Be Open To Whatever Comes Next

  I'm starting a new art journal as my other two are about filled. I've been using the PRO ART sketch books for about 7 years now.  These books come in several sizes and personally I love the spiral binding which allows me to open the book completely flat. I've slowly and gradually progressed from the smallest size to the next and the next but found that in order to have more space for my calendars for Kate Crane's Calendar project  I needed to go even bigger-yikes!! But time to take the plunge. So I bought the 8 1/2" x 11" book. The pages are somewhat thin so I glue two pages together. I used to use UHU glue sticks to glue the pages but with these large pages I decided to go with spray adhesive.

  Usually I just open to a random place in the book to begin a spread but in this case I wanted to start on the first page and wanted to set a kind of tone. Given I've been doing so many pages lately with freedom and abandon I chose to reel it in a bit and try a more balanced, thought out, minimal approach.

 

 It began with three acrylic paints-yellow, peach and pink. I wanted to add a little more color so I cut and tore shapes from tissue paper. I kept thinking how the turquoise bit reminded me of a mountain.  There was a magazine clip out on my desk, along with the sentiment and it was all the page needed.

 

 

 

 I cut out the image and painted it with black gesso as I wanted a silhouette. The sentiment was stamped with two different alphabet sets in Jet Black Staz-On ink. And you know, just as when I do pages with wild abandon and the energy is in harmony with it, the same can be said for this page.It was done with a calm and peaceful energy. Does this happen to you too??

 

 Linking this up to Art Journal Everyday.

 

  I cannot end this post without mentioning two  special young ladies I had the pleasure to "meet" simply because they left me a comment on one of my posts and thankfully left me a link to their blogs. I'd like to introduce you to these lovlies from Pakistan. Please stop by and leave them a comment. There is nothing like leaving a kind and encouraging word or two to support these very young talented ladies.

 

  Welcome to blogland: Hadiyah- http://www.anartisticheart.blogspot.com/

 

                               and: Duaa- http://ibreatheit.blogspot.com/

 

 

                              "Don't go through life, GROW thru life." Eric Butterworth





Summer Inspiration Giveaway Winners and Stamp Carving

  Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a good weekend. We had a nasty storm come thru Saturday for a few hours and it took out our power (yet again!) but thankfully only for an hour this time, and fortunately we didn't get the hail predicted.

  Here are the winners of my giveaway:

The necklace goes to: Joanna!

"Hello Linda, I came here for a look at your hand carved stamps :) I'm now your newest follower.
Both the necklace and the flag are BEAUTIFUL - but I've got to choose one so please put my name in the hat for the necklace, THANK YOU!"

 

And the prayer flag goes to: Jenny!

 

"It is a difficult decision! The necklace is beautiful, but I think I will throw my hat into the ring for the prayer flag. I know someone who needs it!"

 

  Congratulations ladies! Please email me your mailing addresses.

 

  I couldn't let it at this and although I couldn't make something for everyone who left a comment I did make an extra prayer flag and an extra necklace yesterday which I'm going to send out to two other commenters as RAKS whom I won't reveal because it's to be a surprise! 

 

  Thank you all so much for your kind words and for playing along!

 

  I just finished Lesson 8( which is titled "One Little Word") of Julie Balzer's online Stamp Carving 101 class. I carved out three words (yes, it was a challenge for sure!) and a ribbon scrap inspiration had me carve another extra stamp. I need ALOT more practice with the curves of the scripted letters but they turned out OK and as Julie says "practice,practice,practice". One piece of advice I'd add is to start with a much larger image than those I carved-it would be SO much easier to start with :)

 

 

 

 

  And here is the ribbon inspiration that inspired me to carve this stamp:

 

 



  See that tool on the left? I used it to make the holes in the rubber! It's one piece of a two piece eyelet setter set.

 

  

 This is a close up. It's used like an awl to punch a hole for placement of an eyelet. Makes perfect circles in the rubber!

 

  And these are the tags I made for myself and Lenna Andrews, who's playing along with me:

 

 

  I simply stamped the torn ribbon image (kinda looks like a bandaid too doesn't it?) with light inks and then the words over top. Kept the background undone to showcase the stamps. One more lesson to go before class is over. I'm gonna miss it.

 

 Now that September is upon us and Autumn is approaching along with Halloween and Thanksgiving I guess I'll have to shift into gear and start creating for the season-how about you?

 

         "Find the gift behind the challenge and it will become your friend." Alan Cohen

 

 

Another Stamp Carving Lesson and AJED

  Just a quick reminder that I'm having a Summer Inspiration Giveaway ! You have thru this Sunday, Sept. 9th to leave me a comment here  and let me know which giveaway you'd like.


  It's Saturday and that means it's time to link up to Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's AJED (Art Journal Everyday). She posts the challenge along with the linking up on Fridays. Whether or not I have something to link up with I really love checking out the participating artists links-there's always something new to learn and be inspired by! Check it out for yourself.

  This is my journal play this week:

  I can't even begin to tell you all that went into/onto the pages but I can give some insight -(sometimes you just get into the zone and don't even know what all you're doing-know what I mean?) It began with pages already partially covered with leftover paint, spray inks and stencilling. I added more Dylusion sprays, Dylusion stamping (punchinella and alphabet), script circles I stamped on white cardstock and cut out. Then I did some flower-like doodling with markers and paint pens. Added the lg. UM stamp image (Tim Holtz stamp) at upper left and an older Stamper's Anonymous shadow image on the lower right after finding the quote I wanted to use. I was SO going to type the quote and put it on the page as I don't like my writing but then I gave myself a quick talking to. If I could create a page with such abandon, why not just write with abandon too? So in case you can't read it-" Don't ask what the world needs. Ask for what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Howard Truman

And here's a detail photo:

  It's been awhile since I last worked on my online class Stamp Carving 101 (also with Julie Balzer) and decided I needed to get back to it lest I forget the  lessons I've been learning.

  I finally completed my alphabet and number set of stamps, along with a border I carved for fun and practice. So here are the completed stamps:

 

 

  My friend Lenna Andrews is taking the class with me and we decided to do a project together by making tags for each other representing each week's lessons. We'll get to see each others' carvings and have a nice fat tag book of samples when we're finished! My previous carvings and tags beginning with the first lesson can be found on previous posts or on my Flickr photostream.

 

 

  Here are the tags:

 



  Dylusion spray inks on the background. The buttons are vintage with the exception of the blue ones.
I'm working on Lesson 8 which is definitely more challenging-scripted words.

  Have a fabulous weekend! See you Monday with the names of the winners of my giveaway.

             "A bird only flies. It does not turn to another bird and ask 'am I doing this right?' "
                                                                                          Mary Anne Radmacher

A New Month and a New Calendar Spread

  I just can't believe it's now September but so long as the summer weather continues I'm happy!

  I've been participating in Kate Crane's 366 Calendar Project on her blog The Kathryn Wheel since January of this year and it's time to share my completed August pages and my September pages all set to go. You can view my previous calendar pages on older posts beginning in March. January and February's are in my Flickr photostream as I didn't have a blog then.

  I chose to make contact sheet size copies of some of the friends we spent time with during our extended vacation this month to complete the little bit of space I had left. You can see how the pages began in this post.

 Here's how my Sept. pages began:

 

  I brushed lime green, turquoise and yellow acrylic paints over the pages. When dry I took a piece of plastic canvas and sponged orange acrylic paint thru it halphazardly for making marks on the pages with a grid-like pattern.



  I continued adding pattern to the pages by sponging gesso thru punchinella, using several size bottle caps to make the black and white circles and using a foam dauber and orange acrylic for the larger dots. Then I spritzed the pages lightly with Dylusions ink sprays in Black Marble and Squeezed Orange. I took the spray top off the bottle of the Bubblegum Pink and used the pipette attached to it to add some random splatters. I liked the way this turned out so much , and knowing that most of it would be covered I saved individual page scans to be used in the future. Actually, it didn't take me long to use them as you can see here on one of several prayer flags I made:

  I simply resized my scan, typed the sentiment over it, made a mirror image, printed it out on t-shirt transfer paper, then ironed it onto muslin. I'm giving this one away so check the end of my post with the info for your chance to win, along with a necklace giveaway.

  And last but not least here's my Sept. calendar spread ready to go:

  I'm linking this up to Kate's blog and then will visit the other inspiring links there. Anyone is welcome to play at any time, whenever they can, so take a look-perhaps you will be inspired to record your days in an artful way.

 Please be sure to check out my Summer Inspiration Giveaway  on this post. You have thru Sunday Sept. 9th to leave a comment telling which giveaway you prefer.I will randomly choose a winner for each sometime Monday Sept. 10th. Good luck to all!

                                                    "Follow your heart. It knows the way."

Shine

  Ever have a time or two when you and your mind wandered from one thing to another, and another, and another, and....?  I admittedly do that quite frequently and thus don't always reach my goals for that day. However, sometimes those days bring those wanderings full circle; it's all connected, and an unexpected project is created. Like this canvas :

 

 

   This is how it happened. First I spent some time reading thru a recent Cloth Paper Scissors magazine (July/August). I read an article by Cathy Taylor titled "Rethink Alcohol Ink". One of the techniques she suggested was to use tar gel. And the wandering begins :

 

  "Hey I have that stuff-haven't used it in forever! Same with the alcohol inks...gotta try it NOW... but where are my supplies????" Ok, got the tar gel and a scrap of glossy paper. I really should be working on my stamp carving and thinking of a word to carve in my next lesson-Ooh, I'll just drizzle the word "shine" with the tar gel."

 

  If you haven't used or heard of tar gel it's gel transparent made by Golden. The consistency is similar to that of Karo syrup. It states on the jar "it is very stringy and web-like." You can also mix in acrylic paint to tint the gel which I didn't do here.

 

  "It takes awhile to dry so I'll leave it for now. Better go watch Lesson 8 of Julie Balzer's online Stamp Carving Class. Done. But while I'm on the PC I should catch up with some more of my fave blog haunts. Oh, Dina Wakley has had an Out of the Journal Challenge going on her blog! This is the last week so I have a chance to add the tar gel thingy to the challenge if it turns out. "

 

  Once the tar gel dried I added a few drops of several Adirondack alcohol inks along with some blending solution and watched it spread about. I gently removed some color off the gel tar letters with a an eraser so it would be more pronounced. I used the basic idea of Cathy Taylor's technique but got different results because I played on glossy paper instead of what Cathy used. I still think it's pretty cool tho and plan on experimenting more now that I have the supplies out.

 

  "Oh, but wait, no more experimenting until I get a word carved for lesson 8. Deal. But I need to rest awhile; it's been a long journey :)"

 

   See what I mean, full circle! I'm linking this up to Art Journal Everyday and the Out of the Journal Challenge.

 

    Just a reminder that I'm having a Summer Inspiration Giveaway which ends Sunday Sept. 9th. Go here to see what I'm giving away and to lv a comment.

 

 

                "I may become distracted and wander, but sometimes it all comes together in the end.

              That's a good thing."