Back into the Art Journal

 I usually get a bit behind on blogging in the summer. Every year I think it'll be different but it never is. 

So here I am back at it, finally. I finished some pages in my large Art Journal; the one I thought I would have finished by now. Well, as of today, I only have 2 pages left. Wonder how long those 2 pages will take me.

Here's a look at them without too much explanation. Just enjoy the view.

Trying to get back into it, I just went with a color combo that was unexpected. It matches the image better than the photo displays. Just throwing some stuff around to get into the groove.

Went back to the magazine cut-outs that I have hoarded over the years. Tried to fill a page rather than get too creative with it. 

You can see the little touches of pink in the background that connected these cut-out birds to the page. I went "Dylusional" on this page. 

I had these stringy green wavy things in my scraps hoard. I may have been holding them for flower stems but they looked so good on this background. I was thinking another underwater/mermaid scene when I found the Great White. And as providence would have it, Discovery Channel's Shark Week began this week!

The background was nothing special so I covered it all up, mostly. I just loved the image, the little story, and I used up old alphabet stickers for the frame around the edge. 

These pages are not super creative but they do preserve some of the stuff in my stash. Stuff that I don't like to use because it's too pretty or I like it just the way it is. It isn't gonna get seen in my file folders! It will get seen on an art journal page no matter how much "art" I add to it.

So today I have learned that my art journal needs to hold the things I like and want to keep and look at again. It doesn't have to come from a blank page every time.

Stay well. Create much.

-Wy

The New Normal: My Sister's Challenge Envelope

A couple weeks ago, my sister delivered to me a Challenge envelope. We like to make cards together and it's fun to throw ideas around at the table. But since Covid-19, we haven't been able to get together. This envelope contained all sorts of scraps, stickers, and bits that were left over on her craft table one day. She gave it to me to see if I could make some cards with it all. I finally finished the challenge.

I made 5 cards with everything in the envelope. I provided the card bases and a few little embellishments like foil or glitter glue. I also added sentiments or greetings on them. I'm going to add some details here about how I approach using up scraps to get a finished product and hope that maybe you'll find it helpful for using up the leftovers on your craft desk.

The very first thing I do with random bits and bobs is to sort them out by color family. This really allows me to see if I have enough of one color to make a card or if I'll need to draw in another color to have enough for a card front. Patterned papers are great for bridging color families and adding some visual texture to a card front. Scraps are small enough that you don't have to fuss too much with the pattern being too busy.

Let's look at the first card I made from the envelope.

Bottom's Up!  The blue scraps in the envelope were various tones and the largest piece was blue vellum. I'll note here that I hate vellum and I never use it so I wanted to use it up in one big chunk. I figured the best way to do that was as a background. The scrap of water paper paired with the frog part allowed me to make a focal element that matched the vellum. The top part of the card was simply done to cover up the tape behind the vellum. I provided most of that scrap from the pile on my desk in order to tie in the two small leaf stickers I had in the envelope.

By sorting the scraps out by color first, I could easily see how much I had to work with and where I would need more and where I would have plenty. 

So then,

Nobody Sweeter  I still had some blue stuff left but since I wasn't sure how to put them together, I moved on to the pink pile. The pink family had these great patterned papers and a stamped image that was already colored in. I played around with the placement and finally decided to make the floral into a cake topper. The paper scraps were used up on a single card and I used some light bluish line stickers to define the tiers of the cake. The foam dot on the little butterfly was falling off anyway so I just removed it and glued it down flat. This one came together quickly because I could make the focal image from the scraps themselves.

After this, I decided to see what I could make from what I considered the gold family.

The gold family had only a couple stickers in it and I tried to pair the gold family with the green family. But somehow the shades of the patterned paper in the green family weren't quite vibrant enough for this brightly colored butterfly sticker. I had been provided with this green vine still on the Xyron sticker paper. When I pulled off the top part to expose the sticker, I noticed that a lot of the adhesive was stuck in the leaf portions. So I decided to foil it and see what happened. Then the copper colored foil would bridge the gap between the green and the gold families. 

Since the fence piece was white, it would match anything and I put my greeting beneath it as it looked weird just hanging there. I pulled in some paper from the blue family as I decided that the butterfly looked best on the turquoise cardstock. The blue family also had the largest scraps of paper left. 

So after I sort the scraps by color, I then look at their size. Will it fit the length or width of a card front? How big is it in relation to the other scraps I've got? 

So sort by color first, then by size.

Then this happened,

This stamped image of a seed packet was in the envelope, already colored in purple and pink.  Remember what I said about size? This element was the biggest thing I had left but I already used all my pink stuff for the "nobody sweeter" card. I was going to pair it with the blue family but I didn't have a lot left. The green patterned paper was double sided. It had a rusty orange color on the back (which might have worked well with the butterfly sticker) but I really liked this plaid pattern better. It seemed to match some of the deeper green tones in the leaves so I framed out the stamped image with it and added the word that was also in the envelope. The Hope word matched the green plaid and also covered up the gap between the thin scraps along the edge. 

Then I was left with the leftovers from the leftovers. Now all I had was one or two things from different color families. These truly were scraps as I now had nothing to use as a focal image that had come in the envelope. So I pulled in a focal of my own to make it work.

What I had left was the patterned paper from the blue family and the metallic gingko leaves from the gold family. I could match the patterned paper with a turquoise base but I was unsure if I could get the leaves on there. They seemed very out of place with the paper. After putzing around with it, I finally decided to use the stickers as a cluster and I just grabbed the focal element that I had already finished laying on my desk. The metallic of the embossed image on the focal tied the leaves into the card  so they didn't look so haphazard. 

On the inside of this card, I used up the last strip of blue vellum that I had cut off the first card and put a sentiment over it to cover up the tape. 

Now in conclusion, do I like all the cards? Not really. But I had a lot of fun and they're not all bad. I love the pink one and the last two. I'm not a fan of the first card because I just couldn't think of a greeting to go well with it. The yellow butterfly one seems a little "thrown together" to me. While I love that the foiling turned out so well, I wish I could have done a better job with the fence. That fence or gate was actually the back of a sticker so the side that is facing up is the shiny side...the side that nothing sticks to! So I couldn't stamp on it like I had planned to. I just overthought it.

Anyway, I hope this long wordy post was worth it for ya!

For those who are still locked down, keep it up, you're almost there! Stay at home and stay safe.

For those who are re-opening, stay safe and wear your mask for others beside yourself.

For those in New York State, we're getting there, people! Keep up the good work! Phase 2 will be here before you know it because we got this thing down!

-Wy

Craft Time

I think I need to move to a country where you get paid well for working fewer hours. Where is that country? Neverland? Narnia? Middle Earth? Canada?

This past weekend I did get some craft time with my niece. Since I haven't blogged in a while, I decided to share her wonderful work.

I have a box of stickers, scissors, and a glue stick that are designated for craft time. I brought out a box of washi tape and two stamp sets. She started with the "critters" as seen above and since they had party accessories, she threw them a party. She colored everything in with Crayola markers.

 She then decided to use the stained glass window sticker to  make a church. She couldn't resist the cat stamps from Dyan Reaveley. The bird in the middle is the pastor and the cats are two families; the Sassys on the left and the Buttons on the right. She colored them in with Crayola crayons.
She used washi tape to detail both scenes. She glued them together with glue stick and wrote this on the back:

Once this was done, she decided to make some more scenes for the cats that I had stamped and colored with crayons. She made good use of my old sticker pile.

Cats in the Flower Garden:  I stamped, colored, and cut out the cats and my niece drew the scene and added the stickers. She was greatly inspired by the large flower stickers on the right. I like the fence she drew in with markers and how she left the sky very open so the viewer can focus on the important images. This was a great composition.

Cat Carnival Craziness:  Inspired by some stickers of the fair, my niece decided that the other set of cats I had colored should be at the carnival. These cats, we decided, look a bit on the creepy side with their button eyes and tilted heads...just perfect for a crazy carnival. Because we needed to clear our dining room table for lunch, I didn't get to cut out the littlest cat but she added it in by tearing around it. She knew that a carnival wasn't complete without a table for games and a snowcone stand so she drew them in.

We had a great time creating our little scenes and she even added a travel sticker to the back of each to let people know where in the world you could find these scenes.

With limited supplies and a good imagination, art springs forth.
-Wy