Ready, Steady ...

Monday sees the start of ICAD for 2015, for which you create on one small index card

each day for two months.

During those two months, by spending a short time each day being creative,
it helps develop a creative habit, training your creative muscles to be ... creative.

But really, do you need a reason to be creative?

I may join in with this, although I am still having a debate with myself on this point,

but just in case I do, today I have made a small holder for my index cards.

The top is made from white mountboard on a rectangle chipboard base. 

The outside is covered in Ranger's white sticky-back canvas, painted black.

Some people prep a few cards in advance, to ensure a fast get away from the creative blocks,

so I have also covered a few blank index cards in some old wrapping paper

I have been saving for a few years. 

To be honest, it's a relief to finally find a good use for it,

as I have been hoarding it for simply ages.

The paper is by Cavallini Papers & Co Inc.

Come Monday morning, I should be ready to Go ...

Sweet Evening Yellow

My choice of poem for this week's Waddington Weekly poetry inspired altered playing card is by William Wordsworth.

The sun, above the mountain's head,

A freshening lustre mellow,

Ranger's Glossy Accents added to the rose

Through all the long green fields has spread,

His first sweet evening yellow.

Thoughts of Summer

The theme for May at The Documented Life Project is

Touchy Feely
(Textures)

The Art Challenge for

Week 21.  Cheesecloth

& the Journal Prompt for

Week 21.  Say "Cheese"

On to a base of dried white gesso,

I added pieces of cloth with gel medium & left to dry thoroughly.

I added colour with acrylic paint & left to dry. 

Then I added words cut from a supermarket newspaper,

Gelatos, glitter, Perfect Pearls, white Posca pen, Accent Beads ...

Not sure what this textile is - just something I found under the kitchen sink !

Better Late than Never

I signed up for Tim Holtz's Creative Chemistry 101 lessons, yes the one he launched back in 2012.

I am taking things slowly doing one class a week, watching & re-watching the videos,

making notes, making tags using his techniques & learning ...

Here are my first three tags, made using Ranger's Inkssentials

Craft Tags #8 size in manilla & black.

Day 2

I printed out the full step-by-step technique to attach to the back of each tag, for easy reference.

Reverse of Tag

I added my own reminders of things that I personally need to remember.

Life tab to reveal the step-by-step technique & my own hints

It was fun getting inky & let's say "interesting" trying to get Word to do what I wanted it to do!

I got there in the end & that was very satisfying.

The stamps I used for the watercolour technique are from Ecogreen Crafts (Garden Chic).

Restoring my Soul

This week I have chosen Psalm 23 from my Poem for the Day book,

as inspiration for my altered playing card,

as part of my Waddington Weekly series.

He leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restores my soul;

Happy Soul

On impulse, I was rather self-indulgent earlier this month,

when I signed up for the Brave Girl Soul School

& ordered their Premium Brave Box.

It only took a week to arrive & I was delighted by the quality of the material included.

I have since been thinking how best to work with the different pieces

& finally decided what I was going to do when I found an old white plastic floppy disc storage box.

I knew it would be useful one day!

I covered the outside with some lovely black embossed card from Inspire Me Papers

& started working on this months Truth Cards.

To fit inside the box, I cut some coloured cardstock (also from Inspire Me)

measuring 3½ x 3½ inches.

To make the Truth Cards, I printed off the worksheet from the website on to card,

then chose which sentences were personal to me

& used the patterned paper from the Brave Box.

I also used Distress Ink (brushed corduroy & black soot),

Dovecraft Lace Ribbon (curiosity corner)

& some bright butterflies that fluttered through my letter box today on a sales leaflet. 

Casting Shadows

The theme for May at The Documented Life Project is

Touchy Feely
(Texture)

The Art Challenge for

Week 20.  Modeling Paste

& the Journal Prompt for

Week 20.  Rising to the Occasion 

I will not be creating a new journal page this week for The Documented Life Project. 

Instead I am revisiting earlier pages in which I have used texture paste.

Firstly, my double page for weeks 8 & 9

Here I used Ranger's Texture Paste through Tim Holtz Layering Stencils to create a textured layer.

The bright morning sunshine helps to show the dimension that this gives to a page.

Here the texture paste, applied through the Faded Dots stencil, has been left uncoloured.

I coloured over the Typo numerals, once the paste had set.

From this angle, you can see that although it adds texture,

it does not add too much depth to the art journal page.

In week 16, I used the texture paste through the Bubble stencil.

Here is was used as a white highlight to an already visually busy background.

The Sound of Laughter

This month's theme at The Documented Life Project is

Touchy Feely
(Texture)

The Art Challenge for

Week 19.  Stitching

& the Journal Prompt for

Week 19.  "All that I'm after is life full of laughter."

I started by painting a piece of burlap with white acrylic paint.

Once dry, I cut into a tag shape & stitched a border with blue thread.

My inspiration for this piece was taken from a piece of printed white grosgrain ribbon,
which had been attached to a pair of denim jeans.

My inspiration & some of my supplies

Using denim as my theme, I mixed watercolour paint with a blend of Golden Soft Gel Medium
& water, I used three colours to create a denim look to the background.

I started with Colbalt Blue,
then added Prussian Blue
& then finally a drop of Black.

Once this had dried thoroughly, I added a stitch doodle around the edges.

I added heart shapes cut from book text & an old denim shirt, then stitched on the buttons.

I couldn't find a quote that seemed right, so I wrote a few words about what laughter means to me.

The sound of laughter is like a babbling brook,

which dips and rises over the pebbles of life

and carries us along on our journey,

with joy in our hearts.

True Hearts

The poem I have chosen for this week's altered playing card for my

Waddington Weekly

series, is by Sir Edward Dyer.

True hearts have ears & eyes, no tongue to speak;

They hear & see, & sigh & then they break.

I have an Idea ...

This is a project from Melody Ross.

I used what supplies I already had,
so that meant a smaller canvas (7 by 5 inches).

I also decided to do mine portrait,
rather than Melody's landscape original.

I didn't have any heavy-body acrylics,
so I just used my regular set of cheap acrylics.

Creating a textured background using a palette knife & cheap acrylic paint

Mars Black (background)

Titanium White (lettering)

Need to leave this to dry overnight

I used Golden Soft Gel (Matte) Medium as my collage medium.

Collage pieces added & painted over

Lemon Yellow (hat) 

Medium Yellow & Yellow Ochre (flower)

Phthalo Green (leaf)

Colbalt Blue & Phthalo Blue &  (flower)

Crimson (flower)
&

Walnut Stain Distress Ink (antiquing finish)

Trying to show the gold edge

For the edges of the canvas,
I used ecoGreen's Pure Gold acrylic paint
instead of sheets of gold leaf
over a background of Burnt Sienna.