Link Love {The Mission Continues}

The mission continues! Help me SHARE THE LINK LOVE by posting a list of 5 blogs on Fridays in May and June. Participate as many Fridays as you feel you can. Bonus points for linking to a particular post and describing what you like or why you are intrigued. 

{stitched 3x6" postcard}

Grab a retro pastel orange LINK LOVE badge and read the intro to the MISSION. Linking to creative blogs you've just discovered, blogs that you adore, blogs you've read for a long time but might not be well known. Consider smaller blogs, and blogs with a fresh perspective that sparks your creativity.

Just start this Friday.

My post from the first week. Another week.

1. Rae transforms a coupon holder into an organizer.
2. Stephanie shares the reworking of a portrait.
3. Traci calls for us to seek out joy. 
4. A shout-out to the wonderful Leah of Creative Every Day for leading the creative challenge for many, many years.
5. Emma's Stitch Therapy is amazing.
6. Cheer on Lorinda in her 365 Somethings Project!

365 Somethings #140-146

“Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.”
Langston Hughes

"lost opportunities, lost possibilities"

fabric, ephemera, found text, painted papers

"to see deeply into outside relationships"

watercolored papers, found text

"dust things off every once in a while"

fabric, watercolored papers, cardstock, found text

"closing your eyes"

watercolored papers, found text

"distracts you with the headlines"

hand-painted papers, found text, playing card, fabric

"and go on dreaming"

fabric, found text, ephemera, hand-painted papers

"island"

teeny tiny pieces, hand-painted papers and ephemera alternating with fabric and found text

3x5" index cards, stitched 

Each week, I spend a bit of time in the sewing room aka guest room working on my 365 project for 2013. It's always there, behind the scenes. And while I certainly cannot make 365 Somethings in the blink of an eye, this is absolute proof that working bit by bit adds up to something grand.,

You can see all of the collages to date in this Flickr set and read all of the posts about my 365 Somethings project. 

Doodle Maniac

“Empty canvas. In appearance - really empty, silent, indifferent. Stunned, almost. In effect - full of tensions, with thousand subdued voices, heavy with expectations. A little frightened because it may be violated.”
Wassily Kandinsky

I've been drawing on the pages of Dawn DeVries Sokol's new book {which is really a journal} Art Doodle Love. Doodling in gelly rolls, slicci pens and colored pencils. I keep this book in my car and it only came inside today to be photographed! I keep the 5x8" sketch moleskine in my purse along with several pens. Today I threw a zip-lok of colored pencils and a mini-sharpener in the car to use while I wait at carpool. 

What do you carry with you each day to aid in your creativity?

Last day to enter the giveaway for free MOO postcards! 

365 Somethings #133-139

“A story has no beginning or end:
arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience
from which to look back or from which to look ahead.”
Graham Greene

"guarantee of consistency"

fabric

"thin cloud"

fabric

"I don't allow you to be devastated"

hand-painted papers, found text

"there comes another day"

acrylic painted/stamped index card, fabric, found text

"a particular missing part"

fabric, found text

"making new reference cards"

watercolored papers, found text

"explode"

watercolored papers

3x5" index cards, stitched 

Each week, I spend a bit of time in the sewing room aka guest room working on my 365 project for 2013. It's sort of always there, behind the scenes. It's not feasible for me to make 365 Somethings in a week or even in a month, but in a year, definitely. You can see all of the collages to date in this Flickr set and read all of the posts about my 365 Somethings project. 

Mission: Link Love

The mission continues! Help me SHARE THE LINK LOVE by posting a list of 5 blogs on Fridays in April, May,  June + July. Participate as many Fridays as you feel you can. Bonus points for linking to a particular post and describing what you like or why you are intrigued. 

Just one Friday per month helps the cause! 

Grab a retro pastel orange LINK LOVE badge and read the intro to the MISSION. Linking to creative blogs you've just discovered, blogs that you adore, blogs you've read for a long time but might not be well known. Consider smaller blogs, and blogs with a fresh perspective that sparks your creativity.

Just start this Friday.

Here's my post from the first week. Last week.

1. Discovered Lynne Hoppe and found this gem about how to paint faces. 
2. How I adore Hanna's smart elegant art journal. Classic Hanna art journaling style.
3. Stephanie shares layers of depth and meaning invisible in her final painting. 
4. I like the way that Lee writes her blog posts. Tongue in cheek humour. 
5. Thrilled to see my creative friend TJ blogging at the new Studio Mailbox, can you imagine all of your artsy goodness packed in boxes for 18 months?

Magical Mandalas

“The minute we begin to think
we have all the answers,
we forget the questions.”
― Madeleine L'Engle

work in process

work in process, not sure where this is going

These mandalas are in my 5x8" drawing moleskine, with heavy off-white paper. 

Drawing in the carpool line. Win win.

Index-Card-a-Day: Let's Play!

 

On June 1, we start Daisy Yellow index-card-a-day. This is the 3rd year of the challenge to create art on one index card each day for 61 days. You can draw, paint, sketch, doodle, stamp, hole punch, write poetry, write a quote, sew the card. You can even cut it up and weave it back together.

This is the biggest challenge of the year for Daisy Yellow!

It could change your life.

There is NO sign-up required.

Just play. 

Learn absolutely everything you need to know in the ICAD FAQ. If you have questions, please add them to the FAQ post.

Good to know:

Daisy Yellow FB Group

Daisy Yellow ICAD FB Group

Daisy Yellow Flickr Group

Tutorial: Letters + Words

Think of a word that describes what you want to write or journal about.

What colors and shapes come to mind?

Here are the shapes I cut out of a furniture magazine for my escapades with the word NEUTRAL.

Open a magazine or catalog and go on a treasure hunt looking for rectangles to make letter cut-outs. Cut out a rectangle of about 2x2" or larger. No need to measure. Cut out enough bits for each letter, plus extras just in case.

Let's say you use the word YELLOW. Gather a wide variety of yellows with interesting textures. You might find leather buckles on a yellow purse, tulips and carpet and upholstery patterns. The word DECEPTION might trigger thoughts of deep purples and grungy cement. And GARDEN might prompt you to look for petals, leaves, green, cloudy skies, insects, outdoor fabrics, birds and grass. 

I picked one clipping at a time and drew a block letter with a purple neon gellyroll marker.

I cut out each letter and used the first letter each time as a sizing guide for all of the rest.

Don't worry about what letter will be cut from each block. I cut an extra few, in case I went crazy with the scissors, or a letter got stuck upside down to the paint container. Little clippings are always winding up in strange places.

Cut out all of your letters.

Put a glob of Golden titanium white heavy body acrylic paint on a piece of heavy cardstock.

Roll the white paint around the paper using a 2" brayer.

Immediately set the letters on the WET page however they fit best.

Wash and dry the brayer and roll the brayer in a forward motion {I worked from the right side of each letter to the left side} simply "press" the letters into the paint, so that they stick.

Here are the letters nice and flat after dry brayering. If paint gets on the brayer, and onto the letters, such is life. Just go with it!

Scoop out a blob of heavy body acrylic paints and push the paint around with your fingers. I used copper, white, phthalo blue, white and teal on this page. Be sure to wash your hands right after you paint. 

And here's the page as I build up paint around it. At this point you can just paint around all of the letters or make marks in the paint with an old pencil. Let the page dry thoroughly {this may take a few days} and then journal in gellyroll or sharpie on the painted area, using the word as a prompt.

Daisy Yellow Journal Prompt Cards are on SALE through the end of May!

Have you entered the MOO giveaway?

What word will you create?

EDM #24, #25, #26

“I’ve come to the conclusion that people who wear headphones while they walk, are much happier, more confident, and more beautiful individuals than someone making the solitary drudge to work without acknowledging their own interests and power.” Jason Mraz  

EDM #24: Draw a piece of fruit. First I drew a KIKU apple, which is yummy, but it was so wonky that I decided to try my hand at an old grapefruit. I like the grapefruit better, but I have difficulty with organic shapes. But moreso, the first few drawings after not drawing "real" things are always weak.

EDM #25: Draw a glass. In this case, this is a glass jar from Favorit swiss cherry preserves.

EDM #26: Draw anything you like. Here, I drew one of the stitched index cards I made for my 365 project. 

Three EDM drawings from March. These are in my 5x8" watercolor moleskine. I'm working through Danny Gregory's Everyday Matters {EDM} drawing list. All of the drawings are tagged EDM Challenge.

Just Journal

an art journal page on loose drawing paper, 2010

“That without experimentation,
a willingness to ask questions
and try new things,
we shall surely become static,
repetitive, moribund.”
Anthony Bourdain

Most folks think of a journal as a noun.

But I think it's a verb.

To journal.

The simple act of journaling, or working in your journal, is the essence of art journaling.

You win simply by working creatively, whether with paint or words or images. You can work in an actual journal, in a wire-bound pad of paper, on the cardboard back of a cereal box, in a hand-bound collection of random papers, even in an old children's book.