ICAD #1: Newspaper + "Rise Above It"

Okay. So here I am with yet another prompt page. Today's question asked me which song I thought best represented how I felt above my life right now. I chose the song "Rise Above It" by Switchfoot. Love that band. I feel as if I could be saying these words to all of the people surrounding me in my day to day life; this is honestly how I feel most people feel like. And I feel as if I could have been the author to this song. It's very much how I feel my life is like. Not for me personally, but for people that I know. That I am around. I cut today's title out of various newspaper and junk mail papers, as I have been doing for the past few days. I just love the effect that it gives.

However, I'm not quite so sure how I feel about today's page in general. I mean, I love the way that it looks, but I don't like how thin it is. Today my paper just decided that it wanted to wrinkle up; so much so that I find it difficult to even want to maneuver around it. I am hoping that tomorrow's page, working on the back of this one, will straighten everything out and totally thicken the page itself. 

Today I again used circles, as I keep finding myself drawn to them. But I'm trying to use different colors. Less blue and green, and more warm colors. That's what I was trying to achieve with this page. The journaling is also very much my personal opinion on a topic. I love the way that always turns out to me. Even if I don't like the look of a page, I can always count on the journaling to cheer me up.

Something else that I wanted to share with you today is my ICAD card. This is my very first one, as the challenge started today. Here I used my favorite colors, and felt a whole lot more in my comfort zone that I did with my other page I did today. I also used one of the prompts that she suggested, which was simply "dictionary". So I used some dictionary paper on this card. 

Here's just a little bit of a better view of it. I know that this post is a little bit shorter than the rest of the posts I've had this last week, but I'm pretty tired, and am just throwing this together before bed. Hopefully tomorrow I'll come up with a bit of a longer post for you guys, and even this one isn't TOO short. So yeah. I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow!

Balanced

So I'm back with you again today, a little earlier this time. I was off of school today, since I exempted most of my exams. The way they do them at my school is that on Wednesday they do 1st and 3rd period exams, and then Thursday (tomorrow), they do the 2nd and 4th period ones. I exempted all of my exams except for 4th period, as that is my math class, and my teacher doesn't allow anyone to exempt, no matter how good their grades. So tomorrow I have to go at 10:10, and then get to leave at noon. It's nice. And today I didn't have to go at all.

Yep. Today I was working from yet another prompt. This one begged the question. Are you more child-like or childish? I spent quite a bit of time considering the answer to this. I eventually came to the conclusion that I thought I was a little bit of both, especially depending upon who I'm talking to or hanging out with.

The idea for this page initially sprung from the primary colors. I was going to do my page with just those colors and see what happened. As you can see from the pictures, a lot happened. Not a lot of any of those colors actually show up in the finished piece. 

You see, what happened was, I had just started the page and I thought it was looking okay. I thought that it looked a little weird, but I decided to continue on anyways. Bad idea. The more layers I added, the worse it got. Seriously. It was really bad. So I just went over the entire thing with white paint. Some of the red from my previous layer got caught up into the white, and gave me a pink tint. I decided to just go with that and start over. Let's just say that my journaling in the first layer is extremely secure. Nobody's going to be reading that sucker. 

In this picture, you can sort of see a close up of the texture I used in this piece. Since I've started working in my journal a few days ago, this is probably the most texture I've gotten on a page. I simply love the way it turned out. Even though pink is definitely not my favorite color in the world (it's blue, in case you're wondering), I do seem to love pink paint. I don't know why. I just do. 

The journaling in this page, like in my previous page, really means a lot to me. I don't know where I get some of this stuff from, I just pull them out of the air. I seem to love taking cool words and merging them together into deep, meaningful sentences. To me, writing is seriously an art in and of itself. As it is to many other writers. 

I'd like to leave you with a link. This is where I've been getting all of my prompts from. They originally weren't supposed to be for art journaling, but the moment I saw them, I knew that they would be excellent art journal inspiration. It is called the 5,000 Question Survey. 

Some of you may have heard of this before, and others may not have. That's what this blog is for. For me to share with you guys new things. And new ways of reusing old things. And with that, I bid you farewell and an excellent evening.

Textured Art Journal Page

Hey guys! Sorry I was gone for so long, I feel really sorry about that. I'm actually going to go back and write all of the posts that I had planned for you guys. I've just been so busy with homework. I know that is starting to sound like an excuse, but it's the truth. It's up to you guys whether you believe me or not. Anyways. The page that I have for you today was actually a really fun page to make, and I really enjoy the way that it turned out. I was looking through a bunch of my older paintings and I came across one that I absolutely hated. I know. Horrible, right? But since I've talked about this situation coming up on multiple occasions,  I'm sure you guys aren't too shocked right now. Anyways, I took that page and I simply coated it with a layer of lime green paint. Then I let it dry.

After that, I went ahead and put a few squirts of this light turquoise color on the page. Now, I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with it yet, but I knew that I could come up with something unique. And so, I took my paintbrush in hand, and simply started spreading it out by dabbing repeatedly with the brush itself. It took a little while, but the end result is amazing. I love the texture that this technique created for me, and I'm sure that I'll be using it again. Anyways. That's all that I've got for you guys today, but I'm sure that I will return tomorrow with yet another post. Farewell. :)

Graphic Art Journal Page

Today I've got another unfinished page for you guys. This happens all the time, I know, but I'm just hoping that you guys are liking it too. :) I just like sharing. This page is a very graphic type of page, which is very different than most other pages that I have done in the past. Normally, I do a bunch of layers, which will eventually end up looking pretty cool. But this was inspired by a class on 21 Secrets, which I enjoyed while it was still alive. Now that one is dead and I'm being forced to work from the PDFs. :) Actually, I don't care as much as I'm trying to make it sound. I think that it's fun, and forces me to use my imagination more than it would otherwise. Also, the colors of this page are a bit different than what I am used to working with. I enjoy using pinks and purples on occasion, but it seems like I'm using them more and more lately because that's what I have left. Yeah. That's the way I roll. Anyways, because it's getting kind of late, I think I'm gonna go. I know that I don't have that much for you today, but I'm hoping to come back tomorrow with a tutorial. We'll see. We will see.

Art Journal Layers

Hey guys! I'm back with a few more art journal pages that I've been adding onto lately. It seems like the more that I work in this journal (the big, fat one that I started first), the more i start to skip around. I'll flip to a random page, and, if it is unfinished, I'll see if I want to add something to it. Maybe some doodles or some paint, or a few pieces of paper as a layer. On this page right here I used some new oil pastels that I bought at Michaels (Cray-Pas) to do some doodling. I used the light blue to do the circles around the punched out papers, and the red lines with the half circles.

This is just a more close up picture of this same page spread. You can see the doodles that I did.

And this pages right here is just another page that I've been working on lately. I had the background here for a while, and then I added int the blue paint, the black crayon swirls, the clock printout, and some sumo ink mixed with water that I sprayed over the page. That's a bit of a new technique that I've been trying to experiment with a little bit. It's still in progress, but I'm starting to try and perfect it. :) Well, that's all that I've got for you guys today, and I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow. Bye!

Oil Pastel Technique

Yes. Yes I do. I just thought that I would share that interesting little tidbit of information with you. I don't know if it would help you guys at all, but these were some of the pens that I got for Christmas in my stocking, and I love them. I've had the blue ones in the past, but the red ones are pretty darn epic, if I do say so myself.

Okay, so let's get to the real "bulk" of today's post. I don't have another tutorial for you guys today, I just have a couple of pages and stuff that I really wanted to share with you guys. The one above is the page on the left hand side. That's the one that I really wanted to focus on. Basically I took a background that I didn't really like, or was just really bland, and I took my Portfolio water soluble oil pastels, and colored the rust, and the light blue all over the entire page. Then I pretty much just blended them together with my fingers. I love the way that the whole page turned out, as it looks really nice looking, as well as looking blended and a bit more messy and grungy, which is totally my style.

I used the same type of technique on this index card, and I actually did this one first as a sort of introduction/sample for this technique. Then I was experimenting with my calligraphy pen on another page, and I saw this; I wanted to know if I could use it on top of oil pastels that weren't wet. As it turns out, it comes out with a very interesting technique. Some of it is black from the ink, and other areas are white, from where the tip of the pen scratched away the pastel. But that's all that I've got for you guys today, and I'll see you tomorrow!

'Tears' Art Journal Page

Hey everybody!

Sorry that the picture I've got for all of you today isn't the greatest. 

Today, I sadly didn't have any time to work on anything creative.

It was my first day back to school after Thanksgiving break, which lasted for a week.

The teachers assigned tons of homework.

And I still had to get my words for NaNoWriMo.

 But I'm still posting.

Hopefully after November is over, my art count will go up.

Except I will still be working with my book.

Finishing the thing.

And editing and crap.

But anyways.

Back to the point that I was going for.

I'm sharing a page with you today that you may or may not have already seen.

I posted it a little while back, but I added to it.

You also may have see it on the journal flip video I posted a few days ago.

I added the white dots to the title.

Also, the two pieces of ephemera are new. 

Other than that, it's the same that it's always been.

I know that it's not that cool today, but I thank you for checking in with me here!

You guys really don't understand how much your views, and more specifically your comments and suggestions mean to me. 

If you ever have any suggestions for the blog; any suggestions at all.

Make sure to leave me a comment.

I'm always checking all of the posts (there's a setting that allows me to do that).

And it makes me happy when I see a new one.

But anyways.

That's what I've got for you guys today, and I'll see you tomorrow!

Bye!

Art Journal Background

Hey everyone!! I'm back with all of you once again. This is actually close to one of my favorite pages I've ever made. It's pretty interesting actually. Not as bright as I normally go, but in the same type of color scheme. Basically I just did a REALLY bright page, and then dulled it way down with a really thin coat of gesso. I was hoping it would make it easier to write on, and I'm sort of assuming that it will, considering. The border is probably my very favorite part. I mixed a chocolate brown by taking my regular brown tempera paint, and mixing just a tad bit of black into it. I love the way it turned out. Probably later tonight I'll be adding some journaling page to the base, and then add a bit more gesso. I love journaling before bed lately; it feels like just a different way of keeping a diary or something. Though I prefer the term JOURNAL over diary. Diary sounds too girly to me. Yeah.

Here's a close up of the middle part of the background. Looks pretty cool, huh? I think so. :) Sorry there's not that much of post today. But this was the best I could do. :) One last thing before I go; I worked pretty much all day today on a new website for me to sell mixed media supplies for you guys. Here's a link: http://jellybeansdesign.weebly.com :) I hope to see you guys there!

Creative Experiments #1

Okay, I'm finally back, and this time with pictures!! My camera cord is still lost, but I managed to upload some pictures using my phone. I'm sorry it doesn't really take the best of photos, but I guess some photos are better than none. I know I like to see at least one when I'm looking at a blog. Especially when I really want to see what they mean. But now that I have new pictures, I can start to write about them and not ramble about random stuff. :)

This is going to be the first creative experiments post. I touched on this as a possible topic in the last post, and even though I didn't get any response, I'm just going to go on ahead with it. Basically, I'm just going to be experimenting with my supplies; seeing all the different things that each of my things can do, and pushing them to their absolute limit. And then I share my progress and the things I've been doing on here with you guys. So today's post is about one of the many things you can do with white acrylic paint. I decided to go with how well you blend with it. The background above was a failed attempt at trying to get a watercolor effect with NON water soluble colored pencils. Hehe. I thought that I might as well give it a shot. Well, I hated the effect. So I decided to try and blend with the paint.

Basically, I just took a bunch of white paint and then blended/massaged it into the colored pencil with my paintbrush. That helps the color to show through the paint, basically just making the whole thing just a couple shades lighter. In my honest opinion, I think that makes the entire page just that much easier to work on, even if my finished pages end up dark. Just a thought. My opinion.

The finished thing, after white paint, is shown above. I liked it a lot. In order to get that aged effect, though, I had to take a baby wipe and wipe away a few layers in certain areas. I love the aged look, and when it was finished it totally reflected my style, which automatically made it an excellent starting point for one of my pages. For my style (bright, layered, stamped, and distressed), this was perfect, and even though my finished pages ALWAYS end up dark, I started on the light page and it worked perfectly.

After the page was done, this is what it looked like. I LOVE this page, and you can't even tell that it started out as something that I hated. I love the way the colors just go together perfectly, and look like I made a lot of complicated decisions. I totally didn't. I would just look over and see something and think "hey, I bet that could work on my page". Then I would put it on. I used acrylic paint, white and colored, stamps of all types (carved, acrylic, rubber, and found), stamped with both paint and ink. I also used masking tape, water soluble pastels, stencils, and foam letters for the title.

That's the end of this creative experiment; though it doesn't really reflect it on the finished page, adding that one layer of white acrylic paint actually helped me a lot in the long run. I think that if I would have just worked directly onto the color pencil, I don't think it would have turned out quite as well. Maybe that's something to experiment with. Anyways, tomorrow I think I'll do a link post, with a TON of links I've found this week... I've been bookmarking them all. :) Then tuesday, expect a nice post with an update on my Collage Unleashed project! See you guys tomorrow!