Week 34 : DLP 2015

Well - it's September. I can't believe that August went by so quick, and with very little blogging! Hoping there'll be more creativity to share with you this month.
Information about the FREE weekly Documented Life Project is HERE.  I'm a little bit behind - this is last week's challenge :

August Theme :: Faces, the Human Form & Characters

Art Challenge : Layered (Using Multiple Mediums)

Journal Prompt :  Speak to your younger self- what advice would you offer?

The first thing I thought about was using a technique that Tam from Willowing describes HERE called "Paint over Collage". I began by gluing down sheet music, serviettes, washi tape and a glossy magazine advertisement. I then brushed over the advert with clear gesso (click on the picture to see the brand I used and the brush strokes of the clear gesso).

Clear gesso gives a good toothy base so that when you start to paint over the paper, the paint goes down nicely.

I started to give her hair, and to add flesh-toned paint but I didn't touch her eye because I loved the effect of the makeup there. 

Adding more layers. I muted the background from the previous photo by brayering over with white gesso, and the gelli-printed tissue is nice to give subtle pattern that blends with the background. I had wanted to darken her hair a bit and when I took this photo immediately saw it as journaling space....

More layers - cut under-paper, pansy serviettes, some stamping with paint, and some pen highlights. Then it was time to add journaling - advice and reassurance to my younger self. I tilted the page when I took this photo so you could see the words more clearly, but as you'll see in my photo at the end, the lettering is more subtle when viewed flat as part of the whole spread.

As soon as I saw the magazine image, I knew she would be holding a young me - whispering in my ear with love

I filled all the gaps in my page with journaling - it's another layer

And here's the completed spread :

Click on the photo to enjoy it larger or see it in the Flickr album I've created for all my Documented Life 2015 spreads HERE. You can see all my posts about this project HERE.
Try and fit some creativity into your weekend and I hope to talk to you again soon.

Quilt blocks complete and Cards from scraps

In the middle of June, I started making a spiked border a day for my "Wild Women Don't Get the Blues" quilt. When I started, I knew that if I stuck to my plan I would have my 25 blocks ready to put together by 5th September...happy to report that I completed my last block on the 14th August, and now I'm ready to share them all up on my design wall. Click on the photo to see it larger.

Next step is to do some rearranging until I am completely happy with how they all look together, and then to find time to sew them together to make the quilt top. I've loved how they've come together.
At the end of that stage of the project I've got a small box of tiny scraps I knew I could use for a further project

I bought a pad of board from the dollars & sense store (only $2.50) and started to make some cards. I just used a free-motion foot on my old Janome machine to stitch the fabric scraps to the card

I like their simplicity

and now they only need some stamped or found words to personalise them for occasions that arise

I'm sure there'll be more of these to share with you again soon. Which one's your favourite?

JOY birthday gift

In March, a friend had a birthday and I took a wooden word and made it into collaged wall art

More details about that HERE.
I enjoyed the process so much that I thought I'd have a go at something similar for another friend this month. Her word is JOY - again I started with a layer of gesso, and then 2 layers of acrylic paint :

I then printed some images and words onto tissue paper. To do this, attach a piece of tissue to a page of printer paper with a strip of glue stick along the top. Make sure it is trimmed to the correct page size, and feed through printer glued end first. 

I love how tissue/serviette images blend into the background. I used mod podge for this project - applied first to the painted letter and then again over the top of the serviette to seal. 
Click on any photo to see it larger.

There's a mix of serviettes (top layer only) glued alongside some of my printed tissue

and stamping with staz-on ink and brilliance gold

Washi tape can be a nice addition (although sometimes it needs some extra gluing) and you can create a different look by stamping on tissue and then tearing and gluing that down

Because she is a poet and lover of words, there's at least one word on each letter

and I love letting elements spill over the edges

Was going to theme each letter differently, but in the end they're a bit of a mix of things she loves

Happy birthday and Bon Voyage to my lovely friend

- hope you have lots of joy over the next month.

Click on the photo to see it larger or go HERE to see it in my Flickr album of wall art.