Deep in the City......... In Tiny Microscopic Rooms - The Smash Book Overhaul

Making my way through this overhauled Smash Book. I love any art having to do with buildings, city scapes etc. I was playing with alcohol based markers here with torn pieces of paper altered with Citrasolv. I think my friend Robin lives in one of those buildings but I cannot remember which house is hers. Thanks for visiting.

IF ......... The Smash Book Overhaul - Cont'd

If you had to pack up your life and leave in a hurry what belongings would you take? Remember I started this overhaul 2 years ago so I was just beginning to draw faces. Her hair was black at first but she looked to me like one of Cinderella's evil step sisters, so I tried to soften it with silver since "that is now where my head is at." :) The stamping around the edges with the teeny dots are if memory serves me correctly, very early Julie Fei-Fan Balzer Designs stamps. I've used them off and on through this book. If I had to pack up my life in a hurry I would bring family photos, my journals and art journals, my animals, and as many art supplies as I could. How about you? If you had to pack up your life and leave in a hurry what would you take?

De La Fleur- The Smash Book Overhaul -continued

It's sort of a scuffed up grungy look with pieces of torn and altered citrasolv papers, paint splattered waxed paper and baby wipes, some faint punchinella stencilling, and acrylic inks. I then had great fun dribbling the black ink from the top and tearing the edge of the page. I added those tiny stick on letters I found in the .25 bin at the art store eons ago. I think this is one of my favorite pages in the book. I hope you've had a good week. As tired as I am I'm venturing over here tonight. Do come. The folks are nice and there's lots of good stuff to see. Thanks for visiting. I am linking as well to Balzer Designs Art Journal Every Day.

I Can Hear Myself Think and Lonely is a Freedom - The Smash Book Overhaul Cont'd

Words as we all know can be very powerful. Sometimes it only takes a few words to make the page complete. I haven't ventured into art journaling yet where I document my daily thoughts. But I can look at these pages and know exactly where I was and what was going on at that time in my life. What about you? Do you work in your journal daily or sporadically?

Moving Forward

Taking a break from The Smash Book Overhaul for a moment because I really wanted to show you one of my pieces from LifeBook 2014. I am so glad I made the decision to take this year long adventure. It's allowing me some " deep me time" with lots of reflection and playing at the same time. These two pieces were based on a segment taught by Alena Hennessy called The Joy of Intention. I think I did two of them because I wasn't happy with the way the first one started but still kept within the same color scheme and keeping with my words "Moving Forward." And I kind of liked how it looked (a lot) when I put them side by side and then cropped them. Does that happen to you that you sometimes end up liking your work more when you hone in on one section? Thanks for visiting....................jo

More Quietly and More Deeply and Patty's Garden

I am continuing on with sharing my Smash Book Overhaul. This book took me two years to finish. Two years! Good grief! But look at all the other art I made in the interim. If my memory serves me correctly (and it doesn't always) I think I discovered spray inks and gel pens here and I rediscovered how much I really like teal/ turquoise with this shade of green. Although the next pages pretty much speak for themselves, I have to share with you that Patty is my oldest and dearest friend. Spanning thirty some years we have shared much laughter and tears. Patty is an all around creative person, a wonderful watercolorist, and her canvas for a good many years has been her garden. Seriously, when I have visited her I feel as if I have been to the botanical gardens. Thanks for taking the time to comment. It means a lot. Thanks for visiting. Stay tuned for more.

If You're Happy in Your Head........ The Smash Book Overhaul- part 4

I'm sharing with you my Smash Book Overhaul. Only one page today. "If you're happy in your head, then solitude is blessed and alone is ok." ~ Tanya Davis, spoken word artist. Happy Spring!! Wishing you a peaceful weekend. I'm joining the fun over here and here.

Furiously Strong Winds Tonight........The Smash Book Overhaul- part 3

Continuing on. .. On the other side of that small flap page was my home made tree stencil. and a page where I documented that I had done my taxes. Probably was happy knowing I was getting a few dollars back. And why I got so excited about the invisible write on tape from The Dollar Store, I'll never know. And one more. Braving drawing a face.with bits of Citrasolv altered paper, scraps of doodling and lettering in the background. Stay tuned for more. Thanks for visiting...................

The Smash Book Overhaul -Part 2

I'm going to show you these pages a bit at a time because I wanted to explain in some cases what was done. Here's the inside front cover. ....... some doodling, playing with an assortment of markers and gel pens. Notice the mandala on the index card which is glued down. Remember ICAD, index card a day? It's coming up in June again. The next page is sort of a flap page. I took bits of paper I altered using Citrasolv , which is a natural cleaner. Pages with photos from a National Geographic magazine were soaked and or sprayed in/with Citrasolv for various amounts of time and voila! YOu get many different new images. It is a messy process but if you have some time and patience you've gotta try it at least once. I have often left disposable aluminum pans soaking for days with a dozen strips and forgotten about them only to return and have the liquid dried up and the paper stuck together. But peeling them apart promises great surprises. I also have left them hanging outside letting the ink drip off onto the ground or paper and then letting them dry from there. I've also manipulated the ink around with various tools to get patterns, create designs, writing and drawing in to the ink.Pockets and puddles of ink blend and bleed. It's best done in a ventilated area or outside. While the citrus orange leaves the room smelling very nice, it can be overwhelming for some people. Throughout the book you will find bits and pieces of paper made with this technique. I have tried this with other magazines but it doesn't work. The secret is in the ink that Nat'l Geographic uses in printing. I think I discovered washi tape around that same time, so I bordered the page with some washi tape strips. Oh, yes, and there's a bit of a piece of map showing through. Stay tuned for more.

The Smash Book Overhaul- Finished.

I first started telling you about my project of overhauling the Smash Book somewhere in 2012. For those unfamiliar with this it's kind of like a fancy place to put all the things we used to collect in drawers when we were growing up, maybe a memory book of sorts or a pre-scrapbooking book. I purchased it on a whim of sorts because of it's hard cover, pretty sturdy paper, and a few things already written on some of the pages which sparked some ideas for me in terms of exploring art journaling. So, it looks like this basically in the store, give or take size and or color, but the jist of it is this. Here's some pages before I got my hands and teeth in to it. You can see some of the decorative paper here.I've shown you bits and pieces of it over the last 2 years. Yes, it took me two years to complete it. I know this because I marked the beginning by proclaiming I had done my taxes on 2/18/12. It seems fitting on this day that not only is the book finished but that I am showing it to you on this "memorable American day." I will share with you my Smash Book as I have over hauled it. Stay tuned....... Just to start you off here's the cover.

Spring Has Sprung!!!

Happy Spring!!! Thanks for all your wonderfully supportive and kind comments.

Floor Space

Since my studio looks like a tornado came through, thank goodness for some empty floor space.

What A Mess

When it gets bad enough...... I will have to clean it up. I don't know how anyone can work in that messy space.Can you tell I've got just a few projects going on at the same time? And all of them are more than a stone's throw away from being completed. :)

The Foam Board Four

Once upon a time in January of 2013 there was a piece of foam board on my table. No. This is not an April Fool's joke. This was a catch-all piece I'd do all my work on top of so it caught everything.And do you remember my goal last year was to practice drawing faces and wanting to incorporate them into my art? I think I've shown you a couple of these before. I am being brave to show these to you because they really stink.I let this sit for a good many months before I sent back to it.And reworked it some more. And ended up with this. They are certainly a bunch of strange characters but I've grown fond of them over the year watching them develop. I feel good that I didn't give up and did pretty much finish this painting. So. There you have the foam board four. Don't mess with them. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ I'm going to link this on Friday here and here.