lara

HOW COOL IS THIS?!!!

I got props from one of my favorite "scrapbooking" sites!!!

Did you know Gauche Alchemy has a Flickr group? We do! It’s a marvelous place to get ideas and inspiration. Lara is a gifted artist I had the immense pleasure of “meeting” though that group. She deftly mixes Gauche Alchemy kits and her own personal style into Art Journals, layouts and cards that defy all the typical gushy adjectives like stunning, jaw-dropping and amazing.

Here’s Lara, in her own words......

More here

giddiness ensues...

Here's a birthday card i made for my friend April:



And the back in detail cause i think it's yummy:

12x12 traditional scrapbook page.
Who, me, traditional?
image from gauche alchemy.
there's a little note to myself in the blue envelope :)

Art Journal page inspired by Point Blank Period challenge blog

yummy macro shot since the yumminess is always in the details with me :)

OMG, I've been DYING to share this layout I did last week for the new Gutter Girlz challenge! Since they only get announced on the 15th of every month I had to wait ... but I love how this came together :)

PROMPT:

I'm not ur bitch, BITCH
U and Ur HAND by Pink
Lipstick (i wanted to put lipstick on charo and have her kiss the page but i don't own any lipstick)


tee hee - it's been soooooooooo long since i've done a layout about my baby girl and when the prompt was announced i knew exactly what i wanted to do - well not what i wanted to do, but the subject of who i wanted to do it about! oh nevermind.... but one of my names for her is "Bitch". Along with "Lil Mama", "Mamacita", "Chi Chi" and, well, the "c" word - "Cunt". I take 75% responsibility for making her into the little spoiled monster she is - the other 25% is the purebred Chihuahua gene.

I also used alot of things from Gauche Alchemy - most notably from their ACME Kits which i've been "saving" things to use and finally decided i just need to use them! (Like the poodle/bull dog magazine page)

Look at all those old school bitches! And that bull dog giving the poodle "the paw"! The buttons are for Megan - I giggled when i put them on cause i know how much she likes buttons :) Or at least she made some comment at some time saying she liked the buttons and it stuck in my head.



Here's a close up of 2 dimensional Charo's bitch collar. If she weren't such a stuck up bitch and would wear a collar in real life I'd make her one! But she generally won't "lower" herself to the level of wearing collars. Trust me I've tried! But she's pretty good about walking off leash - unless she sees a cat, then all bets are off.

I'm curious to see if anyone looks at this page.
I don't really "advertise" it anywhere, just curious.

If you are looking at it, i've put together 5 little ephemera envelopes with the stuff in the photo and if you want one leave a comment. Obviously, first five people to leave a comment get the goodies.

Last night I was in a fragile mood and got a couple of art journal pages completed.
In my new art journal #2 :D (in case you missed it, i got my first art journal ever done!)

Yeah ... I was obviously listening to U2 last night :D :-p



The envelope is a leftover from Sarah's Pre-Art Journal :)
I've been stressing OUT for months now about what and where my home is. I've been living in limbo in a house that's been on the market for 12 months and I honestly don't know where my next dwelling will be.



And besides ... what actually makes a home?



So, I had this horrible conversation last night and decided to run to the store for some wine and popcorn. As i was driving the radio played "Where the Streets Have No Name" and I have to admit I've never been a huge fan of this song but for the first time since, what 1987 (?) the lyrics made sense to me! Huh.



Still one of my favorite U2 songs EVER.
EVER.

a rather quick art journal page i did last night

I all of the sudden had an epiphany that I meaning ME could be considered "an artist." I've always been super hesitant to label myself this and i think it's always been at the front of my mind to want to become it some day.
Like "what do i want to be when i grow up?" type question.
"Artist" always seemed to be a conceited answer, and one that would put me an esteemed group of masters and i could never fit there.

So, last night I was painting up a bunch of pages and it just hit me, i think now i can confidently say i'm an artist. Yeah? Yeah. I don't have to paint like Picasso or even make things people want to pay money ... i just have to MAKE. You know, like CREATE.

That word is so daunting and weighty to me, though... but perhaps i finally feel like i'm making something that makes me happy and content and that i want to actually put up in my house ... you know, like art ...

Art Journalling has become so much more than a visual diary for me - it's helped me try out new techniques, develop styles that i feel comfortable with and given me more confidence to share my work and ultimately my emotion. I guess it's a freedom to think that not every page has to be a masterpiece, and it's all just a journey towards something greater some day.

My first art journal is done!
My first art journal is done!
My first art journal is done!

What a sense of accomplishment as well as visual journey of my year so far - the craziest most unpredictable (but in a bad way) year!



(i'm sorry ... but YUMMEEEEEE)

You know, these pages not only hold my personal journey over the year, but all the techniques and i've learned along the way!



And last but not least ... le cover!



Oh! And I made a flickr set of all the pages here!

on to #2!

This is the last page of my first art journal!!!!!
I'm totally pysched!

Finally got Bono's card done!



Every year African Well Fund holds a fundraiser in honor of Bono's birthday raising money for clean water projects. We invite U2/Bono fans to donate and sign an online card which we then send to Bono through his management company. The first couple of years we just would send a print out of the messages, then I started crafting more seriously and the last 4 years have been handmaking cards that incorporate the messages. It's an honor to do and even more of an honor to be involved in such an amazing grassroots organization that literally started by "dreaming out loud."

Here is the whole package as Bono will first see it. It's an envelope and card dealie. The envelope is a standard office envelope I painted the shit out of. Mostly acrylic paint, however the "grace" is spray paint stenciled letters. And, yes, more of the screen from my old backporch :) Oh, and my other favorite material - duct tape!

I took inspiration from their new album cover - black and white and greys and no real lines - i tried to integrate everything with no real lines anywhere.




This is a heart embellishment I got somewhere on a washer - its the only real scrapbooky thing on the card, I guess :)



These lyrics are from the song off the new album "Magnificent" - they've really stuck out to me and I'm sure will be making future appearances on AWF artwork!


OK - now it's time to OPEN the envelope....




The envelope opened. The photos are from the visit to Ghana earlier this year.



This is the card itself - inside are all the messages donors left for Bono printed out. The card itself is chipboard with spray painted "One" and acrylic paint then all duct taped together. It feels nice to hold - these photos don't really show any sort of texture or tactile detail.



The whole package:



(I hope Bono can figure out that the card is inside and pulls it out!!! LOL)

Now, here is our certificate for the fundraiser. This year we also added in a small fundraiser for Adam Clayton's birthday which fell during the time period we were holding the Bono Birthday donation period. Thus, for the first time in AWF he gets a certificate too!



and



I used white typing paper that I crumpled up and soaked in a cup of tea (so it smells good too!) and then spray painted the heart mask and some texture on the edges. (OK, scratch the smelling good part). Yes, the photos are stapled on - i was trying to create a little frame for them using the staples :-p

Here's last years card btw
Here's 2007 card
ALSO
This is very cool and humbling.
African Well Fund thought enough of the Bono card to do a little Q&A about it...

http://www.africanwellfund.org/archives/2009/08/bonos-birthday-card-leaves-a-mark.html

i did the "end of month mojo" article on gutter girlz this month.
i worked through the pain of having no mojo :D

http://guttergirlz.blogspot.com/2009/08/end-of-month-mojo.html

wonder if anyone could tell..... :D

Here's the post:



i used to be afraid of using acrylic paint in my scrapbooking (which i now call mixed-media).
For years I stayed away from it and used regular inkpads and stamps and spent tons of money at the scrapbook store.
One night i was watching a documentary about spray painting and thought the drippy textured paint looked so cool i would try and replicate it with some acrylic paint i had won from a LSS challenge but never opened.
That was the beginning of the end!
Now i am addicted to acrylic paint and it's usage.
Not because i can actually paint bowls of fruit or pretty sunsets or my dog's portraits - but because of how flexible it is to create abstract background and texture to any page.
Or it can emphasize that special point or photo you are scrapbooking.

You can use paint with stamps too! It's even easier to peel off after it dries than ink is to wash off!
But i think it's more fun and interesting to use found objects to stamp with.



Things that make people think - "that looks so familiar but i can't quite put my finger on what I'm looking at!"
And it's uber-cheap!
In fact everything i am about to show you that i stamped with was free - and in a good way, not a "look over my shoulder to see behind me" way!

Here are just a few examples of my favorite tools to use and examples. Let your mind wander to things you have in your closet, tool chest, basement or in the gutter down the street. Anything will become a stamp if you apply paint to it - even fruit, vegetables, hands, forks, spoons, pine cones, stones .... you get the picture.

This is my preferred brand of paint - i like the consistency the best and makes the coolest uneven textured stamping of all the different ones i've tried:


ANYWAYS -
STAMPING WITH PAINT?! Really? Is it messy?
Ya, well it can be if you're having enough fun with it. Or it can be organized and neat if you're careful. Regardless of the mood I'm in, I still always put down either a huge plastic trash bag or wax paper underneath what I'm painting just in case....

Circles are my favorite shape.
The first non-traditional item i ever stamped with remains my favorite - bubble wrap! It comes in different sizes and is almost always found somewhere for free:



My next favorite are these different size caps. The largest was the first - it's a burned out scented candle holder. The first dozen or so times i stamped with it, my layout smelled like Vanilla! The other caps I couldn't specifically tell you where they are from or where i got them. If i see an odd looking cap in the gutter i will pick it up without blinking.

I also like to use corrugated cardboard - this certainly can be found for free almost anywhere you look! I "repurposed" these coffee cup wrappers from Caribou Coffee. And these are fun to use after they've been painted up for frames and embellishment texture!





The last "tip" i'd love to share, because it's really really cool, is use a piece of cardstock or a journal as your paint palette. Keep using it until you think there's enough paint on it that it looks pretty and will make an awesome background or addition to your project. I made this pre-art art jourrnal for a friend. This back cover is the palette i used for the entire journal (it's actually hard plastic) - so all the colors match, plus in somewhat spiritual way i like the idea of reusing paint from other projects in one - it's like putting it all together, the history and where i was at in my life for those weeks i used it as a palette.



I'd like to share with you this one last project i did recently that used all of these non-traditional stampers:



It's actually a birthday card that was completely free to make. I owned all the supplies - the envelope, the chipboard from packaging, the stampers, the ribbon..... It was for an orgzanization I do the graphic design for, and it was so much fun to turn the computer off and make something by hand! In fact, the AWF did a short news story about it, you can read it here.

So, there you go!
Don't be scared to dive into paint - buy a couple of the cheapies of your favorite color (or if you have Gesso laying around) and play around a bit. Trust me, it gets addicting! You'll never look at that pasta sauce cap you're about to throw away the same again!

Finally an art journal page that gets me excited to create again!
Inspired by the Depeche Mode I saw last Tuesday - when all time stopped and the world was perfect for a minute - the song "Waiting for the Night"



My first foray into making an angel - or something that can loosely be described as such :)

The texture is what makes it so yummy though!

A little inspiration from the Gauche Alchemy Acme Kits