AAM Monday: February 17, 2014

It seems strange that this is a holiday because I think of President's Day as Feb 22nd. That shows my age but the other thing is that when you are retired, all days are holidays! And on the other hand, while I was still working for the General Assembly here in MD, holidays didn't happen for us. The General Assembly meets for 90 days and while we didn't work Saturday or Sunday, it sometimes felt like we did.  But that's the past and today I'm sharing a page from an All About Me challenge at Designer Digitals.

I was pretty worried about making my appointment with my knee doctor with all the snow we've had. The appointment I had earlier was cancelled due to the first big snowfall that seems to have lingered in one way or another, usually with just more snow. MD doesn't cope with snow the way states who get it on a regular basis do.

Worry also extended to what my future options might be. I was not in an upbeat mood that day so the page came at a perfect time to scrap the emotion out! Art Therapy. It works.

Wordless Wednesday: July 24, 2013

Hem // Tourniquet // Official Video from Jordan Bruner on Vimeo.

Wordy Wednesday: July 10, 2013

In my SEWN class, our first lesson playdate involved making patterns. Just play, says Mary Ann, and she's right...there are no rules for play. But I have to trick my mind to get to that place. It's not by accident that my last job involved legislation not loops of knitting or crochet.

 

 

Made on my iPad

When I went back to college to finish my B.A. I had to take a basic art class. One of the things we were to do was make a full BIG page of doodles. Our teacher said, just do your ordinary doodles. Gulp. I finally said, I don't doodle. I've never doodled. Even when in grade or high school, I only made lists of words. I'd layout the alphabet and think of a category and make a list.  I never doodled.

She said....Oh ...we do have a problem here.  She looked as worried as I felt

I ended up making a paper with what I would now call zentangles, and got an A in the course. I still don't doodle. AT All.

Wordless Wednesday 11 11 30

 

Original at NancyDunn Cards

Oh the wonder

I am constantly amazed at the wonderful things out there on the web. Pinterest is beyond addicting. I spotted this one today, and thought of the Altered Book show I saw at the Baltimore Pratt.  Now I wonder if one of my artistic peeps could do this one. I bet they could. I know I couldn't.

See more of his work here at Flickr.

Art of my Heart

Many little art projects all being made with love around here. These are some of the things I thought about when I was on vacation and it was nice to have a chance to actually put knife to paper, after printing of course! First, here are some numbers printed and being cut. Some red on white, some red on green, some round, some square-ish. Square-ish because I didn't allow enough space between the rows of numbers. Live and learn. All for the December Daily.

Second,  there are the Advent Cards I made for my grandson. I hope it will help his mother focus on the joy in living and help relieve the grief from the death of his sister/her daughter. I backed the white cards with two different shades of green cardstock, textured, and the weight is really nice. I also learned a lot about the do's and don't's of using spray adhesive...

Third,  there is the probable binder for my December Daily album. It was really cheap, and I think it came from Target or the Dollar Store. The stickers came from the $ bin at Michaels. The tag was a free download from Natasha S. Rosenberg.

Finally, there is the location of Shutterfly, where I spent much more time than I would have liked, getting the Hawaii album uploaded and sent off to be printed. However, I had two sale coupons and they expire tomorrow so what's a girl to do.

Done, done, done. How does it feel? Damn good. Now it's time to read books and magazines and get the mind recentered.

I want to try...

Is this not a clever way to show of some of those great travel shots? Much more modern than those collage frames that have more mat space than photo space. The great idea was found at lovinglivingsmall.

I am Such a Virgo

I love this kinda thing. Cutting and pasting and making neat lines etc...then even better organizing the whole bit!

I'm taking Cathy Zielske's ME: The Abridged Version digital class. Actually, as you can see from the cutouts, it's got both digital and paper.


We have tags for each letter of the alphabet, and while these were to be done in the summer, somehow that slipped past me. I guess my mind was still up with Gloria at Johns Hopkins and with Bekah out in AZ. Those are the sad parts of the summer but this is the happy and fun part that balances those things. I made my tag book cover red, but forgot that when I printed on cream, I now have Cream of Tomato! Well, that fit's ...at least it's still food, right?


This isn't part of Cathy's class but it's still out on the worktable. It's the inside paper from T!m Holtz's ruler. I am lovin' that thing. I have a metal ruler but my blade kept actually slicing into the metal...aaaaack. Almost as bad as tin foil on a filling! T!m's ruler had minimal packaging and was EZ to open AND the paper inside is going to be used on an ATC ...someday. How cool is that? It's cool in my book. So back to slicing up the tags, cause I have to refocus on the Altered Book for tonight's Artist Way group. Is this a good day or what?!?!?!

T!m Holtz and Me

Ok, there were a few others around, like 70+ others but I have to say, I felt like I really got personal attention from T!m. When I saw that he was teaching at The Queens Ink in Savage, I really didn't care what he was teaching. I had seen his energy on videos and thought this is a fun guy and I want to feel some of that vibe.

I had hoped it would be some kind of stamping/inky class but there weren't any of those. When I saw the classes available - a metal jewelry making one was filled - I really couldn't tell what they were really about, so I picked one by time. Let's start mid afternoon, rather than early am. I suspected I'd be the klutz in the class but fortunately I'm old enough, and generally confident enough to know that it's ok. I can make the others feel downright gifted that way! Thanks to Father Terry in CA, and a lot of others, I no longer have to be in the 98th percentile. Well usually.

I got over to Savage, and prayed for a good parking space. I haven't done this for a loooong time but Patti always says bring your kit of tools, and with that and my lunch, and my drink, and my purse, I was in need of a sherpa. Since they don't have any on hand in Savage MD that I've seen, I prayed...and someone was leaving the am class as I cruised the more convenient parking lot. Phew!



Everything was all set up and other than a bit of a snafu when I picked a seat I was told was empty by the woman sitting next to it, only to be vehemently told it was TAKEN by another woman when I cam back after looking about. Fortunately, I found my bag of supplies which she swore she never saw anywhere. (In hindsight, I should have prayed for a seat too...) But I found myself next to one helpful woman, and one who seemed to have no intention of speaking the entire 3 hours. Very strange. We also played check my Iphone out with T!m.

So what were we doing? Aha..it turned out to be a book with a metal covered canvas cover. Part of me laughed my head off internally thinking What Have I Gotten Into?!?!? but the idea of making a book appealed to me. So T!m turned on the video, and off we went. He kept walking up and down the aisles as did his Tonto, aka Mario. No surprise that this girl made a few mistakes early on... and when he said it's basic sewing, I understood why. Sewing??? Uh, that was 40 years ago T!m.

We laid out our pierced 'signatures' and then started the process.




T!m swore he'd help the slugs finish up their books with some fatal or minor flaws and so we went on to the metal. The hammering and embossing and coloring were ok, but all in all this is not me. For others in the class it was the main point so no size fits all. I got it all ready, the woman on my left helped me with some of my errors since she had made the same, and then T!m came back and helped me deal with some of my sewing issues.


I wrapped up my book project as T!m went around and helped a few other people out. He really has a great teaching style and is so very very patient in getting you to where you need to be. I'd love to take another class with him and you know, I don't think he stopped talking the entire time! But it was always on task, and with a lot of humor. He's just the kind of teacher you'd want for your own child starting out in school.

The class was sadly over, night was finally falling so I packed up my gear, headed to the bathroom and a look round The Queens Ink. A good day in all, and I have a book that looks pretty much like the example on T!m's website. Well it does if you don't look TOO closely!!!

Oh I've been Creating!

Taking a Brushes on-line class with Jessica Sprague. Lots of fun, but boy do I need to write down the 'directions'. I am having a good time but every once in a while, it's back to the video to see which step I am forgetting or not using correctly. She has us making our own note cards which I haven't done yet, but it sure seems to be a good idea! Each of us needs our own info and for me there is no TMI!

A text-edged frame for this one.



Finally from the class, a grunged up frame for Bekah.


Then there were these pages that showcase the food of the summer. Oh yum oh yum oh yum!


Loved the retro way this one came out.


So that's what's been going on round her. Fun and lots of time at the computer learning new things.

My Creative Space

Cleaned up the worktable pre trip. I love seeing the wood again!


One bit remaining from punching a bunch of items to send on to little 'artiste' grandchick. That's the stuff in the bag. As I was piling it in, I saw some that had edges missing and spread them out on this lavender paper from a greeting card. I am going to leave that unless I get a burst of ..Oh THIS is how I could finish it. Maybe I will glue it but maybe I won't.

I am amazing myself when I see how much purple and lavender I am using recently. Just say you heard it here - Maureen was in her 'purple period' in 2009.

Kirsty has the list of players over here. So go check it out - there are loads of players to inspire you.

Stamping with Bleach

To answer the main question, I used straight bleach, but a cheap brand. I am also thinking that bleach, when exposed to air, has a pretty short life. You chemistry folk can provide the details. This just means there's no point in soaking a thick pad as it will lose its 'zing' after x amount of time. Bleach, even Clorox, is cheap enough to keep resaturating if you plan to do a massive stamping.

There are many posts and videos about this on the web about this technique, but this is the video I watched.

My Creative Space

Working a lot yesterday on the Bleached ATC swap. This was totally new to me and I did find a good video on the technique - basically making stamp pad with paper towels fairly saturated with bleach. "Ink" the stamp with the bleach and eh viola! You can see the mixed results and the various reactions of papers to the bleach. I like that kind of thing where you don't know what the end result will be.


I also hope to finally get to take a stamping class in June or July since I don't always get a good result with just ordinary stamping. It makes me think of yoga and how good it is to have an expert help you make adjustments to what you/I think is accurate positioning. {and yes, I now see that I misspelled technique on the photopabe about this method. Maybe one day I'll go back and change the psd file. Maybe.}

Kirsty has the list of more players over here. Lots of creative spaces and what goes on there.

Walking

I saw a photo or art prompt today tho for the life of me I can't recall where. But anyhow, a photo from the trip to England came right to mind. It was fun to do but boy I am still getting stuck in a couple of techniques. Recoloring an element or changing a .png to an .abr. I know I have been able to do this before but there was a lot of mindfreeze today.



Tomorrow the ATCs get done!

Transfer Technique

This is a long overdue answer to how my gel transfer images turned out. I was using ink jet copies, which I knew wouldn't work as well as inkjet, but hey...use what you have and see. DH has an inkjet so I got him to make some copies for me for another time.

You see Flopsy and Mopsy in two photos. If I had rubbed more, I would have rubbed us away. I think...and better collage-artists than I please chime in...I think there is a line between no longer wet-wet, and bone hard dry? Am I correct in thinking that one should wet/rewet and rub the paper off somewhere in the middle ground?


These are now put aside to use some later day or maybe not. Time will tell. But I get the gist of the process which was the point.

Learn and Make

Ginny of SmallStudio asked where my creations were from the collage class with Claudine Hellmuth. Well one or two are shown in the photo taken at the class. These are obviously in process. As the day wore on, I had bits of ink and gel on my hands despite a lot of washing and didn't want to handle the Iphone any more as I worked. A lot of the transfer bits weren't dry by the time I left, so they are still undone. Hopefully today they'll be uncovered.

I made two tags, which was a nice size to work with but I wouldn't bother to make tags again as I don't use them. One is for dh's birthday tomorrow so don't TELL. I liked this gesso technique. Cover with a thick layer of gesso, make it rough looking and scratch out a message. When it's dry, cover with a wash of color, and then wipe the color off to show the scratched bits. The green was the cover, and then I added bits of purple for 'the king's birthday'. It's subtle...


Here is that yellow tag from the first picture and two other bits. I like that 'contact paper' transfer but funnily enough Claudine said that Contact brand doesn't work as they have changed the formula. Hint...Target has their own brand which does work!

I may go back to that brown one on the right and do more with it or just leave it as an example of technique. I don't care for it but that's ok. I'm anxious to see the two white gel transfers uncovered. They are surely dry by now! They we'll see where that one goes.

As you see I am truly in collage kindergarten but I'm having fun, and that's the whole point for me. I now see how some things work and what I would do differently and how some technique appeals to me and others don't. I think for artwork, I can modify the saying I try to live The joy is in the journey. to The joy is in the process. Works for me!

Sticky Hands On Fun

Yes, I did have fun! I took a class I have wanted to take for some time but couldn't quite find the time or be in the right place. Claudine Hellmuth, now a 'neighbor' in DC, taught her classic "Collage Discovery" at The Queens Ink in Savage MD. Now The Queens Ink is a place dh and I stumbled upon one day last year, two years ago? when I said I hadn't been to Savage Mills in a zillion years. "The Queen" has it all and has wonderful classes with many well known visiting artists. It always seemed that we would be away when one I had looked forward to was scheduled. Finally got this one on MY calendar!

Claudine, in case you don't recognize her, is the blue eyed blond on the right - probably the only long haired person who didn't get paint or gel in her hair!

Claudine did a few of the basic resist techniques for us, we took notes, and then we went back to our own places and played! Funny how so many of us were so eager to play we didn't read our notes again, and learned over and over to go with the flow and get over it."Oh...no gel on the paper before you add the masking tape!" Play and learn.

Can't get to a class? Well try Claudine's first book Collage Discovery Workshop. She has a few other books and some videos out besides, and a new book in the wings due shortly.

I went home with paint on my fingernails and a few items I had made, and a lot of good memories of fun, a great teacher and lots of companionship. I wish I could do this every month! At least there is an Artist Way studio day next Saturday.

Do you have a 'play-group' for your creative endeavors? Don't you NEED one???

Saatchi Gallery

I always find it amazing that in London I can keep visiting and visiting and always find so many places I've never explored. I suspect that the Saatchi Gallery wasn't in existence on my visits long long ago so that's one excuse. I know I have been by the location - the former Duke of York barracks - before but I don't think the gallery had moved here yet.

Saatchi is a free gallery and very open and approachable. I highly recommend the current Middle Eastern exhibit - Unveiled. Hope you enjoy this glimpse. btw, note the beautiful wood floors with wide planks and wooden pegs designed by a Danish firm . Very easy on the feet!