The Creative Fruit of Black Friday

Okay, I'm not a big shopper. Crowds in malls make me scream and run. Long lines at the checkout can sometimes be interesting if there are nice people around you can talk to, however, most of the time it's just a drag. So it comes as no surprise that I comfortably spent Black Friday at home with my family. The Geek was doing his college homework, Kaefer created with clay and I made Christmas ornaments.

I found the paper mache stars at Michaels - with a huge sticker on the back that would hardly come off, why the heck do they do crap like this? -, gessoed them, covered them in sheet music (Händel's flute sonatas), put a thin glaze on top of that and then painted the girl angels. I'm learning to paint faces (via Christy Tomlinson's "The She Art Workshop No. 2") and tried it out here after I had practiced on paper. Hm, not quite sure about it. I think the girls all got their very own characteristic faces, but they are far from perfect.

See those eyes? I had a hard time painting them, and you can clearly see that they aren't good. Same here with the braid-girl:

However, despite their imperfections I grew fond of these girl angels. This one is my favorite:

whereas Kaefer favors this one:

She said she likes the bun.

I was thinking of selling some of them in my Etsy shop, but I am very uncertain because of their obvious imperfections. What do you think?

Linking to Art Every Day Month.

Rosehips

A week ago a friend of mine brought me some roses, rosehips and hydrangea beautifully put together. I was so touched by this little gesture, that I wanted to keep it forever and therefore took a whole bunch of pictures. When I looked at the photos on my computer I thought that it must be a lot of fun to play with them - and so I did, using my favorite technique which is adding texture.

Here's the "recipe":

levels adjustment

hue/saturation adjustment

Bonnie's texture "Bonjour ma douce", darker color at 100%

Bonnie's texture "Dersert Canvas", saturation at 100%

hue/saturation adjustment

levels adjustment.

I like the monochromatic look of it - first time that I try this.

I'm linking this to Photo Art Friday, which always challenges me to try something new. It's a good challenge.

This is also today's Art Every Day Month.

Snowmen in the Forest

Finally I've started to make Christmas cards - I'm always late in making them because I love to dwell in the rich colors of autumn. But I thought with December quickly approaching I should get into the right spirit - I also have to prepare my Holiday cards class, so why not get started now?

I like snowmen, so making a card with a bunch of snowmen seemed to be the right choice.

The snowmen were actually lined up on one stamp that I bought several years ago. I stamped them on a piece of white cardstock, colored them in and then cut them out. I wanted a few standing out from the background and adhered them to the card with foam tape. Here's a close-up:

Trees, snowmen, glitter - simple, but quite a cute image. I didn't want to do any words on it, so I just left it without any message.

I'm linking this to Art Every Day Month as today's contribution.

Gratitude Week 2

The second week of Thirty Days of Thanks has already gone by. It's quite amazing how fast time passes when you have a lot to do AND enjoying it!!

This week - obviously still under the impression of the book about the Siege of Leningrad that I read - I'm full of gratitude that we are living in a country where we have everything, especially food and heat when we need it. However, I cringe when I see how many people in this rich country do NOT have enough to eat and depend on food banks (thanks to the food banks and all the people who work there and donate food and money). It breaks my heart how many children are among them. And my gratitude is even bigger then.

On Thursday evening - as on every other Thursday evening - I met with my German friends. We are a rather big group who calls itself "der Stammtisch" - Stammtisch is the big table in a neighborhood pub in Germany where the regular locals meet for their beer and some chat. Our group, however, does not meet in a pub (because pubs like that do not exist in the US), but every time at someone else's house and everybody brings something to eat. Last Thursday we all met at our house, and we had a wonderful time together. Every time we laugh a lot, talk about serious stuff and then laugh some more. It is never sentimental, and thankfully no-one in this group compares the US to Germany as it unfortunately happens in so many other groups. It is such a joy to talk in our own language when we can exactly express what we want to say and not look for adequate words which in the end aren't that adequate anyway. I feel comfortable among these Germans and Swiss; I have found my place here and am more than thankful for these friends, these people I love to spend time with.

At the end of every day I write into my regular journal what I am thankful for. So this week I made a gratitude journal for my shop - for someone who wants to start a gratitude journal and would love a book like this one, an altered composition book in beautiful autumn colors. It even comes with its own matching bookmark. I enjoyed making this journal, it was pure pleasure.

I am linking this to Art Every Day Month.

Results from Painting Class

A week ago I had my last mixed media painting class, when we showed our finished or almost-finished pieces. It was so interesting to see all the different works and that tremendous talent!!! The class was so much fun, I learned a lot and I'm a bit sad that it is already over. Those six weeks went by way too fast.

My first finished piece "Día de los muertos" I had already shown here. These two pieces that I'm showing you today are based on the two watercolors I showed you here. I'm not quite sure whether either of them is already finished.

The Mermaid's Dream, 7.5"x7.5" mixed media painting

In both paintings I wanted the area where I sprinkled salt into the wet watercolor uncovered, but most of the rest got covered by strips of tissue paper that I had painted in class. I added photos (printed out on regular copy paper), torn book pages and stamps. I quite like the result, but I feel that especially the "sleeping child" is still unfinished. It will help to step away from it for a bit, and then when I come back to it I hope to see what else needs to be done.

Sleeping Child, 7"x7" mixed media painting

This is today's contribution to Art Every Day Month, and I'm also linking to Paint Party Friday. I haven't joined PPF for a few weeks because of lack of time - I wouldn't have had the time to visit you. This weekend, however, looks much better.

Art Every Day Month 10

It's time for Photo Art Friday, and I tried something new again.

In Ann Baldwin's fantastic book "Creative Paint Workshop for Mixed-Media Artists" I saw her working with photos of which she used the negative. Luckily, on one page she explains how to get that negative look, because I had no clue but liked the look a lot (CTRL+i on a PC, or in PSE go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Invert). So I took a photo from a sunset in Bandon, OR and inverted it:

This is wonderful to use in a mixed-media piece (print it out on regular copy paper so that you can mess around with it). But I thought, there must be more that you can do to a picture like this. And I started to play around.

First I used Jerry's texture "Photo-Tints-Orange" (color burn at 100%), copied that (color burn at 50%) and then added Bonnie's texture "Acceptance" (darker color at 75%). Adjustment Layer for hue/saturation and I was done. I very seldom work with color burn or darker color blending modes etc., but I'm getting the hang of it - sure, the photos are exaggerated, but I do like the transformation.

At Bonnie's Photo Art Friday you can find many more super-talented photographers. I also link this to Art Every Day Month where you can find a whole bunch of wonderful artists.

More Journals

Currently I'm creating a bunch of journals, small ones and bigger ones. The basis is always a composition book. I usually start with some papers and from there I see where it will take me.

Here are two mini journals that I just made. The different papers come from the same daisy d's paper pack (that I bought several years ago).

I like this small size for a journal because you can take it pretty much everywhere. It even fits in the back pockets of your jeans. Or in your purse - it's smaller than an iPhone.

I'm linking this to Art Every Day Month for day 8.

Art Every Day Month (AEDM)

Well, it's already the sixth day of November, but I have decided it's still okay to join Art Every Day Month (AEDM). I have absolutely no idea whether I will be able to post some art here every day, but at least I will try.

Today I can show you a journal that I made out of a regular composition book. During back-to-school, composition books are always on sale and I stock up on them at that time. They're just ideal to get altered into a journal or notebook.

I like the little bird - it's a template I created some time ago and that I use over and over again. The paper is from a paper pack by Daisy D's, and on the back and the inside are coordinating papers of this same pack. You might have already guessed it - the journal is in my Etsy shop now.