That's a Lot of Hearts

Several weeks ago I drew hearts all over a page in my art journal. I painted them with several Pearlescent Watercolors and outlined them with a very fine black pen. They were cute and the page served as an outlet for some creative urges but that was it. I closed the book and didn't give it another thought until my niece was flipping through the journal and asked me about the colors in the hearts. 

Last night I was playing with my Faber-Castell PITT big brush and loving the results I was getting on a stamped image and thought, what the heck, I'll try it on those hearts. OMG I could not believe the difference in the page. The hearts started jumping off the paper. They went from blah to bam. I loved the change. (so many pages in my journal are a never ending work in progress. I go back to them time and time again to add something. Bet you do the same thing too).

Today I sat down with that page again and started adding "heart" quotes to the inside of the drawings. Just filling in the hearts with words of inspiration. I think that now I might finally be finished with the page but who knows, I might find another quote to add.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Creating.

Susan

Halloween Wreath

You might remember this wreath from earlier in the year. It's just a simple wreath created with die cut paper flowers. I usually change out the embellishments on the wreath with the seasons. This is how my wreath looked for spring and most of the summer.

I'm feeling a change in the air, (yes, even in Florida there are changes to the seasons - subtle, but changes none-the-less). The high temps don't last the greater part of the day and our mornings and evenings are a little bit cooler. All this makes me want to change out the deco to match the new feeling of the outdoors. Yes, it's time to make a pull out the pumpkins, leaf garlands, and change out my wreath. 

I'm starting this season a little ghoulish.  With some barbed wire garland, spiders, a really cool black pendant, and some orange dyed cheese cloth I created a Halloween theme to my previous springy/summery wreath. Quiet a change don't you think?

Just an FYI - This is not an outdoor wreath. The Florida humidity would ruin a paper wreath in no time flat. I just hang my wreath on the inside of my door and since my front door opens to the outside, it still makes a nice greeting when coming inside.

Happy Creating.

Susan

Backgrounds

I love my art journal but sometimes it does not receive the attention it deserves, (i.e. I ignore it and don't journal).  This means I don't reap the rewards that come from spontaneous and free flowing art. Mostly the neglect is time related and I think I might have figured out a remedy.

Seems to me that when I'm busy and away from home for several days I don't work in my journal because I don't have any joy for that plain white background on the pages in my journal pad. To alter that background while away from home would require me to tote too many supplies. I think the solution is as easy as pre-making my backgrounds?

I enjoy making backgrounds and preparing a substrate for working on later. This gives me lots of background choices for journaling on the run or just when I'm in a hurry. 

Here's a few backgrounds I've worked on lately

This background I like so much that I probably won't add anything to it, (except maybe some journaling), I glued down a few vintagey looking ephemera pieces and covered them with small pieces of an old sewing pattern. I used gel medium for my adhesive.

Watered down fluid acrylics spritzed with water and then blotted created this background. The white lines are from painting the edges with fluid acrylics and a lot of misting with water. The paper is held up until I'm satisfied with the amount of running. 

I created this piece with watered down craft paint then misted it with a water bottle and blotted. Brown paint was thinned and splattered on the paper. Tapping the brush against my wrist easily created the splatters. 

Both these backgrounds were created with water soluble crayons. I like to color and then use a water brush to move the pigment around. I randomly bolt with my favorite rag, a coffee filter. On this one I used a heavy hand and blocked the color.

I used a very light touch with the crayons on this page. The colors are more randomly placed than in the example above.

The little bubbles in the corner of this piece happened when I was drying paint on the back side of the page. I like the way it looks but a lesson learned from overheating or holding my heatgun too close.

Hope you enjoyed. Thanks for stopping by. 

Happy Creating.

Susan

Page Sketches

I've got too much paper and if I scrapped ten layouts a day I don't think I could use it all in a year. (nobody out there has any idea what I'm talking about - yeah right!). To deplete my supply I've put myself on a paper diet. This should help stop the spread of the illness but the change in habit is driving me nuts. I'm missing out on some super beautiful papers. To get some of this really nice new paper I'll have to use up what I've already got. How to do this? Hum, let me think. Oh, creating pages and pages of layouts ought to do it, but where do I find the time?

To scrap faster I've started using sketches and I LOVE it. Sketches aren't new for me. I've used them for challenges for years, but I'm talking about using sketches exclusively and wow, what a change it's made in my pages and my time. I can whip out a layout in less than half the time I used to.

Here's a couple of layouts I did last week using sketches from Becky Fleck's site, Page Maps.

(No, that green piece on the left isn't attached on an angle. That's just me still having trouble getting the camera lens parallel and flush with the layout).



Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Creating.

Susan

Paper Stacks

The Altered Page: Paper Stacks

Paper Stacks

The Altered Page is having a collaborative event today. It's very simple to participate. Just take a picture of any of your stacks of paper and post it to your blog. Any stack will do. We've all got them. Some of us hide them, others display them proudly, and yet others, like me, pretend they don't exist. They're not displayed with any pride, they just stick out like a sore thumb.

Here's a picture of my most recent stack. (made all the more untidy by the fact that I'm in the middle of putting up my fall decorations requiring me to take down a few of the minis I usually have on display).

It includes a few handmade minis, my art journal, some paper that I'm planning to use in an 8X8 themed album I'm getting ready to start, a sketch pad, and a couple of photos I printed out.

Check out some of the other stacks at the Altered Page. It might just make you feel a little bit better about some of your own paper stacks.

Happy Creating.

Susan