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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