Getting started.

No Excuses Art Journal is Ginna Armfield's method for getting you into art journaling on a daily, weekly, and monthly schedule.  It is a smash book, diary, and sketch book rolled into one.  It is a place to play, develop skills, work out ideas for larger works of art, and even make mistakes.  It is done in a planner.  This method is taught as an e-course containing 35 lessons.  Just google "No Excuses Art" for the site.  I have enjoyed my first week.  I art journaled one afternoon at Paneras and another afternoon at McAllister's.  My new bag for art supplies travels well.

Art Journaling Travel Bag!

I could not be more excited about the funky neon flowers that turned a $9.99 plain Harbor Freight tool bag into this juicy fun tote for art journaling supplies!
These tools will travel!   Maybe I will work in my journal at Starbucks tomorrow afternoon!
There are 24 pockets around the outside of the bag!  The canvas is thick and sturdy.  The bag sits well and stays upright and open in the top.  


 I still have a bunch of empty pockets.  I will slip in some washi tape, a pencil sharpener, eraser, etc. 
 Can you tell that I'm a little into neon?

 Got to have those readers close by!
 The flowers were done with bottle craft acrylics,  just concentric circles in different colors.  
I used a hair dryer after painting each circle.  Dries real fast that way. Freehand circles!  No precise work done on this bag!  The black lines are just sharpie marker.
Now I'm ready to start Ginna Rossi Armfields "No Excuses Art Journaling" e-course!

Art Journaling Bag

Harbor Freight: Canvas tool bag $9.99
Stay tuned to see how I transform (Pretty it up!) this tool bag from Harbor Freight into a bag to hold all my art journaling supplies.  It has 24 pockets! I've got a few new supplies to go in the bag and I am participating in an online art journaling course called "No Excuse Art Journaling" by Gina Rossi.  Check out her blog and the course here.


Pine cone topiary trees

We picked up these large pine cones in Wilmington this week.  I have added a few here and there for holiday decorations and used the ones left to make these cute topiary trees.  My daughter is going to give them to some wonderful women she does work study with.

New Pens : More Tags

I'm still making holiday tags with baggies,  but I was running into a bit of a problem with my black pens to do outlining and word writing.  Gel pens would skip to much and were to thin of a width for my liking.  A felt tip marker and Sharpie were not the look I wanted and were really wider widths than I thought looked good.  Some black pens would start to to write and then just quit.  I went on a Saturday adventure to my new favorite art shop, Donna Downey's Studio in Huntersville, NC, and bought myself a couple of new black ink tools to try out!
No outlining

The top Holly leaves are done in the Krink and the bottom leaves are with the Fineline.


I am liking the line of this tool!

So here is my product review:
Krink is a an acrylic paint pen that has a roller ball applicator tip.  You squeeze and write.  It leaves a nice painterly line that is a wide width. Cost: $9.99

Fineline Applicator is just a bottle with a long needle like tip that you fill with the paint of your choice.  It is a little hard to control because the applicator tip is so long but it leaves a very nice thin paint line when you get the hang of it.  Cost: $5.00 and it is refillable!

I tried them both out on my monoprinted holiday tags with good results from both.  I am leaning more toward the Fineline Applicator bottle.  I like the thinner width line and the fact that I can refill the bottle with $1 craft acrylics.

Holiday Gift Tags: Started with a zip lock bag!


I was inspired by Alisa Burke's blog last night! Check out her fabulous and colorful blog here.  She has a basic picture tutorial and a quick video on monoprinting with a plastic baggie.  I have been monoprinting for a couple of months now using a Gelli Arts silicon plate and love it!  Monoprinting is very addictive but Gelli plates are a bit pricey.  After seeing Alicia get the same printing effect using a ziplock bag,  I had to try it!  Wow!  Totally cool and cheap way to print.  I immediately thought about using this method to teach my friends how to print... better yet... a Holiday Tag Party!  If my work friends are reading this post....the invitation is coming soon!

I took pictures as I worked along this morning....
Supplies: Plastic bag, craft paint, a roller, paint brush, black ink pen, and cardstock.

Dribble a few of your favorite colors out on a palette(Piece of paper!)

Dribble a little paint directly onto the plastic bag. Then spread the paint around with the roller.

Draw some wavy line with the end of the paint brush.

Flip the baggie over onto a piece of card stock. Press with fingers. Peel back the baggie.  Repeat to cover your paper.

Paint three outlines of holly leaves.  Use the end of paintbrush to draw lines in the paint.

Turn baggie over onto the paper and press. Peel back baggie.

Use a different green and paint holly leaves again.

Draw lines in the wet paint with end of brush.

Turn baggie over onto paper again.  You are just layering paint.  No need to be perfect!  Eyeball it!

I repeated holly leaf process with one more color of green.

Paint red dots on the plastic baggie.  Draw swirl lines in the red with the end of the brush.

Position baggie over paper and press.  I did a hot pink layer the second time.

Cut the paper into tags on a paper cutter. Use a black pen to "messy" outline leaves and berries.
I wrote holiday words on mine.

I love the way they turned out!

Here is a tag with some of my favorite holiday paper.

Great for tying on a plain gift bag or a bottle of wine.
If you lived close to me, would you want to come over and " baggie print" some holiday tags?

My Chucks are Magic!

We are into chucks in our family, except we don't call them chucks.  They're "Magic Shoes"!
Our "Magic Shoes" can take us anywhere, on any adventure our hearts and minds can imagine!  Maddie's are purple, John's are red, Jesse's are grey, and mine are yellow.  
We love wearing them out and about...someone always says something about them
... which gives us a chance to promote Maddie's book!

Maddie got into the mixed media paper painting last weekend.  
That's her masterpiece above!
Three of us on an adventure.
Magic Shoes in the South is available on Amazon.com.




Who? Who?

Oliver

Another holiday gift tag!

This tag will be one of the projects at the Holiday Tag workshop hosted by Hive in Gastonia, NC.  December 6th! This tag started with a 3X5 index card that I drew a black line drawing of a holly leaf and berries.  I laid the drawing under the gelli plate so that I could see the design through it.  I used a small paint brush to do a light colored leaf on the gelli plate, then printed.  The next print was a swoosh of another green through the center of the leaf and the third layer was a dark green outline and vein.  Two layers of reds for berries.  Each tag was pulled six times.  Black pen outlining.

More examples of this technique...





New Art: Sea Horse



I am living art this year by spending more time in the studio, trying out new art supplies, and sharing my art and myself with the world.  I have produced more pieces in the last year than in my whole 48 years combined.  I am happier than I have ever been in my own skin.  With each new piece I feel my true self emerging from years of pushing back the creative urges because the stuff of everyday life was getting in the way.  Not much about everyday life has changed.  There is still laundry to do, groceries to buy, and school to teach. Yard work, dogs to walk, a husband to keep fed.  So, what changed? I stopped expecting life stuff to be perfect.  Why did I not paint?  I had to much stuff in my life to take care of.  I reduced the stuff, did away with the unnecessary, and gained time.  I fill that time now with things that make me happy...painting, reading, taking art classes. I live art when I am with others in art classes.  I live art by sharing my work.  I live art when I spend all weekend at home in my studio and never cut on the television.  I live art when I have no idea what time it is.  I live art when I forget to eat.

The piece above is my latest. It is done with all gelli printed papers.  All the papers were science worksheets left over from the classes that I teach.  There is a little colored pencil, some acrylic inks, and charcoal for the outlining.  Mixed media collage / paper painting has been my medium of choice this year.

I am linking to Emily Freedman's blog and Link Party: We Will Make Art.

Holiday Tag Workshop at the Hive!

I love wrapping presents and making my own holiday gift tags!  This one was made using my 3 x 5 Gelli Plate!  Its the  perfect size Gelli plate for tags and cards.  I will be making a lot more tags, using a mixed media style at my workshop at the Hive in Gastonia, NC on December 6th.
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