"Soar & Fly" Art Journal Page

From this ...

... to this ...

... to this! Ta da!

This page had more planned for me than I did for it! My muse was here in my presence. I could hear her whispering to me to "let my Little Bird fly". 

Fly, Little Bird. 

Fly and soar. 

Trust your wings. 

Sing your song! 

Your amazing tiny heart 

will take you anywhere.

This bird stamp is my design, and is made from foam sheet and cardboard. It is outlined in orange Copic marker and then black Stabilo pencil for dimension. The bird cage is white-out pen. I drew over that with a sparkly gel pen to make the bars look shiny and metal. 

The purple circle and scalloped dictionary page were scraps laying around. I added my handmade button stamp to the circle and layered them. I used my label maker to print the words because I was in a hurry. They are pixelated, and that bugs me, but it's not a deal-killer on this piece. 

The letters for "soar" were brown to start with. I painted them and stamped some dots and lettering on them with paint. The dimension the raised letters add is lovely! 

The little heart banner is punched hearts from book pages and baker's twine. A little watercolor splashed on the hearts creates some interest. 

Look! I managed to sew in curvy lines - not jagged straight-ish arcs! The paper itself is created with gelli plate printing and white gel pen. This is before I drew the heart and swirly black line.

To connect the theme of singing I glued down some tissue tape with music on it. That needed some color so I washed a little acrylic paint over the tape. Using a Molotow white paint pen I wrote the words "sing your song" and added black to make it more readable. Some little doodles and stars here and there finished the piece nicely. 

There you have it! This is the first art journal page I have completed this year. It took several days to work out. I printed the background about a month ago with my gelli plate right into the journal. 

I worked on it here and there for a while until the full image finally came together. I wanted to experiment with some ideas I had in my sketchbook, and this piece gave me the chance to work those ideas out more thoroughly. That's what I love about art journaling! Mad science experiments! Focusing on the process! Mastering techniques! Practice  Practice. Practice!! 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend! Happy Easter if you celebrate! Also, Mr. M turns 40 this weekend! Huzzah!

- Vickie

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

Doodles During The Artistic Biker's Ustream

These are some doodles I created while watching The Artistic Biker's show last night. I highly recommend stopping in to see him work on his art journaling. Plus the added benefit is that the chat room part fills up with A-list art journaling web celebrities. I met a few new friends last night!

Where to find The Artistic Biker:

Blog: artisticbiker.com
Twitter: @Blade21292
Ustream Live Show: Thursdays 7-9 PM CST: ustream.tv/channel/the-artistic-biker

Listen To Your Heart: Art Journal Page

This page started as a spot to lay down some leftover paint from another project. I glued down some random paper scraps with gel medium. Some stencils made nice shapes to draw with watercolor crayons. The crayons create a nice opaque color, even doing light drawing over a dark background. Very cool. Then I added the tag in the middle.

I wanted to lay down as much color on this page as I could. It’s a little busy but I think that’s my anxiety coming through from the other day. I really love using up my little paper scraps this way. I don’t like to see paper go to waste.

The watercolor crayons look so good to me that I think I’ll run out today and buy more colors at the art store, which, incidentally, is called "The Art Store". Need to pick up some more gel medium and either heavy body or fluid acrylic paint by Golden, too. They make the best paint. Right now I’m using the cheap craft paint, which is not very heavily pigmented and are a little dry. Oh, my art shopping list keeps getting longer. I want some different colored inks, too, for doing lettering with a brush. Maybe Erik will have to come with me to rein in my spending!

Resolution Fears for 2010: Art Journal Page

I made another art journal page. Sort of worried this was too personal to share, but also felt like I can't be alone in this.

In case you can’t read it:

“i’m afraid to set any 2010 resolutions. why? my fear of failure. my fear of success. keeping me frozen in an unchanged state. i need to change in order to grow… to get better… to learn. i must embrace change. trust the process. stop staying exactly the same. step out of my comfort zone. be brave. this is my year!”

Right now I’m in this yucky stuck place of dealing with a lot of chronic pain. Pain makes me unwilling to do things that cause change because it feels unsafe or insecure. But staying here stuck in this pain is not safe and secure. It’s robbing me of my life. And, gosh darn it, I’m going to do something about that this year. The sooner the better.

I think the “setting resolutions” fears are more about failure. There is a lot I cannot do because of the chronic pain. So if I set a resolution and cannot make it happen, does that constitute failure? Not necessarily. I think as long as I just TRY this year I will be satisfied. If I do my best and still come up short then maybe it’s just not meant to be. Or maybe it’s not meant to be right now but will be in the future. I have to keep trying and not lose hope.

Be brave, my friends. This is YOUR year, too!

Hope: Art Journal Page

I did it! I got into working in my new handmade (by Parkside Harmony) art journal! Success! The paper quality is most excellent. No wrinkling or buckling. The pages are Stonehenge heavy weight paper - some of my all-time favorite paper! It is good for just about any medium.

Most of yesterday was spent creating this page. I didn’t really plan much where the different papers were going to go. I just went with what I picked up at the time. I used matte gel medium to glue the paper down and went over it to seal it. I like to go back and fill in the blank areas with paint. The gel medium makes for a nice painting surface. It is also good for stamping on with paint or ink. Adds a lot of dimension.

Click on images to see in my flickr stream.

The book pages measure 8” x 8” so this spread is 8” x 16”. I liked working across the fold of the binding. I have been working in spiral bound books and it’s harder to do that in those.

I thought the theme of “Hope” would be a good way to start my 2010 art journal. My plan is to complete the whole book by the end of the year. Ideally, I would like to then exhibit the book somewhere. But first things first… make more pages!

I took a lot of photos of the page so I can print out artist trading card sized images and use them for “instant” backgrounds. Why not make all this work go a long way? I multi-task… so should my art!

Remarkable Artist Community for Women!

While searching for art journal pages to look at on Twitter I stumbled across a community for women artists called Milliande Art Community. This fabulous and inspiring artist named Milliande started it. She makes neat videos of herself making great art and art journal pages as well as several in depth tutorials. This community appears to be rich and vibrant. Many new posts and comments from all over the world are happening there all the time! This is my personal page in the group.

She started a project called Art Journal January 2010 in which she hopes to have a new video and page done everyday. I’m not quite that ambitious, but I will play along as much as I can. However, I tend to work slowly and don’t think I will be video taping my process at all. I am intrigued about doing something like that in the future so we will see. But you can expect lots of pictures! It's a good thing I received a new handmade art journal for 2010 from my mom!

Here is her video for January 1st:

I love how quickly she works. Her style is very free and kinesthetic. So inspiring!

Are you taking on any creative endeavors for 2010? I would love to hear about it in the comments!

I’ve Got Class. No, Really!

I've been working on my art journaling this week. If you have not started doing this already, I really recommend it. It’s fun and a great way for us visual types to learn about ourselves. I can’t say I’m really good at it yet. Something just hasn’t clicked for me with the process. I’m missing something. So when I found the book, The Creative Entrepreneur, I knew it was the right one for me. It’s full of visual journaling prompts and interactivities. My brain is soaking this stuff up like water!

I blogged recently about this book. As I did some digging for links for that article, I came across a class the author is offering about art journaling. Usually the class is $39, but it was on sale for only $19 as a Summer Camp Special. I signed up post haste!

The class is called “PowerFULL, Magical Visual Journals” and is described as “Life changing ways to create with a purpose. Learn how to create a visual journal from the plainest of blank books and turn it into your own unique tool to navigate your life and work.”

The class includes a 90 minute self-paced mp3 tutorial, full-color course workbook loaded with examples and visual journal prompts, and access to a private workshop discussion forum moderated by Lisa Sonora Beam (the author).

Wheee! Just what I need to take that extra step! I’m so excited!! In fact, I’m too excited still to even look at the materials! So I’m waiting for my brain to stop saying, “Wheeee!” so I can look at this stuff with some mental clarity. C’mon, brain, don’t fail me now!

Kristen, the Etsy Twitter Team Co-Leader, is also a Creative Entrepreneur Junkie. I let her know about the super good deal on the class, and she signed up, too. I look forward to sharing notes with her and looking at her work. She is extremely talented. She’s the brains behind the whole Etsy Twitter Team operation, actually. She comes up with the best ideas ever.

If you’re into this kind of thing, why not join us? Let me know if you sign up, too, and we can share our experiences. Remember – you cannot make art in a vacuum. It takes community!

A Work In Progress

More work was completed on my art journal page that I shared with you recently. I painted a woman with flowing red hair. I don’t do a lot of painting so this face was kind of hard to do. Not sure I’m 100% happy with the results, but that’s what an art journal is for – to learn and try new things.

I like how the texture of the paper I collaged with gel medium creates visual interest in an otherwise boring portrait. Here's a close up view.

She still needs a body but I thought you might like to see my process. Not sure when I’ll have time to finish her body. I took a class, which I will share with you soon, so I’m swirling with thoughts from new technique information. I want to experiment with some of those things first. This whole new-to-me-painting thing has me full of ideas, too.

On another note, I had a lovely Memorial Day. Spent it hanging out with my brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew. They're only in town for part of the week so we're squeezing in as much family time as we can. They live in Atlanta.

My mom has been so funny having all her children here. She even cried tears of joy a few times. We all miss my brother and his family very very much. I hope to get to see them before they go, but I know they have other folks in town to see as well. I need my computer genius brother to come over and fix my router so it allows access to the web for my iPod. And I want him to see our new house! And my studio! So they better squeeze in a trip over here some day this week.

Beginning An Art Journal Page

I have not been working in my art journal like I had hoped to be working on it. Life gets busy. Running the Etsy Twitter Team gets busy. But I found myself with some spare time last week to work on a page.

I started out with a rough idea of what I wanted. Lately all my work is created this way – not knowing where I’m really going. Ha! So I began working with torn book pages and Golden regular (matte) gel medium. This technique creates gorgeous texture. All you have to do is tear up some pages with text and slap them down onto your paper.

This is what it looks like with a little bit of gesso painted over it.

Then I grabbed my favorite green and brown paints – Eucalyptus craft paint and Raw Umber Golden fluid acrylic paint. Watering it down a little makes a really nice glaze effect. This is what it looks like painted.

Here’s a close up of the great texture the gel medium and paper creates.

Soon I’ll show you what else I painted onto this background. It’s better than I thought it was going to be because I really don’t know how to paint and I just make it up as I go along. My art journal is turning into my own self-taught painting class.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don’t forget that today is the last day for the Etsy Twitter Team Sidewalk Sale!! Get some great deals on handmade – free shipping to 30% off some shops!! It’s definitely worth a look! My sale is 15% off all items (not including shipping and sales tax). Use code "Etsy Twitter Team Sidewalk Sale" in the comments at checkout!

Art Journal: Qualities

I finally finished these pages with the writing. I’ll just let it speak for itself.

click image to see it bigger over at flickr!

Art Journal Pages: Unfinished

I have a lot of pain problems, one of them being almost constant migraines and cluster headaches. The cluster headaches make me restless and agitated. And I have one today so I used my agitation to paint pages in my art journal. My poor art journal has been neglected very much lately. I had planned to keep a page a week going but my pain does not always allow me to work when I want to work.

I thought I would share a bit of my art journal process. These pages were done with specific words in mind that still must be written on the pages. But this is how I start out… painting or collaging backgrounds for future writings. Frankly, I like these pages as is but it’s an art journal so some writing should happen.

The first layer I do is gel medium to add the texture. I also glued some kraft paper down for more texture. Then comes a layer of gesso. Paint colors were picked kind of randomly today as was their placement on the page. I get impatient for paint or gel medium to dry so I force it with the heat gun. This can alter the texture and color a bit, and I like not knowing what I may end up with when it has cooled off.



I looked around the studio for things to print on the pages. A plastic cup, a piece of that rubber non-slip shelf liner stuff, a rubber stamp of a compass, and my own fingers were carefully painted on and printed. The smaller circles are stenciled from sequin waste punchinella I bought on Etsy. Love that stuff. So useful for collage!





This is my paint palette. It is just a plastic plate. I let the paint dry on it and reuse it over and over. This one could easily be three years old! I like to use something up until I cannot use it anymore. Less waste that way.

When I get the writing part done, I will share it with you. Right now I need to go pace off some cluster headache pain. See you on the flip side!

If you click the pictures you will visit my flickr page!

Art Journal: 10-4-08

rAnDoM aCtS

This page is an experiment in a larger format of something I was working with in a smaller format. I wanted to see if I could make a big one. It was easier than I thought it would be to create. Some new clear stamps made it home with me from the craft store (how did that happen again?!) so I wanted to incorporate them into the collage. I’m working on another one for a framed piece for an upcoming craft show.

As I had hoped, working in my art journal is giving me ideas for other pieces to do outside of the journal. It’s nice to be working like this again. Getting a page a week done right now is really hard as some things are going on that prevent me from working when I wish to be in the studio. But I consider getting anything done right now to be a major victory!

Art Journal: 9-24-08

(click to see bigger over at flickr!)

This page was created with real puzzle pieces. I put part of a puzzle together and painted the pieces. The background is torn paper covered with gel medium and gesso. It was then painted in red, yellow and teal. The words were written with a Sharpie thin marker. Twine attempts to hold my pieces together.

I wish I had done this on better paper than in my art journal.

Art Journal: 8-28-08 :: “Circles”

(click image to see bigger over at flickr!)

This page started without any real direction or thought out plan for the finished page. In my stash I have this great polka-dotted blue tissue paper that I’ve been looking for something to do with.

I employed Golden Regular Gel Medium (matte) to secure the tissue to the page, and let that dry overnight as I decided on how I wanted to use the page.

Lately, some health problems have been plaguing me, and I feel like I’m getting nowhere quickly. I get a little better, and then it gets worse again. Up. Down. Up. down. Round and round. Can I get off the merry-go-round now, pretty please?

The circles were filled with images that struck me at the time. The clenched fist image represents me holding on for dear life, as well as a symbol of my strength. Some images were rubber-stamped and some were stenciled. The words “REVEAL”, “SHARE”, and “GAIN” reflect the purpose of this art journal. There is no exploration or learning unless I reveal myself to myself and share it in order to gain.

Creating this page reminded me that I am not truly just going in circles. It just feels that way sometimes when I am frustrated. In truth, I am much better than I was just six months ago, and I continue to do better everyday. My situation is possibly more akin to an upward spiral where I get close to where I started as I come around again but I’m not at the start.

So, I’m just on page two here and I’m already gaining some insight into my art imagery and myself. Thanks, art journal!

Art Journal: 8-27-08

(click to see bigger over at flickr!)

I honestly didn’t know where else to start but at the beginning. This page is kind of an introduction to my project. A welcoming, if you will, to the pages behind this one.

Pieces of torn old book pages were collaged with gel medium. Then I panted it with gesso and some brown and green paints. A fancy rubber stamp was impressed randomly about the page in dye-based green ink. The typewriter keys lettering was stamped and embossed onto vintage Sear’s catalog pages and cut out. I hand stitched around the border of some funky Basic Grey paper, and then glued on the letters. White pigment ink was used to stamp the same fancy stamp I used for the background along the edges of the lettering background.

The same book page collage technique was used to make a smaller journaling piece and was painted the same way. I edged it with dark brown and olive green pigment ink that I then heat set. Another strip of different Basic Grey paper was added down the side along with some very vintage lace my grandmother gave me.

I’m rather happy with the result of my first art journal page. This work produced some nice ideas for other work I want to get finished for my next craft show in November.