Documented Life Project Week 7 and 8

Yeah, I am even more behind with my Documented Life Project than I was before ;) Even though I really want to stay on top of my journaling, life gets in the way and I just won't make it in one week. For me, falling behind is demotivating. And it is easy to give up all together because I can't keep up. However I decided to combine two prompts into one, this time. I don't think it will always work, but it might be easier for me to get caught up.

This are the prompts for week 7 cover up the good stuff and week 8 repeating elements.

I didn't gesso my page, because I have a watercolor moleskine, and I did my first layer with yellow and red watercolors. The I drew a heart with pencil. I didn't use a stencil, so the heart isn't perfect, but I choose for that intentionally.

Then I covered everything except the heart with black gesso. (covering up the good stuff)

With blue and yellow ecoline I worked on another paper, doodling leaves on top to cut out.

Here I was playing with composition of the leaves.

But I decided that I needed another layer under the leaves first. So I scribbled with a white sakura pen "Eat, create, sleep, repeat". And I used a stencil and white acrylics on the left side. Then paste some leaves on top in groups here and there.

I finished the page with some poetry images of birds and butterflies and wrote the same phrase in black on the heart. I need to seal the page, but I always take a picture first, in case I screw up ;)

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Documented Life Project Week 6

Sooo today we will already get the prompt for week 8, but I just finished week 6 last Thursday. Maybe I will skip a week sooner or later, but that's okay. February is all about layers and that is why this post will have more pictures than previous posts. The theme was don't stop till you have enough.

Layer one was gesso. For layer two I tore stripes of music paper and I used washi tape. Note to self, washi tape does not stick on gesso. Sometimes I really don't like that stuff ;) I just paste this with a glue stick because I figured it would stick because I would cover it with more layers.

Layer three is some more gesso. Applied it with a sponge here and used the corners to get the texture.

Layer four: Some acrylics, also with a sponge. This is burned sienna with white.

Layer five: I used a dolly as a stencil but it didn't show as much as I hoped. Oh well, moving on.

For layer 6 I used the back of a kraft envelope and I stamped flowers on it in copper. Cut and pasted them and doodled around them.

Still layer 6, the other side. On Facebook someone made these beautiful dandelions (I can't find who because it vashied in the timeline) but I thought they would suit this page really well. They are done with the back of a chopstick to create this texture. The credit goes totally to her. And I need to practice more, but I love the technique.

I pasted 1 word on it: intuition. I choose this word because this is how you know when to stop. Because this layout is really subdued, I didn't want to add to much. So only 6 layers this time. Another annoying thing is that these stickers don't stick on their own as well. So I used a glue stick at first. And then sealed the letters with bookbinders glue.

I have some ideas for week 7 already. Now I need to find the time and health to make it happen ;)

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Documented Life Project Week 5

The theme for the documented life project from week 5 was underpaper / what lies beneath. Now, I needed to look up what underpaper actually was. But it seems to be the paper that you use to protect your work space or other pages from paint etc.

I didn't have any underpaper, so I used an old watercolor exercise for this page. I tore it up and pasted it on the page.

Then I had no clue what to do next. Because the new prompt was already up at that time, I decided to just doodle over it and see what that brings. I used a stabilo power felt tip for this, but it started to bleed a bit. Therefore I didn't like certain bits of the page, especially in the middle. I covered it up a bit with gesso and yellow Amsterdam acrylics. But of course you can still see it, so I decided to go with the flow and print the sentence "You can't hide what lies beneath" and call it done.

February will be all about layering, but I still need to start on that one. Looking forward to it though.

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Documented Life Project Week 4

We are officially in week 5 already, but I was sick for a whole week, so I am a bit behind. Not too much though, because I already worked on the prompt for week 5 as well. Sadly I forgot to take step by step pictures for this week. Click on the link if you want to know more about the Documented Life Project

The creative prompt was writing and the journal prompt was "Words with Friends".
I used some old letters from my penpals as a base for this page. I put some gesso on top with a sponge to tone the text down a bit and after that was dry I put two colors of acrylic paint on top, also with a sponge. I spared the cute parts of the stationery used, because I thought the images would be nice to keep. I pasted some used stamps on top and added the quote.

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Documented Life Project Week 3

The theme for this week's prompt is the color wheel together with a quote from Georgia O'Keeffe:
"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way . . . “

I didn't work with layers like last week. But I did prep my page with gesso. I looked at a painting from O'Keeffe for inspiration and I used oil crayons, baby wipes and my fingers to blend in the colors. The O'Keeffe quote is a bit long and because I only have about an A5 page, I didn't have room for such a large quote. So I choose this quote from the Pocahontas movie instead. I used a stencil and my stabilo 88 pens to put the quote on there. I am quite happy with this page :)

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Documented Life Project Week 2

I am a bit late with finishing this page in comparison to last week. There was a nasty cold in my way which prevented me from doing much. The prompts for these week were Gesso and a Quote from Mary Shelley: The beginning is always today.

I choose to try a reverse stencil technique from this YouTube video.

You first prime your page with Gesso. Then add a layer of acrylic paint. Place a stencil on top and spray some water over the stencil. Leave it to sit for about a minute.

Go over the page with a baby wipe and you will get this result. As you can see I need to practice more, but I love the effect.

I wanted to do something with first steps for the journaling prompt but it took me a couple of days to put this together. I leaved through some magazines for inspiration and I finally took out the scrabble tiles for part of the quote. I traced the socks from a pattern I had laying around. They are actually witches socks from a Halloween craft magazine. I used some bubble wrap on the background, then pasted on the paper bits and finished it with acrylic white paint for the legs and the rest of the quote. I traced some bubble with a white pen and the letters etc with black pen.

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Documented Life Project Week 1

So, it is time that I revived this blog. It has been so long! I do plan to post some things from last year too, but I want to start with a new project I am participating in. Quite last minute I found out about the documented life project. It are weekly art journal prompts in a classroom and it is free. I am participating in my watercolor moleskine.

In the first week, the art prompt was book pages and the journal prompt was: be your own goalkeeper. The theme for January over all is: the blank page.

So I started with cutting out some text from an animal encyclopaedia I had laying around and paste that on paper. I made a border with oil crayons.

I painted over everything with watercolors, because I knew that this would keep my borders in tact. The top letters are stickers that I normally use for Project Life and the bottom letters are a stencil that I traced with a fineliner pen. Last, I used some stamps for more decoration and that was that.

As for my goals: this sums it up quite nicely.
I love to eat good food. Tasty food makes a whole lot of difference in my world. This does not mean junk food, mind you. But good home cooking and baking. I get cranky when I don't eat good food. And the whole diet wagon pisses me off, so this is the rebel side of me ;)
Play, be creative, is my second goal. I need to make time to do this and not only my homework, just because I have to.
And last: do the things I love. I am easily stressed out and I need a lot of me time. Relax, relax, relax. If I don't my body starts acting up more and I have to do everything that I can, to stay healthy.

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WOYWW: only 2 things

A while ago I came across a creative meme that is called What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. It is all about showing what is going on on your workdesk and is hosted by Julia from Stamping Ground. I really like participating, because it is an easy way to show you what I have been working on, and it is fun to visit some other participants :)

Only 2 projects this week to show and this time it is my fault entirely. I entered the realm of Final Fantasy XIV, a highly addicting video game, and this has limited my creative time. I don't mind so much because I am enjoying myself, but I try to stay creative at least a bit ;)

This ATC I made for a swap. I am still using the same backgrounds, I made a while back. But I only have one left now, so I need to make a new series of backgrounds soonish. I actually like how this one turned out!

This is another page for the Summer Sketch course. Can you see how my color palette slowly is changing to autumn? The theme was mask it off, but it is not done yet. I left some space for text, but now I am not sure what to write and the page doesn't feel finished over all.

Well this afternoon I am going to shop with my mom for school supplies, which in my case means creative supplies :D So my time to desk hop today is limited. But I will try to visit some :)

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WOYWW: Some more Summer Sketch pages

A while ago I came across a creative meme that is called What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. It is all about showing what is going on on your workdesk and is hosted by Julia from Stamping Ground. I really like participating, because it is an easy way to show you what I have been working on, and it is fun to visit some other participants :)

Not too much to see this week. More than ever I am squeezing in some creative time each day. I also made 2 snail mails, but I forgot to take pictures and now they are in the mail already. Anyway, the only thing I manage to do this week were 2 pages for the Summer Sketch course. I hope that after the next two weeks, I will have more time to create again. But Abunai!, the yearly Japanese culture convention I am co-organizing is approaching fast so my creative time is very limited.

This is the going small assignment, where we had to fill small spaces with different things. I used as my theme, things from daily life. Like my pets, what I ate and did.

This is a free write exercise with as prompt "things you love about Summer. I liked to do this and the result is so cheerful :)

Well that is it for the week. I will be hopping desks now.

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WOYWW: Just having fun

A while ago I came across a creative meme that is called What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. It is all about showing what is going on on your workdesk and is hosted by Julia from Stamping Ground. I really like participating, because it is an easy way to show you what I have been working on, and it is fun to visit some other participants :)

The dog we got last week, is still eating most of my time, but I did manage to do a lot last Sunday, because I put my BF on dog duty ;) The rest I just did in between :)

Last week I made 1 large bases paper for some ATCs, and this week I continued with that :)

I just doodled over some watercolor and used some extra things on some of them. The flower is already in the mail for a swap, and the birds will probably fly off to some penpals of mine. I have 3 more ATC backgrounds laying around from this series, so I might make more next week.

This week I also made 2 pages for the Summer Sketch course by Alisa Burke. This was start with a splat.

And this is the space between page, where we have to color the inbetween space instead of the main subject. But honestly, I liked the B&W version better. At least I was able to use all those doodle flower pins on Pinterest for inspiration :) Have a good week you all!

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WOYWW: More collage cards

A while ago I came across a creative meme that is called What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. It is all about showing what is going on on your workdesk and is hosted by Julia from Stamping Ground. I really like participating, because it is an easy way to show you what I have been working on, and it is fun to visit some other participants :)

As you might recall, last week I made a collage card from an art journal style background. This week I made 3 more from the same paper.

I am waiting to send them for a little while longer, because I would like to scan them, so I have a digital version. Who knows, what I can do with these in the future :) I am thinking of selling some postcards maybe, and these might be fun to print. However, I have no experience on that area whatsoever. So it will be a project for the future.

I already had a set of these cure owl boxes, but I noticed that they became very cluttered and my desk as well. So I bought another set to help declutter. In the boxes are things like masking and deco tape, used stamps, tags, labels, wooden stamps and inks, etc.. All the things I want to have nearby for creative snail mail.

I am almost done with watching all the posts from the online journaling class, I am taking. And I ordered a watercolor moleskine for the course I will be starting from Alisa Burke. I just hope it will be there in time. It is my first moleskine! I am very curious how the paper will work for me.

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