DLP Week 14 and 15

I find if I don't take the time I just don't get around capturing the story for each of my DLP pages! Work has been extremely busy, and distracting, but things are slowing down and there is a light at the end of the tunnel to which I say HURRAH!!!!! I can get back to things I really like to do. AND there are lots of little projects planned for Maple Hill again this summer (more on that later)... 

DLP Week 14 was all about water colours - not something I do much with. 

In fact I think I forced it to work like acrylics - but it worked. 

The prompt was "water under the bridge" - frankly I have found most of the prompts rather "heavy" so I have chosen to reinterpret or just go my own way altogether.... I enlarged an ATC I made a few years back and incorporated it into my page.

Week 15 was acrylics - now that I can get into. I recently took a walk in a nearby park and came across a lovely patch of pussywillows - just love them. 

And they always remind me of one of my favorite Gordon Lightfoot songs. 

So did my own interpretation - and it had no connection with the prompt "cry me a river" lol except to say I am crying tears of joy that Spring is finally here!!! My first daffodil finally bloomed (and yes it's April 18th!!!). Enjoy, Jewels

DLP 2015 Week 10 - Doodling

March Theme - Making your Mark (Doodles and Mark Making)
Art Challenge:As a Layer Element
Journal Prompt: Surviving the Elements

Hmmmmm

Okay so having a very short attention span I got overly focused on one word - doodle - and that just set me off. I probably should have read things more carefully but that's okay. All I know is that I seem to recall I flunked Zentangles so was curious to know if I was going to figure this one out LOL.

I had actually found instructions on taking a picture and doodling on it for an ATC in Bernie Berlin's book Artist Trading Card Workshop. I found this picture and thought I could do something with all those polka dots. By the way, did you hear that polka dots were in fashion this summer..but I digress.

So I started with the background - layers of paint, stenciling and my, ahem, doodles....

I then added her in and started painting and doodling some more.

So here it is - bring Week 11 on as this one is DONE! Enjoy. Jewels

DLP 2015 Week 9 - High Five For the Birds

Well this past weeks challenge was Using at Least Five Layers (check)and the Journal Prompt Give Me High Five (mmmmmm not so much lol).

Are you like me? I have an idea bubbling (sometimes multiple) and it never ends up the way I started! I do know that I wanted to create layers using tags and I landed on a bird theme. I started with creating the tags.

This is such an easy thing to do - I think I found the original instructions on the Michaels website. Just crunch up your paper...

Smudge ink all over it - I use the Distressed Ink walnut all the time - just like the colour - and then spritz with water. 

I never stop at the first layer - I actually repeated the process 3 times to get it to the colour I wanted. Then I added layers of cyan ink, light magenta acrylic paint and stamping with black ink  (you might be able to see the music notes...). I then ironed to flatten out...
Once that was done I started building layers for the background. Paper, acrylic paint (used one of my new Master of the Arts tools from Walmart for the green streaks which I love), stencils and stamps using the walnut ink...spritz some orange acrylic paint to make it pop...

This could have been the "cover the good stuff" challenge - 
I quite liked it as is...

Dipped into my vintage papers for the birds and the old Arm and Hammer Beautiful Flowers cards - they actually came all cut up but I think they work - found over at Gathering Dust...

I also used the music stamp for the border...

Wish the colours were more true in the photo - but this will do (I am filling my Cloud with bad pics LOL - need to go clean out)...Looking forward to March's new theme and challenges. Enjoy! Jewels

DLP2015 Week 8 - Repeat, Repeat, BULLSEYE

I ran three different approaches through my head for this weeks DLP Challenge:
Art Challenge: Repeating Elements
Journal Prompt: It's Worth Repeating

Finally settled on the use of circles and squares. I had come across this circle technique last year thanks to Mary Brack.

Not thrilled with my initial background but I had "committed" so time to make lemonade!

Here are the circle incorporated into my layout...

I found this Amazon Woman image ages ago and sadly can not give credit for source. She made me think of the bulls eye looking at all those circles LOL.

So here it is - neither love it or hate it. On to next week. Enjoy. Jewels

DLP 2015 Week 7 - Cover the Good Stuff

Can you believe we are half way through February already! Holy smokes... Anyway, the challenge this week was Cover Up Good Stuff and the prompt was Going Undercover...I have to say I was not thrilled with this week's challenge. But I think that is to be expected. We are not all going to like every week. The funny thing is - I quite unintentionally ended up doing it anyway lol.

You can see my background which I actually quite liked (ignore the orange leaf - I was experimenting :)  ). I used one of those round plastic scrubbers for cleaning dishes to get the scratched effect using gesso mixed with acrylic paint. Lots of stamping and painting.  (Sorry about all my pics - none are spot on with the real colour)

I've been pulling pages from my old magazines and found this one in McCalls. What's amazing is that it was painted in 1502 by Albrecht Durer. I got inspired to frame him in a vintage picture frame so he covers a good chunk of my nice background. The “tree” beside him is packing material. 

Yes that is the title of a chapter from an old science book. They were covering how the brain of animals work (or at least how they thought it did back in the 1930s LOL).

In the background you can see “asemic writing” (google it) that Leslie introduced me to last year. I like to believe he is thinking too himself about his next meal, the wily fox chasing him, whether or not I can see him :). Great for filling in space and good practice for a couple of postcards I am working on for a swap with Jo and Lenna.

I was going for the effect of deep in the forest by a stream with light dabbling through. Not sure if I quite got it but it was a lot of messy fun….and pretty sure I am going to regret that button when I start next week’s page!

DLP 2015 Weeks 5 (What Lies Beneath) and 6 (LAYERS)

oops forgot to post last week - oh well, I am showing off on Facebook and Flickr so I think most of my peeps have seen these via other channels LOL...

Week 5 challenge was to use "under papers" on your journal pages. Tried a few things and practiced my "writing". 

I really did not have any so used a colorful left over baby wipe instead - that's the background of my ooh la la miss. 

She is a "play" on the theme "What lies Beneath". :)
Week 6 and a new month. 

February Theme
Layers You Will Love!
February 7
Art Challenge:  When Not To Stop
Journal Prompt:  "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough!" (Ooh)

I had several ideas until I finally settled on doing a "grunge" layer look this week. I found her in a 1950's life magazine and used the acrylic paint transfer technique from McElroy and Wilson book Image Transfer Workshop (see other examples here and here). She really turned out quite well - it is one of those techniques you just never know if it will work! 

I thought the old Victorian card matched well and I really did not want to do any writing this week ...

All in all another pretty good week for DLP! Enjoy. Jewels

DLP 2015 - Week 4 - Friends

This week’s DLP Art Challenge: Writing and our Prompt: Words with Friends

As soon as I saw it I knew what I wanted do. I have made so many lovely friends over the last five years via social media – it has been amazing and I appreciate every single one of you.

 

Two, however, are absolute “besties” and they are who I had in mind when I wrote my little ditty (I have to laugh, I just finished telling Jo I was not the touchie feelie type and then go write this sniffer about her and Lenna lol). Of course I was supposed to “write” on my journal page – dah -  I should pay closer attention to the challenge details…Oh well, I like the old typewriter font for this piece.

 Source: Flickr Mike at Vintage Ladies

And of course being DLP I challenged myself to do something totally different and out of my comfort zone. I recently purchased Dina Wakley’s Art Journal Courage and got inspired (I think there is too much pushing of specific product lines but if you can ignore all of that you will learn a lot).

I followed her instructions (page 72 to be specific just so you know) and pulled every stencil I own out (I don’t have many) to try. I have a “test” journal where I experiment with new techniques before I commit them to my DLP journal pages – sure glad I did for this one (yes, almost had a similar “blob” disaster as last week and learned you DON’T need a lot of Payne’s Grey paint – a little drop will do ya).

Half Way Through the Layers

SO many things going on in terms of layers upon layers and different application techniques. I particularly liked painting the surface than placing a stencil on top and removing paint with a baby wipe for a different effect (but I have decided I need to find a way to “go green” as I am generating too much waste – any suggestions? And yes I do plan to recycle some of the more colorful wipes into other work).

The hearts are a piece of scrapbooking paper with adhesive backing that I painted blue…neat texture.

While my picture is vintage, I still think it works with the crazy background. Enjoy. Jewels 

DLP2015 - Week 3 - Colour

This week's art challenge The Color Wheel with the journal prompt: "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way . . ."  
- Georgia O’Keeffe.

It all started well enough - I went back to  free tutorials from a wonderful artist Terri Kahrs for building up my base. I loved how it turned out and considered many different options for my main graphics. 

But sadly I flubbed BIG TIME...so much so I was ready to pack it in until I found this page in a Flow magazine. It made me stop and think - I COULD make it work. I actually used it instead of the O'Keeffe quote. 

However, as they say in the land in Oz, don't look behind the curtain LOL. Fortunately no one will ever see the messy blob behind it :)

I remembered a free tutorial from one of the DLP ladies (Sandi Keene) on how to make Deli Paper Flowers...

And this is how it all turned out - seriously, not at ALL what I initially planned (my idea and actual execution just did not jive this week). Oh well - it was bound to happen but I recovered okay I think. Enjoy. Jewels.

DLP2015 - Week 2 - Beginning

Here we are with Week 2 of the Documented Life Project. This week's art challenge is Gesso and the prompt is a quote: “The beginning is always today.” -Mary Shelley. 

We were not required to use the quote in our creation and, to be honest, I have had a great philosopher, Carole King (lol) singing in my head for quite some time now....

I was a teenager in the 70's and must have worn my Tapestry album out - loved her music and still do. I have had the lyrics to Beautiful in my head for awhile and this seemed like the opportunity to use it. 

There is a Carole King musical on Broadway called Beautiful right now - that would be amazing to see.

In the background you can see how I used gesso to create a stencil pattern. Acrylic paints (sadly you can't really see how the gold glows) on top and some stamping and pen work.

The facing page has a sun picture from one of my old magazines. I think next time I will try to be more brave and actually draw/paint an image myself - I have a whole year of challenges to try that out! Looking forward to Saturday's next prompt. Enjoy. Jewels

DLP2015 - Week 1 - Jump

I am doing the Documented Life Project 2015 to try some new things. There is a theme per month and then a weekly challenge. Here is what it is for the first week of the year....
January Theme
The Blank Page and How to Face It!
January 1
Art Challenge: Book Paper
Journal Prompt: Be Your Own Goal Keeper

To get over the blank page this week it was suggested we start by gluing pieces of paper for our background and then go from there. 

I decided to keep it REAL simple with just one goal - JUMP into my art this year - take lots of risks and try new things.

I used acrylic paints, stamps, floral tissue paper (from the Dollar store). The idea for my word came from Carolyn Dube's FREE tutorial - Use Your Words...

My young lady is from one of my vintage 1960's McCalls. I wanted it to be bright and colourful. I may go back and do some journal writing - but then again maybe not...Enjoy Jewels...