What's On My Work Table Wednesday

I spent yesterday playing in my art journal. This is still on my work table today because I cannot decide what else it needs. Maybe someone dancing among the stars? Or someone hanging around on a moon? 

It started in a totally different color scheme. I had not played with Tim Holtz's tissue paper on the roll yet. It's not as absorbent as I was expecting - being tissue paper and all. Water and ink practically beaded up on the surface. The many pieces of crumpled tissue in the background began as a rainbow of colors adhered to the page with matte medium. 

It wasn't pretty! It got "muddy" looking after a while.


So I painted over it with phthalo blue (green shade) fluid acrylic, phthalo green (blue shade) fluid acrylic, and some yellow craft paint. I made the paint more translucent with matte medium and some GAC 100. This works better for me than just thinning them with water. 

This star stamp is one I created with fun foam and cardboard. These were stamped with a thinner glaze layer of paint. 

I've noticed in some artists' work that I love there is often a bit of shading around elements in the image to blend them in. I had to play around with a few different media to duplicate this effect. First, I tried a water soluble graphite. It was too gray and shiny like pencil marks - not black. So I busted out the good Conté pencils and used the pierre noire B grade pencil. The B made a nicer blending mark than the H did. After I traced around the stars I blended the marks with a paper blending stub. I like how it worked out and plan to use this more often.

Head on over to the Stamping Ground blog to see a lot more work tables!

What's on your work table this week? 

- Vickie

What's On My Work Table Wednesday 2/15/12

My kit came from Tim Holtz's Etsy shop!! It's adorable!! Everything in the kit fits inside this tiny suitcase.

This is how it looked when I opened it. So neatly tucked in and waiting for some ink! I love the little elastic pocket in the top of the suitcase. 

The tiny suitcase has real working tiny snaps! 


It came with some really nice hardware. All the pieces compliment each other perfectly.  

This photograph is showing all the parts of the kit. Each page has a pocket folded up. There are also eight clear ATC sized page holders.  

I'm really looking forward to putting this together. I will certainly keep you posted on the process! 
- Vickie

I Got One!! Tim Holtz Journey Journal Kit

The always inspiring Tim Holtz said on his blog yesterday that he was opening his Etsy shop at 12 PDT (3 PM EST) today! I set a reminder on my phone and jumped up and down on the refresh button as it got closer to 3:00 PM here. 

This little goody popped up right on time, and I hit that green "Add to Cart" button as fast as I could. I logged into to PayPal faster than light and managed to snag one of these kits! I can't believe it! 

Look! It's a tiny little suitcase journal kit! It's just big enough to hold an ATC sized book (2.5" x 3.5").

image from Tim Holtz's Etsy shop

I think he only had 150 listed. They sold out in under 4 minutes. Way to go, Tim! It appears Mario already has them packed for shipping!

The kit includes: 

1 instruction sheet 
1 mini suitcase (these are the last of his stash) 
2 grungeboard covers 
9 cardstock pages (paper designs vary) 
9 clear pockets 
9 journaling tickets 
2 small book d-rings 
2 long fasteners 
1 ornate plate 
1 locket key 
1 trinket pin 
1 swivel clasp 
1 journey text

Some of these goodies I have yet to play with like the ornate plates and small book d-rings.

Seriously, this is the only reason I got out of bed today. I've pulled several muscles in my neck and back and can hardly sit upright without crying. All this crummy dental work has set off a string of uncomfortable and severe migraine events.

However, it's Game Night with my friends tonight and I must be there! We are making the most amazing dessert ever!

- Vickie

What's On My Work Table: Wednesday

Hey kids, what time is it?! It's time for "What's On My Workdesk Wednesday"! AKA "What's On My Art Table Wednesday"! It's so fabulous it has two names!

Workdesk. Art table. Tomato. Tomahto. 

Actually the posts I started doing (and apparently stopped) were called "What's On My Art Table Wednesday?". Today it's changed because I want to participate in "What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday" (WOYWW) over at the Stamping Ground blog.

I took this photograph yesterday when what was in front of me while art-ing struck me as such a beautiful colorful mess. And I love those kinds of messes! 

The colored bits of paper are all painted by me for use in my mixed media collage. This photo shows quite a lot of the various media I like to use. I use paint, markers, paper, inks, stamps that I make myself, fiber, ribbons, watercolors, stencils - both homemade and purchased, gel mediums, and paper punches to name a few. 

The piece I am currently working on is that tiny oblong rectangle of green next to my yellow striped scissors. That is the size of my original collages for my line of domino pendants. Tiny. 

This photo was taken with my iPhone 4S, with which am I madly in love. The resolution is much better than previous models. Mixed with fun photography and editing apps it's a handy artists' workhorse. This was photographed with Camera+ and then edited in Instagram. You can find me on Instagram by the name of HeyVickie. 

Thanks for dropping by to my studio "virtually". I'd have you over personally but this place is a mess! 

- Vickie


I'm not being paid by anybody for any of this. Just sayin'.  

Doodles Unleashed Workshop: Week 2

I am so very excited to take another awesome workshop by Traci Bautista called "Doodles Unleashed".  Traci is the author of the new book Doodles Unleashed. You may know her from her book called Collage Unleashed. I already bought Doodles Unleashed online and am waiting impatiently for its arrival.

What is even cooler about this workshop is it's a FREE course offered by Strathmore Online Workshops. 

Strathmore is an art paper company. They make many of the papers with which I work. Traci is recommending for this workshop the 400 series of Strathmore papers made for specific uses such as mixed media (which is a thicker paper able to take the abuse of mixed media work). I like the acrylic paper in the 400 series, which has a nice faux canvas texture that also holds up well to mixed media use. 

The image above is my Spontaneous Watercolor Background from Week 2 of the course. We were encouraged to play with the watercolor like mad scientists. This was my third attempt at getting it how I wanted. The first two were overworked and muddy. I will probably keep them and chop them up for other uses. [Image above: 11"x15", watercolor paper, © 2012 In My Head Studios]

I took a bunch of photos of this piece for future reference. I like to get in really close and get the details photographed. I love the macro setting on my camera. It's awesome. These images are good for making note cards and promotional materials. Also I print these photos for use in an art journal or other collage project. I like to make the most use of my work in this way.

Below you can see the close ups. Don't you love the splotchyness? That big splatter of orange hit that wide brush stroke perfectly. I was thrilled when that happened. Never underestimate the power of throwing paint at your work!

I'm practicing painting circles with a small round brush. For some reason this ability eludes me. I am happy with these circles because I remembered to keep my brush loaded with paint. (You can't paint without paint on your brush!!)

Love the splotchy splatters! Yes, I got paint all over myself.

I waited for the first applications of watercolor to dry so I could go back over them with contrasting colors without making a muddy brown mix. When I say "waited" I mean I impatiently shot the heatgun at it until it dried.

I highly recommend signing up for this class if you like to doodle, experiment with paint, or want to increase your skills in these areas. Traci takes doodling to another level with paint. Doodling is a really important part of our creative development.

So get outta here! Go! Run right now to sign up for this class! I'll see you in the forums!

 

- Vickie 

p.s. I have not received any compensation, product or otherwise from Strathmore or Traci Bautista. I'm writing this to present cool stuff - not to make a profit off blogging. My opinions are my own. I am not affiliated with Strathmore or Traci Bautista.