Already March?

Some days I wish I had a  office assistant or some kind of assistant, maybe a life assistant.  Last month was so busy that I have neglected most of my social media, my house and I am sure more.  Life happens and you just keep riding the waves, some up and some down.

Last month I continued with my art journal project and can you believe I am up to 40 days straight?  It is pretty awesome.  I am so glad that I found this little mini Moleskine daily planner, it is small enough to fit in my purse and carry with me, but the best thing it is a size that I don't feel overwhelmed with exploring art journaling.  Here is a photo of mine. 

I couldn't help bust to collage on it.  A very good investment.  Each night I look forward to drawing in it and each day is very different.

Other things that happened in the month of Feb....I wrote a couple of articles for more artwork to be published in June.  That is quite exciting.  And in addition to that I found a shop to display my artwork in.

If you are in the Reno area, go by Too Soul Tea and view or purchase my new works.  I know I need to go by there with my good camera to take better pictures before a piece is sold.

I thought March might slow down, but this week I an overloaded with work, which is a good thing but thought I better stop in to my blog.

Much love, Judy

MIA...I have been missing

I have been missing from my blog for a few days, but I have been creating.  Sometimes I start on a project and forget to share.  Today is not a Christmas ornament, tomorrow!  I wanted to share what I have been working on for the past 2 days.

My hubby made these wood canvases for me and I have a few sitting in my studio.  After taking my class with Ruth Rae, she suggested that I try the plaster technique on other surfaces.  So this was a test to see if I could plaster over and existing wood panel canvas. 

I love the thick, chunky shadow box effect that it makes.  The was on the surface reminds me of old stucco buildings.

And it looks great hanging or on an easel.  I can see a series of these in the near future.  What do you think??

Just a quick share to let you know that I am not MIA, I am just hiding out in my studio. - Judy

Day 8 of Christmas a day late!

Yesterday I took a break from Christmas cheer and actually cleaned my work studio! Shocker I know.  But I managed to make a mess this morning with these collage Christmas ornaments.

Fun to get your hands messy because I can't seem to find a way to do this without touching the glue and then struggle to unstick little pieces of deli paper off your fingers.

I went back and forth about adding a quote of these flatten balls.  Maybe tomorrow.

If you were wondering what type of paper I used, I bought a box of deli paper from Costco and use them under every project.  Never let unused paint on the paint pallet get wasted.  These papers are great for Gelliprinting.  I have quite a collection.

I hope you are having a good week. - Judy

Day 7 of Christmas crafts

Today I had plans of cleaning up my studio work space, however it got was cut short.  Why?  Because I am so adhd and little shiny things have me at "hello".  Yes, in the bottom of my rolling storage of beading supplies I found these glass and frame pendants.  I know I must have bought them for a project, but at this point \i can't remember since I bought them at a rubber stamp store in Anchorage, AK.  I haven't lived there for over 5 years.

Anyways, I just love the size...1 1/2" x 1 1/2".  Next thing I know I am pulling out all my scraps and not so good paintings and here are a few that have made so far.

Again I can't tell you how much I like to work on miniatures.  A little glue, tweezers and my reading glasses...oh what a fun afternoon it is going to be.

I pulled out a failed watercolor that I tried to revive with pen and ink.

Not sure if this one will make the cut, but I can see that my studio cleaning has been stalled for another day.

Happy Monday! - Judy

Day 3 of 12 Christmas

I started physical therapy on my knees and shoulder yesterday and it made it impossible for me to paint or be creative so I thought I would share what I am working on...my Christmas tree.  I am not ready to reveal the finished decorated tree, but I can show what I am doing with my miniature paintings.

On my Etsy shop, I have several mini paintings for sale but I just hated the thought of them sitting in a box waiting for a new home.  Thought they would look great hanging on my tree, so I added a little wire on the back to give them a new use.

 These are just a few of my new works added to the shop, but you can see many more HERE, there is also a link on the left hand side for my Etsy and my Society6 shop.  Browse my shops.

I have to keep this short for today to let my neck get some rest, but I will be back tomorrow.  Hope you enjoy.

Judy

Day 2 of 12 day of Christmas

Day 2...feels good to share or talk.  Since I have been absent from my blog for about 6 months, you don't know what I have been experimenting with.  I have been trying all sorts of collage techniques, reading books about it and trying to take classes.  Since September, I have really just been reading books due to the car accident, but anyways last night I created some fun ornaments.

The first step was to create a background sheet of collage papers.  I created this WILD page of reds, pinks and oranges.

The paper was adhered but I thought stitching would give another dimension to the collage, plus bonus with there were any loose papers it would catch them too.  Some people think I am nuts when I start sewing paper.  It is ok, it won't break you sewing machine.  It will dull your needles!  I keep a jar of my used needles next to my machine and use them when sewing paper.  The needles are too dull to sew fabric, but great on paper.

Next step was to cut my collage into ornament shapes.  Wow! It has been along time since I used my die cutter and these shape are Nestabilities dies.  Anyways, once they were cut I glue two back to back.

I quickly strung them on to yarn, but these would be great on cards, tags or on the tree.  You might notice I used a paint pen to add a little dots and along the edges.

Super simple project and adds a POP of color to my tree.  This project would be great to do with your children.  I hope you have fun with it and post pictures.

Judy

December is here - day 1 of 12 days of Christmas

The past December's I have share 12 days of Christmas, with Christmas crafts.  This past week-end I decided to bring it back.  I needed a little joy in my life since the past year has been hell.  So here is the definition of December.

 

Make amends, tie loose ends, finish what you started.  Last year I was hopeful to be furthering my art career by art journaling, getting published (which I did TWICE!), get in a gallery, teach classes and so forth all good goals and a did meet a few.  I am very proud how far I have come.  This year was filled many good things but the past few months I could not see them.  

As of now, I am starting to see the light, coming out of my tunnel and ready to be back.  First thing is to get me back to creating and blogging.  My goal is this 12 day of Christmas crafts.  I want to share pinterest pins (sucess & fails), ornaments, cards, wrapping ideas and may thing in between.  I am learning how to bake so there might be a few of those experiments in there too. 

So hold on to the reindeer reins and let's go!

First share is some ornaments that I have shared on Facebook, but I thought they would be a great place to start.

 

I have seen so many ways to paint holiday balls, but these are the flatten discs.  Many people pour inks or paints on the inside but being a lover of abstract art I wanted to have the textures on the outside.

 

The first one had to have orange on it since I just love the happy color.  I first painted this with acrylic paint and I was not 100% happy with it as it left paint brush strokes, then added red and gold Pebo paint which gives is a demision and texture. By the end I was in love with it.

Next try my second favorite color, teal.

 Same thing paint with acrylic on the outside, added Pebo paints and fluid acrylic BUT the best effect happened when I misted it with alcohol.  Cool feathering effects happened.  Very pretty and vibrant - Yeah!

Third try was purple.

This time I did pour a little purple alcohol ink inside, with acrylic, Pebo and alcohol mist.  Still great feathering effects.  Then I got stumped on what other colors I should do!

I would love ideas on other colors, except green.  Green never shows up on my tree.

So this is my day 1 and tomorrow I have a short tutorial to share.  Hope to see you here.

Judy

******If interested in the ornaments they are listed on my ETSY shop.*******

Collage work for a change

The past two weeks I wanted to explore collage.  Something I have wanted to learn, but could never exactly fully grasp.  It looks easy, but I found not really.  Or maybe they just never turned out the way my brain wanted them to turn out.  I also found that my logical side of my brain wanted rules and step by step instructions.  Last summer I took a class on collage and it too fell flat on instructions.  I watched a few online videos, but being hearing impaired that is a challenge in its self.  Note to those who do videos give a list of supplies or word prompts!!  I think the only thing I learned that you should use a matte medium under and over the papers that you add to your base.

But what is cheep drawing paper?  This was mentioned many times in video but is this just copy paper.  Frustrating at times.



So will share the two pieces that I was happy with.  Here is a set of three 5"x5" mixed media collage that are available on my Etsy shop.

The canvases were painted and then I added mono printed papers that I did on with my Gelliplate.  I used newsprint paper, which is a nice thickness but does have a grey tint.

Here is another collage that I finished

What I have learned from this weeks worth of collage studies...I need more Gelli printed papers in lots of colors.  I think next weeks projects is to just do mono prints in lots of colors, of course on all sorts of papers to figure out which ones work the best.  So next time I will share a bunch of painted papers.

Go get creative! - Judy

Last week's project...conquer the BIG canvas fear

Conquer  the big canvas fear!

Actually I worked on two of my fears last week...big canvas and testing fibers on canvas.

First let me talk about my fear of big canvases.  I have tried doing larger canvases and have hated them and they sit in my closet waiting to be be painted over.  Generally I like to do small works from 3" - 12".  the are nice doable sizes and usually on paper, not canvas.  But if I do a canvas it is small also.  Ok, so I like painting on paper because easy to ship on my Etsy shop and if the don't come out as I like they can go into my scrap box for the one day when I conquer my collage fear (coming soon!)

Canvases on the other side, I am really scared to mess them up.  But this week I went decided to just do it.  So here is my canvas.

 
I prefer the vertical position, but wanted to show up the horizontal too.  I have a hidden signature so it can be hung either way.

So let's talk about size!!  24" x 12", ok as I type that size it sounds small, but it is much larger than my comfort zone.  As you can see in the next photo, it takes up my whole photo light box!

 
Now I need to talk about my second fear/challenge...adding fibers to canvas.  A long time ago, about 11yrs ago I had this dream or desire to create works of art that encompassed me.  What do I mean me?  Well I have tried every so many things like stamping, scrapbooking, beading, sewing, quilting, embroidery, fiber art, and painting.  I knew back them I wanted to create art that incorporated all my skills into one piece.  But, when I told friends they would look at me weird and ask what would you do with it?  Funny thing I heard about mixed media back then, but much of what I was seeing was vintage or grunge, neither was where I wanted to go.  I knew it would be abstract and textured.  Somehow, this week I feel I am getting closer.  Those darn baby steps take so long to get up to running.  In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this wild, bumpy, crazy ride.

So, take some time to look at some of these yummy textures....

Alright, I have to admit I did enjoy doing that larger of a canvas once it was finished.  In fact today it was hard to go back to the smaller ones for my next project.  This next week I am going to conquer my fear of collage.

See you on my next adventure.

Judy