Journal -- Framed!

Recently I found an old art journal I started several years ago in a class with artist Kelly Kilmer.  Each page has a frame cut nad I will be making works of art to insert in each window.  I decided to try collaging across some of the windows, glue on some extensions, etc ... just to shake things up a bit.

I didn't have any real design for the cover, but just felt like adding a starfish and painting.  I like the look, but it may take some additional work to keep it from looking like an ocean-themed book.

Fantabulous Book Class with Kelly

I love all of Kelly Kilmer's classes, but this one was my absolute favorite -- the one that was absolutely calling to me! This was her Reclaimed Artist Book class. One of my favorite things is to create new and eclectic pages for gutted books.

There were some nature things on the front cover. I cut new paper to cover those up and I was really happy with the vintage look of the black ruled paper. On the back I used several punched circles from a recent project. I couldn't bear to just toss them out and I knew they would end up on this cover :) It makes a neat texture with all the raised circles.

I haven't quiet figured out a title -- that's the only thing I need to add to the front at this point. I know it will have Fusion in the title, but I haven't figured the whole thing out. It will be about various cultures from the Old World -- but sort of a fusion between Old World and funky LOL

Bird Art

Here are some more poetry pages I did. I'll get them all uploaded eventually --- I was on a bird kick that night LOL

Painted Feather

Long time no see LOL I'll end catch-up post after my finals are over ... I just decided to post this now. I'm doing a mail art round robin with painted face envelopes with some other great gals from the Guild. You can see the start of Kelly Snelling's envelope here.

Rather than just paint a plain envie, Michelle Ward's Street Team post got me to thinking about how cool it would be to take advantage of some of the neat textured papers out there and alter them. Here are scans of my original papers.



Here is the back of my envie made with textured paper and molding paste:


And this is the front:


The background had a very earthy feel, so I felt inspired to draw and paint an image of a Native American girl -- cutesy as she is LOL I have a lot to learn about painting faces yet -- but I'm still in that stage where I am amazed it more cloely resembles a human than a Martian LOL

Jacqueline Sullivan Classes

I don't have computer access at home right now, so I haven't been able to post as soon as I would like. I had a wonderful time taking 2 classes with Jacqueline Sullivan. It was a lot of fun and I learned some new techniques. The green collage is pretty good size, but I was determined to alter these paper-mache half-hearts. I used family photos on that piece. Hope you like them!

Christmas Doodle Page

I was determined to get these doodle apges finishe I've been working on for while. I was really tired when I drew the first elf and I realized he was upside down the next morning LOL -- so he is now dangling from the top tangled in some Xmas lites LOL

I used souffle pens and a black gelly roll pen to do my doodling.

Heart in Hand ...

I am a bit late ---- eeeekkkk! But here are some hand pages I did for a hand-book swap in honor of sweet Michelle -- who does some of the most amazing journal pages I've ever seen :)

I hope she likes them. I haven't been doing incredibly deep work lately. I'm just doing what I like these days --- if that makes any sense.

WorkShop Art

I think it has taken me about a week to recover LOL -- but I took the most fabulous workshop with DJ Pettitt and Traci Bautista. I worked on my projects all day and put in another 3-4 hours a night doing art in the evening. I was absolutely determined not to add another UFO project to my growing pile LOL

I struggled with the mono-printing in Traci's class a bit. I was a bit heavy-handed with the paint and my prints on paper did nto turn out so well. I cheated on some and brayered paint on, stamped, etc LOL The paper towels and fabric prints were my favorite though! And I actually got a book assembled this time --- yippeeee! This was a really fun binding -- I can't wait to do more like this!

And DJ -- she was such a joy -- and so sweet! I've always been terrified of drawing people. DJ was very encouraging -- so I hope to do more drawings and face painting :)

There's about a gazillion thumbnails below -- so have a look :) Thanks for the fab weekend, DJ and Traci!!

Okay -- I'm cheating LOL I uploaded these a few days prior to the "By the Sea" prompt on Theme Thursday -- but it seemed perfect for this prompt. I've really had it with snow and winter, so I just had to do a sea theme -- longing for summer LOL

Nerves and Fear Came Swiftly

Kind of a heavy title, but that's just the way this page worked out. This is one of my favorite ways to work -- I just haven't done it for a while. I started with a grungy looking waste paper -- this one has extra crunchy texture LOL -- but it doesn't show up very well in the main photo, so I included a more detailed close-up.

I had no idea what to put on the page, so I flipped through a magazine until an image jumped out at me. Then I cut some phrases out of an old type-written letter and put them together for my journaling.

Fabric Paper Postcard

Here is a postcard I made with the fabri paper from the previous post. The color looks a little different --- more realistic here. In the previous photo I had taped the paper up to the window to show the translucency, but the color was a bit off there.

Making Fabric Paper

I found these two links when someone connected with me through a fiber arts message board.
Making Fabric Paper
Painting Fabric Paper

This was a different spin on making fabric paper than I had seen before, so I gave it a try. It mentioned you could use organza as the basic fabric and I love coming up with semi-translucent backgrunds, so that's what I started with for my base.

I sandwiched some fun fibers, scraps of lace, bits of paper, cheesecloth, and a little rock salt between the organza and tissue paper topper. I used Color Mists from Outside the Margins to color the paper.