Carp Diem

Any time I can come up with a play on words, I'll do it.  So for today's Art Journal Journey
entry, I give you Carp Diem.  The carp is the one who has seized the day in this scenario.

Wilbur is standing on the shore fly fishing.   He loves this summertime activity where he can spend his weekends on the banks of the river.

He has heard this new bait will catch the carp that has eluded him for several summers.

He gets closer to the water as he throws out his line.

It's obvious the carp isn't interested

and has not been enticed by the bait.

It appears Wilbur will not be catching this carp today.

Materials used began with white card stock I painted using various paints and oil pastels.  To that I added Wilbur, who I fussy cut and colored using watercolor crayons.  The shore Wilbur stands on is sandpaper.  Wilbur's fishing line is made of multicolored yarn, and the bait is a heart shaped button.  I stamped the carp directly on the page and added the computer generated text.  The carp, a red rubber wood mounted stamp, is from River City Rubber.

Bleubeard and I are so grateful you joined us today, and hope you will seize the day at Art Journal Journey, where our theme this month is summertime love.

The Roller Coaster Ride

Millie and Edgar are having their first date.  It's also Millie's first roller coaster ride.  Although roller coasters have been around since the 16th century, where Russians created the first wooden ice slides, this was a new one built just for summer enjoyment.

Millie was caught off guard as her bonnet flew off at the same time Edgar's top hat left his head.

The man on the ledge in the back is holding other riders back until Millie and Edgar's ride is over.

This roller coaster was built to the same specifications as the first primitive Gravity Switchback Railway roller coaster that became a summertime success across the country.

Although this classic wooden coaster sled only has gentle dips, rides that would come in the near future would be far more ambitious.   This coaster on wooden tracks was such a thrill for Millie and Edgar, they decided to get in line to ride it again.

However, they would never forget their very first roller coaster ride.  Edgar was sure there would soon be a second date!

Materials used include white card stock I painted green, my feeble attempt at creating a wooden roller coaster using three paint pens, four stirrer sticks I colored with a wood touch-up pen, an image I found on the internet and colored using watercolor crayons, black card stock to mat the focal image and sentiment, and computer generated text.

Bleubeard and I are excited and thrilled that you joined us for Millie and Edgar's first roller coaster ride, something to look forward to in summer.  And please join us as we host Art Journal Journey with our theme of Summertime Love.

Inspiration Avenue: green and purple

I've not made much art lately, so when I decided to join this week's Inspiration Avenue challenge, it was mostly because my friend Stephanie at Dragonfly Design Studios was the host.



In order to make a background, I got out my oil pastels and Twinkling H20 watercolors, along with a paintbrush and some 110 lb cardstock. I should have used watercolor paper, but hindsight is always 20/20.


I started by drawing a few circles in the green and purple families from my box of oil pastels. Although I don't show it here, I also smudged oil pastels into the circles.


I used my only two Twinkling H20s that I have for a bit of sparkle on the pages. The idea was the oil pastels would work as a resist, but they weren't as resistant as I had hoped. I'll cut this background into smaller bits and no one will know it was supposed to be a study in resist.


Not to be deterred, I got out my colored pens and drew/colored an image of a tea cup that I glued to the second background. To keep with the circle feel, I used some purple stickers to write a sentiment.

I may have to play some more with this color theme. I love these two colors together, even though the end result wasn't what I pictured it to be in my head when I started. Thanks for the inspiration, Stephanie.

More turpentine experiments

Dana came to play last week and showed me how to use my oil pastels. This was so much fun, I had to try it again. I used turpentine when Dana was here, and of course the smell knocked both Dana and me for a loop. Dana kindly left her turpenol, a turpentine substitute that doesn't have the foul turp order. I thought I would never try the oil pastels again, after the smelly first attempt, but decided to play and experiment with them while the tornadoes, hail, and severe weather swept across the plains on Saturday.
I began by gluing two pieces of single weight cardboard together and allowing them to dry overnight. Next, I slathered on a bunch of gesso and allowed it to also dry overnight. Patience is not one of my virtues, but I have learned sometimes you have to allow things to dry completely before continuing.
The first step in this process was to scribble some of the oil pastels onto the gessoed page. You don't have to get it completely filled in. Note how the pastels, which remind me of crayons, skipped when the hit any texture. Next, I dipped a q-tip into the turpenol and pressed it against the rim of the bottle, getting rid of as much of it as possible.
This is the blended portion from the scribbles above. You can see the q-tip in the background. As I blended the pastels, I was able to transfer some of the color to the areas that I didn't scribble on (the left side of the above photo). At this point my q-tip was too dry to do any more blending and I was starting to work really hard for no return.
Next, I added a bit more pastels in the form of scribbles and more turp to a new q-tip. I kept repeating this process until I had filled the page.
After a lot of blending and scribbling, I got this background. Although the green didn't show up as well as the red, orange, and yellow, I was still pleased with the result. Feel free to click on the photo, because the small image doesn't begin to show all the texture and subtle color changes you see in the larger image.


Have a safe weekend, and play with your art supplies rather than traveling long distances. It will be fun, better for the environment, better on your wallet, and you'll actually have something to show for your efforts when Tuesday rolls around.

Dry spell produces Christmas art

I've been in an art slump. Every time I want to create something, my brain turns to mush. So it was fortunate that I saved the free Dover images from last week. There among the offerings was an image of two little sleeping girls. Today I decided, if nothing else, I'd finish the layout I started in December, where the left page was entitled "I'll be home for Christmas."
I started with the image that I printed on beige paper. I decided to use my new oil pastels I got when Kathy, Theresa, Dana, and I went shopping last week. I've never worked with oil pastels before, but keep reading that people use them. Unfortunately, I don't think I know how to use them, and I probably used them in the wrong format, but it was a fun learning experience.

I had already gessoed the background when I created the left spread. The background is the same as on the left, minus the alcohol ink which is obviously not the proper medium for the page.
These are the oil pastels before I removed the wrapping. I even got them at 30% off. I thought they were a real bargain.

The second spread I created and added included several techniques. First, I used a Clorox bleach pen to "alter" the guy into a Santa. I first did the hair and beard, neither of which he had, and left it on until the emulsion was nearly gone. Then I used the pen to make a Santa hat, but didn't leave the bleach on as long, thus producing the red hat. I learned this technique in Karen Michael's "Altered Imagery." After the photograph was dry, I gessoed the bottom.

Next I turned the gal into a Zetti-ish image using a 1" punched circle and a puzzle piece cut from a dollar bill. When I was removing the bleach, I accidentally put a hole in the upper left corner. I couldn't find my Christmas images, because they are packed away in my basement. So, I found the first thing I could and placed the sticker over the hole.

I tried to do calligraphy using a highlighter. I read somewhere the chiseled point is the same as a calligraphy pen. Unfortunately, the light green didn't show up on the gesso, so I stitched over the calligraphy using my green Zig pen. Since I had only written "Secret" with the highlighter, I just wrote "Santa" with the Zig pen and called it a wrap.

I'm not sure I like either of these pieces, but at least I'm creating. Incidentally, I bought a ton of frames at a garage sale one year. The photo was in one of the frames. I pulled it out and knew I would use it in my book at some point. Well, today was the day.