New Art Journal for 2015 - DLP

And on to this year's Documented Life Project! I'm a little behind on blogging, as the third prompt will be revealed tomorrow. I'm actually ready for it! :)

To join this project, go to Art to the 5th Academy. 

You MUST register there first, and then join DLP 2015 in order to see the weekly prompts. PLEASE read the information, the FAQs, and watch the videos posted. It will help you greatly with any questions you may have, and how to navigate the site. 

And if you are not too shy, please share at the Academy. The Art5 ladies will love you for it! :)

So for this year, I decided to go with the recommended Dylusions Journal. It takes some getting used to. The size doesn't bother me, as it is very similar to what I worked in all of last year. It's the paper! I now know I will work with acrylics more than watercolors, as it takes a lot of applications to get bold color to stay on this bristol-like paper.Or maybe it's me not knowing how to work it!

I jot down birthdays and appointments in this portion of my calendar. Maybe I'll add some doodles as well in the empty spots, like I did last year. We'll see.

I started the page off with awful brown acrylic paint. It was UGLY! So I covered the whole thing in a few layers of white gesso to cover the ugly brown.

Next, I punched circles out of cardstock and adhered them to the page. Then I started coloring around with my go-to supply: Neocolors II watersoluable wax crayons. I layered and layered and layered color to get it right. Really loving that you can see the textures underneath.

Next, I drew lines with a ruler to frame the calendar, and to mark where to write in the days of the week. I just used a fine-line black Sharpie.

Lastly, the title: I created the month names in my FotoFusion software, with the California Rad font from Dafont.com, printed them out, and cut out the letters. Added some black edges with the General's Sketch and Wash pencil to give it some dimension.

Ahem, after I filled up the first two-page spread in my journal, I decided to plan out my pages. So here it is: 

Well, that's it so far. See you next time where I will share the first prompt, Week One.

Thanks for stopping by! I welcome any comments, even just a "hello", I was here. :)

DLP Week 43

SO EXCITED!!

The Big Reveal was rolled out for The Documented Life Project 2015 on November 1st. 

Ideas have been running through my mind as to how I want to tackle the project next year! I might go with Sandi Keene's planner style. I'll be using the recommended journal for it, instead of making my own next year. :)

So, back to 2014, a couple photos documenting my week 43:

Blues, greens and purples with my NeocolorsII. 

A little bit of collage for the header. It was looking too bright, so I put some gesso over top, scraping with a card and smudging with my finger.

Week 45 Challenge is done on this week's pages. Challenge is to add tabs. Three tabs of my usual circles from book texts, which mimics the date circles. 

Behind the purple flip-out are two pages of mixed media paper, in which I wrote out our Prime Minister's speech he made to us Canadians after a terrorist incident this week on Canadian soil. 

The Light of Jesus quote I made while faith journaling one day, and the Speak Life is a little Project Life card I had made earlier in the year. Was going to include it in some happy mail, but forgot to, so while going through my art journal fodder, I came across it, and figured it worked perfectly for this week. :) 

The circly things on the scalloped edge on the right are reinforcements colored with Dylusions ink, and cut in half. They're really nice, as they already have a sticky back. Voila! :)  Each paper with a tab are tip-ins, attached with washi tape.

The scalloped edge and purple background are both colored using the Gelli-plate. One was done on simple white cardstock and the purple one on old music paper. 

So, that's done! Next is Week 44.

Thanks for coming to visit! Have a great day!

Petite Doll Mixed Media Project in my DLP Journal

So, the girl below is based loosely on the things I learned in a Suzi Blu course called Petite Doll. Don't like my completed version, but I learned lots.

DLP Week 35 Challenge: Draw, paint, doodle a face. Done. Took forever to do it, as it was completely out of my comfort zone, and my expectations were too high!

I started with a sketch of my daughter in a sun-hat. 

4 things I wanted to capture in this project:

--NINE freckles on her nose

--her gorgeous long, flowing blonde hair

--her happy child-like expression

--her brilliant green, soulful eyes

There's so much I want to learn yet about creating dimension with color. Tried to add lots of yellows to her hair. Not crazy about the sharp black lines I added...

I used a color scheme I haven't used before: baby blue, orangey-yellow and a warm purple. I really really like it! It all started with the Gelli-print I used for the background of the girl. :)

Added more dimension to my oft-used bubble theme. I am really happy with that. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy art-ing!

♥♥♥ Anna ♥♥♥

My handmade Journal for DLP

Some of you have been asking how I made my DLP journal. Here goes:

I used Canson 15x11" 140lb watercolor paper, with each sheet folded in half.

To prepare my journal for binding, I used this method: How to Make a Sketchbook: Coptic Stitch.

To bind all the pages, I plan on doing this: Coptic Stitch Binding Tutorial

The only reason I haven't bound it yet is because I haven't taken the time! In hindsight, this is better for working in, because even though the Coptic Stitch binding method gives me a lay-flat binding, I won't have to wrestle with trying to have a flat surface to work on. As the book gets thicker and thicker, the more I'd get frustrated with an uneven surface. To work on my pages, I just grab one month at a time. I do wish every now and then that my book was all intact, especially to carry it around and when people want to see it. :)

My daughter and I made a video where I page through my pages, showing each signature and some more little details. Nothing grand or professional looking about the video, but it'll give you an idea of my set up. :P At about 1:20, I show the folded pieces of watercolor pages.



My bubbles page:

Supplies:
Watercolor paper
Neocolor II water-soluble wax crayons
Black marker, fine-tipped (I used Sharpie)
White paint pen (I used Painters)

Directions:

1. With the wax crayons, randomly color different circles, pressing hard, and then softly coloring in the middles. Cover the whole page with multiple colors, not paying too much attention to placement, as long as you don't leave huge gaps in between circles.

2. Wet brush, dissolve the color in the circles, focusing on allowing water to pool to one side of each circle. Try to collect the color in the same spots of each circle. Let brush touch the dark outlined part of each circle to bring in lots of vivid color into the circle. Let dry THOROUGHLY.

3. Outline each circle with the black marker, attempting to not touch the actual circle. Doodle another circle around the first one, being careful to not overlap the other circles. So some circled outlines will be behind others, depending how close the circles are to each other. Do it randomly, in no particular order. I started at the bottom, and kind of moved to the top, to the edge, but really no particular order. Important that you keep it random.

4. Color in the little gaps with black.

5. Add dots to each circle with the white paint pen, ensuring you add the dots to the same side of each circle. I painted them all on the right side, but it doesn't matter which side you choose, as long as they are consistently on one side. See photo. Let dry.

And you're done! Easy peasy, just a little time consuming, right?

:)

Haha, looking at the close-up, I noticed I missed a few areas with the white paint pen. Perfectionism kills creativity, I will just say. ;P

Let me know if I missed any details, and I love questions!
Thanks for visiting! Happy day to you!

Anna