Novel Approach - Part 1

Fun fun fun…I am half way through all of Tammy Garcia’s (aka Daisy Yellow of ICAD fame) Novel Approach workshop (still time to sign up if you are interested – see badge on my sidebar).

Being untypically non-conformist (definitely out of my anal comfort zone – I even told Jo this was going to be TOUGH for me), I have been hopping through the classes and not doing them in any particular order. I will definitely go back and do them all – seeing a lot of creative stuff from other participants that is providing inspiration. Let me share what I’ve done so far (sorry, can’t share actual techniques in respect to the instructor, who, by the way, has done a fantastic job – one of the better online classes I’ve taken).

There was some pre-work including the creation of an Inspiration Board. I chose to make mine portable recycling the end board of a large water paper pad. It’s been carried around a few rooms since the class started! If nothing else I wanted to be COLOURFUL and mostly RETRO (my two favorite go to zones). 

And then the fun began – we are working in old repurposed books (hence “novel”). Over the years, I have taken several runs at prepping books but never got to the next step. I know I will be going back to some of those and arting in them now that I have taken this class. Plus I liked Tammy’s prepping instructions. This was my first spread using a cool  background technique.

That was it – I was hooked lol. My next spread involved a song lyric (from Chris Stapleton – Traveller album – highly recommend) and a cool use of those letters you find in the hardware store to stick on your mailbox. If nothing else, I’ve been able to dip into my heaps and heaps of retro pictures. 

This next spread was a simple collage – a warm up for other exercises to come. Pick a theme (gee, wonder what mine was) and get to it – of course I had to include a copy of my drawing of dear Mr. Darcy. 

This “rainbow blend” was not exactly executed as taught but I am quite happy with the results. And I really was singing Gliddy Glup Gloopy while I was creating it. 

My most current spread is from a class called Spaced Out – it was about circles and blending. Again, like most of my classmates, I took Tammy’s original spark and made it my own. I have to say this is probably my favorite so far (though so were the first four lol).

This close up is now the desktop background on my work computer – it gets a few comments.

Still have prism, design a café, word collage and more to get through. I am trying to be spontaneous but I have to say every time I have a break at work I am thinking about how I will interpret the next assignment (and what I need to go look for in those heaps and heaps of paper, argh….!).

I’ve learned ever so much and enjoyed every minute of it – as well as everyone else’s work – hurrah! Enjoy. Jewels.