Around Here Lately

Hello friends! It’s been a while!

Wow, it’s been quite the ride around here for the last few weeks!

So, I thought I’d give you the nutshell low-down of some of the things that have been happening around here lately!

1. There was a lot of this! My husbands family came to visit in March, which was closely followed by my folks visiting from Germany to celebrate my father’s 70th birthday with us!

{Please ignore my sinusitis induced swollen face!}

 

 

 

And this is the portrait I painted for him as a birthday gift.

 

2. Both my daughter and my husband are currently rehearsing for plays at the local community theater. Two different plays.  Which means rehearsals every night and all weekends between the two of them!

 

{Anna during the performance of her last play!}

 

3. While we got through the winter with very little sickness, it seemed to have caught up with us now. First I went down with some icky sinusitis (right in the middle of my folks visiting!) then the kids went down with something too, even though not nearly as bad. They had the good sense to wait with the real icky stuff until my folks left and Max is still down with it right now, having been home for 4 days, sick!

 

4. I have also had a bit of a redecorating bug, as I have already mentioned, and in addition to being busy sewing a bunch of stuff for the redecorated bedroom (curtains, pillow cases, duvet covers, etc.) I ended up making a few decorative pieces for various spots throughout the house, too.

 

 

 

I’m not quite done yet. I think the living room is next in terms of a redo, which will require quite a bit of DIYing on my part as well. I’m planning on using some of our existing Billy system, but as they don’t make our color anymore, I will most likely have to paint the lot to make it uniform with the extension pieces I am planning on adding and making into a custom “built-in.” However, that is a whole different story and will probably be one of those  “I do a little when I can” kind of projects, as well as a “now that I have this down, let’s paint all the walls while we can and have a minor renovation” type of project.

For now I have, yet again, given my little IKEA drawers another make-over. I think this is the third décor/color change they have been through over the years. I wish IKEA still sold those! They are so much fun to alter!

 

 

4. And while looking for something else I came across the instructions for these little beauties and I just adore them! I’ve made two so far but I think I have a few more in me! Aren’t they so cute?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V9qmKE9wN4

 

My idea at the time was to make a paper mache mannequin stuck on a candle holder with a chicken wire skirt for my earrings, but then I cake across these sewn ones and I just had to try them!

One as a pin cushion:

 

 

By the way, for this one, I used a “candle holder” that I made this way from dollar store items.

 

The other is for my earrings:

 

 

I used drawer pulls for the top of the mannequins.

 

5. Of course, there is also always the garden. Lots to do there! Planting, harvesting, processing ... weeding!

 

 

    

 

 

And Mr./Mrs. Squirrel is back too, which would explain the disappearing strawberries!

 

{We caught him/her in the act this morning!}

 

6. Even though I’ve been doing a lot less of the painting kind of art these last few weeks, I have still kept up with  it somewhat. I’ve been working on several faces with the pastel/watercolor/gesso method. Totally new experience for me and really a different style, but I’m loving it!

 

 

7. I am currently really into expressing myself through things other than just paintings, so I am also working on my first art doll!  Totally still a work in progress at this point:

 

 

8. The other thing that’s been rocking my world:

 

 

I love, love, love this pot! It’s amazing! And I’m sure it will be the subject of many a blog post and recipe to come!

For now, let’s just say I haven’t cooked a day without it since I got it!

What is it?

InstantPot is an electric, programmable pressure cooker!

My favorites so far: Perfectly soft boiled eggs in 3 minutes, a full pot of potatoes in 10 minutes, beautiful, rich bone broths/stock in 1 hour (!!!), fluffy brown rice in 20 minutes, whole chicken, incredibly moist and tender in 25 minutes! Oh, and it makes yogurt too (dairy and non-dairy) .... and I get to make it in mason jars!! Oh and dairy-free cheese cake - yep, in the pressure cooker! In 20 minutes!

Basically, it has taken over the function of a pressure cooker, the crock pot, the rice cooker, the yogurt maker and so much more! And the insert is stainless steel, so no issue with non-stick coatings and such!

And non of the scary parts of pressure cooking are involved with this little machine! It has a bunch of built in safety features and  clean-up is so easy!

Anyway, as you can see, I am totally in love with the thing!

If you are interested in knowing more, there’s a nice little video in the amazon listing I linked you to.

And no, I am not affiliated with InstantPot, I just love the pot!

 

9. I’ve been working on quite a few blog posts recently. But they seem to evolve. So, they started out one way and while writing, they turn another way! As a result, I have quite a few blog posts in my draft folder, none ready to post and all in progress. I will get them all to you at some point. I hope!

 

10. There has also been a fair bit of this.

 

Gelli printing is so much fun!

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Work In Progress

That seems to be the theme for me the last couple of weeks. Work.In.Progress.

I don’t have much finished, most of my art is currently in the “work in progress” stage.

We’ve had a lot of visitors lately and there is more to come!

So, normal life has been not at all “normal” and has sort of been happening between bouts of visiting and other distractions.

As a result, I haven’t really been able to do all that much art and the little I do get done, seems to just add to the work-in-progress pile.

 

This is not an easy state for me to be in - the perpetual WIP, without something finished and filed away - is not something I revel in!

However, these days, when I find an area where I am supremely uncomfortable, instead of “making it go away”, fighting against it, resisting it or pulling some superhuman efforts out of my hat, usually at a great price to myself, or, decide not to do something just so I don’t add to the pile -  I try and lean into it and embrace the discomfort.

I say “try” because some days I’m more successful than others with this!

 

But, I am learning so much about myself! So much to clear, so much to let go and so much to open up to!

Having a perpetual work-in-progress pile in my art, is just one of those discomforts in my life right now. There are many more. How did I get so lucky?

 

But, I am learning to really appreciate the discomfort! It’s that message that tells me something is up!

• It tells me that there is an opportunity to let go of an outdated way of thinking/feeling/acting.
• It tells me, that I am learning to recognize and leaning into my vulnerabilities, something I would have avoided at all cost not too long ago!
• It tells me that in this moment, on this day, in this situation, however minute, I am practicing courage and I am opening myself up to not only vulnerability, but also change!
• It tells me I am one step closer to being authentically me, and one step further away from needing to be “perfect.”
• It tells me, that at the other end of it, there is so much more opportunity for ease, joy, gratitude and expansion!
• It tells me, that I am  also a constant work in progress and that that is a good thing! Sometimes it’s also a difficult thing, but it’s never not a good thing!

 

And with that, I will show you one of those work-in-progress pieces from my pile.

 

I decided to go big on a face, to really practice features. But not only that, I also learned a new (to me) method of painting with gesso, watercolor crayons and black ink  while I was at it! It’s nowhere near finished, but it is starting to take shape!

 

 

 

 

 

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.”
― Brené Brown

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The Big 20/20 Event: Day 14: Making An Art Journal Part 1

Welcome back to “The Big 20/20 Event” - I am so glad you’re joining us! We will be sharing 20 fantastic tutorials from a host of awesome contributors, for 20 days.
If you enjoy the tutorials, make sure you sign up for my newsletter, as all my newsletter subscribers will receive a beautiful PDF eBook at the end of the event, showcasing all 20 tutorial projects to keep and peruse at their leisure!
Here we go with our Day 14 tutorial.

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Making An Art Journal, Part 1

 

 

Today's tutorial is brought to you by the lovely Lisa.

 

For my tutorial I would like to show you how to make your own art journal!

 

This is such an awesome thing to do for many reasons.

I myself became interested in it because I was not being able to find a journal to carry around that had the type of paper in it that I wanted. Now I love them because the process is fun, the outcome is rewarding, they make such neat things to carry around AND to give to others as gifts.

 

 

I am going to break this down into 2 parts. The first part will be decorating the covers. Of course you can cover your book any way you choose. And with any materials from cloth to paint. It is your book. I am just going to share how I did it. The cover needs to be done before the book is sewn together. And of course the second part will cover all the details of making the book. Happy Creating!

 

Part 1 - Making the Book Cover

 

Supplies:

- Paper with Patterns and images to cut

- Mod Podge

- Tissue paper....I actually used old paper from a torn up bible (don't hate me, I think using it versus tossing it is awesome!)

- Gesso

- Ink pad (I used Adirondack due to it does not smear)

- White Paint Pen

- Black Permanent Pens of different sizes. (I used Faber Castells)

- Aqua Markers

- Water color crayons (I used Neocolors)

- Embellishments (Mine was a little paper cut that had the words "This is your special Day")

- Texture ... You can use Molding Paste, Gesso, or I used Joint Compound from the hardware store.)

- Acrylic paint (I used Tim Holtz's Distress Paint Dabber)

- Stencil (I used a paper doily for cupcakes)

- Heat Gun (This is optional but helps with things go faster)

- Drawing Pad or Sketch Pad (I used Canson Watercolor Paper 140lb 9X12")

 

Before I start I wanted to let you know all the above supplies are suggestions of what I used and things can be changed to what you have.

 

An example would be to use only acrylic paint instead of any watercolor markers. Just add water on it to dilute it a bit.

Also I have people say to me all the time how they can not match colors up as well when it comes to the papers and such.

You can buy the papers in a pack that all coordinate with each other.

 

And lastly the biggest thing I want to tell you is KEEP GOING!

 

Don't let not having the right supplies or any other negative thought stop you! There are many times when I am doing something and I come to a point that I hate it! Even doing this book cover I hit a part where I thought WHAT???

 

This would be the spot where mine was at a point where I wanted to toss it out....

 

 

I had thought doing a yellow background would be like the sun......It didn't quite turn out. (wink) I then slapped Gesso over it and went in a different direction. (wink) So just KEEP GOING!

 

OK let's get started.

 

The first thing you need to do is take apart the sketch book. Pull all the pages out carefully and remove any glue off the ends. Then carefully separate the front cover from the thick cardboard back.

 

 

Your book cover is going to be made out of the back of the sketch pad. Measure your pad to find the center. For mine that was 6" between both sides. You need to cut down the center to make 2 pieces. The easiest way is to use a paper-cutter as shown below. You can also use a large straight edge such as a ruler and run a utility knife down the side. You can also use scissors.

 

 

Cut up or tear the tissue paper and glue it down using the Mod Podge. Use a paint brush to layer on a thin layer of the Mod Podge then lay a piece of paper on it.

 

Use more Mod Podge on your brush to push it down then layer another piece of paper beside it overlapping each piece. (Note: Tissue paper is crinkly this IS the effect you are going for.

 

You will want to have the paper hang off the edge at least 3/4th an inch. (see picture below)

 

 

Once your Book Cover is covered turn it over. You will be cutting the corners to fold the tissue paper over as shown in the image below. Be sure to not cut all the way to the corner. You want to leave around 2mm at the tip.

 

 

On the back side of the cover glue along the edge and fold the paper over.

 

 

Once glued, set it aside and start cutting petals and 2 circles out of the patterned paper.

 

 

Take the Ink Pad and slide the edge of each petal across it to give each one an outline. Don't worry if it smears a bit here and there and is not perfect. Those little accidents make for a lot of beautiful texture!

 

 

NOW here is what I did and then changed it. (wink)

You can follow me exactly or skip to the Gesso.....ha ha

 

Using my Distress Dabber I covered the whole thing yellow. Added green and blue to the edges with Distressed Ink Pads.

Then I glued down the petals and flower using the Mod Podge.

Stepped back and realized I did NOT like the color at all, so I covered all the background and was careful to get between all the petals with Gesso.

 

To do it over I would have taken the cover and covered it with just Gesso then glued down the flowers and just went from there. The blues and Greens don't even show up in the end so all is not needed.

 

 

Once you have the flowers in place put a thin layer of Mod Podge over them and let them dry. (This is when a heat gun can come in handy.)

Once dry use different color Aqua Markers to place highlights on one side of each petal. While the marker's ink is still wet use your finger to smear it around. You can use a brush if you want. I just like to finger paint! (wink)

 

 

I did not get the next step on film BUT it is not hard. I took the Aqua Marker and went around the edge of each flower and smeared the color just as I had done with the petals. Then I decided I wanted more of a defined outline so I took a marker and outlined the flowers and the leaf.

 

Now for some fun! (wink) I took a doily and placed it at the top left corner where the sun goes.

 

 

Then you can use Molding paste OR what I like to use is Joint Compound from the hardware store. It is sooo thick!!

I have some left over that has a bit of blue acrylic paint mixed in it. The color doesn't matter because I am going to paint it, but it does come white.

 

Now an easy way to do this is to apply some on the edge of a credit card and then apply it to the back side of the doily. Then lift the doily straight up and VIOLA!

 

 

Let this completely dry....again....this would be an awesome time for a heat gun! (wink) I am so impatient I love mine! ha ha Next I pulled my lovely Distress Dabber again. I love this thing! NO MESS! I brushed on my sun then added a bit of water to mute it down a bit.

 

 

Now comes the finishing touches that just bring your personality in. You can with the pens write words, add XXXXs down the side of a stem, doodle in odd spots, outline everything again, and glue on embellishments.

 

And then take the ink pad and go all around the edge of the edges to frame it all in. When you are finished doodling and adding stuff go back over it with Mod Podge to seal it all on.

 

Here is mine finished before I added it to the book.

 

 

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If you want to share yours please feel free to email me your pictures. I would LOOOOVE to see them! floppinflower(at)gmail.com

 

Have an awesome day! (wink)

 

Lisa's Bio:

Hello! I am so excited to be apart of the BIG 20/20 Event! Let me introduce myself. My name is Lisa Scott aka Floppin Flower. I have been blogging since 2011. I started out basically just doing it for fun to see what it was about. And through the years it has changed right along with me. About a year ago I decided to take some art classes. Painting was one thing I was never able to understand or do. Now it is my love! Especially once I found the world of Mixed Media where there are no rules, you can mix things up the way you want to create a wonderful outcome of colors and textures!! (wink) You can visit me over on my blog www.floppinflower.com

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The Big 20/20 Event: Day 5: Creating Texture With Gesso & Stamps

Welcome back to “The Big 20/20 Event” - I am so glad you’re joining us! We will be sharing 20 fantastic tutorials from a host of awesome contributors, for 20 days.

If you enjoy the tutorials, make sure you sign up for my newsletter, as all my newsletter subscribers will receive a beautiful PDF eBook at the end of the event, showcasing all 20 tutorial projects to keep and peruse at their leisure!!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Creating Texture With Gesso & Stamps

 

Following my post about Gesso Stenciling and creating texture and interest with the puffy gesso method, I am now sharing another favorite method of mine to use Gesso to create texture for your journaling pages, paintings or other mixed media projects .

 

 

In my first gesso tutorial, we were scraping the gesso through a stencil to create texture, this time we’ll be making impressions in the gesso by stamping and drawing into the gesso.

You will need:

• A fairly thick type of Gesso.
• a piece of paper
• stamps of choice
• An optional array of: Spray inks, distress stamp pads, distress stain daubers, shimmer mists, Gilders paste, water colors, etc.
• Optional: Heat Tool/Gun - if not heat gun, then patience!
• Means to clean your stamps pretty much immediately. (Spray bottle with water & rag or bowl full of water to submerge stamp in, or easy access to a sink, etc.)

Before we get started, a few words on stamp choice and clean-up.

Cleaning your stamps:

Do make sure you have means of cleaning your stamps ready before you start. Once the gesso dries on your stamp, especially on more detailed stamps, you will have a really hard time cleaning them. So do make sure you clean your stamp straight after you pull it off the gesso, or at least soak it until you can deal with it.

Larger, less detailed stamps will obviously be easier to clean than others, but I’ve found that for myself, the quickest and easiest way to not ruin my stamps, but also not interrupt my flow, is to have a spray bottle of water and a rag handy. After I pull the stamp up, I wipe it, spray it generously with water, wipe again and that usually does it!

Choice of stamps:

Pretty much any stamp will work - in theory! There will be some experimenting involved though!

Larger, deeper stamps tend to work better when the gesso is applied thicker, while the more shallow type of stamp works somewhat better on a thinner application of gesso. I have found that fine writing type of stamps don’t tend to work very well. They do create texture, simply by being pulled up from the gesso, but they don’t tend to leave much of a writing impression. Larger ones, of course, will work fine!

Here is an example of a fairly fine and detailed stamp used on a thin layer of Gesso.

 

You don’t actually need any particular stamps. You would simply use any object you can press into the gesso and experiment with texture that way. Even a flat piece of rubber or the back of a stamp, when pressed into the gesso and then pulled up, will leave a pretty cool impression with little pulled peaks.

 

 

If you don’t want to use your rubber stamps, you can make your own. For example, wrapping rubber bands around a wood block or other solid shape, makes some cool linear patterns when stamped into the gesso.

 

You can also use any object you desire, to scribble into the gesso, as you will see later in the tutorial.

 

I would like to apologize in advance for the odd lighting in some of my step-by-step pictures. It’s quite hard to photograph white on white with any kind of clarity, and when you add shimmer anything to it, it can get a little tricky.

But now, without further ado, here is how we do it!

 

1.) Spread a layer of thick gesso on your desired area of the paper/canvas/painting. I like to use a large flat brush for this, as it tends to gives a more even spread of gesso, but you can also use an old gift card, foam brush or spatula too.

 

 

You need to work relatively quickly here, especially if you want to use more than one stamp, as the gesso dries fairly quickly, depending on your level of thickness.

 

2.) Press your chosen stamp into the wet gesso, then pull it back up.

 

 

 

3.) Then, as mentioned above, wipe your stamp and if that didn’t remove all the gesso, spray it with some water, or soak in a bowl of water until you are ready to clean it properly.

 

Stamp on the right sprayed with water, awaiting it’s clean-up later.

 

4.) Proceed with as many more stamps you would like to use.

 

 

5.) Let it dry. Now, in essence, the texturing is done! If you have a preferred method of coloring your textured backgrounds, go ahead and do that now. I will show you my favorite ways to bring out the texture and highlight it in the following steps.

Again, it is important that the gesso is completely dry for the next steps. You can either let it air dry, or if you’re impatient like me, you can use your heat tool to speed up the process. If you are using the heat tool, you could even go and puff the gesso up in some places by holding the heat gun closer and longer to those areas and combine two methods.

 

6.) Onto the coloring.

I love to use sprays for these first few steps. I tend to dilute ink sprays a fair bit, then spray it onto the texture. You can spray generously, let it drip, run into each other etc., but don’t overdo it on the wetness factor. Also be aware that the gesso with soften just a bit with all that watery spray on top of it, so don’t do anything that would require a lot of hard wiping or blotting, as you may end up wiping some of your texture off.

When I don’t use sprays, I like to apply water colors with big wet brushes, randomly across the page and let it do it’s thing. Let the excess run off, so the gesso doesn’t get too soggy.

 

I really love to use shimmer mists at this stage too. They have the tendency to connect with the color and run into all the groves and collect in lovely shimmery puddles, giving quite unique outlines.

 

 

Let everything dry completely again.

 

7.) Distress it. As you may have noticed, if you’ve followed my blog, I’m a big fan of the distress ink line. The pads, the daubers, I even use the reinkers to make my own spray inks in the mini misters at different depth of color.

 

 

Well, they are also my favorite for this! They give us color, but mostly just a hint, allowing us to build up many layers. My other favorite are chalk ink pads - they also give a lovely, soft color without being too stark.

I just take one of the distress ink pads and lightly run it over all the texture. If  you get too much of it in one place, either just use your finger to smear/smudge it and fan it out some, or take a small wet brush, add a tad of water and gently wipe it off.

 

8.) Keep on layering color.

I also love to use the distress ink daubers for this. Again, much like with the pads, I run them lightly in areas of the texture, then use my finger to smudge and soften it. You can also just dab a little on your finger and smudge that into the areas you want colored, giving you even more control.

 

 

Make sure you let everything dry between layers, so you don’t end up with muddy areas where everything mixed too much!

I sometimes also use a dotted or script stamp with a Stazon ink pad (water proof,) to stamp lightly over the texture, like I did in the example below. Then I just carry on layering over the top of it to integrate the stamping. Because you continue to layer on top of it, make sure you use a water proof stamp pad, otherwise you end up with smudged stamps and muddy colors.

 

 

Let it dry between each step.

 

9.) As a last step, I often run a metallic stamp pad or my finger tip full of gilding paste along the top peaks of the textured area. This further brings our some of the peaks and valleys of the texture, while lending it a distressed kind of shimmer.

And that’s it!

 

 

Here are some examples where I used this method in my art work.

 

 

I used the stamped gesso texture on my background for this mini canvas, before painting the rest.

 

 

I used the same swirl stamp in this art journaling page as the background.  This is the page I showed you earlier in the tutorial in a close up.

 

 

In this painting, I used both the puffy gesso method, as well as the stamping method, to create the top part of the wing.

 

I hope this has given you some ideas and inspired you to go and experiment with gesso textures yourself! I would love to see and hear about what you are creating!

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