dlp2015 week 15 acrylics

Ok, finally back to a medium I'm comfortable with. Started with a painty piece of under-paper, did my usual collage, paint, doodle thing and wound up with a page I like. What a surprise. Found some nonsense words I liked and stitched them on, then glued the whole thing to my journal page.

In case it isn't obvious, or maybe I forgot to explain, I'm doing dlp2015 on individual sheets of heavy watercolor paper 9"w x 6"t. Tore 9x12 sheets in half. Left edge has two holes to fit into a little binder thing I have. Will put them all in when done and have a dlp2015 book. wa-la

The watery triangles are a stamp I made, using watered down black
acrylic to stamp with. Love the softness as opposed to the hard
edges of a stamp done with an ink stamp pad.

dlp2015 13 & 14

Still catching up posting my dlp2015 pages so here's a couple more.

The prompt was to make a custom element. I have boxes of family
photos that I'm determined to use up before I croak, so I tore my mom
out of a set of studio shots she had done when she was 20 or so,
around 1944, cut some strips of gelli print in my fave colors,
found some pearl cotton and made an element. The background is
black gesso, which is so wonderfully, emphatically *BLACK*.

The technique was watercolors. I did quite a bit of stamping with
ink that turned out not to be waterproof. Oops. But then I kinda
got into it and encouraged the drips with more watercolor paint.
This one is dark and weird and isn't on my top ten list.

a (clean) joke!

Found this when cleaning up my puter and still think it's pretty funny. I take no credit for thinking it up, but also have no idea where I got it. Someplace in the interwebs...

A woman brought a very limp duck into a veterinary surgeon. As she laid her pet on the table, the vet pulled out his stethoscope and listened to the bird's chest. 

After a moment or two, the vet shook his head and sadly said, "I'm sorry, your duck, Cuddles, has passed away." 

The distressed woman wailed, "Are you sure?" 

"Yes, I am sure. Your duck is dead," replied the vet.

"How can you be so sure?" she protested. "I mean you haven't done any testing on him or anything. He might just be in a coma or something." 

The vet rolled his eyes, turned around and left the room. He returned a few minutes later with a black Labrador retriever. As the duck's owner looked on in amazement, the dog stood on his hind legs, put his front paws on the examination table and sniffed the duck from top to bottom. He then looked up at the vet with sad eyes and shook his head. 

The vet patted the dog on the head and took it out of the room. A few minutes later he returned with a cat. The cat jumped on the table and also delicately sniffed the bird from head to foot. The cat sat back on its haunches, shook its head, meowed softly and strolled out of the room. 

The vet looked at the woman and said, "I'm sorry, but as I said, this is most definitely, 100% certifiably, a dead duck." 

The vet turned to his computer terminal, hit a few keys and produced a bill, which he handed to the woman.

The duck's owner, still in shock, took the bill. "$150!" she cried, "$150 just to tell me my duck is dead?" 

The vet shrugged, "I'm sorry. If you had just taken my word for it, the bill would have been $20, but with the Lab Report and the Cat Scan, it's now $150."   

21 secrets 2015 Roxanne Coble

I bought 21 Secrets a few years ago when it was only $59 or so. Now it's $98, which still isn't a ton of money for 21 classes, but I didn't even go look at the class line up this time since I had enough classes to work on. Then I started seeing pictures in the 21 Secrets FB group of work coming out of Fragments & Mysteries, Roxanne Coble's workshop. I was fascinated, and finally swallowed the hook and bought the workshop.

Glad I did because I never would have figured out the layers by myself. I've finished 1 spread and have 3 more in progress. Very interesting way of working. The theory is that you study your painted/collaged page to find fragments that speak to you. That didn't happen for me on this one, but I'm sort of not surprised as I am not one to find hidden meaning in *anything*.

Anyway, here's my finished first spread. As I'm writing this in blogger, I'm positioning the two pictures side by side, like a spread. But by the time you see it on whatever platform you use, they may be one above the other. In any case, left hand page is 1st, right hand page 2nd.

I like the colors a lot, and the doodling was a workout. Will keep this way of working in my bag of tricks because it suits my "plan? what plan?" way of doing things.

cardboard crush class (lots of pics!)

As I've mentioned before, I like Roben Marie's style. Her colors, doodles, projects, etc, all appeal to me, so I didn't have to ponder too longer before signing up for her Cardboard Crush class. To watch the promo vid and/or sign up for the class, go to Art to the 5th. The workshops are listed down the right side.

Each instructor makes their own version of this booklet/folder thing. Of course I did Roben Marie's version first. The substrate is just a chunk of corrugated cardboard box. The first 6 pics are process photos, taken as I was making the cover. The rest of the pics have details beneath. I'm using it as a birthday card holder, with little flaps of paper, one for each month, with birthdays written on the back of the appropriate month to remind me, and a pocket to hold cards.

The finished folder. I used an old shank button attached
on the inside thru a smaller button so it won't tear thru
the cardboard with use.

The back.

Partially open, showing the pocket to hold cards.

The inside, with a paper flap for each month with birthdays
written on the back, and a pocket to hold cards.

A better look at the month flaps.

Bottom corner of my pocket. I wanted it to have more depth
than the one in the instructions so winged it by folded up a piece
of gelli printed card stock. Works great.

Wa-la!

dlp2015 weeks 11 & 12

I see that March 13 was my last post. I do so much on Instagram now - which also loads to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr (which I don't even know how to log into anymore but still collecting followers lol), and Flickr - that coming over here to write about it feels like a bit of an afterthought. But I'm not ready to quit blogging yet, so I'll do some catching up.

I'm still on track with doing the pages each week, just behind in blogging about them. I love that DLP2015 is completely free and has a lot of fun vids. While they are not step by step tutorials, it's always neat to watch someone else use the same supplies you have sitting around, and I often come away with something new to try or a reminder of a technique I'd forgotten about. So, thanks! Roben Marie and Art to the 5th ladies!!

There are sorts of interpretations of "borders" but, as usual,
I chose the most literal and made borders around my page.
I think I had visions of quilt-type borders, but alas,
I ended up with this, my least fave page so far. gack

On to "focus". I wanted a main element on the page that would
be the focal point. Doodling doesn't come naturally to me
but I worked at it and wound up with this. Like the colors
and I guess I like the page well enough.