Journal Covers-a-Go-Go

In a previous post, I chronicled my exploits cutting stencils, fairly complicated, fiddly stencils. Whenever I start doing a project, I tend to go for the most complicated thing possible to start, then I work my way to the easy stuff.  True to form, I did that with stencils. The easiest stencils you can made are the ones where you take a strip of thin cardboard from some packaging, fold it in half, and cut shapes in it. Well, maybe even cheaper is to take those same strips of cardboard and punch holes out of it with a paper punch. To do that, you need to make sure your cardboard, or whatever you use, is not too thick. Here is a sampling of the ones I made:

I used these stencils in a couple of different ways to create two very different, distinctive journal covers. For the first, I traced the designs down the page, painted them with craft paint, then did outlining and marking with technical pens.

I like that it looks like a woodcut from the 1950s or '60s.

Looks even better close up!

The other way I used the stencils was to just go crazy with a few colors of paint and a makeup wedge. I just pounced and pounced until I felt I was done, and then I pounced a little bit more. Then, I took a stencil I hadn't been using (the stars) and colored in the shapes with a white gelly roll pen. I almost forgot, I traced the circles in Inktense Pencils to try to give more contrast. I am not sure it was that successful, but it doesn't really take anything away from the page.

I am finding these stencils of simple shapes very versatile. There will definitely be more to come in the future. They can be used in an overall design, as an accent, or as texture. They can be used with paint, pencils, markers, dabbers, sponges, pastels, or anything else you have laying around. Ad the best thing about it is that you are using materials that are readily available, no extra purchases necessary. And don't forget you are recycling!

One more cover to add, but this was done freehand.

Yes, this was done on materials I received from the doctor before my sinus surgery. If you have any kind of paper, you have a journal surface!

Purging and Painting

I seem to not be so good at doing much on a regular basis these days. Hopefully, unemployment will be one of those things. Yes, it has been 8 months, officially, this time around. Last time it was a week shy of a year, so I really hope to not get that far. I find myself increasingly more stressed and frustrated at my situation, and looking for ways to get out of this rut, you know, use some of that good old American ingenuity. One thing I am doing is going through my countless DVDs and CDs and picking out ones I can live without. Seeing as I am 99.999% digital these days, and most of what I watch and listen to is on my back up drive, I can live without most of them. So, I am peddling and pandering to anyone who will listen. If I figure out how to sell directly through my blog, I will do so. Until then, I started the ball rolling with a friend, and I am selling some of my DVDs through an online service. A few of my DVDs will get a decent amount of money, so for those, I am using that option. When I got rid of all of my CD jewel cases, I didn't keep the back cover, you know the one with the UPC code. So, without a UPC, I cannot sell to those convenient online places. I will have to take my chances with person to person sales or eBay.

In addition to decluttering my media collection, I am looking into what kinds of goods I can have made with my photos and designs. I am thinking about opening an Etsy store. There's so much stuff there, I will have to learn how to market. I also need to figure out specifics, so I can make a business plan and go on Kickstarter to try to raise my start up costs. I obviously do not have the money to take any risks with.  I will be working on reworking some of my more popular journal pages on flat paper, so I can scan them into Photoshop Elements and tweak to my liking as digital images that can be put on t-shirts, fabrics, papers, cards, keychains, calendars, etc.  If anyone has feedback regarding this and what kinds of products you would like to see, please look at photos from past posts and leave a comment.

About my work, it is obvious by looking at my past work, I like simple graphics with bold color and line. I definitely do that best, but I am also interested in growing my skills. I am not a great painter or drawer, hence my style. I have been largely self taught, outside of one high school painting class and one community college class in drawing. I have several weak points which I would like to strengthen. One is painting dimensional faces, and dimensional anything, for that matter. I am not striving for realism. As I have heard many artists say, "If I wanted realistic, I would take a picture. " This is my first experiment in painting a face in a dimensional manner.

Keep this girl away from the cheap self-tanner! Seriously, this was my first attempt. She looks okay, but very streaky.

This photo is blurry, but you ca see the improvement a few more layers made. I am very proud of her nose. I think it turned out quite nice.

My little stylized goth girl. She looks cute, but she could definitely use more layers of paint.

Through this initial round of attempts I learned the following:

• There is a reason so many mixed media artists use watersoluble crayons and pencils with gesso to create face. It would take far less effort for a good effect.
• Painting dimension in acrylics is kind of fussy. Watching people paint online, it seems like a simple process. Just swipe paint on and blend a bit. Maybe some people are that good, but for me, the top and bottom images are one layer. The one in the middle had two layers, then I gave up and gessoed over it all. Then, I created two more layers. I am beginning to think two layers is the minimum. I may change my mind as I learn.
• I have great respect for people who can paint fine lines with a brush. I just cannot. Too much coffee? Not enough coffee? Whatever the reason, I cannot seem to get a crisp clean line with a brush. I have even practiced by painting designs and thinning the paint so it flows more smoothly, but I am not there yet. Than God for technical pens and gelly roll pens. 
• I think I can get good at this. I know I can create unique faces by drawing, so I have a good base for painting. These are my first two paintings, and they look decent. It gives me a lot of encouragement. 
• I am not one of those people who puts faces and quotes on every journal page, nor do I really want to be. It just isn't my style and I feel it is being done to death. Even so, I like to know I can have options on what to draw and paint, another tool in my arsenal.

The goth girl and the other faces I drew earlier in the year have been glued into the pages of a couple of the signatures from that book I made from paper grocery bags. You can see the type of the bag in the goth girl painting, which I am not fond of, but I am not changing. The rest of the pages with type will be treated differently. I am hoping that I will be a pro by the time I finish that last face. I think that book will end up being the book where I practice new things. Of course, I do that in my other journals, but this will be intentional. I have a spread in another book I have designated for practicing painting spheres. Slowly, but surely, I am bringing myself around to more serious work, as serious as art work can be, that is.  It has taken a few months, but I am finally feeling the confidence to put in some time. If only my body would cooperate with me!

Journal Page Mania

It seems that my current state of unhappiness and discomfort over my length of unemployment have been good for me creatively. Over the last couple of weeks, I have been on a spree. Some pages are still very much in the beginning stages, and many are complete.

A crazy undulating mass of doodles.

This is only a background, but it was so pretty I knew I would mess it up somehow. So, I am keeping it just the way it is.

More colorful doodling.

This page is journaling, covered with patterned tissue paper, covered by paint and more journaling, then covered with gesso and Portfolio pastels. I got a lot of frustration out on this one.

The cover of my art journal. It is a nice small, manageable size. So manageable, in fact , that I only have a handful of pages left before I have completed this journal!

All of this frustration is also finally making me reach my melting point, so I started running on my mini-trampoline to get it out. Art journaling is just not enough. I find it amazing how many employers seem to treat me as un-hirable. Even in positions that I held for multiple years, ones I excelled in, ones that are entry level positions. When I actually do get feedback, I am told I did really well, but someone happened to have more experience or I am not qualified for the position. 13 years of clerical experience apparently means nothing if you have had a couple of bouts of bad luck. Anyway, I had a good cry this afternoon, put on some Tool, and pounded out my frustration and anger and everything on my mini trampoline. It will hopefully help me lose weight and the emotional load I am carrying. If people are using my weight as a reason not to hire me, I am going to do my best to take that away from them.

So, here's to getting through the rough patches with humor, integrity, and art. I got through this once (only a few years ago); I can do it again.

Portfolios, where have you been all my life?

This week, I completed two journal spreads. They both have one thing in common. Portfolio water soluble oil pastels. After using them in the spread from my last post, I fell in love with the smudgy quality. It gives a really neat quality to the image, like it is slightly out of focus. If I had known about this super cheap medium, I would have purchased some long ago. I am much more comfortable drawing than painting, especially when there is even a modest amount of detail work. Portfolios lend themselves to a looser style, more "artistic," and less technical. I think I will be doing many more pastel drawings in the future. Now that I have gotten a taste of creamy textured oil pastels, I think I may actually try out the more expensive oil pastels one day. This is exactly the type of thing I was hoping to get out of art journaling.

This first spread was done on the instructions from my sinus surgery a year ago. It made me think of a skull. I went a little overboard with the canine teeth, so it looks a little like a vampire skull, but I think it gives it character.

The other spread was started when I had a bunch of paint and glaze leftover from a somewhat failed attempt at painting a face. I just painted short brush strokes all over the pages. The next day, I took some cheap paint markers I got from Daiso, the Japanese dollar store, and painted in some circles. The rest sprang out from that. The colors and shapes remind me of paintings from the early abstract movement. The colors do, especially. I am a fan of heavily saturated color, so this is a little foreign to me, but I do like it.

Tomorrow, I am going to the Seattle Art Museum. There is a special exhibit including such artists as Gainesborough, Van Dyck, and freakin' Rembrandt! When I took art history in college, I had to do a paper comparing two randomly selected artists from a hat. I selected Rembrandt and Hals. The Hals portrait I chose is in this collection! It ought to be a very inspiring evening.

Aboriginal art

I finished another journal page, believe it or not! I am very pleased with it, although I am not sure if I feel it is truly finished. After ruining a few Sharpies and getting frustrated, I did some experimenting based on advice I got on some of the many YouTube videos I have seen.  If you want to write on it and it is giving you trouble, put a fixative on it and /or put matte medium on it. Matte medium has got to be some miracle invention. It turned my painting done with cheapo watercolors, so gritty it could tear many a marker to pieces into a beautiful, smooth, touchable surface that is a joy to write on. I also used Portfolio water soluble oil pastels, and it worked like a dream on those, as well. No unwanted smearing and smudging . My image is set and I was able to do the accents with markers. Plus, the surface has a beautiful satin finish. I have been converted. I am not a true believer in the power of matte medium, and I want to witness to the masses. This stuff will change your life!

My page is heavily influenced by Aboriginal art. I have a connection to Aboriginal art I don't even understand. Before I even had a true awareness of it, I was creating paintings that hinted at the Aboriginal style. I have an obsession with dots. Pointillism is awesome, but it lacks the raw energy of Aboriginal art. Learning more about it, and seeing it in person has made me even more enamored of the style. I don't usually echo the themes in such an obvious manner, but it seemed like the thing to do today. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Ambitious knitting projects and rhinestones

When I lived in Baton Rouge, I worked with some folks who performed in drag. I, of course, became friends with them. I started knitting back then in order to develop a meditative habit. What I ended up getting was a full blown obsession with collecting kitting and crocheting patterns, a bunch of scarves, even more unfinished projects, and a couple of impressive projects for other people. I even sold a couple of pieces until a coworker who commissioned a scarf for her son went a little psycho on me when I gave her the final bill. That was enough to cure me of selling my homemade goods for a good long time. Well, when I started knitting, one of my friends who did drag asked me if I would knit him a dress, just a simple tube dress with straps. Because I am certifiable, I agreed. You see, I used to dive in when I learned how to do something new. I am surprised I didn't start out making lace shawls. The dress wasn't so hard, after all. Just very time consuming. I even made a hat for him, my first. That was such a hit, I made my other two friends who did drag hats in their favorite two colors. I wish I still had the pattern. I'd actually like one of those hats now.

When I was digging around for art journal fodder, I found the sketch Wes and I made of the plans for his dress. I threw it into one of the eclectic altered journals I mentioned in a previous post. (You really should take Christy's class. It really is fun!) I commemorated it with this journal page.

The stool is there because of a photo I once took in the "drag closet," the dressing room at the bar. His falsies were sitting on the chair and it struck me as humorous. I left them out, thinking I should be classier than that.

Wes now lives in San Francisco, a thriving costume designer. He making quite a name for himself, not that I am surprised. He used to design his own costumes, and some of the ones for his fellow drag queens and drag king. Some were quite elaborate, like the Titanic dress he used to perform My Heart Will Go On. He would dance around the stage, and during the climax of the song, he would collide with a large cardboard cutout of an iceberg. It was awesome! He also did a Scarlet O'Hara ruffle dress that rolled out into a giant rainbow flag. Today, he worked with Colleen Atwood, who designed costumes for Big Fish, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, Chicago, Edward Scissorhands, Memoirs of a Geisha, and I could go on. She has been nominated for 10 Oscars and won 3. Her work is extremely imaginative. I would be thrilled if this gives Wes some bigger opportunities.  So this page is dedicated to my dear, sweet, audacious, supremely talented friend Wes.

The cat doodle

Well, I haven't been keeping up with this blog as I intended. My year of action hasn't been very action-filled, unfortunately. While I am finding my way back to my plan, I have been absorbing inspiration from YouTube videos, random web surfing, and ill-advised shopping sprees.  I have even splurged on a paid online class. I have made my way through nearly half the lessons on video so far, well watching them, that is. The class is Eclectic Altered Journals by Christy Sobolewski, aka Gulfsprite. Here is a nice introductory video explaining the course. I am having a great time, so I highly recommend it. It is kind of the next class after the free altered backgrounds course I did. It shows how you can take a flimsy catalog/magazine (the kind that is stapled in the center) or a book you want to alter that has thin/glossy paper and turn it into an art journal with sturdy, workable pages. It is right up my alley. I can use my junk mail for much of it. It saves me from having to haul a bunch of junk mail to the recycle bins. Free samples and catalogs are fine. I am not such a fan of credit card offers that keep coming no matter what steps you take to make them stop. Now, instead of picking through for things to shred, a lot of them can be used in these journals as a first layer. Needless to say, I have been carefully sorting through my junk mail and catalogs for appropriate journal fodder and spending an hour or two each night with my glue stick. Whoopee! Eventually, like all my other started art journals, I will start making completed pages. I guess I am still in the cocoon.

Yesterday,  I was looking at my cat relaxing on my daybed next to me, and I decided it was time to sketch something. This portrait of my cat turned out pretty cute. I am thinking of making it a little paper doll one day. I just need to finish his body, add legs and a tail. Cute! I gave him jaunty whiskers like he was sporting in the photo.

Handsome, isn't he?

Paper Grocery bag Journals

I managed to finish my dvd digitization project, at least, as much as I can do without additional software. Whew! This is just the sort of project made  for lengthy periods of unemployment. I still need to finish cataloging them in iTunes, so I can find them more easily. As I mentioned, I also planned to try to finish organizing my studio nook and I wanted to make art journals from the paper grocery bags I started preparing.  I did do some organizing, but I am far from reaching a good point. My cat is enjoying the chaos, as it is next to his little nesting cube. In his opinion, the rattier the better. I do not feel the same, so it will be a project I will continue over the week.

I did not completely finish making books from bags, but I have a fantastic start.  A week or so ago, I started the process by folding the bags the way they are folded naturally, and folding the front and back edges together, at the base. Cut off the very edge, where the two sides meet at the base. This does half the job of cutting off the base. From here, you will cut the rest of the base off and set aside, I plan on doing something with them. Gelatin prints? Hmm... Flatten the rest of the bag. I cut it open at the right-hand fold. It doesn't matter which edge you cut, if you do not care if the writing is not right side up. I did have a nice, neat stack, but Sid had other plans.

Sid has the bags arranged the way he likes them.

 Six of the bags were one size, and the other thirteen a couple of inches larger, so I used the 6 smaller ones for this project. I am thinking, right now, that I would like to make a large soft covered journal for the rest. That may change. While straightening up my art supplies, I decided to liberate  my cute little pink mini sewing machine from its box and display it. I think it is the perfect size to do stitching on paper, if all I want is to straight stitch. If only it also had a zig zag stitch. <sigh> The box is a great size for the kind of journal where you tie in a bunch of stitched signatures onto a wide spine, so I played with that for a bit, cutting off edge pieces, taping a side flap on the front cover and a top flap on the back cover. I taped all the edges so they were clean. All I need to do now is cover the box with pretty paper and put notches in it to tie in the signatures.

I decided, after some fiddling, that the cover would be perfect for a grocery bag journal. I folded the paper bags in half, lengthwise, then cut at the fold. I just tore along a yardstick, because I wanted a rougher look. Besides, I am a terrible cutter. Tearing always comes out better for me. Cut with scissors, or a slide cutter if you have one large enough, if that suits you better.

 I then cut each of those pieces of bag at the fold on the side. They were still a little too long for my cover, so I trimmed them. I found if I cut a strip of the bag off where it already folded, I had the perfect size. I folded them in half and made signatures, using three pages apiece. I ended up with eight signatures, the perfect size for this little sewing machine box cover.

The not-yet-put-together prototype of my little art journal.

 I am also going to make a little book from the strips I cut off my pages. I am thinking of something akin to a modified soft cover saddle stitched book (stitched like a composition book).  Or I may just experiment with the kind of book that sews together sewn signatures.  It is a small, manageable size. Why not?

 This kind of project is the perfect kind to do while watching YouTube videos, or avoiding the Super Bowl, lol. So what, I didn't do all three things I hoped to accomplish. I did one, and half of the other two. Two out of three ain't bad, right?

New stencils and stuff!

At long last, my order from Joanne's came in. It felt like I was getting so much more than I actually got, or maybe that is the memory of how much I spent. Since, my studio section of my studio apartment is still in disarray. I am not the most active organizer. I tend to do it in small bursts. That means there is still no work surface, so I cleaned off my tv tray and had a go with some of my new supplies.

First, I have to say the Crafters Workshop templates were AWESOME! I started out with the 6"x6" size, since it seemed to make more sense to me right now. The bigger ones will follow eventually, they are that awesome. I am trying to figure out the angel policy thing. When it says you are allowed to create "x" number of images for sale, do they mean the number of times one can use a given template/stamp in any original piece of art you use that product in, or does it only refer to when you make the same thing several times. For example, an original design can be recreated a number of times when someone makes greeting cards. Is that what they mean? It makes as much sense to me as the last couple of questions probably did to you. I figure I ought to get the copyright/fair use thing straight before I make something and try to sell it. I am not looking to be hassled.

I also got a few daubers of distress inks, a few stamps, and a few containers of acrylic ink. The distress inks were very nice. I stamped with the walnut stain color. I frankly used as much as I thought I could get away with on one page. Somehow it seems to work. It is a beautiful mess. The most interesting thing on the page, however, wasn't one of the many new supplies. It was the set of homemade stamps I made. I have had a couple of keyboards bite the dust. With my computer/tv set up, it gets knocked down a lot, so tings happen. I tend to get the cheapest Apple keyboards I can find, which are reasonable. When I inevitably kill them, I take them apart for parts. Not to build a new franken-keyboard, but to eventually use in an art project. This is the first time I followed through. The frame for the keys is a big grid of Xes. I thought it would be cool to use configurations of them to stamp with, so I cut that bit apart and pulled out a couple of shapes that appealed to me, and glued them to some cheap Dollar Tree crafts sheets and cardboard. They worked beautifully. I also have a single one waiting to be mounted, and the rest of the part can be taken apart and mounted as well, melting down the Xes a little so they have wider edges. But I am not feeling ambitious enough to do that quite yet. I already have the mess of organizing supplies, making the art journal from paper bags, and backing up all my hard copy dvds to deal with. I figure I have enough to chew on for right now. 

My experimental art journal page. This is what happens when I test my new stuff out. My new letter stamps, the crackle stamp (I am going to love that!), a black gelato, a damask stamp, a damask TCW template, a couple of blops of acrylic ink, all colors of my new distress ink,  my homemade glimmer mist, and a couple of homemade stamps. Whew!

A close up of my page, with the homemade stamps that created the "X" images. Plus, you can really see the glimmer in this shot. Oooh...ahhh.

I also made a couple of black and white backgrounds. They are the image of perfect-ish symmetry. I seem to have customized my damask template by bending a couple of parts, making the page like a wallpaper/Rorschach test combo. Still, I like it...and the imperfect houndstooth. That one just makes me happy...and a little dizzy.

I love the chicken wire template. The small size makes the part that makes this design look like wire very subtle, so it looks like honeycomb. Very cool!

The houndstooth of hell! I guess i went a little heavy in spots.

My Rorschach sheet, I mean damask. Even though it is very girly, damask really appeals to me.

This weekend, I will be winding down my dvd project and moving my dvd tower to its rightful place, as an organizer for my art supplies. I will put the dvds in storage and finish my organization so I have room to work. Then, I will iron those paper bags and trim them, and lovingly craft them into a couple of fabulous art journals. Who am I kidding? I am pretty sure I will finish the dvd project. I will probably get absorbed in YouTube videos and/or some of the movies I have downloaded, since I haven't watched them in years, but the rest is probably not going to happen. It doesn't hurt to aim high...

Getting it together

Since Friday. I have been battling migraines and other misc. ailments, so I have not done much in the line of art. What I have been doing is organizing, bit by bit, from the inside out. It still looks like a tornado blew through my studio apartment, but things are slowly getting organized. I started in my art studio space by going through containers of supplies. I had a few that were nearly empty, which seemed like a waste of space. So, I reorganized the containers. Along the way, I decided it was time I started organizing my paint by color family. I have so much, I would have to reorganize my container every time I used any paint. Unfortunately, I do not have any containers in the proper size, so that is a long term project.

Along with the organization of my art supplies, I have been digitizing my dvd collection. That is a massive undertaking. But I am unemployed, so I have the free time, and I have the space on my back up hard drive, so why not. Last year, I replaced my Mac mini. The new ones no longer come with a DVD-ROM. I have an external one, since the one in my last computer was bad, but it is a pain to go through the whole process of plugging it in and waiting for it to load. I have more digital movies than ones on dvd, so it really makes sense to have them in one place. I love the movies I own hard copies of, but rarely watch them because it is simply easier to just watch something I have on the computer. And I refuse to repurchase movies I spent good money on, when I have the technology to convert them. Legal/shmegal...I am not pirating them and I spent a lot of hard earned money to purchase them, so I should be able to do what I like with them within the confines of my home. After all, I can upload my music cds onto iTunes for ease of use, so why can't I legally do that with my dvd collection? Seems to be a double standard, if you ask me.

Anyway, that is mainly what I have been up to. I have more paper grocery bags than I know what to do with, plus I found some in our garbage room that I couldn't resist taking to use. I spent a lot of time today cutting them open in  order to make journals out of them. Two journals is what I have in mind. I hope to finish them in time for the weekend, so you can look forward to seeing those.

In the meantime, enjoy a couple of pictures I took in my neighborhood.

Graffiti in an alley a few blocks from my apartment building.

The graffiti in context. I love seeing these little treasures out of the corner of my eye when I am walking around. It brightens my day.

Apparently, someone installed an electrified back door. The mind reels. This is the kind of thing that can only be found in the city, lol.

Imaginary ladies galore

I made the decision to finally start working on basic painting skills. I would like to learn how to shade. Right now, I am not necessarily looking for realism. I just want some dimension in my work. I think the perfect subject matter is lady's faces, so I drew a boatload. I drew them on old poetry I weeded out of a journal I am altering as an art journal. Did you know that if you draw with a Sharpie, or similar permanent pen, and cover it with gesso, the ink bleeds through. There is a technique floating around the internets called ghosting, where you do just that. I traced my drawings in Sharpie so I would have a guide when I covered my bad poetry with gesso. Did you also know that ghosting is not only a phenomena that occurs when covering permanent marker with gesso? It also happens with ballpoint pen and cheap felt tip pens. Yep, the bad poetry I am trying to free myself from came right back at me like a bad dream. I tried a second coating of gesso on some pages, to no avail. Then, I hoped a coat of matte gel medium would seal of of that. I retraced my drawings in permanent marker, then gesso again. Better. But not good enough. Sigh...deep sigh. This paper is going to be so thick with gesso and mediums it will be able to stand upright without support. But I will persist.  I think I am at a point where I only have to touch up critical areas before painting. In the meantime, here are strategically cropped photos of most of the drawings. I really quite like them. I like them so much I am going to scan them so I can reuse them, especially if I end up destroying them when I try to paint. I hope you like them, too.

My favorite is the one on my left. Please forgive me if you can read any of the hideous poetry. I was emo before emo became a thing.

The center drawing is the only one I even somewhat modeled after someone else. I was watching the season finale of American Horror Story: Asylum, and I really like Lana's reporter look.

Another completed page!

Today, I thought I would play around with my Inktense pencils and make a harlequin background. One thing led to another and I completed an entire page! As I have alluded to in the past, I was laid off in July and haven't been able to find another job yet. I have reworked my cover letters and resumes a dozen times, trying to highlight how much experience I have and how adaptable I am to little avail. Employers seem to be looking for what I call a "plug and play employee," one that has done the exact same position in the exact same industry for 3-5 years. I have seen some ridiculous ads out there, y'all. No one is going to be able to just pick up where the employee who had been working there for "X" amount of years left off. It takes time to acclimate yourself to new people, policies, etc. It takes time and training to know the ins and outs of any position. No one seems to want to do that at all anymore, and I am very frustrated. So, that is where the page is coming from.

"My Persistence Will Be Rewarded"

I have been going a little nuts with the Inktense pencils today. I started drawing random things and painting them in with water. Then, I started in on women's faces. I told myself I wouldn't do faces in my art journal all the time because everyone seems to be doing it, but they are just so darn fun to do. I used to draw them all the time when I was much younger, but stopped. I have a bunch that are drawn out, so I can practice painting. They are on the sheets of my old poetry I ripped out of the book I am altering. I really don't want to be able to read the words, so i am going to paint those with acrylic. It will be good practice learning how to actually paint and shade.

I took the recycling out today, and what should be on the top? This little beauty.

Score!

It was the most beautiful cigar box lid! My scan does not do all of the lovely foil work justice. Plus, it seems like the substrate might be wood. It has weight like no cigar box I have ever seen. Apparently, the Cubans make fine cigar boxes to go with their fine cigars (ick!).  Unfortunately, it was only the lid, so I foresee it will become a book cover one day.  And since I scanned it, I will always have this beautiful image to print and play with.

I didn't do absolutely nothing while I was sick

I went through an old popcorn tin I keep some memorabilia in and found a treasure. Not only did I find my Dad's old Army shirt, turned vest, I used to wear during my punk days all safety pinned up. I also found a book of my old poetry. As I read through, it occurred to me how bad it was. It was really awful, to be quite honest. I wrote poetry from my mid teens to my mid twenties, as a cathartic exercise. I had a lot of problems back then, so writing poetry was a necessary release, since I did not have access to a therapist or many friends who were understanding enough to stick around after they knew what I was really going through emotionally. I don't necessarily want to hold on to all of that. After inspecting the journal itself, I saw it would be perfect to alter. I tore out half the pages and went straight to work making backgrounds. My main goal was to cover up that old poetry, so I dragged out the garbage I have been saving and started gluing away.

Inside the front cover, I tore part of a drop cloth I had covered with paint into pieces and glued them in.

Then, I proceeded to glue in pages of the wrappers of things I have frequent contact with: Halls, tea, granola bars, the insert from an old Jane's Addiction CD, hot cereal, art supplies, you name it, I covered the pages with it. Yesterday evening, I did another round of gelatin prints and pasted a bunch of those in, as well. Nothing was safe. The combination of using items that may have been in a landfill somewhere and covering up those years of pain was very cathartic. I am not forgetting the lessons I learned but I can choose to not keep these monuments to my emotional pain around as a shrine. It is good to let go.

An exercise from the Altered Background e-course on http://gulfspritesartjournal.ning.com. This is Christy Sobolewski's site. This particular class is free, and I would highly recommend it. There are even more interesting ones that you have to pay for that I have my eye on when I am employed again.

Christy Sobolewski had a video somewhere about using stamps to cover a page. This may have been from her Altered backgrounds class, too. This is my favorite stamp, an eye. I just made a big, ill-advised impulse purchase from JoAnn's that includes a few more stamps, so I can't wait to do this technique with them!

Tea bag and Halls packaging. Gee, can you tell I have been sick?

Packaging from granola bars and more. I like the mirrored look, though I'll be darned if I know how to deal with it later.

Cleaned food packaging.

Fancy patterned tape from Daiso, the Japanese dollar store I love so much.

Another Altered backgrounds exercise. I wasn't crazy about the other one, but I LOVE this one. Who would have thought security envelopes were so pretty?

These two pages are gelatin prints on wax paper that was used until I couldn't use them anymore. I love these!

Gelatin prints on a slick, green paper insert that was between two sheets of alphabet stencils. 

I am now a handful of pages away from getting all the pages covered, and I have some ideas brewing about how to move along in the process with this journal. I feel like I am getting to the point where I am willing to move beyond the comfort of doing general backgrounds. I am at a good place and I  will be happy to see where the rest of this journal takes me.

Now, as for the gelatin prints, this round was not nearly as successful as the last, but I have some pages I am particularly fond of. It is a lucky thing for my pocketbook that JoAnn's does not have Gelli Arts Printing Plates for purchase online, because I would have snapped one up. I did, however take full advantage of their outrageous sale on scrapbooking/stamping/fine arts/jewelry making supplies. Lots of 40% off items and many more 25% off. And to top it off, if you spent over $40, shipping was free. I saved over $50, which tells you how much I spent. <blush> This online excursion is starting to get me up to speed on my crafting supplies: Cling and clear stamps, as well as acrylic plates for printing, Staz On ink pad, Acrylic inks in a few colors, Several 6"x6" Crafter's Workshop templates that I can use in more printmaking and more, a new self healing mat (!!),  circle and edge rounding stamps, Distress Stains in a few colors, Walnut ink crystals, some Gelatos, die cut flourishes, a matstack that was on clearance, and a couple of packages of gem drops to embellish handmade journals. It is going to be very exciting to get this package. I looked at glimmer mists and wow! $7.99?! No wonder people are making their own. I have a little shopping list for when I go back to Daiso. I think I will be able to pick up some spray bottles and possibly some eyeshadow powder that can stand in for micah powder (since that is what the pearly colors are). I may even have something that I can use (metallic Lumiere paints), so all I have to do is get the spray bottles. I have paint and glue. I also want to make some regular color misters for fast stenciling.

I guess I will leave you with more gelatin prints. You will notice I did a lot of prints ripped out pages from a Japanese Buddhist text and index cards. The index cards curled really bad, so I will need to straighten them out, but they look pretty neat.  I did some on junk mail, too, and it wasn't all successful. I think it would be advisable to cover up anything too bold or big with a thin layer of an opaque paint. I thought I might get an interesting look with the text showing. Not so much, sadly.