Cereal Box Journal

I have learned so much from other people, too many to remember to list them here. I do want to mention Jane LaFazio, who introduced me to cereal box journals, and Jane Davies, who taught me about lifting paint. I have learned a great deal more than that from Jane and Jane. They are both brilliant artists and excellent teachers, and their classes are fun and filled with new ideas. Check out their workshops and online classes on their websites!

Okay, my cereal box journal. I save cereal and cracker boxes and cut off the sides and ends to make pages. I punch holes in them so that I can hold them together with rings.

As you can see, we eat lots of cereal
and crackers around my house.

I am working on collage and paint pieces (not in the journal, on printmaking paper), and sometimes I want to remove paint that I have applied. I grab a cereal box page or a piece of drawing paper and blot to lift the paint. I love the interesting effect of this. The cereal box by-product is just a bonus! When I have blotted enough that the CB page is covered, I make marks on it and sometimes I add more paint.

These finished pages are fun to play with. I have no stake in how they look. They do not have to be perfect! If I end up with something I hate (it happened once) I can either paint or gesso over it or throw it in the trash.

Sometimes I use cheap drawing paper to lift paint. I learned about this paper from Jane Davies. It is on her Favorite Materials web page.

I love to write on these pages. I overlap the writing so no one can read it (really, I say things I would never want anyone to read!), and I love the blocky squiggly effect.

Rather than punch holes in this paper, which I think would soon be destroyed by flipping through the heavy cardboard, I stick it on the CB pages with acrylic medium. I am sure PVA glue would be just fine, I just haven't had a bottle near me when I have been doing this. In this photo I have folded the drawing paper in half and wrapped it around the cardboard page.

I'll add some paint and some writing certainly, and maybe more. Whatever I do, I will enjoy doing it, and maybe learn some things that will help me be a better artist.

downhill

Who can forget the feeling of flying when riding a bicycle down a hill. You work so hard to get to the top, then with a rush of wind and a thrill of exhiliration you scream toward the bottom, and it's all over so fast.

intellectual geisha

The image of this woman is one of my favorites. Something about her seems schoolmarmish, the glasses I suppose. And the bun on top of her head. The crane is her daydream as she sits, perhaps, facing a roomful of noisy children. Maybe she wishes she could fly above the earth in silence.

birthday

 

Birthday card to myself. How could I not be happy while looking at those colors?

dog dreams

snow

winter

sisters are doin' it for themselves

bamboo garden

dreams of the forest
swaying with the wind as does
the ancient bamboo

in the rain

soft drops in the trees
the damp air is golden
walking hand in hand

bicycle

It doesn't seem quite finished. Not sure what to do next.

the bird is the word

Another PS CS4 creation using layer masks. My formula (or rut) is to open a new image using a template that I created for my journal. I duplicate the background layer (Cmd J on mac, Ctrl J on pc), then select a font and start typing. This is a personal journal where I say whatever comes to mind. I fill up the page, and if I am not through writing, I have a file on my computer where I can continue, so that I don't have to stop if I am on a roll. I lock the text layer, then start Placing images on layers. I choose a central photo, like the bird, and add texture with pictures that I have taken, brushes, and acquired texture files. Then I play with positioning the layers, changing colors, and so on. I add layer masks to expose or conceal parts of the images. This is starting to feel very comfortable, so I need to find some new techniques to explore in photoshop.

My journal template is 5X7 and I am using high resolution images so I should be able get good quality prints. I am imagining a crazy quilt using some of my favorite images. Or maybe I could wait until the end of the year when presumably I will have 365 images and make a quilt that would cover the roof of my house. Sort of a Christos installation. I wrote those last few sentences to see if anyone is actually reading my blog. Surely someone will comment!

come into the woods

Created in PhotoShop CS4. The flowers and woods are a picture that I took, and the girl is an image that I got from Divas D'Este on one of their great cd's. The purple lace pattern is a photoshop brush that I downloaded from a website -- and now I don't remember which one, sorry.

I decided that I liked the lace over the other images, although I did remove it from around the face using a layer mask.

These collages are great fun to do, and I am getting much faster.

My studio has been a wreck for at least 6 weeks, and I going to spend this week cleaning it up so I can get crackin' on all the projects running around my brain, including printing some of the journal pages on fabric.

more gratitude

Hemingway's Garden

Wanderlust

Girls and Swan

Since I plan to print my pages on paper or fabric I've decided to leave open space for hand embellishing.

The Loveliness of Snow

We have not had a beautiful snow this winter. As much as I do not like the inconvenience of snow and ice, I do love looking at the blanket of snow outside. I have used an image from a storm that occurred about a year ago. Our woods were covered and we even had icicles hanging from the roof. We were snowed in for several days and spent lots of time reading by the fireplace, venturing out only for more firewood. We may not get a snow like this in 2011, but I have my snowstorm picture to remind me.

It's a Boundary Thing

I am journaling more than I ever have. I love to write whatever is on my mind, then cover it up with images. It's still there, it's a design element, and it becomes something I can share with others.

My word for 2011 is "learn". While making these journal pages I am learning about myself (writing), and learning about design and photoshop while creating the collages. As Ina would say, "What could be better than that?"

Vantage Point