ICAD Update: Cards 50 - 51

Hey guys! What's going on? I'm here with a couple of ICAD cards for you guys today, and I hope you enjoy. They're really just some more zentangling ICADs that I was working on as part of a "series" of sorts. I wanted to try out my new papermate pens on something (I got 4 new colors) but I didn't know what. So I decided to do something with my ICAD cards. I had done the zentangling before, but not in color. So I decide to try it. This green one is from a couple of days ago.

This purple one was from just yesterday. I actually really love the way that this turned out. The thing with zentangling, at least for me, is that I will often times run out of patterns to use on the cards themselves. I just can't think of any more. It's a rather difficult dilemma. I know that I could simply go online and search google for some ideas, coming up with literally thousands of patterns in the process. However, when I'm right in the middle of something, I find it rather difficult to do so. To tear away from the work that I am doing right at that moment. So maybe, not that I'm really thinking about it, what I should really do is to look ahead of time, before I start my doodling. Maybe it'll help a little. Maybe it'll generate some more ideas. Maybe.

Anyways. That's all I have for you guys today; I'm considering popping in tomorrow with a tutorial for all of you. We'll see. We will see. See you then!

Summer of Color 2012: Week 6 + Challenge Announcement

Okay all. I have something pretty cool to share with you guys today. At least I think it's cool. Though I am biased. It is my work, after all. Anyways, I am presenting to you, today, Week 6 of the Summer of Color 2012, in which the colors were a pink and a black or dark brown. I used some of both. An extremely dark brown. Again, I made my painted papers, as I did in the past, this time creating a total of eight. I had it worked out in such a way that I would be able to come out, in the very end, with a total of 40 painted papers. And I achieved that goal effectively. I have decided, somewhere in the middle of this challenge that I was going to add onto this challenge on my own time, and I will actually be inviting you guys to participate in it as well. But I will discuss that later on in this post, after the reveal of all the papers I completed for this challenge in the past 6 weeks.

Let's get started now, shall we? Okay. I had quite a few ideas for these papers this week, which made them go so much faster. It was nice to not be struggling to figure out what I wanted to do with the blank pieces of paper I had staring at me. The two above each started with a watercolor wash background; the one on the left with black, and the one on the right with pink. I added acrylic and watercolor paints as another layer on top of the background to create the effects shown. Also, with the stars, I outlined the pink stars with an oil pastel (non water-soulable).

These papers were very simple to complete. Each only consisted of two layers each. The one on the left, I started with an acrylic paint wash over the entire background, to create a vibrant, but not TOO vibrant color. Then, I used some black acrylic to paint the lines and squares over the entire page. I've done things similar to this on art journal pages before, so I just thought it would be fun to play around with. With the page on the right, I used a dark brown watercolor paint (extremely watered down) for the background. Then I took some bubble wrap and stamped with pink acrylic paint over the entire page. And that was that.

These pages were fairly simple as well. The one on the left is simply composed of layers of watercolor paint on top of each other. The one on the right is a bit more complex, though not a whole lot. I started off the page with a white roseart crayon. Then I used it to draw circles all over the entire page. I didn't really pay too much attention to where I was putting the circles, as I couldn't see them that well anyways. Though, I did do my best to cover the entire page with these circles. Then I used black and pink watercolors over the entire page to resist the crayon.

Here, the page on the right also uses a crayon resist, though I used a black crayon that I could actually see. I drew a bunch of little black dots all over the page, then used an acrylic wash to resist the color. Out of all the papers that I made today, this has got to be the one that I am the least fond of. However, that's okay. It's not too bad. The paper on the right was extremely easy. Just alternating stripes of black and pink watercolors. And that was that. Technically only one layer. But I love this one layer. It's just cool.

Now, before I actually get to the challenge that I'm going to be announcing, I would like to share with you one picture that sort of reviews all of the papers that I made this past 6 weeks. I separated them into their specific weeks, but other than that, they are in no particular order. When they are all stacked, I came up with a stack that's a bit more than an inch in height. That makes me proud. I can see that I have actually accomplished something. And it's crazy, because this is actually my second challenge that I have completed this summer. Last summer I started a whole bunch of challenges, but didn't complete anything. Sadly. However, this is my SECOND completion (the first, of course, being my 30-30-30 challenge, though I'm still trying to decide what to do with those loose pages) and I am expecting to have two more at the end of the month. :) And perhaps some more next month. It just makes you feel so completed, you know what I mean?

Anyways, moving on, let's get to the challenge itself that I am presenting all of you faithful viewers of my blog. First off, I thank you for being here for my first challenge I am presenting to you guys. It means a lot to me. So here we go. The challenge that I am presenting you guys with is the "Limited Supply Challenge". I know that it doesn't have a big fancy challenge name or anything like that, but that's okay, in my opinion. It's realistic. It's real. And that's what I like. This challenge actually developed from my desire of wanting to do something with the increasing stacks of papers that I was creating in my studio, and also wanting to have a purpose for my Summer of Color papers; you know; the ones I just showed you. So that's what this challenge is going to be about. Using up all of the painted papers that we have created. And, if you don't have any papers yet in your collection, don't worry. You still have some time to prepare. And actually, they don't even have to be hand painted.

They can be anything that you want them to be. However, I am going to set a rule. I want these papers to 8 1/2" x 11". If you want to use scrapbooking papers (which is fine, by the way), I would prefer it if you would trim them down to that size. The reason for this being that I don't want anybody to have any more or less material than anybody else. So here's the deal. We are going to make as many art journal pages, ATCs, mini book pages, scrapbook pages, collages; WHATEVER. We are going to make as many projects as we can with these papers that we select until EVERY SINGLE SCRAP of paper is gone. I know that sounds like a lofty goal, but doesn't it sound fun?

Here's the deal. These are the supplies you are allowed:

1. 40 sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 printed/painted/collected paper. 

In 6 color schemes. 

5 of the first two.

 6 of the third. 

And 8 of each of the last 3.

2. 5 paint colors. These can be any kind that you like.

I recommend red, blue, yellow, white and black.

Because I am graciously allowing you to mix your colors. ;)

Also, if you would prefer anything else (colored pencils, oil pastels, crayons, etc) because that is the medium you work in, feel free to substitute paint with that supply.

But you can still only have 5.

3. A journal. Or canvas'. Or blank sheets of paper.

In other words, any surface that you want to work on. I am not limiting you at all in this aspect. Not a bit. You can do what you like here.

4. 15 Texture stamps.

This can be anything you want. They can all be collected stamps if you want.

Bubble wrap.

Mesh from an old window screen.

A sponge.

Or stamps you bought. But 15.

Of course, if you don't want to use stamps, you don't have to.

5. Any other BASIC supplies.

i.e. scissors, glue, pencils, pens, white copy paper, etc.

But that is all.

And that's the challenge!! Limited supplies. To use up a total of 40 papers. Who's going to join me? I believe that I will start the challenge on the first of next month. Are you guys ready for this? Do you want to join me?

In the Sun Class Pages

Hello all of my artsy friends! Hope you guys all had a fun, art filled day. I know I did. Today I would like to share with you guys some pages from my In the Sun art journal class. I've been having a lot of fun with these pages, though I have been falling a bit behind lately. Today I just took some time to catch up. I'm not completely caught up yet, but that's okay. I've also been skipping around with them lately. Doing the pages that I'm inspired to do right then and there. And it's really been turning out nicely. Today I have three pages to share with you guys. And I'll probably work some more on this journal tomorrow.

The first page though, that I would like to share with you guys is a page about my favorite snack for the summer. Now this, for me, is almost impossible to decided upon, since I do have such a passionate love for food. It's ridiculous. But I have a tie between watermelon and ice cream. Since I was sure that a lot of people would say ice cream (not that it matters; if it's my favorite, it's my favorite), I decided to go with the watermelon. Plus, I just wanted to play around with the colors and see what became of it.

The next page that I would like to share with you guys is this fireworks page. This is an extremely simple page, in comparison to some of the pages that I have done in this journal in the past. I took the painted paper background, which in and of itself was fairly simple (just white crayon and watercolors), and then added splatters of paint in two colors. That was the prompt. To make splatters of paint to represent fireworks. Then I added the title.

And, of course, added a border around the page with a marker. And that was that. It was finished. I love the way this page turned out though. I think, as simple as it is, it really represents me. Although it might be in a different way than I would normally expect.

The third and final page that I would like to share with you guys today is this one; the prompt was to  create a journal page about your greatest weakness. This was difficult for me, as I do not generally like to put my fears or weaknesses on paper where I can see them. I like to confront them in private, and work through them. But I don't generally like to talk about them.

Also, the background was part of the prompt. I drew the diamonds with a sharpie onto the background, and filled in the spaces with paint. I REALLY like the way that this page turned out. As simple as it is. It is one of my favorite pages in this whole journal. The more I look at it, the more I like it. I just think that the colors really work well together, and that was nice to see, since I really just picked random colors of paint off of my desk. 

I would like to say one more thing however. I had a thought last night, as I was trying to get to sleep. I know that the Olympics are coming extremely quickly (they start on July 27th; I'm SO excited!), and was wondering if any of you guys would be interested in an Olympics oriented challenge. I know that is extremely confined in the overall idea, but if there is interest, I will start to develop the idea. There would probably be a prompt a day, as well as some art journal pages that were inspired by it. And maybe something where you can link up your pages. I would totally love to do something like that. Let me know! Yes or no? It would be greatly appreciated.

Well. That's what I have for you guys today. Tomorrow I think that I would like to share with you guys a 31 Hearts post, even though I'm not quite so sure about that yet. Anyways. I'll talk to you guys then. And I hope you guys have a good rest of the day, and a good day tomorrow!

Summer of Color 2012: Week 5

Hey guys! How's it going for all of you guys out in blogland today? I hope it's been going pretty good. I managed to sit down today, and do a TON of art. It felt good too, to churn out so many different projects. However, I only have a couple of things that I really want to share with you guys today. First and foremost, we are going to have my Summer of Color papers. For this challenge I have been doing a small batch of painted papers for each week. This week was purple, blue, and green. I love the way that these papers turned out, and am looking forward to doing the final week. It'll be pretty cool. After that's done though, I'll be ready to start my next project, using these papers. And I think that it's going to be pretty cool.

For the papers today, I used mostly watercolors on a plain copy paper background. It was easy to do, and quite enjoyable, in my personal opinion. I just got to experiment with shapes, and the way that the different colors blended together.

Here's the second part of the challenge. Again with the watercolors. In the past, I've mixed up a batch of acrylic paints and whipped together some papers, and then mixed the acrylics with watercolors and washes. But this time I really wanted to go simple. And back to the basics of simple watercolor.

The other thing that I wanted to share with you guys today is this art journal that I recently started working in. I was considering using this journal for my In The Sun Class (which an update is coming for tomorrow), but I decided, after working on it a little, that I was wanting something a little bit bigger. This journal was handmade and bound by me. What I did was take some envelopes in multiple sizes, folded them in half, and then simply sewed them into signatures. Then I sewed the signatures together, and that was that. I actually made this a while ago, and was trying to figure out if I had mentioned this on the blog before or not.

However, the photo above shows what I did on the front cover of the journal. I used several layers of acrylic paint, some of which were already there. Then I added some stamping, and then the black border with a Portfolio oil pastel crayon that I bought at Staples. That's what I have so far on this page, but I still need to add a title. A title for the journal. To really show what I want to to with it. So this is really more of an unfinished sneak peek than a finished thing. Though I still wanted to share. Anyways. That's really all that I have for you guys today. And I'll see you guys later! Bye!

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.

Medley

So I worked on another page today. Today's prompts was to consider where you think you are in your life right now. I had a good, long think about this topic, and finally came to my conclusion. I think that I'm in a place where I like to think about things. I want to make sure that they're right. And, most of all, I want to have an opinion. That's something that many people don't know about me. And that is, that I am a very opinionated person. I like to consider all of the possibilities, and then come to an overall conclusion. I like to know that I'm being accurate in my decision, and make sure that I'm correct in the way that I'm thinking.

This is an overall page view of the whole layout/page that I did today. When I started out, I thought that I was going to be using mostly red. That gradually changed into pink, which turned into brown with pink accents. And orange. Orange accents.

There were a lot of layers to this page, and I love how this turned out. One of the problems that I will sometimes have are all of the colors in my page muddling together. I don't like that. However, sometimes, on some days, on some pages, I think it's okay. And I think that this is one of these pages. The way that the different shades of brown and pink merge together add a lot of texture and depth to the page, and I love the way that it blends together.

Also, I thought that I'd share with you the finished spread in my journal. I know that these two pages are two separate pages, but I just thought I'd share something with you. Some people, when they are new to art journaling, struggle with single pages. Their reasoning for this is that they don't like having to make sure that the two pages go together. But here's the thing. With an art journal, it honestly doesn't even matter. In this spread, one page is on the cool side of the color spectrum, and the other page is on the warm side. But it's okay. It looks fine. And nobody's going to judge me because they don't go together. Even if they do, I wouldn't care. My art journal is about what makes me happy! The same should be true for you.

I'm going to leave you today on a rather thoughtful note. I'm going to type out my journaling. I really like the way that it turned out, and I think that the thoughtfulness aspect of it truly represents me.

I have a very unique style. I am composed of a variety of things that make me happy. Me. Not anyone else. Actually, I could care less what other people think. I am a medley of all things me, not a collage of all things everyone else. Some people might consider my style eclectic, while I prefer to consider it mine. The point I feel I am in right now, in my own life, is a time when I think everything through to the extent that it needs to be. I am always thinking about my own take on things; always considering a new aspect to life. To my style. To my medley of me.

And that would be that! I hope you guys have a good rest of the day, and I'll talk to you later!

Textured Art Journal Page

Hey guys! I'm here today with just a really short post. It's getting kind of late, so I thought that I could just post now and get this sort of over with, if you know what I mean. I just have a single page to share with you guys today, and it was a page that I was really enjoying working on. It's blue and green like a lot of pages that I do, except this one has a little bit of added black and a TON of texture. I don't even really know how I got the texture I did. It's kind of an odd thing; that I don't even know. It's also just a little bit disappointing. Because now I don't even know how to recreate it. I think what I really need to do is start keeping better track of what it is that I am making. Then maybe I won't forget how I did something. I did just a couple of layers on this today; very mundane layers. But I'm already getting ideas for more of them. But I do think that some of the texture comes from masking tape that I laid on the base of the page. I don't know why I put it there anymore, but I do know that I like the effect. But anyways. That's all I've got for you guys today, and I'll see you tomorrow. :)

Watercolor Spread

Hey guys! I'm here again with you guys, and so far I've been doing pretty good on the whole daily posting deal. I know that I generally have been posting later in the day than I have in the past; maybe when we have breaks at school and stuff it will be a little bit earlier. I know that I don't have that much to share with you guys today, but I'm going to give to you what I have. I only have a single spread. On this page I used a bunch of stuff that I bought yesterday; some of the watercolors and acrylics, and I did a lot of experimentation with different brush strokes and scraping some white paint over top of the page. I'm sorry that today's post isn't all that long, but that's all I've got for you guys today. TOMORROW however, I'll come at you with a nice and long post. :) See you guys then.

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.

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.

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!

I'm Here! Finally...

Hey all! I'm back! It's about time, huh? I guess it ended up being a bit longer than a week. About two and a half weeks to tell the truth. But anyways, what's done is done, and there's nothing I can do about it. So I've had a lot of good stuff going on recently in the crafting department, but I've only got one picture for today's post. I had to use my cell phone to take it, so sorry if the quality is crappy. I'll talk more about the photo above a bit later. First off, I think I'll talk about all of the chaos that's been going down in my room lately. It's a mess.

You see, I've been trying to organize my craft stuff recently and it's been complete insanity. I decided to sort everything by color, no matter what it is. That's sort of becoming a hinderance to the organization process, since I have to find somewhere to STORE all of this stuff. Haha. Well, anyways, that's that.

Now we'll go to the picture above. You can see that it's a couple of fashion sketches. If you know me personally, you can see that I'm not girly at all. For the most part I hate dressing up, and the fanciest I'll ever be is a summer type dress for a wedding. That's about it. So it's weird for me to be messing around with fashion. But so far I've done 6 fashion sketches that coordinate into a fashion line. You see, I've been working a lot lately on sewing clothing. I want to sell it. Do you like the sketches above?

There are several ways that I've been planning on doing this. A portion of all of my sales in my etsy shops will go towards this project. Also, in case I haven't posted it before, a portion of all my sales go to a nonprofit organization that is based in my city. So yeah. Well anyways, that is one way you can support me in this project. Also, if you like one of the pieces in the sketches above, just let me know in the comments, and include your measurements. I'll do some research, then get ahold of you to quote a price. Thanks so much for supporting me!!