lara

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

I haven't posted MONTHS of "year in the life" art journal entries!

Some of them are pure shit. When i was on prozac and had ZERO creativity (aka zombie syndrome) but i was trying to force myself to do something. To feel something. Even though they're kind of embarrassing to show because they are so gross, they're an important part of this year and the mental struggles I've been having.

But 3 weeks off of Prozac, only on Wellbutrin now, i feel a new sense of creativity and energy. THANK GOD.

Anyways, here's a bunch of "M" through "Q" art journal pages:

M is for Momentum (and lack of at that point)



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N is for Now:



Spray paint and a U2 quote. And just to clarify that is NOT a Morrisey quote :-p

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O is for One:



And you thought I'd do a layout about the song ... i'm not quite that predictable, am i?!

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P is for Plan:



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Finally
Q is for Question:



And with this layout, I feel back in the swing of things!

I can't believe i've found a way to take art journals further! hahahahahaha
So, it's what i'm calling an Art Journal Pre-Journal. If anyone has a better name let me know!

But the premise is is that it is all made of envelopes of different sizes, shapes and some have windows. You use it to put your little art journal collagy bits in! And possibly organize them. And on some of the pages I've put scrap paper which can be labeled, and in the middle is a set of post-it notes. The only thing I wanted to do but didn't have time was find a pen i could attach somehow.




Done with Glimmer Mist and chipboard alphas as masks. Also throughout the book are little things I've gotten in kits - a lot from Gauche Alchemy, actually, but other things i've collected along the way too. The cupcake brad is from GA and I believe the "shine" bead is too.



The back cover is the palette i used for the paint when i painted the book. I did it on a plastic file folder for durability :) Also each envelope hole is reinforced with grommets :) The glitter chipboard i am so in love with. My chipboard alpha collection is WAAAYYY getting out of hand people!



A couple of inside detail shots.
I put on my favorite quotes for inspiration - at least one on every envelope. Some envelopes have envelopes on them as well. Also, I put things into the envelopes for Sarah to find as she uses it (like collage images and other ephemera).







OK. So thats about it :)
I'd like to make another knowing what I know now - its definitely the sort of project you need to learn as you go. And Sarah's also giving me her invaluable input as she uses it. So i already know ways to make it better, or more usable perhaps. But, this project super invigorated me! Which is the point of creating, right?

This last spread is for the A Year in the Life of An Art Journal challenge. The letter L = Look. I used the technique from the Soul Journalling of writing from the heart then covering most of it up. The pictures are some of my favorite I've been holding on to.


This next spread is inspired by the letter K and the challenge blog A Year in the Life of an Art Journal:



It's quilty in that it's mostly fabric and ribbon! But since i don't sew it's just glued on :-p
And, yes, another Illustrated cut out from "the book," artist unknown.... (speaking of, man i feel like that's bad karma not attributing the artist!)

I've been working on a new journal for an online journaling group called "Soul Journal." It's a yahoo group run by Sarah Whitmore using these prompts from her blog.
Anyways, I decided to make my own journal to really "make it my own" :D

I got 5 of these blank book covers from Scrapbox last time i was there for 50¢ each! Imagine my giddiness at finding them!!!!



Here is the inside of the cover before I adhered the pages:



The base is dictionary pages covered with sewing pattern paper covered with paint and matte gel.

Inside cover after the pages were adhered:



This is the outside cover. It's a work in progress. But I didn't want to leave it just blank. I've discovered I like to do covers at the end of my journals! So I just took some paper I made last year in that collage class I took and covered the book and added a little paint and TONS of matte gel over it to protect it:



1st spread is the prompt "soul armour" - i.e. what protects my creative spirit:



Detail:



Photo from the Illustrated book :D The "Create" was done with Glimmer Mist on vellum. Background is dictionary paper, Gesso, tulle fabric glued on with Modge Podge.

two spreads in the Soul Journal, inspired by Sarah Whitmore's Soul Journalling Prompts:



This is called "Inchies." It's more of a visual journal page, than writing. Goal was to find images based on the prompt, cut them all into 1 inch squares and let that tell the story. It was harder than it looks believe me!!!!!!



This was probably the funnest and most therapeutic to do yet.
First we journalled on the spread using the prompt "I forgot to tell you..." then covered it up with tape and paint and sanded for effect. Knowing whatever I put down on the paper would remain a secret was really therapeutic. I added the photo as an after thought - something I did last summer in photoshop, but somehow i thought worked. Love the texture on this and will definitely be using the technique again!

Year In the Life of An Art Journal letter "H" is for Happiness. Look at me using bright colors :D :D :D




For A Year in the Life of an Art Journal - The letter I is for Imagine.
Went a little hog wild on the layers on this one - it was almost starting to turn shit brown! Sometimes it's so hard to just stop and walk away :)

Now J is for JUST!!!!



I didn't think this word would be so inspiring :)

Next Art Journal page in the A Year in the Life of an Art Journal series. G is for grow.

What a perfect word for the last 13 months of my life.

This page is near perfection for me.
It turned out almost exactly like i saw in my head (except the sunflower is too painty, but oh well).

I used a couple of gel transfers on this from photoshop brush patterns i printed out. Also the quote is gel transfer - i printed all the quotes from that HUGE list i've been keeping (udated almost daily btw), but i printed them in mirror image to use with the gel transfer, and let me tell you, it's a bit of a challenge to figure out what the quote says when it's backwards! LOL




A couple of months ago i won a "paper pack" from an Etsy shop of cool found images - the cut out dress is one from that. The shop is http://onegoodbumblebee.com/ and i highly recommend their "piles of paper" for inspiration!




This came out of a learning and growing experience me and my two best friends just went through. It blows my mind how the paths we've all chosen to go down are so different yet our friendship is still always there!



I think my handwriting ruined this page, but ... oh well ...




And yes it's a U2 lyric :-p

life is not about finding yourself it is about creating yourself
-george bernard shaw
emains dark and grungy, at least i'm super energetic about just creating stuff.

art journal F page for the A Year in the Life of an Art Journal.

Lots of paint and stamping and melted tissue and my first try at a gel image transfer. That's a photo of my grandmother from days of yore. Gel image transfer is a cool idea but kind of a pain in the ass?

I love the colors of this page :)