Sunday Postcard Art

I've been following this blog for a while now but rarely get around to doing the prompt before the week is over and the next one is up! So... this morning when I saw the theme, I immediately got to work.

I have several issues of Mechanics Illustrated and Popular Mechanics from the 40s, so I grabbed the December 1944 issue (15 cents cover price!) and flipped thru the brittle old pages until I found several airplane related articles, then began tearing out images and word strips. (The strip 'see the brave fellow' came from an old book.)

The background is very textured which you might be able to see if you click on the first pic which I scanned at 600dpi. I put down a layer of gesso, a used dryer sheet that I'd been wanting to do something with, more gesso, then sprayed and dripped on various inks - tan, green, turquoise - until I had a background I liked.

The dryer sheet wicks the inks in an interesting manner and I will be saving my dryer sheets from now on for future backgrounds and no telling what else. I'm prolly late to the dryer sheet party but I'm here now!

Feel free to download and use the first image if you like.

Fall Fearless & Fly Dec 2012

This is the left side of my spread, with a little bit
that flips out to the side. The journal I'm using is
 too large to scan both pages at once. I tore bits and
pieces from a wide variety of papers, plus a few
pictures from magazines, and collaged them onto
the spread.

Artists in Blogland began a series of challenges called Fall Fearless and Fly.    There are always 3 prompts - a headline, a color, and a quote. I chose the color prompt - what is your favorite color, now or from childhood?

As usual, I've been watching, not playing along, until now. For whatever reason, the color prompt got me going. I've caught the aqua itch, along with the rest of the country. Aqua and brown, aqua and pink, all sorts of great color combos fill the magazines.

I journaled a bit about a green top my mom bought me decades ago, and how much I'd prolly like that top now, but absolutely hated it then. Teenagers are such shits. At least I was...

The headline prompt was: Lifelong Fan:  What or who have you consistently valued or looked up to in your life?  What lessons have you learned from people you admire?

And the right side. I was surprised at what all
I found in the colors I was looking for -
nail polish, eye shadow, some glitter circles
and of course the gorgeous sea.

I thought about that for several days, sure that someone would eventually come to mind, but no one did. I thought that was kinda weird, but the more I mulled it over, I began to realize that since my late teens I have always relied so much on my own instincts and inner strength to get me thru things, that no one else stood a chance. After enough disappointments and let downs, you learn that you are the only one you can truly rely on. I have no intention of using this blog as a self-analysis space, but that prompt did make me think a lot about why there was no one in my life that I look up to and have learned from.

This is one of my favorite journal spreads, mostly due to all those lovely colors. Click (or maybe double click) on the pics to see the super-sized versions.

freebie album pages

I scored an autograph album from 1928 the other day while out thrifting and antiquing with my friend Julie. The 4 days she visits each July are packed with art making (this year was jewelry), thrifting, yakking, checking out each other's blog rolls, catching up on mutual friends, etc. Wonderful break for me from the crazy days of summer at work.

Anyway we were in the local antique mall looking around my favorite vendor booth when the vendor herself showed up. When she found out I was looking for old papers, she grabbed up a couple things and handed them to me with the announcement "I'll mark these down since they've been here a while."  Um... ok. This little album went from $10 to $6 but I would happily have paid $12 LOL. Hope she's not reading this. Anyway, it's in great shape, is just the color green I love and has all sorts of good stuff inside. I cleaned up the cover a bit in photoshop but all the other pages are just as they look in real life with vibrant colors and clean edges. Amazing since it's 84 years old. I'll post some of the autographed pages over the weekend.

All the scans are 300dpi so download away and have fun with them. You're welcome to sell items made using the images, just please don't sell the images themselves.

1st collage

1st collage by leslieca on polyvore.com

House Plan 456-12
$575 - houseplans.com

Kim Seybert Capiz Placemat
$65 - barneys.com

Cymbal Green Placemat
£1.75 - habitat.co.uk

1st collage

1st collage by leslieca featuring lanvin necklace

Alexander McQueen houndstooth skirt
$380 - net-a-porter.com

Lanvin necklace
$859 - barneys.com

Custom made jewelry
£7.50 - hannahzakari.co.uk

Christopher Kane square scarve
£99 - liberty.co.uk

House Plan 456-12
$575 - houseplans.com

Cymbal Green Placemat
£1.75 - habitat.co.uk

Kim Seybert Capiz Placemat
$65 - barneys.com

FTB journal 1

front cover

A month or so ago I signed up for Full Tilt Boogie, an online journal class by Mary Ann Moss. I still haven't watched all the videos, but I did watch enough of them to make this great journal. An old book cover in my favorite shade of green, some strips of tea dyed upholstery fabric, some vintage green ric-rac, turquoise linen thread, and lots of various papers.

The videos are quite entertaining, what with Mary Ann's ongoing commentary, and plenty clear enough to follow along while she works. I pulled out some of my stitching at one point, I forget why now, but got the binding part done in one night in front of the tube. Took me another couple weeks to get the fabric tapes glued down and decide how to embellish the front.

I've journaled only a little, but have gone thru gluing in lots of images I like, not really worrying whether they have anything in common, only that they appeal to me. And I plan to journal the same why - about whatever's in my head at the time, not necessarily having to do with the images on that particular page.

front cover detail

The old painted looking images are pages from a tourist book on San Diego that a friend gave me. I really like the soft colors of the images and the fact that I know most of the places shown.

front cover detail

the spine showing the signatures and stitching

old dictionary page, tissue tape, picture I took of the fancy door of an
abandoned house, and an odd image a grinder from a coffee ad, I think

last page and back inside cover

finger holding an odd design, and a couple barn images I love

picture of me at top right, facing a 'reflection' in the water. 

inside front cover and first page from the San Diego tourist book about.
love that Gibson Girl hairdo.

violet with bokeh and a fairy garden

Bokeh is the blurry background in a photo, often showing up as soft smudges of color. I love the look but could rarely get it to happen with my point and shoot. My DSLR, however, is another matter.

Using the idiot 'A for aperture' setting, I took this before I left for work this morning, right outside my own front door, in one of the planters I have by a bench.

The planter stands, by the way - which aren't in the picture - were out on the curb in front of a neighbor's house for the trash guy last summer and I dragged them home. They sat out at the side of the house for months, but I finally got them planted this spring and I enjoy them every morning as I walk to my car. One man's trash is another man's treasure...

Anyway, I love this shot. Super clear, great color, tons of bokeh!!!

While I was out there, I lay down on the cold hard sidewalk and snapped a few of what I think of as the fairy garden. It's just a patch of moss with some bulb shoots coming up, but it looks like a place fairies might hang out.