I Love Sizzix!

I know, this is just one of many posts that are written just because they get more entry points on a giveaway, but it is true - I do love my Big Shot!

I feel like I am late to the paper crafting world even though I have loved and have been playing with paper since I was a kid in the 1950's. I had NO idea, though, what was hidden to me. For some reason, when my husband retired several years ago, I decided to try to use up what I had in the craft room and only went to a craft store if I was out of something like glue. I wasn't really using much up, though. I needed direction!  That came in the form of my middle daughter when she brought over a mini album she had made. It was gorgeous! I had no idea that papers were being printed that were so beautiful - or that by going to YouTube, you could learn just about anything. I was familiar with YT but unless you see something, you have no idea what to look for!

 Fast forward a few years and I was getting over getting a hip replacement by shuffling around the neighborhood. I noticed that a friend was having a garage sale so we headed down there - me pushing a walker with a seat, just in case I needed to rest. That didn't turn out to be the real need. What I needed was to push home a big box full of paper goodies, including her original little Sizzix die-cutter - red with lever that pushed the little pad through the pressure spot and it weighed a ton! I also got three alphabets and some other dies and several well-worn punches that came back to life after some mostly-tender care. 

That was the beginning of my die cutting. I moved up to a Big Shot a few months later when I discovered larger embossing folders that didn't fit in the little machine. Oh, what fun! Today, my daughter brought over the Stampin' Up (made by Sizzix) Softly Falling Textured Impressions Embossing Folder that I added on to her last order. I can't wait to try it out. It looks like snow falling, getting thicker on one side.

Now to the best part: Scrapbook.com is having a give-away! Click on the link and it will take you there!

If you've ever daydreamed about trying out the Sizzix Big Shot Plus, this is the giveaway for you! The $2500 Ultimate Sizzix Designer-Bundle Giveaway is an an amazing chance for 5 winners to receive a $500 Big Shot Plus Starter Kit PLUS loads of accessories from designers Stephanie Barnard, Eileen Hull and Jen Long.More details here. So, drop everything you're doing--unless you're, say, holding a baby or a crystal vase--and enter this giveaway now for a chance to win big!

Working up to Journaling by 5s...

It seems that I am so frequently late to the party, but since I usually end up staying late, it works for me. I recently discovered Shannon Green's Journaling by 5s on YouTube. My primary focus in an "artist's journal" is usually something about the day - sketching and/or writing about something around me.  I also am addicted to the Artist's Journal Workshop (Artist's Journal Workshop blog and on Facebook).

Journaling by 5s is a completely different idea!

Journaling by 5s is down and dirty - get it done stuff! And it is dealing with "Art Journaling"... more experimental, often abstract and mixed media!  I have watched Journaling by 5s on YouTube... there is a playlist of over 200 videos on it and I've just begun. I've skipped some, just because they don't make as much sense to me as others do. Seeing what I like - and don't - is helping me to relax about it all a bit.

 I've discovered that I like the idea of not doing so much preplanning that there is no room for ooops and what happens when you are forced to compensate!!! Some have not planned ahead enough - and I can see their frustration.

I did a couple of minutes of practice video just to try getting the camera lined up - harder than I thought since when the camera is upside down, top and bottom are reversed... and I can't find the software I've used for editing video before that can fix that. I hate having to get new computers!!! I also realized that videotaping at night means I sound like I'm 90. I'm going to check in the morning to see if I sound any better. I only have the mike that is on the camera and that probably has something to do with it.

The first thing to prep is a 20 page journal. The suggestion is to use an easy to find composition book. I had two from the Dollar Tree so you know that they are priced right! They are made with 80 pages in them so the idea is to glue four pages together to make a single thick page. That should withstand some abuse.

Gluing is done! It took a few days - lots and lots of arm movement! I have a gadget - a 2 ¼” hand applicator - Rollataq - that is perfect for this. It puts out a very thin layer of glue, keeping the pages drier than a more generous application gives. I don't have a lot of wrinkles on the pages this way. On the other hand, some journals that have many wrinkles have the most wonderful texture!

The whole process, once the pages are glued, is done in 15 minute spurts! I have to do whatever that turn is to one side of twenty pages in 15 minutes - 45 seconds per page. That means that paint and whatever will be flying! I'm thinking a smock will be in order.

This is what the sessions are about:
Session 1-Background: Paint, Ink
Session 2-Texture: Collage, Recycle
Session 3-Pattern: Stamps, Stencils
Session 4-Focal Point: Words, Images
Session 5-Details: Pen, Pencil
I do have a lot of paint lined up, ready to go. I have some newer paints but I thought I would possibly use up some of these old jars. I know that I started buying them in the early 1980's. There are several with pointed spouts that are the oldest. I decided that putting them out in color-order would make it easier to pick and choose.

I've also been working on the cover. It was a solid red - not bad - but it was so plain!  I have put several layers of paint - mostly golds, varnish, glitter and embossing powder - and more paint and varnish on it - and accidentally peeled chunks off, adding more, oooopsing more off when I decided to press some waxed paper over it to embed the glitter. Ooops!

This is how it looks tonight. I added some scrapbooking paper that says Unlock the imagination - JUST what I am trying to do!  I also made a little label. I bought a First Class self-inking stamp decades ago - and it still works!!! I discovered that it is is not moisture-proof ink when I applied sealer to it. I still liked the First Class idea so I cut the piece of paper where I had tested it on I tore the ends on a tape dispenser to emulate those paper labels that they attached once you paid the postage. I added ink to the edges, scrunching up and inking the wrinkles to bring it into the realm of old.

I also added a lot of ink on the surface and edges, adding more glitter as I went. The last thing was to add a coat of varnish. I don't know what the inside will look like but I do like how it looks now!  Of course, there still is proof that it was just a red composition book on the back side. I wonder how much will cling to it by the time it is done!

Stay tuned to see what happens next!

Palette To Go!

Pretty colors

Today, I have been working on a very light little palette for sticking in my bag. You can never tell when you need to paint! This one was an eye-shadow set from the local Dollar Tree - making it a great price!  I have another that I got there a while back but the little pans were quite small - not really brush-sized. The pan areas in this one however, are much wider, making it possible to use a larger brush.

Emptied and washed out.

One problem with filling any watercolor palette is choosing which colors to add. This palette's arrangement made it easy to put a cool yellow, red and blue on one side and a warm yellow, red and blue on the other.

My quick-reference for the palette.

Making a color chart - and keeping handy - is important. I will need to make another that will be covered in plastic and stuck to the bottom.

When the paints are in a palette, remembering what color is which is often hard to do without testing them each time because they often look quite similar.

Choices!!! I have a lot of paint - I've been collecting it for decades.

There were still six empty spaces so I started thinking about the colors that would be convenient. I loved the old alizarin crimson but it proved to be fugitive but I think that Winsor & Newton's Brown Madder is a good substitute. I forget to use it in it went. I tested all of my purples (yes, I have a few) and then mixed the reds and blues I already had added to the palette and discovered that mixing one would be better. 

My testing sheet - inexpensive paper that has few other uses but is excellent for this. 

I wanted Daniel Smith's Transparent Permanent Orange because it is proving to be a great paint as has my old favorite DS Quinacridone Gold. Rich Green Gold is appealing as is Cobalt Teal, both Daniel Smith's. 

The mostly filled kit with a cheap brush for splattering.

I still have one space left. I set an empty-half pan in front of the palette for comparison. Half pans  are deeper but the eye-shadow slots would allow a bigger brush to make less of a mess.

I love to have some sparkle and often have some gold available but I also love to have some Lunar Black (Dan Smith) which can give some wonderful texture to other colors, too. For now, it is empty. I haven't decided if or which brush I will be trimming down to add in there. Because the lid is domed, it will hold thick things, as long as they don't roll off into the paints. For now, it is set aside for the paint to dry. There is nothing worse than having a palette of freshly added paints turn upside down in the bottom of a bag and you don't notice it before it has all mixed and dried after running all over everything.

I just scuffed up the inside of the lid with a fine, sponge sanding block to make the paint not bead up. It is foggy but works well. I also positively know that a waterbrush will not fit inside... It will have to be put in my kit.

Doubt and loosing focus...

It's for the one who doubts his every stroke and color choice,
the one who listens and learns well for a while
...and then looses focus or gets impatient...
and does something on his canvas that sends him into meltdown mode... — reading Paint Mojo - A Mixed-Media Workshop: Creative Layering Techniques for Personal Expression.

I got my copy this week - I have been fascinated by Traci's paintings for quite a while. I do admit that it isn't - or hasn't been 'my style' but at the same time, there is something about the multiple layers, the colors, peeking through to other layers that intrigues me. Looking through and maybe trying it all for myself, the idea has possibilities! Watercolors and acrylics?
http://artoftracyverdugo.blogspot.com/p/paintings.html

Altered book - in process...

I was surprised that I have not been adding to my one and only altered book for almost TWO years! I assumed it was last fall, when I got sick with sepsis in October, 2013 (a long story for another time), that it stopped, but, I was wrong! The last date was September 12, 2012.

That being said, I want to show what I did and, just maybe, get the ball of creativity rolling again.

I had been fascinated with altered books for quite a while, but needed to just jump in there and TRY it! I found a book - not the best binding for this but, I didn't like the philosophy of the author and wanted to make the volume worthwhile to me, somehow.

I started by removing every other page. Yes, you take a craft knife with a sharp blade and get in there and desecrate a book! This is truly the hardest part for me. I tend to get distracted by most printed material and cutting up a book just seems wrong. However, that is part of the process. I now have a stack of printed pages to used in some other project!

I had no idea of what to do next, so I opened the book, skipping a couple of pages and started pasting in paper. I journaled a bit and decorated it a bit and called it done!

Interesting - maybe, maybe not BUT it was done! I proceeded for several days, hiding out in my studio, pasting and painting and writing whatever connected to to what I had done.



Gesso on the pages, paint and then stenciled... and then I extended the page out and did it some more. I used copy paper for the extension and was surprised to discover that, after an application of gesso to both sides of the page, it is quite substantial. The lightweight paper adds much less bulk to the page than cardstock would.












On another page, I admonished myself to USE IT UP before buying any more supplies...

That didn't last too long.






In my hunt for supplies to use up, I tried absorbent grounds - liked that a lot!

The last page I finished was about what  have heard my Amsterdam cousin talk about many times... about awakening in the morning to the sound of the neighborhood lark. She lives on a canal and most birds don't make it their home - but the lark is faithful, even in the midst of water and cement.
  
A challenge to myself is to re-start this book's alterations. And, to complete at least one watercolor in the next week or so. I have been back working on getting my watercolor brain to wake up again - not as easy as I expected. Since I got sick, carrying a thought long enough to finish it has been even more of a problem for me than it ever has been before. Creativity is something that I never had a real problem with before but this kind of infection leaves you with all kinds of interesting challenges. There seems to be a strange disconnect between my thought process and what my hand does. If I don't really think about it much and just dip my brush in paint, my hand seems to know what to do. The challenge is to actually do it!

ps. If any of you want to see other photos of the book, The flickr page is at https://www.flickr.com/photos/79481680@N00/sets/72157631316606050/

Ice, Ice, Baby!

My M!

Oh, dear... I just discovered that I did not post this! That is not good at all! So, without further ado, may I present Mason!

A bit of a catch up! It is only February 9th and it has already been a very busy month!  On the very first day of the month, I became grandma for the 10th time - a sweet little boy! He is my youngest's first and he is beautiful!

I spent a few days traveling to the hospital, staying for hours, returning home, and coming back the next day for more!  He was able to go home on Monday and the forecasts began predicting SNOW on top of the chilly air we already had! I know, most of this country has had more than its fair share this winter, but it has been quite spring-like here in Portland.

A ferret looking for its home

On the fifth, the temps dropped - windchill of minus 1 F at night. The winds howled, steady at 10-15 mph, with frequent gusts up to 45 m.p.h. We also had a visitor... we didn't know what it was and by the time we discovered that it was a ferret, it was gone. It was quite friendly, but it really startled me. Poor thing. It was just looking for a handout and I ran! Good thing it has a very thick winter coat!

The next day, the snow started and with the wind still howling, the flakes were tiny and dry. More blew down the street than stayed in the yard. Someone must have a huge pile of snow.

Icy cold Anna's Humminbird

The Anna hummingbirds have been really cold - puffed up like a ball. Why they don't migrate is a good question, if you ask me. I have noticed that whenever there is icy weather, the female disappears. The male spent time in our porch, getting out of the wind by sitting on an empty bird feeder part of the time. Mr. R has been rotating the hummers' feeder to thaw every few hours. We discovered that also brought in ants who love the feeder, too. Those stinking ants are a favorite treat of hummers and chickadees but getting the frozen feeder covered and sealed to prevent them from taking over the house even more was very important.

Coming home from my walk...

We got several inches of snow - not the norm for Portland - the most we've had since 1993.  Yesterday, I walked around the block and on a side trip - about a mile altogether. This is almost home - the middle set of Douglas Fir on the left is ours.

Ice covered snow - Golden Desert Ash on the right

White, winter wonderland - and not one human footprint to be found. It has been a long time since kids lived here! Our son brought his kids over to sled on our slope a couple of years ago - not much snow but it was fun! This year, it wasn't easy to get around.

Ice on the Japanese Cherry...

 As it usually does here in Portland when we have a lot of cold air, last night we got freezing rain. It was just starting when I was almost home and got serious in a couple of hours. It is an amazing sight to see everything coated with a coat of ice. If you don't have to go anyplace and your power doesn't go out, it is beautiful!

Shooting through binoculars

Finally, my camera since 2006, a Canon IS-3S, seems to have finally given out. I have been forcing it to keep going by using very fresh batteries, but today, it has refused to start. The photo of the iced branches was taken with it today. It has 12x zoom - a 400mm lens equivalent - and has been delightful. It also has a flip-out screen on back, making it possible to take selfies with my grands for a long time!

For now, I have to compensate with the little Pentax we have. It is compact but only has 3x optical zoom, making it difficult to get the long shots.  Today, I tried putting the lens into the eye-piece of my little binoculars - and it wasn't too bad... not great, but it is interesting. The dried up hydrangea flowers are the same as on the right side of the Golden Desert Ash in the photo up the page a couple of shots.. It definitely had a vignetting effect. I put it on super-macro in order for it to focus on the lens. Very tedious trying to find a spot, but it is worth a shot!