Creative Wildfire

I found the book Creative Wildfire, by L.K.Ludwig on Amazon used, for next to nothing a long time ago and recently pulled it off my shelf because I needed some inspiration. It is a very basic book, an introduction to art journaling, with lots of very basic information and examples from various artists. The best part which I hadn't noticed when I first got the book (and then sort of forgot about) was in the back of the book, tucked in a flap of the back cover was a recycled blank journal, the left overs from the printing process. How sweet is that?! This is a page I did in that blank journal using some scraps laying on my table, doodling, acrylic skins, and some paint. I just played. And I am now caught up with ICADS as of today. Here are the next 5 icads. Thanks for stopping by.

29 faces Challenge. #'s 23 and 24

OK. I'm feeling the pressure. I think doing an ICAD(index card a day for 60 days) was not as stressful as producing a face for, in this case, 29 days. Actually, there are only 28 days in this month of February this year. Thank goodness. Faces are hard, I think and I am not feeling it tonight. If I do this again I might have to start a month ahead of time. I love Judi Dench and saw a picture in a magazine. I don't know that it looks anything like her, but I think it does maybe a wee bit. The next one is just out of my head. It's ok but I'm not thrilled. Hey! I'm showing up and doing the work. You can tell my inner critic is right in my face tonight so I'm going to tell her to move on.

61 Stands Alone

Math was never one of my best subjects. As I was painstakingly laying out all of my ICADS out on the floor this evening, after a grueling work day, while trying to keep two cats from walking on them, it occurred to me that something was missing. 61 was missing. Duh! Today is the 31st day of the month. Thank goodness for understudies and extras waiting in the wings. I refused to lay them all out again for photography purposes so you will see #61 alone. We'll consider her the nearly forgotten special one. It also occurred to me that I could have laid them out in a more interesting color format other than the order in which they were made, but, I don't have the energy at this moment to do that. I had to decide did I want to lay them out horizontally or vertically to get them all in- in such a small space on the floor. I settled on both. Here they are: all 60 + one. Tell me. Would you have forgotten #61?................. I feel so much better now. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you visit again soon.....................................................jo

HURRAY!

The index card a day challenge has been completed. I did it! Another year of 60 days of art on an index card. It really has been a challenge some days. not so much of doing it but of telling myself it doesn't have to be perfect or lavishing or even spectacular. I wasn't too thrilled with some of them and I wasn't very good at following the prompts, in fact, most of the time, I forgot to see what the weekly prompts were. I was too busy creating other art. It's the fact that I showed up, had fun, experimented, and did SOMETHING on an index card. I met the challenge. It also shows I can create art on a deadline if I have to. So, there's lots of good things that have come out of this. I give you the last 6 days of ICADS. The first one was made with taking a leaf from the plant in my studio and pressing it on to a stamp pad. The second one was made with alcohol inks dripped on to the paper and oil pastels. I soaked the index card in chai tea for the third one. The mandala is painted with various inks. The next to the last one is covered with waxed paper with remnants of paint markings, oil pastels, markers and my own torn doodle. The last one is gelli plate background with torn paper with watercolor, washi tape and stitched on the sewing machine. There you have it. I hope you enjoyed show.Thank you Tammy Garcia for hosting yet another ICAD challenge. I hope you are well.......... Thanks for stopping by..............jo

Sometimes I Haven't Got A Clue

I wanted to share a recent art journal page with you. Another way I am using up lots of scraps of paper, trying my hand at lettering, and using up the IN THE VAN faces series. They are slowly making their way to this book, a simple Pro Art sketch book found on sale at Michael's some time ago. I went through the book and glued two pages together to give it more strength and then started "throwing" down back ground pages, figuring I'd come back to the journaling part later. I think that's the hardest part for me - putting the writing, lettering, or words on to a page. It's not like I don't know what to say, because I have something to say, it's getting it on to the page without messing up the art that slows me down. It's that inner critic that moves to the front and says,"Ok. Try not mess it up now." And here's a few more ICADS because we're only a few days from the end of the month. Thanks for stopping in. Your comments are always welcome and appreciated..................... Jo ****** I am linking this to Balzer Designs Art Journal Everyday, Artsyville Glue it Tuesday.

What A Story!

My friend Robin told me recently that making journals was addicting. I was really excited about my first attempt at making a journal with duck tape but that changed pretty quickly.. Jodi Ohl over at 21 Secrets makes it look so easy in her videos. I started out ok until I "tried to nestle" (hot glued) the signatures in and then I couldn't get the book to open, or lay right or flat, so it ripped the first and last pages of each signature. OK. Jodi Ohl did that, too, in her video. No big deal.I patched the pages up. I thought maybe I hadn't left enough space for the spine so I separated the covers and started again making a wider spine. Maybe it was the thin black electrical tape I used instead of duck tape. I dunno. I went to purchase some black duck tape, figuring I could still cover up any more rips. I did hot glue the signatures back in but they still don't seem to lay right. I'm sure with practice and more mistakes I might do better but to tell you the truth, I was peeved. It was more like a challenge, a test> Did I measure everything right? Did I make a wide enough spine? Did I do everything correctly to make this beautiful home made book> I felt like I failed. Perhaps journal making is just not my thing or perhaps I really don't have the patience for it. Addictive? Not too sure about that. Robin makes journals. wonderful journals as well as she tells stories. I know. She's gifted me a journal or two and I've heard her tell a few good stories. And yes, I know there's tons of info on the internet for making journals. I wish the journal making fairy would throw some dust my way. I swear, I was like a little kid after nestling then wrestling with that glue gun that destroyed my pages. I'm on the home stretch of the ICAD challenge, although I'm still running a bit behind. That's ok. Here are a few more all in the same color palette. But if you have any ideas you want to bestow upon me I would gladly listen. Thanks for stopping in................Jo

Icads and More

I am once again running behind in not only posting but actually making the ICADS. Life, you know, has a way of sometimes getting in the way. Here are a few more. The second one was soaked in a chai tea bag bath. I wanted to see how dark I could stain it. This one didn't get too dark but it has a pleasant smell. I don't like the first one with the tree. I like the tree but the piece is missing something. It's not one of my favorites so I will come back to it at some point. The last two were made with layers of painted waxed paper glued on. You know. The paper laying around on the table you've used as a pallet or you've used it to wipe your brushes. I like the grungy look. I think I mentioned a while ago that I was taking the Twenty One Secrets workshops. I hadn't anything to show for it at that point. I decided to give it a try with Jodi Ohl's class on making a journal. This is how I've been using up my many gelli plate prints I've been making and any other miscellaneous papers. These are the front and back covers for my book. Here are the inside front and back covers. And here are some pages of the first signiture (or is it signature) at this point?. This is all new to me. This book is not going to be sewn into a spine but rather duct taped and then hot glued. I will see how it turns out. I figure if I make enough of them and experiment with different techniques I'm bound to make a home made journal I like. I know there's a million different ways and resources in how to make them out in cyberspace. I like that I can finally find a place to put all those prints. They take on a different look when cut down to smaller sizes. Stay tuned. More to come. Thanks for spending a moment here............I am having a staycation this week. I am not wanting to pay attention to the time in any regard unless it's having to do with eating.( my head will tell me if I have forgotten to eat.)........Hope everyone is well..............jo

Running Behind..... and Painting Big.

Ok. So, I'm only a day behind on the ICAD challenge but I don't like to be behind. I think I will be having one of those make- ten -at- a -time days. I few weeks ago I showed you a larger work I was beginning- on a very large piece of plywood from Home Depot. It was getting hard to be working on that on the floor so I made some adjustments. This is what it looks like after working on it this weekend. I'm not really sure yet which end is up yet. I'm going to let the painting tell me. I am trusting some thing will tell me. What do you think of it so far? Thanks for taking a moment here.......................Jo

Letting Go of Heavy Things

I've been on a roll both inside and outside the house the last month or so. Cleaning, sorting, getting rid of, donating, giving stuff away, cleaning out the garage, rearranging rooms, and getting the yard cleaned up for an eventual garden, and thinking about a yard sale. It feels very good to let things go. Once I get it in my mind to do something, there usually is no stopping me, which can be a good thing and at times a not so good thing. I tend to forget that I am not twenty years old and start rearranging the furniture. I always end up paying for that later in pain. And then I forget to eat because I'm on a roll and then I get a migraine and that messes me up. In between doing all this I still made some time for Art. I think I left you with the gelli plate and making transfers onto clear packaging tape. You can see that here I then played again using the gelli plate as a canvas and may have left it sitting on my art table for several days before coming back to it, adding a layer a time and of course trying to be patient for it to dry. This is what I ended up with. Here's a close up. And here's what the tape looked like when peeled off from the gelli plate. Very cool, I thought. While I was working with those colors some of them had to be used on other things. Yes, the index card a day challenge goes on until the end of the month. Here are some of the latest. And lastly, I wanted to show you my work in progress. Nothing like going from one extreme size to another. This is on plywood from Home Depot. I hope you are staying cool and having a good weekend....... Thanks for sharing your comments and for visiting here. Please do come again............................jo ** I am linking to Carolyn Dube's Party and Artsyville to the glue it lounge