LIFE IS GOOD - Sewing Spread

Hi everyone! 

When we were growing up our mother made our clothes and was a fantastic seamstress.  We always had beautiful dresses for Easter and Christmas and I can recall her at the sewing machine late Christmas Eve finishing up the details while we were supposedly asleep in bed.  She could remake an outfit for our brother from items handed down by cousins who also gave us dresses to re-size.

I was almost a teenager when I got my first bought coat.  Mother and I went shopping and I saw this adorable blue coat with white trim but mother selected a more sturdy one that would be ideal for our winter weather.  I was disappointed but knew her choice was best.

My sister and I learned how to sew and I took a sewing class in junior high school and struggled with a French seam (perfectionist at work); and, as teenagers we started making our skirts and tops adding trim via embroidered designs. 

For my spreads in my UNIQUE JOURNAL, I use tags and my personal journaling is on the reverse of each tag.  I used several items from grandmother's sewing basket.  The cost of the buttons on the left-hand page were 10 cents.  I can't even remember when we attached snaps and hooks like the packet I also included.  My spreads are more CD because I wanted to add items before they got lost or thrown away.  I created the doll template on the right-hand page and hope to use it as a stencil on other pages and several elements were from my dear friend, Debbie.

I also will link to Carolyn Dube's LETS PLAY. 

HAPPY AUGUST.

A New Journey - NATURE

I completed another spread in my journal, NATURE. This was an interesting experiment.  I started with a rice paper butterfly serviette, added some stamps for texture and covered the pages with a light coat of gesso and added color.  I used the Marigold stencil from Donna Downey splitting it to cover both pages and added color with a sponge.  On the left panel, I added a die cut of a flower, painted, repainted, added glitter and outlined in black.  I also used a stencil for the word Nature. When I looked at the final page, it was dull so I added some Glossy Accents to the butterflies on the right page using my fingers so it would not be isolated to a specific area. When dry, I was not happy so I thought I would spray both pages with a final coat to protect them and also provide a finish to both pages.  I used a heavy spray of Grumbacher matte Picture Oil Painting Varnish. The results were amazing in that the glossy appearance on the right-hand page disappeared and actually went flat.  You could no longer feel the texture from the Glossy Accents but the glitter remained.  It was like the varnish dissolved the texture.  I have other fixative sprays but wanted to try this one.  I LOVE TO EXPERIMENT. 

I will add this to LET'S PLAY, using a product not intended for acrylics.

A New Journey - CHINA

The monthly theme at Art Journal Journey is MAPS.  This gave me the perfect opportunity to create a page for China.  When I use kanji or other Chinese and Japanese symbols within my projects for a design effect, sometimes they don't represent their true meaning.  For this piece, I think I'm okay.

Oriental art has been a passion of mine for a very long time so this is the first of many spreads to come with an oriental theme.  I am also submitting it to Permission to Play.

A New Journey - HOPE

Spring is my favorite season of the year watching the dreary days of winter turn green followed by the beautiful flowers.  Poppies are not spring flowers but one of my favorites and for some reason my black thumb dodesn't help them survive in our yard.  I also have HOPE but realize that we must accept what is and I'm okay with that as well. So I added it to my page.  I will be linking to Lets Play and Create Every Day. 

A New Journey - MUSIC

Music has always been a big part of my life.  My sister and I walked at least a mile each week to catch a bus to Sugar House and then transfer to another bus for our violin lessons.  As we progressed, we were included in the Utah Junior Symphony  and our conductor was the famous, Maurice Abravanel.  He conducted the Utah Symphony Orchestra for over 30 years.

As an adult driving to and from work in California, I would sing along with the music from the radio.  No iphones or tablets to entertain us. At home, I would crank up the stereo and listen to music from classical to western to jazz.  I go way back because I also loved the Ink Spots.

Hubby and I attended several concerts of all types in the Los Angeles area and when we moved to Eagle, Idaho, we spent many falls in Sun Valley attending the Jazz Festival.

When my hearing deteriorated due to a fall back in 1996 and severe ear infections and surgeries, music was not as enjoyable. 

Below is a photo of my musical spread as my journey continues which I will also post to LETS PLAY and Create Everyday.  ( I tie a tag to the center of each spread to write my journaling on the back side.)

A New Journey - GIVE THANKS

Below is a photo of my latest spread.  The border was inspired by Debbie when she let me experiment with her sprays and Dylusion inks. More fun techniques yet to try, thanks Debbie.

A NEW JOURNEY - spread completed

Carolyn Dube of Permission to Play - Lets Play has stated that if you don't like a page you can paint over it and start again.  W E L L,  I wasn't happy with the left page so I made a few changes and completed the right-hand page.  When I started my New Journey it was due to the recurring of my lymphoma and I made the decision to try a new chemo to prolong my life and hopefully put my cancer back in remission.  I decided that during the treatment, I would take advantage of the days or hours when I felt good to do those things I love, spending time with family, friends, and working in my new journal or other crafty items and hopefully working in my flowers and yard.

I have made a tag for my journaling which I attach to the coil binding in the appropriate spot for each spread.  This is where I write how I feel, what prompted the page I created or thoughts in general.  I didn't want to leave space on my pages for a lot of words and felt a tag was the best way to record the details that prompted the spread.

I am also linking to Art Journal Journey and Creative Every Day.

A NEW JOURNEY

My goal for 2016 was to create an art journal and I was off to a fairly good start when I received news that the cancer I conquered last year had returned.  So I am off on a new journey to beat this by enjoying my family, friends, surroundings and making the most of each day as I receive treatment. This time I may get to keep my hair.

As you can see I am not an artist, never could draw and the idea of my journal is to put my thoughts, ideas and techniques down on paper.  I am also entering this in Art Journal Journey, Lets Play and
Create Every Day.

March DIVAS project Completed

As mentioned in the previous post, Linda our hostess brought her gelli plate, paints, tags, with a project to create tags and hang them from a hanger three across.  I had this darling hanger so I used it and placed my completed tags in two rows.  I am linking my project to LETS PLAY and CREATIVE EVERY DAY.

I embellished my tags with ribbons, birds and butterflies and some verse which is hard to read on the photo.  Thank you, Linda, for sharing this project and showing the results of applying color using a Gelli Plate.

LETS PLAY with a Gelli Plate

What fun to learn and play using a Gelli plate to create backgrounds on tags for a project that will come together thanks to Linda at our monthly Divas Art Group who hosted the project.  I Will show you a photo of the project when completed.

For now I wanted to show off my play time making these terrific backgrounds.  Some were embossed first, color applied to the plate and then the tag face down on the plate to pick up the color.  For the one with the butterflies, I used the remnants of some punched out butterfly elements and placed it on the Gelli plate to pick up some of the color, and then I placed the tag card down to pick up the color remaining.  This was my all time favorite as the remnant picked up some of the coloring leaving the areas untouched where the butterflies had been removed.  (Hope that is more clear than mud.)
In any event I had so much fun that I will link this to LETS PLAY at http://acolorfuljourney.com. It was so much fun that I had to order me a plate to play more.  I need some fantastic backgrounds for my journal.

 



Easter Cards

My journal has been on hold why I took time to make Easter cards to send to family.  It was a fun break but now I have the most messy craft area ever.  I have attached photos of some of the cards I made.

 

After I scanned three together, I found that using Photoshop I could have straitened each one individually on the scan.  Little did I know at the time; always learning something new.  Thus next time, my scan won't be so crooked.  Hope you all have a pleasant weekend.

 

 

 

LETS PLAY

March is headed off on the right foot with a day to play.  I have almost finished my journal cover and will link it to LETS PLAY for March.  Somewhere in my stash is the word ART and when I find it will add it to the bottom so the journal reads UNIQUE ART.  I used a piece of heavily textured paper, embossing folders for the unique design and the flower using a foil like cardstock.  My cover was first painted in white gesso, then painted all over in Indigo Lumiere paint, sponged on some Luniere Halo Blue-Gold followed by Basics Gold and Liquitex Silver acrylic paints.  The back cover is identical without the added embellishments.  Always open for suggestions.

Valentines

The last couple of weeks I made valentines for family members and friends.  Below is the one I made for the Creative Every Day "love" challenge for February.

 

 

I neglected to photograph all of them. (Shame on me.)

Brown Paper Bag Backgrounds

For the monthly challenge at Oriental Stamp Art, we are to create a project using painted brown paper bags. I thought this was a terrific time to pull out some unused items and also meet the challenge over at Lets Play. AND, also the challenge at Creative Carte Blanche.

First I painted the brown bag with white gesso and for one section, I took a baby wipe and removed a lot of the gesso.  (gesso provides a great surface for other colors).  Then I pulled out my Gelatos and added three main colors and on the other section omitted the pink shade and used Lumiere Paints.  On the green section, I also used some Brushos in blue, yellow and orange.  When dry I used a stencil by Ryan Design to add the gingko leaves using a Delusions spray.  I crinkled up the paper when dry because I wanted more texture, adding silver and gold sprays by Lindy's Stamp Gang.  I turned both of these pieces into cards.

1) For the green section I tore the brown bag away from it and edged it with a brown distress ink pad, and with a sponge added some brown ink to the  high spots on the card.  Then I added a brown ribbon and the Happy Birthday Chinese chop and mounted the finished card to a light green followed by a white card.

2)  For the second card, I trimmed it and mounted it on a blue card and then white, adding a ribbon and fan element along with a Thank You in a Japanese kanji.

 

This was a really fun project and I plan to make more backgrounds for my art journal.

DIVAS Canvas Fun

Our project hostess, Debbie, presented us with the materials to create a steampunk canvas with a large red heart -- Valentines Day is right around the corner.

We used gesso, and Lindy's sprays to create the effect.  It was fun to meet friends to celebrate a new year at DIVAS, a local art group.



UNCAGED and ART FOR HEALING

I completed another spread for my art journal, UNCAGED, using the theme at Art Emporium and Art for Healing at Creative Every Day.  For the background, I used a napkin (serviette) with the birds which was perfect, added a bird cage stamp with a little bling along with some birds painted black.  I feel un-caged because I am actually making an art journal which I have wanted to do but scared me as well. Below is the spread I created.



"I'm Going to do it."

I started my journal and already realized that it would have worked out better if I had chosen a blank book with heavier paper.  I am currently used 98 lb.  I did have a great time even if it took forever to start.

 

Over at LETS PLAY with Carolyn Dube, her January theme for a journal page or project is, "use something you would throw away."

 

AND, I also joined CREATIVE EVERY DAY with Leah Piken Kolidas. 

 

The page on the right was created from a brochure received to sign up for a variety of classes.  I had put it in the trash and then realized it would be great for the January challenge at LETS PLAY.  Being new to creating journal pages, I felt like the elements on the page.  There were so many things going round and round in my head, I wasn't sure where to begin.  Well, the cogs are turning and I did complete this spread.  I used stencils and modeling paste on the JOURNAL page along with watercolor washes.



New Year Goal

My goal for 2016 is to create a journal...this will be a new experiment for me and hopefully contain some of my likes, dislikes, flowers and other items that make me happy.  Below is a photo of my first page using stencils from Donna Downey, acrylic paints and a few rubber stamps.  I also want to thank my friend Valerie for her inspiration on a daily basis.