Mom's Inspiring Art Dolls

A few years ago I had a little bit of a cancer scare.  I think it freaked my mom out more than me, but it was a scare none-the-less.  I had a small spot on my face, near my eye that wouldn't heal.  It was dry and rough, kept splitting open, healing up, then repeating the process.  It took me much longer than it should have to go to the doctor.  Sure enough, skin cancer.  Not the bad, scary stuff that spreads and requires more extravagant treatments, but the C word! 

My first treatment was just to have it removed.  I went to a plastic surgeon recommended by the dermatologist and he removed it.  I had a black eye for a little bit but I wear glasses so it was really not too noticeable.  I had a little scar (a tiny pucker in the corner) but nothing that bothered me or again, was very noticeable.  I healed quickly with no problems.  Or so I thought.

Not quite a year later, it was back.  Had a biopsy done to be sure and again, the C word!  This time they sent me over to St. Louis and I had the MOHS procedure done.  I was much more nervous for this one, they basically cut it out in layers, testing each layer to see if there's any cancer cells left.  It could be an all day process.  I only had to have two.  Much better than I thought.  Then I was sent to the hospital to have it closed up.  My mom was with me, and a nervous wreck I might add.  It went very well, the surgeon was spectacular.  I had a hole the size of a quarter and my mom was shocked how deep it was, he closed it up without skin grafts and the scarring is so minimal.  Again, glasses and hair pretty much hide all of it. 

I say all that to show you what mom made me for my second procedure.  Obviously she was nervous for me and needed to artistically express that.  She is quite an inspiration to me, always teaching me new stuff and getting me started on new artsy endeavors (much to the chagrin of my husband).

 It's been a couple years since my surgery, it usually takes me about that long to get on board with mom's newest creative endeavors (well, new to me).  Yesterday, I got this book in the mail.  We are planning to go to Bead N Button this year and I was telling mom I'd like to play around with people using tin.  How great is that?  Moms, gotta love 'em!

Here's some links to see more of her artwork (she's finally getting some of it up on Pinterest), check out her Art Dolls and some jewelry.   She also loves Altered Books and Art Journaling.  She does some really amazing stuff, very little of which she's gotten on Pinterest.  I'll keep on her about that. 

Hope you are finding some time to be creative and learn something new. 

Art Challenge 2015- Card 10 & 11

Welcome to my Art Challenge 2015.

Do you ever have trouble staying inspired?  It's only week 10 of a 52 week art journal challenge and I'm struggling for inspiration.  I know I can't be alone in this, what do you do when you find yourself sitting at the drawing table and nothing, and I do mean nothing, is coming to ya?  How do you go about getting the creative juices flowing again?

If you've not been following along and would like to see some of my previous week's work, check out the label Art Challenge 2015, you will also see portions of a 21 Day Art Journal Challenge I've been participating in (I'm struggling to finish it as well, the inspiration has left.  I think I'm on day 19 right now).

Week 10

 

 This week we began demolition on a deck that has been leaking for years.  I have construction on the brain so I decided to used strips of paper to "build" a piece of paper which will be the base of this weeks project.  I wove the pieces together and then glued them to another piece for added stability.

I used another larger sheet of paper to turn it over so I could glue it down and cut away the excess around the edges.

 

 Then I played around with a variety of paint colors to add more color and interest, writing "construction can be fun!" to finish it off.

 

 

For the back I wrote out the details of our "deck adventure", used a gloss to keep the ink from smearing too badly and then added some paint over the top,  I am loving playing with the textures I'm able to make with the paints and the background effects but am having trouble layering and creating finished pages.  Practice, practice, I'm hoping that'll come.

I decided to fill in the white area with a little more color.

 

Week 11

 

Irreversibly Moi on Facebook had a post one day talking about using Art for Therapy and it featured a technique using watercolors and white crayon.  I thought I'd give it a try.  It worked, not exactly what I expected but it worked and I can't wait to give it another try.  This week demolition is done and building is about to begin.  This is my interpretation of the new deck.  I drew the shape out in crayon and then used watercolors to add some color, with a gloss over the top.

Then, for the back I copied my husbands scale drawing of the project and glued it on, extending what was left onto the front surface.

 Here's my hubby's scale drawing, copied and glued to the back with a layer of gloss over the top.

 I then came in with water and acrylics to add some color.  I used a mix of acrylics and gloss which allowed me to write in it, "let the fun begin".  We always have a project, every year and it's always a learning experience for me and an extreme test of patient and perseverance for my husband (considering his only helper these days is "moi", poor guy). 

 

I am still one week behind, imagine that!  Hoping to get caught up this week.  I'd also like to complete the 21 day Art Journal Challenge as well.

 

 

Here's a couple links to earlier work on the 21 Day Art Journaling Challenge:

Days 1-7

Days 8-11

Days 12-14

 

Day 15- I Am

 

For this challenge I started with a picture of myself that I cut and pasted down then began layering color.  I couldn't help but think that more often than not what we think of ourselves doesn't line up with what others think when they look at us.  That's the primary thought for today's page.  "What do you see when you look at me?"

 

 

Day 16- Home Is Where The Heart Is

 

I'm sure if I lost everything material in my life I'd be surprised by the things I'd miss but more than anything it's the people in my life that make it home.  We built our house 8 years ago with the boys (at about the age pictured) and the memories are absolutely priceless.

 

 I didn't want our pictures completely "out there" so I opted to fade them out but I went a little overboard.  This is easily my least favorite of all the completed pages. 

 

Day 17- Kitchen Kapers

 

The recipe for a happy life!  This is my mixing bowl with all the ingredients necessary for happiness.  It's really all in the attitude I think.

 

Day 18- Mandala

 

 

 Hopefully over this next week I can get caught up with both challenges, complete the 21 day challenge and catch up with my weekly cards.  Come on inspiration, come back to me! 

 

I haven't been feeling good, not a lot of energy so I've not been able to get a lot done and my to-do list is piling up, I think that's a lot of my problem.  I am getting overwhelmed with everyday that passes and I can't get anything done, very frustrating.  Now, not having enough energy to do much is the perfect opportunity to sit and play with "art", you'd think, but I can't get that pesky to-do list off my mind enough to be creative! 

 

It'll all get done, eventually, right?

 

Art Challenge 2015- Card 8 & 9

The last couple weeks I've been working on a 21 Day Art Journaling Challenge, which has been great, but time-consuming.  Nothing interesting, journal worthy really, has been happening so rather than detailing something from the week for the last two weeks I've simply practiced backgrounds.  I've learned a lot by just playing around and giving different things a try. 

 

Here's my last couple weekly cards:

 

Week 8

These are the colors I used.  The bottom white is a gloss I found at Wally World.

I used gesso over the paper first and then added water and one color.

 Then, I continued adding water with other colors. 

 I love the streaky, ethereal look that you get when water is added. 

 

This is the back of the card.  I used similar colors and a palette knife to scrape spaces off for a little more texture.

 

Week 9

Here's the colors I used and the gloss to add a little bit of texture and sheen between layers.  I just love the background effect from water and paint.

 I used a stencil and some paste for texture in the bottom corner,

 and a little bit more of a different stencil in the right corner.

 I used the gloss with a small amount of color over the top and a paper towel for a little more texture.

 Over the top I simply painted on some of the brighter color.

 This is the back.  I used nothing but water and some ink.  I adore this technique.  Would make lovely backgrounds for future projects.  Can't wait to play around a little more with it.

 

 

To see more of my Art Challenge 2015 posts you can check them out here.

 

 

 

Now for the 21 Day Art Challenge, days 12-14.  If you'd like to see previous days, here's 1-7 and 8-11.

 

Day 12- Can I Quote You On That?

I drew out a cityscape and then pasted a quote in the grassy area and wrote out a few of my own thoughts pertaining to the quote within the sky area.  I tried a mirror image but I'm a little challenged so I screwed it up, the thought I was going for still gets across.

 

Day 13- Paint Over A Photo

My plan for the photo was a fire ring, with the thought of aiming for your goals.  Suffice it to say that didn't work. 

 I used a watered down gesso and wiped some off with a paper towel to block out and add some texture.

 I didn't have the right colors to make fire so I turned it into a flower instead.

 

Day 14- Ephemera

Mom and I took a trip this past summer to Florida.  We drove and antiqued/thrifted all the way.  We had so much fun.  I used a duplicate flyer from one of the shops for this page.

 

If you are not playing around with some form of art, no matter what it is, I highly encourage you to do so.  It is so therapeutic and just a great time.  Keep learning and growing every day!

 

 

Art Challenge 2015

Well, it's been one of those weeks.  I haven't had a chance to work on my weekly challenge yet, week 8 let's just say is still "processing".  I have tried to play catch-up with the 21 Day Art Journal Challenge that I am also involved in.  It's been wonderful, and time-consuming.  I'm behind with it also, but eh, I'm working on it.

 

As soon as I can get my weekly card (#8) done I'll get it posted.  For now, here's day 8-11 for the weekly challenge with a little bit of my process as well.

 

Day 8- Transfers

This is my first transfer.  I really like the distressed look, thank goodness because that's about as good as I could get.  I really like the finished product but was nervous I'd hate it during the process.  It simply wasn't "working".  I used a gloss medium from Wally World and a picture of a gate with vine growing on it from a magazine.

You can see the paper pulp still on the page but the more I tried to get it off the more of the transfer that came off with it.  I gave up and left it alone.

 I added a few flowers within the vine.

 and then added a stencil pattern over the top with the gloss medium. 

Gave it an interesting effect, barely noticeable but pretty neat none-the-less.  I need to invest in a couple nice stencils and try this again.

 

 

Day 9- Mark Making

Here are the tools I considered using.  I thought buttons would be a great mark maker but they really didn't work very well.  I ended up using a palette knife, straw, meat tenderizer and paper towel.  Love the finished result.

 I went to Michael's but couldn't remember what mom told me to buy.  I got frustrated so I left with nothing and used spackling paste instead.  Worked pretty good, wasn't sure it'd hold up.  Thinking I could possibly wake up to a crumbly mess in the morning.  What d'ya think?  Did it work?

 Here it is with two shades of pink added.  I used a little bit of water to help it spread better, which also knocked down and softened the texture.

 I added a lime green as well.

 Finished it off with a layer of gloss medium to add depth and shine.  It's been three days as I write this post and it is still doing just fine.  I'm a little surprised, but it worked.

 

 

Day 10- Hearts and Wings

My thought, my kids.  They completely stole my heart and it's my job to give them wings so they can fly away.  I have two boys in college, leaving the nest so I chose to use the idea of birds (which are the wings in a round-a-bout way) and made them out of heart shapes.  I really love how it turned out.

 

 

 

Day 11- Map It

 As soon as I saw the title of the challenge for day 11 I knew what I wanted to do, our 20th Anniversary Trip to Yosemite.  We had so much fun backcountry camping and a map was definitely a necessity.  I used pictures and a basic map of the area from a park paper I brought back from the trip.

 

 I used a bottle of paint to add circles, writing our days activities as well as a few specific memories within.

 Then, I colored some of them in with markers.

 

 

 

I am still behind, (should be at Day14 of the 21 day challenge and week 8 of my 2015 challenge) hopefully I can get caught up this weekend.  All in good time!  Hope you are spending some quality time crafting and learning new things.  Always lots to learn!