Blogging A to Z: G is for...

April is here!! It's time for daily blogging, lots of visitors and meeting new friends.  In other words, time for the Blogging A to Z challenge hosted by Arlee Bird and his team of minions.  Thousands of other bloggers from all over the world participate in this blog hop each year, and anyone may join in as long as they blog each day during the month of April, (except Sundays) the blog posts correspond to the appropriate letter for that day, and they sign up on the link list. Simple!

Goodness!  There are so many options for a post today, I got a little giddy!

Gesso is the base coat on most mixed media art pieces as it gives "tooth" to media added to it.  Gesso comes in a variety of types, the ones I am most familiar with are regular white gesso, clear gesso, and super heavy gesso.  Some mixed media artists don't even bother to use white paint, they just use gesso instead. It is great for blocking out things you want to cover up, and if you apply it thick enough or use super heavy gesso, you can also use it to create texture on your paper or canvas.  I use clear gesso between coats of media that tends to reactivate when wet, such as Dylusions spray inks or watercolor. It is pretty gritty, though, so if you use it you may want to take some tack cloth or super fine sand paper and knock off the grit.

Glitter: Usually thought of as a craft supply, glitter can be really fun to add to art projects.

Glass Bead Gel:  One of my favorite texture mediums is glass bead gel.  It is a clear gloss gel with tiny glass beads in it that dries clear. I like to press it through a stencil to get defined edges, or smear it over the surface of an area to add interest.  You can paint over it if you like, but I find that adding color beneath gives the glass beads more of a chance to shine.

Glaze medium: This is mixed in with acrylic paint to thin it somewhat and give hints of the color without overpowering the piece.  I usually mix it 50/50 on a palette, paint it on, wait a minute, then use a baby wipe to wipe it off.  If you take off too much, you can repeat the process until you achieve the color saturation you like.  You may have used it to paint with a rag -- it has come and gone in popularity among home decorators.

Gelli-prints:  By far my favorite G word is gelli=printing.  This is also known as mono-printing, but it is done on a gelatin based "plate."  A few years ago, an artist created a permanent gelli=plate and sells it under the trade name of Gelli-Arts.  Artists and non-artists alike have a ball playing with this tool!  Squeeze a little paint on, roll a brayer over it, put down some texture using just about anything you can think of, and pull a print using any form of paper you like.  The prints are always unique and unpredictable, which is probably why I like them so well!  I don't have to take responsibility for the outcome if I have no idea what it will be. My favorite prints are those that have many layers. Here are a few of my prints.

Here I used the prints to make some envelopes. 

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you were inspired or learned something new. I'd love to hear from you if you would like to leave a comment.

Blogging A to Z: B is for Bright

April is here!! It's time for daily blogging, lots of visitors and meeting new friends.  In other words, time for the Blogging A to Z challenge hosted by Arlee Bird and his team of minions.  Thousands of other bloggers from all over the world participate in this blog hop each year, and anyone may join in as long as they blog each day during the month of April, (except Sundays) the blog posts correspond to the appropriate letter for that day, and they sign up on the link list. Simple!

One of the things I love about art is that it affords the opportunity to create colorful works.  I have never, as long as I can remember, cared a thing for pastels or neutral colors.  I like bright, stimulating colors that swirl and mix together, whether they are in the same color family or a combination as diverse as the rainbow.

I can sometimes accomplish the task with acrylic paints and my gelli printing plate as in these evelopes. Many of the colors I used in these prints are Silks acrylic glaze, which contain various minerals to give them a shimmery look, which is another dimension to art that I find appealing.

One of my favorite mediums to accomplish this is alcohol ink, which I mentioned in yesterday's post. Here and here are a few examples of how vibrant and bold these inks can be. The second link is a tutorial I wrote awhile back.

Alcohol ink works best on slick, non-porous  surfaces, such as photo paper, Yupo which is a synthetic "paper", and plastic or glass. In addition to the little bottles of alcohol ink you can purchase, there are alcohol based markers such as Copic, Spectrum Noir, PrismaColor, and even Sharpies.  The piece above was done with drops of ink shot with canned air, then highlighted with gel pens.

Most of my art projects feature bold colors, and it is my preference for home decor as well. I know there are many people who like neutrals, especially in their decor, but I am drawn to the outrageous and daring.  How about you? Do you like bold and bright or bland and boring unassuming?

More Craftiness

Ol' Ornery has a new blog!  He is going to be documenting various DIY projects this year, and has his first post up already.  If you'd like to see how he made my new pen storage and tool caddy, you can see it here.

Isn't that spiffy?  He used plastic downspout, cut uniformly, then glued in stacks. I put washi tape around all the ends. :)  The caddy was one I already had, but the containers I was using were not functional and they didn't match. *Gasp!*  I love this new set up.  In fact, I just want to sit and look at it all the time! Since this photo was taken, I have moved pencils into all those empty slots. Does anyone really need that many writing utensils?  Yes. Yes, I do. :)

He hasn't been the only one crafting.  I had a delightful session with my gelli-plate last week, and I forgot to post photos. So, here they are. 

About 40 prints on a recycled eBook printout, four file folders used to clean off my brayer and stencils, and two tamale bags, which I use for sending things through the mail.

I may have gone a little crazy setting up and joining swaps on Swap-Bot this week.  All the creative juices seem to be flowing and with the new schedule I have set up, I seem to be much more organized and productive in all areas of my life.  My house is cleaner, we are eating at home more, we are having a daily quiet time, and I have been keeping up with my correspondence and having time to write and do art. Of course I go to bed at 7:00 PM...  

Tags and Postcards

I spent two glorious days last week with my gelliplate.

Then I used some of them in various projects.

 All these above are post cards except the second one which is a5x7 for a monthly art swap called Happy Art Swap (#haswap)

This one is a tag I made for someone on Instagram. My sweet daughter was feeling generous and ordered a few items from my Etsy favorites, just because. One of the items was the new Dina Wakely scribble birds stamp set. Another was the Tim Holtz layering stencil with splatters. I'm pleased with the projects so far, and I have a pretty hefty pile of prints to create with..

In the printing sessions I used file folders to clean my brayer and stencils and have had fun altering them as well. I am sending one off today in a mail art swap with a variety of little ephemera pieces, and I used three others to organize my mail and swap groups. As time goes by, I plan to add more things to the fronts, but at least I have a place to store my various swaps while in progress.

It feels great to be back making art (besides washi tape postcards)

Those are a tremendous amount of fun to make, and I am making a valiant effort to use up my washi tape samples by the end of summer. Several have already been sent out either naked with stamps on them, or as a little note in another mailing. Don't those fun strips of color just make you happy? :-)

Journal Pages and Cover

My pen friend Karen received her ojswap journal almost six months after it was started, and was sad to find several blank pages within. So she asked if I would do another spread to help her fill it up. She hadn't decorated her cover either, so I offered to do the front. Here are pictures.

 I covered the front with gesso to give it a clean surface, then adhered printed tissue paper and a few torn squares of lime green tissue with matte gel medium. I cut the letters free hand from a variety of papers except for the Tim Holtz playing card A.

 Here is the spread. Below are closer shots of each page. The background is twinkling H2O watercolors dribbled on, then manipulated with bubble wrap and a baby wipe. The banner flags are gelli-prints, all but one are made by me, the r is on one made by my friend Jonathan. The spread took me a full (long) day to create.

I wove some strips of paper (mostly gelli-prints) behind the f. The bicycle is stamped and embossed in white. The flowers between the r and i banners are torn bits of washi tape. The letters are stamped with making memories foam stamps using distress paint by Ranger. 

I always try to use some washi tape on my artwork, and on these pages, in addition to the torn strips along the top left and bottom right pages, I cut pieces to hang the flags on the green eyelash yarn, a leftover from my daughter's last shawl. The feather on the d flag is cut from the front of a pen pal letter-- a bit of recycling... The little flower pot is actually metal, and the leaves and flowers came from other pen pals. 

I have one more single page to do before I send it on to another pen pal to work in. I got some new alcohol inks yesterday and plan to do something with them. Happy Sunday!

Instagram Friends Traveling Journal Home!

I posted a number of weeks ago about a traveling journal project I was doing with some friends on instagram, and it came back today with the most amazing art inside!!

All the @references are instagram usernames. I encourage you to check out their feeds if you enjoy art!

Front cover by me! 

Intro letter by me.

Contents page, which indicates there is still room in the 'hood for more artists!

First page by Kim Burk (@kluvmy4js) "Gossip in the 'hood"

Second page by Kim Burk. Shimmery, textured goodness!! 

By Darlene Winter (@dar63) "Crafting in the 'hood"

Second page by Darlene Winter. Amazing textures, rich colors, such amazing attention to detail!! 

First page by Ramona Samuels (@ramtalk) "Romance in the 'hood"

Second page by Ramona Samuels. Such fun collage elements! Love the ribbon banner and the washi tape!!

First page by Syda Howery, (@kreativenotions) "Night in the 'hood" 

Second page by Syda Howery. These pages are awesome! Texture, rich saturated colors, just so fun!

First page by Karen Adams (@yeah_its_mom) "Happy 'hood!" 

Second page by Karen Adams. Both pages are reminiscent of cards I have sent to her. The style and theme is very much her own, and I love every sparkly colorful bit of it! 

Both pages by Nicole Bray, (@wholeheartedart) She is in Canada, and sent her pages to Karen to be added to the journals. 

I added a page in back for each participant to add a few snippets of washi tape. I love this page! 

And, finally, the back cover, made by me, my gelliplate, and a fun sticker by David Icon (@davidicon) 

Art Journals

Once again I have been away from my computer, thus these projects haven't been posted. First up, a couple of art journals in a round robin swap. I didn't get a side-by-side view of the first pages, but they were for a person who mentioned feathers, flowers, and dragonflies as some of her favorite themes, so I created pages with that in mind. Gelli-print backgrounds (I tore two up to use because one wasn't big enough.  It added more color, anyway!)

 The flowers are punched, the word feathers is stamped and embossed, the words dragonfly and wings are stickers, and the feathers on the side are stenciled modeling paste that I added a bit of distress ink to. The & is chipboard.

 On this page, the words are, magical and things are all stickers. (Yup, I have a LOT of alpha stickers!!) The word Quite is rub-on letters, and the word wonderful is cut with QuicKutz die cutting system.  The flowers on the right are glass bead gel pressed through a stencil, then painted lightly with distress paint. Note, on both pages there are bits of washi tape. Because I can. :)

The next journal is probably my least favorite of all I have done, but only because I am not a pastel pink, shabby-chic, romantic type of person.  Give me some ORANGE! Some BOLD! I like my colors to vibrate!!  So, even though this style appeals to a LOT of people, it isn't me. BUT, I rose to the occasion and created what I hope will make her happy. :)

 The background started as a sheet of Tim Holtz tissue. I painted over it with distress paint, then around the edges added some white acrylic paint. I layered on some tattered rose distress ink, and later some vintage photo distress ink.  I spritzed with Tattered Angels glimmer mist, although it is REALLY faint and hard to see it.  The left side is a strip of gelli print, then I used lace, flowers, pink pearl trim, a title page from an OLD hymnal that had been mouse eaten (so I just tore it up a little more...) some washi tape, and the metal embellishment from a greeting card someone had sent me a couple of years ago. The heart was super shiny, so I roughed it up with a wire brush, then added pale pink and latte colored alcohol inks to it.  Several layers of that finally started giving it more of a distressed look. The flowers are layered, the outer pink flowers were the last of those left over from Ryan and Ale's (our son) wedding five years ago, and the little satin centers were from a set I got a few years ago. I didn't have any creamy colored brads for the centers, so I added a drop of dimensional paint to the center of each white brad. I wove the pearl trim around through the flowers, and I thought it was just enough to frill it up without being too ostentatious.

 The right page started with a piece of patterned paper, beneath the tissue, but the pattern was lost beneath all the layers, so I may as well have skipped it.  It did give the page a little more substance, but otherwise only served to lighten my overburdened stash of scrap papers.  The fan is more of the gelliprint I used on the left panel, embellished with a bit of ribbon and fiber.  I laid a couple of rubberized leaves (cream) beneath it, but you may not be able to see it in the photo. The brown flowers down the center are rub-ons, the little fairy is a scrabble tile someone sent to me.

And here the spread is all together. I think I have used up all my pastel goodies now, so I have an excuse to say, "I can't do that." :)

A Quick little Update

The incoming mail has finally started to slow down a little bit, but it appears the art journals are moving again, and at a rapid rate! I have one that I am working on for the first swap that started back in January, and I am the last stop before it goes home.  It is turning out to be a rather monumental project, but possibly (if I can get my ideas translated to the page) my best yet.

Last post I put a photo of an art journal page I was sending to Scotland, here is the other side of that page.

The first side was life in the country, this side is life in the city. :)  I used a variety of gelli-prints and some printed paper, as well as acrylic paint and some rub-on letters. Not too fancy, but I thought a good complement to the other page.

I've been more inspired to do fancy stuff with my letters than actual art, and I still have an abundance of replies to send out.  About the time I think I am all caught up, I get more pen pal letters in the mail. It's a good thing, though. I currently enjoy correspondence the best of all my ongoing projects. It is a bit like blogging, only the audience is just ONE person instead of an undisclosed number, and the comment is more than just a short sentence since it is not likely to be seen by anyone else.

I have pen friends in lots of places these days. Norway, England, Greece, Netherlands, Sweden, Philippines, Hawaii, and a host from all over the USA. So far in 2014 I have sent out over 300 pieces of mail.

I had slowed way down on the swapping I was doing, but have recently picked back up a little. I post on Instagram first, and sometimes later post my pictures here.

The gardens are all happy, the fish are thriving and quite interested in me when I go out to feed them every morning, and life seems to be clipping right along at a steady but not-too-hectic pace. Elizabeth and Michael were very generous with their Mother's Day gifts and I have been enjoying the new The Art of Whimsical Lettering book by Joanne Sharpe, which was part of what they bought for me.  I still haven't fully settled into the studio since I have added so many new storage options, but one of these days I will be bitten by the organizing bug and tear into it. Right now, I am just focused on the next thing that needs to be done.  And right now, that is fixing lunch! :)

End of April, Still Buried!

The end of April is finally here.  National Letter Writing Month has consumed a LOT of my time, but then I knew it would.  I did find a few new pen pals in the group, and also added a few new ones from Instagram, so much of my time has been replying to letters--which is a wonderful thing!

I have done a little bit of art, some gardening, some housework, but no blogging.  My health is dramatically improved, my stamina and interest in life in general is up, and my desire to just sit at the computer or read has almost evaporated!

Here are a few photos of my projects.  I will do a second post in a bit with photos from the aquaponics garden, which is flourishing now that the fish are feeding it! :)

 First up are the two pages I did for a friend in her new traveling art journal.  I used modeling paste, glass bead gel, and a gelli-print.  The flowers are embossed stamped images, words are rubon letters, the mushrooms are freehand cutouts from some scrap papers, the insects are all K&Co embellishments.

The second page is all gelli prints with rubons and sticker.

This is a little heart I did for a friend on Instagram who has made a canvas with 144 squares on it and she asked for people to send hearts, one for each square.   So, I made this one for her.  It is a gelli print with some glass bead gel and silk flowers.  I named it "love letter" :)

This next piece is a new size for me--I have done one other piece in the 4X4" size.  This is for a Swap-bot swap in the Mixed Media group.  It was a challenge, and you were required to use at least three elements from a list of media.

Next, I worked on another journal.  Gelli-print backgrounds, glass bead gel through stencil, book page image (rabbit) stamped tissue paper, and punched images.  The flower was the last remaining one I had in my stash and it just really asked to be included. :)

I recently did a new set of gelli-prints, and this was one of the envelopes I created.  I was pretty pleased with the results of this session.  Each time I think I am getting a bit more creative and I like the results better.

This last piece is the first of two art journal pages I am sending to an IG friend in Scotland.  Just a bunch of scraps from my stash, and a little bit of imagination.  I am going to have a hard time sending this one off...which could be why I have been so slow about making the second page!  Hopefully I will get that done (along with a bunch of other projects) in the next day or two.

That's all for now.  Coming soon: Aquaponics update, garden update, and reorganization post for my studio. I still have a few letters to reply to, and I know other art journals are on their way, so it will be a busy spring!!