Dark Souls

I've been working on this project on and off for a while. I altered a box to store loose pages in for a round robin with a dark theme. It took me a while to pinpoint amore specific theme, but I came up with Dark Souls -- I am hoping to do something with Phantom of the Opera -- and maybe one more page about another dark soul -- but we'll see LOL

I loaded a picture of the top of the box, but there are a lot more views in my webshots album. I put quite a bit of time into mixed media techniques on this.

Nerves and Fear Came Swiftly

Kind of a heavy title, but that's just the way this page worked out. This is one of my favorite ways to work -- I just haven't done it for a while. I started with a grungy looking waste paper -- this one has extra crunchy texture LOL -- but it doesn't show up very well in the main photo, so I included a more detailed close-up.

I had no idea what to put on the page, so I flipped through a magazine until an image jumped out at me. Then I cut some phrases out of an old type-written letter and put them together for my journaling.

Umbrella Girl

This is an altered picure in calendar journal. You have to ignore the black background with the word death on it LOL That is the page behind. This is the back of a page I had cut in an arch shape.

I didn't have a real concrete idea, so I just collaged on some papers over the background around the girl and blended them together with chalk inks and stamped the script. This is also my entry for Theme Thurday.

Fabric Paper Postcard

Here is a postcard I made with the fabri paper from the previous post. The color looks a little different --- more realistic here. In the previous photo I had taped the paper up to the window to show the translucency, but the color was a bit off there.

Making Fabric Paper

I found these two links when someone connected with me through a fiber arts message board.
Making Fabric Paper
Painting Fabric Paper

This was a different spin on making fabric paper than I had seen before, so I gave it a try. It mentioned you could use organza as the basic fabric and I love coming up with semi-translucent backgrunds, so that's what I started with for my base.

I sandwiched some fun fibers, scraps of lace, bits of paper, cheesecloth, and a little rock salt between the organza and tissue paper topper. I used Color Mists from Outside the Margins to color the paper.

Broomhilda

I had to do one more Halloween page -- a little more traditonal LOL

I'm killing 2 birds with one stone LOL This is my contribution for the prompt on The Altered Heart, and Inspire Me Thursday.

Sometimes Life Bites

Ugggghhh ... I'm definitely in the mood for a pity party. My poor decrepit car finally died -- and I am so over-extended (after doing my best to help bail my brother out of financial jams over the years) that I cannot contemplate a new engine for it ... nor buying another decrepit old car -- not until I get my income tax in the spring anyway. That means no more art classes -- one of the few things I can really do for me :(

Getting back and forth to work is one thing ... but getting to the store ... getting to a laundromat (since my washer also kicked the bucket for now) ... getting to doctor appointments ... getting to my art group meetings for the next 5-6 months. This all just sucks.

Eagle Eye

This is a round robin spread for an animal totem book. There were a few different animals that came up for me, but this one hit home and I've been seeing eagles and hawks everywhere lately -- so perhaps this is a sign :)

I wish I could say I thought up the eagle drawing, but I'm not that good LOL I tried to draw my own based on another illustration -- but I did manage to think up the lines for the copper embossed feathers on my own LOL

Fred Fang

I wasn't expecting to get 2 entries done for Michelle Ward's Crusade #13 -- but it just seemed to work out that way when journal ideas preseted themselves :)

I have a story to go with this page too LOL Last week I received an e-mail about a special project forwarded from a man at an outside agency named Fred Fang. That name kept jumping out at me and I just knew I had to bring Fred to life LOL

For my background, I used some spray-paint papers inspired by a previous crusade.

Doodle Play

Well, I'm not much of a doodler, but gave it a shot on a journal page. I didn't have a real concrete idea and I'm not sure there's a real connectivity here ... but this is what I ended up with ...

The Blue Dot Episode

The Inspire me Thursday prompt this week is control -- and boy is that perfect for last week LOL I've been wrestling to get control of my emotions for a while. My adrenal gland is not functioning right and you never miss your body's ability to handle stress until it is gone. Supplements help immensely, but figuring out the right dosage has been a challenge.

I never know I'm on a downward spiral until something so iditotic happens you can't believe you did it LOL I went for a chiropractic appointment and for some reason they removed this blue dot from my chart. Sounds ridiculous when you say it LOL -- but that blue dot puts me with my regular doctor instead of jumping around to different chiropractors and risking getting someone who doesn't have enough skill to adjust my back right.

My pleas to have the blue dot put back on my chart with the receptionist were fruitless, but I did manage to get in to see my regular doc -- and that poor soul has seen my meltdowns before and knew he was in for one as soon as he walked in LOL But in the end -- I got my blue dot back ROFL

I fondly call this the blue dot episode ... and I'm willing to bet my blue dot never gets taken away again -- hee hee

Too Dark?

Okay -- this is the darkest piece I've done to date -- maybe a little too dark LOL This is a journal page for the calendar RR -- and also my entry for GPP Street Team. Good practice for the Dark RR coming up too.

Courageous Heart

Here is journal page for this week's prompt at The Altered Heart.

I feel like a wuss these days LOL This was a reminder to me that I have a heart of courage -- that I have overcome adversity.

Flower Page

I used this week's flower prompt at Gothic Arches for a calendar journal page. I cut around the arch to make a shaped page afterward.

Daring Cardmakers - Postcard

I made this postcard in response to the postcard challenge on Daring Cardmakers. I was playing around with texture on this -- not sure this was a successful design, but I had fun making it!

Molten Rhapsody

I've been using these little serendipity squares off and on for 3 years I think (same batch LOL) -- wondering if I will ever get them used up. The texture in the big gold blobbies is a gel medium concoction by Liquitex that has clear beads in it -- fun stuff!

I Need the Prayers

Not sure what this title means -- but I saw it on some vintage music and it jumped out at me.

The background was a technique I thought up at Michael de Meng's Assemblage Book class. The one in my assemblage book is actually a better example -- but that book is not quite done yet.

Botany Girl

I antiqued my paper with a wash of Michael de Meng's favorite color-combo -- quinacridone gold and black. I've been hoarding this Paper Whimsy image for a while too -- so time to let her go LOL

Egyptian Bliss

I've been saving this background for a while. This was scrap paper to catch some dye inks I had used and then I used it under a project I spray-painted. I got this interesting crackle across the top -- I think there must have been some gel medium underneath the paint. It would be cool to see if I could duplicate the effect.

Sea Revenge

More fun with ocean theme images ...

Alphabet Sampler

I've always been mesmerized by these alphabet samplers with text running multiple directions, so I tried it. I couldn't quite hit a color that would show up well for that top layer ...

I just started writing words to fill the page here -- but it seems the question of the day was really whether you can actually pull those words back once they have been said aloud ...

Agnes

As usual I was in a mad rush to get my calendar journal pages done LOL Time management has been a real issue the last couple months -- sigh --

I liked the picture and couldn't figure what to do, so I just started brushing on some paint and accented the picture with souffle pens.

Shadow Journal

Yeah!! I have my first completed art journal!

January 2006 I decided I wanted to do an art journal just for me, but I wanted to focus on connecting my art to me and move more away from theme type work. I had hoped to do a lot more work than this, but the pages I did feel intense to me and they speak my heart, so I am happy with what I ended up with. What I found most amazing -- looking through my pages from the last year ... I have moved further away from commercial imagery and more toward raw art. I just tried to do what was in my heart.

I journaled about whatever I felt truly compelled to journal about. Looking back I saw somewhat of a connecting theme, which led me to my journal title.

For my pages, I ripped out pages from an old engagement calendar, so I could feel free to use whatever medium I wanted and also the freedom to sew if I chose. I eyeleted my pages together with twill tape sprayed with Color Mists (Go Aileen!). I gutted the engagement calendar and recovered it using a heavy muslin type fabric for the spine. The end of the accordion is glued to the inside of the back cover and the rest can be flipped this way and that or stretched out into a long line -- but it takes a bit of ingenuity to figure out how to flip back and forth to see both sides LOL

Oops -- it looks like some of my photos are too long for the slideshow, so here is a direct link to my webshots album.




Shadow Journal

Shadow Journal

Let There Be Music

Here is my final page for my art journal :)

Fingers of Hope

I decided I wanted to finish an art journal I started last year. I had done these train pages I just couldn't live with, so I covered them up with new work and I am much happier now.

I used an India Ink Resist on the sun.

My Animal Totem

You scored as Dragon, You are the Dragon. You store a lot of knowledge about everything. You are generally one who is good with personal growth and can regenerate yourself after a bad experience. Dragon 92% Eagle 83% Crow 83% Salmon 83% Stag 83% Deer 83% Bear 75% Dog 58% Fox 58% Horse 42% Snake 42% Ram 42% Bull 42% Wolf 33% Which animal totem best suits you? created with QuizFarm.com

No! She Screamed ...

I'm not sure what the meaning is behind this page -- it started out as more of representaton for what I was feeling. I ended up with another unusual color combo I would never try if I had pre-planned out the page.

I rarely go dark, so I started out brushing wild strokes of Payne's Gray and Micaceous Iron Oxide on -- except apparently I forgot to clean my brush and the bristles were all glued together. I decided to go with the look I was getting and figured this was a good time to play with various painting tools inspired by the experimentations in Belinda's Acrylic Artists group.

I painted a heart with Quinacridone Burnt Orange, which turned out a little too dark on my background once dry, so I went back over the heart with Cadmium Red Deep Hue. I added smudges of True Grey with my fingers. I sanded some red off the heart to bring the dark ridges beneath back out.

The background still wasn't doing it for me LOL So I added smudges of Medium Turqoise. This was a really old bottle of Aleene's and it was super thick from sitting there, which made it work better for this application I thought.

I trie using a bamboo skewer and paint for the lettering, but it wasn't quite working for me -- -especially the smaller letters, so I gave up and went to a liner brush LOL The Ultramarine Blue also turned out to be too dark for the Payne's Gray in th abckground, so I outlined with a souffle pen.

Jeanne and Lucien

Here is another page for the Calendar Art Journal RR. I put some too-long neglected rubberstamps to use in this one.

Empress

This is my piece for Inspire Me Thursday this week. I started with nothing more than background color and chose my colors and collage elements as I went along. I never dreamed I'd end up combining Jubilee Green, Moon Yellow, and Crimson --- but here it is LOL

Peculiar Aristocratic Title

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Honourable Lady Karen the Splendid of Witchampton Under Buzzard Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Arch Journal Page

I was thrilled to see a new blog for posting gothic arch art. I enlarged my template, so I could use them as journal pages. I experimented with techniques for the backgrounds, but overall I feel my page falls kind of flat since all I really have is a moon and the words on the page.

This page was inspired by the lunar eclipse a few weeks ago. I thought it was cool how the moon turned orange an yet you could still see a glimpse of white light around the moon. I just love all these astronomy miracles.

Pensive

Here is a postcard I've been working on for a swap -- a bit late, but done after changing my mind about what I was doing a gazillion times LOL

Spray-Paint Papers

I missed the deadline for this crusade on GPP Street Team, but I was really infatuated with the idea of spray-painting papers. I spray-painted an altered book spread when I was an altering rookie and got some neat effects where the paint resisted the glue on the page. I don't think I've done much with spray-paints since then.

Diva friend Vicki also tried some spray-painted backgrounds that got me kick-started to try it :) And she did more here.

I started out brayering 2-3 colors on each of my large papers and embellsihed by spray-painting with stencils. On the last big paper I had some white spots and experimented with an India Ink resist to see what the effect would be with the spray-paints. It was tough to do on a larger scale, but I liked the overall effect and drama of it.



Spray Painted Backgrounds

Veggie Pages

Here are a couple pages I did for a quickie RR. I forget the exact theme now LOL -- But it seemed like it was meant to be about veggies, so here is what I did ...

Fabric Page

Here is a fabric page I finished for the 9 Muses RR.

Face Lottery

This is a piece I did for a face lottery :)