#The100DayProject: Days 81-90

 Woo hoo!  10 days to go...I'm feeling accomplished.  The gel plate has been used daily over the past 10 days.  At some point these cards may have some more work done on them, but for now, here they are...

Day 81 (Day 3 of the Birgit Koopsen Gel Printing Challenge - Handmade Stencil:  tyvek envelope, Sharpie, X-acto knife, acrylic paint, gel plate

Day 82 (Day 4 of BKGPC - Pill strips):  Pill strip, acrylic paint, gel plate

Day 83 (Day 5 of BKGPC - something from nature): trailing geranium leaves, acrylic paint, gel plate

Day 84 (Day 6 of BKGPC - cotton swabs):  cotton swabs, hot glue, wine cork, acrylic paint, gel plate

Day 85/100 (Day 7 BKGPC - random found object): acrylic paint, gel plate, aluminum can tabs, matte gel, cardboard

Day 86/100 (Day 8 BKGPC - sewing thread): eyelash yarn, acrylic paint, gel plate

Day 87/100 (Day 9 BKGPC - bottle cap): bottle cap, acrylic paint, gel plate

Day 88/100 (Day 10 BKGPC - lace):  stencil, alcohol inks, acrylic paint, gel plate, Copic markers, Pitt pen, Signo Uniball gel pen, snarky stickers, paper scraps, book text

Day 89/100: acrylic paint, paper napkin, speedy carve, carving tools, dye ink, Posca marker, paper scraps, pencil, needle & thread, book page

Day 90/100: I've been watching a collage artist over the past couple of months who uses beautiful handmade papers.  I caved, didn't scope my stash, and bought some.  As soon as they arrived (i.e. today) I busted them out to use on this card. Acrylic paint, gel plate, packing tape, rice paper, mark-making paper, handmade papers.

Only 10 days to go...I think I'm going to make it through the whole 100 days this year - woo hoo!

#the100DayProject2022: Days 61-70

 It seems that I keep finding classes/workshops to nudge The Muse.  Last weekend I signed up for Alisa Burke's "Woodland Whimsy" class.  Towards the end of this series (and, I'm sure, the beginning of the next series) I was inspired by the wonders of the forest for my 100 Day cards.

Days 61 & 63: inspired by the style of Deb Weiers.  This one took a couple of days.  The initial sketch sat on my desk until I could figure out how I wanted to color it. Used pre-gel printed background, Pitt pen, Sigma micron pen, Stabilo PointMax pen, Color Burst watercolors, Posca marker, Signo UniBall

Day 62: 5-Minute Make.  Used stuff laying on my desk...pre-gel printed background, pencil, butterfly image, produce mesh bag, patterned paper scrap, mark-making print, bleached ticket, Signo UniBall pen

Day 64: Chaotic, inspired by a Roben-Marie post on IG, I marked/painted on some graph paper.  Used: graph paper, acrylic paint, paper scraps, pre-gel printed background, Sharpies, pencil, Stabilo pencil

Day 65. For weeks I kept bypassing this gel-printed background; time to use it.  Color Burst watercolor, Posca pens, NeoColor II crayons

Day 66/100: Floral Fantasy.  Used pre-marked background (has been in my stash for 2+ years), Posca markers, NeoColor II crayon, acrylic ink

Day 67: Before I signed up for Alisa Burke's class, I made this after seeing her promo for it.  Really wish I had put the fronds closer together towards the bottom...Used: Dylusions ink sprays, Lindy's starburst spray, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, Pigma Micron pen

Day 68: my first class project...abstract tree branches.  Sharpie, Color Burst watercolors

Day 69: Green Color Study - pulled out greens, blues, yellow, metallic gold, brown Kwik Stix.  Also used Pigma Micron, pen, acrylic paint

Day 70: Brushstroke Forest. Used acrylic paints in greens and browns

Big week for me this week as I've procrastinated as long as possible to paint a mural for a friend.  Yikes...I've never painted anything that large.  Fingers crossed...

Art Journal Page - Painting with Collage

 I was kind of annoyed with myself when I forgot to cancel my Skillshare subscription; initially thought it wasn't worth the money.  I have to say though that I have seen some great classes on there.  The latest one I completed was another one with Froyle Davies.  Her project was on a canvas but I opted to pull out an unused and forgotten (and quite nice I now realize - a large Dylusions one) art journal.  I ended up using a calendar image as the focal point and dug into the gel print stash to use some of my lovely green prints. 

I'm also still in using-the-supply-stash mode and pulled out some ancient embossing powder, Distress stain, an old background stamp and modeling paste.  Gotta use this stuff up!

Have a great day!

Shapes - Creative Jumpstart #37

 The lesson in Creative Jumpstart today had to do with shapes and playing around with supplies.  It struck me that this concept, courtesy of Amanda Trought, is great for getting the creative juices flowing.  I was so inspired that I created two very different looking pages in my art journal this morning.

The first I made using on Kwik Stix.  I bought some for myself a few years ago after playing with them with my preschool kids, but I've hardly used them at home.  They've got pretty wide tips and are crayon-like so precision isn't a thing when using them.

Page #2 was made with scraps of paper in my collage box (i.e. my paper hoarder, don't-throw-anything-away- because-you-can-probably-use-it-for-something-later box).  I decided to go for a monochromatic look to keep it cohesive.

This was a really fun exercise that I see myself coming back to over and over again - especially when The Muse is being stubborn.

Cheers!

Envelope Mini Journal Days 10-12

 Back again for a peek at my progress with my little journal.

Days 9 & 10 were prepping and finishing a page with a collaged border.  I decided to do the front of the mini journal.

Day 11 was painting bright colors on scraps of cardstock.  Day 12 was repeatedly stamping an image over the colored pieces - pop art style.

Thanks for stopping by!

Collaged ATCs

 This morning as I was happily slurping my latte I came across a YouTube video by Susanne Rose featuring her collaged ATCs.  I was totally inspired to get busy ripping, gesso'ing, watercoloring, stamping, etc.  Here's what happened...

Ripping and gluing papery bits (gel prints, book pages, napkins, stamped things)

Gesso and black watercolor pencil

Neocolor II crayons, paint marker, stamping

More torn bits on top 

I finished them off with some dabs of Stickles glitter glue and sentiment strip stickers.

Not too shabby.  I'll try this again some day.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Envelope Mini Journal

 I keep finding cool, artsy groups on Facebook.  One of my latest group finds is Mini Marvels.  Now a mini marvel can be so many different things...ATC, inchie, moo, mail art, bookmark,...you get the idea.  There is currently a month-long event where we started by creating a mini journal out of envelopes; super easy - you just tuck the flap into another envelope and keep going until you have as many pages as you'd like.  It makes its own binding, too.  Each day the host offers a quick tutorial for creating a background that should only take about 10 minutes to do.  Here's what I have so far.

The mini journal on Day 9

Two double pages collaged and texture added through stencil (fiber paste on the top, black embossing paste on the bottom)

Paper napkins collaged onto background.  Sealed with a matte medium and iridescent medium mixture.

Paper napkins collaged onto background and sealed with matte medium

At this point I decided that I'd better switch to single-page endeavors or by the end of the month I would need 3 or 4 mini journals.

Strips of paper torn from a magazine (thank you, Time magazine!) and collaged onto page.

Cut shapes and glue over strip collage.  I dug through my scrap stash and found the pink piece which already had little arches cut out of it.  Immediately thought of a city scene.

And that's that for now.  Schwoo!  I'll try to post daily to update my progress.

Thanks for stopping by!

Abandoned Art

Several years ago I discovered the Art Abandonment group on Facebook.  People take their art to a public place (or many also create their art there with found objects like rocks, leaves, sticks, etc.) and slyly leave it with a note for others to find.  After making my pouches last week I've been wanting to rip up more napkins (I know.  I don't really get it either, but The Muse is insistent.) I ended up with a couple of bookmarks that I'm going to leave at the library today.

I started by covered a 12"x12" piece of cardstock with book pages.

After tearing the napkins into a variety of sizes and shapes, I glued them over the book pages.

I cut this into strips, added bits of stamping and stenciling, a doodle here and there, old postage stamps and a sentiment to call it good.

Now...does anyone read actual books with pages any more??  😜