ICAD Update

Hey guys. Sorry for the missing post yesterday; since I'm a bit OCD, I may go back and fill that gap in. But, some of you who follow me on twitter will know that I wasn't feeling all that good. I just wanted to go to bed. I did the art, just didn't feel like blogging about it. Today I would like to share with you guys a couple ICAD cards that I did. Tomorrow I will be back with you guys with my 30-30-30 challenge; the very final pages. And I'll probably do some collective photos as well.

These two ICADs I did are extremely similar to one another. This is the one that I did first; yesterday. The following card was inspired by it, since I became so fond of it. It was composed of several layers of patterned paper; the bottom, thicker scrap was sent to me in a RAK. The thinner strip layered on top of it is actually a photocopy of one of my art journal pages that I cut up to use in other art pieces. And other art pages as well. Then there's the photo that was printed off of a collage sheet on the internet. And a definition that I cut out of a dictionary page. And, of course, the background was stamped. I used a clear stamp with a dark red ink pad.

Like I said above, this ICAD was inspired by the one above. Even though I'm not quite as fond of it as I am that one, I do still enjoy the look of this one.

It was assembled in very much the same way as the first. Simple layers of paper and images printed off of the computer. I would have much rather used my own images, but I haven't yet gotten to the point where I have them readily available, just at my fingertips. That's what I'm planning on doing the next couple of days, in addition to my color challenge that I am working on, and my other challenges. Getting some nice drawings and things under my belt that I can resize to use again and again. We'll see. I want to do some black and white and some color. I don't know exactly where I want to go with it yet, either. However, I do know what else I need to work on. Summer of Color. I'll probably do that tomorrow too.

Art/Challenge Updates

Today I found the art a little bit harder than I have in the past. Whatever I tried to make didn't really turn out the way that I wanted it to, and I had a bunch of other chores and stuff that I had to do. So I didn't have a whole lot of time to do all that I wanted to do. So it just turned out pretty bad. I hope that tomorrow goes a little bit better for me. 

Here is my 30-30-30 page for today. I really liked the way that this page turned out. This is really the one thing that I do like. The rest of the stuff I made, I wasn't all that fond of. But that's okay. I need to learn to be okay with the stuff that I do. It's okay. If I mess up on something, or don't like it, that's okay. I need to learn that.

Here is my ICAD for today. I didn't use a prompt for this one; I haven't been for the past few days. I think that it is almost forcing me to be more creative in a way. Which is a good thing. In my opinion. Even though I'm not completely fond of the way that this looks, I do like the techniques that I used to get myself to this point.

And lastly we have my In The Sun page. I don't like this page. At all. And it seems that these pages are getting worse and worse. I don't know why. I liked the first few things that I did for this art journal, but they just seem to be getting worse to me. Anyways, the prompt was more of a question. Natalie asked us: When you go outside, what do you do? For me, the answer is obviously basketball. I wish the page would have turned out better. Because that's one of my favorite topics. Anyways. I'll see you guys tomorrow.

6.25.2012 Art/Challenge Updates

 

Hello everyone out there in the blogosphere. Whether your day has been going good or not so good, I send kind greetings your way. Sometimes just that can make or break a day. I hope to make yours. :)

So today, I have for you guys a bunch of new art. I was experimenting with quite a few different things today, and I'm glad that I'm going to be able to share it with you! I'm going to start us off with Day 16 of my 30-30-30 Challenge. I love this page, quite honestly, even though it's quite a bit different than what I'm used to. You guys know me and my style; I tend to go for the brighter, bolder colors, or anything that would make a statement. However, with this page I decided to go with muted tones.

I used the same graphic circles that I've been using in a lot of my art lately, and that kind of ties it together, and marks it as my own. At least I believe that it does. However, I do know something else; my style is really, quite frankly, undefinable. At least I believe it to be so. There are so many different elements to my style; so many different things that make me, ME, that it's almost impossible to say.

Another thing that I worked on today was a page in my In The Sun journal. This little homemade book is slowly but surely working it's way up to becoming a full journal. I made this journal out of 5 separate signatures, and I'm about halfway through the first. I'm not exactly sure how much of this journal I'm going to fill up, but I may even continue into fall, adding a separate page for that season as well. Since it says 'Summer 2012' right on the front cover, I would probably have to do another divider page. Which honestly wouldn't be too hard to do.

This is the title of the page today; I cut out the letters from a photograph, after being prompted to do so by Natalie by the prompts. I love the way that she has been setting up this course, and, once more, I am highly appreciative to her for doing what it is that she is doing. I might have to find me some more challenges to do, once summer is up. Or maybe I'll just have to start one of my own. For fall. We'll see. I'd have to come up with some ideas before that could happen.

And HERE is my Week 3 entry for the Summer of Color Challenge 2012. The ice cream flavor this week was composed of the colors white, raspberry, and a light/medium tan. This little batch of papers is what I was able to take from that. These papers had a little bit of better flow, than did the Mint Chocolate Chip ones, and I think I might have enjoyed working on them a bit more. I'm not sure why, but sometimes I just feel that way. I think that I'm going to have to find something to do with all of these papers after this summer challenge is over; maybe that could be part of my personal challenge; finding something to use them all up. I'm starting to get a little bit of an idea here. ;)

And finally, I give you my ICAD. This was based around the weekly prompt: 'Use a Fortune From a Fortune Cookie on Your Card." This is what I came up with. Something extremely simple, that is composed of the minimum amount of pieces that I could use. I like simplifying for these cards. I find it makes it a bit easier to work with them, and I think it looks nice. Minimalism is cool. I was even considering leaving out the number strip, but I decided that it looked better with it. I think that it grounds it a bit.

Well. That would be all that I have for you guys today, even though I have been working on other stuff. Like my things for my one-on-one challenge with Barbara, and some stuff for my e-course that I'm trying to design. I might have some more information about that up sometime; start saving your money, it's going to be good. ;)

I'll see you guys tomorrow! Bye!

30-30-30 Challenge, and ICAD #24

Hey guys. It's Jordan. I know that you guys probably figure that by now, but I just thought I'd tell you anyways. That way you know I wasn't hacked or anything like that. Anyways. Sorry for the late post. I really hate getting them to you like this, but I do what I have to do. Today we watched a movie. Together. As a family. And I couldn't just bail so that I could write on my blog. Sometimes it stinks being busy. Plus, I tried to do this earlier, before the movie, but the power was out. As was the internet. So I was completely and totally helpless.

Anyways. I present you with my 30-30-30 page of the day. As of today, I am officially half of the way through the challenge. And it HAS been an adventure, I'll tell you that much. I love the way today's page turned out; I really think that it expresses who I am as an artist. Not all bright colors and fun and games. Though the topic of the page is rather lighthearted. 

And here is my ICAD. My 24th card. Can you believe that? It's crazy. Honestly, it is. It doesn't feel like that long to me for some reason. Even though the challenge has definitely had it's ups and downs, I feel like it's been enjoyable to me overall. 

But more on the topic of this card; I didn't use a prompt today. Can you believe that? I don't know if I can, to be honest with you. It's pretty crazy. I haven't done that. But I do like the way it turned out, so I don't really mind. Anyways. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Hopefully a little earlier.

6.19.2012 Project Updates

Hello my friends. How are all of you doing today? I hope good. Me? Why thank you for asking. I'm doing fine. In fact, I'm doing a little more than fine. I've been having a ton of fun with my art today, and I love the way each and every one of my projects turned out. Normally when I do this much work at a time, I come up with at least one thing that I'm not all that fond of. Today I didn't experience that. Today I experienced nothing but nice stuff. :) It made me extremely happy, and hopefully that continues on tomorrow.

I even went outside and played basketball today; I sweated up a storm. The back of my shirt was soaked through. And I was shocked. Because that had never happened before. But, a quick search on google told me that this means that I'm getting into better shape. And I'm so glad! Earlier this year when I was playing volleyball, I was the most out of shape person that you ever saw. But I'm getting better. And my stamina is up too!

Anyways, let's get back to the project now, shall we? This is my 30-30-30 challenge page for today. I feel great about it too. Sometimes the mistakes though, are the things that really improve a page. For example, take the picture above. You see the red circle covering up this model's face? I wasn't planning on doing that. Not at all. But when I was working in this corner, I accidentally rubbed through her face. So I had to cover it up. And this is what I came up with. I love the way it turned out, and I think that it gives it a layer of depth that wasn't there before.

Also, I've really been enjoying journaling on these pages. I don't know if I've mentioned that before. AND!! I just realized earlier today, when I was working on this page, that this is my 10th page! That means that today marks the 1/3 point of the 30-30-30 challenge! I've really enjoyed the flexibility that it's given me as an artist, and feel that it's really given me a chance to grow. Which I love.

Now let's move on to the ICAD. This is ICAD #19. I based this card around the prompt 'hidden message'. I know that you can't see it. But that's the point. I started this card out with writing a message to myself. And then I covered it up. Nobody knows what it says but me. Because I took a picture. Now I won't forget.

I love the texture that I was able to achieve with this card though. I scratched some lines into it with a pallet knife, and did a bunch of layers with different types of medium so that I would be able to get a very layered effect. I'm loving the green. I don't work with green as much as maybe I should. I love it as a color. Of course, I pretty much like all colors, so...

On the note of color, let's move to my In The Sun spread for today. I don't know what made me want to do a spread today. But I just thought that I should go for it. The prompt for today was to write about  which goals you would have liked to accomplish by the end of summer. I came up with three in particular.

Then, the technique part of the prompt told us to write our title with paint, and then outline it with pen in order for it to be able to stand out. I love the way that this looks. Honestly. I feel like it's so me. That's the cool thing about all of these prompts that I've been working with as of late. I find new things that are my style, that I wasn't even aware existed, or I just didn't think about it.

Here's a close up of one of the goals I would like to have achieved by the end of summer. Of course it's basketball related. My dad says I'm obsessed. I like to think of it as a healthy habit that I am trying to form to get myself into shape. Plus, it makes me feel good. Gets all of my energy out, as well as some of the pent up anger and emotions. Art gets out the rest.

And, as a final goodbye, here is a card that I made today, for my mom to send to my grandpa for father's day. It's a little bit late, but she wanted to make sure that she got something to him. This is what I came up with. I used the prompt from 365 Cards for today, which I like to do every now and again. I was thinking today though; they would probably make pretty cool art journal prompts. Huh.

Anyways. I'll talk to you guys later, and hope you guys have a good rest of the night!

Merged Challenges and ICAD 15

Hey guys! I'm here with some more art for you all today. Although we do have a little bit of a situation.  Today, some company from Ohio arrived to come and stay with us for a while. But I wasn't able to finish everything for the challenges. Because I was doing other stuff in order to get ready, and then, when they got here, I was talking to them, then playing games. So I decided to merge a couple of things today. I mixed my 30-30-30 challenge with my In The Sun journal. I thought that it would be an effective way to proceed with the projects without falling behind, but drastically cut down on the amount of time.

So that's what I decided to do. If I find enough time tomorrow, I will most definitely make an extra page for the 30-30-30 challenge. Because I'm just that OCD. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if the finished book for 30-30-30 only had 29 pages. It would be too stressful. I know, it's bad, but that's one of my OCD tendencies kicking in here.

BUT I do really love the way the page turned out. The challenge for In The Sun today was to find a summer motif, that you believed kept popping up. For me, it was butterflies. I've been seeing a lot of them this summer, and it really stood out to me. Plus, when I was in Costa Rica, I saw a bunch of really sweet butterflies. Rare ones too. So I've just been really into them since then.

For my ICAD today, I used one of the brand new prompts that Tammy posted up on the blog today. I find myself looking forward to these new lists every week, as I think that they are really inspiring me as to where I want to go with my art. Today, the prompt I chose was to do a word map of the color blue. Now blue is my favorite color, so I thought that it was kind of funny the places that it ends up going (inside jokes that I have with my friends and such).

So that's all I have for you guys today, and I hope to be back tomorrow. Adios.

"Well Rounded" and ICAD #5: Grid

Hey guys! I've got something just a little bit different for you today. A little. Not much. But a little. Today I mixed my prompt from the 5,000 Question Survey with another challenge at Balzer Designs. I loved the difficulty of this challenge, I really did. But I'll get to that in a moment. Let's focus on the prompt first and foremost.

My question today asked me what it was that I did with a rainy day. Well, I figured that there were several ways that this question could have been interpreted, but I decided to go with the firs thing that came to my mind, which was the literal version. What I literally do when it's raining. I listed a whole bunch of things in my base layer of journaling, but simplified it a lot when it came to the journaling on the actual page. That's partially because the base layer of journaling is more personal, while the journaling on the face of the project isn't so much. Which I like. It gives the whole thing more depth.

As you can see, I did a bunch of layering with a few different kinds of papers on this page; this is something that I tend to do on occasion, and will sometimes even force myself to do, because I honestly feel as if I need to do something at least a little bit different. Even if it is just doing a little bit of collage work instead of the paint stuff I normally do.

And that, in and of itself, is part of the challenge located right now at Balzer Designs. The challenge is called The Second Floor Challenge, and they are currently on their fifth one. I haven't been working on art journaling since they started them really, so that's why I'm just joining in now. The Second Floor Challenges are all about stepping outside of your comfort zone. And I did that with the collage.

The second part of the challenge is the actual "prompt" part. This one focused on found objects. I used a piece of paper from one of those bank account books; not the check ones, but the ones that come with a basic savings account. I used it for the space for my journaling on this page. That, combined with the collage, makes up my experimentation for this challenge.

The second thing that I want to share with you guys today is, of course, my daily ICAD. I've loved working on these; I think that they are really a good type of warm up to do before starting in my art journal, or even a good cool down afterwards. It's almost like stretching for art. :)

I based today's ICAD around the "grid" prompt. I've been loving using the prompts. It's been giving me a good amount of inspiration to use, and I love the way that they're affecting my art. They push me a little, which I love. Gives me new ideas. New things to try. It's cool.

I loved the colors of today's card as well. I don't really know where they came from. I was just looking at some of my paints and pulled these two out of the abyss. Sometimes that's where the best art comes from; the places where you aren't even aware of what you're doing! 

So that's all I have for you guys today, and I'll talk to you tomorrow!

Linky Monday #4

Hello all! I'm back with all of you again with another Linky Monday. Be prepared; I have even more links than last week, if that's even possible. I don't know exactly how many I actually have, but I do know it's a lot. I hope you guys like visiting around; I know I do!! Let's get started then, shall we?

An excellent post/tutorial on doodling on fabric. It's really cool.

Painting/creating your own fabric. This one's pretty sweet too.

Another really cool looking ATC. I love looking at pics of these, and I love this one!!

A really nice post simply full of art journal and scrapbook pages. They are all so inspirational!!

Another dyed fabric post. Oddly enough I've never dyed fabric.

An AMAZING artist's studio. I'm sitting here drooling in my seat right now.

Some experimental art journal pages that Eveline is doing to go along with a free e-course. I'm considering joining.

Some more ATCs. Stunning.

A really pretty art journal page. I love it. Simply love it.

How CUTE are these hand carved house stamps?? Simply adorable, that's how much.

Hand painted faces. I love these. They're so cool!

This is a really cool scrapbook page. Normally I'm not that into scrapbooking anymore, but this one I'm totally loving!! More collage like.

Uhhh yeah. Cute doodled robots alert!! I love 'em. I wish I could draw 'em.

Finished art journals. You gotta love them. Too bad I haven't finished one yet.

How cool is this?? I love finding creative ways to fix mistakes!!

Weekly zentangling challenges. Cool.

First off, he's a guy who quilts. And if that wasn't cool enough, the blocks are to die for!!

A certain type of pen review. For getting words on dark backgrounds.

So that's today's post. I hope you guys enjoyed visiting all those links I had for you today! :)

NOTE:: I know the journal page shown above I've already shown you. Sorry about that. But technically I can't do much about it. :)

One last thing before i leave however; I've decided to host a free art journaling class/course for all you creative people out there! It's going to be called Paint, Stitch, Play and it's going to be all about experimenting in your journals and learning not to be afraid to just let loose and create in your journals!! There will be prompts galore!! More to come!! Talk to you guys later!!

Trash Bag Fashion

Okay, so I know that this episode of Project Runway is an old one, but when I came across this picture from the show, my jaw literally hit the floor. And really, i don't think that I've found it since. If you haven't seen the show, or you don't want a spoiler, then you should probably leave now (I hope you don't though). But this look was made COMPLETELY from black trash bags and blue masking tape. I was amazed when I saw this. Like I've said before. This was absolute genius on the designer's part. And let's just say I was a little more than inspired. Seeing this made me want to make clothes even more; I've only done four or so pieces, but I'm already feeling like I should be better. (That's just my personality I guess. Hopping right into things without thinking. Ha.)

But anyways; any of you that have been with me for any extended period of time know what I'm about to suggest. I'm going to start a new personal challenge. I love this idea though. I'm going to work my way through ALL the project runway challenges. It will encourage me to mess around with different techniques and possibilities as well as challenging my creative side to think up fresh, new ideas. The first ever challenge on Project Runway was to make an outfit using only things you could find at a grocery store. So I'm going to steal the idea from above (of course. That's typical and CERTAINLY not expected) and use trash bags to create a faux leather effect. But mine's going to be much different. Stay tuned for more updates to come!

Knitting! (And Some Paper Crafts Too!)

Hey everyone! I'm back with you guys again with another post. Today's card was for an accordion fold challenge on 365 Cards. I decided to keep it simple in this one. As I was working on it, I had other things planned, but as I put the butterfly on, I realized it actually looked best this way. I really like it. It's not common for me to be this simple in my work, so when it does happen, it happens every now and again.

See, here's a slight example of this difference. You have the very simple example of the previous card, and then a page that I was working on today - it's very different. It's actually very dark compared to the card as well, as you can probably see. I used a bunch of different stuff on it, and it was pretty fun to make.

Here's a more close up of the title as well. I really like how the black letters are so different from the 'e'. I'm pretty sure that I just ran out of the black letters, but I think that it sort of makes sense with the whole theme of the page. You know; how my style is so unique. It's just like that.

Something else that I've been working on is how I could actually make my own type of yarn. I just mixed a bunch of colors, textures, and types of yarn. I like how it looks, and I know that it could be used in many different projects. I'm thinking of knitting and crochet first off. I like the knitting aspect of it. That however, is probably because I've been really been into knitting lately. I don't know why, but I just think that it's a bit more calming and relaxing than crochet. Many crochet patterns are a lot more complex than in knitting, and in crochet there are DOZENS of different stitches, while in knitting, there are only two different stitches; knit and purl.

What you do is mix the two stitches. There are about a million different ways to do that, and you can do lots of things; such as cables, squares, triangles, and other things. It's known as a magic ball.

Here's more of a close up of the different textures in the yarn. I'm considering selling this yarn; how much would you suggest putting in a single skein, and how much would you pay for something like this? I'm just wondering... maybe I'll work up a swatch in this so you could see sort of you it works up.

One more thing that I've been working with - knitting with fibers. You know, the fuzzy yarns and such. It's such a pleasure to work with, even though it does get difficult in some places, and slightly bulky in others. You can sort of see where I switched from the stockinette stitch to the garter stitch. I've just been messing around with it. *shrugs*. I dunno. I just think it's sort of fun. Experiment. And play. Try it.

Art Never Ceases to Amaze Me

The title says it all. Art never ceases to amaze me. Never had and never will. It seems that the more I work at it; improving my technique and have fun messing around with paint and supplies... the more things happen. Good things. The feeling of freedom you get when you accomplish something. The accomplishment you have when you finish something. The pleasure of browsing through an old art journal and seeing the progress. Page by page. It all comes together and you can see your art journey to where you are today.

The page above is probably one of my very favorite pages I've EVER made. It's also the most recent. You think about that for a minute. It seems that almost every time I create a new page, that is officially my new favorite. It's art. And art never ceases to amaze me.

Take today's daily card for example. If you look back to when i first started up making my cards only a week or two ago, they didn't look too good. They weren't very enjoyable for me to look at, since every time I saw them I was reminded of how much I hated them. But now you can see I like them better. As you work at it, you gain more confidence in your work, and will enjoy working with the materials more than you quite care about the finished project. And sometimes... sometimes what looks like something normal - like the card above for example. Well...

It's not very normal at all.

A Monochromatic Card....

Hey everybody!! Though I'm still playing a bit of catch up, this post may (or may not) be a little bit longer than the last post since I have very strong emotions attached to this page. This is, I think, the second time that I've actually emotionally connected to my pages. I had just gotten into a BIG fight with one of my brothers. It was horrible - a very bad experience, especially on my part.

But you see, in the end we made up and everything was good again. So I made this page as a representation of that. My favorite color is blue and his is red - when I scraped these colors together onto the page, it was a sort of literal representation of our differences being put aside; actually mixing even; into an entirely new color - purple!! I really like how it turned out, and I did a bunch of journaling on it. I'm still trying to think of the perfect title.

Here's another, more full, straight on view. I actually think that the colors are a bit more true in this photograph than the other, though they aren't THAT different. That's something else that I have trouble with; getting my colors true to life. I know it's never possible to get them perfect, but I'd like them to at least RESEMBLE the real colors. :P If anybody has any tips, that'd be cool...

And last but not least, a card for today's 365 Cards challenge. The challenge was to put color on your image in 5 different ways. I got my 5 colors on the first, upside down tear shaped bulb. From top to bottom, they are: gel pen, colored pencil, acrylic paint, markers, and glitter glue. The other bulb was simply colored in with gel pens and markers. I hope you like it, and have a good day!!