Happy Halloween

I don't remember where I got this leaf stamp.  Maybe it was something I got from ebay.  In any case, it was sitting on my work table and sitting, and sitting, until I got tired of looking at it and decided to stamp it in Memento Black ink on Whisper White cs and then colored it two different ways with my SU markers. The tree in the center looked Halloweeny to me so I used it on these two cards for today.

On the inside it says - Have a Happy Halloween and I hope you do!

Oh, and thanks Sabrina for that grid embossing folder!  

Daily Paper Prompts 53 - 57.... okay, so I didn't finish them all.

The calendar page had turned to October by now and I was supposed to be done with all 60+ prompts but wasn't.  It was my decision to skip through some of them that were either too messy or that I did not have the right materials for.  I picked the last of the list that I thought I could get done relatively easily without extending too much into the month and so here is the finish line.

DPP 53 - Triangles.  My triangles were drawn with a Micron pen.

DPP 55 - Patterns on a Grid.  This required either very meticulous measuring to draw a grid or the happy realization that I actually did have some graph paper to work with.  Once again, done with Prismacolor pencils.

DPP 56 - Torn Paper Collage.  When I was in college, and the time I spent there is barely a memory now, I took a few art classes and in one of them I remember being assigned a collage.  To this day I don't remember what the actual assignment was but I know I spent a great deal of time on my interpretation of the assignment and was very pleased with the result only to be given a mediocre grade because it was not what the professor wanted.  I do believe that that was the last art class I took for a very long time.  If I were taking that class now and gotten the same result I think I would have fought back at the grade because I have learned over these years that I really don't have to please everyone.  It's more important to please myself even if the process of creating is the pleasing part and the result is less than perfect because that's how you get better at something.  We look at young children's art and see what beautiful results they get because they don't have that great fear of failing.  We acknowledge that they're learning.  They don't restrict themselves.  If they run out of yellow paint, they'll finish with green or blue or orange.  Adults are afraid of making mistakes, of running out of yellow paint and having to use green or blue or orange to finish.  I'm going to stop that thought now because I could go on about it but now is not the time. 

DPP 57 - One Word Journal Page.  I got out those Pink Peerless Watercolors again, and the nail art thin brush and scribbled away and then added my word. 

Believe that you can give yourself the opportunity to take on a challenge like this.  Believe that it doesn't have to be perfect....you're not getting graded.   You can make mistakes and go on or you can tear them up or tear out the page and try again.  You can do it and then go back and journal over it noting what you would change.  You can take an idea and make your own challenge out of it.  Or you might even find something that you like a lot and you want to do again and again but differently and make it your signature.  

Taking it out of it's intended context, in the words of Pink.....

"Where there is desire, there is gonna be a flame (the desire to create, the flame - your ideas)

Where there is a flame, someone's bound to get burned (your ideas being shared and judged)
But just because it burns, doesn't mean your gonna die (someone's dislike of what you do shouldn't stop you)
You gotta get up and try, and try, and try
Gotta get up and try, and try, and try
You gotta get up and try, and try, and try"

Daily Paper Prompts 45 - 52

DPP 45 - The Sun.  My inspiration for this came from an e-mail that I received from one of the teachers at work while I was still on leave.  She was thanking me (and HWNSNBP) for planting the sunflowers in the raised bed outside her classroom window.  She said that the sunflowers were gorgeous.  I'm glad that they did well because we were unable to keep up with the upkeep of the things that we planted in the beds at school due to my back situation.  I used my Blendabilities on this and really IRL it's not so mustardy.

DPP 46 - Staple Collage.  My blogging friend Lauren is a master at this technique.  In fact, she was responsible for this prompt.  It's a lot of fun going through your stash and picking out things and layering them until you find just the right combination to be able to give it interest and use just one staple to hold it all together.

DPP 47 - Stamping Circles.  Well, I was feeling very lazy and didn't want to go in search of my acrylics (still restricted from bending and lifting).  So I drew my circles instead using Prismacolor pencils and added the highlighted the bubble with a Micron pen.

DPP 48 - Ransom Note.  A ransom note with a rant.  I admit I spend and inordinate amount of time on Pinterest and what annoys me is finding something I would like to pin only to find out that the person who originally pinned it did not pin the post of the blog they were visiting, but rather the home page of the blog.  This means that you have to search through the blog posts and if you're lucky it will be something that has recently been posted.  If not, you could spend even more time searching depending on how badly you want the directions for the item you wanted to post.  If I'm pinning a card idea repinning the picture will sometimes suffice, but if it's a recipe you can't go by the picture........know what I mean?.  

DPP 50 - Negative Space.  I traced two of my fingers three times to create my "negative space" and then added the background using a new 6-piece set of Peerless Transparent Watercolors (shades of pink) that I picked up at One Little Spark.

DPP 51 - Borders.  This would be the favorite result of all the prompts that I did.  This quick owl drawing contains borders in several places and I colored it with shades of blue and green Prismacolor pencils.

DPP 52 - White Page.  Did you ever notice how many white animals appear in newspaper ads?  This "white animal collage" has but a few that I found in just two magazine.  I added a neutral watercolor wash as the background.  (I had to add the bird in there but kept it away from the cat.)

Almost done.

Daily Paper Prompts 35 - 43

DPP 35 - Documenting Markers, Pens & Pencils.  I chose to document two sets of black fine markers that I have.  A 4-piece set of Staedtler Pigment Liners and a 6-piece set of Micron Pigmas.  The purpose of documenting these art supplies is to use them as a reference when you are creating, be it for color selection, line thickness, finished appearance or some other quality.

DPP 37 - Block Letters.  I'm pretty sure that I did this prompt on September 11th.  Thus the message in my block letters.

DPP 38 - Color Grid.  I picked out most of the blues and some greens from my Prismacolor pencils and gridded them up.  Just straight coloring, no blending and you can see how the poor quality of the index card paper is evident in the coloring.

DPP 39 - Paint Lines.  Recently I had picked up a set of nail art brushes and used one of the finest flexible ones to paint these lines of watercolors.

DPP 40 - Create a List.  So I was truly a copy cat and used this picture by nyang nyang as my inspiration.  I elongated the cat bodies so I could write my list in between them.  

DPP 42 - Hand Lettering.  This was done the day I found out that my tooth was cracked and had to have it removed.

DPP 43 - Brainstorm!  I really liked the way this pumpkin came out.  It was quickly drawn and colored in with my SU Blendabilities (alcohol markers).  I used the "segments" to brainstorm things we could or wanted to do that weekend.

Ooosh, I didn't realize how much black and white was in this series.  

Daily Paper Prompts 26 - 34

The first prompt that I'm going to show is actually a set of 3.  Three artist's trading cards.  And I'm offering two of them to the first two people who contact me either through e-mail or by commenting.

DPP 26 - Artist Trading Cards  (ATC's) - I had a piece of watercolor paper that I had been using to experiment with inks and water so I took it and cut it into the correct size of an ATC (2.5" x 3.5" or about the size of a playing card).  Then I got out one of my organic silhouette stamps and added the flora in black ink.  I put the same quote on each of them.

DPP 27 - Slow Journaling.  I drew the curvy journaling lines and then paid special attention to having the lettering touch the top and the bottom of each line.  Then I went back with my watercolors and added the border.

DPP 28 - Nature Journaling.  I know that this is not really what nature journaling is.  Nature journaling should probably be more random and with more detail on specific elements of nature.  But HWNSNBP had recently finished this bed and I wanted to document it..... and it is made up of natural elements.

DPP 29 - Swirly Writing.  I chose to watercolor a stand of sunflowers and use the space between the flowers and the sky for my swirly writing.

DPP 32 - Invent a Font.  Yeah, this is not as easy as it would seem.  Everyone knows the alphabet, but can you alter all your letters to look cohesive?  Or you can make each one totally random?  This is my simple font and some variations of coloring it in.

DPP 33 - Art Material Color Palettes.  I had mentioned in an earlier post that I had gone a little crazy stocking up on art supplies this summer.  One of the things that I purchased was a set of 24 Kuretake water colors.  These were so much easier to use than the $5 set I had picked up at Mike's that I used for some of the earlier prompts in this series.  The colors are so much more vivid and smooth when they dry.  The finished product of the cheaper set had a sandy feel to it.  Not with these.

DPP 34 - Puzzled.  There was a myriad of ways I could have gone with this, but I chose to cut the Wishing Well Puzzle out of the newspaper and use that for the basis of my card.  There is a formula for finding your number and then you circle your number and read the message.  

I'm looking forward to sending out those ATC's. 

Daily Paper Prompts 15-24

You'll notice that there are a couple missing prompts.  Just as a note, some of them I chose not to do. The reasons were varied and I needn't go into details.

DPP 15 - Words.  This is words within a word done in markers with some tangling in the background.

DPP 16 - Dictionary Love.  You know I have a dictionary somewhere around here that I brought home just for the purpose of tearing up and using in my art.  But..........I couldn't put my hands on it, so I went with a base of newspaper - the classified section - and then went from there with the watercolors.

DPP 17 - Chandelier.  I looked up some photos of chandeliers on google and found one that I liked and drew it in black marker.  

DPP 20 - The Blues.   This is basically some blue paint chips cut up and rearranged into a pattern.  Then I stamped the letters on the center blocks.

DPP 20 - Stamp a Mandala.  I think this is pretty much a mixture of images from Tiny Tags and one of the small alphabet stamps sets I have.  This was fun.

DPP 23 - Draw a Mandala.  This one is done with a Pigma Micron marker.

DPP 24 - The Simple Plastic Card.  Aha!  Can you guess what was used to get the paint on the paper?   A plastic credit card.  I smeared some turquoise acrylic on the white index card and when it was dry, dipped the side of the credit card in white acrylic and used that to stamp the patterning.

Some of these look a little lacking something to me, but this is an exercise.  I have to keep reminding myself that I'm trying new things and that is good.

Daily Paper Prompts 8 - 14

 DPP 8 - Faded.  When I saw the word faded I kept thinking faded jeans.  I actually thought about using some faded denim on this, but it wasn't were I could get to it easily so instead I created some "denim" with my SU Canvas background stamp and then took some daubers to make the flower.  I searched for a quote about roses and like this one that spoke of the last rose of summer as summer was quickly drawing to an end.

DPP 9 - Games.  I created my game board with red and yellow ink and daubers in a grid pattern.  Then I went back and added the little designs on the circles in micron pen.  

DPP 10 - Stitched Paper.  I was not able to get my sewing machine out of the cabinet (no lifting at this point) so I opted to create a background out of watercolors and added my stitching to a certain area using embroidery floss.

Here's a close up if the stitching.  You can see I used straight stitches and French knots.

DPP 11 - OGEE.  This challenge required three cards.  My first two were done with those highlighters again.  The last one I drew with a fine black marker which reminded me so much of a fish net that I went and got some fish and crab stamps to the "catch".

DPP 12 - Round.  We were to use round stickers on this.  My round sticker are clearly smiley faces which every sunflower should have in my opinion.

DPP 13 - Grid.  Well, the new watercolor set that I got had a few different shades of red and how they were lined up in the box reminded me of bricks..........so here you have my watercolor-brick wall.

DPP 14 - Saturated Color.  Again using the watercolors I tried to keep it simple yet get those bold colors out there.  When they were dry I added the doodles with a Micron pen.

I hope you're enjoying the little art show. 

Daily Paper Prompts 1-7

On Monday I go back to work full time.  I've been in for 1/2 days for two weeks per doctor's orders and adjusting to my work life again.  I have a new chair being delivered tomorrow that has more support and should make things a little more comfortable.  After not being able to sit without pain from the end of May to mid-August, I am going to make sure that when I do sit I am not doing further harm.  But enough about that.  What I wanted to share, and it's taken me about three weeks to get these photographed, is a Daily Paper Prompt that I did from August until the end of September.  There were a little more than 60 prompts and I did manage to complete most of them.  You can do this too and start at any time.  The Daily Paper Prompts are found on the Daisy Yellow Blog.

If you've been here before you might remember that I did something similar starting in June.  That challenge also came from the Daisy Yellow Blog and it was the Index Card A Day.  For that one I used 3 x 5 index cards.  I chose to use 4 x 6 index cards for this challenge and do regret not doing them in an art journal.   Right now they are loose and I need to find a way to keep them together.  I had punched a hole in the 3 x 5's and used a binder ring on those, but I don't want to put holes in these.  I'll have to think some more on that.  But let me get on with it.

DPP 1 - Rainbow.  I used my Derwent Inktense pencils to draw some circular rainbows and then added the black background with my micron pen.

DPP 1 - Windows.  This was my rough watercolor interpretation of what I saw looking through the skylight in our kitchen.  The frame was a requirement of the prompt to make it look more like a window.

DPP 3 - Drips.  I wet the card and then dripped some watercolors down it letting them blend where they wanted to.

DPP 4 - Flowers.  I had been fooling around with highlighters on post-its at one point and decided to try them on this card.  The petals are highlighters with black Sharpie in between.  The background was watercolored.

DPP 5 - Linear.  I happened to have a partial sheet of labels in my work basket and took them and added swirls and scribbles of watercolors.  Then I carefully pealed them off randomly and added them diagonally to the card.  I then outlined them with a fine-tip marker to add even more linear characteristics.

DPP 6 - Certification.  I think you can read it and I am a Certified Believer in Flying Pigs.  This was rubber stamped.

DPP 7 - Leftovers.  I am not at all pleased with this one, but I told myself when I started this that I was not going to redo any of them just because they didn't appeal to me after they were done.  This was literally thrown together with scraps of leftovers from some of the cards that I did in the ICAD challenge.  

Well, there you have the first seven.  I'll try to keep each post to 7 cards until I get them all posted.  

This challenge proved to be a lot of fun and kept me occupied during my recovery.  I've been a little spendy buying more art supplies, but one can never have too many art supplies, right?.