A Whole Buncha Things

I've had the best couple of days in weeks. Yesterday a friend invited me and a half dozen other artists to her garage party; a space she's organized with tables and art supplies and heat guns and all sorts of inspiring eye candy. For several hours we each played in whatever media suited our fancy while we visited and nibbled and laughed together. It was what women have done for ages; cloistered together in friendship and fun. Incredibly good medicine. I made the journal page background above.

I had a couple of bags of vintage wallpaper scraps with me so I made another background page with those (isn't glueing fun?) and then loved the pages so much that I'm not sure I can paint over them. That old paper is just so gorgeous.

So a couple more journal layouts here.

I always thought of St. Paddy's Day as my personal holiday since it falls so close to my Birthday. I have a special connection with four leaf clovers and made a rubber stamp many years ago that I like to use around "my" holiday. Lucky me and my four leaf clovers.

I promised you photographs of my journal creation and I did take a few shots but they are still in my camera and I'm packing for a weekend trip so this is all I'll post for now. This is the back cover of the journal that I printed on fabric (ironed sheeting onto freezer paper and run through the inkjet printer then coated with acrylic gel and matte medium). The colors are very soft when you do it this way. I've also printed onto decal paper that you iron onto cotton sheeting as well as glueing a plain lazerprint onto the Davey board and all three methods give different effects. Inkjet is the most subtle.

While I was in a funk I started this experiment. Took a stack of computer paper that was printed on one side (you know, trash) and painted whacked out stuff on the reverse. Just anything to get the paint moving and do something for crying in a bucket. I figured if nothing else I could tear them into strips and use them as journal borders later.

So these are a couple of the pages I dashed off. It is very freeing; you have to go faster than usual to force yourself to work from automatic pilot instead of the left brain. The best part is plugging in the iron and ironing the curled up sheets when they're dry. I love ironing paper. (And I wouldn't dream of ironing clothes!)

This is the beautiful necklace I purchased from Nikki Blackwood. I know a lot of you know her from the art retreats. The art just gushes out of this woman; her home is like a gallery, museum, and cabinet of wonders. When I saw this hanging from a display screen I snatched it right up and now it's mine all mine, whoopee! I'm not even taking it off to sleep. (okay, that might have been an exaggeration.) She has others too that she hasn't listed on etsy so I'm nagging her to get busy.

Lastly, I want to tell you that this book came in the mail 2 days ago and it is a real gem. Bee has included just about every collage technique there is in this book. If you want to get a taste of what she's put together go to this blog and look in on what the women there have created from the chapters. I wish this had been the first book on collage I'd ever purchased as it has about 6 books worth of ideas to inspire you.

Well, tomorrow I throw clothes, art supplies, cameras, myself and lots of diet pop in the car and head up north to be with friends for the coming weekend. We will be honoring a friend as well as painting and catching up on our winter stories. Women talking. What could be warmer or juicier?

BTW, here's what a card said that John gave to me.

     "I just don't like to see you waste your time on silly things" he said
     "Well then," she said, "close your eyes".

hee hee.

"The greatest enemy of creativity is common sense"      --Picasso

Now I'm off to dream of my car trip. xo