Art Journaling - Newbie Here!

Yes, so I am very new to Art journaling. I have watched several artists on Youtube. Once I tried it, I just love it. So, of course I have to try the mixed media girls....and probably like everyone that started out, I am having a hard time blending the face in. I guess it will come with experience and trial n error. At least the trial part is relaxing and fun. Errors can be pleasantly surprising though.

Below is the very first girl. I really love the back ground and almost feel guilty covering it up, but I think once I get better at the other part...the actual focus of the page, I will not mind so much;)

Not done, but it's got a nice start. I am over halfway done for sure, just need some touch ups...no major changes.

Below is part of a drawing my daughter did on regular printer paper. She did the face and hair. I did paint over and redraw the eyes, nose, and mouth though. Oh, and I changed the hair, that is on the head, up a bit. The "balls" of hair is what my daughter drew, and colored. So, I just used those colors as a starting point. Anyways, I love the colors in it the best.

Using my daughters drawing as the focus. Not done but almost;)

Below is just some flowers I was making. I was watching a Youtube video when I was making this page. I am not done....the far right flower is missing a pot. Anyways, I am just messing around with his one. I still think it looks neat though...not neat as in orderly, but neat as in cool;)

Just playing around and having fun with this one.

So, I did learn something. I learned that I do not like to use mod podge to cover my pages. It seems kinda sticky even after it dries. I like to use the matte mediums. I need to get a new thing of it. Well, I am excited to do some more journaling like this as well as work on these again...in 10 years...probably;) Thanks!! Have a great day!!

SPOILERS!! Swaps on Swap-bot

Hello! Hello! Here are some of the swaps that I have just mailed out as of 10pm this evening. I am glad that I decided to go ahead and make a run for the post box, cause the light in my van had been left on. Tomorrow we are taking a trip to visit family, and the day would not have started off good if we had to go buy and replace our van battery. YIKES!! So, I was very glad that I decided to mail this stuff off. 

Me, when I had decided to make a mail run at 10pm;)

Below is the first swap that I had joined on Swap-bot since my long absence from that swapping site. This ATC started off neat....but I am in the the mood for.....and have been in this mood for a long time...the mood of messy. Not too messy, but mixed media messy. It is hard for me to stop adding things. Sometimes it turns out very nice, and other times I get to a point, and I'm like, "Okay, Vanessa just stop!!!" I got to that point with this ATC. The swap was Black Friday ATC Swap, and it did allow one other color besides black and white. But, if you keep scrolling, it doesn't end up with really any of that pretty blue it started with. 

Very base of decorating ATC.

The very base paper is from a gelli print on black paper. I love gelli printing and can spend HOURS doing it. Then below I had stamped some stitched lines on tissue paper over the butterfly punched part. It's not the punch outs but the strip that is left over after punching the butterflies out. 

Still see some of that lovely blue.

Now is where a little "messy" comes in. I used some gesso to lighten up the areas I was gonna journal on. Then I wrote in my sloppy handwriting...not sloppy enough though. I want it so sloppy that you can tell it's English, but not really what it says. I did write on the note to my swap partner what it said. Though, thinking of it now, I don't think I remembered what the top part said, so I am not sure I wrote that. Anyways, it will get somewhat covered too. 

"Trust somebody. Just fly spread your wings wide and let go!"

Below is the finished product....duh...anyways....I did add some white to the butterflies, then some gelato black to the border part of the butterflies, also around the edges of the ATC...framing it a bit. Then added some watered down gesso in random places. I did do another sewing stamp for the boarder too. At that point, I NEEDED to be done. Not sure if anyone else ever feels that way when they are crafting. I don't know why, I just have a hard time not adding anything else to my crafts. It is easy to keep adding in mixed media type stuff, but when I do greeting cards, I have to plan them out a little more;)

DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE

And here is the gelli printed envelope and note for my partner. I did about 50 of these the other night. Just randomly adding up layers....sometimes I do like to color coordinate, and other times I just like to add and add until it looks good....just see what happens. Sometimes I get lucky fast and other times it takes a bit of layers! LOL!

The decorated envelope and note card to carry my ATC to my partner;)

With the two swaps below I have tried to reuse some envelopes that I had saved. The swap calls for bubble wrap envelopes....and I could hardly get them closed. I had to take out the green roses in the second swap down there because they would not fit in the envelope. I glued them shut by glueing printer paper on one side and folding it up over the other side to glue, like it was a flap. I painted the envies and used a medium to reinforce the "flap" plus protect the addresses, and...well make them look a little better. 

So, I have stuffed a whole bunch of stuff in these swaps. Most of it is from my stash. I have sent about 6 of my handmade greeting cards between these two swaps. I will have to post about them at some point. I have probably about 200 stashed here in my room, because I just love making them.

Hope my swap partner likes these things!

Swap to my 2nd partner via: Swap-bot.com

The two pictures below are of 3 of my swap-bot swaps. The envelope with the white dots is for a friendship book swap, so it's packed with some lovely booklets for her to sign and pass on. The other two towards the lower part of each picture are the two swaps above packed up, painted, sealed, and about ready to go. They are only missing stamps at this point. 

3 Stuffed envelopes.

I just rubbed some white gesso over the areas that I wanted to add the addresses, and it worked out nicely.

The front of the same envelopes.

These 5 envelopes have 1 ATC in each of them. The swap is called, 5/5 December ATC USA (not Christmas). I had a fun time with these, and have about 10 more that I made at the same time I was doing these. I usually make a whole lot of them with these multiple ATC swaps, so I can have some extras to trade. Or if I end up just not liking what I made. I cannot bring myself to send someone something that I would not like to receive. If I think it's ugly, it's not leaving my craft area until it's got about 100 more layers! lol!

Yep! You guessed it....its gelli printed!

This ATC was unknowingly specially made for one of my partners. This lady had on her profile that she liked anything Nutting dolls, and Tim Holtz. Well that is what over half this ATC is made of, so yea, I knew this one would go to her;)

I paper pieced all the parts of this girl...did some splattering,  base  paper is gelli print, couple butterfly stamps, and gelato black to lightly go over the edges and around the girl.

Okay, so this next one was my personal favorite. I have actually kept some ATCs that I make and ended up loving....this was almost one of them. I just love the background. I didn't want to cover it up too much so I just added the heart, and glazed it with some triple thick something.....first time I used that stuff....I guess it's like glossy accents, but not in a squeeze out bottle. 

My favorite for this swap!!

This next one has a gelli print base, then a mixed media stamp. I also added a map tissue paper, and did some flicks of white water downed paint or gesso. The Alice in Wonderland Rabbit was a printout form some images I bought off Etsy.com. I just fussy cut him out....then I went around the boarders with the black gelato. 

Below is another one like the other heart ATC. This one is a little darker. I did a lot more gelato shading, but still allowed the background through. I added layers of blue, black, and white, then added the really thick glass looking gloss to the heart.

Sorry its side ways. 

This one was neat, and the most "different" from the rest. The background is a gelli print, then some stamping, and some other pieces of gelli print torn and glued on. I added the two flowers by stamping tissue paper and then matting it on. I went over the whole ATC with the thick clear glossy stuff that I used on the hearts above. I loved it. I also stamped over the glossy stuff, then sealed that with some varnish...only cause the glossy stuff dries slowly and I was wanting to get these in the mail tonight. When I stamp over any medium, especially if it's glossy, I feel like it needs a layer of something over it to keep it from rubbing off, smearing or whatever.

That thick glossy stuff, gave it some dimension.  Ok, so I will have to use the actual name of the product if I put another item on here after having used that stuff....goals! lol;)

Here it is....that stack that went to the little metal box near the ice-cream shop;) I felt so much better now that all these are sent off. And the postage, I added an extra stamp on all of them "just in case". I probably won't do that all the time...obviously, but its been a while since I have mailed off like this....and I guess I just needed my mind at ease.

On their way to their new peoples!

Thanks so much! I can finally publish this...I am not sure but maybe I will start posting a separate post for each swap. Hopefully I will have this blogging thing down at some point.                           Have a "good one"!!

Back to it

Hey Peoples! So, I have decided to get back to blogging some of my crafting. It's a "JUST FOR FUN" place that I can let go and just craft n share. I'm not gonna be really focused on anything except crafting....there may be bits of my life mixed in as well, but I will try to keep it mostly all crafting/swapping related. As of now, I don't plan to do videos....hmmm...if I learn how to do them...."decently" and feel like people would actually watch them, then I might try it out;) Or if I find that it's much easier/satisfying to just "get it out" that way...then well that's what I'll do.

So, this is me...Hi! 

I got me some stuff for my birthday. I am on a gelli binge here lately and possibly for the rest of my life. ;) So, that was the focus when choosing my presents for myself....thank-you hubs! That gelli plate is a speedball one...it's very thin...well like a 1/4 inch, so a little stiffer then the other kinds. It was cheaper...I think, and it works very well, but I am thinking that I want a squishier one too in the 8x10. Maybe it's my subconscious way of making an excuse to just buy another gelli plate...you know like we do when we really don't want to work out or cut back on our eating....we can effertlessly come up with 100s of reasons why we should do what we want (FEEL) like doing. 

Some stuff from my sweet friend Amazon (.com). So nice of her to send me birthday gifts! She said there were even more on the way...I can't wait to get them! ;)

So, the below 3 pictures are me...this is me...and sometimes I feel embarrassed because every other person out there seems to be so neat and clean and color coded and prioritised and not scatter brained. I am just not, I love this messy desk. I do clean it and "organize" to make space for more crafting, but this is how it is when I am having a good time. I am trying to embrace my messy. I don't like germ mess, but artsy clutter is fun.

In the middle of crafting.

In the middl-middle of crafting;)

The farthest side on the right of "in the middle of crafting";)

Below is an envelope that I gelli printed. It's for a pen pal of mine. It's my reply letter to her intro letter. I took a bit getting it to her. Truth be told, I lost the first letter I wrote to her and had to write a totally new one. I still haven't found it....odd....I usually find something that I've been looking for the moment after I fix it and don't need to find it anymore. Unless it's my keys....my wallet....my phone....I need those things and will spend forever looking for them....and they are usually in a place that I have already looked over. Yea, so maybe I do need to work on being more "neat"! ;)

Gelli printed and doodled envelope to a pen pal. 

This was just a quick post to get this out. I have 3 more in draft form....I don't want to post them so close to posting this one...or something...yea that seems right. Anyways, I am back to swapping and pen palling. I didn't take a break from crafting, just the swapping and pen palling part. Thanks for looking....well, have a great day peoples;)