More Mail Art!

Moving day is less than 5 days away. Almost everything is in boxes, but I keep delaying sealing them up so that I can keep painting! We’re moving into deep clean mode now – cleaning out cupboards, washing down paintwork and stuff like that. I ache all over from all the unaccustomed exercise!

I think I may be getting addicted to painting on recycled padded envelopes! They are so much fun, plus they’re about the only things I can find to paint on at the moment! After the move I’ll have loads of recycled cardboard – but for now I’m really enjoying my mail art.

I began by adding some “Fragile” tape to the envelope to get it started, then added lots of layers of acrylic paint with my fingers. I originally intended to use ink pads to do my stamping, but they are packed too deep for me to get to them right now, so I used some more acrylic paint on my homemade stamps. I finished off by adding a bit of drippage – very watered down acrylic paint. I’m not sure if it’s totally finished yet, but it felt like the right place to stop for now.

Mail Art!

I’m never quite sure what qualifies as ‘Mail Art’. Does it have to be something you make to send through the post, or can it be recycling something that has already been sent through the post? I’m sure someone will enlighten me, but in the meantime, I’m calling what I created today ‘Mail Art’!

We received it in the mail a couple of days ago when it contained some computer memory for a computer Bry is currently repairing. Knowing my acquisitive habits, he gave it to me for recycling. I originally intended to put it with my collection of padded envelopes, but it never got that far. It’s been sitting in a pile on my desk, and this evening when I was wanting to paint something small, it seemed the obvious choice of canvas.

I decorated it using acrylic paint applied with my fingers and an assortment of my recycled ‘stamps’ (sequin waste, old cards, creamer sealers, washers, etc). I finished it off using the waste from a die-cut alphabet as a stencil. I really like how it turned out – maybe I’ll re-use it as an envelope now it’s finished!

Fairytale Blending

Whenever I create anything, I take scans of my work through all its stages, so that I can use the images for backgrounds and texture in future work. Today I took two of those intemediate scans of my last two projects and played digital blending with them.

I think the result looks like the background of a fairytale story, and can imagine lots of quirky characters running around in the image. I might just print it out and have a go at adding some of them to it. What do you think?

Finally Finished!

At Last, I have finally finished last weeks Life Book 2013 lesson!

For the final touch I added the Thich Nhat Hanh quotation using die-cut letters.

Now I’m off to pack some more boxes!

More Layers!

I managed a few more layers last night and was hoping to add some text today but somehow the time eluded me! So here’s the next instalment…

… first I added some layers of acrylic paint and some stencilling…

… then I collaged my meditating lady after painting her using acrylic paint and a die-cut dragonfly. It’s taking awhile, but I’m pleased with how it’s looking so far. Hopefully I’ll manage to finish it tomorrow!

Now I’m off to the shops to get some more boxes! Keep watching!

More Boxes!

As moving day approaches it’s getting more and more difficult to do much artwork as little by little my supplies are disappearing into more boxes! As you can see… the piles of boxes are growing nicely …

… but the artwork is not keeping up!

This is the first collage layer for last week’s Life Book 2013 class from Jeanette House. I’m hoping to get some more layers done later tonight – if I can find all the supplies I want to use!

Keep watching this space!

Blending Summer Feet!

The last few times I’ve been out, I’ve been snapping pictures of summer feet…. and true to form – I wondered what they’d look like if I played a spot of digital blending with them.

I took two of my photographs, added an artwork scan and whizzled the blending buttons. I rather like the result – what do you think?

I Begin…

The 1st of August has arrived bringing with it the start of Effy’s challenge to blogalong with her for 30 days in August. There’s still time to join in if you haven’t already, just click on the link below.

Being a little slow off the mark, I have just decided to join in Effy’s Inner Excavate Along where she is going through Liz Lamoreux’s book Inner Excavation. Effy has nearly finished, but I’m just starting …. O well as Effy says, I own the book so I can work through it whenever I like :).

Anyhow… after reading all the ideas and suggestions in chapter 1, I decided to create a word poem using a few of the words on the pages of my recycled journal. Originally I thought I’d add some joining words between the words on the page, but on reflection, I decided that would be overkill and have bravely left them stark and suggestive. I hope you like them.

I started out by very careful covering the words I wanted to use in masking fluid. Once that was dry, I covered the pages with a thick layer of gesso, then started adding layers of acrylic paint, stencilling and stamping. When I was happy with the result, I carefully peeled off the masking fluid to reveal the words, then added my theme ‘I Begin…’ using die cut letters.

I’m off to see what everyone else has been up to now. See you tomorrow!

Finished Page!

At last all the layers have dried and it’s safe to scan the finished page.

I love how the finished page turned out, and I had such fun making it. The only tricky part was managing the wet media on the thin pages of my new journal, but I managed that by starting with a thickish layer of white gesso and using the acrylic paint with a dry brush. What I love is that you can still see some of the original pages through the layers in places!

Just for a change my ‘ingredients’ list is quite short! I started with white gesso, added layers of acrylic paint, and stamped using various clear and homemade stamps with a staz-on ink pad and some distress ink pads. I printed the quotation onto plain white copy paper then cut out the letters by hand, leaving me with a stencil affect. I coloured this using distress ink pads, then stuck it to the page using a glue stick. Lastly I added some more acrylic paint using an assortment of household items!

Mixed Media Madness!

I’ve been working on a mixed media piece in my new journal for the last couple of days and experimenting with the camera on my iPhone as well.

Inspired by this post from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, I spent a while cutting out this quotation to use on my new page.

After I’d finished the cutting out, I downloaded the Snapseed app and took this photograph to play with on my new app!

Today I was working on the background, and scanned in the different stages to use as future collage material. As is often the case, I got sidetracked into doing some digital blending 🙂

This is the result – pretty colourful, yes? You’ll have to wait till tomorrow to see the finished page as the final layer is still drying at the moment!