Sunday, July 31, 2016

Thirty Days of Bible Lettering


These two quotes are more from Paul's letters to the churches he planted.  

The Message translation for Colossians 3:14 is "And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it."  I love that!  The Message translation was done by Eugene Peterson of Regent College, a theological college here in Vancouver.


Saturday, July 30, 2016

Silly Scraps Saturday


Sometimes, gluing scraps down can be useful.  I love useful!

This is the beginning of a page in my Idea Book, my prehistoric Pinterest.  I want to remember this great card layout, so I glued it down.  

Friday, July 29, 2016

Gathering Inspiration or Seriously Blocked?


I'm taking Alisa Burke's Watercolor Blooms class.  As usual, she is seriously fun.  Enthusiastically, I did an exercise on playing with my supplies:


Then I stalled, for some reason.  The weather is beautiful and I've taken to the streets and parks to gather inspiration instead.  (This is one of Alisa's suggestions, so I'll say I'm doing my homework.)

But at the back of my mind, I'm wondering if I'm suffering a creative block.  The section of the course I'm at now should be my favorite - Painting on a Wet Surface.  Yet I'm fearful, somehow, of continuing.  Too many choices to make - size, color?  Will it be as good as others I've seen?

Oh brother, I think I'll go and slop paint on my Painterly Days coloring book.  Maybe that'll get me over it.


Thursday, July 28, 2016

Thirty Days of Bible Lettering


Thirty Days of Bible Lettering is soon coming to a close but I've got a few more pictures to post.


I started making these for my bookmark project, but then my minister saw one on Instagram and said that she wanted a few. LOL  I'm happy as long as they go to a good home!


Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Firestorm


Around the time of the horrific Fort McMurray fire, I was working on Artist Trading Cards for our local Vancouver swap.  It is clear from these pictures that the fire influenced my art at that time. 


Tuesday, July 26, 2016

The Best Source of Wisdom



Thirty Days of Bible Lettering

He is definitely the best source of wisdom that I can think of.  I was dealing with a difficult problem a few days ago and He gave me the golden rule - Do unto others as you would have done unto you.  

So, instead of asking myself, "What should I do?", the question became, "What would I like her to do if our positions were reversed?"  Then the answer was easy and the result was good.   

Monday, July 25, 2016

Painterly Days (cont'd)

Here's another page from my Painterly Days Watercoloring Book, painted with watercolor and Twinkling H20's:


In "Alisa Burke" fashion, I painted the page first ignoring the lines altogether.  I used lots of water.


I added the second layer after the first layer was dry.

I signed up for Alisa's Watercolor Blooms class.  Her classes are on sale until August 2nd; it is very good value at $10US.  I'm enjoying the short videos and as usual she is inspiring me to paint.  That's the main thing -  as she says, it is practice that makes you better!


Sunday, July 24, 2016

Painterly Days


I'm definitely still having fun with the Painterly Days watercoloring book.  I used lots of water on the background above, and dropped color into it, wet on wet style.

On this next page, I splashed wet color all over the page not paying attention to where the pattern was.  After it was dry I painted some of the areas again.  This time I used Twinkling H20's (metallic watercolor).


Next time I'll try and remember to take a picture between the layers.


Saturday, July 23, 2016

Silly Scraps Saturday - Crazy Paper Quilt Tutorial


Crazy Paper Quilt ATC
Bird Stamp by Inkadinkado

I promised a bit of a tutorial on the crazy paper quilting I'm currently addicted to.  It's a great way to use up your scraps of paper.

First, I cut a piece of rice paper slightly larger than ATC size.  I use rice paper because I want a sturdy but lightweight backing for my quilt.  Once it is finished, I'll adhere this to an ATC sized card, but I don't want too many bulky card stock layers.  You could do this quilt directly onto the finished card, but I'm never sure whether I'll want to hide stitching, so I'm using rice paper.

Next, I glued a small scrap onto the rice paper.  Notice the scale; ATC's are small, so this scrap is small.  This scrap is a piece left over from a magazine page colored with acrylic paint, but anything will do.


Now I start to attach my scraps around each side.  The scraps can be any size or shape, but the edges should be straight.  Just go around the centre scrap one edge at a time. 





Looks awful, doesn't it?  Have faith.  Keep going.

Now I've gone around the centre scrap once, I keep going around until the rice paper is all covered:



Lastly, I trim all four sides to the finished ATC size.


I didn't plan the colors at all, I just randomly attached scraps from my scrap box.  I love the look of these and they are very fun!






Thursday, July 21, 2016

Drawing My Own Wacky Pages


Strathmore Watercolor 6" x 9"

Looking around on Alisa Burke's blog I found a video of her drawing her free coloring pages.  That made me want to draw my own.  I drew with Stabilo and used Inktense for the color.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

More on Coloring Books


I'm enjoying the watercolor coloring book so much that I gave Alisa Burke's free coloring pages a try.  She has a wonderful idea (and video) about watercoloring outside of the lines as a "freer" way of using coloring books.  Right up my alley.  She also suggests that you can do this on copier paper, so I gave it a try.  Fabulous fun.


Alisa's rubber cement resist


Sunday, July 17, 2016

Letters from Paul


Paul wrote encouraging letters to his churches; these are quotes from his letters to churches in Ephesus and Galatia.  Both of these were in the area that we now call Turkey.


Saturday, July 16, 2016

Silly Scraps Saturday


This week we have artist trading cards for tomorrow's swap.  As we saw last Saturday, I've been playing with crazy paper quilts.  Add a hand carved stamp and some embroidery and you've got an ATC!


Friday, July 15, 2016

Psalms


Watercolor with a dip pen

The Psalms are a wonderful source of uplifting quotations.  It is wonderful to put your hope in something unchanging.


Thursday, July 14, 2016

Free Motion Stitching...And Beads!


I'm starting to experiment with different kinds of quilting and other sewing arts, but using paper instead of fabric.  (I don't have room to add a fabric stash to my paper stash.)

Getting ready for the Vancouver ATC Swap on Sunday, this Artist Trading Card incorporates serendipity paper, free motion stitching, a hand carved stamp and beads.

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Silly Scraps Saturday


Follow the Bouncing Ball

This is another paper crazy quilt.  This time I did the quilt on rice paper and then glued it onto my journal page.  It made it much easier to cut the scraps off the left side, without the binding in the way.

I also used completely random papers - i.e. without a color scheme.  I like the "craziness" of it.  This is a really fun way to use up scraps!

Next time I'll take some pictures along the way in case you're interested in the process.

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Painterly Days Watercoloring Book


When Schiffer Publishing offered me a copy of a Painterly Days, I decided it was finally time to try out the coloring craze.  The watercolor part of this is what pushed me over the edge.  Coloring is not my favorite pastime; I find it too slow and too finicky.  But slopping paint around a large area appeals to me, so I thought I'd give it a try.  The books are 9" x 12".

I think I'm hooked!  I'm not an accomplished watercolor painter, but I love the surprise factor of the medium.  Having all the designs pre-drawn allows me to focus on the watercolor, and I'm not worried about ruining a drawing that I've spent hours on.  So I'm having great fun and getting lots of practice mastering a medium that some say is difficult.

There are three versions of the book:  Patterns, Woodlands, and Flowers.  Each book contains 25 double sided patterns, printed in grey on watercolor paper.  The  paper in the book is pretty good if not great; as long as you use lots of water and don't scrub the paper too much there is no issue with pilling. For $25US per book it is good value.  

One of the nice little details that make this book a treat to use is the fold-out front and back covers.  If you wrap these around the pages before and after the page that you're painting, the rest stay nice and clean.

There are also painting and artist tips in the book to go with each page.  As an added bonus, the author, Kristy Rice, has made some You-Tube videos which can function as a watercolor class to go with the book.  I found her instruction very useful and inspiring.

I would definitely recommend this book!

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Warming Up




These are warm-ups for the July return of 30 Days of Bible Lettering.  They were all done with a brush and watercolor at the end of June.  All start posting the July ones tomorrow.