Saturday, April 4, 2009

March journals on...

I have been working on some art projects, and some journal pages.
Here are the pages I have done and have photos of so far.
I have included the instructions on how I did them, in case you are interested :0)


March week 4 Yellow & Blue. These have to be some of the funnest prompts. Even though Blue is not one of my favorite colors, I didn't have to "think" about it, because it is a color- you just look for the color, and it comes together.
I painted the journal page yellow. While it was drying, I went through our magazine box, and started pulling out pictures of blue items. I did not really care what it was that was blue, just ripped out the item. Totally random. When I thought I had enough, then I cut around them all. When the yellow paint was completely dry, I put down a thick layer of gel medium, and started to randomly set down the images. I did not pay any attention as to where or what they were, so that is why some are grouped tightly and some not, because I didn't plan. It might be wise to plan next time.
When all the images were stuck, then I put another thick layer of gel medium on top of all the images. I let this dry for several hours. (best overnight, but I am an instant gratification person, so I hurried it with a heat tool, and then waited a few hours)
I then added some yellow dots, the word "blue" with yellow paint, and the word "yellow" with blue paint, then when the paint was dry I outlined the words with black sharpie.

March week 3 stitches. I started with pasting down a piece of pink cardstock to the white journal pages. Then I squirted red, white, and pink paint onto the pages, smeared it around with my fingers. That was messy but FUN!
The paint is really thick, so it took a full day to dry. Then when it was dry, I took some fibers, and threaded it into a tapestry needle, and sewed the edge of the cardstock. If I had to do this over, I would have just painted the cardstock first, then sewed it, and then glued it into the book- it would have been SO MUCH easier.
Once the blood stopped ;0)
I then started changing my mind about what I was going to be doing on my page.
I remembered I had all these bright colored stitched flowers, and I have been longing for Spring, so I started gluing them down. I then added stems out of this awesome ribbon I have been hoarding. I added a little embroidered dradonfly, the words made with fibers, and a little silver dragonfly for the dot on the i of Spring.
The coolest part is that everything but the background and the charm, is stitched or fibers!

March week 2 Who is she? I printed both of the images and sprayed with Fixative.
Coated both of my pages with gesso. Then tore the images out of the paper and set them down with gel medium, both under and on top. Then did another layer of gesso, heavy around the edges, lighter as I went in, and a very light brushing over the faces.
When COMPLETELY dry, and no longer cold. Take a fine line sharpie and outline the outside of images- one in a rectangle one in a circle. Then add the add the square spiral and the circle spiral over the "brain" area. Trace over small parts of the face to change the expressions with the fine line sharpie. With a heavier sharpie add the words.

March week 1 Postage stamp-I started the page by painting it with a sage green, light blue, and white, all marbled together, but not thoroughly mixed. Let dry. Then I added the words of mail I am not thrilled to receive. Then I painted a coat of pearl paint down on top of that- which kind of covered the sharpie words, but they still show. Adhered the letter, and wings. Stamped images with Saddle brown StazOn ink pad, and then wrote the final words with sharpie. Done!
(sounds fast, but it takes awhile for all those layers of paint to dry)