Some of my favorite colors…….

 

Yum-yum colors…..Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold, Quinacridone Red and Cobalt Teal…..amazing together, I think.  Black and white washi tapes kicks the colors up a notch!

These are journal pages I just finished and they feel a lot like spring to me, I’m ready for some color!

The page is centered by a piece of hand made paper, a scrap of vintage script, turquoise velvet, tea-dyed cheesecloth, a rice paper heart…..all topped by a butterfly cut out of canvas and painted with acrylics. 

The facing page is scattered with hearts and the same fun color scheme.

 

 

Topped off with a tag and more luscious color!  I’m likin’ these happy colors and the hint of Valentine’s day in my journal.

Encaustics=run away wax……..

 

We are suppose to keep on learning, right?

Suddenly I am learning new skills I did not know I needed…..like how to use a torch to melt wax and then try to keep it from running all over the place!  My warped idea of fun.

Play date at the bakery…..

 

The art girls are playing with paper, paint and glue at the White Rabbit Bakery in Aurora every Wednesday afternoon….with great coffee and cookies as a bonus.

Margaret, Thea, Sheila, Jean, Winnie, Susie (not pictured) and I have our weekly art play date!

 

 

Margaret making a few gifts!

 

 

 

 

 

Sheila adds some touches to her journal.

Thea and I had fun making “guerilla art”.  These little pieces of art, with a note on the back that tells the finder they can keep it,  were placed in various locations around the bakery.

You never out grow play dates with your friends.

Inspiration board and goals……..

 

I started off the new year making my version of an inspiration board!

…..then I mapped out my goals.

I’m off and running with one of my goals….. to learn encaustics.  My friend, Thea, and I took our first class today from Pam Nichols at the Chehalem Cultural Center in Newberg.  Three more classes to go, this is going to be fun!

We’ve started small and are learning how to control hot melting wax…..like trying to heard cats, I’d say.

Here is just one sample of our teacher, Pam’s work.

We have a ways to go before we have this much control over the medium, but I think we are going to have some fun along the way.

Alfred Hitchcock revised…….

 

I just finished my contribution to Margie’s altered art book today!  In this latest round robin of altered books there are only five of us and you, probably remember, we each choose the theme for our book.  We set the theme with our artwork and then mail it off to the first member, then she does her “thing” and sends it to the next member, on and on, until the wonderful masterpiece returns home…..thus the term, round robin.

Margie’s theme is “mystery, suspense, mayhem”……so I contributed my versions of  movie posters for The Birds and Psycho.

In case you can’t tell, that is Marilyn Manson leering at the nude woman in the “shower”!

Well, that was fun!

Now, I have Amy’s amazing book to work in.  Actually, every book in the round robin is outstanding, every one has really stepped up their game…it is a pleasure to see and to be invited to contribute to these books.

Journal pages on stand by…….

 

Hello from Oregon where it is another foggy day, but NO rain.  We just had one of the driest Decembers on record…..not too Oregon like, but nice!

I am taking two free journaling classes that are wonderful.  One class is with Traci Bautista and is sponsored by Strathmore…I think you can still sign up.  The other is a really fun class called Book of Days 2012 and it is generously being taught, and offered for free, by Effy at Wild Precious Life and is truly a wonderful class.  I’ve picked up so many little “tricks” from her in just a couple of videos, I’m lovin’ it.

I like Traci’s class, also, but last summer I paid for one of her on-line classes and really enjoyed it.  The first class, in the Strathmore series, was kind of a rehash of the series of classes I have already taken but I love her colors and her free-wheeling style.  I credit her with getting me to “loosen up”.

I’ll share of few of the journal pages I’ve been doing….most are unfinished looking and waiting for me to journal.

 

 

I write my blog in Windows Live Writer and for some reason it keeps changing my options for sizing the photos, so sorry about the inconsistency.

 

This page is me channeling Teesha Moore.  She does such great work.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a photo of my mother, when she was about twelve, who lived to 94 years of age.  She was a very strong, independent woman and that is what I journaled about.

 

 

 

 

 

I used some of the stamps I have been carving and my new metallic Jelly-roll pens to finish this page.

I am still participating in an altered book round robin……as of yesterday, I have two books that I need to work on!

I’d better get busy.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by…..I love comments, so please share your thoughts.

I love this form of printing…….

 

Here we are one week into the new year and I have signed up to take three on-line journaling classes.  Problem is, I haven’t worked on any class projects…..I’m carving my own stamps instead.

Next week I’ll journal! 

Meanwhile, I’d like to share my latest little project…..registration printing.  Basically, that means you carve two or three plates/stamps, ink them and print one stamp on top of the other.

I think I can show it better with photos.  Here is plate one….

On the left is the first print made with the stamp above and on the right.

Next the second stamp on the right and the print on the left.

The third plate/stamp is the background on left.

 

Now, we put them all together…...over the background above you stamp the outline.

Then the third stamp fills the color in.

I like the off registration look, meaning all of the colors do not line up.  Looks arty in this application…..you would not like it if you were printing photographs and they came out off-registration, like this, but when you are doing art prints it’s way less critical.

This gives you a pretty good idea of all three plate/stamps and the step-by-step process.

Same stamp with two colors and some creepy crawler stamps I carved thrown in for good measure. 

If this look intriguing to you, here is a tutorial on how to carve stamps by Alma Stoller.  Try it, you might really, really like it!  I know I do!

Thanks for stopping by.

The ultimate handcrafted book……..

 

I’m just getting back from vacation.

No, I didn’t go anywhere.  That was the idea, I stayed home for most of this week, between Christmas and New Year’s, and did as little as possible.  Oh, I read, I made some art, I took naps, I walked the dog but I STAYED home!  I loved it. 

Next week I’ll be back in action but this past week was heavenly.  Today, I did put the Christmas decorations away and started organizing some cupboards and drawers and in that process I came across this treasure, that is in my mind, the ultimate hand made book.

For several years we rented mall space and bought and sold antiques.  One of the purchases I made, during those years, was from another dealer in my mall, who was selling items she had inherited from her husband’s family.

She believed a family member had made this book as a summer camp craft project some time in the 1940s or 50s.

This beautiful shell was drilled and tied together to form the covers of the sweet little book.

Between the polished shell covers are pages of parchment paper with botanicals glued to them.  Each page of botanicals is separated by a page of tissue paper.

 

 

This picture is almost life size, each shell is 4 inches wide by 5 inches long.  I don’t know what the plant material is, at one time, I thought it was sea weed but, now, I’m not so sure.  I believe the colors of the material are natural, they do not appear to be painted.

I consider this to be one of my most prized possessions! 

It is difficult to display because it is so delicate so it spends much of its’ time in my dresser drawer.  Occasionally, I take it out  to admire it, to touch it and to marvel at the fact that it is still in tact after all these years……bliss!

Here’s wishing you your own bliss, what ever it is, in the New Year.