Imagine That: Wisteria Art Journal

In The Studio

This is going to be a busy week for Imagine over here, as I have my next project–a Wisteria-themed art journal page–going live today and we’ve got a blog hop coming up on Wednesday and Thursday you’ll want to come back for!

Wisteria is one of my favorite flowers and, this year, when they bloomed in the back yard I plucked a single cluster and pressed it in the pages of my art journal. After a couple of weeks, the little flowers were completely dry and I ready to be used for… something!

Head on over to the Imagine blog to see how this page came to be!

Imagine That: Anything But Cardstock Art Journal Seascape

In The Studio

While I haven’t managed an art journal page every week the way I’d planned, I haven’t completely forgotten about the project, either. The “Anything But Cardstock” challenge this month seemed like a great reason to pull the journal out and create something!

While my art journal layouts do not routinely use cardstock to begin with, in the spirit of the challenge, I avoided all paper other than what was already in the journal. My major supply, then, were wet wipes that I’d used to clean up from previous stamping projects and then let dry. They end up being this stretchable, tearable, art-able fabric that can be very fun to play with.

Make sure you head over to Imagine’s blog to see how I “painted” with these leftovers and maybe you won’t look at trash the same way again!

Art Every Week 2017: Just Floating Along

In The Studio

One week down, 51 to go!

First, I really want to share about the journal I made for this year’s art journal project, and now that it’s been shared over on the Imagine blog, I can!

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It’s a fairly simple and straightforward Coptic-stitch book with chipboard covers that I decorated with torn craft paper and an old map page. The full supply list is available on the Imagine blog (Creative Journals for Creative People). Of course, I’d be completely remiss if I didn’t mention that the supplies and directions for a similar book can be found in the Bound & Determined kit from The Crafty Branch.

While I’d love to be able to make time during the week to work on it, I’m realistic enough to know that it’s most likely going to be on weekends, so the first weekend’s page was completed on Sunday, the 8th:

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And, even better, I filmed the making of this page and have the edited, voice-overed, and much sped up (it went from an hour of real time to less than 10 minutes in the video) version over on my YouTube channel right now!

Todd helped me set up a new filming rig before I started this page. It still needs some tweaks but I think, overall, it’s going to make the videos look a lot better and make it much easier for me to film process videos of all sorts of projects. If anyone’s curious, let me know and I’ll be happy to post about how we cobbled together an overhead rig for far less than anything that I could find pre-made and that didn’t involve a lot of heavy lifting in the tool department.

 

Inspiration, Continuation, and Gustatation*

In The Studio, Just for Fun

*yup, that one’s made up, artistic liberties if you will!

FridayFreeForAll

It’s Friday, folks: we made it through another week and hopefully everyone rocked their week as well as I did mine! Granted, it may have started slow but we are finishing up with a bang. Let’s talk about the awesome that’s going on over here, and then I want to here about your awesome as well!

Have you ever heard of a Random Road Trip? Basically it’s where you grab your gear, get in the car, and head out with no destination in mind. Maybe you flip a coin to decide whether to go left or right, or you drive on way until you need to refill the tank. The only rule is that the journey is the destination.

I’ve never been brave enough (yet!) to try a random road trip myself, but sometimes when I’m working in the Abyss I find it’s cousin: art without a cause. You have no idea where you’re headed, and there’s a good chance you’re gonna run out of gas before you get somewhere recognizable, but  you keep on arting along until some end comes your way. That’s kinda how it felt to use Kiala Givehand’s Mixed Media Inspiration Deck to create an art journal page. The results of this experiment are now available over on GaucheAlchemy.com (preview below).

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detail shot of my art journal page…

I started with no plan, just those 8 cards, but I really love the way this page turned out. The main lesson I took away from it? Watercolors can cover a multitude of sins and marry the strangest bedfellows in the process. I really must get out the paints and brushes more often!

And speaking of painting, one of the things I accomplished behind-the-scenes this week was creating a sample board for the Gingerbread Dollhouse. Yes, it’s staying pink and hopefully the neighbors won’t revolt, but such is life and such is the direction we’re going!

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More on what went into the color choices in a future Gingerbread Diaries update, but for now that’ll give you an idea (of course, with everyone’s monitors being different, who knows exactly what you’re seeing above, lol).

An opportunity arose this week which I just couldn’t dream of saying no to. A friend of mine is coming up on her first wedding anniversary and she wanted something special to gift her husband. A bit of batting ideas around among friends and she’s graciously let me be the the pen to her vision.

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Sneak peak of a work-in-progress–just a corner of the sketch, here.

As much as I enjoy creating business-related illustrations, those intended as personal gifts are some of the most fun to work on because you get to know the subject or recipient even better, and that comes through in the work. Once it’s finished and been gifted I’ll be sure to share the finished artwork. It’ll also make a great piece for my portfolio (which is sorely in need of an update); if you want to talk about order a commission, feel free to click on the Hire Me or Contact links at the top of the page.

Finally, to answer my made-up word in the title, this week’s favorite food is the Brie Bites from Trader Joe’s. Little 2-3 bite-rounds of soft-ripened Brie that I can toss in my lunch bag in the morning and they’re perfectly softened in time for my mid-afternoon snack, currently being enjoyed with a Cara Cara orange.

This weekend I’m looking forward to seeing the house progress in person, continuing our search for the best Chinese food in Thomasville, and a belated Mother’s Day tradition of the local Parade of Homes tour and dinner out with Mom.

What have you been enjoying this week?