The Capricious Crafter

Please visit my new blog, The Capricious Crafter!   I took a sabbatical from blogging and gave much thought to how I wanted my new blog to look and feel.  I am very happy with the results!  I would love for you to visit me there!

Fireflies and Rusty Stars

Shhhhhhhhh ..... don't be afraid ..... but yes, I am finally doing a long overdue blog post!!! The last few months have been kind of odd for me creatively, as I really haven't been able to stick to anything for long and have been going from mixed media on canvas to scrapbooking to crocheting to art journaling and back to something else.

But yesterday I was really in the mood to do something different, so I got out my Dyan Reaveley 'Dylusions' Art Journal, and got started.  First, I put a long strip of masking tape along the center (helps strengthen the binding and keeps paint or inks from going down between pages) and added a good coat of gesso over the whole thing.  While that was drying I started thinking about what I wanted to do ... and I was a total blank, but the bottle of olive green was calling my name, so I got that out and set it in front of me so I wouldn't forget.  Once the gesso was dried I squirted the paint onto my journal pages and, using my brayer, rolled it all over the two pages ... vertically and then horizontally. As I rolled side to side, I thought the pattern made by the brayer looked like old barn boards, and then came the idea to paint a part of a barn wall, and from there, flowed more ideas until I got this ...

Once the olive paint was dried, I brushed on some brown paint to bring out the look of 'boards', and even make a knot in the wood.  Then I used a mixture of paints (who KNOWS what all colors!  But they were all Anita's All Purpose Craft Paints.) to make a grey, and after pencil drawing the shelf, painted it on.  Next I used oil pastels to add shading and definition.  Next up I did a pencil drawing of an aqua canning jar, and painted it using a blend of turquoise, metallic white and some other colors of paints to get the nice light aqua color.  I did a couple of coats of the aqua, and while it dried, added the rusty nail on the left page.

The nail was pencil drawn and colored using the oil pastels.  Have I told you I am in LOVE with oil pastels???  Seriously!!!  Anyway, by then the jar was dry so I added a lid, using metallic silver paint and grey and black pastels.  Then I penciled in some fireflies and painted them up using bright yellow, metallic white and black paint.

 

The 'object' to the left of the jar is supposed to be an old birds nest, and was colored using the pastels.  Did I say I love pastels???

Next up was something to hang from the nail, and last night when I went to bed I had NO idea what that would be, but this morning when I looked at it, I thought ... 'rusty stars!' ... and knew that was what I would add.  I did a pencil drawing, then painted them with gesso to get a clean slate on which to paint them.  Then I used the rich brown paint for the base, and colored and shaded them using pastels.  The wire was drawn on using a black marker.

 

I also added an old 'dirt dauber' nest in the upper right hand corner ... you can't have an old building without a dirt dauber nest!  And I used the same techniques for that as I did for the rusty stars, using gesso, paint and oil pastels.

I have to tell you, this is one of my favorite projects EVER, and I am so proud of it because it truly represents a special part of my childhood memories.  I also hope that you have enjoyed your visit today.

Blessings,  Becky

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My, oh my!  Check out this amazing new collection from Websters Pages!  And they are having a giveaway, so run, don't walk, over to their blog and sign up!

Art Journaling Fun!

Today I had some fun playing with paints and 'stuff' and made an art journal page using one of my recent favorite prints using the Gelli Plate.  I just kind of let myself go and not worry about it being 'perfect', and I love how it came out!  Here goes .................

 

There's a real glare ... that could have something to do with all the gold metalic paint I used, but you get the idea!  At the very top I wrote 'Art lets me be ...' and then below it I wrote 'free to be me' in larger script, then I didn't like the black marker that I used so I added assorted colors of artists pastels to outline the letters.  At that pointed I added an orange glaze to the whole thing and I love how it turned out!  After the glaze dried, of course it needed some bling so I added some platinum Stickles to the outlined words as well.

  

I dripped black paint on the Gelli Plate in the printing process, and I love how that turned out, as well as the layers that came through from earlier layers.  To 'embellish' the page I added some washi tape, but it still needed more.  That's when I pulled out a few things that I had been using as stencils in the Gelli printing process.  One was a paper doily that had so many layers of paint on it that it was stiff and heavy.  The top coat of paint was a 'topaz' metallic, and I loved it so much I cut out three circles from the doily, glued them on and added a gem to the center.  Then I kind of shaped them to show the dimension.

I love how these turned out!  The other product I had been using as a stencil for gelli printing was a strip of drywall tape.  It is full of holes (see above) and is self adhesive to help it hold a shape on joints and corners.  It had some great colors, so I used bits and pieces and layered them to get that feel of texture.

The glue and sealer was still wet on the picture above, but I love how it turned out once dry.  That tape really adds lots of texture!  I love how this piece turned out ... not because it is a perfect example of an art journal page, but because of how much fun I had just letting go and let the creative process make it's own way to a finished product.  I know that through doing this, my techniques and such will get better, and I am happy with where I am for right now. 

I hope you have enjoyed your visit today!  I am sharing this on Carolyn Dube's June Colorful Gelli Print Party, so be sure you go visit her too!  Blessings,

Becky

Another New Thing ...

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately, but I haven't had time for much 'playing' of late.  But today, instead of spending the day with my crafty friends at my local scrapbook store, I stayed at home and attempted something I have been putting off for a while.  (Oh, and no one was going to be there today anyway, so why not stay home and play in my pj's, right?)

One of the girls at the store, Karen, is the cutest, most bubbly and sweet young women I've known in a while.  She is a very busy mom of three little girls who are into all kinds of things like skating and gymnastics.  When she can, Karen finds her creative escape in art journaling.  She uses hard cover books and turns them into her journals, and she is really, really good at it, too!  And I have been envious of her talent for a while, but the whole 'using an old hard cover book' thing has had me stumped for a while, so I never 'went there'.

Then, a while back my Mama gave me an old (1972, so not THAT old) Singer book on sewing.  It is large, and heavy, and my first thought was ... what a cool book for an art journal!  Then I sat on it for a while because I didn't know what to do with it!  And finally I asked Karen how she started her books, whether she glued all the pages together, or what, and she sent me to a video and it helped a lot.  (I can't find the link to the video OR the lady's name ... as soon as I can get it from her AGAIN, I will put it in here.

Anyway, that was weeks ago, and I actually gesso'd (gessoed?) and painted the outside of the book, and the first couple of pages in the book a while back, but never did a page ... until today.  It's not great.  It's not even good.  I found out I need to get a better quality of black ink pad because the one I used ran really bad when I went over it with Mod Podge!  And I wish I had left the clock off of it, but it is what it is .....

I would really love it if the ink on the bird stamp hadn't run and if I had left off the clock and frame!

I used Anita's acrylic paint, an old bottle of shiny 'puffy' paint for the white line, washi tape for the pennant flag, a couple of old stamps, and coated it all with Mod Podge.

I love that washi tape!  I outlined the 'pennants' with a black Micron .05 marker.

The quote says "Change in this life is inevitable.  How you roll with it is up to you!" 

Thanks for visiting today!  Blessings,