Can You Say 'Annoyed'?

Yes?  You can?  So can I!  I am soooooo annoyed!  I've said that several times since yesterday.  And here's why.

Can you see those small black dots within the red area above? They smeared! The pens I used here were the Rotring Tikky Graphics. I had been brushing a layer of matte medium over the entire page and some areas smeared. I went back to the site where I purchased the pens and they are saying they are water resistant. Okay, my fault...I thought they were water proof. So evidently when brushing my matte medium over the page, if I brushed too much in one area, then the ink started to activate. Lesson learned. Next time I will prep the page first with some spray fixative.

As you can see, I've started adding color to my design.

Hopefully any of the smears will not be noticeable after all the color has been added.

Journal Progression and More

I have added more detail to my journal spread. I shared a photo of this project in its earlier stages in the previous post, in case you missed it. I'm thinking I might be near the end of adding ink work to this. Now to start thinking about color.

A question was asked in the previous post about this project. The question, by zooperson, was if it was to be the cover for a journal. The answer is no. It is actually the inside pages of a hand made journal. This is the only set of pages that I've started adding design/art to on this particular journal. The photo below might give you a better idea of this entire journal and where these pages fall within.

I've also been keeping busy with some quilting. I shared a photo of this quilt while it was in the very beginning stages of construction. Can't even remember how long ago that was and I'm too lazy right now to go looking. Anyway, here it is...done! This is a baby sized quilt but it could also hang on the wall. I had a hard time getting a photo of this one. It looks a little washed out here but in real life it is very rich and vibrant. I guess if you really want to see it correctly, you all are just gonna have to come on over and see it.

And here is another project that I'm almost done with....just need to get the binding on. This one is a table runner. Or...it could be a wall hanging as well.

Both of these quilts feature stencil designs that I created. For the larger quilt I used my Flower Head stencil and for the table runner I used the Heart Flower stencil. I applied the stencil design with textile paints. Both of these stencils are available at Stencil Girl Products.

Now go on and have yourself a fabulous weekend!!!

Custom Work and a Journal Spread

About a month ago I received a request for a custom tote. The design the client wanted was based on an art quilt that I had made. The art quilt was created with lots of hand stitching, applique and machine thread work. I decided that in order to recreate a simplified and quicker version I would create Thermofax screens of the birds. I screened those onto the neutral background and then using textile paints I gave them some color. I free motion quilted the background and then thread sketched the branches and leaves. I gave the leaves a bit of color with textile paints too.  

front

back

I am currently (very slowly) working on a journal spread. This journal is made with watercolor paper and I created it a long time ago using Teesha Moore's tutorial. I have added more ink line detailing to the spread since taking this photo and will share more with you as it progresses.

Surface Pattern Design

I've been playing around in Photoshop trying my hand at some surface pattern design. My dream is to see my designs on fabric or something. I have no clue if my dream will go anywhere, but it sure is fun playing. Here are three designs I created recently. They are shown in the order they were created.

Do you have dreams? Are you pursuing them?

More Backgrounds

I painted some more backgrounds. The green one below is the one I shared in my previous post.

And because I hate wasting paint...I used up any extra on some pieces of white cotton fabric. These are fat quarter size. I'll probably be adding more layers of color/design to these at some point.

I've recently been exploring shapes in my sketchbook.

One each page I've been drawing the same basic shape and then exploring different ways to outline or fill it or add something to it to make it unique.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day.

Green Green I Love Green

There once was a day when green was my favorite color. While it still is a favorite, my most favoritest color right now is orange. And has been for a while. I wonder if this will change. Probably.

We've had a fair amount of rain in the past few weeks here. It's been what I would consider one of the wettest early summer's we've had (that I can remember). Everything outside is so lush and green, I am constantly just gazing at it to drink it all in. So using the outdoor green lush landscape as my inspiration, today I set out to create a tonal background of green on a piece of watercolor paper. I pulled out my favorite green paints and got everything prepped.

I covered up the white paper with a layer of paint. I used two or three colors to do this. I didn't take photos of every step, sorry! I kept adding layers of paint and design in the shades of greens that you see in the photos. I used some of my hand carved stamps and stencils to add subtle interest to the paper. And I used a sea sponge to pounce on some teeny tiny dabs of color here and there too.

Here's how it looked when I was all done. It's so hard to get good photos when it's so dreary outside.

I'm going to do some more of these tonal backgrounds, because I have plans for them. Ha!

NEWS FLASH:  If you are a fan of Vicki Welsh Hand Dyed Fabrics, or if you've never checked out her fabrics before...do visit her. She is having a sale on fabric/pattern kits.  Check it out here.

And before I go, I want to thank all of you who commented on my blog post yesterday. It's so wonderful to hear from you. Your comments were so lovely to read.

Keeping Busy

Hi everyone! For the past couple weeks I've been on the mend.  I had surgery two weeks ago to remove a lump from my neck.  It was a benign growth in my salivary gland.  Everything went super well and today I pretty much feel like my normal self.  My neck is healing beautifully and hopefully that is the end of that!

I have been staying creative.  During my down time, I had some enjoyable time with some great artists. I watched a couple of fun and inspiring DVD workshops.  The first was by Margaret Applin, and it was titled Paint, Print, Layer, Collage.  The second DVD workshop was by Joanne Sharpe, and was titled Artful Lettering: Tools and Techniques for Discovering your Style.  Both of these are available from Interweave.

I also viewed a fun mini (online) workshop by Valerie Sjodin.  She creates some fantastic art journals and I've always enjoyed following her blog.  Her mini class is titled Embellishing Edges and Text.

Now that I'm feeling normal again, I've been visiting my studio again. I recently finished an online surface pattern and design course and that has been very motivating. I am filled with all kinds of ideas on design and creating design collections. I'm not sure where I will go with that but I'm hoping somewhere.

The next two photos are my current favorite pens that I use when designing. The first one is the Pilot Bravo. I had this one first of the two and I love it for drawing out designs and filling in negative space. It dries quickly and has a juicy nib on the end. I would compare it to a size medium in the Faber-Castell Pitt pen line. I can erase pencil markings and it won't affect the dried ink on the paper. It does only come in one nib size however. And one other thing I don't like about it is it is not waterproof.

So I set out to find another pen I could love just as much but that was waterproof. And I found one. And it even comes in a variety of nib sizes. It is the Rotring Tikky Graphic pen. Its nib is very similar to the Pilot Bravo, which I was thrilled to discover. Now I have a new favorite and I can even use it with wet media if I choose.

Today I am working at my desk creating some new designs. I'm having fun!!! I haven't had the desire to create new designs for a while but now I am in the groove again.

It's a Winner of a Day

Did you enter my Thermofax screen giveaway? If so, maybe you are a winner. See the original announcement post here.

 

I printed out all the comments.

I cut all the entries into single pieces.

All entries were added to a basket.

And five entries were drawn.

Here are the winners. You can click on the image for a larger view.

Congratulations to Jan, Deb Levy, Leslie, What Comes Next?, and Cheryl Gebhart. Each winner will be able to choose one free screen design from all that I offer in my Etsy shop. See all the screen designs here. I will give these winners two weeks to contact me about their prize. If I don't hear from them by June 10, I will draw alternative winners. Thanks so much to everyone who participated.  

I hope you all are having a beautiful Memorial Day.

Creating Patterns

I think I mentioned last month that I was taking an online surface pattern course.  There is about one week left in the workshop and I have been having so much fun with it.  Playing with my drawings and designs is so rewarding.  Here are three patterns I put together recently.

The first two photos are just layered patterns, with no formal repeat.  The last photo is called a box repeat and there are actually four tiles in this photo to see how it looks in a repeated pattern. I think I could play with designs and patterns all day on my computer. 

The Lost Forest

I shared this painting project with you back in April. I wasn't thrilled with how it was turning out and thought for a while about what to do with it.  

Well I radically changed it and you won't even recognize it anymore. I painted over the entire surface with black paint and started all over. With a different design too. I didn't take photos every step of the way, but there are a couple progress photos to show.

The last photo shown is where the painting is currently. I still have some final touches to add here and there, but it's mostly done at this point. I haven't come up with a title for this one yet. I welcome any suggestions you may have.