What's new at The Loft - Episode 107

Art Journal Play

The New Year for me is about the renewal of a quest, the pursuit of a dream, and the beginning of new adventures and challenges.   Challenges can be inspirational, frustrating but also great motivators.  I had first hand experience with this when I did my ATC 365 challenge in 2010.  So aside from other projects I hope to get off the ground in 2012, I have also recently joined the Art Journal Everyday group hosted by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer of Balzer Designs.

I have been following Julie's blog for a few years now and she is always a great source of inspiration.  Her Art Journal Everyday group is what I call a great no pressure challenge.  All it requires (which is not really a requirement, more like a goal to strive for) is for you to work in your journal for 10 minutes everyday.  You don't have to complete a page everyday, it could be as simple as just laying down a background, but the hope is to have at least one page to post to Julie's site and the group Flickr pool once a week.  You can visit my flickr pool to see my entries this year so far.

So instead of sharing those entries I thought I would share some other art journal pages I have done in the past. 

 The way I work is to lay down a background or start a foundation for a page, but if I get stuck creatively or I'm not happy with the direction things are going I move on and come back to it later.  So it goes without saying that I tend to have some "works in progress" in my art journal which I have shared below.  

I'll post pictures of the completed pages another time.

Art journaling is a great way to experiment with new products and techniques and a fantastic creative outlet.  I have never been one to keep a "traditional" journal as I do not like recording my own personal thoughts, but with art journaling I've found I can share something of myself  in a different way.

If you are an art journaler drop me a line.  Comments are welcome, so don't be shy about telling me what you think.  Thanks for stopping by and come back soon.

What's new at The Loft - Episode 92

Transition and Evolution

Creativity is not to be located in one state of mind, one room, one type of person, one individual. Rather it lies in the transition points between different ways of thinking. If we close the doors, we will never hear the full story.  - Chris Bilton

I got involved in scrapbooking with simple motives.  It started with the desire to document our first family vacation.  And while I still love the concept of it, I have found myself drifting away from it more and more.  I had started to feel limited creatively and began to branch out in other directions.  ATC's consumed an entire year of my life and I absolutely love the art form.  My challenge of making one ATC card per day for an entire year opened my eyes to other mediums and materials.  It forced me to think outside of the box more than I have ever before and explore other art forms for inspiration. 

And since that time I have further stretched my wings and branched out into new areas, and have gotten back to a few creative outlets that I had long ago given up on. Mixed media and assemblage are some of my newer areas of exploration, along with art journaling. 

In scrapbooking I couldn't really bring myself to use journaling in any of my layouts.  I didn't like laying out my emotions or thoughts for the world to see.  I wasn't comfortable in sharing these with others.  In fact in all the layouts I had done over the years only one layout sticks out in my mind that used journaling at all, which was more a story than any emotional disclosure on my part.  And though I am happy with the layout and the story I told,  I wasn't comfortable sharing the memories for fear of judgement.

Art journaling for some reason is different to me.  I suppose it is because when I first started working in my journal it was with the intention of not really sharing the work with anyone.  I loved and still love the creative freedom of art journaling.  Of using art and language to relate thoughts and feelings in new ways.  And while the thoughts, messages, and emotions expressed are not always conveyed in my own words (I like to find meaningful quotes) they show what is in my heart.  And what has surprised me the most is that as my exploration in this medium continues I have felt less nervous about letting others into those areas of my heart which I have put walls up around.  The process has become somewhat of a therapeutic one for me in many ways.  It has allowed me to evolve and grow as an individual and an artist in my own little world.  My voice, while small is beginning to grow.

“Live your life from your heart. Share from your heart. And your story will touch and heal people's souls.”

- Melody Beattie

Recent Entries 

Speaking of ATC's

Here is one I recently made on a mini stretched canvas

And stay tuned as I can't wait to show you what I'm doing with those 365 ATC's I made in 2010.


Thank you for allowing me to share with you.  I'm glad you came by and hope you come back soon.

What's new at The Loft - Episode 89

My First Ever Art Quilt

I am having so much fun in this class and am loving what I have learned so far.  However I have a confession, in that I am a little behind in the class.  Unfortunately my busy life often gets in the way of my creative pursuits, so I have to say a big THANK YOU to Julie Fei-Fan Balzer for allowing access to her class for a year.  It's really taken some of the pressure off.  I also have to confess that I have skipped a few projects (I'm going to try to catch up on the missing ones this weekend) so that I could get to the week on free motion quilting.

In a strange coincidence I started making a quilt just before this class started.  My good friend Teri has been so kind and patient as she has walked me through all the steps involved.  And although it is not completed yet, I am hoping to finish quilting it very soon. 

I am by no means new to sewing, as I have a B.S. degree in Fashion and Textile Technology, but I literally hadn't done any sewing in almost 20 years ago until early 2010 when I purchased an inexpensive
Brother machine for light sewing and repairs.  About 6 months ago I made a few aprons and I have been a sort of sewing maniac since.

With this renewed love of sewing however I found that the machine I had was very limited.  For example my sewing machine had a free motion foot but didn't allow you to drop the feed dogs, and when you try to do any free motion with a darning plate, the bobbin thread gets all mangled.  And although the machine has been a good workhorse machine for the money I paid, I have outgrown it.  So I bit the bullet and recently purchased a new Brother machine one that can do free motion with ease.

How does this relate to It's Sew Easy you might ask, well one of the assignments was to make an art quilt using free motion stitching.

I started with bleached muslin and cut 2 pieces the same size.  On one I traced the dress image, provided for by our teacher and the other I put to the side for now.  Next using some Koi watercolors I painted in the dress. 

I drew some circles into the fabric with a resist crayon and then using tube watercolors I mixed up some blue and painted around the dress (I used the resist crayon around the dress as well to keep the blue from bleeding).

I had some blue paint left over so I added lots of water and used it as a dye bath for the backing piece.

Next I added some visual interest to the skirt by using a dauber and stamped polka dots on it with VersaCraft ink which can be used on fabrics.

The then used a stencil and fabric marker to draw the flowers on the dress top.

To add more interested I painted radial stripes on with more concentrated green watercolor paint.

Once the top was dry I carefully ironed the front and back piece and then made my quilt sandwich by placing the backing fabric down first, then batting on top, and then added the quilt top over this right side up, and pinned with quilt pins.  I have never free motioned sewed in my life and need a lot more practice at it but I jumped in with both feet and tried not to become too intimidated by it or obsessed with perfection.  I started by stitching around the dress, and then stitched the radial stripes.  I then stitched the polka dots and finally the flowers.

I then free motion stitched some circles on top of the radials where some of the resist crayon was.

I haven't yet learned how to do proper quilt binding yet, so I sewed on some store bought garment binding to finish off the edges. 

And here is my finished project. 

This was a fun project, but the first thing I learned was to never use watercolor again.  By the time I was done, the surface of my new machine was green, and I had to do a lot of scrubbing to get it off.  Second was to practice more with free motion.  I definitely need to work on feeding the fabric through to get more even stitches. 

Well, that's all I have for today.  I hope you liked it. Comments are always welcome so feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think.  Thanks for stopping by and come back soon.

What's new at The Loft - Episode 87

Just wanted to share some photos of my projects for the "It's So Easy" class I have been taking with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.

Our first project was to create a mixed media butterfly banner. Since I didn't have a bunch of butterfly punches to complete the project I pulled out my Cricut and cut lipstick, shoes, mirrors, gloves and some bottle of nail polish out of painted file folders to make a more girlie banner.

 Girlie Banner

The first part of the project was to decorate some file folders, I painted mine with watercolor paints and then stamped some and used gold pen and ink on others.  For a few of the file folders I also used resist crayon before I painted them. After I cut the folders in the Cricut, the pieces were then sewn on the sewing machine.

Decorative Tags

Our next project was to make some decorative tags. The first was made with layered fabric circles sewn on the tag.  The second tag was made with torn pages of a book, layered with text facing different directions and then sewn.  The last tag was made with hand colored lace, layered and sewn to the tag.  I have to admit I'm not a big fan of tags, so this project didn't inspire me as much.  However I did think the circle tag came out cute, the photo here doesn't do it justice, as it looks much nicer in person.

Stuffed Heart Ornament

For our next project we were to use an old paint rag to create this stuffed heart.  Instead I used some white muslin and painted it with watercolor crayons, acrylic paint and gold marker.  This was such a cute project I can't wait to make a few more.

Unfortunately I'm a little behind on my class projects,  so I will be working this week to complete a mixed media pillowcase and an alphabet clutch.  I'll be posting about those soon.

Comments are welcome so please let me know what you think  Thanks for stopping by and come back soon.

What's new at The Loft - Episode 60

Macro 3.6.5. Challenge

Pan Watercolor

ISO 800, f/11.0, 0.8 Second

 A watercolor is the medium or the resulting artwork, in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water soluble vehicle.  The term watercolor refers to paints that use water soluble, complex carbohydrates as a binder. Originally (16th to 18th centuries) watercolor binders were sugars and/or hide glues, but since the 19th century the preferred binder is natural gum arabic, with glycerin and/or honey as additives to improve plasticity and dissolvability of the binder, and with other chemicals added to improve product shelf life.  Watercolor paint consists of four principal ingredients:

pigments, natural or synthetic, mineral or organic;

arabic gum as a binder to hold the pigment in suspension and fix the pigment to the painting surface;

additives like glycerin, ox gall, honey, preservatives: to alter the viscosity, hiding, durability or color of the pigment and vehicle mixture; and

solvent, the substance used to thin or dilute the paint for application and that evaporates when the paint hardens or dries.

Commercial watercolor paints come in two grades: "Artist" (or "Professional") and "Student".

Artist quality paints are usually formulated with fewer fillers (kaolin or chalk) which results in richer color and vibrant mixes.

Student grade paints have less pigment, and often are formulated using two or more less expensive pigments. Artist and Professional paints are more expensive but many consider the quality worth the higher cost.

Bodycolor is a watercolor made as opaque as possible by a heavy pigment concentration, and gouache is a watercolor made opaque by the addition of a colorless opacifier (such as chalk or zinc oxide). Modern acrylic paints are based on a completely different chemistry that uses water soluble acrylic resin as a binder.

Comments are welcome.  Send them if you have them.  Thanks for stopping by and come back soon.