taking time for art, occasionally, while preparing for Christmas:
I try very much not to get all wound up in a knot about Christmas preparations but still it is a busy time of year. We are almost done putting the house back together after nearly everything had been removed following the fire in May. The flooring people are actually here redoing the tiny back entrance as what they had done was not quite right.
I am almost feeling that the opportunity to do the major culling and organizing of most of our belongings was really a very wonderful gift. It was extremely time and energy consuming but that is alright.



The above piece was just a simple journal page displaying one of the new stamps I had carved a few weeks ago. I had done a couple more but they will have to wait until after Christmas for some repair.

Please remember to check my "wonders of winterland" blog where I have been making changes over the days.
Angels be with you dear friends as you proceed through this very busy time of the year. I will pray that you might have some moments to "be still" and "be awake" as you prepare for the coming of the Christ child.

I choose courage
the previous week's prompt at inspire me Thursday was nervous. these days I have a hard time relating to that thought. I decided that the opposite of "nervous" would much rather suit my present state of mind. this art journal page reflects that choice, together with a tiny touch of what "nervous" has done to me in the past.


a couple of journal pages from recent days. we've had very much wind and so i start thinking. all my own words



a couple of sunset captures from late Saturday afternoon on our way home from Saskatoon



my good buddies relaxing in the sun


The world does not remember us by our style or by our wit; it does not remember us by our knowledge or our words; no, the world remembers only one thing: The world remembers love.

Author Unknown
Inspiration Peak

journalling:

remember the above page? I decided to sketch on it


a journal of journeys





the next page started as many - papers glued to the journal page. I had painted pale pink over top. when I glanced at the page one time I immediately thought of the beautiful face on the cover of the May/June 2007 issue of cloth, paper scissors magazine. I love the picture which is from the creative hand of Anahata Katkin. I pulled out the cover and made my best attempt at doing the eye, mouth and bit of nose. I am proud to have my own "take" of Anahata's cover page.



I also used rub-ons, buttons, one of my Mom's crocheted flowers, a couple of brads, stickers AND a sepia Faber Castell Artist Pitt pen. This was the first time I used one. Yummm - they are great to play with.

transfers: I had promised a tutorial about gel transfers a while ago and I am working on that at this moment. In the meantime I thought I'd present a bit of info about tape or contact paper transfers. These are so simple to do and are really terrific for someone that cannot get their hands readily on golden gel medium. I had been doing tape transfers quite some time ago but was left frustrated by the limited size. Last spring I acquired Claudine Hellmuth's first book (Collage Discovery Workshop), which I absolutely love.


Claudine recommends the use of contact paper, as easily accessible as tape. the size is so much greater.
You get an idea of the method from the image I show but in case you cannot read it or do not know what to do:
1. apply the contact paper or tape to the image.
2. burnish well.
3. soak the image in water, in either a dish, pan or the sink.
4. after a few minutes remove from the water.
5. rub the paper off with your fingers.
6. if there are white bits left on you may like the image as is. If not you can
soak again and rub some more.
7. apply the art to your mixed media piece or save for exactly the right time. If you are uncertain of where to place it, you can just rub it on to get idea of the effect. It can then be moved. When you are certain of the placement you can glue on.

Here are some examples of some tape transfers I have used. The first is from an altered book page. The tape transfer is the lady on the bottom right corner.



The second is a large picture of one of our pet kitties from a number of years ago. The transfer itself is nearly 8" x 10". I used a number of lengths of packing tape.


On this recently completed journal page I have not yet glued down the small tape transfer. I may just leave it without tape so that I can move it as I please.



And the final one is done more recently with contact paper. I may need to do some heavy duty pressing as there is quite a wrinkle in it lol Perhaps just meant to be.



If I don't see you again this weekend ~ have a great one.
Angels be with you

ART jourNAL pAGes from last week:



"about doubting ~ about drawing"

"bluebird girl"



And a little glimpse of "autumn approaching" taken in Saskatoon on Saturday.

looking
watching
searching
for a path
the right path


For week 2 of crowabout's collage challenge I have altered quite radically some of the images. I used photoshop to do a smoke effect on lots of the images and then I took a chunk of the page of images and used a stained glass effect also. I glued most of the images to this scrapbook journal page and used just a bit of ink to balance the colour in the areas which had nothing else.

On the above photo I used watered down acrylic paint (inexpensive type) to balance the colours.


With many of the elements I made more than 1 copy. I especially liked the flower so chose to use different sizes and applied them after the balancing paint.


On this picture you can see that I chose to practice my transfers with the image of the eyes. I am still really learning. Many of these did not show up very well. I believe the image was too dark with the background also quite dark. I think they actually show up better on the photo than for real. lol


I really liked this partial face of the young lady. I had determined that I wanted to add on. I wanted to use text for the rest of the body and decided to use repetitive words from my verse for the collage. I was excited to remember the "lsleaves" font I had uploaded some time in the past and use it fo the paper for the rest of the extension.


The final photo shows that I also used transfers for the words I had composed for the page.

As I have a couple of major projects planned and started at the moment, besides trying to reorganize after the fire and an "on the go" summer, I probably won't be doing the crowabout challenge for a couple of weeks. I have to see how everything goes and how my energy levels balance. My etsy shop, I think it's still there lol is hugely in need of some attention also.

angels be with you dear friends

COLLAGE PLAY:
I have started in a new challenge group, collage play with crowabout, which my friend Nance is running. You are presented with collage images and can use in whatever way you want in a piece of art. I chose to use the images and many of their transfers, together with words, to speak of how I'm feeling these days. It was great to take time to do art though I was being crabby with my family about space to do it in LOL.

First step in one of my journal pages - actually an old scrapbook which has a bit of a moisture stain - fine for collage. Watered down paint was applied over papers.


Some written words were added.


The images and transfers were applied. I'm still learning and practicing with the transfers. I'll do a bit of a tutorial with my experience if I ever get to it.



Final collage:


To view this in more detail of large size:
View On Black

Please remember to see my previous post about the give away winners, especially if you entered.
Angels be with you

Art Journal Book retrieved: I did a little dance this evening when I opened a box which Greg found in the stacks that came back yesterday. It was marked office. To my delight the journal was right at the top. Also in the box were my journal quilts which had been upstairs and a new little mini stapler with coloured staples which I had recently purchased. I don't think I had shown these pages which I'd done earlier in May. Actually I realize now that I had shown them. It's hard to keep track of things these days (:



All for now as my eyes are showing major signs of stress again and I need to take it easy for them a bit.

Angels be with you

Creative every day: sometimes I lose track of what I've done, shared and completed. These are some sketches, some from quite a while ago. They were mostly done while I was waiting for appointments of one kind or another, as with the journal page with lots of rub on letters. I ran out of my fave black letters. I guess I should have known better. That's OK. The message is still the same. I finished the two journal pages yesterday. Actually has been quite awhile since I've felt like doing any.


I also did some preliminary painting on some canvases yesterday.I've got a caulking transfer happening on one of those. I have to wait till later tonight (24 hours) to see results of that.

Taking some time to recuperate. I was feeling quite uncomfortable on Sunday but in my way, kept going, through the morning anyway. Yesterday was better and today even more so. My family commitments should be diminishing somewhat, I think. My main area of discomfort seems to be in my jaws. I could barely open my mouth on Sunday. I carry on though as I know there are folks much worse off than I. I also can wreak havoc with family who over-react to discomforts. OR they think they have to compete - with a worse cold or a more sore head or WHATEVER! So you see - I am fine :D

I am trying very much to complete a video about the "strong, free, me" girl. I am planning to introduce a "line" at my shop around her. Next week, if not sooner.

In the meantime I wanted to share this new video:



I was also astonished to learn yesterday that I have a couple of pics on flickr with over 1000 views. I can hardly believe it. Here they are:





May angels be with you dear friends,
Wendy