A birthday bookmark

Tonight I was so very bone-tired . . . and then I realized that tomorrow was my dear friend's birthday, and the whole week had gotten by me without an opportunity to make something for her. We haven't gotten to see each other lately even though we live less than five miles from each other and our sons go to the same school, but the affection remains, and I couldn't let the day go by without marking it.

So, when something is needed quickly, I often turn to fashioning a bookmark. (I think part of the reason I felt so deeply tired was this constant pushing I am doing at myself to break away from following other's designs and instructions and really start from scratch with what I do . . . more of this seeking my own style and being brave enough to allow myself to discover how I wish to do things, so very difficult.) Very proud of myself in the end!

So to begin, I looked around my workspace and saw a leftover strip of monoprinting that I'd done with alcohol inks on glossy paper for the holiday cards I am laboring over--thought great, that will do for a background. Then I looked at my stamp collection and found the Elegant Stems stamp from Stampington--perfect. I used Jet Black Archival Ink to stamp with and dried it with a heat gun, then I applied Weathered Wood Distress Stickles to the three flowers and dried those with a heat gun too. The new corner chomper I got the other day made great deco corners. Looking good so far, but then of course the back of the glossy paper was dirty, so I needed something to mount it on. Quickly I found a silvery paper I'd gotten in England, and I used slate and sail boat blue alcohol inks to tone down the brightness. I edged the monoprint with silver Krylon pen on the straight edges (not the deco corners), ran it through my Xyron, and mounted it. Then I used the other setting on the corner chomper to make stub corners on the backing piece.

One of the things I'm most pleased about is that I finally put to use the rudimentary jewelry techniques I learned last year (I had to put all my toys away when our house was on the market), and the attachment to the bookmark is exactly what I have wanted it to be. I used metallic embroidery thread (love that stuff!) for the cording, and on one end I attached a Tim Holtz "Muse" tag where I'd highlighted the debossed letters with Cloudy Blue Adirondack Paint Dabber. But I hate tying loops and having straggly bits of thread or cord left over, so I had a go at using crimp beads, and they worked! Woo hoo! I'm sure my technique could have been better, but I am not complaining. No messy ends--yay me.
Finally, for the presentation, I took a little blank white bag and inked it with three different shades of blue Distress Ink, then I stamped Tim's fabulous flourish (swiped it on the Jet Black inkpad rather than tapping it in hopes of a less vivid image) on both sides. Grabbed my fibers basket and found one that matched all the colors of my piece, wrapped it around, and voila! The thing is done, and I have something I will be pleased to give my friend tomorrow on her birthday.

Finishing Tins with Mini Scrolls

I am finally finishing up a project started a couple of months ago. One item has been done since then, but the other one gave me materials issues. These are a present for a family friend who got married earlier in the year--one for her & her husband, and a companion piece for her parents.

The bride's wedding was very elegant--colors were silver, pearl, cream--no actual color. So I did her tin with glass spheres and silver mini marbles, and the scrolls were edged with silver leafing. For her parents' piece, I wanted something with bold colors, so I thought I'd use Lava Red Roxs, iridescent glass spheres, and gold mini marbles. To my great dismay, the Lava Red Roxs were not colorfast! When I coated the whole thing in Glossy Accents to seal the mini marbles on and provide a finished look, the red ran and tinted everything a shade of orange that I did not find particularly appealing. The folks at Judikins, which makes the Roxs, were very helpful, but basically I was out of luck if I wanted to use red or pink Roxs (all other colors are apparently colorfast). So it was back to the drawing board, but I was at a loss for what to use. Then the holiday card orders went into full swing and the month of October went by just like that.

The good thing about the delay, however, is that I discovered two gels from Golden that I hadn't used before. One was the Clear Granular Gel, and the other the Extra Coarse Pumice Gel. Neat stuff! In the end, this is what I ended up doing:

--coated lid with Perfect Medium and applied a couple of layers of Frozen Opals, then filled in spaces with Kaleidoscope embossing powder; when cool, I poured a thick layer of Diamond Glaze over the entire (top of the) lid

--made a mix of Extra Coarse Pumice Gel, 22 drops Quinacridone Red Fluid Acrylic and 3 drops Quinacridone Crimson Fluid Acrylic, then applied this to the sides of the bottom and the lid

--when dry, I applied some Interference Gold (Coarse) Heavy Body Acrylic over it, leaving plenty of the underneath to show through

--I realized it was too pinkish for my taste, so I applied some Cadmium Red Medium Hue Fluid Acrylic, then another layer of the Interference Gold

--I think after that I mixed up some Interference Red Fluid Acrylic with the Cadmium Red and applied that in patches over the whole thing, sprinkling with gold mini marbles as I went

--finally I was happy with that and let it dry over night. Then I applied Diamond Glaze over the sides and stuck some iridescent glass spheres on as I went. I also used Glossy Accents (a little less runny than DG) around the edge of the lid to place the glass spheres around it.

The scrolls inside are edged with gold leafing. I think I'm almost done! Now just have to wait for it to dry so I can mail it off.

Making backgrounds for a snowflake Xmas card

I didn't have the same cards that I did last year to produce a snowflake Christmas card this year, so I tried using the Creative Cards by Swarthmore that I'd picked up at Jerry's Artarama. I couldn't reproduce what I had done on the smoother cards, of course, and the ink didn't look the same either. So I ended up doing lots of paint with Cobalt Blue, Cerulean Blue Deep, and Titanium White. One I used bubble wrap on, but most of them I just painted.

When dry, they still seemed too dark, too bold, so I added yet another a layer, this one composed of 10 parts Titanium White, 3 parts Cobalt Blue, and 1 part Cerulean Blue Deep. I brushed some on with a paintbrush then quickly took a wipe (the Inkadinkado Crafters Cleanups) and smeared it all over the card, then waited a moment and wiped again to remove some of it. I think I finally ended up with some good backgrounds. Got messy though!

Notes on Pumice & Clear Granular Gels

Just taking notes in preparation for my "Bathtime" piece as well as documenting in general. Not a terribly interesting post for anyone but me, I'm afraid . . . all products used are Golden unless otherwise specified.

Yesterday I mixed Clear Granular Gel (CGG) with heavy body Mars Black + Dioxazine Purple and painted over 1/3 of a gold gessoed mini canvas. I then mixed the Mars Black with Anthraquinone Blue and did the next third. The last bit I painted with untinted gel. Might as well not have used the purple or blue--I couldn't see any evidence of it, so use less next time (or don't bother and put it on top).

Today I painted over the untinted clear gel with fluid Carbon Black. Laying down the untinted CGG and then painting on top of it once dry is good if one wants what is underneath to peek through in places. If full coverage is desired, it's best to mix the paint in with the gel before applying. And remember that although it's named *clear* granular gel, the parts where the granules are does dry snowy white, just as Patti Brady says in her book Rethinking Acrylics.

Over the top of the two-thirds of the canvas that had been painted with tinted CGG, I first brushed fluid Interference Violet, then Interference Blue (Liquitex--Jerry's was out of the Golden). After letting that dry a few minutes, I brushed over all of it with the fluid Carbon Black that was now on the paintbrush I was using. This toned the interference back down and brought the black back up. I think this is going to work for my piece. The purple is quite purple, though; the blue is more subtle.

I also mixed some Extra Coarse Pumice Gel (ECPG) with Phthalo Blue (Red Shade) and applied to a couple of mini canvases, one that had white gesso and one that had a wash of fluid Transparent Yellow Oxide on it. It looks so cool! Putting Interference Violet over this looks pretty neat. I'm not sure about the Interference Blue, but I may not have shaken it enough before applying--it looks milky white, and I don't think it's supposed to be that way.

Getting Personal & Playing

Last night around midnight I gave in to the pull I'd felt towards drawing all evening (too tired to act on it before), and I finally just sat with my journal and a Koh-i-noor Magic pencil and played. I colored on things that were already in there, and I also did some of the doodling I used to do as a child over a whole page. On yet another page I made marks on it guided by what the song I was listening to at the time was doing ("My Father's Face", by Leo Kottke). I had a great time!

One thing I found had a very interesting effect indeed was using the multicolored pencil over a stamped image (one of Stamp Zia's nudes) that had been partially painted with Micaceous Iron Oxide (Golden fluid acrylics). Great texture and look, and I discovered that when I rubbed my finger over it all, I created a glow around the figure from the pencil particles that had been deposited on the iron oxide.

Also got a very nice look rubbing the pencil over the onionskin paper. The raised veins picked up the color, and it's a more subtle effect than using ink.

A Most Productive Evening

My son and I lazed around all day, and then my daughter when she came home from school, but it paid off this evening once they were in bed. I had a few things that had arrived this week that needed putting away (Santa Claus stamp, stuff from Alpha Stamps, papers from Finchley Paper Arts, etc.), so I sat down to take care of that. I stamped in my Moleskin journal with the new stamps I'd gotten to see what they looked like and also tried one of them on red Mylar tissue with StazOn ink (looked good).

The thing I am most pleased with is that I FINALLY finished covering a Moleskin journal that I started last year sometime. I figured out that if I were careful, i could attach these exceedingly delicate laser-cut tissue peacocks (gotten at a craft store in Wickford, Essex) to something with gel medium. I did that but then didn't know where to go from there.

I tried filling in the blank area with Oriental character stamps, which was okay (but not great) until I did it with Perfect Pearls--then it was too bright and I couldn't figure out how to tone it down. I'd already decided to cover over the whole thing with magenta gauzy paper, but the PP were just too bright.

Tonight I had the brilliant idea (if I do say so myself) to blend everything together by putting a page of sequinette (sequin waste) over the cover and then putting the magenta gauze over all. And when I checked that out, I realized that even better was to cut away the sequinette from the peacock in the lower right corner of the cover, so that it could be clearly seen and the top one was more obscured. I was pleased with that.

Also, it worked great to run the sequinette through the Xyron, lay it carefully on the cover, and then lay the magenta over it--the adhesive from the Xyron came through the holes in the sequinette and grabbed the magenta. Only problem is that on the back the sequinette wrinkled a little in one area and didn't get adhesive--I used a Tombow glue stick over that spot, but I'm not sure it's going to dry clear. Will check it in the morning.

I also successfully added the string of pearls around the edge of my water nymphs piece using Ranger's Matte Accents. I am coming to adore that stuff! Hopefully this weekend I can get the glass spheres adhered, and then it will be done.

Rummikub pendant

I began by using Red Pepper and Butterscotch alcohol inks pounced on the back and sides of the tile with the Ranger felt applicator pad. I dried with a heat gun (learning not to hold the heat gun too close or it begins to melt the tile).

Then I used StazOn Jet Black to stamp the head of The Calligraphy Robe on the tile. It was much harder to see than I thought it would be--think I used too much Red Pepper. Blending Solution removed the StazOn as well as the alcohol ink, so I applied more and wiped the whole off to start again.

Starting again, I applied Butterscotch and Latte inks directly to the tile and angled it to move the inks around before they dried. Then I pounced Red Pepper on with the felt applicator. Finally I put four small drops of Butterscotch on the felt applicator and pounced those all over. I dried a little with a heat gun but am now setting it aside to dry for a bit while I work on something else. I am going to stamp the lady's head again but this time in gold ink and emboss it with mirror gold EP--so I need to make sure the EP won't stick to the alcohol ink!

A little later on . . .

Hmm, I am thinking that what I should have done was to stamp & emboss first, then apply the alcohol inks. Guess I'll try it, but I'm pretty sure this tile is headed for the bin (or my daugher's playthings).

Well, the EP did work out all right (used Ultra Detail Mirror Gold), but then when I tried to use some alcohol blending solution on a tortillon to lighten the face, I discovered that it removes EP as well--didn't expect that. I was able to restore it with some Krylon Gold Leafing Pen applied with a (different) thin tortillon. The face looks odd, though. My daughter will get to play with it after all.

Thoughts on Making my First Pendant

I have learned two important things: you can't reheat Glossy Accents with a heat gun in the hopes that it will smooth out, but you can remove the entire contents of a pendant blank and start again! I poked around the edges with the sharp pin I use to clean out the tips of glue bottles, and it all just lifted out and peeled away, even the paper I'd put on the bottom, and it was as though I'd never put anything in it.

So, what did I like and not like about my first effort? I liked the paper, but it needed something dimensional, I felt, so I sprinkled clear microbeads on the Glossy Accents when it was still wet. That didn't turn out too well. The detail of the picture disappeared, of course, so instead of seeing three red flowers one just saw three red blobs. If I'd had one of those lovely glass red roses from Alpha Stamps or something like that to add, it might have been okay, but I didn't have anything suitable. Also I think I simply put too many microbeads in.

Whether that contributed to how the Glossy Accents dried, I don't know, but it had a lumpy surface on it that was displeasing to me. (That prompted the experiment with reheating it to smooth it out. Works with beeswax--not with GA! It bubbled and probably gave off some horrible noxious gas too.)

When I started over with the newly blank pendant, this time I began with the dimensional accent rather than the paper backing. I found that one of the little armadillo charms I had fit perfectly in the bottom of the pendant, so then I just needed an appropriate background for it. Couldn't find any Texas-style paper (with all the papers I have, I couldn't believe I didn't have the right one) with bluebonnets or cacti on it, but I did eventually find the border to a punch-out card that I got in England last year looked quite nice behind it. I cut it down and adhered it to the blank with a few dots of Diamond Glaze, then I put DG all around the edges and bottom. The armadillo went in next, and out of frustration (couldn't get the tip of the DG unblocked for more than a few seconds at a time) I removed the tip and just poured DG in straight from the bottle. I had to do this carefully and slowly at first so I could prick some bubbles I saw coming out, but I think that may have worked out better than doing it from the tip since it was such a large quantity I needed. It's still drying, but it looks very smooth on top, and I think I'm going to be very satisfied with it.

Note to self: add picture once finished.

Turning out the Christmas Cards

I've been consumed the last month or so working on Xmas cards. Am trying to be healthier about it than last year, and thus am enjoying the whole process more and not driving myself nuts by taking all the fun out of it. Some card designs I've made ten of and others only one, and you know what--that's no big deal! Last year I required myself to make five to six of each design, but then I also was following directions for each different one then, and this year I'm trying to stick with what I've been doing lately and just seeing what develops. It's still hard, but I'm having fun, and what I'm producing is okay even though I didn't know how it was going to end up when I began.

Lately I've been going over the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas from both 2007 and 2008 obsessively, trying to hone in on techniques that I can and want to use. I loved his Day 8 tag from last year and made a bunch of those this year. Then I wasn't sure what to do with them so set them aside for a few days. Finally I thought of using some of the really twee paper I had from a Christmas paper collection I'd bought my first year when I didn't know any better, cutting a panel to use as background, and sanding it to get the right distressed look to tie everything together plus obscure the tweeness of the paper at the same time. Doing that turned some of the most boring paper into some of my favorite! I love love love the sanded-paper look and want to go around sanding everything now.

Also pleased with myself because I figured out how to put the tag on the card so that it could be easily removed to use as a bookmark (as per a friend's request who wanted to buy some from me). You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find directions to do such a thing! I found plenty of entries for crafters selling cards with removable bookmarks, but some were perforated and the rest didn't share how they'd accomplished such a thing. For this novice that was a little discouraging. So I'm telling what I did to create a removable tag on a card:
--decided where on the card I wanted the tag to lay
--placed a strip of double-sided tape ON THE CARD (not the tag) where the tag should go
--placed a slightly larger strip of removable tape on top of the double-sided strip, with the removable tape sticky-side UP
Then the tag can be placed on the strip of removable tape and pulled off at will. Really not so hard, but boy was I pleased with myself to come up with that! (Full confession: the first time I placed the tape strips on the back of the tag rather than on the card. Ah well.)

Thoughts on "Beginnings" of All Kinds

Our challenge topic for November/December is "beginnings", put forth by myself. We are taking two months to do it with all the holidays, Thanksgiving travel, etc. I am making lots of Xmas cards and trying not to stress myself out too much. My mind keeps saying that I "should" be doing lots of things, but I try to cut that off right away and just enjoy playing around with different things.

I am amazed at how fast the transition has been for me from following very detailed instructions to create a clearly defined end result to just playing around and seeing where it takes me. Really, I thought that would be much harder for me to do! I think that all the projects and reading I've done have really paid off, which is how I typically do things--immerse myself in information for a while, then I surface and start synthesizing what I've learned to execute it in my own way. From somewhere I have gained a lot of confidence that I didn't have just a few months ago.

One of the things I did that has produced some lovely embellishments to use on my Xmas cards was to make some monoprints with alcohol inks on glossy white paper (I think I used red pepper, oregano, and the gold metallic mixative). I thought they might work as background panels for something else, but they didn't, so I then put some gold peel-off stickers I got in England last summer on them. They looked nice but like stickers put on paper (which they were, of course!), so I put Glossy Accents over the exposed parts, and they really look quite nice now.

With all the coupons Michael's has been handing out the last few weeks, I've been adding some neat things to my inventory. One is the Sophisticated Finishes Patina set, which I'm dying to play with but may not get to until after the holidays (sob). An idea for one of next year's Xmas cards is to cut a big Xmas tree with upturned corners, patina it, and punch holes to hang little ornaments from on tiny jump rings. Or, maybe, just do the tree as is once it's patina'd--embellish it by putting a star on top or something.

Anyway, about beginnings:
--One idea would be to do a collage with many different images of beginnings on it--January calendar, blank book (3D element), wedding ring or announcement, graduation picture, clock or timepiece of some sort, etc. This could be good practice for identifying a focal element and arranging different items, and it would be fun to use the different media for blending things together, especially now that I have the encaustic medium.
--I really like the idea that a beginning is also an ending and have found it very hard, in fact, to separate beginning from ending when thinking about this challenge. It would be another mixed-media piece, but maybe I could fashion a Mobius strip out of something, perhaps with words or a quote written along it?
--I also thought of doing a sunrise somehow, maybe in Art Deco fashion and tearing strips of paper to serve as the sunrise. This would be a landscape-oriented piece.
--I could make it personal and do a collage of beginnings for me: first house I remember, anything else significant. Must admit this seems the least interesting of all so far though.
--Some artistic representation of the beginning of a fractal--see quotes below. Now that could be quite fun!

Quotes about beginnings that might be interesting to muse over:
--The beginnings of things, of a world especially, is necessarily vague, tangled, chaotic, and exceedingly disturbing. ~ Kate Chopin
--"In my beginning is my end." ~ T.S. Eliot
--"Play is the beginning of knowledge." George Dorsey
--"Solitude is the beginning of all freedom." William Orville Douglas
--"At the earliest drawings of the fractal curve, few clues to the underlying mathematical structure will be seen." Ian Malcolm

Flower Fairy card with new technique

For my cousin's birthday card, I used a technique I had read about in the May/June 2008 issue of Rubber Stamp Madness and hadn't gotten a chance to try out yet.

I took a Flower Fairy outline peel-off sticker that I'd gotten in England this summer and turned it so the sticky side was up. Then I used a small paintbrush to apply dry chalks where desired (I mainly used my shimmer chalk set). Once I'd applied chalk everywhere I wished, I brushed the entire surface with Perfect Pearls (Blush, then Perfect Gold). To finish, I did corners and applied to paper and card as shown.

The whole thing didn't take long, and it came out quite nice as a birthday card for a four-year-old.

11 August 2008

Remember this from Suze Weinberg’s July newsletter:

--Push out the die cut shape from the papers (shown at R)... (there are a few different triangular bead shapes)
--Roll it on anything cylindrical (a pencil, etc), pull it off and glue the tiny end of the paper bead to the now rolled bead. The size of the cylinder determines the size of the bead center.
--Hold with tweezers & roll the Beadle in melted Clear UTEE in The Melting Pot. Never panic....A heat gun can always be used to smooth out any rough edges.
--BTW: if you prefer....you can take the paper bead, coat it with clear embossing ink, dip it into Clear UTEE powder & heat with a heat gun !

Jewelry Idea from Suze Easter Update 2008 newsletter:

"No Glass is needed in this new technique !
--Work on Craft Sheet. Melt Clear UTEE then add 1 drop of To Dye For & stir in color slowly.
--Insert paper image into Memory Frame. Yes it will be a bit loose in there. Be sure frame is laying flat on work surface.
--Pour UTEE into frame to fill. Looks like colored glass when finished. Embellish frame with rhinestones!
I used our sterling silver jewelry bales (attached with Loctite Brush On Super Glue) to attach the extra hanging bale on the bottom of the green frame."

25 July 2008

In water piece—or any piece—apply paint thickly and use palette knife to make rough swirls—indicate unsettledness, roiling, turbulence. Gradually change to perfectly smooth to indicate area of serenity, calm, peacefulness, tranquillity.

Idea: collage of the 9th Street house in Wichita Falls.

Notes from Duxford and Tiger Moth flight: Dale said his favorite part was the takeoff. He loved the uninhibited view of the fields and meadows below him and mentioned that he could see Saffron Walden.

20 July 2008

Thoughts on the “foggy” challenge: I thought of the fog of memory and how people can suddenly pop out of one’s mind when if asked an hour before you wouldn’t have recalled anything about them.

So I thought about having a piece that had a foggy look all over but with faces emerging at certain points between the clouds (use Stampscapes clouds stamp recently purchased?). Not clearly defined, maybe some kind of transfer. Or transparencies.

Have to think about how to make it interesting and also how to make it pretty, or at least not dull.

I did have the idea of having the faces appearing in a circle on the piece.

Maybe the idea with “foggy” is that all the images should be obscured in some way, as though there was a fog or haze or veil in the way. Encaustic? Vellum? Angel hair? Nothing too hard, like metal or wire mesh. Fog is soft, no hard edges, can’t be contained in a form.

NOTE: for dolphin/sea piece, try using heat-transfer method to put a celestial map in the sky (p. 18 Collage Discovery Workshop).

Apply transparent colors on top of each other.

NOTE: try using Cobalt Blue first then Turquoise Phthalo on top for ocean (pp. 22-23 Collage D. Wkshop).

NOTE: try using a combing tool to make waves in the paint (p. 26 CDW).

NOTE: sprinkle sand or crushed shells onto the paint?

Something to try: apply plain white vinegar to copper sheeting.

Something to try in the right piece would be to use incense sticks, either tied together or just glued in place, to frame an element (p. 60 CDW).

11 July 2008

Or maybe the thing to do is make a piece and then make up a story for whom it belongs to or where it belongs. Although if I could do that, I guess I wouldn’t need the story at all. . . .

Notes to self:
--use a bleach pen
--gold gesso
--get some Frisket

Idea: Collage with pictures of bread, old-fashioned ovens, wheat growing in a field, cheesecloth [use pics of my bread]. Sprinkle salt, use eggshells.

College with bouquet garni bag, herbs dried and fresh, seed packets, smoke swirls (for aroma), pots (big ones, like for soup), pictures and layouts of herb gardens. Sprinkle salt on part of it.

Mica idea—glue down in one corner and cover up with gold or copper flakes (p. 97 A. Cartwright book).

Conflict of being parent/wife—incredible heart, hope, love, but with a cage around it, or part of it; maybe use wire to anchor it down. Something that conveys the spilling over of so much love and emotion but the constraints of responsibility and duty enclosing, surrounding, encaging.

--Scott Davis Jones (gallery)

25 June 2008

Other things I like, that maybe I can figure out how to work into my art: rain, rainstorms, the brightness of things after a rainstorm, being cozy inside when it’s raining outside. I like twilight and I like midnight with lots of stars in the sky. I like campfires outside and I like candles inside. Did I say earlier that I like bare trees? I like water—oceans of it and rivers flowing by. I love the sound of the waves and watching them come in from the deep ocean. I like the way liquids look in a clear glass with light behind them.

A good idea from Claudine Hellmuth is to look at pieces of art that speak to me and analyze them. What first catches my attention—images, colors, placements? Why is the image successful? Note the colors used to get an idea of the color palette the artist used. This would be a good thing to do while in England.

Placement ideas to remember:
For high energy, make focus go from lower left to upper right (try positioning a stamp at an angle).
Use a primary color for focal point of composition.

24 June 2008

Today I did some mildly interesting things. One was that I learned about using alcohol inks on acetate panels—apply with a blender pen filled with the alcohol blending solution. And you have to dedicate a blender pen to this use. I’m going to have to get another one so I can do that. I had just dripped colors straight onto the panel, but I don’t like the look around the edges of the drip—too hard for my tastes. (I was doing this on a sunflower collage stamp.) So that’s good to know.

I also got paper today that I’d had in mind for endpapers on a book—but I love it and haven’t used it yet—so I got a new piece (saving my old ones for endpapers when I get around to it). One of the moleskin notebooks I got was marred on the front, so it needed to be covered rather than just decorated. So I used the paper on the cover and think it’s going to turn out well. Right now it’s drying under my book press boards, and tomorrow afternoon I’ll trim down the edges and see how it all looks.

Sitting at my art area and looking around at my stuff, I did feel the familiar paralysis coming over me again. Maybe I need to go back and do some more projects again, where I’m following other people’s instructions. As I do those things, maybe inspiration will strike. I have ideas, half-formed, but when I try to take action—which means deciding what kind of inkpad to use and then what color, and what to stamp on, I just feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin. But then, this is part of why I think this activity is good for me—because I’m forced to make a decision and go with it. I have always hated cutting off options by making decisions, and I think that’s not really a healthy habit. I need to just stamp on something, and if I can’t use it immediately, then it will come in handy sometime in the future. Just DO something!

23 June 2008

So, what to write about today? One of the things I’ve learned recently from all the reading I’ve been doing in various magazines (lots of Somerset ones plus a few others) is the basic concept of beginning with a color palette in mind. I didn’t know that was how real artists thought! But I understand why, and I can see how it will help the various elements flow together coherently in a piece. I just find it so hard to take the time to make those decisions before beginning the hands-on part—the planning is so hard! I want to stamp, and cut, and emboss, and have it just work!

Maybe one thing I will try while on my month-long visit to my in-laws is to design one piece a day in my notebook. I won’t be able to do it, since all my stuff will be at home, but it would be good to force my mind to think this way, to make these decisions. I could easily see it coming up with three different variations, which would be great. The hard thing, though, is that many times it really does happen on the fly—I see that something is needed, so I go through my scrap box and happen across just the right paper, with just the right texture—I couldn’t have planned that, because I didn’t know it would be just right until I saw it. Hmmm. How to strike a balance here is the question. And of course I need to recognize that the more I begin things with a color palette in mind, the easier it will become. Right now this is just an education process of familiarizing myself with the color wheel and what approach to take to achieve a certain mood.