Keri Smith is Trying to Get Me Evicted :)

I bet THAT title got you! I thought it might.

The other day I went to Barnes and Noble and discovered Keri Smith's book "Mess", and after flipping through some of the pages, I decided I just had to try it.

There are a lot of very interesting experiments to do within this book, and tonight I decided to try the first one I chose. Keep in mind, while I attempt to do this book, I am also going to attempt to retain the pages I complete, so I can look back at them. I am intrigued by the methodology (or perhaps, lack thereof) of the book, but I do want to be able to look back and see what I've done. That being said, I taped over the instructions on the page so they would still be legible, and then applied a decent layer of gesso on each page. Then, I followed the instructions... to drop something onto the pages from a height of at least 5 feet. So I put the book on the bottom of my bath tub and stood up on the ledge, and dropped/spilled a small cup of Antiquing Ink onto it. Then I dropped/spilled some lavender poster paint. And then, to top it off, for interesting contrast, I spilled bleach. And then I looked at my tub... needless to say, the "mess" didn't remain on the pages of the book!

After panicking that I was going to get kicked out for completely defacing our bath tub (I'm joking about the fear of getting kicked out, NOT about defacing the bath tub...), I removed the book from the tub and cleaned it all out, scrub sponge and all. Thankfully, it all came off! And my first experience with Keri's book turned out pretty neat looking :)

I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with this book! I just have to be careful not to get evicted ;)

IF: Yesterday

Emotional mixed media interpretation of my marriage, which is beautiful in remembering yesterday...

Works in Progress...

The snow is falling outside... not much accumulation, but enough. Thankfully, it's not hard, but rather soft... you know, the dusty kind. The streets are nice and clear, so that's great.

So, I'm ready to go to work tomorrow... 11 hours Saturday AND Sunday. I have a lot of time while at work to get some art done, which is ideal, as it's tough at home with two little ones :) My children always come first, of course! So I try and utilize my free time at work to get some art journal pages done. I have many in progress thus far, but are not quite done yet...

So, I have plenty of pages to work on, plus many white pages not yet begun. And I've the time to create... the only issue is, what do I bring? I usually have far too many art supplies with me to begin with. I can't struggle with all the stuff (markers, stencils, ink, paint (acrylic AND watercolor), pencils, brushes, select papers and ephemera, etc.) lol... any suggestions?

Even MORE Art Journaling Fun!!!

As a sort of follow up to my last post, I've decided to share even more fun with art journaling, in the hopes that I may inspire you all to want to try this fun and freeing activity for yourselves. Wait, did I say "activity"? To some, it even becomes a daily necessity :)

I have a lot of art products. Mixed media is so appealing that I often want to grab up everything I see. Being that I work long days on the weekends, I will bring things with me to keep me occupied while my client takes her naps. I've found that I want to bring more and more with me, though... inevitably, I'll be working in my journal, and the page will just need that one thing that I don't have. But I can't very well bring every thing with me... that would be crazy. So I've yet to truly master a travel bag that I'm happy with (that has EVERYTHING I want in it), but for now, I make due with what I do bring. And I think I've been doing OK :)

This piece above was created with colored pencils; some watercolor ones, some regular. That's pretty much it, and some torn paint color cards... I just wanted to have a little fun. I'm usually a lot more... careful, I suppose would be a good word. But today I just decided to play and see where it took me.

I then rubber stamped some flowers, colored them in, cut them out, and pasted them in. I also pasted in two butterflies from a pack of adorable butterfly napkins I'd bought a while ago. I like it overall, but I'm not done yet. I do have an idea of where it's headed, though...

I also decided to start working on a background to a spread I'd done last week. The basic spread was just a magazine image with two rub on butterflies, an antique-looking card, a hand-written song lyric, and photos of fabric squares, and I'd no idea what else I was going to do, so I just started doodling.

The first doodle I did above is what is called a doodle game. I learned about it in Diana Trout's wonderful book "Journal Spilling." It really is a liberating exercise! You can even see a great video she's made about the technique here! Diana is a wonderful and enthusiastic teacher, and she really loves what she does. Each time I look at her book (which is frequent!) I get inspired to do something else with my journal!

I then switched to random squiggles and swirls... just to add some variety and visual texture.

I finished by doodling pipes. I have always liked to do this... I don't know why. I can go for hours just doodling intersecting pipes... it's a lot of fun :) No, really.

After I'd filled in most of the background with doodles, I colored over it with my one and only Prismacolor marker. It dulled out the background doodles, but you can still see them. I sure like how it looks.

Finally, I had an idea today. Other's may have done this, but I haven't heard of it yet :) I drew a few half circles in a straight line over text in a magazine and cut them out, then glued it over a wavy white background, and colored in red center spots. Walah! Instant cool borders... see?

Well, that's it for tonight! I enjoyed making these journal pages, and although I've more to do with them, I sure hope that you can glean an idea or two from my creations and go forth on your own art journaling adventure!