I have purchased and enjoyed several new mixed media inspirations recently. One is the DVD by Diana Trout titled Playful Paper Backgrounds, available through Interweave. It was very relaxing and enjoyable to observe Diana's painting techniques. For someone who is not a trained artist, it was interesting to see even little things like how she cleans her brush (dip first in dirty water, then clean water) when using her watercolors. One technique I have already put into use is how to sew with painted papers and paper towels. I have a considerable stack of these already. Diana adds an application of acrylic varnish to one or both sides of the painted product, and finds that it prevents tearing when sewing through this fragile products. I have some upstairs drying right now!
Diana was recently interviewed by Lyric Kinard on her blog, and there is a give-away of Diana's book Journal Spilling (that I would love to win!)
Another fun new purchase I am playing around with is the book, Wreck This Journal by Teri Smith.
The theme of this journal is that the blank page is not so precious that you are afraid to get started. You doodle on the cover, title page,
follow instructions to create unique pages
and just have fun!
Some of it is just silly and I will probably not take the journal in the shower with me or drag it behind me on a string. But I am looking forward to some of the activities with my grandchildren next weekend. This would be a good way for someone to try visual journaling for the first time.
The white heritage quilt is still on the machine, but I had to take it off and add some more fabric to the backing. It was getting too short on the bottom to finish the quilt. Sigh. Another problem. I have two more stars and the final white border to go.
1 comment:
I love to doodle...I always have yet there is that fear to do it in an art journal....I love your pages, they are really fun....you are really getting into the paper thing too...it is fun to watch....
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