GPP Crusade #42 Strip Ease

Okay, for this Crusade I'ma gonna be ona time-a!!! I am on a roll with this and the last Crusade. I really love both assignments. And I ADORE visiting all the Artist's sites and seeing how each player "translates" the Crusade. If you are a Crusader and come to visit here, please leave a comment, I would love to meet you!! As Michelle says "How Cool Is That???"

So, I turn the page in my new journal and start stripping, eeeek, God Forbid, I mean ripping.

Playing with Color:

Dag, that Yes glue is WAY STICKY. I don't usually create at my coffee table, but I was in the mood to watch some TV. Ripping is sooooo fun and low stress that I could multi-task. Most of the time I'm in my studio with the tunes cranked and couldn't follow a TV show if my life depended on it. I'm addicted to TrueBlood on HBO. Anyone else??? It's my guilty little secret. Oh, well, it was anyway!
I read ALL the books before it came out on TV. They are excellent but very different from the show. Jusy sayin.


Here is the spread, without journalling, scanned:
I let the pictures do the talking in my last journal spread, this time I need to purge some thoughts in writing. In order to not cover up the spread, which I love, especially the paint palette pieces I ripped with dried clumps of paint on them, I fashioned 2 pages with transparencies. I certainly have enough mistakes laying around, and transparencies are too expensive to waste. These are goofs from BroknHearted Venus, which I haven't completed yet. I'm bouncing around project wise these days. I used Sharpie for the journalling. I left one side blank to fill in after the results of my tests. I have to swallow a camera and the camera will take pics of my small intestine. It's a lot cleaner test than the colonoscopy. teehee. I left a transparency tab on the page for labeling at a later date. If I labelled it now it would be highly terrified and negative, like I'm Fucked, or something to that effect. teehee. I like the faint shell images with this spread, adds to the earthy, basic, natury feel to the colors and subject. Which I guess, is fear about our natural bodies, or states of being. I didn't start out with this subject in mind, it just came out. Which is the whole point of Art Journalling, no? Okay, I'm starting to sound like an ass, I'm shutting up now:




Thanks, Michelle for the inspiration and learnin. And I'm searching for a Venue so you can teach in NJ. I guess my little townhouse won't cut it!!! teehee. xoSusan

GPP Crusade #41 Grid Lock

What better way to launch a new journal than with one of Michelle Ward's Crusades?? I went shopping in my studio and found this journal again. teehee. I love the size, smaller than my other journal, I will flip back and forth depending on what I'm feeling each Crusade needs creatively.

I love paper. Paper is my crack. I was in fits of joy when I refound this journal. The feel, smell and taste of the page. HA! caught you. You weren't paying attention. teehee. No, I don't eat or smoke paper.

When I read Michelle's guidelines, my mind immediately went to Inchies. I can't work a ruler well and I am a solid D student in geometry so I just went with the inchies as a grid. I try and cut inchies from left over homemade paste paper as I go along, so I had a sandwich bag full ready to create with. Love that. So here I am playing with the inchie layout:

Designing the Inchies:

And the finished spread, scanned:
And the truth is that this Crusade was due last month, so I am very, very tardy. But it's summer and I think Michelle will forgive me. There were vacations and colonoscopies involved. (1 polyp, precancerous, removed and damned to hell, and Sea Isle City. In case you were wondering, I had more fun at the beach, teehee.) Hope all is well with you. xoSusan

NOWHERE NEAR READY!!!!

eeeeeek! I am supposed to be packing clothes and art supplies not blogging! But it's still early and I have trades to show and tell!! I decided to use the monoprints from Michelle Ward's Crusade #39 for trades at Art and Soul. I've put 50 little packages together :





Thats my business card on the right, heart photo corners and a written "pleased to meet you" type of blurb. I am going to give these out to my classmates and if there are any left over, trade in the bar!!! xoSusan

GPP Street Team Crusade #39

It's that time again!! Time to Get Our Crusade On!! This month Michelle Ward's Crusade #39,"Pulling Prints", was a total and complete blast. This is my virgin attempt at monoprinting. The process is very easy, very satisfying and the results make the paint on your wine glass worth it. Oh, was that just me?? teehee. I started out with this paper I just had to save from when my car was in the shop. I save ALL paper. At least THIS TIME, something I saved came in handy! Michelle tells us to use acetate or tyvek for the shape cut outs. Since this paper is slick and waxy on the one side I'm going to give it a go.

I decided to use the fluers-de-lys stamp (here on to be known as FDL, ok), my brand new flaming heart stamp, and a flower stamp. Used Stazon ink and cut them out.

Part of the fun for me was buying this glass cutting board, only $8 at Wal-mart. I didn't end up using the glove.

I scoffed at Michelle when she recommends buying a 500 pack of unlined index cards to pull your prints. I scoffed, why would I need 500, I'll Never Use Them Up!! WRONG. I pulled 200 already. You can keep track because there are 5 seperately wrapped packs of 100 cards inside the 500 pack. I take back my scoff. teehee.

So, I picked 2 colors that I like but haven't used lately and smeared them on the glass.

Here is the first batch. They are not all beauties, but I can work with that! I used too much paint at first.

Here I am pulling up the flower to run a second print. See Michelle's wonderful instructions for more detail. I was able to pull about 20 prints using the stamps out of the floormat paper, so I'm glad I made 3 of each. As the paper gets more saturated with paint, the cut out sticks to the print. I'm going to use these cut outs as collage elements.

These are prints I'm happier with, less paint and more character!

Some cool second pulls:

Another look at the second pulls:

Next two are closeups of second pulls:

Switched colors here. Had to buy this brayer too. Love it, wonderful paint spreader. I painted most of the backs of the prints too. I tried to make the backs look like plaid on a silk scarf. Oh well, it's good to have goals, right? teehee.

Here I'm pulling the print and you can see the FDL cut out.

And here are the FDL print's. I am quite pleased with these. The lower right hand corner was accomplished by following Michelle's advanced instructions. I get a Gold Star for that one!!

OMG!! How did the next pic get here??? These are the sucky rejects. But you know darn well I'm going to pick them up off the floor and overstamp them, baby them and turn these ugly ducklings into swans. teehee.

These have over stamping and I love the colors!!

These next 2 pics utilize masks from Tim Holz. I had medium success. I was going for spooky with wintry skies but I instead I channelled my inner third grader and this is what happened. sigh. You know these look like a third grader made them. I hate my inner third grader, she is chubby and both her arms are broke. Plus she called her teacher a Snot (which she deserved) and got in BIG trouble. But I digress, as usual.

These are done using the stenciling method. Very pleased with these, and Love this color palette.

This is next pic is blurry, but see that little scrap of paper on the top heart? kind of light in color? that just ended up there, I did not do that. And what a cool effect it made. It looks like the heart has a heart on the prints. Hey, I can't make this stuff up. And here is my biggest truth, when I create, THE BEST STUFF I MAKE IS ALWAYS A MISTAKE. Seriously, it's the unintentional that is always the miracle. That's why I am not a "REAL" Artist. A real artist sits down and puts stuff together. And it looks like something good. A not so Real Artist waits until serendipity hits and the planets align and something occurs by accident that looks awesome.


Here is the plethora of prints I pulled using hearts. This obsession is all Michelle's fault. She is totally an enabler.

Here are some of my favs.

I love the heart in the middle of Anarchy.

See that little piece of paper??? isn't it cool??? Oh, wait, I should have lied and said I did that on purpose. oh well, too late now.

This one I overstamped with the rubber stamp.


Then I went all Fiesta with colors and abstract shapes.

Okay, I'm done. I'm exhausted and slap happy and have no idea what I've written.

See the purple paint on the lip of the glass??? xoSusan