Paper/Fabric Collage Fodder

Hey guys!!

What's going on with you guys today?

I haven't done much crafty stuff today, but I did take a few pictures for the blog.

I pulled a bunch of stuff out of my pile of supplies, and made a few piles. 

I've now officially decided to start a sort of series on collecting supplies for working in an art journal.

In other words, an series on collecting art journal fodder. 

For now, I think I'll just share with you guys what I've found so far.

Then I'll do other occasional posts about how to find and collect these things.

Are you guys ready for this?

Okay then.

Let's do it then.

Let's look up at the picture above at the first little collection I found.

I just pulled a few of the first things that came to my hand. 

I have a piece of magazine picture.

Some apple stickers.

Some printed black and white borders.

Some color scraped fabric.

Some watercolored book paper.

And a strip of colors.

There isn't as much in this picture, but I still like this selection.

I have a dyed paper towel.

A butterfly die cut.

Some pink polka dotted tissue paper.

A pulled photo paper.

And a homemade stamp that I made using craft foam and a toilet paper tube.

This was so much fun finding all of this stuff out of my stash;

So far I've just stacked it all up in a giant stack,

But I'm planning to start organizing soon.

I'm gonna try sorting by color in some type of horizontal paper storage.

But that's all I've got for you guys today.

And I'll see you guys tomorrow. :)

Color Challenge Reveal + E-course Update

And hello people of earth.

Yes. 

I just said that.

I'm back with you guys for yet another day here on the blog. :) 

I miss being here when I'm not around a lot.

Plus I start to feel like I'm letting you guys down.

Which I definitely don't want to do.

So today I have something really important to share with you.

I'm doing a color combo challenge with the one and only Lorri!

She was the next to volunteer.

Next will probably be Kerri. :)

Now, I know Lorri from twitter and ustream.

And she's an amazing artist and is actually hosting an ATC swap on her blog.

So make sure you check that out.

So now that we've got that intro done and over with, let's get to the good stuff shall we?

Today I made a spread instead of my Dede page, when I did a single page.

I love the way this page turned out, even though I only did a total of four layers.

It's not really done yet.

But anyways. I guess I'll list the colors.

We used a bright red, an olive green, a primary blue, and a light orange/peach.

And yes, I did use all of those colors.

The color that looks like orange here is actually red.

It was just weird lighting.

It was a fun page to work on and I loved the challenge Lorri!

And one thing before I go;

I just wanted to show you guys how much I've been working on my ecourse.

I have about 4 pages like this.

And that's just the intro to the course!!

I'm sure you guys will think that it's great value for a total of only five or ten bucks!

I've got a lot planned for this, and I hope you guys will plan on participating!

But that's all I've got for you guys today, and I'll see you later!!

Bye!

Online Art Journal Course - Introduction!

Hey everyone!! 

I'm so sorry it's been so long since my last post;

I was doing so good, but then I kept putting it off. Ugh.

But I'm doing it now.

So yeah.

What I've got for you guys today is a bit of a surprise;

I'm doing an online art journal course! 

That's right all.

I'm hosting it!

It's gonna be really cheap;

Probably only five or ten bucks.

What do you guys think about that?

Basically, it's just going to be a course on layering in your art journals.

That's sort of my thing.

Layering.

So today, I just wanted to sort of do a review of some pages I've done in the past.

A bit of a reminder. 

I'll be able to show here some of the different techniques I've used in the past, and give MYSELF a sort of reminder of the possibilities.

So here it goes.

Of course this isn't nearly the amount of stuff I have hanging around here, but I thought it would be enough to hold you guys over til tomorrow.

I'm definitely posting tomorrow since I have the reveal of another color combo challenge.

:)

See you guys tomorrow.

 Bye.

Fearless Art Journaling - 21 Secrets

Hey guys! What goes on? 

Sorry I was gone for a couple of days, but sometimes, especially on weekends, I just get lazy.

Generally I don't do much on the weekends when it comes to art, but today I just went crazy!! 

I was really bored, and didn't want to sit around all day like I normally do.

So, I grabbed a bunch of art stuff and just started to play.

I'd say that I was probably working on art for three to four HOURS today!! 

I was a happy camper.

I worked on a bunch of art journal spreads, as well as a bunch of collage papers. 

I worked on some index cards (didn't really finish any),

and glued some pages together in my new art journal that I'm doing.

I also worked on a bunch of things from 21 Secrets.

I realized that if I didn't get to work on that soon, I'll have wasted a bunch of money.

For example.

The art journal spread in the picture above was for a course in 21 Secrets.

It was titled Fearless Painting, and I really like the way this turned out. 

She suggests getting a really LARGE art journal.

But that's not really my thing.

So I just did the same process in my normal art journal.

Because I wanted to see how that would look.

I like it I think.

Really random and free. 

I work like that a lot, but sometimes I feel like I need to just let EVERYTHING go.

You know what I mean?

I worked on a few other things today as well, including a couple of loose collage papers.

This is one that I did today. 

I started out by just putting down a layer of blue acrylic paint; just to put some color down on the page.

I had this idea for a technique, and I decided to try it out, since I was experimenting anyways.

I took a hand carved stamp that I had made out of an eraser.

And I colored in the sections with a Portfolio oil pastel.

I'm just gonna go out on a bunny trail here to talk about Portfolio oil pastels.

They are crazy awesome.

And crazy cheap.

My two favorite things when it comes to art supplies. 

They're so creamy, and rich, and smooth, and buttery.

And you can actually buy them at Staples.

Actually, as far as I know, that's the only place you can buy them.

Anyways.

So yeah. 

After I colored in the sections, I wet the oil pastel with water and stamped onto the background.

It gave a really cool watercolor effect.

And I simply love the way it turned out. 

Personally.

Of course though, I'm biased. 

:P

And then, of course; the last thing I have to share with you today.
I'm leaving all the other stuff for another day.
This right here is a type of monoprint that I've been working on perfecting.
I take a paper towel that I've dyed, and then place it in between two sheet of paper.
Then I just press down.
Depending on how much pressure you put, you get different effects.
For the above effect, press with a moderate pressure.
Lighter will pick up less paint, and heavier will pick up more.
Obviously.

Anyways, as that's all I've got for you today, then it's time for me to say goodbye.
So see you guys later. :)
See you.

Collage Fodder Pages

Hey guys!!

I'm back, and this time with some collage fodder-ish pages.

Ha. 

You guys are such enablers.

Thanks to Kerri and Dede, I ended up making about 12 paper for Dede's paper swap she's been hosting.

You basically just make a bunch of papers in an 8 1/2 x 11" size, and send them to her. 

Then she swaps them out.

You can probably contact her on her blog for details I suppose.

Anyways, I had a lot of fun doing them so please;

DON'T STOP ENABLING ME!!

:D

But to be serious, I did have a lot of fun on these pages.

They encouraged me to play and mess around and just have some all around fun.

I did some color scrapings, some magazine pages, some scrap material pages (tutorial MAY be coming soon) and some monoprints.

Monoprints are seriously my new favorite thing to do.

Link to any tutorials you know of in the comments if you would.

I would literally be eternally grateful.

Ha. 

Now we're in the Toy Story movie.

Anyways. 

Here's a second batch that I was working on.

I think that they all turned out pretty cool.

One of the ones in the first photo I actually have posted on here before, but I decided to post it again.

I used all kinds of paper too. 

I used copy paper, cardstock, lined filler paper, paper from a dictionary, and photo paper.

The ones above show the cardstock, filler paper, and copy paper.

The others I'm going to save for another day.

I did a bit of experimenting with different techniques on some pieces from a dictionary;

I have a little dictionary that I bought from Goodwill to tear up for pages.

I know it seems bad at first.

Especially for me.

I'm a book lover at heart, so to tear the pages out of one almost killed me.

But it's like anything else.

It gets easier with practice. :P

Just kidding.

But seriously though.

It's not so bad after a while. 

And the results are totally worth it, in my honest opinion.

Though I don't know how much my opinion means to you guys.

But it matters to me so...

Yeah.

That's all I've got for you guys today, but I'll see you tomorrow!

Bye!

Art Journal Spread

Hey everyone!!

I'm back here on the blog again for the next day in a row. :)

Today is just a sort of add on from yesterday's post.

I added more onto the first spread in my journal.

Actually I finished it.

It took a bunch of layers to get it this way, but I'm good with it now.

The colors didn't seem to work at first, but with enough work, anything can work really.

I like the way it works in this page.

It's pretty cool.

I had a bunch of layers already, but I like the way this looks.

I added a bunch of collage layers, and some paint.

Here's a close up of the title.

I used orange paint to stamp the title "Clueless"

I love the way the orange compliments the green of the rest of the page.

And here is a close up of my favorite part of this spread.

I had glued down a photo, and went over it a couple times with different acrylic paints.

Then, I put some paper over the top and pulled it up.

Doesn't it look cool?

I thought so.

Anyways, that's all I've got for you today.

See you guys later. :)

Art Journal Progress and Pulled Papers

Hello my friends. :)

I'm back with you guys today with yet another blog post. 

Today I worked on the first page in my new art journal, and I was so happy with what I achieved thus far.

It's not as cool yet as it will be, but so far there's only three layers. 

It will progress.

And I'll probably share it here with you guys. :)

If you guys are wondering how I do layers,

Then ask in the comments any specific questions you have.

I'm thinking about doing a little mini series here on the blog about layering.

Let me know if you're interested.

Since there aren't that many layers in this page, then I might as well list them here.

Basically I just started with some yellow poster paint.

It's a thin paint, but makes really good glazes/washes.

I went over the entire base of the page with this color. I loved it.

It's a good base.

Next I took some primary blue tempera paint and sort of blended it into the still wet yellow background with a paintbrush.

It turned a sort of green color and blended into the rest of the page.

While that was still wet, I pressed two sheets of printer paper into the wet paint (more on that later), and pulled them up.

Then I added some stamping with a zig zag rubber stamp and some olive green paint.

I randomly put it everywhere.

I kind of like the effect that it gives the whole thing.

And HERE we have the pulled pages. 

Yep.

I made the spread above and got two extra papers from it. :)

I just think that's SO cool.

The thing is, the effect it gives the actual art journal is just amazing.

So the extra papers are just a bonus.

You could do any number of things with these papers.

You could cut them up and collage them into your work.

You may want to color copy them.

Or maybe do some sort of weird transfer thing with them.

I don't know.

ATC's would be cool too...

HEY!

If anybody's interested in doing an ATC swap, let me know. :)

I'll host.

But I need to know if there's interest. :)

So that's all I've got for you today;

Leave any comments/interest checks in the comments below.

Comments make me happy. :)

See you guys later.

Bye.

Art Journal Cover - Volume 001

Hey guys! I finally managed to get on here after a LONG day of practicing volleyball.

I literally left at 10:30 and didn't get back until 5:00.

Very tiring, but I had some time to reenergize, and now I'm on here again. ;)

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, but sometimes my Saturdays sort of slip away from me.

I keep putting stuff off because I think I'm always going to have time.

But as we all know, this certainly isn't the case.

Unfortunately.

Anyways, enough with the apologies and the comments about my social life.

Let's get down to business. 

The artsy-craftsy part. :)

You know what I'm talking about.

Today I did quite a few things.

But I'm only going to share two of those with you guys today.

The first being a journal COVER.

This is pretty different from I normally post;

I normally do art journal PAGES and maybe an altered book page.

Depending on my creative mood that day.

You know how it is.

Some days you've got it, and others you don't.

And you just have to push through. 

Anyways.

Yes. 

I have an art journal cover for you guys today.

In the past, I've actually never done fancy covers.

I generally just paint them black, and use a bright color for the spine.

It's a nice simple look, and it's fun.

But today, as I start a new art journal for a course I'm doing on Wild Precious.

I just thought it was appropriate.

Here's a picture of it a bit closer up.

For my first 'Volume' I also found it appropriate to do it in one of my fave color combos;

Turquoise, Black, and Red.

Mostly turquoise, a little bit of black, and hints of red.

I know this is a common combo.

But I love it.

It's so perfect to describe my style.

Bright and airy, yet sophisticated.

It works well in a grungy layout.

Or in a clean and simple one. That's good.

Because I do both.

This is more of a grungy cover, and I do a lot of my stuff that way.

But sometimes I do go simple.

Anyways. 

I did a lot of layering of stamping with paint on this cover.

I thought that it should be perfect because I would have to be looking at it for as long as I'm working in this journal.

Another thing about this journal is that I'm thickening the pages.

While in the past I haven't.

What I'm doing this time is gluing two pages together.

And then collaging a bunch of phone book papers on top of it.

Then add gesso.

The pages are super thick, and AMAZING texture is added.

So far I haven't worked in it yet,

But since I did some prepping I probably will soon.

The second thing I have for you guys today is an ICAD card.

I know what you guys are thinking. 

FINALLY!

I know. 

I'm totally physic. 

I'm just cool like that.

Anyways.

I did this card today using a technique that had been left in the comments section of one of my posts.

Before I go one, let me say one thing about comments.

Thank you for leaving them.

They inspire me, and I really do read EVERY SINGLE ONE.

I do a blog run through, just to see them.

Thank you. 

They are so inspiring, and if you leave me a technique to try, I WILL try it.

Try it.

Leave me a technique in the comments.

Anything. 

I will get back to you on it.

Anyways.

Back to the point at hand.

One of my viewers left me this comment, and I was so intrigued I had to try it.

Basically what you do is you take your base.

And color all over it with different color of crayons.

Be completely random.

Then paint the whole thing with black paint.

Then scrape all the paint OFF.

I used a toothpick.

And that's it.

Isn't the effect cool for such a simple technique?

I love it. :)

It almost looks neon.

And if I haven't said it on here before, I LOVE neon.

So yeah.

Anyways, that's all I've got for you guys today, and I hope to see you tomorrow!! 

Bye!!

New One on One Challenge Intro

Hey guys!! I'm back here with you guys once again with yet another post.

I've probably shared this page with you before, but I don't really care. And I haven't even added onto it yet. But I didn't really work on anything today.

Sorry about that. 

But I was so tired after I get home from school today that I didn't want to do anything.

Plus tomorrow is Saturday, and I'll have plenty of time then.

So I didn't do anything today.

I just looked through some of my journals and found this page. :)

I thought it would just be a cool page to show up above. If you know what I mean.

A post without pictures is kind of dull. 

I don't know what you guys think, but that's just my opinion. :D

So anyways, I just wanted to check in, and maybe let you know that I'm gonna be starting a new one on one challenge here. It's another color combo.

It'll be cool. :) So anyways... see you guys tomorrow. :)

ICAD Card

Hey guys. I'm back again.

And I'm using the new format again.

I like it a lot more, and it sort of makes short posts a bit longer.

It's kind of stupid, but it's true. :/

So today's post is pretty simple. It's basically just this one card. 

The reason for that being that I was gone ALL DAY today practicing my volleyball.

And then after that I had a game. So I'm sure you guys get it.

Now onto the card.

This was a really fun card to make, and it was really simple. I used a dark green paint, a light blue paint, and a bright red paint. 

I actually just dabbed it on with a paper towel.

It looked pretty cool.

Then, before the paint dried, I sprinkled on some gold glitter.

Then added the word down in the corner.

And that's it.

That's what I've got for this card.

Actually, that's all I've got for this POST. 

See you guys later. Bye.

Paper Towels and ICAD Card

Hey guys! I'm here with you guys again, and, even though today's post is a bit shorter, I'm kind of excited about it, since I pretty much love everything I'm sharing. I worked on quite a few things today, but these are the only things that I'm sharing today. 

Let's start off with the index card, shall we? I think we shall. 

Today's index card is a fun one; most of the ones I've been making are kind of bright and in your face. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that... it's just that I wanted to try something new.

You know what I mean?

Yeah. So today's index card is quite a bit different. It's darker.

The background (the initial base) is a technique that I've been working on perfecting.

I know, I know.

Another technique. You're probably sick and tired of hearing of me inventing new techniques by now.

But then again, maybe you're not. Maybe it depends on the person.

Anyways, getting back to the initial subject.

My index card background. I was working on taking some paint (I've been trying out student acrylics), and actually mixing them directly with glitter.It takes some manipulating;

But you CAN get the paint to show...

As well as having the glitter show too. It's tough though.

That's why it's a technique in process.

And not a tutorial.

Anyways. Again, getting back to the index card (Sorry about my rambling).

After that I actually went over the top of the whole card with plain black poster paint.

Then rubbed it around with my fingers. I thought it looked pretty cool.

After that I simply stamped the word "Dance" in the corner.

And colored around the edges with a glitter crayon that one of my friends sent me.

Another thing that I want to share with you guys are a few more paper towels. 

Yep.

More paper towels.

I'm sure you guys are probably sick and tired of paper towels by now as well.

Or then again, maybe you're not.

I tried a couple of the suggestions in the comments of this post.

Including one about using the paints undiluted.

And it worked like magic!!

See.

This is why I have a blog. Without you people, I wouldn't know WHAT to do.

You can see a couple of the towels I did above; 

A cool black flower with an orange and blue background. As well as some green and blue 

pieces in the back.

I think you can see them.

At least I know I can. *shrugs*

Another idea I saw in the comments was using FOOD coloring to dye the towels.

I personally thought that idea was GENIUS.

So far I haven't gotten to it, since I've been so busy with volleyball.

But I will get to it. I will. I swear.

Speaking of volleyball, my first game is actually tomorrow. Wish me luck.

I think I'll probably need it. 

Actually, if you're a reader of this blog, you'll probably notice I'm using a new format.

Do you like it?

Let me know. 

ALSO!! THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!

If YOU are interested in doing a one-on-one challenge with me,

Like I did with Dede,

Let me know in the comments. 

I'm looking for a new partner. Okay.

See you guys later. Comment away.

THE BIG ONE ON ONE CHALLENGE REVEAL!!!!

That's right my friends. I am here. For a while at least. :) And, if you look at the headline/title of today's post you'll see what's going on today. You remember about a week ago when I told you all about a challenge I was doing with the one and only Dede? Dede is pretty much a hero of mine when it comes to art, and so when she said she'd love to do a challenge with me, it made me pretty happy. :) I didn't tell you guys what the challenge was going to be, but now it's time for the REVEAL!!! Looking at the edited/words added picture above, you can see the color combo for the very first time; Navy Blue, Hot Pink, and Yellow. Now mind you, when I was DMing with Dede on twitter I picked those colors right off the top of my head, with no thoughts about how hard it would be. Dede probably came up with something totally awesome with no trouble. :)))) But I had a little difficulty with this combination for some reason. I think my problem was that my yellow kept mixing with the navy and making lime. :) But after enough layers I finally came up with this:

Yeah. I like it. A lot. It was really fun to make, and it ended up exactly as I had visioned it. Pretty much. Actually, I've been dropping a bunch of hints about this color combination. Probably about three or four. :) I wanted to see if anyone would see a pattern in my work. I would actually show some things with those colors in it. For example, I think I did an index card, a loose paper, and I told you about one of the homemade stamps I was using. You can see it as a border around the top half of the page. The journaling was just done on white cardstock with a regular sharpie. I glued it down, then ran over the top with yellow paint.

Here's that just a bit closer, and you can see some of the scattered glitter pieces around the edges of this piece. I love the way the glitter went around the page though I sort of focused it in this corner:

And here it is. :) For you followers of my blog, you may see (or at least sense) something a bit familiar in this page. If you haven't been reading my blog you probably won't. But this corner was collaged with... you might have guessed it... the paper towels I dyed a few days ago!!! Yeah. It is. Doesn't it look cool? I just loved the texture that it added, and I thought it looked pretty cool. I'm glad that I finally worked up the courage to push through and actually use one in a piece of art. If you remember, the paper towels actually looked really light in color. But what I found is that when I collaged them into my piece, they turned darker, to a hot pink. It was pretty cool. So... make sure to hop on over to Dede's blog... she'll be posting her page for our challenge after I. :) No ICAD today, but hopefully one tomorrow, when I'll see you guys again!! And that's all she wrote.

Altered Book Page + ICAD #10

Hey guys! Even though I finally managed to get on here after a full day of school and homework, today's post is going to be fairly short. I didn't have all that much time to be creative today, so the altered book page I'm showing you is from a few days ago, and the index card is actually the only thing from today. Sorry about that. Sometimes I get really caught up in work and stuff and today my teachers totally killed me with homework... so. Yeah. Anyways, let's get right to it shall we? If you look above at the first photo, you'll see an altered book spread that I've been working on. I love the way it's turning out actually, and I think it's a lot of fun to mess around with. The texture of the pages in the book I'm altering are actually quite heavy in comparison to the pages I generally work on, even though they are glossy. Sometimes the glossiness of them makes them difficult to work on, but I find it a unique challenge to work with. In my opinion, that's how I learn. If I have problems with something, just work more with it until you can figure it out. You know what I mean?

And my index card of the day. :) This is a bit of a continuation of the card I showed yesterday. That's sometimes how I work on my cards. I'll work a bit on a background, and then just layer over top of it. This card was basically composed of layers of stamping. I actually really like the way it turned out. I started out with the experimental, my own technique background, and then used a foam stamp and black paint to stamp swirls over the top. Then, over top of that I used a hand carved eraser stamp and some light teal paint. Then I collaged the word in the corner. You know the deal by now. This was pretty fun... now that I think about it, there might have been a class on 21 Secrets about layering stamping. Hmmm... I'll have to check it out. :)

Speaking of techniques though, I looked at the techniques that a couple of you guys posted for me yesterday. :) They sound so cool! I'm ready to try some experimenting now, and I'm waiting til I can find the time to do that. Also, I'm glad that I'm inspiring you all... comments make me feel that my blogging is actually worth the effort, and that there's actually a PURPOSE for me doing this. :) Now it's more than just a personal record. It's a personal record that I'm sharing with others. Also, if you're inspired by me, and you have a blog, I would LOVE it if you would post on your blog and leave a link in the comments. You don't even have to link to me. :) You just get a free linky in my comments, and I get to know that I'm giving people inspiration. :) Thanks for looking, and I'll see all of you tomorrow!

P.S. Check in tomorrow for the final reveal of my one on one challenge with the one and only DEDE! :) I'm working on putting the finishing touches on her page. :)

Collage Unleashed Progress + A Challenge!!

Hey people of earth!! I'm back in the blogosphere with another daily blog post for all of you. Today I worked a little bit in Traci Bautista's book "Collage Unleashed" and did the first project out of it. It was dyed paper towels. I'm not really sure how she gets hers to be so vibrant. Mine are always muddled and so dull. I need to experiment and try to get some better color. If any of you have any suggestions for my epic fail of paper towel dying, then I'd be happy to listen to any advice. Even if you're not sure the suggestions would work, please tell me about them in the comments, since I am always looking for new ideas. Even if it doesn't necessarily work for the original purpose that it was thought up for, with a little editing, we might have a new technique on our hands. :) That's the way I think of it.

With these paper towels I mostly worked with pinks and reds, but I used a bit of a blue and turquoise in there as well. And some metallic copper. I think my problem is that I'm using too much water. Or not enough pigment. Because you have to mix your paints with some water to make these towels. I used a bunch of acrylic paints, some sumi inks, and some watercolor paints (liquid). I love the way these turned out, but, as I said, I just wish they were more vibrant. Oh well. You win some you loose some.

Here was my basic setup/collation of supplies for this project. I just collected all the supplies that I thought I could use for this. The thing it, I always love pictures like this; you know, just a picture of the supplies, so I thought I would try one for a change. That's why I love Traci Bautista's blog so much though. Especially because of her "Snippets From the Studio" series. They are just so cool. Anyways, in this picture, I had just culled a bunch of acrylic paints, poster paints, tempera paints, higgins inks, glitters, gesso, canning jars, some syringes, and a few other things. And after I set them up I photographed them. It's as simple as that.

And here I have an index card I worked on today. I didn't finish it, but it didn't turn out half bad if I do say so myself. It's a technique that I've been experimenting with (I've been designing it myself). One of my favorite things to do actually is come up with my own techniques. It's so much fun to think of something that nobody else has ever before. You know what I mean? How about today I challenge YOU to come up with your own technique today? Post it on your blog if you have one, and link to it in the comments. I'll make sure to give it a look see. And I'll probably try out every single one in there. Let's do that! You post a link to your technique in the comments, and I'll try them out and post them as I do them! And, if you don't have a blog, then just type it out briefly in the comments section. :) So I challenge you today to post something for me. :) See you guys later.

An EXTRA-LONG Post...

Hey guys! I'm back with you guys today, and sorry I didn't post yesterday, but I had a total volleyball MARATHON yesterday!! I did create a little yesterday though, so I'll just do an extra long post today. Oh yeah. And I did join a volleyball team a few days ago. My first game is Thursday! Wish me luck, we're gonna need it. :) So anyways, now that I've got you up to date on pretty much everything else that's going on in my life (which obviously isn't much) let's get to the crafty/art version. It's like my life is in two different stories. One for art and one for the rest of everything. Anyways, let's get started.

If you look above at the page I was working on today, you'll see that I just finished a page in my art journal. :) I kind of love it, and I think it's really pretty. I'm also starting on a sort of online art journal course (yes another. :P) and I'm probably gonna make a journal for that. This is actually a page in my 21 Secrets journal, and I love the way it turned out. I journaled, and put the title down in the corner. I actually used this same word on one of my index cards that you've already seen, but this just seemed to fit the page perfectly. Normally with art journaling I end up putting the title down first and then journaling what comes to mind when I think about the title. You might do it in some other way, but that's how I work, so that's what I'm doing. :)

Here's just a bit of a close up of the title and a bit of the journaling. Most of the journaling was really light; the gray circles were really textured since I used gesso to lay them down, plus did some lifting which added even more texture. Then, when I went to write on them, the ink in my pen just didn't flow as well. But, for emphasis, I did the last few words with a Sharpie. They go over anything.

Here are my index cards from yesterday and today. I love the one from yesterday; excellent texture, and I am really loving the textures. But seriously. The second one is kind of annoying to me for some strange reason. Don't even ask me why. I feel like it's just overly simple or something. I was considering just trashing this one altogether, never showing it on the blog, and simply counting this as one of the five "free days" we get for ICAD. But when I really started to think about it, I finally decided against it, since this is really about creating, and just having fun. And I did have fun. So that's what I'm doing, and I'm keeping it. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Also, today, I worked on making some of my own stamps. I've been having a whole lot of fun making these recently, and I just love the way these two turned out. To make them, I simply cut some pieces out of cardboard (it was actually just a cereal box) and then did some punching on some craft foam. The one on the left was REALLY easy to make, and really quick. The one on the right took a bit longer, but I really love the effect I get with it so it was totally worth it. I love the variety I can get with making my own stamps. I love that I can literally make anything that I want, and it can be as epic as I want it to be. It's really cool. So far I normally just use black paint to stamp, but I've occasionally used other colors. I also used one of these (I'm not going to mention which) on my page for mine and Dede's challenge. I know that I'm torturing you here, but that's all the more reason to check in here on Tuesday, right?

One last thing before I go. This is a single, loose page that I've been working on for a bit of collage fodder. I love the way this turned out, even though it was just made by picking up paint from other pages (you can see the lifting from the circles of the page I showed at the top of this post :P) and a bunch of other colors I've just been messing around with. I love them so much. :) So that's pretty much all I've got for you today, but be sure to check in tomorrow. Okay? Okay. See you guys later! Bye!!

ICAD #7 + Cool Background

Hello my friends!! I'm here once again. I'm glad to be back after another long day. This really relaxed me. Just plain old writing about something I enjoy. You know what I mean? It's nice to actually have something fun that you can do. I decided to try something new today; working on a piece of photo paper instead of plain cardstock or paper. I was playing around, and trying to come up with new techniques, and I thought it would be interesting. It did come out pretty cool. I started with gray and added a dark green on top of it. I lifted some off and added a bunch of other stuff on top of it. It turned out really nice.

Something else that I promised I'd show you guys today was the lifting from the index card from yesterday. It's shown above. Doesn't it look cool? I love it! Actually, I love it so much that I used it for today's ICAD card.

And here it is! It was so decorative that it just needed a word. I chose this orange one because it seemed to fit well enough. But, as an advantage, I just thought it looked cooler this way. :) That's all I've got for you today, but I'll see you guys tomorrow. :)

ICAD #6 + Background Tutorial

Hey guys!! I'm here. Once again. :) Yes. I'm so happy. :) Today I've got a really cool thing to share with you. I was working on an index card today, and came up with this technique, so I decided to share it with you guys. You know how I was telling you about "lifting" paint onto cards? Well I started with one of those today, with a dark blue background. You can see how cool this looks so far.

Now I just used some yellow poster paint and totally covered the entire background. I coated it on there pretty heavily. It looked green instead of blue for a second, but I take care of this in the next step. I love it so much.

You simply take another card and place that down on top and lift it again. So see what I've got? Two backgrounds already. :)

And for this finished card, I took the yellow and blue card and painted blue all over the top of the card, and lifted once again. The other one looks pretty cool too; the one I used to lift it off. Then I simply collaged the piece down in the corner. I'll show you the lifted piece tomorrow. :) I was also working on some backgrounds and stuff for my color challenge with Dede. I'm so excited for that. :) Working it to the extreme. :) And that's all I've got for the day. See you guys tomorrow. :)

Paper Beads and ICAD #5

And I'm back with you crazy people again. :P Just kidding, I'm sure I'm probably crazier than all of you combined. :) Today I have another index card (this time one of my favorites of all time) and a note about paper beads. Again. :) Let's start with the index car, shall we? Lets. If you look at the picture above, you can see the index card that I pretty much just finished. I really love the way this one looks, and the style itself really reminds me of Traci Bautista, who is pretty much one of my favorite artists of all time. This is probably one of my simplest cards yet. I started with a plain old card, and then I put down a layer of yellow acrylic paint. While it was still wet, I put down some light teal in the extra places, and then blended it into the rest of the card. The technique I used was actually inspired by the GPP Street Team crusade this month. I'll probably be working on it some more, so this isn't my official challenge entry. :)

But anyways, the way the technique works is you take a stamp after blending the background, and apply the same two colors you used for the background to the stamp. Then you just stamp it over the background. It creates a really cool effect, since the color disappears in some places, and is more vibrant in others. That was the whole background.  Very easy. Then, I simply added a strip of paper across the whole card (another piece cut from a color copy of my work; let me know in the comments what you think of a series on finding collage fodder) and then added the words that I cut out of a magazine. Yesterday it was 'More' and now it's 'More Power'. Pretty much the same thing, but at least I know what I'm thinking about I guess. :/

And here's a really cool picture that I took of my general working area when I'm making beads. I use my pallet to put glue in, and put beads wherever I can as I make them. All the beads I'd shown you before had been made on a small needle, but I decided to see what the difference would be if I tried using toothpicks. So far I like the way it's been working out; they're easier to work with compared to a needle, since they're that much thicker around, but they're still a reasonably thin hole so beads probably wouldn't fall through if I tried to string them with something else. Now that I think about it, seed beads might, but I'd just have to remember to put a larger bead right next to it. Some creative stringing, that's all I can say. We'll see how this goes.

One note; I'm sorry about the quality of the pictures lately; I've been using the camera on my phone, because during the move my camera cord sort of went missing. Plus I think I lost my SD card. After I find those things, the quality of the pics will probably improve. But in my mind, I'm thinking that some poor quality pictures is better than nothing right? Plus, it's not that bad until you enlarge them. :) So that's all I've got for you guys today; wish me luck for my Drama class at school tomorrow; I have to read a two minute piece in an accent. I chose a british accent, but I'm just hoping I don't crack up while I'm doing it. But I have been told I do a mean british accent. :) Anyways, wish me luck and I'll see you guys tomorrow!! Bye!