ephemera- 1959

 punched this circle out of a receipt from Central Telephone Co.- January 1959 #ephemera #collage #tgif

29 faces 2014 challenge: day 24 & 25

posting a couple more faces here. below is day 24- she is a freckled beauty. i printed the back ground using my gelli plate and stencils. i then used my stabilo pencil and black and white india ink (and a smidge of watered down acrylic paint for the lips).

here is day 25....a page of doodles.....

29 faces 2014 challenge: days 21, 22, & 23

i was about fit to be tied after not being able to go down to my studio for a few days....so when i got there, there was a sigh of relief. i love walking in and seeing my stuff just sitting there waiting for me to go to work. this was the view of my work table.

i was a few days behind on my 29 faces, but, quickly went to work and created my faces. this was from a model post. i used gesso on a portion of the page to see how my new stabilo pencil would work on gesso. my left eye was on gesso and the right is not- which do you like better? i think i like the left one....but, cannot quite decide.

for this face, i used my gelli plate to print the background first layering a few colors with stencils. then, used my stabilo pencil, and black and white india ink.

on my day 23 i had used a number stencil on the gelli plate and simply printed off the stencil onto my paper. i loved the perspective of her in the picture. i may have to try her one more time. the pic was taken looking up so her chin was very pronounced. i used my stabilo pencil, black and white india ink on her.

29 faces challenge 2014: day 20

day 20's sketch with gesso, hi-flow golden inks, dylusion spray , stabilo pencil, charcoal, and white ink.

at some point i need to figure out how to add hair to these people (haha).....i have really enjoyed "looking" at the photo and finding the shapes and shadows; the creases and lines and putting it all onto paper. happy friday!

documented life: challenge 8 {add a tag}

this week's challenge was a add a tag into our moleskin. searching around my studio space i came across this cute little vintage hot pad holder i had been saving to do something cool with (not the one i was looking for....but, suddenly had become the one i was looking for.....)

i have been so inspired by Jenny Doh and her "free stitching" that i wanted to try my own hand at this task. so i gave some free stitching a whirl on my hot pad....

i used Roben-Marie's trick for my background paper. i used some of my own "overpainted" paper and then, cut it down to size to fit my page. Roben-Marie had a wonderful video on how she worked this challenge.

i re-enforced my tab to support my hot pad tag i was adding. one to the front of the page and another to the back side. i used a "paint chip" paper in colors i liked for this support.

here is my back side support.

to sew my paint chip supports into place, i sliced the washi tape holding my page in and took it out of my book. this made sewing my page much easier.

then, when i was done sewing, i taped my page back into my book with more washi tape.

29 faces challenge 2014: day 15 & 16

 i am still playing along- and i have to admit....i am proud that i have stuck with this. this challenge is difficult for me because, i would say that i do not "draw" well and that faces are hard for me. but, as long as i am playing my way- which is a little off the beaten course....life is good.

on saturday i played with my gelli plate- cutting out shapes and printing, rolling off my brayer, cutting some more shapes, and more printing.....seriously love my gelli plate. i used this art journal to print in to prepare pages for the next few days.

my drawing below, i used a water blendable charcoal, white ink and a sharpie over my gelli printed back ground.

21 secrets- watercolor inspiration with gelli printed circle

playing along with 21 secrets and one lesson was to use watercolors. i have watercolors and brushes, but, do not always paint in watercolor. i like to get it all out though, because my palette and brushes were my gramma's and her name is on the front of my canvas brush holder- it makes me smile every time and wish she were still here.

you probably do not know, but, i come from a long line of artists.....my gramma was an artist, my mom and dad are artists, and now- i am trying my best to be an artist. we had even done generation shows featuring my gramma, my mom and me. our last generation show my gramma even added our youngest son who draws. he was like 11 at the time and gramma had picked 3 of his drawings of people- he has a keen natural ability for shading. it was the best show ever......

back to the subject....- i played along prepping my journal page with some of my favorite watercolor colors and using a small strip of magazine paper with a pattern along the edge; but, the lesson was to "be free."

sometimes in being free i find that the results can be elusive. and then, i found this statement out of a book i am using and loved this quote.....

because the quote is relatively small- it was easily lost on my page so i found a gelli-printed deli paper with colors that lent themselves to complimenting the colors that were already down; and then, stitched around the deli paper to bring some focus to this area and then put my quote down. here is the whole page below.

and while i have the watercolors out....i couldn't resist to put a little color down on the other page. this is the back side of my hearts page i had done before for another 21 secrets inspiration. i love the orange! my mom brought that back from Germany for me. it is really opaque- and a lovely color.