I Saw With Open Eyes: unPlanner Week 25

Hello again! I'm sharing my latest unPlanner pages today. I get the honour of being the featured member today in The Documented Life Project 2016- The unPlanner. Thanks so much to Rae, Sandi and Lorraine! 

If you don't know what I'm talking about, or your curiousity is peaked, check it out HERE.

This is volume two of the Art5 kraft binder. It is full to bursting!! 

I made a fun tri-pocket to fit the PACs out of a kraft envelope, sewing the compartments and backing it with one of my painted pages.

I used lots of StencilGirl stencils to decorate these papers. I use the same look throughout the month of June. Check out my other blog post about my process. 

I haven't finished a few of the previous weeks PACs, so those will come yet.

This PAC was for Week 24: add doodled flowers. Or ten. 

I used a Brushstix foam applicator with a pointy tip to add the paint dots, then I doodled around each one with a black Pitt marker.

I doodled the larger flower on underpaper and cut it out. A circular blob of gold paint on my underpaper had dried up, so I made that another flower middle, doodling around it, cut it out, then layered it on top of the other cut-out. 

I used Lindy's Stamp Gang spray to colour the silk ribbon I purchased from the Art5 store.

I blended the area away from the large flower with gesso so the flower would be center stage, then added dots with a Pitt marker.

For this week's PAC: use tissue paper. 

I colored the watercolour paper with my June colours.

I used tissue paper with text I found in my happy mail stash (thanks, Lois Stoneking!) for the upper left corner. I smooshed it up with matte medium, glueing it to page. Once dry, I painted it with the same colours. I figure it gives the PAC some good texture.

Next, I added gold dots, cut out an eye from a copy of one of my selfies, glued it to page, and found some phrases in an old book that pertains to eyes and seeing. 

Sewed around tag with metallic turquoise thread.

Dyed the silk ribbon with Lindy's Stamp Gang spray paint.

Opened up, and you see the monthly view. To see my process, see my previous post of my unPlanner.

For these last two weeky views, I used StencilGirl club stencils by Terri Stegmiller. 

Mary Mary, Quite Contrary May 2016

This was for the challenge to use a stamp. I used a pool noodle to stamp the white circle, painted pink around with my fingers, pink painted dots, added stenciling with the same stencils I used in the previous pic -  Terri Stegmiller's gorgeous StencilGirl May club stencils in teal, then added white doodles with white gel pen.

Here is a new pic of the pocket with the third PAC completed. So YUMMY!!

This is the back side of the pocket. I will add the List10 tag to that when I get that finished next week.

And that's it for today's post. Thanks for visiting! :)

♥♥♥  Anna  ♥♥♥

Born With Bones and Heart Fused in Deep

I have started another art journal project. Like DLP, this one also has an amazing community of like-minded artists. Every week you get new prompts. We'll see if I make more than one page! LOL!

Check it out here: www.getmessyartjournal.com

I have wanted to add more meaning to my art and telling stories on my pages for a long time.  Ummm...might my blog name suggest my intentions too, perhaps?  ;) I enjoy creating pretty pages, but often they don't have a story. That's why I got interested in this project. 

The first prompt really stretched me creatively and mentally. Get Messy works on six week seasons, with this season's theme bring introspection. 

The dictionary defines it like this: 

So that's what I'll be trying to do. Communicate thought via art journal pages. Maybe they'll be pretty, but they might not be. ;)

So back to my page I completed. 

I go ahead and do the art prompt, make ink blots, and then it sits, me staring at it for a day.  

What do I see?

I see layers of hearts.

I see two pink hearts on each side. 

I see a white one in middle. 

I see a teal arrow pointing down. 

What am I thinking when I look at those blots?

Layers of hearts make me think of things I feel deeply, but keep a lot of it inside. 

Layers of hearts also make me think of all the friendships I cherish.

The two hearts make me think of my marriage. 

Two hearts combined into one. 

Which makes me think of our center: God the Creator. Jesus. The Holy Spirit. 

The mystery of all this that I can't fathom most of the time, but keeps me on my knees, and always evaluating life from that worldview. 

So the teal shape in the middle represents Christ in me, in us, in my relationship to everything.

As I play, adding textures and paint and words, more things pop into my head. 

Then I start to play, getting MESSY. Just playing. Play. Get messy. Repeat. :)

I cut out a laser copy of a photo of myself, and glue it to the heart on right. Then I paint it over with the same pink, as I want to keep the pink heart shape for the overall look. I don't want my vision to "stop" on the photo of me, as I don't want this to be the center.

I peruse the first poem in the altered book I am using and find neat phrases that speak of looking back through my life, which is what I also want to do in this project.

The poem is called The People, Yes by Carl Sandburg.

I spy a cool stencil lying around of the earth encircled by the planets, a StencilGirl club stencil: 

July 2015 The Sky's the Limit by Mary Nasser

 and it gives me the idea of Christ as my center in all things, so I stencil with pink paint on the white center heart and the surrounding book page.

Born with bones and heart fused in deep.

 Hugging the little ball of Earth

Mixed from a bowl of sky blue dreams

Shimmering with phantoms

Out of joybells and headaches

mortgages, house rent, groceries

new generations with names

The living flowing breath of the history

Flicker in the mirrors a few moments

Not sure if my newly "found" poem makes any sense, but each phrase speaks to me, as it gives me the feel of my present life as a mom with young kids and of my generally happy past.

The mesh-like texture on the hearts is white paint through a different stencil, symbolizing loosening the grip of my heart on the things that are inside - a cage, so to speak. Does that make sense to you like it does to me? heehee

April 2016 club stencil by Mary Beth Shaw Private Collection 16.2

I see teal-coloured paint on the under paper (deli paper) dried up and it's peeling off the paper, which makes me think of peeling back the layers of my brain and heart. That'll work! I need to add that to my page! So I brush on matte medium in the teal area above and adhere it. This is FUN!!

I add extra layers around each shape with lots of paint. The pink paint is quite transparent, but I want it opaque and heavier, so I add 3D Matte Gel medium by Prima to it, and hand-paint around the hearts, adding white gesso to create more depth of colour.

Lastly I add white dots around each shape with a white paint pen.

As I was blogging this, all the while looking at my page, and after I took the pictures, I decide that the center teal needs to be an arrow, so I go in to add lines in a diagonal fashion with an Imagine Crafts Brushtix chisel tipped sponge. Cool tool!

The arrow symbolizes pointing down, into my heart, and read what is there. See after picture, below.

I'm very pleased with how this all turned out. What a great exercise of INTROSPECTION. :)

And here some shots of my altered book cover in progress. It isn't finished yet!

The coolest product. You blurp it on, then put your heat gun to it, making it puff up. :)

And there you have it. I enjoyed writing this post as much as I did creating the page. :) 

Until next time!

♥♥♥  Anna  ♥♥♥