• Art - Blog - Creativity

    AJJ: art of arts sake

    July 20, 2018 - By 

    Taking time to play in my art journals has been a challenge. I’ve been suffering from bouts of extremely busy schedules followed by times of extreme sloth. No, I’m serious. I’m not sure what’s up with that but I find if my schedule or to-do list isn’t packed with stuff, I have a hard time getting motivated. I justify it to myself as “I’ve just been so busy, I’ll just sit down for a bit and __(fill in the blank)__.  These options often include a screen, but of course not a useful screen such as learning something…no, just time wasters.  Netflix, Pinterest, phone apps, iPad games. WHY!!??!!

    Ok…now that I got that confession off my chest I’m ready to move on since I actually have broken my slothful ways the past two days. Taking time to create. Let’s hope it continues, shall we!

    This page went together as so many of my recent. I begin with what is around me. Gluing pieces down as the mood strikes.

    Next comes the color. My fingers are truly my best tool….second best being the baby wipes I use to clean them off.  As I add paint with my fingers I remember the joy this brings me. I recall why I consider art my own private therapy.  I let go. Let it happen naturally.

    I honestly cannot walk away from a page with adding words. They don’t have to be mine. They can be a quote, a sticker, handwritten or stamped. You may not even be able to see them. I often will “journal spill or mind dump” on a page. Sometimes its so messy that it’s illegible. Other times I cover it up with paint or papers. Just the act of writing it out helps ground me but really what it says is no ones business but my own.

    These words struck me. Not in the way they were likely meant to.  For me it was more about how creating is good for me, for my soul.

    And that is a beautiful thing.

    Linking up today with Art Journal Journey is Art for Art’s Sake hosted by Chris of Pearshapedcrafting.

    Art Journal Journey
  • Art - Blog - Creativity

    Art for art’s sake

    July 3, 2018 - By 

    Early Sunday morning I sat down to create. Getting my fingers full of paint and glue rejuvenates me. I used what was at hand.

     Scrapbook paper, magazine cuttings, ribbon and washi tape just to name a few.

    After creating this page I notice that the current theme for July on Art Journal Journey is Art for Art’s Sake hosted by Chris of Pearshapedcrafting. Don’t you just love it when things fall into place. It doesn’t always happen that so when it does…woohoo!

    Art Journal Journey

     

  • Art - Blog - Creativity

    Inspired by Summer

    June 28, 2018 - By 
    As I sat down to create in the midst of a summer that I hadn’t planned, my mind wandered to the beautiful things. The things that make me appreciate summer. Beautiful colors. Flowers. Birds singing. Breeze blowing through open windows.
    All this had me in the mood for an explosion of color. I used my fingers to loosely apply paint in a tribute to a gorgeous sunrise or sunset. The colors were a little too bold. Too in your face so using a baby wipe I blended and softened the page until it made me happy.
    I pressed uninked rubber stamps into the paint to create some interest on the background as the stamps pulled even more of the still wet paint away with them as you can see above with the grid pattern.
    After heat setting the page I used a harlequin stamp with white ink to lightly stamp randomly around the background using white embossing powder over top to provide a little more kick to the white.
    Digging through my stash I found some rub-ons that fit my theme perfectly. The black really pops against the background.
    A canning jar full of flowers screams summer beauty to me, Casual, simple, perfect.
    I really wanted it to appear that these flowers were indeed inside a glass jar. This gave me a bit of a challenge.
    I stamped the jar twice. One was clear embossed for later use. The first was adhered directly to the page. I then stamped my bouquet of flowers onto tissue paper using black Staz-on ink. I adhered the tissue with matte medium and placed on the page, partially “inside” the jar.
    Next I cut out windows in the clear embossed jar. I cut a piece of vellum to fit and gave that a bit of shimmer with clear embossing as well. I carefully stacked and glued the pieces of the jar over the original stamped piece. Much to my great pleasure, the stems of the flowers shone through the “glass” as I had hoped.  I used a Tim Holtz word sticker to sum up my thoughts.
    The jar seemed to be missing something so I thought about the basket of goodies I carried home from a friends house like Little Red Riding Hood.
    The perfect embellishment was right there.
    I’m linking up today with Art Journal Journey for Inspired by… the theme chosen by this months host Gil from gibbyfrogettcraftations.
    Art Journal Journey