Toilet Paper Roll Painting (The Toilet Paper Roll Fascination Continues)

My art video watching continues - as long as the news is so depressing,  I'm watching more art videos   in an attempt to limit my daily dose of outrage.    This piece was inspired by another video by Marta Lapkowska.   We've moved on from toilet paper roll dandelions to using those elegant tubes to paint backgrounds.

As usual, I got carried away with the process and forgot to take a picture at the beginning.  The technique is pretty simple- you essentially use the paper roll like a brayer.  Because of the texture and flimsy nature of the roll, you don't get full coverage, but something more abstract .  Roll tube in paint and roll onto your paper.  I really couldn't get the tube to do much actual rolling, so did some sort of "drop, roll, drag" on the paper.

I used a combination of acrylic paints:

After getting the paint on the paper and while it is still wet,  rub some circles in the wet paint with your finger.

Then I  added some black and white circles around the smudged ones using a cardboard tube - white paint for the white ones and stamped the black ones with StazOn ink.   

I added some white paint dots , some text stamping,  and a quote that seemed appropriate for this experiment.

Check out Mart's videos and FaceBook group - she does such fun stuff.

And in case you don't have a supply of toilet paper rolls ( who doesn't ?),  you can purchase them on Etsy ,  Ponder that thought for a minute !!

Year of the Doodle Update

It's been a while since I've shared  pages from this great book by Dawn de Vries Sokul.    I'm about 2/3 of the way through and amazed at how well the binding is holding up to all the paint, ink, and bits of ephemera.   I probably shouldn't mention it - maybe it will  boingggg apart while I'm sleeping !

Here is how fat it's become -on the left is a new copy of Ms Sokul's Art Doodle Love and on the right my overstuffed Year of the Doodle that started life as the same size as the one on the left.

We've had a busy summer and I haven't been doing much art work, but it's been fun to work in my book - a small canvas for each day that doesn't take much time to finish.

Doodling is what the book is about - most pages have a prompt and some subtle background color or design, so there's no dreaded white page.   I've been stretching myself to put pen to paper on most days-either as a doodle or lettering,

Some days the prompt just doesn't speak to me, so I go off on my own  as on the 25th,

The Birkenstocks are a big deal.   I've been reading Danny Gregory's book and he keeps saying to draw what you see, not what you think you see.   I had to really study the shoes and force myself to draw what I saw.  Amazingly, the sandals look recognizable!

I also use lots of stamps.  I love the "before my dock rots" one and rarely get to use it.

I love this doll by Traci Stillwell that I cut out of Cloth Paper Scissors  - doesn't she seem perfect for this quote from A Reunion of Ghosts?  (It's a fantastic book, BTW).

Honestly, I can't rave enough about this book - if I'm not working on a day, I'm adding shading or otherwise fiddling with pages I've already done.  So much joy in such a little package!

Altered Journal Project

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I've just finished altering eight journals from my stash - totally from my stash.  Sometimes the amount of stuff I have even astonishes me !    These are in the "less is more" category.   I opted for a simpler style that might appeal more to folks who aren't excessives.  Don't you love that term, "excessives" - I first saw it used by the talented Tish at  A Femme d'un Certain  Age.    I abandoned my no-success-like-excess approach for this project.

To start - this unusual journal is from my friend, Shiela - and yes, auto-correct, that's how she spells it.  The journal was made by Heather Carter,  a Texas artist who now specializes in wonderful wooden sculptures, but in the late 90s made handmade journals.  I found one on eBay - a parallelogram shaped journal, same paper as mine,  for $60.00!   This triangle shaped journal was fun to work with and a bit of a challenge.

The pages are a slightly rough ecru colored paper - lovely.

This Tim Holtz stamp is perfect for the quote stamped on scrapbook paper.

The journals are a not-so-subtle ploy to encourage people to start keeping a journal.  I added interest to some pages to help avoid the dreaded blank page stress.   I purposely left plenty of room for writing and gluing in stuff.   

I made the label stickers by making a master board on a sheet of labels.  A bit of paint, some stamping and some doodling .  The magic happens when you lift off the label and get a slice of artsy goodness. I used a circle punch on some.  

These circles were so much fun to make!

Stamps from one of Shiela's famous packages.

A couple of sea-inspired  pages with white embossing.

Love this wide Cavallini washi tape.

I added a small pocket at the back with  extra strips of washi tape on freezer paper to encourage people to stick things in the journal.

Making these journals was so much fun.  (I'll share some of the others later).   It was fun to rummage through my stuff and make discoveries about things I forgot I had.     This kind of minimalist embellishing is a stress-free way to let the creative mojo rip.  And thanks to my friend for this lovely journal.

I May Have a Christmas Tag Problem

I love making tags, obviously!   I think there are a few reasons - the small size is easy, I get to use lots of stamps, and the results are always fun.   I feel like The Count from Sesame Street, "Once I start in counting  making tags, it's werrry hard to stop"!

These large tags are chalk board tags from the clearance aisle at Michaels.  I made a background spray by mixing gold liquid acrylic with a little water and topped it with a nice shimmer from Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist that doesn't show well in photos.   The bird with text stamp is one of my favorites.   I used red Stickles to make the berries pop. 

And here they are in blue.  This background is Distress Ink Peacock Feathers , then topped  again with glimmer mist.

I also used some  inexpensive tags from Ikea .   There is a mix of sizes and shapes that make for interesting tags.  There is a downside - the shiny side has a plastic coating and can make embossing tricky.  My advice is to emboss only long enough to melt the powder and aim the heat gun straight down - heating at an angle caused the plastic to melt and lift away.   Most of the time I used the uncoated side as it takes ink and embossing better.

I love white on Kraft paper.  The Kraft says shabby and the white brings on the chic!   All of these are embossed with matte white embossing powder.  It's fun to use parts of stamps on these little tags - the one on the lower right is stamped with part of a paisley stamp.

Distress Ink Iced Spruce and red Smooch Ink berries.  I've never used this stamp before and now it's one of my favorites.

More Distress ink sprayed backgrounds .  I spray, then roll over a roll of paper towels to soak up some of the excess ink - added bonus is a faint pattern left by the paper toweling, giving a hint of texture.

The snowflake tag background is a red ink spray.  

The larger tree is one of Tim Holtz architectural stamps stamped onto Christmas carol sheet music.   I love the added white gel pen snow on the twiggy tree.

Aren't these fun little guys?   Colored the snowmen's accessories with Smooch Inks and added some glitter embossed snow.

A bucket of tags - and now I need to move on to the other 72 projects on my list!

Vintage Journal Pages

Spring may have arrived in New England (although today's temperature of 47 degrees makes that questionable), so I've been busy with furniture painting and gardening projects.  I haven't been doing much in the art department except following (very loosely) the 2015 Documented Life Project,  an online group all about altering your journal/planner .  Every week there is a new challenge, either using a specific  technique  or supply.   The members are doing some wildly creative art.   I mostly stalk and don't always do the weekly challenge, but it's fun and I've learned lots from some accomplished mixed media artists.

Last week's challenge was to use cheesecloth:

I tea-dyed the cheesecloth to make a skirt for the mannequin.  I have used that stamp so many times - one of my favorites.  The background is a page from an herb catalog,  along with a napkin, and pieces from an old French envelope.   I mixed some gel medium with gold powdered pigment and glitter to add stencil interest.

Another page from a few weeks ago - this challenge was to use stitching.   I used to do lots of sewing; now my sewing machine is used for minor repairs, (clothes and boat sails!),  but mostly for sewing paper, so this challenge was perfect for me.

Somehow these decorated pages make using my planner more fun.