New Journals

 Sometimes it's nice to get out and join like minded friends in acts of creating. So that's what I did 2 weeks ago. I joined Jane Eileen and friends for her Canvas Journal workshop. We each received a piece of canvas to paint and print on. Mine is drying on the right.

 Once dried, I sent mine through the sewing machine a couple of times. Then we stitched the sides and slid them onto the binders. These books are so forgiving. The pages can be taken out, worked on and placed back in any order.

 My finished cover with "Wow" for the title. I'm thinking whatever I put in there is going to make me go "wow" when I look at it...

 The second new journal. I took a workshop with visiting artist, Kelly Kilmer, at one of my favorite spots, Frenzy Stamper. This book is a lot of fun with flaps and fold outs with every turn of the page.

My book cover was plain green when I brought it home but I spent some time with paints, stencils and stamps tonight. I re-bound the book as well, adding beads to the binding.

 I completed 4 collages during the class. We were encouraged to journal but I haven't yet.

 You're welcome to add your own imagined commentary.

 All the images were made using found papers and magazine images and textures.

Have a great weekend!

Marissa

Tape Addicts Unite!

Once upon a time, at a store called Frenzy Stamper, Kelly Kilmer came to visit. Word got around that she was bringing her bags full of treasures. Yesterday, the tape addicts and those not quite sure what they were getting into, gathered....

We've played with tape before. Here's what we made long ago...the Taped Journal:We painted, we used tape, we added collage.
I crinkled and painted on decorative tape. We stamped.
I taped and overlapped more tape.
Oh hey, look what happens when the taped underneath shows through. We started to make some discoveries.

Fast forward to yesterday. New exercises with tape. Wide tape, narrow tape. Clear tapes, masking tape. Duct tape, colored tape. Decorative tape and more tape. Yummy!First lay out of the day. I took my already worked on Taped Journal to work on. Many of the pages already had layers of painted color.Second layout. My focal image was a tad short to reach the bottom of the page. Tape to the rescue!Then the focal image looked more like the painted background that I had been trying to coordinate with. After hunting through the stash, out came the naked lady. Oh, excuse me, the nude lady. (Yes, there is a difference).

There's a few more women in the book so there's a theme developing. Hmmmm, interesting.
Ok, if I'm developing a theme, I took a left turn here. Another workshop mate, G, really liked my "teal and black" page. I really like her "orange and green" page. I was really working with greens and browns but this golden yellow transparency begged to go on this page. The birds did too.I realized I was working monochromatically. I could have changed my direction or gone with it. I went with it. I love color! I love layering and bringing out the subtlety within a color family.

I looked down and saw the cover with these purple flowers. Whoo hoo, I found my focal image. At the same time, Kelly was doing a demonstration that gave me the idea of how to attach this image. I sort of, fell for my collage, and didn't want to obliterate it.The flowers flip open to the right. Those colorful sheep are cute but I'll end up covering them with other paper to perhaps, journal on.

This was about time, I started to run out of steam. Or I sat down and then I started to feel tired. It was time to walk around the store and check out all the goodies. Oh, so many goodies.... There's a before picture of this page somewhere. It already had been layered with paint, tape and collage. Unsuccessfully, I might add. Yep, both G and I looked at it and agreed, "UGLY!" Actually, it wasn't so much ugly as it was too busy, even for me. That's saying something... First came the tissue paper and then came the tape. Or was it the other way around? There's a bit of the original collage still peaking through. The day pretty much came to an end here. My journal is getting heavy.

I'm weighing my options for tomorrow. I've been signed up for Kelly's Spirit Journal class for monthes. Turns out the Chicklet's Girl Scout event was rescheduled for tomorrow as well. I was really looking forward to participating. What to do? What to do?
Marissa

Today's Forecast

Crabby! That would be me. Spent the day home and in bed with a cold yesterday. Today was back to work but big classes and talkative 4th graders....Ugh! Note to self: Do not take Sudafed on an empty stomach.
The highlight of the day. Can you tell which one is the Wayne Thiebaud picture? My 4th graders finished their paintings today. It took a lot of steps. More than a few students probably want to wring my neck. That's ok. We have 3 more classes before we're done for the year. I'm going to see if I can squeeze in one more lesson.
Enough talk about torturing my students. Get a load of these itty bitty books. (That's the camera lens in the forground for size reference). I made 3 of these Sat. evening in Kelly Kilmer's "Swatches" class. The other 3 were put together in the few minutes before we started Sunday's class.They're quick and easy to make. It's a great way to use up little odds and ends of paper scraps. Like I don't save enough crap! The red cover for this book is some type of paper I pulled out of a refridgerator at Costco. It's used between the cartons of milk and has a dotted texture to it. Of course I had to take a piece and see if it would absorb paint. It sure did.This was a quick lay-out we made in class using Kelly's prompts.
The negative left from cutting out the quail was used here. I actually like this one better. Rows of decorative tape was layered over both pages. I came home with more decorative tape, the stuff is addicting!
Sunday's class-A refurbished book. We added hand cut, hand painted pages sewn into a hand painted, canvas spine.
Here's a glimpse of painted pages and more decorative tape. It's a visual journal ready to go. What is it about books? I can't make enough of them. Can't keep my hands off them...
Marissa

No Hit...All Miss!

I've been wanting to post the last couple of days but my timing must be off. I can't get blogger to let me upload photos.....hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!

It wasn't exactly what I had planned...it's more like I didn't realize that I had such a busy weekend coming up. Three classes in 3 days. Yikes! The Chicklet is more than happy to give me up for a play date or an overnighter.

This weekend is Part 2 of "Pieces of Me," a class taught by Marta Gladden at Creative Quest. Marta comes up with the most beautiful books with rich and unique ideas for the contents. I must be a groupie because I've taken about 1/2 dozen classes with her.

Kelly is in Arizona!!!!!! Run, bike, drive, hitch hike to Frenzy Stamper in Scottsdale and take a class with Kelly Kilmer. She's teaching 5 classes starting this morning and there's room for more. All of her classes are fun, full of laughter and the ideas flow. The results are always unique and amazing considering everyone has the same prompts. What I haven't learned from Kelly, I've learned from my classmates. Join us!

I'm sooooooo glad it's Friday. Only two more classes to go and I am going to play. I had a funny, (kinda silly), tree encounter this week that I've been trying to blog about. I hope to have enough energy after class tonight to share.
Marissa

Stencil Mania

After having such a cool experience participating in my first online art class with Kelly Kilmer, I thought I'd try another.
Last Friday Mary Ann Moss began her Pure Experimentation online stenciling class. She's shared some great examples of stenciled street art on her blog. I sure miss that about LA. Street art everywhere. I found these two murals as I was driving down the street in Mesa this weekend.
Here, kitty, kitty, kitty..... There's an alley in Central Phoenix that I read about in a local rag. The alley was constantly vandalized by taggers. The local merchants got together, pooled their resources and used graffiti art to decorate the alley themselves. I have to make an effort to find graffiti art. Mostly I see vandalism on my commute. Bah humbug!Our first assignment-use found materials to stencil on pieces of cardboard that will be made into a portfolio for our projects. I picked up a cool book over the weekend on paper cut outs. I spent Sunday afternoon in my kitchen with a pile of scrap paper, folding and cutting away.I used black and white spray paint. I thought I had the other colors at work. I actually remembered to look for the cans at work today and they weren't there. Turns out I brought them home and they're in the garage...duh!
The aqua and red are watered down acrylic sprayed with my new toys that arrived this week. I'm still in the learning stages of finding the right mix of paint to water. The hardest part was waiting for the paint to dry. This is Arizona but still used the heat gun on my back patio.Another new acquisition. When left to wander the aisles of the art supply store.... I found these. Yum! Perfect for mark making with acrylic paint.This wasn't part of the assignment but the surface didn't feel complete and I was itching to find something to do with my new toys.The front and back finished covers although my initials are calling for a bit of white. Now to hunt down red duct tape to put the portfolio together. Maybe I'll stamp on it or..... the stenciling is only the starting point.

The actual cardboard pieces were lager and then I trimmed them down. I was thinking of using a bookmaking technique I learned from Kelly to use the scraps for the covers of a handmade book. The hamsters are working over time in my head.
Marissa

Happy Friday the 13th!

Oh boy! The kids are squirrelly today. It's a 1/2 day and Valentine's goodies are being passed about. I have 2 dozen cupcakes within reach for the Chicklet's school party that I'll be headed to this afternoon.

This time last week I was the one with the ants in my pants. I took Kelly Kilmer's Wisdom book workshop at Frenzy Stamper in Scottsdale. I came home with a "fabulosooooooo" book.Remember these? These are mine, all mine!!!!!! Whippea! Hooray! I found plastic lace doilies when we were antique shopping in Prescott. I had a set tucked away in my supplies to use for Kelly's class.Love, love, love the doilies as stencils, used Kelly's rubber stamps on the cover.

Did some painting on my own.In the left is painting following Kelly's prompts and to the right is the same layers of paint but over a page I had already painted. Bright vs. deeper, richer color. I like them both!We had a chance to collage a couple of pages. Collage #1. I pull all those Ralph Lauren paint adds with the paint laden paintbrushes.Found this lady in Kelly's stash. Found a great looking chicken too but it didn't quite fit on the the narrow page. He's getting "some work done" via the copy machine. Then he'll be the right fit.

It was a great class. Sat next to my buddy Gwen who I hadn't see in awhile. I hear Kelly's going to come back soon. Yea!!!! Hope I can fit a few more classes in next time.
Marissa

More January Collages

OK. Looking at all the pics I've uploaded I can now understand why I was running around all week. I was busy! There are still a few more collages left to finish off the month of January of the Kelly Kilmers' Prompt A Day online class. It's been a blast and I am loving the journal that is becoming full of images and stories to hand down to the Chicklet.
I see brown and pink together and I think of Baskin Robbins where we used to go get ice cream. Strawberry sundaes with chocolate chip ice cream, mmmmmm.....
Oh boy, this was was tough writing about. I had a boyfriend overseas but we continued the relationship after I returned to California and went to college. He was killed in a freak accident at work. I was 23. At that time I was young enough to believe and hope that I could still have what we had again. 23 years later with a badly failed marraige and having gotten off the dating bandwagon the hope of youth is elusive.
Halloween...I can't decide which was better. Tearing sheets and wrapping my brother up as a mummy-my sister and I had to keep wrapping him up throughout the night OR the Chicklet as elephant and me as her Peanut sidekick...
Oh, how I'd love to have Tom Oldham come design my home. Yet, I do like enjoy my Mexi-Scan decor. Part Mexican, part Scandanavian...
Tiffany blue? Nope, Estee Lauder perfume box blue. I haven't smelled that scent since my Tia Mary passed away.
Who would have thunk I could find not one, but 2 images of blowing gum. My brother taught us a few things....Still can't whistle, though.
Ever have a book you never read but wore out from looking at the pictures? That was me and Hans Christain Anderson's "Snow Queen." I found that book again. Mom saved everything!
My brother and sister both had names chosen from the bible. Me? My mom said she liked the name. Somewhere I read that it means, "of the sea." I like that.
Valentine inchies, lots and lots of Valentine inchies for a swap and then a few extras for friends.
More Inchies for a swap due last week. I get tired just looking at everything I did in one week. Whew!

The laptop has been making the trek home but hasn't made it out tof the bag. Between swaps and journal pages, the Chicklet's Frida Kahlo costume and going out of town for the weekend, it was non-stop. I'm sure having fun though!