Tag Archives: mixed media art journal

January 4, 2014 · 2:56 pm

Which Path For The New Year?

I hope today’s post finds all of you healthy and happy in this new year! Even though the world in my area is freezing and cold, I am feeling warm and creative on the inside. I enjoyed creating ornament gift bags for holidays….

I really enjoyed decorating the tree….

Now that all of that is behind me, like a lot of people, I’ve been considering my goals for the new year. Personally my goals are much like many people–work on balance in my life, lose a few pounds, be fiscally responsible, yadda yadda yadda.

Artistically my goals are not so clear these days. I love working with paper and mixed-media and paint and art journaling and beads. Over the years my skills and interests have expanded and changed and morphed and melded into a wonderful and colorful experience. With the start of the new year I find myself wanting to turn some sort of page with my creativity.

For the past few years I’ve experimented with selling my one of a kind mixed media cards and met with some success but now there are various outlets (i.e. discount stores, box stores, kits) that now sell handmade “looking” cards for cheap. I’ve decided to continue making cards for my own personal giving and also for art abandonment and charity purposes but no longer for retail sale in the traditional sense.

I’ve also enjoyed scrapbooking for the past 8 years or so. I’ve filled some nice fat albums with my layouts and given them as gifts at times. My family enjoys looking through them from time to time and appreciates the work I’ve put into them. I’ve belonged to several monthly scrapbooking kit clubs over the years (currently Swirlydoos), but there is no denying it is not the be-all and end-all of my creativity these days. I will continue to do my kind of scrapping but I’ve decided to really limit my participation in challenges and round robins. Sometimes I have so many deadlines to meet that I am not taking time to experiment and explore creatively outside those things.

2013 found me delving into the world of YouTube videos and photo tutorials for learning things and laughing at things. I even delved into making some video and photo tutorials myself (yikes!) Look up the Katyoparty channel if you want to check those out. I am enjoying the fumbling and funny learning curve that making videos entails. There is so much more to it than just clicking record…… I am going to continue to experiment in that area.

My fascination for mixed-media has been growing over several years and that is what I am whole-heartedly embracing these days. Art journaling is my current obsession for experimentation. I am completely enamored of art journaling because there are no rules or expectations and you can mix any technique, medium, and/or elements you desire. Do what your heart desires–it’s all good! I am going to continue with my art journal play.

My mixed media play has now jumped to canvas and I’ve been adding more paint and other mediums but I’ve only experimented on small substrates. I want to work on something bigger–something really messy!

I’ve never been published so I’m going to submit something to somewhere at least three times this year. How’s that for a vague-ish goal????

Another of my goals is one that is very well-known by many…..

Dance Like No One Is Watching

Dance Like No One Is Watching!

Until next time….Art Out With Your HeART Out!

3 Comments

Filed under Art Journal, Mixed Media Mania, Musings

Tagged as mixed media art journal, paint, Swirlydoos

November 24, 2013 · 10:08 pm

Happiness=Creativity

Hello Hello! What a wonderful creative fall season I am having! I traveled to a beautiful, serene, and healing place for some rejuvenation and it was absolutely all those things. I returned with renewed inspiration and mojo! Here are some of the things that inspired me.

A reflection spiral–

Beautiful bronze sculpture…

Beautiful hiking

Warm hearth and warm heart….

Here is a journal page using a Stencil Girl stencil designed by Sue Pelletier.

I will share some more of my art very soon in my next post. In the meantime…

ArtOutWithYourHeARTOut!

2 Comments

Filed under Art Journal, Musings

Tagged as inspiration, mixed media art journal, Sue Pelletier.

May 24, 2013 · 3:38 am

Learning From My Art Journal

It’s been several days since I began my Art Journal Experience and I look forward to it every time. I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve learned so far.

–You can use up a lot of bits and bobs that you’ve been saving. The entry above I finally used the rose in the vase illustration which I had cut out of an old children’s book and had in my stash for at least 5 years.

–Don’t put a brad through the previous page without figuring out how you are going to camoflauge the back of it on the next page. Lesson learned. My least favorite part of this page is the metal tape embellishment I put over the back of the brad (upper left corner).

–Put masking tape over the center seam of the book before you cover it in gesso so your paints, inks, etc., don’t leak down into the book spine and bleed over into other pages.

–Put scrap paper under each page you are working on to keep any overflow mediums from going over the edges onto already done pages or the next page. Some people may not be as picky about this as I have discovered myself to be!

This page is pretty much strictly paint and a bit of Lindy’s Stamp Gang mist. I started out wanting to use up some of the scads of leftover alphabet stickers in my stash. You know how when you buy alphabet stickers and use up all the “good” ones and then you’re left with lots of consonants? I’ve created several items in the past using these poor “old maid” letters. If you look closely you’ll see the stickers are the base of the stems, leaves, and flowers on this page.

I started out this page wanting to use some InkaGold color pastes. I started with those vibrant Dylusions Spray Inks and then progressed to Luminarte Silks paints, some metallic 3d paints and finally added some painted masking tape I made months ago. On this page I learned that I love all these rich and shiny colors together!!

Other things I’ve learned:

–Roll with whatever you’re doing–there are no rules in your own art journal. Use whatever colors you want and put things anywhere you want. You are the Boss With The Hot Sauce…or the metallic paint as the case may be.

–Be patient when it comes to waiting for things to dry. I am completely impatient with this and my heat gun is my best friend. There are some mediums that dry differently if you force dry them and it kills me to have to let them air dry naturally. I will keep working on this.

The most important thing as always is….

Art Out With Your HeART Out