going postal

THESE ARE RHONDA'S

An upcoming MMSA swap is postal themed ATCs. When Rhonda came to visit for the day, we pretty much had no idea what we were going to work on so she just brought a bunch of supplies.

We always spend a lot of time showing each other new blogs we've found, or new/cool/usefull sites (instapaper!!)  and running our mouths about whatever we've been up to since we last got together. (She's been to Alaska and Oregon. I've been exactly nowhere except to work and back.)

AND THESE ARE MINE

But we finally got around to doing some art and one of the things we did was make postal ATCs for the swap. I scored several packs of ATC watercolor blanks for a quarter a pack in some closeout bin or other so we used those.

Rhonda immediately put a lot of color on hers while I glued Italian book text to mine. I have a bunch of postal theme rubber stamps and lots of used postage stamps (remember that yard sale?), plus some postage info pages from an old Almanac so between all that we had a lot of stuff to use.

You can *so* see our art styles reflected in our respective ATCs. Anyone who knew us a bit could tell whose was whose at a glance.

black sheep digital collage

This morning Rhonda posted a couple freebie backgrounds and the bottom one appealed to me so I downloaded it, opened Elements 11 and went to work.

Actually, after all the blending and overlays I did, it looks(quite) a bit different, but you can tell it's the same one.

Didn't have much of a plan other than something fun, so I used a couple goofy bodies from the Woot collection at Deviant Scrap, a couple faces from I have no idea, and a bunch of other misc things.

These two obviously don't really fit in with their more 'normal' family in the old photo so when I came across the 'black sheep' text, I had my title.

Waddaya think, Rhonda? Looks pretty cool, huh!

Double click to embiggen and really see the details.

artist date with Rhonda (and Roben-Marie)

Rhonda came over for the day and we made art!

Roben-Marie inspired art, to be specific.

I've long admired her style - the countless layers, the colors, the shapes, the doodles - but it's not a style that comes naturally to me. At all.

So we sat down at the computer, dialed up Roben-Marie's blog, studied several of her pieces closely, then proceeded to do our own take on her unique style. These are on 9"x12" watercolor paper.

Very fun. It wasn't a quick process and it looked like a bomb went off in my studio by the time we were done rampaging thru all my stuff looking for just the right stamp/stencil/ink/marker etc, but it was a lot of fun and I really like my pages.

I like the bottom one best overall but there are parts of the top one that I love, such as the flower on the right edge. Looking at it on my screen as I type, it looks dimensional. Also like the 3 circles along the left side.

The bottom one is more in my color comfort zone and I like that the chevrons are in smaller chunks and that the white scallops turn corners.

Next time I'll pay more attn to doing things in threes than I did this time. It's bugging me now, looking at some of the elements that I only did twice (lookin at YOU, red circles).

Also don't like that my big curve sorta looks like it's supposed to be a stem for the flower (it isn't) but that I missed getting it lined up lol.

 Anyway, tons of fun. Thanks, Rhonda!

freebie gelli prints

For those of you who may not yet have a gelli plate, or who have one but still lust for more art fodder anyway - here are some more gelli prints.

They were all made on Easter Sunday when Rhonda came to play for the day. Today was all about stencils and layers.

Hi-res scans, free for you to do with what you will. Just don't sell them.

painting colors challenge

I forget exactly how we got started on this but we decided to choose a famous painting and do something with the colors in it. After looking at way too many paintings, we chose The Luncheon of the Boating Party by Renoir. The book by the same name is a fictionalized account of how it came to be painted and is a fun read.

Rhonda stopped by Home Depot one day and grabbed a bunch of paint chips, then we narrowed it down to 5 colors, plus black and white.

Then we ground to a halt and neither of us did anything with it for a couple months, mainly because we hadn't set enough guidelines, I think. When she was here on Sunday, we decided simply to each do a journal page in those colors.

I was in the mood this evening after our early lamb chop dinner and got mine done. Scraped blue paint with a credit card for the background. Dug thru my box of misc collage stuff for mulberry paper in a couple of the colors, found a quote I liked, some eyes, a few 1" punched circles and went to work.

Someone whose blog I follow (too lazy to go look thru the list of 80 blogs) uses quinacridone / nickel azo gold to great effect in their work, so while at Michael's the other day, I picked up a bottle. It wasn't marked, but the large bottle was $20 so I knew it wouldn't be cheap. Got to the register, the girl scans the little 1oz bottle and exclaims, "Oh my god! It must be marked wrong!"

No, I said, it's just very expensive and handed her my 50% off coupon. So far I've used about 3 drops of it here and there and am learning how it works. Great accent color. I used it on this page as the centers of the circles on the green strip of gelli print toward the bottom.

By the time Steve got back from his coffee-and-reading-in-the-car run, I was done. I handed it to him and his eyes went immediately to the only thing on the page that made any sense to him.

"Uh... I like the stamps."

play day

inchies and resulting waste
which is every bit as cool as the inchies

Artsy friend Rhonda came to play yesterday. A few days ago, when I first suggested Sunday, she replied, "So you don't have any Easter plans either, huh?" Cracked me up.

gellied brown coffee filter

sticker sheets 

She brought along her latest toy, a Silhouette Cameo, which cuts designs from paper, vinyl, etc. You can make your own designs, duplicate them all over a page, remove portions of them, all sorts of cool stuff. I was impressed with the software, and once I got my head into it, I thought of all sorts of things I'd like to try.

Long story short - I ordered the smaller size Silhouette Portrait before Rhonda even made it back to her house, a little over an hour away. 

stamped with large bubble wrap
(the stamping is more orange than red)

more large bubble wrap - love this one

While jabbering away at each other like we do when she first arrives each time, we got the bright idea to cut out sticker paper so it would be all ready to just stick onto something, no glue required. Of course, we wanted something on our stickers so out came the gelli plates and we spent a couple fun hours cranking out gelli prints. 

Then we whacked several of them up into inchies which are fun for collage but the "waste" grid that's left is also cool.

stamped with bottom of tray that held markers

Marvelous day with a fun friend! Thanks for making the drive, Rhonda.

However, have you noticed the trend at work here? 

used Rhonda's leaf stencil as a mask
over a few layers of gelli printing

Rhonda shows up with her gelli plate, I order one five minutes after she leaves. 

Rhonda shows up with a Silhouette, I order one 5 minutes after she leaves. 

I expect my husband is hoping she'll leave all her cool new stuff at home next time she visits. 

random gelli print - lots of layers here

one of the stencils Rhonda made

yet more large bubble wrap

artful Sunday

The kitchen counter where we gellied.
Those are all the papers I did - we used deli paper, copy paper,
Japanese paper, tracing paper, and some heavier white paper.

Well, I had a marvelous day.

Rhonda from our Sunday at Maria's studio (which I *still* haven't posted about!!!) came for the day and we ran wild in my studio and kitchen.

My favorites.

Fueled by endless cups of coffee/latte/tea from my Keurig, we gave her gelli plates a workout. I'd never played with one and didn't understand what all the fuss was about, but after Rhonda left for home, I ordered one from Blick.

So now I'm on the gelli train.  Those things are addicting...

I didn't think to take a single picture while she was here, of us printing away, so you only get to see the aftermath, which is very cool.

After looking at the sorts of things other artists are pulling off their gellis, I can see that I need to work on my color choices and use of stencils and other mark making things.

Plus I need some more paint colors...

Laid a fabric doily on the paint, then pulled it up
and put down the paper.
Reminds me of old temple rubbings my dad
brought back from Thailand when I was a kid.

The center one was done with one of Rhonda's large stencils.
Isn't it funny how every new pursuit requires a bunch
of accessories - more paint, some big stencils,
some cool paper. $$$$$$$

A better view of my favorites. The two one the left were done
with metallic paint - pale blue first, then pale green over it in the center.
It's fascinating to me how paint from several papers ago shows up.
Click to see them big to get the full effect.

I worked on my Venice journal toward the end of the day.
Added in a bunch of the postcards Mary Ann sent (digitally) each day,
plus some of the printables that were part of the class.
I'm still not quite sure how I'll use this journal
but I'm becoming very fond of it.

Thanks for a great day, Rhonda! I'll save your seat for next time...