The Artists We Admire and How They Influence Our Work

 Have you ever wondered about the influences other artists have on your own work?  Those artists that you admire and WISH you could be more like?  Is that something to strive for, something unattainable, or something to shy away from?  And how do we strike a happy medium between these three?

As for myself, I have a rather long list of artists that I admire for one reason or another.  Some, I admire for their ability to blend color; others, I admire for their ability to create a scene; still others, I admire for the sheer volume of their work and the beauty of it.  And there are others whose work is so free and happy that I really want to find that same joy peeking out of my own work, just because it brings such happiness.  

One lesson that I learned is that as artists, we MUST find our own artistic voice.  This can be difficult, especially if we are lucky enough to attend a retreat where classes are taught by someone we admire.  It is wonderful to learn new techniques, but I want to be my OWN voice, not a mini replica of so and so whose name and works are so easily recognizable in the mixed media and/or card world.  It took a while for that to filter through all the information that I gained during the retreat that I attended.  Most likely it took about 5 or 6 months for me to realize that, as much as I admired that artist, I was never going to be happy if all I attempted to do was to create art that SHE would like.  I need to create art that I like!

And that, my friends, is the bottom line.  As artists, we are driven to create - it isn't something that we just randomly "choose" to do.  We are drawn to the chaos of inks, paints, glues, papers, dies, stamps, brushes - the list is inexhaustible!  It is almost as if we are nothing if we do not create.  But the single most important thing to remember is that we MUST be true to ourselves and our own individual art.  As the great bard himself, William Shakespeare, said, "To thine own self be true" is the creed we all, as artists, should follow. 

The Medicinal Power of Paper Play

Why is playing with paper, ink, and glue so much fun?  Does it take us back to childhood, when we were carefree and innocent?  I remember what a treat it was to play with sticker books as a child when I had to stay home because I was sick.  Or does playing with paper, inks, and glue actually help us to work out our problems and frustrations?  Maybe it is a mixture of both.  Whatever that elusive thing is that is contained within the act of creating art with these tools, it is magical and takes us to a place where only creativity exists.  

Visiting that creative place is important to me - to my mental health and happiness, and crucial to keep my expressive persona able to speak through art.  What my art says to me is probably far different than what it says to another beholder.  And that is perfectly ok.  It may be that someone else, looking at my work, does not see art, but rather chaos.  That’s ok too.  It is kind of chaotic inside my head.  But hopefully it is colorful, hopefully it makes people happy to look at it - or at least makes them think when contemplating a page in my art journal or looking at a card that I have made.  

When I work in an art journal, or when I make cards, whatever is on my mind when I sit down at my desk seems to just disappear in that slight smell of glue and the splashes of color that I wipe across the pages.  It shimmers off into the distance in a haze of glitters and sprays, falls to the floor in a drizzle of scrap cuttings.  My troubles are reduced to ink stains on my fingers, glue up to my elbows and sometimes in my hair, paper stuck to the bottoms of my shoes, ink blots on my clothes from dropping the ink pad.  I get lost in the die cuts, the ink blending, the creation of pictorial scenes, the spritzing of shimmer sprays and glitter sprays, and the small dash of written word that might be added as an afterthought to help the viewer gain some type of hint of what had been on my mind or was my goal in creating the art on those particular pages.  The therapy in creating art journal pages or cards is real and is medicine to my soul.  I have no idea if other creatives feel like this, but I suspect that it may well be.  At any rate, my messy art desk, much like my cloth and thread-laden sewing studio, is my happy place.  These places are where my soul goes to heal from the hurts and worries of the world.  And that, my friends, is certainly not a bad thing!

The Perils of Making Art!

 Crafting - or rather, creating art - is SO much fun!  And it is SO messy!  And, dare I say, sometimes just a wee bit dangerous!  Today I have been slowly slogging away at cleaning up my paper art area.  I have made more than a few projects without tidying up and it has been getting deep around here.  Hence the "perils" as stated in the title of this little essay.

"Perils?" you say.

"Why, Yes!  Settle in and just let me tell you!"

Art can be dangerous.  Just over two weeks ago, I was working in the Paper Arts Studio - ok, it's actually a corner of our bedroom - and as I worked, my Pokey Tool rolled off the desk and stabbed me in the leg.  It is only just now healing up!  Truth!

Today I managed to stab myself in the finger with the very same Pokey Tool.  Teach me to try to open a jar of Crackle Paste with tools!

The carpet in the bedroom has seen a variety of creative accidents.  Ink pads suddenly drop from aching hands - and no, they do NOT land on their feet like cats.  They land face down on the carpet and swarp their hateful inky pads across the weave as you try to pick them up!  And Heaven Help us ALL if you happen to roll your chair over them.  We won't even TALK about that!

Tools go walk about on a regular basis, never to be seen again.  Or they fall off the desk and hit the poor dog in the head.  She gets very indignant when that happens!  Three weeks ago, I lost the fancy diamond top to my glue press.  Imagine!  Found it today, under a ton of paper at the foot of my desk.  I'm still looking for the holographic little stars that I bought from Amazon 2 months ago.  They looked great when I took them out of the bag.  And that's the last time that I saw them!  Glue bottles suddenly fall off the desk and squirt glue all over the carpet.  And trust me - Fabri Tac can remove the finish from a laminate floor.  Ask me how I know, but Pahleeeeese don't tell my husband!

And so here I sit, at 9 pm at night, staring at a piled up desk - I've moved every pile to the center of my u-shaped desk - and I am writing a silly blog, while listening to a movie with one ear.  (Ok, 1/2 an ear).  I am determined to at least clear the middle portion of this desk before I go to bed because I have several crafty creative things I would like to get done tomorrow.  If I only get all the stamps and dies put away, that will be great progress!  And so, as I survey my kingdom, my Arty Domain, I make yet another promise to myself...Hereafter, I Will Clean Up As I Go.  And if you believe that, well, I have some beach front property in Ohio that is for sale at a great price!  Somebody please tell me I am not the only creative that has these problems!  And remember - I share these ugly truths so that YOU don't have to!

Altenew Level 2 - With A Twist Course

 How many times have we all thought of a project, worked on it for hours, and then made cuts where they didn’t need to be made!  I know that I have done that WAY more than I want to admit!  And although it sounds cool to say, “There are no mistakes, only design opportunities,” in reality that is more difficult than imagined.  Can you see where I’m going with this?

The “With A Twist” course was fantastic!  Chock full of ideas to perk up the creative muses, test the boundaries of skill levels, and just plain fun!  And I came away from the videos with a firm idea in mind of what I wanted to do.  And then I attempted to put my ideas onto card stock.  Well, I got so frustrated with myself that I threw down my glue press in disgust, heaved myself away from my desk, and declared to the dog, “When it gets this rough, it’s time to quit for the day.” 

This morning, I started again, new card, same basic idea.  And even though some things didn’t quite work out the way I had envisioned, overall, I am pleased with the results.  I used purple embossing powder to create two floral outlines on white card stock and cut them out with the Library Blooms stamp and die set.  Next, I took a piece of white card stock, cut it on a slant, and then ink blended it using Pumice Stone Distress Oxide Ink - mind you, these are the EXACT steps that I took yesterday.  I adhered the die cut blooms onto the edge of my ink blended paper, and then put that onto a purple card base.  And then I created a sentiment using the same ink blended paper and a sentiment from the Tangerine Grove stamp set.  After cutting it out using a Tim Holtz label die, I popped it up on my card front using 4 pieces of scrap card stock.  I trimmed the excess blooms off the bottom of the card, but opted to leave the leaf at the top.  Oh!  I also went a little crazy with purple gems on this one - here it is:

But NOW you need to know the “Rest of the Story,” as Paul Harvey used to say.  I decided to see if I could save the work I had done yesterday.  You see, I had grabbed my trusty scissors, never doubting myself as I bore down on the blades, and - GASP!!  I CHOPPED OFF ALL of the luscious blooms along the decorative edged twist of my card!  I kept looking at it and looking at it, and looking at it, wondering what to do.  Finally, I turned the card in a different orientation, did a little strategic ink blending, cut down some vellum, added bling, and here is the card save.  Believe it or not, I kinda like the “mistake” card best!  How’s them apples for a surprise!

Altenew Level Two Submission - In the Mood for Color

 Today’s card making extravaganza has been a TOTAL exercise in patience!  You know the jokes about how many people it takes to screw in a lightbulb, etc.?  Well, today it’s how many cards does a student need to make before getting ANYWHERE close to the idea in her head!  I won’t even begin to tell you how many 5.5x4.25 pieces of ink blended panels are now littering my desk, but it’s considerable!  Well, that’s how it goes some days!

The card(s) that I’ve been attempting to make are for the Level 2 “In the Mood for Color” course taught by Stephanie Klauck.  It is a great class and made me realize that I have been focusing on coloring my die cuts and my stamped images, but generally not considering an overall background color.  AND I have not really considered the mood that my cards might evoke - I’ve only concentrated on what makes “ME” happy when I look at cards.  So…even though I am still using colors that I like, I think that they might have more universal appeal due to the feelings associated with the colors used.

The first step was selecting my colors.  I knew that I wanted to do some color blending, and that those blends would be my focal colors.  It is fall here where I live, and the mountains have been putting on quite a show of golds and yellows.  And while those colors do not always bring to mind fall of the year, they do denote a brightness, a lightness of spirit, and a contagious feeling of happiness.  So I selected three colors from my Distress Oxides - Mustard Seed, Dried Marigold, and Spiced Marmalade, focusing mainly on Mustard Seed and Dried Marigold.  I also selected Milled Lavender and Wild Honey for sentiments and edgings.

The next thing that I needed to do was to pick a stamp set.  Just this morning, I watched a video by Erum Tasneem, where she created beautiful cards using one stamp and two colors.  Initially I thought to emulate that, but changed my mind after sorting through my stamps.  When I spotted the Precious Peony stamp and die set, a completely new idea struck, although I did use one aspect of Erum’s video - using the back of the sticky mat to stamp a background design onto one card.  It was a great tip and one I plan on using frequently!

So…I won’t bore you with all the ink blending accidents and stamping accidents that I had today.  But I DO have a couple of “Pro Tips” for you that I hope bring a smile to your face!

Pro Tip 1:  when using Dylusions Dyamond Dust, Lindy’s Magical Powders, or Dreamweaver Stencil Powders, remove your card panel from your sticky mat FIRST!!  If you don’t, you might end up with powder on your ink blenders for your next card!  Learn from what I continuously do wrong!  (It’s ok to belly laugh here if necessary.)

Pro Tip 2:  don’t press down on your stamp wheel lid before you get it completely in place!  If you WANT blurred images to emboss, go ahead and press away.  But if you want crisp images, well, again - learn from what I do wrong! 

After many attempts, I ended up with two cards that were not disasters.  And if you have read to the end of this tale of trials and tribulations, many, many thanks!  Here is my day’s work for Altenew!

The first three pictures, all of the same card, use white embossing powder to highlight the stamped images, allowing the ink blended background to shine through the embossing.

The second card, which is shown in the next three images, used Dylusions Dyamond Dust to showcase the stamped image, again allowing the background color to come through.

Altenew Educator Certification Program - Level 2, Course 1, Beyond Basic Backgrounds

 Finally!  Today I found the spark from within necessary to create cards for my first course in the Altenew Educator Certification Program’s Level 2.  I still can’t believe that I have advanced to the second level!  LOL!  

The class that my cards have been created for is the “Beyond Basic Backgrounds” taught by Lydia Evans, and at first I really struggled to come up with any ideas even though I truly enjoyed the class.  That’s when I decided that maybe I needed to take a short step back and allow myself some time to regroup and recharge after the Level 1challenge.  The challenge was a lot of fun, but came at a very difficult time in my life, and so I think that’s why I had a hard time at first - I needed some down time.  And I am glad that I took the time to do some creating that I considered “just because” creations.  I made some journals, some cards for our WMU group at church, created a couple of videos and just created for the sake of creating.  That really helped me to regroup and refocus and now, here I am, large, and hopefully in charge!  Bawhawhaw!

After watching the entire course about four times, I finally decided to try the water bleaching technique.  It was so much fun to see what would bleach out on the card panel, and freeing to know that in no way would it be a perfect stamping!  That was so very satisfying!  

To begin with, I ink blended half a sheet of card stock using distress oxide inks (and one just plain distress ink cuz I THOUGHT they were all oxides till I read the labels!  Talk about holding my breath that the technique would work!!).  After I finished with the inking, I plundered my kitchen for a sponge and plastic tub.  With that installed on my desk, I got out one of my stamping platforms and set out to create some backgrounds.  I used the Meadow Reflections stamp and die set and started bleaching away.  It took several dousings with each stamp to get the effects that I was looking for, but I eventually got there.  

Once the stamping was finished, I began cutting down my results and came up with three cards.  Each is positioned on a black panel and glued to a white card base.  I broke out the glittery gems for these cards to add some pizazz, and sprayed Shine on one background.  And for one, I attempted the foil background that Lydia demonstrated.  I hope that you enjoy these offerings for my first Level 2 course!

A Tiny Book For A Tiny Bag

 Ok, Y’all.  I don’t know about you, but I love tiny books!  If you do too, then you need to visit Eileen Hull’s Etsy store or go down to visit the folks at Scrappy Shak and get your hands on some of Eileen’s dies.  Look at this cutie!

I made it to go into the leather pouch I made yesterday from ReaLeather.  This has been fun to make, even though I seem to still be losing things in my studio.  Today the glue press and paper trimmer both went walkabout, but I prevailed and kept on creating.  The book is made from chipboard that I had in my stash.  I covered it with scrapbook paper on both sides and then cut it with my Big Shot.  Interior pages were finally cut with another paper trimmer after I gave up looking for my Tiny Tim.  And I treated the book like it was a teensy travelers notebook.  The only tiny elastic I had was multicolored, but it works.  Of course I forgot to add my key to the closure strap.  That, by the way, is the edging of some fabric strips I had surged together.  And I love the little medallion on the front!  I used graph paper to cover it, and then cut out the “list” from one of Eileen Hull’s new releases.  This has been so much fun to make!  And I want to keep on, but alas, duty calls and I must do some other things.  Maybe in a little while…until then, y’all have big fun making something gorgeous!