Week 2 : DLP 2015

Information about Documented Life Project is HERE.

Here are the ways I've used gesso for this week's challenge :
1. Prep the surface - rather than cover my entire page with gesso, I decided I'd like to use dylusions sprays in my dylusions journal, so used a stencil with gesso over it as a resist. Applied it with  a palette knife - not 100% successful since my stencil wasn't really clean so the gesso didn't dry white, and the gesso was a bit thin, so not a perfectly crisp design...this is only the very first layer though

I sprayed over with dylusions sprays and then thought I needed a bit more yellow so scraped on some acrylic paint on with a credit card, and blended it with a wet wipe. Some of the gesso pattern looks cool and I can try and retain that as I go

I keep thinking I'd like to make a portrait stencil - I'd seen Julie Fei-Fan Balzer demonstrate one in Creative Jumpstarts last week, and the journal prompt encouraged me to begin and give it a try. This is the test with spray paint on a piece of scrappy newsprint underpaper

2. Used black gesso through the stencil on my journal page, and also to create some added interest around a balzer bits mask to highlight the masked colour. I like how my gesso was perhaps a bit thin and means you can still see the design beneath the hair.

3. White gesso through a stencil (it could just as easily have been a stamp) to create texture/raised interest and to lighten up the page

click on any photo to see it larger

Thought it would be fun to use black & white washi tape for the daily journaling part of the page to pick up the black and white gesso features. I'm also using black and white pens to journal.
4. White gesso to create writing space clear of distractions - unfortunately I forgot to take a process picture of this. Decided to add a piece of an old book page to the background with gesso swiped over it for my quote, but then decided I'd like some hot pink spray action...now that you know it's there, you might be able to squint and see it!

And a couple of other techniques you might like to try with gesso, although I didn't use them on this page ::
To unify/soften a layer - see the first step in making my spread in week 1
I remembered a technique from creative jumpstarts in 2013 where we stamped gesso onto transparencies. Click HERE to see that.
Here's this week's completed spread :

I approach these pages with no idea of how they will turn out. Challenges give rise to learning and growth. They should stretch my ideas of what I can do, enable me to discover new ways to problem solve, make me think differently about how I can create art and how I can make it true to me...I hope you saw something there to inspire you. I am looking forward to what we're going to be presented with next week.  
You can see all my posts about this project HERE and I've created a Flickr album for all my Documented Life 2015 spreads HERE.

Creative projects in 2015

I'm finishing off a couple of projects this week, but with 2015 just around the corner, it's time to share what I'm going to focus on creatively in the new year. 
The main thing I want to make in 2015 is quilts - lots of quilts.
I am starting the year right with our national Quilt Symposium in January 2015 here in Palmerston North. This is the main venue :

I'm also taking 2 post-symposium day classes through our club with Karen Stone - love her work and a good way to start the year with fabric and colour design ideas. In 2012 I tried Creating a Book a Month - didn't quite make it but I did make 6 which is more than I would have done without that goal. Wondering if I should try that goal for quilts in 2015 - made 2 this year. Here are the links in case you are new to my blog : Christmas tree quilt and Simply Delicious quilt. 
Next is Art Journaling - which I could never give up :-)
I have committed to Life Book 2015 which starts on January 1st - because it is such good value {NZ$152 which spread over the year = $2.92 per week! and there's a 3-part payment plan if needed as well} -  because I want to get out of my comfort zone and try some different ways of making art (eg. faces) - because I've never tried it before and want to find out about it for myself - because the teachers are amazing...

Tam promises an inspired, creative and nourishing year - get in touch with your creative inner fire! Go HERE for the full schedule of lesson dates, teachers and weekly offerings. And she's posted a pic of her first lesson....I just hope I'll be able to create something half as beautiful

My other art journal focus will be The Documented Life Project for 2015 which will inform my daily journaling.

And just for fun...
I was going to resist doing Creative Jumpstart in January 2015, but I just couldn't!

At only US$25 you get 25 videos from 23 artists, and access to all content until November 2015. It was the list of artists participating this time around that sold me (also $5 off for returning Jumpstarters)
The online classes I have enrolled in with Mary Ann Moss over the last few years will expire for me in 2016 so I should devote some time to them. 

The 2 Stitched and Stenciled classes are permanently retired. The other 2 on the left are still available to you but with different purchase options.
I am also very inspired by the work of Anne Brooke, and would like to explore some collage ideas and create some mounted art pieces.

Works by Anne Brooke

I will continue to update my list of Cheap and FREE online art classes that you can always get to in my sidebar. Check out the new possibilities there.
What's on your list?

Today only : $5 off Creative Jumpstarts 2015

On Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's blog today she is sharing a code for you to get $5 off Creative Jumpstart 2015 :: This is a limited offer valid from 9am Dec 1, 2014 to 8.59am EST on Dec 2, 2014.

I wasn't going to join this time around, but then I saw the teacher line-up. Hope you get to grab the special, but even if you don't it's still good value at US$25. You get 25 videos from 23 artists through January and access to all content until November 2015.

Creative JumpStarts and The Documented Life Project

A couple of things happening in January that I've started to think about already... Have been doing Nathalie Kalbach's Creative Jumpstarts for a couple of years now. See my posts here. So excited that she is doing it all again in January 2014.

Get all the information to sign up HERE. It's only US$20 if you're new to Creative Jumpstarts. For that you get 23 videos through January and opportunities for great giveaways. Based on previous years, I don't think you'll regret it. Get a taste of what was on offer last year : Nathalie has been sharing her Jumpstarts from January 2013 - check them out alongside other free tutorials from her here.
And yesterday on Roben-Marie Smith's blog I read about The Documented Life Project.

It's about making your everyday planner/diary more artful and from 1st January there'll be a free weekly challenge on ways to use and decorate your planner. Check out Roben-Marie's base here, Lorraine Bell's here, Rae Missigman's here, and Sandi Keene's here. There's going to be a facebook group, and a flickr group too. Thinking it would be fun to turn my boring daily diary into something pretty to keep.

Creating, Sharing, Reading

This was my favourite lesson from Letter Love this week

The Good Negative

And I made progress on another page in the FTB journal. Looked like this last time you saw it

and now

Loving my new fern stencil - thinking that will get lots and lots of future use.

Have a few things in my head that I thought you might like to hear about.

If you missed signing up for creative jumpstarts, all the videos are now available at Nathalie's Studio until June 2013. Mouse over CJS 2013 in the top right, slide down to highlight The JumpStarters 2013 and they will all magically appear :-)

Roben-Marie Smith has a new class called Ripped and Stitched : "Rip, stitch, paint and bind your way through this workshop where we will create a beautiful bound book complete with pockets, pages, tags and embellishments"
I loved her mixed media mayhem class and this one looks cool too. Check out this lovely cover from one of her students.
And it's been a while since I recommended new Fiction. Most recently I've been enjoying this

And this lovely pile from the library is my arty inspiration for the weekend

See you next week

Welcome February

The Creative Jumpstarts for 2013 finished with the end of January. I've really enjoyed having quick things to do during the holidays, but am ready to get involved in some bigger projects, and I really miss stitching. Here's a few of my last experiments from prompts I've followed in the Jumpstarts.
Another background from Natalie Kalbach - applying gesso to a page and then adding texture to it while wet

The colour was applied with my neocolor II watersoluble crayons - above is the initial application of colour. Once wet the colours blended more. Then I decided to add some extra circles of colour, and you can see in the bottom left I briefly toyed with the idea of turning them into flowers

I hated this...the good news is that a baby wipe can remove the unwanted colour and now I have a background that I want to use. I like the marks in the gesso - especially the date stamp and circles.

Next up another watersoluble technique from Dina Wakley using crayons and water on a stamp.

I love the ethereal look of this technique. Last year she shared her jumpstart video at the end of March so keep an eye on her blog if you are interested in this. She also showed us the very cool idea of using a wet (with water) brush to outline images that you wish you tear out of paper - the water line makes the tearing simple.
And will finish with another resist technique, again from Nathalie. For my first sample I painted the page a turquoisey blue, then stamped with the versamark pad on dirty (unintentionally!) stamps before embossing with the clear powder. I rubbed green paint over to reveal the resist technique.

Not quite as her example turned out but I still like the resulting background. Here's a close-up to show the lovely raised shine of the stamped designs.

Then I thought I'd try it again on ordinary paper so this is a page from my Full Tilt Boogie Journal.

Page with clear embossing added

The page as it stands now had a wash of watercolour added over the embossing, then I added different flower shapes and embossed them with Tim Holtz' distress embossing powder : antique linen. The last layer of flowers was done with perfect pearls gold and is the less filled-in flower. 

Don't know whether I can bear to cover it up now!!
Have a great weekend.

Fun Flowers

Another fun creative jumpstart came from Catherine Matthews-Scanlon. She showed 3 different techniques for working in your journal and you can see the examples she created here.
I had a go at the first where you blend a variety of watercolours and then see what you can see. Here's the start with my initial flowers drawn in.

And here's my completed page. 

I'm too much about colour to shade out the background with gesso as she did, and I like my resulting page. The colour details were added using my inktense and graphitint watercolour pencils. The Jumpstarts are great to inspire and see where you can take them.
See Catherine's Jumpstart from 2012 here on vimeo.

7 more sleeps!

Only 1 more week of the holidays to go and the boys will be back at school. We've had a lovely break together, but are all ready to be back to normal routines. 

Thought I would show you a few more background techniques from Creative Jumpstarts. They're not very exciting in themselves, but one of the ways I use my blog is to capture my experiments and techniques for future reference.
These are all by Natalie Kalbach. Check out this Youtube video of her demonstrating some other brayer and acrylic paint techniques.

Acrylic Brayered Background that was the beginning of the above page

Layer 1 Paint  speckle effect

Layer 2 - you can see some of the pink and original gesso peeking through

She also demonstrated Gesso on a transparency - you can cut the resulting page into shapes for embellishments too. Here's my transparency pieces laid on the orange page so you can see the effect. 

And then I actually made a page on the orange background, capturing our summer holidays.

 I trimmed the circles above to be triangles and they become the bunting.

Fabric Fun

I've been missing fabric and stitch, so was thrilled to have a couple of ideas from Creative Jumpstarts that work on fabric.
The first comes from Christine Delgadillo who showed how to make a transfer to fabric and clay using an acrylic sealer. Here's her blogpost with pictures of projects she made from the demonstrated jumpstart. I decided to have a go on fabric with Crystal Kote Fixative....my photocopies were quite old, but still worked fine!

Then thought about adding some colour. I used inktense pencils. 

I've been watching all the stencil and spray inspiration with great enthusiasm, and when I saw this post by Jane LaFazio it reminded me I could try the techniques on fabric too.

I used starburst sprays - Golden Rose of Texas and Delphinium Turquoise. 

And here's a new piece on pelmet vilene that  I've done with sprays and stencils. It will probably become a book cover.

The leaves were stencilled using pebeo setacolor paint, overlaid with the gold glitter finish, and I liked that so much I added the glittery heart too.