WOYWW #442: One Eyed Challenges (#PASC1117)

It's Wednesday, and time for another adventure with my fellow deskers.

For more WOYWW fun, you can head for the hub of the fun over at the blog of our fearless leader, Julia Dunnit HERE.

Some of my fellow deskers already have some idea as to the challenges I've continued to face since the optic nerve to my left eye malfunctioned at the end of summer of this year. Many of you have continued to boost my morale with kind comments. That's really been lovely, and I want to say a fond Thank You now for your recent kindness towards me. As I haven't been able to comment to your posts as much as I used to, such generosity has genuinely touched me.

One thing I keep discovering: my eyesight's strength has had either worse or better days. A better day was when I tried doing a man's face. That was 2 posts ago. I risked the strength of both my eyesight and my morale that time by trying something that I'd never done before: a full color painted sketch of an old portrait. 

Most days have not been as easy for my eyesight as that day was. All of it is tough to get used to in that I need to be constantly vigilant of how my eyes happen to be doing. I'm forgivably clumsy at times when there's delicacy required. Such challenges have often put a damper on my mood. I'm learning how not to lose patience with the whole situation as well as how to content myself with what CAN be done each time that I attempt something. 

Junk Journals offer unique challenges, too, especially in the area of materials used in the building of any junk journal. This one has a tendency to buckle at times, so I've had to use a curly paper clip whilst taking this week's photo. 

This time, I'm trying the November Pick a Stick Challenge, the prompts for which may be found by following the link HERE.  

The challenge calls for making a pocket. I've opted to make a folded paper bag pocket out of a sheet of deli paper to which I added one of the pretty embellished papers which Win Dinn sent me recently for our paper trade. The diagonal phrase I cut from a newspaper, while the other two collaged word bits are both from a magazine, as per the prompts. 

The words mean something on a very deep level to me today. I believe that art can help me keep adjusting even if it is my biggest challenge. As for the advice to not "stress about it," well, that would be another of life's challenges.

WOYWW #437: Leaf Prints + Happy Mail !

This week, I am still having trouble keeping up with everything, so I won't be able to comment very much. Thanks for your patience.
I'm leaving the Happy Mail for  visual "dessert," in the 2nd half of this post. There's no relevant news today about my optic nerve problem. That's just as well - let's stick with ART and friends for now.

For more WOYWW fun, please visit our Queen of the Wednesday Deskers, Ms Julia Dunnit, located HERE.

For health reasons, I will leave the pictures + their captions to tell most of the story. 
Happy WOYWW and thanks for stopping by today!

And now for the HAPPY MAIL!!!

:)

:)

WOYWW #435: More Messy One-eyed Art

Welcome, fellow deskers! Not many words this time around. It's still difficult for me to read for very long, and this includes most typing too. My apologies in advance for not being able to either read or comment very much today. I'll try and visit as many places as I am able to, yet probably won't do much beyond viewing some photos there. Thank you for understanding about comments here as well, where only short answers will be offered.

For more WOYWW fun, please visit our reigning and creative Queen of the Deskers, Ms Julia Dunnit, by going HERE.

I've finished adding to the page behind last week's 2 pager.

The pain was at its post-operative worst when I began this newest 2 pager, below. It is improving now, thank goodness. Sorry for the gore. The DIY texture paste which frames the gory image transfer (onto Deli paper) is a mixture of unused coffee + Liquitex Heavy Matte Gel Medium + a dab of Mod Podge and a  small amount of water. Everything else is self explanatory.

Here is this week's.

Apologies on going so anatomical.

More medical appointments soon, with a test or two. Will try and join weekly here, regardless. It gives me something nice to think about, knowing I'll be able to visit a few of my fellow deskers, even when I cannot visit all of you each week or write to much in comments.

~Rose

WOYWW #430: Junk Journal Flip-Through

Happy WOYWW #430 and Welcome to the Flip-Through of my August Challenge Junk Journal.

If you'd like to find out more about Julia Dunnit's fun weekly Wednesday blog hop, please visit her excellent blog HERE. I may get behind in responding to comments as well as visiting the whole list early enough. Please forgive any lateness. I should be able to manage it eventually, even if I get behind. I am an irregular, sporadic desker, so you may not see me for a few weeks.

So what is on my particular workdesk this time around? A finished Junk Journal. I'm offering a "tour" of its many pages here. My guests are welcome to view as few or as many as they wish. I actually did not think that there would be enough time to finish it, but once I'd rediscovered the ease and quickness of wrap style bookbinding, I knew that I'd soon have the whole thing done and ready to be played with. This is a long post, so I will leave the rest to the photo "slide show" below. For more on the earliest stages of this project, guests may wish to follow the link HERE.

I can hardly wait to see what my fellow deskers are up to this week!

I've Gone Wacky for Customized Trim!

It is nearing the end of August, and so I have a Junk journal challenge to finish - it's a mad dash!

I am still uncertain whether or not I'll to be able to do everything I've thought of doing for that challenge, one that was issued by Kerry of Kerrymay Makes. Please go HERE for more about that challenge.

I've finished preparing a number of pages for the new journal, but keep needing to make a few changes. For one thing, I dislike overstuffed books, as they do not store easily on my already overcrowded selves.  I mention this due to the fact that I've had to edit out an entire signature. But more on that for the next post when I'll (hopefully) be done binding the book.

Meantime, I wanted to trim things, yet found supplies somewhat lacking in certain areas, especially with the color ways I've chosen for the book. Kerry's challenge mentions using what we have, and so when inspiration finally struck me, I created my own custom trim.

Allow me to introduce you to my weird and wild version of washi tape that I call my "Wacky Tape." Lolz. I've outlined my process using photos with captions below.

My mad dash continues once a few bits of housework get taken care of! I hope to post the finished book for tomorrow's WOYWW.

Wish me luck!

WOYWW #427: A New Junk Journal

Happy WOYWW #427! If you'd like to learn about this fun blog hop, you may follow this link HERE. I can hardly wait to see what my fellow deskers have been up to this week. I may be a bit late in responding to some, as it is quite late for me here in the U.S. at this moment. I hope you'll bear with me.

Kerry of Kerrymay Makes recently issued a Junk Journal Challenge for the month of August at G+ and at Instagram. That Instagram page may be found by following this link HERE. Kerry's blog may be found by following this second link HERE. 

(How come Blogger is making all of the letters of the links suddenly so oversized?)

Anyway, as fools really will rush in even when there are a million and one other things to attend to, I've decided to blog along as time permits and then post in the G+ group entitled All Things Mixed Media Art. I've also broken my one time a month WOYWW rule by joining in this time. As time permits, I will be answering any comments left here by anyone interested.

Kerry asks that we mention our chosen materials. This post is about making the starting point for my Junk Journal, so here are a few notes and photos of it in progress, including my materials used thus far.

I started by removing the text block from a used hard cover book that had a sewn binding. I then altered the cover, both outside and inside. I began with the outside first, as I knew it would be messier.

Once the wrinkled tissue paper had adhered to the used book cover, I covered it using some Liquitex Brown Gesso, a chocolate-y, lovely way to begin. Then I switched to Mod Podge for a medium rather than the Liquitex Heavy Matte Gel Medium I'd already used as a glue. To make small batches of shimmery spatter color, I chose a formula of either Perfect Pearls Copper Metallic or Winsor and Newton Iridescent Watercolor Medium with a bit of perfect Pearls Pearl color powder. This last pairing of materials is what gave me the bright metallic white you see here:

The coral/orange splatters are a mixture of Iridescent Watercolor Medium + Daniel Smith Pyrrol (sp?) Orange Watercolor paint. As already mentioned in an earlier blogpost, I'm giving myself permission to make messier art than usual for the entire year. I'm beginning to relax into this now, and am wondering whether or not to continue forward into 2018 with the same attitude.

Top coat following some drying time: gloss original Mod Podge mixed with a bit of water and some Perfect Pearls Metallic Copper powder. After this had all dried, I coated it lightly using Microglaze by Judikins. Then, I lined the inside side using some old scrapbooking papers I'd been keeping without using for about 10 years. (I know - I'm a bit of a packrat!) 

And here is what it looks like standing up on one of the 2 scrapbook paper collection books I've been keeping since forever. No "innards" for it when the picture was taken.

And here are some of the pages I've chosen to make the book ready for use. Note the older scrapbook papers and the "oops!" prints, all destined at one point or another for the waste basket. Note: I am still debating which kind of binding to use, but that will be for a later post.

My thanks to Kerry of Kerrymay Makes for this fun August challenge! And Happy WOYWW #427 to my fellow deskers !!!