Monday, September 3, 2018

For the love of paper!

Howdy everyone out there in blogger land, hope you are doing well and staying cool! I've been absent for awhile but oh so busy arting and one of the things I have been up to is making paper by hand. I'm back on the Arnold Grummer design team so be ready to be submersed in some awesome papermaking.


Out in the garage...errr...."Paper Studio" with Stefanie - Oakmother's Handmade Paper 


Technique to try out:
watermarking
"The origin of the water part of a watermark can be found back when a watermark was something that only existed in paper, at that time the watermark was created by changing the thickness of the paper and thereby creating a shadow/lightness in the watermarked paper. This was done while the paper was still wet/watery and therefore the mark created by this process is called a watermark."

Stefanie uses a dip method creating paper with her handmade deckles, which means she dips her deckle into a vat of paper pulp.

 We both watched the Arnold Grummer video before joining up to make paper so we each had an idea of what we wanted to try out. Stefannie had a plethora of ideas to experiment with.

She used a hot glue gun to create one of her signature Oak leaves with. 

It did pretty well but she said the glue lifted a little after being in the water . 

Next she tried the wire method of twisting wire together to form a shape and the sewing it to the screen. 

In hindsight she noticed that the "stem" to the leaf was too thick and that she wished she had clipped off one of the wires instead of twisting them together.

However, a little patting down while the pulp was still wet and the problem was fixed.

Now I only played with the plastic lettering and mine is much more G rated, lol but please do visit the Arnold Grummer blog to see what I created.

Friday, July 20, 2018

It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted but I was preoccupied with testing and debugging my next set of stencils to be released in September. (insert big woo hoo here, lol ) I did do some art journaling but didn't post them like I should. I've gotten lazy and been putting things on IG, so anyway, for anyone not following me on IG or FaceBook..here ya go :)
linking up with
Paint Party Friday





STILL trying to adjust to a new video editing program, but it's been a tough transition. I still prefer my old one...sigh...old dogs, new tricks, blah,blah, blah...

Monday, June 11, 2018

Prompt 2...you want me to do what??

...rip a page out of your journal and take it outside...

do what??

oh you mean to take a picture of it?
(shakes head no)

uhm....to admire it outside?
(shakes head no)

Looks around...

to leave it just ...outside?
(nods yes)

no no no no no no no NO...I won't...
OK, I'll tuck it in my birdcage that sits outside on my balcony, I think I can handle that...
maybe...

So yeah, that was my reaction today to the second prompt on the challenge, lol 


Linking up to
Paint Party Friday

Thursday, June 7, 2018

prompt 1 for #thestencilfiedjournal


Been making LOTS of art with my new stencils,
 this has been such an exciting time for me, to become a stencil designer. 💗💗💗
I know I become over-excited so I'll try and curtail my enthusiasm by just saying, if you want to see all my art journal pages you can visit my IG page. I even learned how to post an IG widget on my sidebar of my blog showing recent posts.

 I am also playing along with the #thestencilfiedjournal which gives you a prompt each week for 16 weeks, this weeks prompt are circles. I used the gears stencil for my circles over an old mono-printed back ground and then just doodled the heck out of it with miniature circles and dots.

Linking up my circle play in

Friday, May 25, 2018

#MerMay

So, I don't know what rock I've been hiding under but I never heard of #MerMay before and I love mermaids!! So, knowing my record for lack of finishing a monthly draw a day goal, I'll give this a shot and see how far I get. Again, doing it on my iPad using Sketchbook and the prompts:

I put the "prompt" out there, you'll just have to give it a go as to where I took it..sometimes to a whole unrecognizable level, lol But in my head there was a idea/story attached....just trust me on that. 😜


#1 Snooty 


#2 Precocious

#3 Racy

#4 Star Wars 

#5 fluid


#6 Rocked

#7 Pirate

#8 Masculine


#9 Wander

#10 Sweetheart


#11 Rebel

#12 strange

OK, so I peaked at the Mer-nana, lol I just have to admit I don't do well at drawing the same subject matter day in and day out, but I did learn some new features and how to use them on my iPad so I still think it's a win!
Linking up to Paint Party Friday

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Etegami...kinda sorta...


Hahnemühle sent me a wonderful set of 30 Cold Pressed watercolor postcards that came in this beautiful limited edition tin, perfect for both wet and dry techniques. I love sending out postcards much like snail mail art where the outside can be enjoyed by every person who touches the card. 

I thought delving into some Etegami would be perfect. 


Now I am not going to even pretend that they are true Etegami but more like a nod to Etegami, lol
 (Etegami principles that I kinda used are all noted in red.)

A simple, hand-painted image — outlines in black ink and filled in with watercolor.

Now, anyone who knows me, knows I love to outline so this part was easy enough. I did use my bamboo pen and tried to not be precise and to not worry about any bleeding since the

 Motto of etegami – heta de ii, heta ga ii translated means
 "Clumsiness is no problem. 
Clumsy makes it better.” 

Something that sounds simple but is one of the hardest things for me to achieve. I would have started over after the india ink bled under the stencil but then I wouldn't have used my supplies in the way that I did and for this I just smiled. 

Generally, use no more than three colors.


Etegami always includes words and I love to add words to my art although I do try and write them as best I can, Etegami forgives less than perfect lettering.

 “Etegami (e=”picture” tegami=”letter”) 
are simple drawings accompanied by a few apt words, done on a soft absorbent postcards. They are meant to be mailed off to one’s friends, not hoarded. They often depict some ordinary item from everyday life.



In Japan, people do not sign; They use stamps. 
They are called Han or Hanko, and every individual in Japan has one.

Now I don't have a Hanko but I grabbed the closest thing I could think of, a mini hand carved wood block stamp that you can find in Gwen Lafleurs online store. I didn't even have red ink so I choose a hot pink which I got from Rubbermoon which came in one of the Moon Mail club items.

Linking up to Paint Party Friday

You can purchase the Hahnemüle Limited Edition tin of watercolor postcards from:
Jerry’s Artarama ( looks like a better deal )

The postcards are excellent quality and they came with the address field on the other side so they make for a very professional presentation. I've been in love with the Hahnemüle watercolor paper for awhile now and their watercolor postcards are equal in quality. 

The artist on the cover of the tin is Alexa Dila, urban sketcher from Berlin, Germany

And if anyone wants to see pictures of Blossom,
 my fiberglass bear I painted for charity please visit here ðŸ˜Š

Saturday, May 12, 2018

Fae bear


The pictures were all taken before Blossom got her shiny polycoat but I just wanted to show her off a bit. :)








I like to use as much symbolism as I can so here is a little more in depth pictures and what the symbols mean:

The bee symbolizes community, brightness and personal power. Follow the bee to discover your new destination.



 Butterflies are deep and powerful representations of life:
 endurance, change, hope



gnomes are subterranean spirits who guard the earth's treasures



fairies symbolize the paranormal powers of the spirit or the extraordinary capacities of the imagination: to create in the imagination what can never be realized in the actual world.





mushrooms also represent rapid growth and good fortune







feathers generally symbolize an ascension and spiritual evolution to a higher plane

StencilGirl® stencils really helped make the process faster and more creative!

Friday, May 11, 2018

Music Geek Winner!

Tonight is a busy night, we get to reveal our bears that we worked on for 2 months! It's a fairly big event with both local and tourists coming out to see the 2018 bears which will grace the sidewalks of our downtown area for the summer before being auctioned off for charity.

Here is a little sneak peek of my bear and yes, I used my stencil, the Musical Notes Mandala on it. I just couldn't resist!

And if you leave me a comment, I'll send one lucky winner the stencil!

I'll be posting more pictures of the bears later this week, but before I go let me announce the winner from last week!

Congratulations Amy Martin!
Send me your address with Music Geek in the subject to
sandeesetliff ( at ) yahoo.com