quilted pods

I collaged gelli papers into my journal and then drew on top. I want to try Julie's method of printing directly into the journal and then drawing on top. 

Here is a little mini cloth experiment with the pods. I used Dyno paints and then quilted everything with black thread. 

gelli print envelopes

OMG I really got busy doing these envelopes with my new baby sized gelli plates, the 5 x 7 and

the 3 x 4 which is so cute by the way.  I printed 100 envelopes! Can't wait to use them with my atc trading group. I tried to do the address side a little lighter so I could write on them, but I will probably have to use stickers anyway.

You know what else I really love? Fluorescent paints. I got some cheap Blickrylic quarts of all the fluorescent colors. I am using them also with my paintings. Yummy.

Coffee Outside

I forgot to tell you what this became. It was a pillow I made for my son's girlfriend. They are part of a group that goes for bike rides and has "coffee outside". They make the coffee wherever they ride. So for her birthday I made her a coffee outside pillow. I forgot to take a picture of the completed project! It came out really cute. I printed all the fabric with stencils and I forget the sprays and paints.

 Opaque water colors! While I was painting I was thinking wow these paints are really pigmented and then I researched my order from dickblick's and realized they were opaque! I love how they cover. This is called Two Suns.

Two Suns, detail

Here is a piece made with the gelli deli paper background collage papers on a 12" x 12" canvas.

Again, Stephanie Corfee's (http://stephaniecorfee.com/) class called "Layers of Color" has highly influenced my style for the moment. I have always been a manic doodler and she is a master of this, but now I am kind of trying to harness it and am still on a quest to develop my own style. 

It reminds me of a certain kind of folk art.

Now to clean up and start sewing!!!

Pod Alert!

 I worked on this page a long time today. Another one influenced by my class with Stephanie Corfee.

 My favorite pod is the bottom right side. Go to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday blog http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/#  to see many more creative people.

 Can you say gelli deli paper? Yesterday and the day before I made about 250 sheets on my giant gelli plate (the big one). You are not kidding when you start gelli printing, YOU CANNOT STOP. In an effort to be efficient I printed in colorways: blues, reds, purples, greens, yellow/gold/browns, etc. 

There was some overlap of course but I wound up with a huge stack of collage ready material.

 And here I am collaging some of that gelli paper on to a 12" x 12" canvas.

 I find it easier to make a colorful background with collage than with acrylic paint, although I did use some paint on top of my collages as well.

Some samples of the gelli deli papers. SO. MUCH. FUN. TO. PRINT.

I will post some art with the collaged papers soon.
All week I have wanted to get my sewing machine out, but I can't stop painting and printing! Next week, for sure! I really mean it.

These new paintings are really little, maybe 5" x 7". I used my Twinkling H2o's which are highly pigmented water colors with mica so they can be highly reflective and iridescent depending on the mica content. I used Joanne Fink's zen doodle book on flowers for some of the designs. Watercolors are so much more forgiving than acrylics which I feel very frustrated with at the moment.  But I'm not giving up on them! Yet!

Art Journal Pages

This page has been worked on over and over again. I think I am probably done now.

 I collaged an overseas envelope with cool stamps and one of those plastic circle closures with a string. You have to look kind of closely to see it, but its there.

 This little do dad is a piece of elastic with embellishment that I sewed together to hold the journal closed.

Summer is almost here!

. . . . and there will be more time for doing this!

I have two more days with my students and then 1 more day of meetings, and then I am free!