ad libitum

A JOURNAL FOR A CHRISTMAS PRESENT

For one of my art groups, we have a surprise Christmas gift exchange; we each make one present, but we don't know who will get it (we draw numbers). This is fun because you don't have the responsibility of making a gift for someone specific; you just make a present. I decided to make a journal. I over-dyed some commercial fabric hat has words on it (I figured words are a good theme for a journal cover). I used the fabric as the journal cover, which I folded over a spiral notebook in the same way we used to fold cut up paper bags over our school books in the '50s and 60's. I prepared the spiral notebook by glueing pages together, then sewing them together, and then covering with gesso. After the gesso dried, I either painted the pages or glued some gelli printed deli paper on them.

Below, are photos of the journal.

The back cover:

A journal page spread (the lines of the notebook peeking through, to use or ignore):

The last page of the journal with a folded pocket for some tags:

FABRIC MONOPRINTS

I had a large piece of muslin left over from a project. I decided to tear it up into rectangles and sqares and then play with paints, my gelli plate, stencils and stamps. (And, to answer the most commonly asked question, I plan to use the fabric pieces for a variety of projects: purses, altered clothing, quilts and wall hangings; but I don't have a specific plan for all of them.) I used acrylic paints. The pieces are in a variety of stages of completion. As I work on them, I will decide what they need and when each is finished.

Below is a piece that has a lot of work to be done:

The piece below has a circle theme. The big circles are from a stamp I carved.

On this piece, I used a stencil I made, an attempt to make a picture of my younger daughter.

Below is my start on a steam punk piece using a commercial stencil.

 

I used a letter stencil on the piece below; I'm thinking I may use it on a journal cover.

 

I used a tree mask on the piece below in an attempt to make a fantasy forest. I'm pleased with the start, but have to think about what comes next.

 

People who know me won't be surprised to hear that I have a lot more fabric pieces (I have a total of 28 fabric pieces in this project; all the pieces are about 14x14 inches). I'll post more as I continue to work on them.

 

CARVING MORE STAMPS

I've had a fairly unproductive art time for a while (Excuses: got a new knew on January 16 and have been sort of dealing with that - will get a new right knee on March 6 - don't worry, I won't show you my scars; have been overwhelmed by snow and cold). I finally got into production mode and carved some stamps to use in journals (and cards and collages and for fabrics).

I wanted some border images...

I also played with making positive and negative images for borders

I decided it would be fun to have a couple of city scapes.

 

You can't go wrong with hearts (or can you)...

well, I decided I went wrong with the solid hearts and carved design into them.

I think I may try to make some more word stamps.

 

 

WORKING ON AN ART JOURNAL

Last year I bought some composition books to turn into art journals (some with graph pages, some with lined pages).

I glued and sewed pages together and then covered them with gesso. Then I let them sit for a year. (After all, isn't my blog my art journal?). Last month, I decided it's time to start a "page turning, in real life, art in it and write in it journal." I'm not sure where this will take me.

I decided to start making backgrounds on the gessoed pages.

I want to use the stencils I made on some of my pages.

I completed my first spread using painted deli paper, acrylic paint, a mask, and a stencil (it's supposed to be me), and some writing.

MAKING MY OWN STENCILS

For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, I am on a quest to make as many of my own art tools as possible. I have been playing with stencils lately, and I decided that I wanted to use some face stencils and that I would make my own for collages, journaling, and possibly for fabric. This, I might add, is easier said than done.

I started by making line drawings of faces on blank stencil sheets. I used magazines and family photos as a starting point.

I thought that using a hot stencil cutter would make things easy. Well, it burns through the stencil blank quickly, but it leaves blobs and ridges. I tried two different burning heads on the tool. I went slowly. I went quickly. No matter what I did, I got blobs and ridges. So, I got out my trusty Xacto knife and tried to cut away the blobby parts and even out the cuts (I also sanded down the ridges). I used just the exacto knife for the rest of my stencils. I have to admit I had to tape over some unwanted slices (and burned out blobs), but I think practice will take care of that.

Below is a face I based on a magazine photo (hint, the fall Vogue is full of great images for collages, masks, and art inspirations). I used the Xacto knife for this.

Below is an attempt to make a stencil of my older daughter's face.

This is how it looks stencilled onto a piece of paper.

This one is supposed to be me.

 

And below is my attempt to capture my younger daughter's face.

I used paint instead of stamping ink when I stencilled this image.

Below is my effort to clean up after making the cuts with the hot stencil cutter. I used a magazine face as my model.

Another burned magazine image that I tried to clean up with the Xacto.

Below is another burned stencil of a magazine face. 

 

MES AMIS D'ART RETREAT

Last week-end I attended Mes Amis D'art retreat in Hudson, Ohio. I met my friend Andi Hinkle there and we had a great time visiting and arting (and shopping and eating). Cyndi Duncan is the organizer of these retreats and taught all the classes. We made paper dolls from magazine photos; we made paste papers and decorated papers; we made books/journals from our papers; and we made Santos dolls (I just finished painting my Santos doll today).

Below is a picture of my paper doll - not exactly human; but I think she's the cat's meow...

Here is the journal I made - the binding is a bamboo skewer and a rubber band...

I loved making the Santos doll. She is made of floral foam and plaster  strips and is wearing a custom crown. I painted her with craft paints and then covered her with glaze.

 

MORE SELECTIVE COLOR

Here are some of the other selective color photos I've been polaying with.

And, here is the page I made for the journal. I decided to use photos with windows in them. Both these photos were taken in Italy.

SNOWBOUND MUSINGS

Yesterday, I was blizzard bound, only a foot of snow, but big drifts (can't open my back door due to a waist high drift), and my street was unplowed. So, I turned to the computer and did some "weary of winter" art with my wishful thinking. I think most of us in Michigan feel like we've become snowmen and wish we were in warm places, preferably at a beach. So...

A day at the beach.

what traveling snowperson wouldn't want to lay out in the sun?

Building sandcastles is much warmer than making snow forts.

The seagulls are always fun to watch.

And, then, when home from vacation, it's time to put your photos in a journal.

 

SECOND DIGITAL JOURNAL LESSON AND FOURTH INCHIE

I had a busy day today. It started out with an interesting self-discovery. After geting Snow Leopard installed on my desktop, I mistakenly believed that I had lost a year's worth of work; I was aggrevated until I couldn't find last year's photos, then I cried. I had no idea how attached I was to my photos until I thought they were missing (they were hiding, but not deleted). They are back where they belong (sort of - I have a learning curve ahead of me with iPhoto11).

So, after having everything found/restored by Brittney, my computer guru, I spent this evening working on the second lesson from Marie Otero's Journal Magic class , which I am posting below and posting my inchie for Every Inchie Monday, also below.

The theme for this week's inchie is "maudlin." I used a [much reduced] photo of a cemetery statue for the primary image of my inchie.

For my journal page, I decided to focus on bird images.

I still have a lot of organizing to do with the spiffy new computer system, but it should be a happy task now that I know things are hidden, but not lost. It's sometimes surprising how dependent I am on my computer and all the treasures that I have stored on it.

 

DIGITAL JOURNALING

I am taking Marie Otero's Digital Magic Journal class which started Saturday. I never do well with journals (start out OK, but then I don't keep them up) and I'm not sure why. But, I love Marie's On Line instructions and I love working with Photoshop and I have hopes for this endeavor. Below is my first attempt at our first lesson. I plan on working on these techniques some more later this week.