collage painting step by step

well, i guess it's a backwards kind of step by step, but i think you can figure it out. ;) i recently took a class at Big Picture Classes with Emily Falconbridge called, "Got Paint?" and this painting was our final project.

Here is my crazy, messy dining room table (turned art studio for the moment!)

and a close-up of the first phase. here i've just placed random pieces of somewhat-coordinated scraps of paper (i knew that keeping those little pieces would come in handy! ha!)

a little gesso (or white paint) dry-brushed and wiped away here and there to hide/reveal parts of the canvas. the middle design is made with vintage sewing paper. i traced my design from an old calendar. you can trace any image you can think of. i thought about just leaving the collage like this. i really like the look of the antiqued paper against the colorful background. but, i decided to keep pushing it. (always scary, always fun!)

oh, this is just a close up of my cute little bowl i've had since i was a kid! it was on the craft table filled with midnight snacks (chocolate ice cream treats from Trader Joe's!) the bowl used to have a mug and a plate and if you piled them all up, you'd have a 3-D girl! (the plate had a printed image of shoes and the mug was her "body" with a cute little dress.)

this was the fun part...adding all the paint splotches and drips and texture with all sorts of fun painting tools (bubble wrap, corrugated cardboard, pizza cutter, shaped sponge brushes, stencils, etc--most things you have at home!) i just picked a few (ok, a lot) of my favorite colors and that's how my color scheme was born. i'm really gravitating toward these bright colors lately. and a few pastels for balance. i love red, aqua, sky, pink, sea foam, and rose.

so, it's not a very detailed step-by-step. i don't want to take away from the amazing class i just experienced. if you're looking for a fun, laid-back, go-at-your-own-pace kind of class or you just need a little boost of inspiration, i HIGHLY recommend this class. tons of fun.

i would love to see what everyone is up to these days. now that spring is upon us, what colors are inspiring you lately?

SNOW??

ok, not really! but it's the closest we get to snow in san jose! every spring, the plum tree in our front yard bursts into bloom and on a windy and/or rainy day, the blossoms begin to fall like snow and cover our entire yard in sweet, delicate petals!

i am super excited at the arrival of spring! longer, warmer days means more picnics on the lawn with my journal and favorite art supplies! in fact, the other day, me and maya were sitting on the lawn, enjoying a little break while sureya took her nap. we had our journals, pens, glue, images and we were in heaven!

ahhh...just lovely! but now the rain has come and it seems that it will be in town for over a week! what are we going to do?

i'm sure we'll think of something... maybe a fort in the middle of the dining room? dreaming of a sunny day.

and lots of time to make art!

scrappy pages and spontaneous rainbow giveaway!!

i'm made a few more pages for my album. it feels so good to finally be putting these photos onto pages and into albums! and i have the class "got paint?" by emily falconbridge to thank for it! :)

i always forget this trick/tip, but it is SO much easier to create almost ANYthing when you get a few steps done ahead of time.

i painted and stamped all my pages at once and then when it was time to lay the photos down, i worked on several pages at a time, flowing between each one when i'd get "stuck."

i have almost a full 6x6 album now. all colorful and rainbow-y and full of photos of me and my family! yay! so let's celebrate with a GIVEAWAY!!

i've been cleaning up my studio--organizing, rearranging, and creating more messes (suddenly, surrounded by my art supplies and treasures, i'll be inspired to create!). so, i found two packages left over from a past rainbow giveaway/swap and i thought i'd offer a package full of RAINBOW goodies to the first TWO COMMENTERS! starting...NOW! **remember to leave a way for me to contact you either an email or blog or something!!**

good luck!!

cute vintage sheet pennant giveaway

isn't this just ADORABLE? i am totally in love with vintage sheets. i haven't really gotten excited over the whole pennant/bunting fad that i'm seeing so much of on etsy and other places UNTIL i saw this super sweet, handmade vintage sheet bunting by Amy of Diary of a Quilter. one lucky commenter will have their hands on it, courtesy of the vintage sheet blog. check out the giveaway HERE. i have a collection of sheets, fat quarters and charm squares just waiting to be made into lovely things! i have big plans to make a king-sized quilt from my vintage sheet squares. but that's a post for another day.

painting scrapbook pages

just wanted to share some scrapbook pages i've done lately. i'm taking a class with emily falconbridge called "got paint?" over at big picture classes. i met emily at a class i took with anahata katkin in september of 2008 (wow, was it that long ago?). i've been following her blog ever since. and when i found out she was teaching an online course, well, i just had to sign up!

it feels REALLY good to finally be getting these photos onto pages and into albums. i've never been much of a scrapbooker, but when i saw how artistic you could get with pages and all the "non-traditonal" styles and methods, i couldn't resist. these techniques are simple and they get me motivated to get my photos out and get those pages into an album. once i started one, i couldn't stop.

it's super easy. i painted the pages with some quick background colors and when they were dry, i added some stamps in contrasting color paint. i spread the pages all out in front of me and started laying down my photos (this was kind of random, but sometimes i'd place a photo down on a page if it looked really good with the colors). then it was time to add the embellishments. i'm really loving boarder stickers! i can't get enough. especially the ones by k & company. the brigher the better! :)

so, that's about all. it's been too cold and windy to get outside to do spraypainting in my journal (and i still need the right mask!). so i'll wait til it warms up a bit. spring is lovely and all, but it can be so temperamental! warm and sunny one day and cold and windy the next! (can't wait til summer! that's my favorite season!!)

hope you are all up to your elbows in paint and paper and crafty goodness!

journal page step-by-step

So I've had a chance to work in my XXL moleskine journal and i thought i'd share a few photos of some pages and how they evolved... (disclaimer, i did not invent any of these techniques. i am simply using what i've learned from various artists, classes, books, etc over the years)

I start off with a magazine image for the focal point (usually a face i find intriguing or fascinating). and i dig through my bag o' scraps (those precious little paper pieces i can't bare to throw out! yes, you can use up every little bit!) i just glue down the focal image and surrounded it with paper that i find pleasing to my eye (i don't spend too much time on this step since it's going to be covered up anyway!) what's funny is that i really love this part and it's sometimes (most times!) hard for me to go on to any other steps (paint, stamps, spray paint, etc). but i push myself to try new things, so...

i squeeze out acrylic paint right out of the tube and onto the page. little drops here and there. i try to keep analogous or harmonious colors together (avoiding those colors that fall opposite each other on the color wheel--otherwise when you blend them, you end up with muddy browns and blacks and greens). this part is actually really fun. i use an old gift card or credit card to scrape the paint around the page. i also smear the paint around with my fingers and wipe the colors off on other pages-in-progress (i love to work in multiple journals at once). on this page, i also played with stamps (to add texture to the background), copic markers (to add color to the face & around the eyes) and puffy fabric paint (tulip brand, the squeeze kind that has the thin applicator tip). the puffy paint is fun to draw with, adding patterns, details to the face/body, just playing with (i learned this from anahata katkin. i also used ink to make drips on the page and turned the book so it sits upright so the ink will drip down--also learned from anahata) i've also outlined the eyes & mouth with micron pens and colored them in with sharpie poster paint pens.

ok, this is my favorite part (wait, haven't i already said that? i guess once i get going, it's all fun!) this is where i lay down spray paint. i've been using montana cans and various stencils i've collected--my favorites are by crafter's workshop. (i have to give credit to mary ann moss for inspiring me on my newfound love of spray paint and stencils!!!) so, i don't know if it's finished yet. i still would like to add some journaling and maybe draw in some patterns or designs here and there.

here's two other journal pages i shared previously. these were in the early stages. just cut out images from magazines and added some spray paint.

then i smeared & scraped the paint around and added ink drips and stamps, spray paint and outlines with fabric paint.

here's the other side of the two-page spread. this is the one that inspired me to go kind of tribal with the other pages. i had some red paint on my fingers from smearing paint around the pages so i just wiped it off on the face and i liked what i saw. i also filled in this face with acrylic paint. nothing fancy. just off-white. i like to paint in faces ala misty mawn, but that technique usually takes a little longer and i didn't have the right colors to blend for face tones, anyway.

so, aside from playing in my journals, i've also managed to participate in speckled egg's petit inspiration box swap again this year. the theme was "flea market style" so i filled up the boxes with all of my sweetest vintage (and vintage-inspired) goodies!

the outsides were fun to decorate, too. i got to go through my wonderful collection of vintage-inspired scrap book papers and put them to good use! :) each box was decorated a little different for each of my two swap partners. i tried to tailor it to their interests as best i could. that's always fun--to make something special with someone in mind. :)

i won't say who they're going to so i don't ruin their surprise! :) but i thought i'd post a little sneak peek here to inspire you. (and encourage you to join swaps! i'm always up for a good swap, by the way. just email me or leave a comment!)

well, that's all for today. i hope you've been inspired to make something and try new things. as always, i love to hear from you in the comments. i love to see what others are up to!