More Text Messaging - GPP Street Team Crusade No. 43

Here's another page of text from magazines for this months Crusade (read about the Crusade here):

 

I put an assortment of words down all dif directions.  Then painted over the whole page with Golden Fluid Acrylics in GreenGold and rubbed it off some words to make them stand out a little more.  The words going every which way made me think of directions so then I used a compass mask (made by Tim Holtz) over the word "west".  Again using Golden Fluid Acrylics, this time in Phtalo Green.  I also used the reverse parts of the mask on the page and also some circles using various bottle and jar lids.  I'm not sure what else I'll do to this page but it'll be good for a future background.

Thanks for taking a look!

Text Messaging - GPP Street Team Crusade No. 43

This month, Michelle Ward, of Green Pepper Press, issued a Crusade for us to use text cut from magazines for journal pages.  You can read all about it here.
Thanks for this Crusade, Michelle!  Not only do I need to use more text in my journal, but I really need to take the time to go through some of those magazines I've been saving to cut text and images out of!

Here where I started:

I noticed alot of red and black in the text in the collection I had started.  I decided since I don't use red alot I should play with red for a journal page.  The big red "A" caught my attention.  Since A is the beginning I though that would be a good start so put that in the middle of the page.  I was going to say I didn't pick what words to use, but, since I was the one that went through magazine, and then the one to pick the words out, I did pick the words.  But my main criteria in selecting these was color and the width and length.  So above is my "test" layout.

Then I went to work on the background for the page, first - white gesso, then a strip of striped packaging tape.

The next step was to put some color down with acrylic paints.  So I turned the journal on edge and applied some red acrylics and hit it with the spray bottle of water and let it run down the page.  Soaked some up with paper towels and let it dry thoroughly.  It was looking entirely too pink for my liking so I decided it needed some contrast.  I used black acrlyic paints and a small bottle lid to add some circles.

Next I glued down my text with Golden Gel Medium.  I forgot to take a photo at that point (it's hard to remember to take photos of all the steps along the way!) .  But it still looked to me like it needed something so I took a black Sharpie and drew the circles and lines over the top.

I'm liking how it turned out, even if it is red and I'm not much of a red person!  Thanks Michelle for inspiring me to step outside my norm!  How cool is that?!?

Thanks everyone for taking a look!

GPP Crusade 42 - Strip Ease

This month the theme for the GPP Crusade is Strip Ease.  You can read all about it here.

For my contribution I took some printed papers and tore them into strips.  I had these hibiscus flowers I had cut out of a piece of scrapbook paper that I wanted to use for a journal page but I wasn't having any luck figuring out what to use for a background.  Then when I was thinking about the Strip Ease idea I thought that might work so picked out some papers, tore them into strips, glued them down and gave it a try.  I played around with where I wanted papers torn with a white edge (thinking that went well with the white edge on the flowers) and where I didn't.  I like how, just by accident, the words "WIN WIN" ended up showing up so well. 

I had the following page in an altered book that I did last month so thought I'd share it also.  The theme for this book is color and for this blue page I tore strips from magazine pages and glued them down.  I tore these strips so the white edge showed for more contrast between the blues.  The middle of the page had part of a fuzzy butterfly body which made me think of big hairy moths which give me the creeps so I had to cover it up!  I punched one inch circles out of the magazine pages and covered the partial body with them.

There's still plenty of time this month to check out the Crusade and participate yourself.  Go here for all the details.  Then see what you can come up with.  It's a great way to spark your creativity and move your muse into action mode , plus it's alot of fun!

Thanks for taking a look!

Color Inspiration and Grids

I'm working on an altered book with the theme Color Inspiration.  I'll use it to help me out when I'm stuck for ideas or need to check out colors or color combinations.  Color inspires alot of my art ideas - I'll see what I think at that moment is the perfect color and will be stuck with it in my head - I'll have to create something using that color to release it from my head!

This month is Michelle Wards' GPP Street Team Crusade No. 41 and the challenge is Grid Lock.  You can check it out here.

Here are some pages I did recently in my Color Inspiration AB using grid layouts:

For this page I masked out the squares then painted the page with black acrylic paint.  When I removed my masks the text showed through.  I really like to leave some text showing in an altered book when I can.  I like the way it looks.  I then stamped the puffin rubber stamp in each square and hand colored the beaks.  I love the contrast of the black and white on this page.

This page is photographs I took at an Oregon State Park called Thompsons Mills.  It's an old flour mill and I was fascinated by the rusty gears and parts I found.  I took alot of photos so may definately have another rust page for this altered book.  I thought the specks of paint and the haphazard stamping of "RUST" sort of fit with the subject matter of rust. 

The facing page to this one follows and has a rust background.  In addition to looking at this page to see the dif shades of rust it also gives me ideas for combining colors like rust and turquoise.  I love the way they look together.  Although I would say the turquoise background does enhance the rust more than the rust background enhances the turquoise. 

This was a page in a magazine.  As soon as I saw it and the "Tranquil Turquoise" I knew it was destined for my color book.  And since I had already decided to do the rust page with a turquoise background this seemed like the perfect stuff for the facing page.  It was alot of fun to cut up the pieces and figure out how to arrange them.  Just cutting out squares all the same size was just not going to work for this grid!

Thanks Michelle for the Crusade idea.  I'm really enjoying working with grids!

Playing with paints - monoprints

I spent several hours Saturday out in the garage where I have set up a paint playground (use a garage for the car?  but then the driveway would be empty!).  I have an art desk and a card table.  Even a couple easles and all my paints and applicators and stencils and lots of paper.  The garden hose is even close by for easy clean up.  And it can all stay out so it's ready to go at any time - loving it!

Yesterday I decided to give monoprinting a go - as described by Michelle Ward in one of her GPP Street Team Crusades from a few months ago. I hadn't yet found this great blog at that time so wasn't in on the Crusade. But it looked like so much fun! And it was! Check out my results:

Some of them I love just as they are, some will be great in collage, some will be great touched up with a black pen, or colored pencils.  Most of all it was a BLAST to play around with these.  From drawing and stamping designs to cut out on a tyvek envelope to picking colors and paints to spread out on the piece of acrylic to pull the print from.  Give it a try sometime!