Spring Has Sprung

Thursday's theme over at One Powerful Hour is Spring. It's about time! I can't speak for everyone in New England but to me this past winter was incredibly l o n g. We're all jumping for joy here in Maine. With that said I decided to be different and go with the literal meaning of the word spring rather than the season Spring. The total time I spent on this ATC was an hour, or less, including the mistake I made! However that's not taking into consideration drying time. First I did the standard quick gesso background: a couple of coats making sure the brush strokes went every which way and then a oouple of green and then blue acrylic washes wiped over with a baby wipe. You know the drill. When that dried I lettered "Spring" with a calligraphy marker. Then I glued down the spring with a glop of gel medium. The parts didn't seem to make the whole so I put in the comic book style action lines to pull it together. Because of the gel the whole thing had to dry for hours.

Remember I said I made a mistake? At first I wanted to do just a plain white gesso background and the calligraphy right on top of that for that minimalist look. Add the spring. Done. Post it on the blog. Well I thought I lettered "Spring". I took a second look and it was really "Sprig". Stupid. So I slapped on more gesso. I let that dry but I could still see a shadow of "Sprig" so then I did the washes of color. Overall it probably came out better than it would of with my original idea.

Soul Journaling II Prompt 2: Permission Slip

(Click images for a larger view) I love backgrounds! I color copied a basket lid and glued it down with matte medium then gessoed the page around it leaving some of the image exposed. I let that dry while I straightened up my studio space after Christmas gift making madness. I mixed some craft acrylic with the matte medium, to give it a satin finish, and slathered that around the page again leaving some of the image and gesso exposed. I quickly wiped it down with a paper towel. I prefer to use a baby wipe but must have run out! I made an envelope with scrapbooking paper from a template at Mirkwood Designs, clipped the corners that showed with a punch and glued it down with matte medium. (I use matte medium for everything!) Then I let the whole thing dry some before I wrote "I give myself permission...". I pressed the journal under some dictionaries overnight. I resisted the urge to add anything else. Less is more.



For the card front I ripped some more of the scrapbooking paper and glued it with matte medium on to blue mat board slightly smaller than the envelope (this is important!). Then I sealed it with more matte medium and trimmed it with an craft knife. I didn't want to gesso or paint over it because I chose a mat board that contrasted with the paper and I wanted to leave well enough alone.



For the card back I gessoed the mat board, let it dry, and aged it a bit. I did the writing with a black gel pen and stamped the date. I love old school date stamps, you can still get them at Staples.

The Soul Journaling II prompts by Collage Diva.

Soul Journaling Days 3 and 4: Soul Armor

Soul Journaling Days 3 and 4 over at Caspiana was about creating our own "Soul Armor" to protect ourselves from "our critics both from the "inside" and the "outside"". To illustrate the theme she suggested using a Medieval suit of armor from a clip art site and filling it with words and phrases. I used this armor from a Dover Medieval Illustration CD I have.



I cut out the image and glued it on the page with matte medium. I used Gesso to paint over a small area on the chest and then let the whole thing dry overnight. I tinted it with watercolor and used acrylics to make that blue mass representing creative spirit and the top of the hill the knight is standing on. (Or if you want, look at it as a tiny planet like in The Little Prince.) When I got done it looked like it was sitting on top of the page rather than being part of it. Originally I was going to use black acrylic and give it a solid matte background then I realized the knight would still be on the surface of the page so I watercolored the background and stamped silver stars. This gave it the depth it needed. Then I did the words in calligraphy: Open Mind, Creative Spirit, Perseverence, Community. I made a few mistakes and covered them up but I was pleased with the overall effect of the page when I got done.