The Magic of Play

The Season Of Play has begun at Get Messy Art Journal.  Inspired by her Altered Vintage Golden Book featured in SEW Somerset Summer 2017 volume, I chose this Golden Book, one belonging to my now grown boys.

Sanding the cover to remove the glossy finish.

Covering the fragile pages with clear gesso to strengthen them.

Front cover: Using Post-Its to protect the images I want to keep then scraping white gesso
over the entire cover.

Introductory page - still incomplete as I am not quite sure what else to do with it.

My messy desk

In the spirit of play, I wanted to use mediums I rarely, if ever for this season: Gelatos, Scribble Sticks, oil pastels, and masking tape.  Take a deep breath... not using any paint!

Created this spread playing Roll-the-Dice: a creative art journaling game.  You can see my list on the right.

My first try at photo transfer using packing tape, sadly the image came out reversed.

 I wanted to include a photo of my favorite book as a child and even though the photo transfer did not turn out the way I wanted it to, I still included it.  I keep the image of the clothes line as I have fond memories of my mother hanging our clothes out on the line.

Being brave and stitching right in the book.

Play Prompt 002: Use only primary colors - no mixing allowed! 

Created this second page today during the Saturday morning Get Messy Hangout.  I enjoy having other artists to hang out with while doing art.  It's refreshing to have others to laugh with, share information and ideas, and just talk about artsy stuff.

If you are looking for an art tribe consider joining the fun over at Get Messy Art Journal.  No matter where you are in your art journey you will fit right in!

The 100 Day Project 2018

Have you heard about #The100DayProject?  This is a great way to take on that project or practice you find yourself putting off. 

Using a Pocket Sized Decomposition Book

I am joining for the first time with the support of an amazing tribe, Get Messy Art Journal Community.

What is your 100 day project? 100 days of creating collages in my "No Paint Required" pocket  sized Decomposition Notebook.
What does success look like for you? Ultimately, I would like to have 100 pages of collages, but the end goal is to get into the habit of creating every day.
What do you hope to achieve with the project? Make a habit of creating everyday.
Where will you be sharing?  #the100dayproject, #100dayproject2018, #nopaintrequired
How will you make sure that you reach your goal? I have printed a 100 day calendar to mark off each day when completed.

You can find these printable calendars HERE and HERE.

The official kickoff is April 3rd however the 100 days begins when you begin.  So... are you ready?
If you are joining in please leave the hashtags you are using in your comment so I can follow your journey and cheer you on.

The Practice of Releasing the Day's Stress with Paper Collage

Inspired by THIS post by #mkranthony, I began a practice of creating small paper collages to help release the day's stress after a long day of teaching. 

I chose to use a pocket-sized Decomposition Book which has thicker paper to hold the bulky elements.

I'm learning to follow my intuition when pulling out the scraps, letting go of the need for it to "all make sense", sometimes adding found items from the day such as stickers, garment tags, or wine bottle closures.  And there is added benefit of finding a use for all those small scraps of paper, lace, and ribbon I have accumulated.

This collage was inspired by a quote in Everyday Positive Thinking by Louise L Hay:

"When life presents more challenges than you can handle, delegate to God.  He not only has the answer, He is the answer. ~ Tavis Smiley.

 What practice do you have in place to help release the day's stress?  I would love for you to share what works for you.

Get up. Get Dressed. Paint: Seeing gold.

First painting completed in the book Release Your Creativity.  Found this assignment difficult having to work primarily with gold paint.

 There are four layers of gold paint with the white and red ink drips and splatters.  After the third layer I found myself growing tired of the process of covering up the previous layer and starting again.  The drying process for each layer tried my patience. 

The layers peeking through.

I created this canvas while working in the journal to give away for Art Abandonment.  I keep putting off dropping somewhere it as I worry no one will want it.  

Joining in at Paint Party Friday.  What color paint is on your fingers this week?

Get up. Get Dressed. Paint.: Blue Sky Thinking

Created this spread in my Winter Blues altered book.  The sun was so brilliant and radiant on this blistery, cold afternoon I had to stop to photograph it.  This Willie Nelson song is one of my favorites.

The names of the paints on this paint chip perfectly fit in with the theme.

Loving the effect of the blue Color Shift paint.

I stumbled on a new technique:, embossing the torn edges of the vellum paper.  Here I used a bright blue and  snowflake tinsel embossing powder by Ranger.

Sharing my art with Paint Party Friday.  What color paint is on your fingers?