Pages 04/12/13

Like to see my work in progress?
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Here are a few things I've been creating in my studio over the past month. Enjoy.

Pages 7/19/12

I haven't been blogging much this past month. Work has been busy and prepping for the workshop also kept me busy. Here's my piece I made at the Amy McDonald workshop this past Saturday and Sunday. It was a blast! I'll post some more photos soon! Collage on canvas board with painted laser print out. This is based on a photo of my Mum.

Pages 6/8/12

Aren't these super cool? These are the self portrait books that Jen Worden put together. Each of us did a self portrait and sent it to Jen. She made these fabulous handmade books for each of us. Inside there are pages with copies of the other artist's self portraits. We also filled in a questionnaire and we got a copy of each person's answers. Awesome. Thanks Jen!

Artists are: Jen Worden, Maripat-Luna Doyle Oberg, AMy McDonald, Judah Sleep, Me and Karen Isaacson.

Pages 5/25/12

Here are a few journal pages I did in a friend's journal recently. Kind of cheeky. lol. They turned out pretty cool. I used a variety of paints, and pens as well as collage and other mixed media objects.

Pages 4/30/12

Self portrait collage for a swap I am in. Size is 4X6. The person hosting this swap is going to mount it on a 5X7 book. We also had to answer a bunch of questions about ourselves. I'll post what I get back if you guys are interested. ;-)

Pages 4/16/12

Here's a finished spread in my personal art visual journal. It's the last one to finish before I do the cover. Top image is closest to the true colors in the book. The second I included because I loved the colors the Hipstamatic photograph put on it. It really enhanced the blues.

Pages 4/12/12

Well, I finished the page last night. I used the cut up piece I showed you guys yesterday. I layered in a bunch of acrylic paints and pastels and then did a final batik like stencil over the top to give it a splash of bright yellow. What you think? A little strange looking, but I dig it.

Pages 3/12/12

Altered book spread I did tonight. A bit spooky and still needs some text. But a good start.

Pages 02/04/11

These are some of the pages from my book I made for Arthouse Co-op's Sketchbook Project.

Thousands of people across the globe signed up for the project. Over 28,000 people! The sketchbooks will be exhibited at galleries and museums as they make their way on tour across the country.

After the tour, all sketchbooks will enter into the permanent collection of The Brooklyn Art Library, where they will be barcoded and available for the public to view.

For my book, I pulled out the guts of the book and replaced it with heavyweight watercolor paper and then rebound the book. I did a variety of techniques, collage, painting, drawing, doodling - whatever I felt like. The theme was 'The View From Up Here'.

Pages 01/16/10

A Way to Use Old Christmas Cards in Your Artwork
I recently took down a stack of Christmas cards. There are so many neat papers, foils and textures on the cards I hate to throw them away. Every year I go through each card and trim off the prettiest parts of the cards and throw them into a lunchbox I keep of scraps. Last night I made some ATCs with some of the scraps.

I discovered that I could take long strips of paper, glue them on and stack them on top of each other to make a really nice layered background. It didn't matter if they were even straight, in fact it looks better if it's NOT straight.

All the cards above are made from Christmas cards. I used the same image of the woman on each of the cards to practice this technique.

Pages 07/02/09

Here are a few of the ATCs I made when I had friends over for an ATC night. It's been awhile since I did traditional collage and it was fun to get back into glue and paper. I had to explain how to make ATCs to a group who had never made them before and it was a challenge. Most people had a tough time not 'over thinking' even though I told them to relax and do whatever first comes to mind. After making a few, people finally chilled out and got it.

I never plan my collage. I go ahead and use items that call out to me and I try to get people to do the same. You never get anything done if you stress over the blank page!

We plan on getting together every third Thursday, and next time we've agreed to make Matchbox Shrines.

Pages 04/05/09

These are some pages I made for a swap I am in. The theme is 'Odd Girls'. The bases were made in Photoshop and then printed on a laser printer. Then I altered them by painting in the hair, adding collage pieces, stamping and drawing and adding some fibers. I find it's a good way to save alot of time when there are alot of pieces to make. By making the bases in Photoshop, I saved alot of time and I was able to make the 23 pages fairly quickly while still making each page unique with stamping and painting..

Pages 02/06/09

This is another exercise from the class I am taking with Traci Bautista. We had to collage a sheet of paper with varios ephemera we had, then cover with paint. Once dry we were to doodle and write words about 'who we are'. I honestly was really scared to cover the collae I made with paint. Afterall, it was quite a bit of work! *LOL* But, I am glad trusted the process because the outcome was interesting. I like the way the type from the collage peeks through. You really have to look for it, but I think that's the point. The focus should really be on the words, not the collage. ;-)

Pages 01/25/09

Last night I made some bookmarks out of trimmings I had leftover from various projects. I am terrible about throwing anything away, especially perfectly lovely painted trimmings. I also had some vintage faces leftover from the Hearts 5X5 collages I wanted to use up. First, I started by applying some white gesso to a hand carved stamp and stamping directly onto the paper. I like to stamp on an old magazine. I stamp my artwork and let the overflow paint go directly onto the magazine page. Then I just turn the page and stamp the next one on the new page. It saves alot of mess, and I can work my way through an entire magazine without having to throw away wet scrap or newspaper. I let it dry and apply my faces and whatever other papers I want to use in my collage. I punched a hole at the top of the bookmark and then used the punched piece as a button. Next, I paint all the hair. I let it dry really well and then draw on the swirly lines with a gel pen. To finish up I tied on some cool fibers I got at Michaels last weekend. ($2 for a spool of coolness!)

Pages 10/11/08

These are 2" collages I made for the ArtChix Yahoo Group 'Spoil Me' Twinchie Swap. We were challenged to use a specific collage sheet and make collages on a 2 inch piece of paper. I had alot of fun with these. It was interesting using the same image multiple times and getting very different results. I added 3D elements to make the images more tactile. I added copper heishi as buttons, metal washers, silver wire, magnetic poetry and other interesting collage papers. The backgrounds were first gessoed to add some texture and then painted.

*Note: I am fortunate to have several of my twinchies added to a collage sheet at ArtChix Studio. Check them out! Chixies 'Spoil Me Post' and the Chixies 'Spoil Me Collage Collection Sheet'. I am very happy to have my art included! I love ArtChix! ;-)

Pages 10/03/08

This is the page I created for the 'Blissfully Art Journaling' Yahoo Group - 'All About the Shoes' chunky book. I made the background using techniques I learned from Karen Gartel's workshop I took last year. (Check out previous entries which describe her techniques.) I painted and stamped the background using hand-carved stamps. I altered an legs image I found online, enhancing it with paints. I made the skirt from some neato papers my friend Laurie found for me and and glued down metal washers for buttons.
At the bottom, I added a grommett and tied a bunch of fibers and cool ribbons I'd been saving. On my swap pages I also tied on tiny shoe charms. (But I ran out on this page. ;-)
Once I have the swap pages back, I'll post the other artist's work.

Pages 05/17/08

Wow, where did the time go? I've been up to my ears in work drama and not much time to be creative or to blog. Apologies to my readers (if there are any readers. lol.) Hopefully I will be back at it. I have several swaps in the works and several new projects.

I got a chance to work on my first set of 'inchies'. So, what's an inchie? It's a 1" X 1" collage. When i signed up, I thought - cool - I can make some of those in NO time. Boy, was wrong. Working small is a huge challenge. Finding small items to add to the collage was tough, and making something tell a story in a one inch space was equally tough. The theme was 'Circus, or Circus Freaks'. Check mine out. I found and resized a bunch of vintage images in photoshop, printed them on to heavyweight watercolor paper. I've added various ephemera items, beads, charms, glitter, vintage German scrap.

Not sure I will do another batch of inchies or sign up for another inchie swap, because honestly ... I have no idea what I am going to do with them. lol. Anyone have any ideas?

Pages 03/22/08

I'm taking an online painting/collage course with artist Karen Gartel over at Altered Diva Online Workshops. The 6 week course is called "Softly Spoken" and is supposed to help us make our own painted backgrounds and teach collage composition. I honestly took this class because I wanted to MAKE myself set some time aside and work on some pieces. Having a deadline, and knowing that I paid for the course would surely give me motivation, and it did. The course is somewhat self paced with new lessons given every Monday and a week to turn around the assignment. Karen gives written instructions as well as an instructional video - which I love. The group is able to ask questions, show progress and discuss their project. (Pictured left are my 4 pieces in progress.)
I'm a fairly intermediate painter, and I honestly didn't expect to learn a whole lot of new techniques, but I've been very pleasantly surprised. I've never used gesso on watercolor paper (and it's cool!) and I've learned and interesting way to layer multiple colors which I've never done and will definintely use in the future. All GREAT techniques. I definitely recommend the course even if you *think* you've done it all. ;-) We have 3 more weeks of the class and I'm excited to see what's next. Will keep you posted.

Pages 01/26/08

Sketchbook collage. Got some new pink paint (so NOT a fave color of mine, but I wanted to expand my range of colors a bit) and a cool new Frida Kahlo stamp which I bought from stampcamp.com.

Pages 01/10/08

I've become obsessed with matchbox swaps. Over at swap-bot.com, there are always various themed swaps going which I can't help but signs up for almost every one. I'm addicted. I've done all kinds of themes - holidays, color, sun and moon, sticker - almost anything you can think of has been done or is available. The idea is to decorate the box to the theme and fill the box with teeny tiny treasures that follow the theme. It's so much fun to try and find small items to fit in the box. You'd be surprised as to how many items actually FIT in one of these boxes!
Above is a mini book matchbox swap item. Participants made bound books which fit within the matchbox. I also included some 'extras', magnets, a bookmark and beads for my swap partner.

I've also been in several matchbox shrine, or matchbox ornament swaps. To the left are some small shrines I made with a Latin theme for a swap. I poured in epoxy and added tiny beads to the epoxy as well as a glass vial filled with seashells. The entire shrine sits on a domino as a base.

For most of the swaps I've done I've purchased a bunch of the standard safety matches, sanded off the printing, and painted or collaged over the top. But if you want to make and build your own and avoid the work of sanding and repainting - print out and fold your own. I load my ink jet with a nice card stock, or scrap booking paper and print directly from my template on to the paper. Trim, fold and glue as indicated, and voila - my own custom matchbox.

I'm sharing my template with you to try making your own. Feel free to print and use it, or share it with a friend, or class. If you come up with something cool, I'd love to see.

TEMPLATE: