Answering Challenges

                                                                  Still Life Bouquet

  This bouquet goes to Kristin and EVA for hosting Paint Party Friday, and to all the contributing artists. Since discovering their PPF blog and meeting with so many talented souls each week  I have seen my art grow as I continue to be inspired. I have become much more relaxed in my own artistic skin and take away a hunger to create even more after visiting everyone. I have connected with challenges and artists I most likely wouldn't have gotten to know if it wasn't for PPF. A heartfelt thank you to everyone!

  Still Life Bouquet represents tackling my fear of working on a black or very dark background. Here is how it evolved:

  OK, I tell myself to take a deep breath (or two), get out the black paint and some mark making tools, and let go of the fear!

  The photo here looks a bit lighter than it actually was. I applied a fairly thick coat of black paint then did some mark making. Once it dried I did some scratching into the surface (sgraffito). Now what? I really thought this page would sit like this in my journal a long time- either that or get covered up. A few days later however inspiration struck! At Mix It Monthly , Piarom's (Conny) challenge this month is "still life" and I knew I wanted to do a vase of flowers on a table. With still a nice pile of vibrantly painted gelli prints nearby I got started. The vase, table and large flowers are all printed papers. The little white flowers and stems were painted in afterwards. I had let my fear go, and out emerged a page I am so proud of!
  So, how about you? How do you conquer your artistic fears? And have you been pleasantly surprised by the outcome?

              Linking to Paint Party Friday, Mix It Monthly, Art Journal Every Day.

  Another monthly challenge I have discovered through PPF is Art Journal Journey with Susi. Her many art pages for each of the monthly challenges are so varied- and gorgeous!! The theme this month is "Deep in The Forest" and here is my first contribution:

 

   The page already had some mopped up green and pink spray ink on it. I saw the trees and used a fan brush  along with some green acrylics and Payne's Gray (another dark color that scares me) and just tapped the loaded brush for the shapes. Once dry I painted on trunks . The words were added digitally. 

 And now for a completely different art project! Freshly Made Sketches is a wonderful blog that features a new card sketch each week and shares fresh and clean cards created by the design team to inspire. This week's sketch was created by Jen T:

 And here's my card:

I flipped the sketch around to make my card. Products: patterned paper (Stampington and Company); patterned card (DCWV); orange card stock; cat image, October 31 and black German border (ARTchix Studio); stamp image (Giga Guidelines UM set-Papertrey Ink); Versafine Onyx Black ink(Tsukineko); buttons, embroidery threads from my stash; sentiment -computer generated.

 I'm also linking this to the Simon Wednesday Challenge Blog (theme this week is Color Coordinates-black, slate, orange, green apple and lavender).

 Thanks so much for stopping by!
 
                                         How about I give YOU a challenge now?
                                          Choose a fear you have about creating-
                                        whether it's a medium, a color, a style, etc.
                                                      and let go of that fear!
                                                              Just try it!
                                                                 Play!
                                                 And be pleasantly surprised!

                                          " Feel the fear and do it anyway."      Susan Jeffers