Life is beautiful!

Color, color, color!!!  

It was time to try some new bold colors.  I have never been a huge fan of the color yellow.  But after watching several tutorials where yellow was paired with a teal/turquoise and even hot pink, it looks really good.  So, I decided to give it a go!  I had found some yellow, well Cadium Yellow Dark Hue to be exact, at Tuesday Morning and wanted to try it. 

I made a mountain stencil out of an old cereal box and painted the mountains the color Hawaii.  I then outlined those in the yellow color. I painted the top with a mix of Neon Pink and Neon Orange and some of the yellow.  The colors are so vibrant!

Anyone remember my smoosh page where I wipe all of my excess paint on? Well, it was going to be put to use! 

I cut out my own shapes from the pretty paint smooshes and made flowers and stems.

I added some more details and some scribbles here and there.  It was a ton of fun, but I didn't take pictures for every step. Sorry!

Voila, life is beautiful!!!

Making my own!

I decided I wanted to try and make my own art journal.  Art journals can be on the pricey side, depending on the size and brand that you buy.  I bought the large Dylusions journals and they are normally priced $24.99, but I had found it on sale for 50% off on Amazon! I bought this Artist's Loft watercolor pad at Michaels for 40% (weekly coupon) of $6.49.  Much cheaper.

I ripped out the sheets and trimmed off the gum edge.  I then folded them all in half.  I took 3 folded sheets and put them together to create my signatures.  The definition of signatures, in regards to book binding is "one unit of a book comprising a group of printed sheets that are folded and stitched together".  I ended up with 7 signatures of 3 half folded sheets each.

I took some old cereal boxes and cut two of them down to the size that I wanted.   I didn't have any sandpaper, so I took the cereal box piece outside and scrapped it on the concrete to rough it up.  I was improvising! 

I then tacky glued them together, with the rough one on the outside.

I covered it in gesso...

  and then painted it white.

I have seen several different ways to bind the signatures together, but I was going for something simple. 

I took embroidery floss in different colors and did a simple stitch down the middle of the page. I think it's called a running stitch. 

I chose black, purple, white and turquoise.  

I tore up dictionary pages and glued them down on my cover.

I used my palette knife and spatula and painted a ton of different colors on my cover.  I started with the darkest colors and then worked my way up.

I used some of my handmade stamps, bubble wrap and my new onion skin stencil and completed it.   It is super bold and bright and messy, but I really do love it!

I found an easy tutorial showing how to use twine (or any type of string) to bind my signatures to the cover.  I measured out enough blue twine to go around the spine 7 times for each signature, with enough length on each end to tie it off.

I simply wrapped it tightly around the spine 7 times.  You have to make sure you do not overlap the twine, but lay them side by side.

I then slipped one end of the twine under the pieces and tied it off with the opposite end.  

You then take your signatures and one by one slide them under each of the strings.  

This is what the top of the journal looks like with all of the signatures in.  With this method, it is not necessary to stitch your signatures together, but I had already done it, so it just helps to hold them together.

Here is a top view of all the signatures bound in the journal.

I am really pleased with how it turned out. I now  have an extra smaller journal!  The cover measures 7 inches wide by 9 1/2 inches tall and the pages are 6 inches wide by 9 inches tall.

I might have to figure out a way to attach a ribbon in the middle to keep it closed, but for now it works!

Genesis

Once again, I'm putting myself out there in my art experiences and trying something new!!!  I wanted to draw and then paint a face!

YouTube is my go-to place for learning new techniques.  I watched several videos on how to draw faces and then paint them.  My two favorites  are Dina Wakley's video on how to draw a face
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2YwcmFTd8g
and Tamara Laporte of Willowing's video on how to draw and paint a face.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV6vsqMl9JU&index=5&list=LLbXd40EdpkdhNGG7VrCuKRw

I had drawn a face 2 other times and was learning to improve my technique.  Again, it's a learn as you go process! 

I am going to be posting tons of pictures, so please bear with me.

I used a 12x12 piece of cardboard and covered it in gesso. I used a regular pencil and drew out her face and then used my watercolor pencil to shade  her face.

 

 

I thought her eyes were too close together, so I changed them a bit.

I used flesh colored paint and painted her face.  I used neon pink, white and red mixed together to paint her lips.  I used white to paint her eyes.

I am loving a good turquoise color right now, so I used Island Green to paint her eyes.

I then used Coral for the darker shaded areas of her face.

When I started off drawing a face, I wasn't really sure how she was going to turn out, so I didn't want to do it in my art journal, in case I messed up!  After seeing how she was coming along and being pleased with the results, I was sad she wasn't in my journal!  I was sharing her with my best friend, Shelby, and she told me I could figure out some way to affix her in my journal.  

I had the brilliant, if I don't say so myself, idea to cut her face out and glue it on my journal page.  I wasn't thrilled with how thick her neck looked, so it also gave me the opportunity to trim her neck down! LOL!

This is after I had glued her down.  

I drew her hair out and was ready to paint that in.  Well, she sat for a few days like this, because I wasn't sure how I wanted to do her hair. 

Now, I have to admit something here... I have always wanted to do some purple color in my own hair!!!!!  The bravest I have gotten is going ginger (red)!  So, I decided to live vicariously through my girl! ;)

Since purple is one of my favorite colors, I have at least 5 different colors of purple paint in my collection.  I used them all!  

I even added some neon pink, white and glitter purple!  I wanted to add some more fun, so I did a streak of the Island Green color that I used to paint her eyes.

I took some dictionary pages and ripped them up and covered the white space at the top of the two pages.  

I then took white paint and my brayer and ran it over the dictionary pages.  I also finger painted some white where I thought it needed more.

I then used my new Crafter's Workshop 6x6 butterfly stencil to make this gorgeous thing.  I sponged the black on and then did the two sides in Island Green and Neon Pink colors.  The paint seeped under the stencil and messed up the pattern some, but I still love how it turned out.

I wrote the Bible verse Proverbs 31:25 on the edge of her hair.  I used a white gel pen, but it wasn't dark enough so I went over it with a white-out pen from the dollar store.

I purposely chose the dictionary pages with strength and dignity on them and made those stand out right above those two words!

Here is a close up of her face.

I decided to name her Genesis, because Genesis means the origin of something or a beginning.  She was my first face to ever paint, so she was my beginning.  ;) 

Thanks for reading!