Going Green: My Response

When it comes to my scrapbooking art I am not the "typical scrapbooker". My scrapbooks and wall frames do not have "Mom, Pop, Bud, & Sis", "Here we are at Thanksgiving", "It's Christmas Once Again At Our House", "Look, We're On VACATION", (I wish I COULD have a vacation), and all the various year after year subjects scrapbookers typically fill pages with. There's me, and my now 25 yr old Darling Daughter. Some holidays I am by myself, unless I have the good fortune of having an invite from a close friend. So, my scrapbooking art reflects UN-TYPICAL subjects, along with some typical Christmas or Thanksgiving layouts.

Such is the case with this piece. My friend, Bonnie Olson, took the pictures for my photo shoot last Fall (2009). Thank you, Girlfriend, for your help here. And I had been bagging the pieces (elements) I wanted to include. You see, I wanted to do a "Message" scrapbooking art layout. And this, dear reader, is the result.
OK, LOL, there are a number of "Recycled Elements" on here, purposely.
1) The netting is from a bag of Key Limes.
2) The Green Frame around the middle "go green circle" was the seal on the container of Buttermilk in the Frig.
3) The little Green "thingy" with the word "GO" on it was part of the packaging of one of those oil in the bottle with the reed sticking out air freshener things.
4) The Tan rectangle behind it and the tan "go green" circles were part of the outer packaging of the same air freshener thing.
5) I forget where I recycled the dark green ribbon from.
The scrapbook papers, brads, and chipboard letters, tag, and { } things have been sitting in my stash for, hmmmm, let's just say a good long while. And the "go green" rubber stamp I purchased for $1.00 because it obviously fits.

For scrapbookers in the readership, I used Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress Ink on the papers, Shabby Shutters Distress Ink on the bottom tag, Shabby Shutters and Antique Linen Distress Crackle Paints on the chipboard and brads, and Stazon Black ink with the rubber stamp on the circle tags because the tan circles paper is slick.

My journaling is hidden behind the picture, with the little blue checked half-circle tag attached to pull it out. And THERE is the "rest of the message" of the layout.

Wanna know what it says? Tomorrow (I promise) I'll come back and share that!
Of course, you can always post a comment with your "guess" of what I might have written. LOL

It is finished, and woven artwork

I LOVE to write! And, to be in my studio working on artwork has got to be something akin to what's it's going to be like in Heaven. Then there's the 'take a product, see what I can do with it, and then write a Review about it' adventure. Sometimes when I am finished doing one or the other, or both together, my brain feels like it's been through a triathalon (Spelling 101: this word is NOT in my Webster's 33,000 most used words book here so am not sure I spelled it right. Maybe it's not a 'much used' word???)

Anyways, my brain felt like that TOTALLY when I finished the "Motion Six-ness" piece currently hanging at the Tannery Row Artist Colony/Gallery in Historic Buford, Ga. What a ride that was, exhausting but exhilarating when it was over. I turned around and wanted to do it again like any self-respecting person would. LOL

I'm kind of there again at the moment. I've played and played with the Tim Holtz Grungepaper, designed a number of Art projects with it, have more ideas swimming in my head, written a Review and submitted it and the projects to the editor/owner of www.papercrafterscorner.com for publication. No monetary gain from this one, however, it pushed me once more Artistically, AND one never knows what might be around the next corner. So I do for now what I can do.

In the meantime, I was at http://myrnawacknov.blogspot.com/2010/04/start.html "Creativity Journey" last week reading one of Myrna's posts. She is a fabulous artist and I am inspired by her work and her ability and willingness to experiment outside the box on a regular basis. In one of her posts followed by comments from several of us, the issue came up about what to do with paintings you do and then hate. I mentioned a technique I learned from some of my Artist friends at Tannery Row Artist Colony. You simply cut it up into strips, then use those strips to weave a painting.

Today, since I can't show my grungepaper artwork until it's been published, I thought I would share a different piece of artwork. Upon completion I took it up to show my Artist friends, and they loved it. There was no "I hate this" canvas in the studio here to cut up, so I used a wallpaper border piece, along with other papers, and cut them all up. And being the "I wanna try something a little bit different" person that I am, the strips were cut in different patterns and widths. Of course then I found that made the weaving a bit more challenging, LOL yeah more like a LOT more challenging, but I ended up liking the result. The choice of the dark blue mat really punches out the sunflowers. This is in a white 12x12 frame and looks lovely on my dining room wall.

Until next time, go find something creative to do. Doing so brings an tranquil peace to your soul, and joy to your heart.

Lost and Found Leads to ART

OK, so this week I'm playing around with Tim Holtz's Grungepaper, putting it through various paces and designing with it in preparation for writing a Product Review for www.papercrafterscorner.com. I had this awesome idea for using it on a scrapbook layout and went to pull the TOOL out that I had in mind as part of the design.

I admit it, right here right now; PAPER is my nemesis! After 12+ years of scrapbook and card designing, there's tons in this little studio. And even though I've been actively giving more quality clean up/re-organizing time to change that, it still abounds. HOWEVER, when it comes to my tools, I'm very, very particular in obeying the rule my mother ingrained in us kids growing up; "a place for everything and everything in it's place". No Exceptions!

Imagine the horror then, when I went to pull out my set of these and they weren't where they were supposed to be!
Back in the day (late 1990s) when I first started scrapbooking, I bought and greatly used these Creative Memories decorative edge rulers. We didn't have all the "toys" with their bells and whistles that scrapbookers and paper artists have available today, and though I don't use these particular tools like I used to, when I want one of them, they need to be In Their Place! Fortunately I found them early yesterday afternoon, and the funny part was that they WERE where they were supposed to be. Rather than standing up in the storage case, they had fallen over and were laying in the bottom under other art making supplies. That discovery, made after hours of purging/re-organizing in here, made me want to sit back down to art making. So back to the Grungepaper.

I had a piece of this heavy grungepaper already torn and laying on my workstation. I decided to work it into a card since a longtime friend's birthday is coming up and I wanted to do something special in designing his card. My artist mind started whirling, and excitedly I pulled out watercolor paper, a fine ink drawing pen, water color pencils, artist paint brush, and a couple Tim Holtz Distress Ink pads. The torn GP would be inked and act as the Foreground of my painting. This is what I came up with. After drawing the picture with ink I laid colors in with the watercolor pencils and a wet brush. I'm very excited about this little painting which is the base for the Birthday Card. Another friend from our growing up in South Miami days sent us this old pic weeks ago that we all had fun reminiscing about. It's the old Lighthouse off Biscayne Bay, Miami, Fl.
I want to do a big drawing/painting of it, but for now it helped in doing this little picture as it's been way too long since I saw our beloved palm trees on the beach up close and in person. I will post the link when the finished card, other grungepaper art, and the review article are published. I'm on my way back to the grungepaper scrapbook layout now, however, I just couldn't keep from sharing my latest painting, even though this one is small.

Remember, do something creative every day. For sure, it is food for the soul, and brings joy to your heart.
bj

Experimental Creativity

Does that title make sense????
Well, does or not, I've decided that, at least sometimes, the process of creating art is a lot like science lab experiments or space travel, exploring the universe. As artists, we have this idea pop into our head and it won't leave cause we start thinking about it, with these "what if" or "what would happen if I did..." questions. That's how New Techniques, New Processes come about, whether it's in Art, or another field. Or, for me, even when I walk into my kitchen (what I call my Culinary Studio) and start playing with ingredients for a new dish.

Back to the Art Studio though. For some good time I've been contemplating doing some batiking of fabric. I've held back though because of all the mess, vats of various color dyes, a pot of melted wax (which DOES have a cool smell, I think), ironing board and a hot dry iron, and three (3) kitties running around in this small house. My mind keeps seeing some kind of disaster fixin to happen, and I ask myself, "Self, do you REALLY wanna go there???"

So, as all this meandering has been continuously going on in my brain, the other day I had another "brainy idea". It was one of those "what if" moments. So I got out some Tim Holtz Distress Inks. Then found a piece of muslin and tore strips. Then started "playing". I could also say I was "experimenting", testing out some theories. Doesn't that sound so professional? What "mom voice" could really think it could scream "stop wasting time on that nonsense and get out here and make yourself useful", AND get away with it. Did anyone ever scream that to Louis Pastur or Thomas Edison or Booker T. Washington? And look what they contributed by Experimenting!

I'll stop ranting now :)
So, here's the first strips.
These 3 strips were done with Weathered Wood dye ink, very monochromatic.

Then I tried going with two colors
The bottom two strips I did with Spiced Marmalade and Brushed Corduroy dye inks. I want to do a bigger piece of this one. The top two pieces were worked with Weathered Wood and Brushed Corduroy, really grungy lookin'. I think Tim Holtz would be pleased!

This last set of three I did with the new T.H. Tumbled Glass dye ink and Faded Jeans dye ink. I really like the blue tones.

So, what do you think? I'd like some feedback, truly.
Creating and Experimenting is so much fun!!!
bj