Page at last and icad too

I finally did an art journal page last night.  FINALLY!  From start to finish (thanks to my beloved industrial strength heat gun)!  And, I suppose, technically two pages.  *insert gigantic sigh of relief here*

I decided that I would start to watch some videos for art journaling and see if I could learn some new techniques, be reminded of ones I've not used for a while, and even to see if I saw something that would inspire me to create a brilliant technique of my own.  

So, last night I sat down and queued up Pinterest and started searching...and then ingeniously forgot to pin the video I watched, so I sadly can't share it with you.  When I stumble across that video again, I promise I will put up the link...and I'll remember to pin the video next time so I can share it with you right away!

At any rate, I watched a video (it was a lady who did a Dyan Reavely inspired video, using Dyan's products/style)and then tried to copy what the woman in the video did.  She did some things I didn't/couldn't do (because I didn't have all the supplies she did) and I added in my own touches as well to get the pages to be 'finished' and more my style.  And here they are:

Started off by spaying the page with fresh lime and black marble Dylusions (I notice people using this color combo a lot, and it looks good when they do it, but I HATE it when I try it...)  Then I used one of Dyan's stencils (which I do have, but don't know the name of...it's the one with the flower edge and dots in the middle) and sprayed through it with the same color dylusions as above.  And then I decided (she did not do this in the video) to use some white acrylic paint and went through the stencil with it as well (because the page was VERY dark in places, and I didn't like that.   Then, in the video, the woman uses one of Dyan Reavely's stamps on a separate piece of paper, and then glues it on the page, but I don't have any of her stamps, so I just drew a girl instead, colored her in with Dylusions and pasted her in.  I used postbox red Dylusions sprayed through the same stencil on the left page to tie in with the headband of the girl. Then I used the mini "Mixed Up Alphabet" stencil and traced out the letters on the left page ("You gotta be kidding me"), with Pitt pen and then colored it in with acrylic paints in yellow and in turquoise to try to tie in the girl a little better...she was sticking out like a sore thumb pretty badly.  Then I took some black acrylic paint and added in the words on the right page ("Can I just be over it now?") because there was too much white going on.  Then I added the dots with turquoise and black acrylic in some random places, outlined some stuff as well.  I used black faux-latos around the girl and then a sparkly peachy one to color in her face a little more (it was a VERY stark white before)...then I took that same sparkly peach and went over the whole page randomly.  And then it was bedtime!

I also got my ICADS done for yesterday and today, just didn't have time to share them.  Both are on 3x5 cards.

This is the one for the 19th, the prompt was 'summer':

I saw a picture of this on Pinterest, and it had these really bright awesome super saturated colors, and I thought that looked pretty summery, so I tried to recreate it on a card.  I REALLY LOVE how the colors look on this.  (Used watercolor and Pitt pen)

And here's today's card, with the prompt of 'poem'

:

"Faces of other people follow me around the room."  This is acrylic paint and then I glued down some faces I made using paperclay (the blueish white ones) and Martha Stewart Crafter's Clay (the purple ones).  I painted their eyes, lips, and cheeks with acrylic.  The poem this is from is below in it's entirety.  I wrote it and it's a double alphabet poem, minus the letter 'x', because there are just not that many 'x' words out there to use...  I always end up cheating and using words that sound like 'x' at the beginning...extreme, extra, etc.

"The Firing Synapses"

And you will always

Be with me, beloved.

Closed eyes call and you answer in 

Dreams that keep you dear to me, 

Ever in my thoughts, even where you shouldn't be.

Faces of other people follow me around the room.

Giddy laughter covers the gloom in me.

Half of my life rots with you, hallow in the grave.

Indecision corrodes the rest.  If only you had not...

Justice, however, won't be served and I'm always jolted back.

Killing me slowly, they keep it up.

Love, they never seem to let me alone.

My memories of you are constantly interrupted,

Not by anything I care for, nothing important,

Only for the sake of this half life I lead.  This open wound

Pouring, barely enough left to keep me going.  Nothing easing the pain.

Quietly, life drains out of me...quick enough I suppose.

Ready or not, when the time comes, you can't resist.

Sometimes I wonder where you are now.  Sickly

thoughts try to make sense of it.

Useless.  I know I will never understand

while I still breath, while I still think, 

exactly what happens, what to expect.

You yearn to know or else try to forget the question.

Zapping your brain, the synapses zero in or else try to disconnect.

So there you have it...if you'd like to read more of my poetry (some is pretty decent, I swear!) you can check it out HERE.

Fishbowl

The challenge this week for one of the Facebook groups I'm in is My All-Time Favorite Song.  

The hard part about this challenge for me is how do you pick just one?  I love music and lyrics!  It's literally impossible to pick my absolute favorite song!  It's a thousand way tie!  Maybe if you told me pick your favorite song for when you're in this mood or that mood or this situation or that situation I'd have a better chance at narrowing it down...but absolute favorite above all others?  IMPOSSIBLE!!!

I feel multiple journal pages coming on...

Here's what I have so far:

"We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl year after year"  ...I love that line!

This page is inspired by "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd.  

In an odd turn of events, I had actually started this page before I found out that the theme of this weeks challenge was music related.  (I feel like I cheated a little bit!)  Many of my pages have started out because of the words to a good song.  I'm always listening to music...seriously...as I write this, I've got my Spotify mix going in the background.

How does music manage to move us so completely?  Why does it lift our spirits when we're down?  Why do I put on a sad song when I'm in a melancholy mood?  How can it call to mind things from the past so easily? Whatever it is about music, I'm so happy that we have it to soothe, to comfort, to energize, and to punctuate our lives so well.

It's all there in black and white...

This is one of my pages for the Creative Every Day 2013 challenge (you can read more about the challenge here) :

Made using Black Marble Dylusions ink, black and white watercolor and gouache and Pitt pen for the journaling.

I really like that the theme of the month is entirely optional at Creative Every Day...the point is to get creative, no matter what you choose to do!  I like that message.  But the March theme really seemed like fun to me: Black and White.  I have been reading about tone and depth and scale and shading and all that good stuff, so I thought it might be a good challenge to see what I could do with just black and white.  And this little lady came popping out of my brain and splatted on the page!  I like her very much...she makes me want to try using just one color and white more often and seeing what I can end up with.  Maybe a whole rainbow of girls.

The biggest majority of the girl is made using only Dylusions spray ink in Black Marble (and water).  I just unscrewed the cap and dipped my paint brush right in!  The major outlines are pure spray ink, and the shading is just where I touched water to the edges of those outlines.  Since the Dylusions react with water, I got some great shading with only water on the brush.  Did I ever tell you how much I love the Dylusions?  Well it's true...I love them...le sigh...

I will have to go back through the rest of the Creative Every Day themes and see what peaks my interest.  I had such a good time with this page, that I think I would like to do Black and White more often.  I think it made me pay more attention to the shading and details, knowing I wouldn't have any other colors to distract the old peepers from my mistakes!  

I really enjoy seeing how my stuff is changing...thanks to the kindness of others I am starting to look at my pages with a less critical eye...or maybe I am getting better!  I don't know, but I'll take either option!  I was kindly reminded recently that the reason we art journal is because it's enjoyable...we play, we get better at it, we have fun, we keep going!  It so great to have a wonderful community of people out there who encourage, teach and share the love with each other.  These folks have certainly helped to make my time spent being creative much more enjoyable and I am so thankful to them for it.

Playing with colors and shapes

I just recently got the Dylusions spray inks.  I can't express how AWESOME they are, and I know I haven't even scratched the surface of fun things you can do with them!  I've just been spritzing all willie nillie!  They are so vibrant, the pictures don't do them justice.

The first page I did with them, it made me want to go crazy with color choices, so here's what happened:  

"What you think of yourself is much more important than what other people think of you."

She's not my best girl by far, but I had a lot of fun using the crazy colors...I will have to revisit the crazy color girl face for sure.  I think I can do it better than this one, and I am excited to try!

This is the second page I did with the Dylusions:

"I meant to behave but there were so many other options!"

I really like how this one came out!  I love that quote so much...  The colors are really cool...  I like the packing tape transfer method a lot...  My favorite thing is the doodled tree.  I love that the colors come through the packing tape and the tree shape...  I think it's so much fun!

I don't know if anybody else has seen any of Dyan Reavely's videos (she's the lady behind Dylusions), but she seems like she'd be such a blast to be around.  She's got so much personality...in a world of cheerios, she's a fruit loop...  And I love her for it!