judy ♥

Art Page Re-make – little handmade journal/book

Hello there friendly people…. I sure hope that everyone is getting some relief from this heat we’ve been having across the country.  It has just been perfect here in Mass. these last two days….  dry, sunny and breezy.. about mid 70′s..  You can begin to smell the fall coming.  I remember the days when I was a kid in school and you knew school was about to start; it was fall and you could smell it in the air.  Funny how things stay with you like that.

Ok.. moving on to some art sharing.

Remember this page I did with Portfolio Oil Patels?  Click here to jog your memory

Well, it was pretty, but I did nothing for me.  The smooshed beads all over the place?; it just needed something else.  SOOOOOOOOOO….I made it into a journal and embellished the front with my handmade polymer clay  “buttons n ‘bellishments”.  Size 5 1/2 x 7.  CLICK FOR LARGER PICTURES.

This is much better, don’t you think?

Inside covers are glued scrapbook paper.

 

The inside pages are made from poster board and each page is gessoed and ready to add mixed media love to it.

While I was making this one, I took the left over torn pages and made a small journal (5×3).  Front and back is covered with decorated duct tape (have you seen all the new styles yet?), some black trim across and a beaded thingamajig.  Inside covers is more old scrapbook paper I had. I used two polymer clay beads I made holding the sewn binding in place.  Made a nice big knot so they wouldn’t move.

I’m always happy to see a Friday come along after a long week of work.   Everyone needs a break.. don’t we?

Thanks, all, for stopping by.  I’ll be doing a give-away next week.. stay tuned.

Judy ♥

Snow, Fabric Dying and Journals

Well, here it is April Fool’s Day and that’s what we got here in Massachusetts.. a big ole fat April Fool’s prank by Mother Nature…  I’ll leave you with this… and we’ll move on to art.

Last week, I showed you some fabric dying with beet juice.  This weekend, I was making some pancakes with blueberries.. wait.. blueberries?  I have to give it a try.   All I did was take hot water and threw some blueberries in a container and let them soak for hours.  Then drop in the fabric and let them also sit for hours.

Here are my results on some fabric and lace…  not bad.

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One of my readers asked me if they were colorfast.  I didn’t know the answer, but I did find HERE that if you boil the fabric in water and vinegar before the dying process, it will keep them colorfast.

Ok.. so once again, I refer you to one of my recent posts on my large journal covers, I started to create.  I’m happy to say that I have completed the book and it’s ready for art making.

I used my awl to make four holes for metal binder rings, spray painted the rings white, then smooshed them with some teal paint. I used a lot of the Portfolio Watersoluble Oil Pastel crayons… creamy, smoothy goodness.  I did all my shadowing with them.  Also, included on these pages are polymer clay, ink jet transfers, stencils, metal embellishments, rubber stamping and lots of layers on the bottom using paint, gesso, pastes.   I stained the edges of the inner pages with walnut ink….. LOVE LOVE LOVE ♥

Because I used poster board, one side of each page is a bit glossy.  I think I will need to gesso each page to give it some tooth.  A note about spray paining… I hated it.. the fumes, the smell.. never again.  I even did it outside.  I’ll have to find an alternative.. maybe THIS or THIS.  If they work for fabric, they should work on paper/canvas; unless it needs that absorbancy.   Hmmm.. fabric?  What.. no more beet and blueberry juice?

Here are many pictures of the front, back and closeups.. enjoy.. click to make them bigga…

FRONT COVER – this journal is about 12″ x 16″

DETAILS

BACK COVER

DETAILS

As the Beatles sang.. “All You Need is Love”. ♥  ♥ ♥

There is so much happening on these pages.  I will protect them with PYMII.  Love this stuff.. check it out.

Well, that was fun.. I had some time off from work this week and it was just so nice to not have to worry about anything but me and my art for those hours when the house was quiet.  No running into the home office to check on things.. ahhh.     I’m ready for retirement.  I can dream.

Thanks for stopping by and let’s hope this Fool’s storm is just passing by and will melt real quick

Judy ♥

Scraps, Stripes & Strips

Say that fast 4 times….

Signs of Spring are definitely here today.  Nice to see lots of green on this St. Patrick’s Day!  ♥

A short post today and a peek at some fun in the studio.  I’ve been using up the scraps from tearing pages for my large art journal I’m making – see the journal covers HERE (from my last post).

I love checkerboards and stripes; especially black and white.. so though I’d create my own colorful borders.  They are about 14″ long, 1/4″ to 1/2″ wide.  These were quick fun to make. When you don’t know what else to do…make embellishments.

Don’t throw your scraps away.. embellish them.

Thanks for stopping by.

Judy

In the Studio…& and a little surprise

Yes, I’ve been up in my studio again having fun creating.  I seemed to have push through my “rut” of not getting up there.  So, a few leftover nights and take out, got me out of the kitchen to spend time creating.  I just made the decision to not think about what I should do rather than what I WANT to do.. and that is to forget about chores and putting in extra hours in the office and concentrate on feeling good about my art and doing something about it.  Well, at least for one weekend anyway.  I think we all deserve that, don’ t you?

It’s still “wintery” here, so I will continue to hibernate, as they say in bear language.  What better way to enjoy a cold day than to be in the art studio.

Let’s start with my birds.  Well, you all know how much I love the birds that visit me by reading my few posts here and here.  They’ve inspired me so much that I’ve decided to create some of these little creatures with polymer clay.  I wanted to share them with you.  They are such a joy to make.

Ready?  Lots of pictures ahead…  Click each picture to enlarge.

This little fella is about 3″ long, 1″ thick.  I have him sitting on a wooden post that’s also about 3″ tall and 1″ round.  Painted the stand with a teal acrylic paint and rubbed some white over it.  Then gave the bottom and top edge an Inka Gold rub (love that stuff).

I’m loving the spiral wings.  This bird is about 4″ long.  I put gem stones on the eyes and a small heart on it’s back.  I’ve been making a lot of teeny tiny hearts for my birds.

Now these little guys are my favorites.  They are so tiny.  They all measure about 1″ long and 1/2″ wide.   I put the tiny hearts on their backs and one of them has hearts for wings. These hearts range in size from 1/8″ to 1/4″.

A gather of hearts and birds, above and below.

Now, I want to share with you my experience with Creative PaperClay.  Um.. good and bad.  I didn’t like working with it in its raw state.  Lots of cracking unless you keep it really wet.  Then it took forever (ok, not forever) to dry.  Me, no likey.  However, I decided to use this to my advantage by making some larger hearts that looked worn and rugged with an artistic flair.

Once I formed the “rough-looking”  heart, showing the cracks, I pushed sections of rubber stamps and textures into them.  For the smaller teal heart, I also carved out a heart in the center; I let them dry.  Because of their thickness, it did take 24 hrs or more to dry.  I even put them in my oven at 200 degrees for a few hours.  I painted them with acrylic paint mixed with a dot of  glazing liquid to give it a smoother finish and the paint wouldn’t drag on the roughness of the clay; let dry.  For the red heart, I painted the stamped textures with yellow and orange.

Then I used an antiquing brown paint over the entire heart and then wiped it with a clean paper towel so all the paint to sit in the cracks; let dry.  Then I used a gloss varnish to shine them up.

Now, let me show you how I further embellished these hearts.

By using the pearl pens and sepia accents (above),  I drew designs and dots on a non-stick surface, then once dry, peel them off and you have your own little bling.

Here is what I did with them.

I took the small dots and glued them to the hearts as you seen in the smaller teal heart and the red heart.  I took one of my tiny hearts and glued it into the carved out section also.

For this heart, I added a vintage embellishment and a gem.  This is my favorite.

Below, are some journal pages I embellished with the handmade bling.

and now………….a little surprise………….. my first video on how to make my little birds.

Enjoy and thank you for stopping by.

Sketchbook Challenge – January

If you notice over in the right column of my blog, I have the Sketchbook Challenge badge.  I posted about it at the end of my last post.

I have to say (yes, I have to)…. I took the time to sketch.. Something I am not used to doing.. nor have I really ever done much.  I went to an fine art store recently and found some small visual journals.. one with watercolor paper and one with bristol board.  The notebooks only measure 5 x 3 1/2″.  Adorable.

The “Sketchbook Challenge” theme  for the month of January is “Highly Prized”…

I’m really loving this..  Take my little notebook with my black liner pen and my little  water color paint set and hunker down with a cup of tea and play… fun and portable. I plan on doing more of this.  Talk about feeling like a kid again.. hits the spot.

So, to me.. my home and my family and what’s in my home (not materialistic things, but family and love) means so much to me… is “highly prized”.

Here is my funky doodle-like home… made with love ♥

Remember this is only 5 x 3 1/2″.

I’m determined to learn how to draw trees better.

You can see the flickr group HERE for this challenge.  Run, don’t walk.

Thanks for stopping by.

Judy

Final Mixed Media Projects.. and more

Well.. here we are.. 2011.. Happy New Year EVERYONE!!!  What a great year it was and let’s hope that 2011 is even better.

Having the past two weeks off from work have been so refreshing.  Family, friends, art.. what else could a girl ask for?  Food?  Yes.. too much celebrating for sure.  I’m not making any resolutions.. I’ll just do my best each and every day.

Let’s get to some art, shall we?

Remember my mixed media texture on canvas.. here is the before picture:

After… click to see some details…

Well, you recently saw my post on my paper towel journal.  I took my second towel and turned it vertical to make a small/tall journal.  So cute!

Below are some of the steps I took to make it.

Click any picture to see more detail.

As I started to make the journal above, I thought of putting a patchwork fabric piece on the inside cover of the journal.  Well, after sewing and sewing.. I LOVED the result so much that I decided to make another journal out of it.  See below…

I just started to sew pieces of scrap fabric onto a 6×12″ piece of material.

Added more and lace around the edge….

I added more trim, ribbon, lace scraps.  Sewed in watercolor paper signatures, strung some ceramic beads off the binding and that’s it.

I decided to do some cleaning in the studio.  Donating lots of unused crafts that have been sitting around for years.  It feels good to re-energize, clean out and give to others.   It’s a “win win” to me.

What else is new you ask?    Well….

….  also wanted to share with you a few challenges and workshops that I am involved in that are FREE.  They are at your own pace, so no pressure.  I certainly won’t have time to do them consistently, now that I’m back at work.  That’s what I love about it.

1st:  The Sketchbook Challenge.. read all about it HERE.  Great artists hosting each month for the year, you heard me… a year.  One theme per month.

2nd:   Milliande’s Art Journal January

3rd:  Strathmore Visual Journal Online Workshops

Pass the word.. send my post to a friend.

Well, I’ve said a mouthful, don’t you think??? Whew… Lots to share with all of you and it’s all fun and good.

Thanks for stopping by.

Judy ♥

Paper Towel Journal

Remember my last post about the paper towel painted backgrounds?  Well, I decided that I liked them so much, I was going to make something out of them or at least one.

Now mind you, I am not a journal maker or a sewing, so I combined two things I am not good at and here’s what I came up with.

Go ahead and click to see details and close ups.

Lots of trial and error here, my friends…  First off.. paper towels still rip.. Even if they are the “quicker picker upper”… they rip.  I still had fun, cuz it was just plain cool.

So, basically.. took the paper towel and sewed some lace trim around the edges and backed it with another piece of cotton.  I used metallic gold and turquoise thread.. and some beige for some of the inside cover.  I then sewed all around the front with gold swirls.. not as easy as I thought.   Then sewed another piece of fabric for the inside covers to putt batting in.. so it would be a puffy journal…   Sewed 3 sides, slid in the batting and sewed up the fourth side.  I took 4 pieces of watercolor paper and sized them smaller than the book size, which is about 5″ x 6″, closed.  I bound the pages with wax linen thread… put fabric beads I made with some other acrylic beads to dangle on the tail.  Sewed a polymer button I made to the front, highlighted with gold wax.  Made a loop-di-loop string to wrap it from the the back.  Does all that make sense?  Did I mention that paper towels rip?

Badda Bing.. Badda Boom.. there you have it!!  Quick and dirty paper towel journal..  Ok, it wasn’t quick it took me a few hours.. and my back.. oh my back..hanging over the sewing machine… glasses on.. glasses off.. change threads, change bobbins.. dog wants to pee.. string in my hair.. now I gotta pee.  Fuhgedaboudit!!

My thoughts:  I will definitley give this another try.  I wouldn’t use a paper towel again, but there are other non-fabric materials to use.. I think of Tyvek envelope paper for my first thought.  Of course leather is just..well, perfect.

I’m sure the front of this journal will not hold up if I abuse it, but it’s only for play… I think I will try to seal it with gel medium to make it stronger.

I’ve been playing with some used coffee filters.  Oh messy and vintagy.. love it.  I’ll be showing those soon.

I also finished my textured canvas piece that I showed  in the same blog post I linked above; that’s also coming up.

Thanks for stopping by.

Judy

Styes, Watercolors and Holiday eating… oh my!

I sure hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving Holiday break.  It was nice having a 5 day break from the full-time job, but the days sure do go by so fast, don’t they?

I started last week with a sore eye… ended up at docs and found out I had a stye …geesh (ew, some of these images are gross.. mine is/was not that bad.. ..  So, hot compresses all day, he told me, but those didn’t seem to work UNTIL I added a tea bag to the hot compress and then it started to get better.  Plain old black tea bag or as my friend, Amy, calls it “dust in a bag”… love that.  The tanic acid seems to be a healer.. remember that.

.. and speaking of healing, I will need a healer after eating too much at the Thanksgiving gathering.  Everyone ate too much.. ok.. me.. there I said it.  I need to pull out my Weight Watcher’s food journal again and keep track of my eating.. god I hate the keeping track stuff.  If you can keep track of what you eat in the long run.. you will succeed… but who can?  I digress.

Maybe I can incorporate a food diary and art.  So making my daily food journal on some cool collage/painted pages.  I have to be realistic now.. will I really paint 10′s of pages to write a food diary on?  Maybe some quick swipes of credit card painting and some doodling?   God, that’s depressing (just kidding.. no I’m not…… really.. yes I am.. nooooooo).

.. and speaking of art (I needed to change the subject)…..   I bought some really cool Koi watercolor paints on ebay last week and I was playing around with  them as I lounged in front of the Christmas tree during some time off.  Yes, it’s up already.  Ugh.

These paints are so cute.. great for travel or just working in a different place than your studio.  I really like the effect they leave.. very light & dreamy.  I actually snuck in a little oil pastels (Portfolio) on the pages too… another nice effect.

Playing with them in my 5×7′ish (that’s a measurement.. no?) moleskine journal.. here’s what I did:

She is so funny.. as I look at her she looks like a beautiful cyclops.  That’s one big friggen eye.

This page was just the excess paint I smooshed around and blended when I changed colors.. no waste.  Rubber stamping on top of these pages will look so nice I think.

You can use any kid’s watercolor sets.. This one is just compact and I thought the price was decent.  Merry Christmas to me… a little early.  Shhh.. I have a few more gifts coming my way.

Now, go make some art.

Thanks for stopping by.

Judy

Dryer Sheet Collage Art Cloth – Tutorial

Hey Bloggerdoodles…

I finally finished up my dryer sheet collage art cloth for you.

This process is so fun at at the same time, you are recycling your dryer sheets.  I hope you like it.

What you need: used dryer sheet, white glue, water, freezer paper, masking tape, brush for glue, paints and inks,  scrap papers, fabrics, ribbon, glitter…. just any kind of ephemera to make your layers and what makes you happy.

Tape a sheet of freezer paper, shiny side up to a piece of card board (taping it down to your work surface is fine, but if you use a piece of cardboard you can move it while it dries).

Mix glue and water in a separate container using a 1:1 ratio.  I play with it until it’s a syrup consistency.   Lay down the dryer sheet and pour the glue on the sheet and start to spread it until it’s all covered.

Here we go…. Let”s have some fun, shall we?

Now, you can start with anything you want, but here is what I did….

I started  laying and gluing down decorative napkins, tissues papers, fabric, ribbon and thin papers.  Don’t hesitate to use too much glue.. this will all dry clear and give the cloth strength.  Keep in mind, you are working on a very thin, transparent substrate; it’s needs the layers you’ll be adding to it.

Then I dripped alcohol inks all over.  You can use glitter spray too or acrylic paints to make your own free form designs.

It’s getting there.  Just keep adding, layers until  you are satisfied.  Press down the glued pieces, making sure they come in good contact with the layer below it.

Here’s what it looks like when I’ve completed piece.  I added glitter and gold ribbon.   I am a gold-aholic.. I admit it.  Nothing seems done until I add some glitter and glam to it.  Tip:  Go to the hardware store and buy a small bucket of ceiling glitter; it comes in gold and silver.

Once your done, put this aside and let it dry several hours.. even 24.

Peel it off of your freezer paper and now, you’ve created a one of a kind, all your own design, collage art cloth.  For some last minute, I think it needed something else, addition, I used rubber stamps on it once it was dry.

Oooooooooooo….. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.. lookie here…..

It is completely flexible.  You can cut it to you own shapes to add to your canvas art, journals, snip pieces to make greeting card designs.. it’s your world… go for it..

Click on each picture for a closer look.

Take a look at the back of the cloth… pretty cool too.

Thanks for joining me and stopping by.  I do hope you enjoyed this tute.

Judy

Next up:   ATC workshop and renewing friendships.