Spare Parts for Art (for Let's Play) + WOYWW

...or how I am a packrat who keeps odd bits.

Odd bits can be fun to collect. For years, I rode mass transit from place to place, and in between I used to walk a good bit. I found this to be a healthy choice, one I'd never regret. But not only for the exercise and the fresh air, but for what I used to see scattered everywhere.

Sidewalks and paths can be strewn with other people's flotsam and cast off objects. Also, some bits have a tendency to fall out of car engines, to be left behind to rust. I collect such things because they fascinate me. I once saw new flotsam nearly every time that I went out.

Rubber bits. Metal bits, some rusted and some not. The occasional bead or coin.

This month's Let's Play challenge is especially challenging for someone like me LOL. After all, one collects, yet may never use. Carolyn Dube's idea is that we need to look at our creative items for something we thought that we just love too much to use and then either "use it or lose it." I thought that this was a great idea, even while I was a bit nervous about it.

So. I do not know why I LOVE my itsy-bitsy metal bits and pieces. A little scrap heap is all it really might look to be to the average person rummaging through my creative space. Am I a magpie at heart? A true packrat? I had to find out. After all, the challenge this time is "Use it or lose it"!

Today's project is incomplete. I admit that it's only a work in progress. I hope to have more time to finish it later on this month, once I've had my visit with company and can relax and creatively play for a change.

But first, please meet my messy and playful new project.

Some of the bits used

I realized had been with me

for nearly a decade!

"Use it or lose it!"

 A closer look at what's stuck in my foil bundle.

Gears, washers, bolts and screws make my heart smile.

One great grandparent was 

a blacksmith--so did I inherit his love of metal things?

:)

The final project hopefully should be finished later in the month. It is all about storage or places to put things, along with the last of the lovely metal bits and parts.

The main body of the tiny piece of table top furniture I am about to make has been drawn from another "Use it or lose it" stash, my cigar boxes. We're talking at least 8 years on that collection. The 2 small wooden drawers I've had since (I think) 2007, give or take a few months. These will be inserted into another structure. I am currently awaiting the arrival of the foam core which I ordered for it. The theme, to match my previous paper storage caddy, is, of course, to be Steampunk.

I've never done anything quite like this before, so it is a real departure from the usual for me.

Who knew that spring cleaning, organizing and storage could be so much fun?

:)

Happy Playful Wednesday, everybody!

DIY Gesso Pages

Using an unusual ingredient which even our local Ace Hardware store has:

At several different places online, I kept running into things about DIY Gesso. In my latest junk journal, the one with the duct taped cover, I wanted to strengthen some of the brown paper pages with gesso or paint--or something. Brown paper can be very brittle, easily torn. I liked the wrinkly look I'd achieved, and also like the torn edges I've added, but brown paper needs more body before certain kinds of treatment. 

I already had used up all of my white gesso, unfortunately. I did not wish to track down a new bottle so late in the creative process. I did still have some chocolate brown gesso left, but applying one brown to another seemed a bad idea for my blue and green color choices.

The recipes for DIY gesso do vary widely, especially where the ratios are concerned. Mine started off pretty grainy, even a bit lumpy--sort of like extremely white, very bad pancake batter! LOL

So now I've added more white acrylic paint to my previous mixture, stirring away lumps. Here is how it looked on the page prior to my adding more Titanium White paint and smoothing the mixture.

Though it's a rough cut journal and those are wrinkled 

pages, I must say that it looks unusually bumpy!

The 2 acrylic paint colors (later applied using my fingers and some water for a thinned look) have stuck to ridges and bumps. I'm not sure yet what to do with these pages. Perhaps by next week, I will have the answer.

Hope everybody's enjoying their week!

Auto Parts Stamps on White

Welcome to the Wild Stamp Deli!

Last week, I got a small box of deli paper sheets. The tip I followed in order to find the right ones was from Shel C. Thanks, Shel!

This week, for Carolyn Dube's "Let's Play" weekly Link Party (see link button in my right hand column) I tried a first experiment using a number of the sheets plus pigment ink pads. The stamps I chose were a mixed bag. Many of those stamps are old rubber auto parts. While they are not exactly hardware items, they at least would be unusual and also not the kind of thing generally to be found in most people's art kits. They are actually among my very favorite art tools.

Auto part, lower left.

Above that is something which I will explain later on.

Upper right, some sort of rubber pedal cover.

(?)

Lower right is a rubber stamp store blank + shelf liner imprint.

Left to right:

Far left--Regular rubber stamps.

Next--Rubber auto part.

Green is made using a broken off piece from 

a rubber flipflop which I sanitized.

Left to right:

Pink + purple + orange is the rubber auto part.

Black is 2 postage rubber stamps + 2 stray rubber car parts and London's Big Ben.

Lower right is a set of nature rubber stamps.

Again, left to right:

Lower left is 2 rubber auto parts + a cast off toy truck tire track.

The others are, of course, flip flop bit and rubber auto part.

Another view of the same pile.

I am really enjoying the new lamp bulb!

Ott Light bulbs really do light nicely.

Somewhere in this mix are imprints made 

using a cast off spark plug's rubber handle.

What I've learned by this experience:

When I heat set these sheets using an old light weight iron and my Talbot Arts Release Paper, what I noticed was that the pigment stamping ink did dry, but would smear if dampness touched it.

In other words, I will have to bear in mind that this will be an issue. I think that next time I will go with acrylic paints instead of stamp inks. Same stamps, just paint, not ink.

Can hardly wait to make some time for visiting everyone else's Let's Play pages. See you there!

:)

Let's Play: Hardware #2

The Duct Tape Saga, Episode Two

Having fallen in love with the newly handbound duct tape junk journal, I really wanted to keep the style loose and nice 'n' easy.

It is freeing to simply let go and stop working the pages in favor of play. Plus reupcycling everything is so much fun!

Hope everybody's having a good week.
~Rose

Doodles and Wrinkles
OR
(with a grateful nod to Zsuzsa)
"Wrinkly Inky Doodle!"
;)

WOYWW # ? Altered Book

From second hand to creative play.

I'm a bit late, but it is still Wednesday here!

This week, I've been playing around using my monoprint stash. 

Today's project was a relatively simple one. I had already used brown gesso on the outside sides of 2 doubled and already glued together pages, prior to cutting them using decorative scissors.

Then I simply tucked my monoprint page in between the 2 snipped and doubled ones, and glued all 3 pieces together using Mod Podge.

Still working on that lamp problem. Sorry the photo looks a bit wonky.

Monoprint Page, Altered Book Art Journal

WOYWW

Inspired by artist Shel C

...and my silly tendency to make puns or connect things together in weird ways.

This is what's been on my work desk for 3 days. At the moment, it's had waxed paper laid over it and is in the process of being flattened, so here is yesterday's photo of my cartoon

Moptopus!

You see, Shel and I had been sharing some ideas one day very recently. She had posted her recent YouTube of her splendid octopus.

You can see it right here or visit her channel. Lots of fun things happening there!

Awesomeness!

We ended up chatting about which brand of Deli Paper I should choose over at Amazon. She pointed me in the right direction. Thanks, Shel! I'm looking forward to being able to play with some one day very soon.

But the story did not end there. Oh, no. Somehow, 3 wires in my brain crossed, and sparks flew. Well, perhaps suds began to bubble instead LOL. I had a journal page to complete, and so far had not one idea in my pea brain as to how to tackle the problem. That page was a clean-up or mop-up pull from an earlier adventure in monoprints using my glass sheet (an earlier post here at this blog). This had turned out to be a little more interesting once I'd coated it with a transparent glaze of blue. In fact, it had begun to remind me of the ocean's depth.

Brain said: "Mop-up print page. Shel's brilliant octopus. Ocean floor. Bathroom mess." It mooshed everything together and that is my excuse for my double pun for this week's WOYWW.

And would you like to know what I really find most funny of all? LOL I usually dislike tentacles of all types intensely!

:)

Thanks, Shel!

A Book with an Edge

Starring the Handy Woman's Secret Weapon!

This month, Carolyn Dube's "Let's Play!" theme is all about things that we can find at the hardware store.

Duct Tape is in a class by itself as far as hardware items are concerned. As far as I know, there is nothing more versatile than this extremely sticky and rugged tape. People use it for temporary repairs on car parts, to seal things such as boxes, and even sometimes as a handy art supply.

I'd used it before, of course. I think that most of us surely have. I'd also made a little art using it, as well, one time for a special altered book show years ago. Another time, it was a weirdly wild little ATC card. I used a big, black Sharpie pen with it. That was fun!

This time, I made a book cover using a cereal box and a number of other materials. I finished the pages and the binding last night. This was ten times more fun than my prior two projects!
:)

I made a sort of photo diary of this project. This starts with the "bones" of my book, that is the structure upon which the text block will hang once sewn into place: the cover. I have to tell you that the cover and I had words at more than one tough moment! I am still not satisfied with everything about it, and already plan to alter it to suit the look I wish to achieve.

So here's that very, very, very long photo diary!

1.) Cereal Box

2.) First layer of Duct Tape

3.) A Distressed Lining

The lining is from an old book of scrapbook paper. I used 2 different but similar ones for the lining. I distressed all edges using an old Rubber Stampede Coffee Bean stamp pad. Having kept that well loved stamp pad in a ziploc bag for years has made it last a very long time--at least 6 years! I have never re-inked it, but have kept it for one thing only, that it adds a distressed look that won't budge if any moisture touches it.

4.) Materials and Tools on Display!

I don't show everything in the above picture, but you get the point, I'm sure. I'll give a list later on in this post. The white template on the book's inside cover (over its spine area) was used to gauge where to place the holes prior to binding. This was later removed.

5.) Junk Journal Spine

The spine may have a rougher look, a kind of "edgy" look to it, but it's a rugged enough book to take some hard knocks!

6.) Junk Journal Pages 1

Photos 6 and 7 show the signatures I'd already cut and folded. These are the pages before binding. A signature, for those who've never tried binding their own book before, is a collection of folded sheets, generally (although not always) sized the same way. Here I've shown how I chose to use rougher paper than I normally might to fit with the rugged look of the duct tape cover. All except, of course, for 2 sheets from a recent monoprint adventure (that's in my "No-Gelli Print" post from last month). You can see one of those in Photos 7 and 8, just below.

7.) Pages 2

8.) Sewn Pages 1

Some of you are familiar with my first blog, Plush Possum Studio, a Free Graphics place. If you are one of those people, you might recall my "Favorite Things" posts there, including my "brown paper packages" themed set. I confess it--I just love to play with brown paper. That is, most brown art supplies in general. In Photos 6, 8 and 9 are shown pages cut out of old brown paper items like old paper sacks. Mainly, I've used packing paper. The wrinkles make me happy. How could anybody resist such lovely old folds and wrinkles! Plus, I even added some purposeful tearing at the top and front edges.

9.)More Sewn Pages

10.) Room to Grow

Photo 10 has 2 points to make. The first is how I bound my junk journal with room for stuffing it full of lots of collage and other fun things. the second is that I had a remnant of some very unique crinkled two-tone green paper, and thought it would look fun with the brown wrinkly pages already chosen for this book.

Materials, Techniques and Tools List:

--empty cereal box

--3M Duct Tape (every handy person's secret weapon!)

--waste paper (used paper bags and brown packing paper)

--Stiletto (for poking holes during binding)

--3m Gluestick (all out of Uhu)

--needle and waxed linen thread

--old scrapbook sheets

--2 black card stock monoprints

--discarded manila file folders (for templates + easy sizing of pages)

--ruler

--scissors, pencil, marker

--5 hole pamphlet stitch technique (I needed to brush up on that a bit over at YouTube first)

No bone folders were harmed in the making of this project.

:)

Yes, I really do have one, but I wanted this new fun junky journal to be fully what it is, and not to be refined.

Well I guess that would be all for this particular "Let's Play!" adventure.

Thank you for stopping by!

~Rose

WOYWW (a little bit late, but here it is)

Still messy this week. I've had 3 different small projects in the works lately, and not enough time for cleaning up completely between them.

Mess One

(The full spectrum lamp either needs a new bulb or is toast)

Mess Two

The remains of a journal page and stencil making project may be seen in the first photo, while the second shows 3 of my favorite watercolors along with some cleanup stuff.

~Rose

Homemade Stencil Play

...or fussy cutting for hours...and hours...

LOL I have to laugh at such an ambition. Sometimes I simply can't wait to see the end result of a new idea, and tend to jump in feet first before considering the amount of time it all could take.

This project had to be done in incremental steps. Details, details, details. I learned how creating a stencil is all about the little fiddly bits and details.

So I had to first find some easy-to-follow instructions at YouTube. I already knew that I had some leftover packing tape from a previous move in my hardware drawer, so that was a cinch. I'd recently finally discovered where I'd put my best cutting mat, and knew that I had new blades for my craft knife. So that seemed OK. 

What surprised me was how I gravitated toward my scissors instead. I guess that I knew how hard it might be to cut all of the curves and curls in my design as neatly using the knife as it would be to do so using my scissors.

The cutting process seemed to take forever, especially the fussier parts, and yet I'm glad that I made the effort.

Step one was a sketch which I later colored into and remade a little. I wanted it to look like curling strands of hair tossed by wind...or something like that. I can dream, right?
:)

Step Two involved fussing with the packing tape. Strips of this can (supposedly) overlap one another slightly until a surface is completely laminated. And without wrinkling. In my case, for some reason, wrinkling could not be avoided, no matter how hard I tried. The photo below does not capture every single little wrinkle in my packing tape strips. Despite that little hitch, the cutting part works out well enough so that I chose to use the stencil regardless.

So I spent a few minutes here, a half an hour there (HOURS all told), and so on, fussy cutting my brains out while listening to some music.

Due to the sheer fussiness and effort of making a first stab at creating a stencil, I neglected to make a photo record of most of the steps. In fact, I skipped everything except the two final parts, the stencil itself and the page I used it for.

Playtime Materials Included:
-a page from a drawing pad
-lots of clear packing tape (applied to both sides, and not very neatly)
-pencil, eraser, etc.
-2 sizes of scissors, one regular and one teensy
-pigment ink pad
-my Canson Field All Media spiral book
-acrylic paint
-watercolors
-previously monoprinted Canson page (see my last post)
-Mod Podge for paper
-micah powder (Perfect Pearls brand) in 2 colors, gold and white

Here's my result:

And here's how my journal looks:

(with very bad lighting--full spectrum bulb is toast)

The left hand page began as the earlier

monoprint cleanup pull mentioned

in my most recent post.

To that monoprint cleanup was added 

Mod Podge mixed with Watercolor pigment.

The page to be stenciled was painted first, then spattered using Mod Podge for a medium with Perfect Pearls to lend spotty glimmer. After the first coats had dried, I used the stencil along with my pigment ink pad in Dragonfly Black (which is a really lovely deep, dark green).

It's fun playing this way with my new journal, and I'm looking forward to this month's new Play prompt of Hardware.

:)

The No-Gelli Style: Experiments in Monoprint

Or, "How to Make Several Messes in a Fairly Short Time."

In which we discover (through accidental means) that printing onto clear tape using a glass plate rather than a Gelli Plate is trickier than expected....read on for more.
:)

OK. So I knew that I had a large-ish nice piece of glass, salvaged from an old table. Also available to me were a number of items useful when making prints of all sorts. 

I'd just viewed a very interesting video over at YouTube on how to print onto clear packing tape. Here is that fun video:

I just thought that this was such a cool idea.

So I had nearly everything for trying something similar. Everything except a Gelli Plate, that is. Glass does not flex, but Gelli Plates will, so I knew that my trial and error processes might yield very different results. I was right.

I tried something very basic and simple using a few colors. the video suggests allowing paint to dry on the Gelli Plate, and so I tried that with my glass sheet. Here's how that went:

I was going to take several tape pulls, but quickly learned how that wouldn't work at all. OK. So it then occurred to me to try the same process with glass using newly applied, wet paint. I set the 4 strips aside, painted and sticky sides up, to dry. After the paint that I'd transferred onto the tape had dried most of the way, I dusted on some copper colored micah powder by Perfect Pearls. This filled in the gaps, as per the above video.

Here is a slightly better view 

(+ 2 little old book page pulls just beyond):

I'd used the Talbot Arts Release paper sheets during class time when I was teaching a form of fused collage. I'd also used it in my own home, and found it to be very versatile and also easy to use. I knew that I did not want the newly printed strips of tape to stick where they did not belong, and so I grabbed one sheet of release paper and then tried sticking the tape strips onto its surface.

Yes, I did try. You see, the very nature of release paper is to not allow sticky things to remain stuck to its surface, which is how come stickers come packed with their own release paper backing.

Yeah. Not one of my brighter ideas, but at least for now the tape strips aren't sticking to anything wrong.

The rest of the monoprint experience that day was just as much of a learning process for me. From the mistakes I made, I managed to save some of the pigment. This left me with a weird looking 2 page spread in what I call my "giant" journal.

My first try at doing the tape transfer included some torn strips of blue painter's tape by 3M (as a mask, in place of the torn deli paper used in the Gelli video above). I chose to remove that tape before the paint could dry, and then used that as a means by which to transfer the colors on it to the journal. This was too patchy, so I later used the side edges of the same 2 pages as a wiping off surface for my 2 brayers.

I had nothing to lose, so I tried a few more things using a fairly simple look in the paint as it lay on the glass. Below are a few examples. Though the light for these photos was very difficult to work with, I did somehow manage to capture a little bit of the look of things, I hope.

I thought that the black card stock sheets 

would be fun to use in a future collage.

I try not to waste pigment. 

It's always interesting when I try.

My brayer plate had some nice colors on it.

Suitable for collage play, do you think?

The Release Paper I Use

For anyone interested, Talbot Arts carries some very unique and interesting supplies. I've ordered from that small, unique product line a few times already, and was always pleased with the customer service and the products there. The release paper that they sell is fairly long lasting stuff, and I should know, as I was pretty rough with it, as were some of the students I once had. It is good quality, nicely crisp, sturdy stuff, unlike the average backing for most stickers. A link to the Talbot's small but fascinating store's page is HERE.

That, by the way, is my Neglected Supply for this week's link party. 

Anyway, that's been my most recent adventure in trying a nicely messy new idea.

:)

Don't Think...

...and make a great big mess.

That's what I tried for this afternoon's chance at creating a new journal page. Well, 2 pages, that is.

My messy recipe?
1 empty shampoo bottle
shelf liner remnant
paint (acrylic and watercolor)
white gesso
Mod Podge (as an adhesive and as a medium)
Neglected (for years!) foam alphabet stamps
2" flat gesso brush
various homemade stamps from found objects
Canson journal notebook

If you're anything like me, you probably generally try and overthink everything instead of just being relaxed. I am the thinking sort, even during creative time. I am trying to not think so hard about outcomes or finished looks in order to hopefully flex some creative muscles. This was hard because I started off by thinking too much about not thinking too much. If that makes any sense.

So today I decided that I would not allow myself to think too much and that I was going to not care either way how the pages might turn out. Which was a good strategy, because this is very unlike anything I've ever done before. A genuine, gloppy and smeary mess.

I'd already glued the shelf liner piece to the old shampoo bottle last weekend, so it had already dried and was ready for use. After that, I'd tried an experiment using some little pots of soft toned paint which I'd found at a thrift store a few years ago. This worked fairly well, although I had to hurry an awful lot before the paint would dry in order to apply colors to the makeshift shampoo roller. 

Today's experiment went less well as far as messiness was concerned. I went with it anyway, and now have a new 2 pager. It's smeared in spots as well as spotty, but I am learning not to care too much about such things. After all, it's not for an art show or anything that important. It's Playtime!

Mess Photo 1

(definitely not my normal style)

Mess Photo 2

Mess Photo 3

Mess photo 4

"Don't think!"

Though I know that I could do better, I am willing to let it all be about the moment. It just is what it turned out to be. If I were to choose to add anything else to it later on, it might spoil that spontaneous, childlike look.

:)

Next month's shopping list will no doubt include a new paint set. (It's amazing just how much of my old sets spoiled while I was on "hiatus.") And maybe some inks. And perhaps 2 new brushes. Or maybe a new bottle of Gloss medium.

And...and...and...

Finger Painting the New Art Journal

My favorite!

Make mine a Canson All Media spiral notebook anytime, and I am generally pleased. This treat to myself arrived this past week. Despite changes in heft and quality, I have to say that I am genuinely pleased by the results of a first messy go at my very first journal page in it.

I've abused this page, but that's my habit. When books can take a variety of media and still keep their shape for the most part, this works best for me. I like using lots of wet media and experimenting in my pages. I'm not shy about it: I like to make messes using journal pages. (Actually, arty messes in general)

Step One: Bubble printing using acrylics, a recycled drinking straw, a little bit of dish soap, and a recycled salad greens box, remembering to photograph the first part of this very badly.
:)

Next, I waited for the bubbles to disperse from the printed page enough to know how much more color needed to be added. This time, I went with finger painting using acrylics and watercolors + RichArt Pearl colored Glossy Tempera Paint. I also used some Mod Podge this time, mixing it with the watercolors and the tempera and mooshing these all over the already printed page using my fingers.

Messiness is my modus operandi. I had to use a fair number of paper towels in the process.

:)

Here's a close-up of the page's surface.

I think it may be possible to spot the bubble pattern left by the acrylics, etc. While the paint was still tacky, I added 2 torn remnants of gridded rice paper.

Next, after things were done drying, I used items from my ephemera files for the alphabet letters for the words, "New Art Book."

The final step led to this.

I knew I needed to loosen up. I was so uptight during my first projects for the Let's Play weekly link parties! Being given "permission" to play and use childish creative means has to be my new favorite way to lighten up and become more playful during creative time.

Materials and Tools List:

Canson Montval Field All Media pad (from Dick Blick online); watercolors by Daniel Smith and Windsor & Newton; acrylics by Jacquard and Liquitex; my old reliable Mod Podge; RichArt pearl colored Glossy Tempera paint; gridded rice paper; various ephemera; a drinking straw; a repurposed salad greens box; dish soap; a chopstick from the local Asian food place; scissors (2 sizes); chip board alphabet letters (traced around but not used directly on the page).

Best ingredient of all? The FUN factor!

:)

My Big Messy Oops

What a fun experience!

Yes, it was messier than I'd planned (a portion of that oops part). I'd promised myself to get messy, only not quite as much as I ultimately did!  No, I couldn't get the orange to work. Yes, I'd do this 2 pager all over again if I had enough time.

My neglected items: Ranger sprayers; 2 kinds of watercolor.

Some sprayer nozzles do not like thick goopy stuff, but I knew that before I went into this very messy procedure. You see, I am missing a large number of some of my favorite supplies. A number of things got ruined or very nearly so during my creative hiatus. I've been finding ruined stuff hidden among the stuff that still works. 

Never the less, I am determined to use whatever colors I can easily salvage, so today I did just that. Two of my sprayers kind of worked. Well, really only the one wanted to. Sprayer number 3 must have something clogging it somewhere, don't ask me where. You'd have to ask it.
:)

I wanted this 2 page journal spread of backgrounds to be messy, so I got my way on that part LOL.


Tools used: Canson Montval Field All Media pad; Daniel Smith and Windsor & Newton watercolors; a few drops of Mod Podge for Paper; Perfect Pearl Powder; found objects (metal washers and other parts, scattered); small alphabet stencil for technical drawing.

I ended up choosing to spatter rather than to spray for the second color (Ultramarine Blue). I liked the messier, runnier look in certain areas. The final step was a dab of Perfect Pearl Powder for a slightly metallic gleam. I might have to go in later with some other pigments, possibly some more metallic here or there. Once it's done being overly sticky, I'll add words followed by some MicroGlaze by Judikins to keep the pages from sticking together.

Any-whosits, here's that big, as-yet-unfinished (?) mess.
:)

Big Messy Oops 2/16