April 18th challenge -- gelli plate

April Theme
Color Safari (Exploring Inks and Paints)
April 18
Art Challenge:  Gelli Plate
Journal Prompt:  A lot on my Plate

I stamped some text and newsprint background stamps in black ink and then layered gelli prints I made a few months ago on deli paper.  Journaled things that are on my proverbial plate and then added doodles and textured glitter through a stencil.

 

Stencil Girl

I recently became a member of Stencil Girl because I kept seeing the coolest art online done with these stencils.I was especially inspired by this  Maria McGuire's blog post.  So I gave it a try with the materials that I had.  Here is my end result.

 

Below are my notes for this layout...

April 4 challenge -- watercolors

April Theme
Color Safari (Exploring Inks and Paints)
April 4
Art Challenge:  Watercolors
Journal Prompt:  It's Water Under the Bridge

I don't use watercolors very often so this challenge was indeed challenging.  I wanted to use the latest Stencil Girl Stencil so I dabbed embossing ink on the paper through the stencil.  Then I clear embossed to create a resist.  Next I painted watercolors over the image in the middle to the edges.

I drew the "resist" sentiment and border with a sharpie.  I wasn't happy with it so I walked away from it for about 2 weeks.

Upon my return, I sprayed the whole thing with some purple Dylusions ink.  Then I added a tag I made at a Dina Wakeley make-in-take at CHA two years ago.  She seemed to fit the mood of the page.  I rubbed black Gelato around the tag and edges of the page and on the resist image in the middle.

Last I doodled some swirls and stars randomly around the page with metallic markers.

April 11 challenge -- acrylics

April Theme
Color Safari (Exploring Inks and Paints)
April 11
Art Challenge:  Acrylics
Journal Prompt:  Cry Me a River

For this challenge, I was fearless and used lots of acrylics.  Fearless because I am usually timid when it comes to color.  The stencils used are from TCW and Stencil Girl.  I wrote "Fearless" on some pattern tissue paper in black sharpie and then used gel medium to attach the word.  After it dried I added faux stitching with a metallic sharpie.

Gelli print energy

March Theme
Making Your Mark (Doodles & Mark Making)
March 28
Art Challenge:  Make a Custom Element
Journal Prompt:  "Ride the energy of your own unique spirit." - Gabrielle Roth

When I read this challenge, I was a bit baffled.  My friend, Jennifer immediately said, "Gelli print!".  What a brilliant idea...all gelli prints are one of a kind custom elements.  I pulled out my 3 x 5 gelli plate and started to play with some Golden open acrylics and deli paper.  After I got images that I loved, I cut them out and glued them on my pages.  Next, came the doodling.  The quote made me think of a wave so I drew two curvey lines and then wrote the quote beneath them.  And then added lines, circles and x'es here and there.

Dina Wakely Class

I was so excited to take an all day Dina Wakely class!  It was super fun and she is such an amazing artist and teacher.  She also provided a bit of art therapy... :-)   She said that she always fawns all over her art piece as she is making it ... even if she isn't really happy with the current result...it makes it more fun and less stressful.  So the class rule was no whining.  I love it!

Here is a photo of the face she drew when teaching us about drawing faces.  Eyes in the middle.  Draw two lines.  Mid way between eyes and chin is the nose.  Midway between nose and chin is mouth.  Ears always start around the eyes and end between the nose and mouth.  Neck starts at the base of the ear...hugs the contour of the chin and then flares out toward the shoulder. 

Here is the folio and some of the pages I made...

Bold Daring Zen Flower Focal Point

March Theme
Making Your Mark (Doodles & Mark Making)
March 21
Art Challenge:  As a Focal Point
Journal Prompt:  Coming into Focus

I don't consider myself a great doodler but I love to doodle.  I played a bit with Zentangle in the past but never was crazy about my final project.  So I thought this week's challenge...using a doodle as a focal point was a great way for me to challenge my inner doodler and get a bit Zen.

I really like how the page turned out and I found it really relaxing repeating the patterns in each doodle.