Sisterhood of the Traveling Creative Spirts

Each month I get together with PJ, Jan and Ingrid who are three wonderfully inspiring, creative and fun women. We rotate houses and the hostess comes up with a project or technique for us all to try together. It's fun and it's therapeutic. I wish we could do it every week.

This month it was my turn to host and I decided to have us try to carve our own stamps. I've always wanted to do this and I even had tools, sitting unused, in my craft room. It was actually a very easy process and we all created great stamp images using pink erasers, white polymer erasers and speedball stamp material. The tools we used to carve were speedball carving tools, used for carving both rubber for stamps and lino blocks.

I wished I had taken pictures of us working and the stamps that PJ, Jan and Ingrid created. They were all fantastic. Here are mine:

Little bits of Creativity

So I haven't been totally inactively creatively.  I have made small entries in my sketch book:

I've been keeping the sketch pad handy by the sofa and when I see an image in an ad, or piece of mail, or blog posing I've been sketching it in pencil.  It's adding to my confidence and I enjoy the zen like process. 

Pushing the Boulder Forward

I realized this morning that I hadn't posted in a couple of weeks.  Why?  I'm not sure because I have been doing a few creative things.  I seem to have lost interest in the Daily Paper Prompts.  I'm not sure why.  I should go back to the list and see if there are any I want to do and maybe that will get me going again.  Here are a few that posted at Flickr but didn't post:

Stitch Paper 

I really hated doing this one.  I started out with the idea to stitch a landscape but half way through I found it to be tedious and in fact I didn't finish it for  a few days.  Once done, it didn't look too bad but I'm not doing that again! 

Ogee Pattern

This one was more my speed.  I drew out this pattern from my area rug.  I painted it in my craft room, doing the colors from memory. It's interesting how I remember the colors brighter than they actually are.  The colors in the rug are blue, brown and green but much more muted.  And I left out beige all together!  

Round

I used the "faded" card as the background for this one.  Worked out great.  I started by painting free form circles, added the blac doodles then used a bottle cap to make the white circles.  I was just making it up as I went along and I like what I got.

Grid

Nothing too creative here.  I was trying to do something interesting with the colors but all I really did was fulfill the theme.  Wish I had tried something more creative.  I could feel myself losing interest in the prompts here...I liked it better with the ICADs when I was just doing what moved me each day.

Saturated Color

I'm always intrigued by the very simple abstract paintings at modern art museums. I think "how did that artist get such a simple painting into a major museum?". You know, it's not as easy as you would think.  Besides the mechanics of creating it there's the whole decision process. Colors and shapes. Composition. Making it interesting. Not so easy! You can't just throw stuff on there...there actually has to be a thought process.  

My thought process here was cool against warm.  Blue/black against orange/red. I like that I thought it out and I do like the that stripe of blue against the warm colors.  River through the desert? Canal through a field of flowers?  Those weren't in my mind when I started this, but that's what I see now. I may try abstract again, but start with a real image first and then turn it abstract.  

The Boulder

So the title of my post was the "Pushing the Boulder Forward". As in, I suddenly came across a boulder in my creative path. In this case, I think it was work. I work in a retail store and both the hours and pressure to meet sales goals is really stifling. I seem to go in two week cycles of happy/unhappy. Something happens that makes me mad/unhappy at work and then slowly I make peace with it and I'm feeling OK about work and then something else irritates me or sets me off.  And over two weeks I make peace with it and the cycle starts again. Each time though, the scar left from the cycle becomes more prominent and the funk is a little deeper. I need to get to happy place and that's not going to happen in this job. In the meantime, while I'm searching for something new I need to reach for my creative tools and use them to lift me up. So really I shouldn't push the boulder forward...I should push it out of may way. And I will!

A Grinding Halt...

I've been moving along so enthusiastically through the ICADs and then the Daily Paper Prompts and then suddenly I came to a grinding halt 5 or 6 prompts ago.  I went into my sewing room full of energy because the prompt was "stitch paper"  I had an idea to take this landscape idea:

and recreate it with dense stitching on mixed media paper. I worked from the bottom up and by the time I got to the sky I was burned out on the project and the whole thing looked horrible anyway. I added water color over the stitching to try and enhance what I did but it really looked awful. And I really don't enjoy stitching on paper. I've done it for some handmade cards but have only liked the effect when combined with fabric on the paper.

I put the project down and gave myself permission to skip that prompt.  Why do something creative if it makes you unhappy!?  The next day's prompt was "Ogee Pattern".  This sounded more promising so I emotionally moved on and thought about what I would do the next day for that. 

The answer was literally under my feet.  We have a contemporary area rug in our family room with a beautiful Ogee pattern. I took a photograph of it, changed it to high contrast black and white and printed it out so I could trace the pattern onto my paper. I am not the best at line control, so I though tracing it would give a good start. After I turned off my lightbox and looked at my awkward tracing I put all my stuff back in my craft room and I haven't walked in there since. 

I know I just need to pick up a pencil and paper and kick-start my energy again. Just pick a prompt...any prompt and go. GO! 

Maybe this afternoon....

Games

The Daily Paper prompt for this one was games. I love playing games! I hate chess! So why did I make a chess related project?  I think because I love the checkerboard pattern.  When I started quilting, my first project and checkerboard sashing between the blocks and I continue to be attracked to checkerboard type design in quilts and  artwork. 

There's nothing fancy about this, but I like the way it came out. Once again, though, I didn't have patience.  I wanted to add the check-mate stencil (I cut the stencil out on the Silhouette) so I quickly dried my piece with an iron  before I stenciled with acrylic. There must have still been some moisture in the mixed media because the black paint started to color the white acrylic that I used for the word. It wasn't too bad but it could have ruined it.  I have to be patient!

Faded

This is one of those project that just had to call done even though I didn't like it. The Daily Paper Prompt was "faded".  The technique to is use watercolor crayons or pencils on the paper then spray it with a waterbottle to "fade" the color.  I drew random overlapping shapes and colored them with my watercolor pencils. After I took the spray bottle to the color did indeed look faded, so I like this technique. But I don't like that I can see my pencil strokes...or my design!  I think if I use either hot press watercolor paper or mixed media paper instead of cold press paper I won't see as much visual texture.  The cold press paper really holds onto those stroke marks.  I wanted to see how the technique works with stamp pad ink and distress inks so I rubbed my stamp pad around the edges of the paper, did the same with a bottle of distress ink and sprayed again. I like that effect a lot.

So I like the technique, just don't like the outcome of this project.  However, this will be the base for something else...coming soon!

Leftovers

Sometimes it's fun to just see how these project develop.  Today's Daily Paper Prompt was Leftovers and the suggestions was to use the paper you use to protect your work surface to create something. I just cleaned up my room recently so I was afraid I wouldn't have anything good to work with, but lo and behold I actually had a good "leftover"  I took it outside and photographed it whole thinking that I might do something digitally with it.  I open the file in photoshop and look at different croppings but nothing was really doing anything for me.

Then, I remember my cards that I threw away yesterday while trying to create the certification card. I figured I could cut those up in some way to incorporate them into today's project. Sure enough I started framing out the paper and then laying strips down and before I knew it I was well on my way. After I glued down my strips I rubbed over them with white paint to tone down the brightness, the outline with black sharpie.  After scattering a few more torn pieces of the cards on and outlining them I called it done.  I enjoyed the process of turning nothing into something and I happy with how it looks. 

Certified!

I made this card 4 times!  The Daily Paper Prompt was Certification so obviously it was going to involve handwriting...the bane of my artistic life! I knew right was my certification would be in time juggling.  That's some thing I've been doing a lot of the last few weeks.  Dad's been up and down health wise and we had a 4 day trip to the hospital which I had to balance with work.  Then Nick was home from school, which is always a wonderful thing but then Greg ended up in the hospital. And of course I had to get back to work on Monday and there were piles of laundy, dust bunnies all over the floor and a very cluttered and dirty kitchen.  And my cousins from Pittsburgh were coming this week. I think that makes me a Time Juggler Extraordinaire!

Anyway, I knew what I wanted my card to look like but I had to get the darn writing on it.  The sideways writing wasn't so bad.  It's not as pretty as I would like it but it's passable. But when I went to do the center part of the card...Aye, yi, yi!  Horrible.  After 3 cards I looked through some other index cards in the Flickr group to get re-inspired and that worked because I saw Lenna's certification and remembered I had alpha stamps.  I stamped most of what went that center section and then just wrote in my name (very plain and uninspiring) and put this one behind me.  

They don't all have to be spectacular...just keep creating!

Linear

Right after I finished my Flowers for the last prompt I got to work on 'Linear". I'm not sure I followed the prompt to the letter of the rule...which was to draw something with only straight lines, like on a etch a sketch. But I quickly envisioned making a living being, either human or animal from one shape.  I chose a human and triangles.  Amazingly, I had this guy drawn in less than 10 minutes and then another ten minutes to add color and lettering (also all with straight lines).

I have never, ever drawn an interesting looking human in my life. All my humans look stiff and un-natural and frankly, like a second grader drew them. No offense to second graders...some could definitely outdraw me!  But Mr. Lineman looks like he has personality! And great form! He could become the star of a cartoon strip.  

Needless to say I am quite pleased with myself and don't mind saying so. What a great follow up to being unable to draw a flower. The next prompt is Certification...as in draw up a certificate in something you are good at. I may have to make it for ability to draw a human out of triangles. :)

Flowers

For a time yesterday I thought I might abandon the Daily Paper Prompts.  I was a day behind and the prompt was flowers.  Started off in the morning before work by working on two different ideas but that went nowhere.  When I got home. in the afternoon I tried to re-work them and again nothing I could live with. One of those discouraging moments set...I'm just not good enough.  If I was good enough I could do flowers! How hard are flowers!

Well, I set it all aside and went about other business like getting dinner ready and relaxing with my husband.  Then we were watching...actually, make that making fun of, Love it or List it on HGTV...and I saw a briefly saw a comforter on a bed with very free form flowers and a lot of white space.  I flew to the craft room, grabbed and pencil and drew.  Grabbed some oil pastel and a Pitt pen and finished this prompt up.  YAY!  See, I can do it...stop being so hard on me!

Drips

Daily Paper Prompt #3: Drips.

I have dying to sit on our patio and enjoy a good monsoon storm this month but the gods are not cooperating. The few storms we have had I have been sitting deep in a restaurant or at the emergency room with dad (no windows) or the storm has bypassed my neighborhood.  I know I'll finally get to experience a good one when I am camping in two weeks!

So anyway, rain must be on my mind because when I saw "Drips" as the prompt I immediately heard the chorus from Donna Summers "MacArthur's Park" song in my head:

MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, nooooo

I grabbed a cake image and overlayed it over some sheet music in photoshop, printed it out and started dripping.  The hard part about working with acrylics for me is waiting for the layers to dry.  This time I was very, very patient and took Saturday and Sunday to make it.  Which worked out because I worked on it in bits and pieces since my husband ended up in the emergency room Saturday night and spent most of Sunday at the hospital. Two trips to the emergency room in a month (one for my dad, one for husband)! 

But I digress...after I got the drips just right, I printed out Donna's words, glued them on, and outlined them.  I'm very happy with the results.  My first drip experience and I would do it again. However, I've had that song stuck in my head ever since!

Windows

Today's prompt was "Windows".

I actually started out down a different road. I had a piece of scrapbook paper with distinct graphic flowers and I cut out the flowers and was going to color the underneath piece in such a way that scenes showed where the window were. I didn't like it at all. It was too busy and unfocused.  

I threw all that way again. I turned to watercolors (again!) and then painted up a checkboard of colors. I wanted to have something graphic but neutral for the windows so I grabbed a yellow pages page and cut a series of rectangles, then punch circles.  I'm much happier with the result.  The black and yellow page look great against the bright colors and I like the pattern I cut for window. A success in my book!

Rainbow Cloth

The first daily prompt is "Rainbow".  Towards the end ICAD I got away from drawing. In fact, I realized that I wasn't drawing in my sketchbook anymore.  So I thought I would start off the Daily Paper Prompts by drawing something and then coloring it in rainbow colors.  I found instructions on how to draw fabric wrinkles and off I went.  I like how my drawing turned out...watercoloring is a little crude but I had to get to work did have a lot of time to spend on it.  I;m happy it at least resembles something!  

The End...But Really, Just the Beginning

ICAD is finished and I feel exhilirated! I did ICAD last year but I only did 29 cards...just June really. I know I was in a very bad place emotionally last year and I was trying to use ICAD to pull me out of it. The details are sketchy (the psyche is good at blocking out the unpleasant) but I think I started to pull out of my funk and start looking for jobs about that time.I didn't actually find a job until  October, but I think I turned the corner on some serious depression and was finally joining life again. So ICAD last year was very important and even though I didn't finish I was on the road to better things.

So, this year, finishing ICAD was a triumph of spirit. Of preservering. Of conquering demons when they start to gather. I claim that this is a process of developing skills, but I know that deeper within me it is a process of giving myself a place to go where I can lose myself.  There is something meditative about creating. Sometimes creating can be frustrating and not soothing...but mostly it is tranquil. For sure it lets you express and feel emotion. I don't think I put emotion in the index cards but I am feeling emotion when I create them. 

So I am exhilarated! For one, I finished something! And I am very satisfied when I look at the body of work I created. Next, I found an amazing place to share and be inspired (ICAD Flickr group). What a great group of people! And finally, I found myself well on the road to self discovery, both emotionally and creatively.  I'm not liking some of the emotional discoveries but I am at least being honest with myself about my motivations in life. But I LOVE my creative discoveries!  So much so that I am going to continue to create daily by participating in the Daisy Yellow Daily Paper Prompts.

Two Steps Forward, One Back

For today's card I wanted to capture how I have felt during the ICAD project.  I didn't want it to be so much about the art (although I wanted it to be pretty) but about the journey.  This quote captured it perfectly. There were times when I doubted that I had enough talent to keep up with the other ICADers.  That's the wrong emotion for two reasons.  Art isn't a competition, nor should it involve comparisons. Viewing other artist's work should provide inspiration, not a benchmark for how you are doing.  

My whole purpose for Discovering Doreen and participating in projects like ICAD is to find my own style and to develop my skills. There were moments when I felt a style starting to emerge.  Some of my drawings have a distinct look to them.  At first I thought they were childish, but I kind of like the illustration quality of them.  I would like to develop my skill in that area further. I need to work on perspective for sure.  I did discover I like the immediacy of watercolors a lot.  With Acrylics I don't like opening and closing tubes and worrying about drying paint (maybe just an issue in the desert southwest?) and having to wait a long period between layers.  Watercolor moves at my pace.  Swish the brush in water and pan paints and go.  Rinse and repeat. Need to dry it fast? Iron!  I love the look of watercolor with black in.  

This quote sums up how I feel.  Somedays I feel like I have progressed in my skills and other days I feel like I am still at square one.  But I'll going to keep chugging along because the journey sure is fun!

20 minute Wonder!

I saw this technique in an newsletter from SplitCoast Stampers.  I quickly following the link to the tutorial and then ran to my crafting room. I was surprised to see I had clear embossing power, which you need for this project so I quickly grabbed the rest of the supplies (paper, Versamark, distress stains, an iron and newsprint) got to work.  In twenty minutes I had this and was extremely happy with the result.  Sometimes you spend several hours and never get what you envision and sometime you spend 20 minutes...0r 5!...and something wonderful happens!