cherry and aqua ATCs

For June, the theme for the Color Groupies ATCs was cherry and aqua. I think sometimes I just like to experiment and see what I can come up with! Below is a pictorial lo-down on how I made these ATCs.

I started with a transparency print of a photo of flowers I had taken, printed 6 times.

I also grabbed playing cards that were actually Tarot cards with aqua and cherry colors.

 I rubbed aqua paint onto the back of a transparency sheet that was mostly filled with cherry colored flowers. 

Next, I decided to sprinkle blue stardust glitter on top of the wet aqua paint.

When the paint was dry, I ran the cards through my xyron right side up and placed one side of the cards against the painted and stardust glittered transparency.

I cut the cards out individually, added a little of the aqua paint to the card side of them and decided to rubber stamp them with a Magenta pattern stamp. 

Remember the painted transparency? Below is what the ATCs looked like from the other side.

The pattern on the back of the card is showing through.

The finished backs   . . . . 

The finished fronts . . . 

Yes, they are unusual. But this challenge has allowed me to play with a new colour combination in a different way. I am very grateful that my Colour Groupies 'mates' support and encourage me to go in whatever direction I like when exploring and creating for them. Hooray! It's a good thing.  ; ^ ) lenna

a different direction

{ art journal July 27+28 }

To start, I took the other half of the scrap paper that I had auditioned but did not use for my last spread of pages and added it to the right side of my new spread. I began like this below, adding watercolor crayon marks to it . . .

Then I spritzed it with the watered down halo pink gold Lumiere I have been using. 

It dripped a bit, but I like it that way!

I stopped working at this point and let my newly re-worked page dry. I slept!

My good friend Frieda who lives in Scotland recently had a pea-hen visit her, the female version of a peacock, seen at the top of this post. She took lots of photos and shared some, which I saved to my computer. I think this bird is stunning! I asked Frieda if it would be alright to use a photo of this bird (that Frieda took) in my art journal sometime and she said, "of course please feel free to use any of my photos whenever you want to!! I'd love to see what you do with them." -oh how generous and delightful! Here on Blipfoto, in Frieda's journal, you can see one of the last photos Frieda took of the visiting pea-hen. And below, you will see how I added photos to my art journal. I printed one of Frieda's photos onto a transparency and spread gel medium on smoothly for an image transfer.

 I placed the transparency in my journal on top of the second scrap page . . . 

I rubbed the transparency and then waited a bit . . .

voila'! It worked, taking this scrap paper in a different direction.

I tried another, this time a self portrait of her shadow that Frieda took walking the railway road near her home. with more gel medium I was ready to transfer . . . 

 click for details . . . 

Below you see the image transfer of the pea-hen on the right. On the left there is a plain transparency (not a transfer) of the bird. I printed the image on to a transparency and used my xyron to place the bird on the left in my journal. Underneath that bird on the left, is the transfer of Frieda's shadow, but I also placed a transparency of the same image on top of the transfer. Hope that is not too confusing. The transfer of the image was not as clear as I would have liked it so I pumped it up by placing a transparency over it - a creative recovery! 

I have sprayed more watered down paint on top, but it was not enough 

so I added watercolor crayons, in orange -see below.

When I wet the crayons, I also added a bit of Perfect Pearls mist in blue, like the bird! 

I added rubber stamping - Frieda and I both use stamps . . . I like the way Frieda's shadow is taking photos. It is like she is taking photos of the pea-hen, even though that was really at another time. 

I wrote in by hand, a page about Frieda . . . 

I like this stamp I used so I thought I would share a detail of it. It says something like, "There is a time in ones life for sending messages. Get out the notepad, a witty note or hand written message will do. The receiver will love it ......"  Frieda and I write a lot of email messages and handwritten ones too, so I was just so happy to lay my hand on this stamp while creating this spread! Thank you Frieda, for your photos and inspiration!!

A slideshow with larger photos here.

Try to do something fun and creative every day! 

Learn more about this project here: Art Journal Every day. 

All of the writing on the process of my art journal is here -

scroll down the most current post is first.

everything old is new again

That is what happened to me today -see the title! I found an old piece of watercolor paper I had used a long time ago as a backdrop, something to work on top of while making ATCs or something. Perhaphs when I lived in CT and was traveling here to visit my parents. I obviously was using watercolor crayons in my work at the time and I never could throw out this scrap paper because I liked the colors so much. I used it to test my writing recently and then today I saw it and thought I would simply add it to my art journal and keep it forever!

I've still got the watered down halo pink gold lumiere thing going on.

I told you I was addicted! I did that last night.

I think the "old" paper looks pretty good in here.

Much better than tossing it out!

I considered putting the other half of this scrap paper on the other side and auditioned it.

But i decided against it. Instead, I looked at some quotes I had printed out.

They were still on my table top, rejected for use in another project.

This quote below caught my eye and captured how I felt, click for details. 

I cut it out, ran it  through my xyron and stuck it to my journal page.

Then used a bit of charcoal pencil to integrate the scrap paper into the journal.

After I stuck the quote down I had a eureka moment. I had just visited Lucas Boatworks, where my husband is part of a team of men that build and refurbish boats. Inside one of the boats Steven was showing me, he found a spider web! He called me over to photograph it (he is getting used to my photography ways). I took a couple photos and had already downloaded them and seen the spider web ones. I printed one onto a Transparency film, tried it out and thought it was perfect! 

almost done . . .  I decided to add journaling to the empty space.

A scan: click for detail.

I just realized that Picasso's quote is not only talking about a spider web, but a scrap of paper! No wonder this quote appealed to me. 

Learn more about this project here: Art Journal Every day.

All of the writing on the process of my art journal is here

-it starts with the current post, scroll down.

apple green and evergreen

As part of the Colour Groupies - a closed yahoo group, I create ATCs every month on a color-combo theme for the 5 members of the group, including me. I think this is my 4th year participating! Sometimes I am late in making them and do 2 months at once and sometimes there is trouble with the mail, like the recent post office strike in Canada. We do not share photos or reveal what we have made until the ATCs have been received by everyone in the group! That way, it is a surprise when the mail comes. I always make one for myself so I can put it in my album with the rest of the ATCs, as a collection. We are not quite caught up with all the ATCs for recent months yet, but you can get an idea of how my album looks below. It is one of my many color groupies ATC albums!

I really enjoy seeing all the variations and interpretations of the color combinations.

The albums are very inspiring to look through.

For May 2011, the color combo was apple green and evergreen. 

I started with pre-cut ATCs by Stathmore.

I used my square punch to punch shapes from green paint samples I found at Walmart! They caught my eye as they were postcard size, one day when I was shopping there but had the colour groupies theme on my mind.

I added an evergreen watercolor crayon around the edge and then used Dye-na-flow paint by Jacquard in a lighter apple green color in the middle. 

click for details

I especially like this photo below because it shows where I was in my art journal every day project when I was making these. It was in early June, I was in the middle of a very busy time and I was late in making these May ATCs!

details - click for more

{ watercolor crayons and dye-na-flow paint }

Below, I have taken my paint sample squares and put them through my xyron machine to create secure stickers. I have already played with the placement and know pretty much where I want to place them.

A final scan -larger is good (click).

I hope you enjoyed my process!

: ^ ) lenna 

art journal every day

yup, I am still doing this project! I may not post about it every day, but I am trying to squeeze at least something creative in every day. Like the other night before going to bed I remembered I had not done anything in my art journal, yet. I said to myself, Well, I could certainly take 5 minutes or so and slosh some paint around on that blank spread of pages. That is exactly what I did and it felt good.

I cannot seem to give up that watered down halo pink gold Lumiere in a spray bottle that I made up (on the right page) because I continue to use it. I just love the mix of the pink and the gold. So I guess I will keep on using it until I get tired of it! On the left side is yellow dye-na-flow . . . well, some yellow migrated over to the right. It is only there on the left page because I spilled some on this side of it while working on the other side of the page. That is truly what made my decision for this page. But I like it. After I did this - a quick 5 or 10 minutes, I left it to dry while I slept. Contrary to popular opinion, I do sleep!!

Here is what it looked like the next morning (yesterday) -you can click for more details. I like the way the gold from the watered down lumiere paint concentrated in a line at the top of the right page. Do you see above where it is wet and liquidy and pink? Below is how it dried! I have removed the masks from my windows that I added in the previous spread.

I decided to add fabric to this page, just to try something different. I had a small amount of sheer patterned fabric on my table that I had been wanting to use for something. 

Below, you'll see the fabric at the top of the spread before I pulled it over the pages. I have already sewed on a piece of dyed cheesecloth that would extend out over the edge of the page, click for details.

I sewed the fabric to the edge of the journal page on both sides with my machine.

I use an old needle designated for paper.

Below, both edges are sewn and the fabric is loose in the middle, 

covering both the windows and the spiral binding.

The view from the previous page . . . I love when things stick out of journals!

I have left myself the ability to add things to the pages underneath at this point.

So, I snuck in an extra copy of the photo I used to create Linda's 4x4 . . .

A lovely memory of the day when I took that photo and then using it to create a piece for her. You will be able to faintly see the bird through the fabric.

I added some old music text  . . . 

so far, so good . . . 

The photo below shows how I am going to attach the fabric to the page with a line of Tacky glue. It will still be loose on the page, but anchored. It also shows the bird page text I received from Joanna! I love what she sent in a mail art exchange package and it has been very inspirational and useful ; ^ )

I also embellished the edge of the page on the right, adding fibers and ribbons, gold mesh, iridescent glass balls, and pieces of jingle shells picked up on the beach the same day as the bird photo. The fibers were all attached with tacky glue and E6000 was used for the shell pieces.

A final scan. I would say that this is a strange and unusual spread of pages, but one that challenged and satisfied me in the making of it. I don't think art always has to be pretty!

And, if you can believe it, because I am crazy with taking in-process photos, I have more even more steps for this spread that I have uploaded to my flickr photo account. If you start HERE with this photo and use the Next button at the top, you can view them all large and go through them quickly or slowly . . . whatever you like!

Thanks for your interest and support. : ^ ) lenna

Learn more about this project here: Art Journal Every day.

All of the writing on the process of my art journal is here

-it starts with the current post, scroll down.