Pulling Prints

In an earlier post, I wrote about mono-printing using acrylic paints.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them, but I cut them down into Artist Trading Cards recently, and I like them a lot better.

How have you recycled art?

Papers of My Life - Volume I

I have found a way to combine my tendency to packrat paper with my interest in Art Journalling, and I must say I'm thrilled.  I have bound some of the papers together to form the beginnings of an art journal, and I'm already saving for Volume 2!

I won't take credit for this brilliant idea, however - it was inspired by Hanna, whose blog I follow avidly.  Thanks Hanna!

Coincidentally, Michelle Ward at GPP Street Team is asking us to create "evidence" pages in our journals this month.  So this idea is kind of an "Evidence Journal".

Here are a few snaps to give you the idea:

  

The Cover - no, I can't even throw a pizza box away!

A Library Card showing the title of the journal and a scene I stamped on a visit to my sister's house.

Recognize those scraps?

A handwritten letter I received at Christmas - too precious to toss!

A beautiful card my sister made for me.

"Evidence" collected at a visit to the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Text Messaging

This month Michelle Ward, over at GPP Street Team, is challenging us to "cut or rip lines of text from magazines.  Apply it to your page to create a message or use as an abstract background."  Another fun challenge.

Some of those who read my post about grids, applauded my use of baggies to sort my paper scraps into colours.  Well, I have another baggy for bits of text I've cut out.   Yeah, I'm a serious organizer.

For this page I chose text on white backgrounds, glued it down with gel medium and then stamped over it all using foam stamps and red acrylic paint.

I encourage you to follow this link and give it a try!

Strip Ease

The July Challenge over at the GPP Street Team is Strip Ease, where you are encouraged to tear your paper or fabric into strips and attach to your page.

Although I enjoyed the tearing part, I made the mistake of gluing them all down and covering them with glossy acrylic medium, which restricted what I could do afterwards.  I'm not sure I like the way this came out, and I was very tempted to "Photoshop" it.  (Yeah, that's become a verb I think.)

But my kind and encouraging sister said it was perfect, so here it is!

Go on, give it a try!  I dare ya!

Lazy Hazy Days of Summer

Grids are easy in this hot weather!

My office/studio/rubber room is only habitable until noon in this heat, so everything gets cut a bit short.  I guess that's why they're called the lazy, hazy days of summer!

Working in My Journal

There are always lots of creative opportunities in my journal, and at the moment, that includes finishing off the grid backgrounds that I did for the GPP Street Team June challenge.

If you want to play along with the July challenge you can find it here.  Get out those papers and start tearing them into strips, and most of all, have fun!

Finishing the Grids

I was having trouble figuring out what to do with all those grids; all that paper was just too lovely to deface. (Yes, I can still hoard, even if it is cut up and glued somewhere.) Then it dawned on me that this was kind of like a sampler, or a card made with inchies. So, I decorated each rectangle on the grid separately.

Happy Independence Day to my American readers!

Grid Lock and Baggies.......Again

OK, I told you I can't stop.  If you missed the earlier entry, you can read more here.

Here is a blue grid from the blue baggy:

There isn't so much in the pink baggy, so there are a few paint chips on this one.  But hey, they were in the baggy.

The yellow baggy is actually a yellow/orange baggy; I guess I don't work very much in these colours:

Yeah, I just can't stop.

Happy Weekend, everyone!  I'm off to the Grind today to trade ATC's!

Grid Lock and Baggies

This month on GPP Street Team, Michelle Ward is challenging us to do a grid in our journal.  She even shows a really nifty way of dividing your paper up without having to do the difficult math and measuring.  I like this!

She suggests that we might want to use some of the new paper we buy "for ourselves", thereby freeing us from the "pack-rat" syndrome that prevents us from cutting into the beautiful papers that we buy. 

Now I love grids, and I may be even more of a pack-rat than Michelle suspects.  I have a drawer full of paper scraps that I can't bear to throw away and they are nicely organized in baggies by colour.  Oh brother.  But this quirk of mine made it an easy challenge for me.  I pulled out the "green baggy", and it wasn't long before:

I love grids and I love paper!

Still Stepping on the Scale

Michelle Ward's challenge to work in various size formats (see this) is still rattling around in my head, so even though I'm past the June 1 deadline I'm still "stepping on the scale".  So many of the entries have inspired me that I've got  large size, acrylic painted papers drying in the basement.  I plan to make books so they are being painted on both sides.

Here's one with paper painted only on one side:

Step on the Scale

Some of you may have heard me say how much I love alphabet stamps. How much do I love them? Well, let's just say that I have a few of them.

Michelle Ward at GPP Street Team is challenging us this month with size. Here are a few different size alphabets:

Tissue Paper Painting

Painting tissue paper with gesso and acrylic paint toughens it up so that you can easily punch, cut, glue or otherwise manipulate it as a collage item. Try it in your journal, before putting using it on a more formal piece. This was inspired by Michelle Ward's GPP Street Team: Complete instructions can be found here.

GPP Street Team Crusade No. 39-Pulling Prints

Yesterday was real playtime - getting messy with paints.  Michelle Ward's monthly creativity crusade inspired these:

 

Hop on over to Michelle's Crusade site for complete instructions.