Showing posts with label Suzi Blu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Suzi Blu. Show all posts

Sunday, January 9, 2011

A new journal for a new year












I hoard journals. I love all sizes and types, from purse-size Moleskine to hand-made and hand-bound journals, board books, bound pages, whatever. I treasure journals I have received as gifts. I have a gorgeous handmade one from Laurie Blau-Marshall. I have a beautifully-covered one from Michelle Geller. My great-niece just gave me a pretty one for my birthday. I just bought one on clearance at Pier 1.
So what is the problem, you ask? I don't ever seem to write in them. I have journals with watercolor paper, lined pages, blank pages, pages made from maps and cool ephemera. I love to look at them, and I love knowing I have them in case inspiration strikes. But I couldn't seem to make a mark.
I guess I felt I'd be ruining the beauty of the journal somehow, which I know is dumb, especially because I actually drool over examples of others' filled journals. Even my great-niece has a totally cool journal she writes and doodles in and add mementos. She even stitched herself a fabric cover for it. I bought her Dawn DeVries Sokol's Doodle Diary to keep her inspired.
And she did just that.
Meanwhile, I would buy Stampington's Art Journaling magazine. I would stare for hours on end at cool blogs, especially work by Pam Garrison and Pam Carriker. I even advanced to tearing out magazine pages and pieces of magazine pages that inspired me. In fact, I have baggies of paper bits just waiting for a place to call home.
Finally, I decided the new year and new month are a very good reason to start a journal. That, and the fact that I had been itching to paint, draw, make collages, doodle, draw zentangles, do Zettiology-like art, and what better place to do everything, than in a journal. When I mentally commited, I was so excited, I woke up at 5:30 a.m. on a Saturday and started right in preparing pages.
I am using a plain, 9" x 12" *ish* journal by Canson with watercolor paper pages. I collaged several pages with my paper stash. I was further inspired by a "supply swap" I had just done with Jade Adams, and could hardly wait to use the goodies she sent. I also have a ton of new rubber stamps from Unity and their kit-of-the-month club, as well as Unity Stamps by Suzi Blu, all of which I want to play with.
After I collaged a few pages, I realized I hadn't left myself any room for the "dreaded" writing down of thoughts. Intentional? Maybe. Or maybe just inexperience. So I painted the back side of the pages with watercolors, and ended up making color-theme spreads, each with a blank page for my thoughts.....if I happen to have any.


Saturday, December 18, 2010

I'm so excited! I finally 'did' some art.




I woke up just itching to paint...which is fantastic, since I've barely touched a brush in probably 10 months or more. Just haven't been motivated. But today I knew I would paint. Something big. And big-eyed.
At first, I thought I might paint a picture of a Blythe doll and started out with a face and eyes of that ilk. Then I remembered my Suzi Blu class and all the wonderful mermaids on her Web site. I had painted two 16 x 20 canvasses already from a class I took last winter: Marie Antoinette and also Rodeo Girl. And I had one empty spot next to them anyway. So I looked at some of the mermies in Suzi's group for inspiration and also a gorgeous Mermaid ATC I had received from Shonna Bucaroff of Twisted Figures. And then I was off!
I sketched; I mixed colors. I painted; I glittered. I smashed sea shells to attach along with a net-like piece of ribbon and little bottle (message in a) I had just gotten in a swap with my Zettilicious friend Jade Adams. I dug through cigar boxes for treasures and found a couple of gold 'things' for earrings and a hair ornament. I smudged with charcoal and graphite pencils. I sponged with punchinella and paint. I made bright circles for bubbles.
And then I made myself physically leave my property so I would quit touching it! Cannot wait to hang it up; I am happy. Happy to be making art again. And ideas are exploding in my head. Zentangles! Felt matroyshka ornies! Journal pages! A stitched journal cover! A china doll head with art canvas body! I am so ready.


Monday, February 15, 2010

Marie and the rodeo girl


Here are my two finished paintings (16 x 21" ea) from the on-line class I took from Suzi Blu and blogged about below. I have one more class to do: Day of the Dead, and conveniently, I have one more spot on this wall o' whimsy.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Snow Doesn't Cancel On-Line Classes

I completed this "Rodeo Girl" Wednesday night. She's one of Suzi Blu's on-line classes. I signed up for the 'continuing education,' so I have the videos for Marie Antoinette, Rodeo Girl and Day of the Dead. It was only $35 for these three projects in one class, and well worth it, even if I hadn't made anything, just to watch Suzi's entertaining videos.


My Rodeo Girl is 16" x 21", the same size as my Marie, and I think I will hang them together. I found these great, deep frames, very reasonably priced at Utrecht's, which accommodate deep canvasses.


Speaking of deep, I have been snowed in since last Friday, with the exception of a little time on Tuesday. We are at 46" and counting, and that's no exaggeration. It's getting a little old. Thankfully, there's been no loss of power. I think my wireless laptop is the only thing keeping me sane.


My Rodeo Girl didn't quite keep me sane because, as usual, I can't stop touching it. I have a very bad habit of not knowing when to quit. I messed up her face about five times, and kept having to repaint it. At some point I resorted to finger-painting to try to get more control, and all that usually results in is a mess.


I even brushed beeswax over the whole thing, per the class, which is not only normally the finishing touch but generally prevents any further work because you can't paint over the beeswax. But, ta-da! I discovered my Lyra gel crayons go on nicely and smoothly over the wax, and you can easily wipe them off for a sheer effect. So I did. Then I didn't like it. Then I did it some more. Story of my life. But I like it now. I glued a little cowboy hat on her skully balloon and a little star 'badge' on her vest. Coordinates well with my Marie to which I glued a Juicy Couture perfume bow and charm.


By the way, I did something weird with this painting. Normally, one would paint the background first and then, per Suzi, collage it with bits of paper, molding paste, glitter, etc. Well, I decided I wanted to draw my girl on first, which I did, because I needed her to tilt a certain way to coordinate with the Marie since I want to hang them together.


Just to make things difficult for myself, I guess, I then painted her in, first with watercolor crayons. Then I had to collage the background around her and paint around her, and at that point, I painted over her first draft, this time with acrylic paints. Made it harder, but interesting. And with nearly four feet of snow outside, one needs interesting!

Friday, January 15, 2010

Marie is back! And so is Jack!


I completed this large canvas last night, after viewing the videos for Suzi Blu's "Petit Marie" class on-line. I signed up for a trifecta: Marie, Rodeo Girl and Day of the Dead. I just love Suzi's style. The canvas is 16" x 20", covered with acrylic paint and bits of papers collaged about. I used vintage French text, an old ledger page, some wrapping paper, rubber stamped images and scrapbook paper.

There are several layers of papers, paints, matte medium, molding paste and gesso, as well as glitter and beeswax. It's Suzi's special recipe. Lastly, I applied a hot pink box with a "couture" charm that my daughter was smart enough to save me from her Juicy Couture perfume box. Isn't it great when family members start saving you "trash" as potential collage materials? It means they "get it."

I'm not all that pleased with my Marie. Her body might have turned out better than expected, but she sort of has one bulbous eye and the roses in the background are sort of large and random. Plus, she's having a bad hair day, just like me. The beauty of it all is, since layers rule the day, I can always add more. And, the wax can just be melted with my heat gun and moved around. Come to think of it, I think I will.

And I can hardly wait until Sunday night for the return of '24' on Fox with Kiefer Sutherland. Can you even imagine him married to Julia Roberts? Thank goodness they stopped that train wreck. But I digress. Jack is back, after appearing on Letterman the other night in a dress no less, and the pre-season reviews are very positive. So, I can't wait to tune in for two hours Sunday and Monday night. Too bad Marie A didn't have a 'Jack' to protect her better. Lord Fersen seems to have made an attempt. Such is the stuff of history, not fairy tales.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Yay Me! (again) and Thanks to Shonna of Twisted Figures


The above goodies are winging their way to me, courtesy of Shonna Bucaroff of Twisted Figures. I entered a drawing on her blog for her '100th Follower' celebration, and somehow her cutie son drew my name out of a jar.
You might recognize another piece of Shonna's art, "Busy Bee," which I bought from her Etsy shop and blogged about here. Shonna also turned me on to Suzi Blu's Web site and art classes. Love this style! Thanks, Shonna.

Friday, June 12, 2009

My mini paintings for a 'girly' swap













These original paintings by me- and much of the credit goes to the styles of Kelly Rae, Suzi Blu and Shonna Bucaroff- are 4" x 4," and I made them for a personal swap of "girly" style pages with Malin Walkeby of Sweden. I finished them up about 2 a.m. last Sunday before hitting the road for several days for work.
I had great fun doing them, having been doodling faces for weeks in my journal. When I saw Malin's faces and girls on Flickr, I knew we had to swap. She also encouraged me to join the Marie Antoinette Mail Art group, and I have 18 pages of 4 x 4 Maries to make soon for a fat book in that group.
The backgrounds of my pages were the first thing I made, actually using rubber stamp in and a blender brush. Then I added texture by stamping over punchinella. Next I drew my girls in pencil, then filled them out with watercolor crayons. Next, I painted titan buff acrylic right over the facial features I had just drawn. I finished off the facial features with gel pens and more watercolor crayons, using water to smooth. I added paper, brad and button accessories as well as some vintage embellishments: sheet music, book pages, assorted goodies and beaded lace. Finally I stamped on some messages, put my info on the backs and six hours later I was done.
I received Malin's wonderful pages last night when I got home from my multi-state trip, and I'll post those very soon.
I have lots of wonderful artsy (and wordsy) news to share-coming soon!


Saturday, June 6, 2009

I'm In When I'm Out, Out When I'm In, Charms, Cats, Swaps, Spoofs and Nutrition?






































































I woke up energized this Saturday. It might have been from sleeping in as long as I did, but let's not talk about that. It could be from shoving baby bird out of the nest (see post below), but let's not talk about that either- and there was no shoving. I think it was actually due to all the art in my head that wanted out today. Visions of spending the day in my studio creating are still dancing in my head as I write this. Darned blogging, Facebooking, Flickring, emailing and all of those electronic habits are cutting into my art time!
And now I go and upload all these pictures to explain! But there's so much exciting, artsy goodness going on all around me; I want to capture and share it. I ended my post headline with a question mark, because I wonder if anyone else can tie cats, swaps, nutrition and more together. I'm going to try.
First off: nutrition. I read a great article yesterday in the June 2009 issue of Elle magazine. I buy it regularly because I can't miss the Ask E. Jean column. I think I've been reading that ever since Elle launched. E. Jean was a cheerleader back at Indiana University, even before my time at Ball State. That means cheers were probably carved on stone tablets then. She also started, with her sister, the popular Web site Great Boyfriends. But I digress.
The article by Joseph Hooper posits that some internal cleansing or detox therapy is now gaining mainstream medical approval. But what caught my eye was peer-reviewed, documented research that supports the idea that reduced caloric intake (duh!) and a low-fat, veggie-heavy diet can not only lead to weight loss (duh again!) but also elimination of allergies, vague and non-specific complaints such as fatigue, irritable bowel, headaches, rashes, joint pain, and hormonal mood swings.
I've complained about all these, and I'd lost about 30 pounds following just such a diet. Somehow, college graduate that I am, I failed to notice what I was eating when the headaches, fatigue and mood swings returned. I've been subsisting on some kind of weird all-Italian, all-bread and all-dessert diet and wondering why I feel lousy. So, fruit bowl for breakfast to be followed by heap-o-veggies salad for dinner. Back on the hamster-food diet and should get self to a hamster treadmill, too! The issue also has some other great articles: couples therapy, interview with Ryan Reynolds, permanent? manicures and a rif on Barbie's 50th. But I digress again.
As an amateur artist trying fervently to gain the necessary skills and hone any possible talent to be something more than just amateur, I remain thrilled like a six-year-old with a new toy whenever I find my artwork published. So my thrill was the usual when I received a postcard from Stampington telling me my work would be in the June/July issue of Stampers' Sampler. I even posted the cover immediately to my blog sidebar (right) with the list of publications in which my work has appeared. Today, my artist's advance copy arrived, but after two run-throughs I can't find my work anywhere. In fact, I'm 99.9% sure I don't have anything in there. Disappointment.
But just as I was about to hurt myself with a piece of French bread or worse, I discovered an unexpected published surprise. I've been pouring over L. K. Ludwig's third book, Collaborative Art Journals and Shared Visions in Mixed Media, lamenting that one of my collaboratives with Shabby Cottage Studio or The Faerie Zine did not get chosen. Of course, the book is absolutely beautiful, as are her other two, Nature Journals and True Vision: Authentic Art Journaling, and it is clear this newest one focuses on collaborative projects.
I also noticed Helga Strauss' ArtChix Studio inchies swap featured, another group I'm in whose swap I had failed to join. But, as I was looking at LK's book for the gazillionth time, something I do right before bed usually, the ArtChix Yahoo! group itty bitty swap that I was in jumped out at me. And there, on page 99, is a tiny view of one of the 3" x 3" itty bitties I made for the swap, circled by me, easily-found now and forever for posterity.
A couple of the squares I made are shown above. I used ArtChix Precious Pets faux postage as required as well as some cancelled Zazzle stamps, both with my own artwork to make little spoofs of high-end designer purse ads. Two of my pet stamps can be seen in the lowest left two stamps on the link to the page. I've also been lucky enough to have artwork chosen for the ArtChix pink faux postage.
For the itty bitties, I also tied in the "ish" of my Lilly*s of London*ish, supposing that such brands as Dooney and Bark, Mew Mew, Juicy Cature, Abercrombie and Fetch, Baby Chat and Poochi might be manufactured in Leesburg instead of their internationally-manufactured counterparts like Dooney & Bourke, Miu Miu (a brand by Miuccia Prada), Juicy Couture, Abercrombie & Fitch, Baby Phat and Pucci.
So while I am flying high from finding a peek of my work in another book, I will remove the June/July Stampers' Sampler badge from my sidebar until I can find myself. That should take quite some time. However, it looks like my cats, Larry and Lester, have found each other. Their picture above is just gratuitous blog posting of cute critters. Not only are they holding hands but it appears Larry, the brown-noser (with reason) has loaned Lester (he of the white nose) a paw on which to rest his weary head. CuteOverload, look out!
Meanwhile, on with the swaps. The juicy goodness in the bottom three photos on this post are the treasures I received from Michelle Geller of Hold Dear in a recent, no-reason, spur-of-the-moment ephemera swap we did. I can hardly wait to sink my art chops into all those watch parts! The Ashland charm and the leaf-like charm (third photo from bottom) were two she made for other swaps and art events, and I am thrilled to get them.
Her charms will go nicely on a new bracelet I'll have to start now that I've received my charms back from the Cloth Paper Scissors magazine charm swap. Fastest returns ever! Charms were due June 1, and I got these back a couple days ago. Thanks to Rebekah Shattuck,Elizabeth Riggle, Judy Sinyard, Mary Van Soest and Margaret DeLeon. Watch for charms from the swap to be featured in the September/October issue of the magazine.
The gothic arch-shaped artist trading card is one of several cool ones I received from Martine in Belgium. This is the second swap we've done, and I am always amazed how fast mail travels between the US and Belgium- just a couple days. Martine makes exquisite ATCs and inchies and is always up for a trade.
The Marge Simpson-esque batch of art are hand-painted watercolor fat book pages by the extremely talented Malin of Sweden. I saw these on Flickr, and tracked her down, knowing I had to get in whatever swap this was for, which I did. However, it was touch and go, as I had to be selected to join the juried and maxed-out-in-membership Marie Antoinette Mail Art Group. Take some time to explore Malin's blog or her Flickr photostream. She does incredible artwork. She and I are doing our own 1:1 swap of five 4" x 4" girlie book pages, which I should be working on right this instant, since we plan to mail Monday. Malin also turned me on to Suzi Blu, as did Shonna Bucaroff of Twisted Figures.
Suzi is another post for another time as is the cool piece I bought from Shonna on Etsy, the other cards from Martine, my Marie pages for the mail art group book, my Marie little girl ATCs for a swap, my pages for Malin, Art & Soul Las Vegas 2010, and whatever else I think I need to blog about. Right now it's off to do art. Translation: avoiding evil carbs!