Buy your spray paint at Walmart!!

If you buy this type of spray paint for your artwork, you should go into your local Walmart and purchase it. I REALLY try not to go to Walmart unless I know something is cheaper, and this is the greatest difference in price I have seen. Every other store sells it for $6-$8 a can....Walmart, $3!

I had to get that out there to Blogland.

Also: Go to Simply Me's  website and enter a comment to win a Cricut Machine!!

The Experiment Journal

Remember Teesha's Journal I made?

I have decided to label the journal "Experiment." Obviously, it is self-explanatory. I want to use these 16 pages as an experiment to open my mind with paints. Here is the first page.

 

Making the journal Teesha's way gives fun little flaps throughout. The green matches the cover, and part of the pink/red page. This is probably the closest match to the real colors on the page.

The colors are all different between the three pictures. I don't know how to fix that!

Some detail.

Paste Papers

I feel like I have art ADD right now. I want to try EVERYTHING! And I also have art buying syndrome. I want to buy everything too! Bad me. I just got this out of the library yesterday:

Oh, its a beautiful book and I want to make papers look like that! I made the cornstarch recipe, and today tried my hand at it.

My first attempt. The colors are off because these were taken in my awful lighting in the bathroom, as these are hanging to dry over my shower. I don't really like the design, but it IS my first attempt.

 

Second attempt. Better. I experimented playing with a paintbrush to make this design. Ok.

Third attempt. My favorite. I love the pattern here, and all I did was use one of those can-opener helper thingys. You know, that you put over a jar that is hard to open and it helps with the grip? One of those things.

A few things I have learned.

1. It is hard to get a uniform amount of paste over the paper. Suggestions?

2. I can only get the thinnest of layers on, and if I try to add more on top, all it does is move it around and create more un-uniformity. Not a word, but you get what I mean, right?

3. MESSY.

I really like the idea of playing with paste papers, but it is way harder than I thought. Maybe I made it wrong?

UPDATE: These dried, I ironed them, and I think they look so much better dried! Yay! I can imagine this will be an addicting habit.
Peeking in the back are a couple painted journal pages. Those will be shown later.

I'm on the Teesha Train

Like many people in blogland, I have been following Teesha Moore's video tutorials on how she makes a journal. I LOVE IT! I am always up for learning something new. Off to the store I went to buy some Fabriano paper, and did this bad boy in 40 minutes. Thats pretty good for me!

Go watch her videos and create! The next step is to paint them all. Yay!

As you may notice, this journal isn't without its mistakes. The thread is not on the spine, a mistake of not punching the holes in the same spot on each page, and I somehow didn't cut the pages evenly, so the signatures stuck out at the top. I attempted to fix it, so its a little jagged. Oh well!

 

An inside view. Such beautiful paper, isn't it?

I had to edit this post because I just HAD to post my cover I painted for this journal. I'm in love with it already. I have been in such an art frenzy lately and it feels GREAT.

Re-Organization and a journal entry

Tonight, I decided I have had enough of my wayyyyyy too cramped space with my ever-growing art fanaticism. Therefore, I emptied my bookshelf of all my books and cds...and made room for my art stuff. Sorry books and cds! I have thrown them in the living room, and will deal with them later. haha! I took pictures of my newly re-decorated space. Now, I live in a tiny apartment, so my art "studio" is in a corner in my bedroom. I had to make do.

Where all my art supplies have gone to, where books and cds used to be.

The right side of my desk with the beginnings of my color mixing chart I have begun.

Next to my desk, all my paints and brushes. Mmmmm. Makes me happy.

My books. I spend a LOT of time at Barnes and Noble reading books, but I can't afford many. The journal on the top right is all homemade! :)

Bin #1: Paper and Ephemera.

Bin #2: Stamping materials

Bin #3: Book Binding stuff

Bin #4: Pens/Markers. Glorious, isn't it?

Bin #5: Stenciling stuff

Bin #6: Watercolors-in a pan, in a crayon, and in pencil form.

Last, but certainly not least, a journal entry I did last night after I found out my Uncle has prostate cancer. The prognosis doesn't look good.

When good ideas go bad

There is no such thing as failure within art, right? Its all a learning experience, right? I am sure it is...but it is frustrating when you waste an hour of hard work, only to realize in the end that it is not usable.

I received this awesome ad in the mail and decided it would make a great stencil. I spent an arduous hourish cutting it up, THINKING I was doing it correctly. Well, I guess I need to really study how to do stencils in more intricate designs. I kept cutting out the middle parts, and messed up the whole design.

Sigh.

Life (and inspiration) is in the details

Don't you think? I went out on a photography trip around Charlottesville today. I will let the pictures do the talking.

 

And the last one...a little bit of paint.

A canvas in progress

A friend of mine has seen a couple of my art journal pages and has decided she wants me to paint her something for her home!! What?! The only instructions I have are "Paint from your soul" LOL! I love her.

Here is a few progress pictures. It is not done, and I'm stuck in a rut. It is so much more important than anything I make for myself. People. Will. See. This. I want it to be good! I am not that happy with it right now...but I don't know where to go from here. Any ideas, please let me know!

 

 

 

Mini Art Cards

I bought some water color pencils (Prismacolor) the other week, and have had water color crayons (Caran D'Ache Neo Color II) for awhile. I also grabbed a couple of Micron Sakura pens and have tried my hand at doodling Zentangles and other little things. I cut up a piece of 9x12 watercolor paper into 4ths and made these little cards. Sort of like a mini journal entry/thought for the day. It is interesting to learn how to use these crayons and pencils. To get the amount of color and water to get the desired effect. I am still learning, but that is part of the fun!

I made this card yesterday when I was trying fervently to just let my mind be. Be free of all those little things in balloons. It is very, very hard. Sometimes it feels impossible.

 

The worry card was made today after a dentist's appointment. I really, REALLY hate the dentist. All doctors, but the dentist the most. I hate everything about them, and I have a really nice dentist. I have been told since I was about 12 that I am going to need to get my wisdom teeth out. Each time I say "No way!" They do not understand how much stress I go through just to get a cleaning! I also have had plenty of cavities, and those are on another level...don't even get me going on wisdom teeth.

Today I went (no cavities!! one "watch" tooth), and my hygenist and dentist both really begged me to get them done. He told me that my two lower ones (which are impacted) could cause decay on my back molars, and once that happens I will probably lose those teeth. AHHHHHHH. No amount of brushing or flossing can help either because its below the gum line. That scared the shit out of me, and I had to fight the oncoming tears while still in the office.

So, despite the relief that I don't need to see them again for another 6 months, there is that ever-looming "GET YOUR WISDOM TEETH OUT" cloud hanging over my head. I don't even have words for how scary that is for me.

If I can barely handle the thought of going in for a cleaning, how can I handle anything that comes my way? I've been SO lucky in life to never have any health problems. I have a serious phobia of hospitals as well. Even to go visit people in there makes me plaster myself to the walls and get nauseous. Worry. Such a huge part of my life. I wish I could just let it fly away.

Inspiration coming out of my ears!

WARNING: May be a long post. I have been inspired these past few days. Oh, how good that feels. Instead of words, here are a bunch of pictures.

      My "Inspiration Board" It is foam board, and falls down every other day despite the duct tape on the back! I thought duct tape was indestructible. GRR. One day I'll do a proper one, but this will do for now. It is in its infancy stages, but I like it. The quote around the outside is by the Indigo Girls. "When you learn to love yourself, you will dissolve all the stones that are cast."  I use that as my inspiration, because I hope one day to believe it! (Sorry for the blurry picture, but I'm too lazy to try and get a better one)

Halloween. I personally did not do anything, except made treat bags for all the kids at work. I wanted to make them a little more exciting than just kitschy gifts they get just as they walk out the door. Also, I had a NO candy rule! Since I shopped for the treats, made them and then handed them out...I managed to stick by the rule :)

All 84 tags made Thursday night at home. Many hours of work.

A small glimpse of what went into the bags...I never took a picture of all the items, but I think they were cool!

6 hours later (at work), all the bags were DONE. This is 2 out of the 4 groups.

Art journals. This one isn't quite finished. I realized (too late) that the spray paint was really too bright of a color to go over the rest of the painting. You can't really paint over oil with acrylics...Also, the paper in the far left corner is too "visible." Oh well...a work in progress, right?

The inspiration for the next painting: My Nonni's (Dad's mom) scarf. She gave it to me last weekend when I commented on how pretty she looked in it! Gotta love grandmothers.

The painting also inspired by The Beatles. I watched a FANTASTIC documentary on Showtime, All Together Now, about getting the Cirque Du Soleil show of The Beatles "Love" in Vegas. So awesome. Now I have to find money and time to fly out there to see it.