KEEP TRYING, AGAIN AND AGAIN

Hello Everyone!

Last month while working on a collage background for a Hawaiian style paper cutout of Palm Trees, it wasn't turning out the way I had envisioned it in my mind.   Does that ever happen to you?  You have a picture perfect idea in your head and it doesn't come out the way you planned.  That happens to me frequently enough that now I'm no longer surprised, and that's okay.  There was a time when something didn't turn out the way I planned and it would frustrate me to no end, but I've learned to keeping trying.  "If at first you don't succeed, then try, try, try again".  Who said that?!  W.C. Fields, that's who.  He also added another colorful line to that but I'll leave that up to you to Google <wink>.  

After the initial TRY I began to rework the background adding a bit of yellow ocher paint and it was soon clear that wasn't working, it was overpowering the palm tree design.  So I quit at that point, disappointed but knowing I'd come back to it sooner or later to TRY AGAIN. 

Trying again at this point is what some would call salvaging ....stripping off some of the background papers and using sandpaper on the rough edges of the remaining paper on the canvas I was able to add a layer of light back into the background, with just a touch of ocher. 

 Blending in the lighter colors with ocher seemed to give the right effect and no additional paper was needed to complete the background.   Gluing down the palm tree design was the final step and letting the whole canvas dry for several days before declaring it DONE. 

Don't give up on your collage or painting when things aren't working out as planned, just walk away and let it go.  Then come back later and try it again. There is always an "ugly" stage when I want to trash my work but I've learned to work through this by pushing through the ugly to the final stage of beauty. Sometimes the best laid plans don't work out the first time and that's when you must TRY, TRY, and TRY AGAIN.

Keep ON Trying and Happy Painting! 

Suzy

Lifting The Hearts of Others

Hello Everyone!

This is the week we are On A Mission, with Valentines Day only few days away I thought you might enjoy seeing the Valentines I made recently at Heart Lifters.

Heart Lifters is a group of ladies in our church that are On A Mission to make and send cards to encourage our members who are home bound, in the hospital, recuperating or in nursing homes. 

 Our Mission is to encourage and uplift members as well as friends and families of our members.

We also celebrate our church and school staff members during the year. 

On average we have 4-10 regular members that make cards every other month during the calendar year, producing 40-60 cards per session.  

 We love making cards! 

Ribbons, paper, glue flies around the table along with lots of laughter. 

 What a blessing to be able to serve in this way!   I hope you'll be inspired today to send a card to someone you know that needs an encouraging word.  It's never too late to send a card and let someone know they are loved. 

Happy Valentines Day with love,

Suzy

PAINT, PAPER AND PALM TREES

Hello There!

A few summers ago I was giving my guest room a summer make over by sewing seasonal pillow covers for the day bed.  The appliqued designs were in the Hawaiian style where the design is cut out in one piece and appliqued to the background. 

Palm Trees 

Sea Turtles

 I diligently traced and cut the patterns for a palm tree from drawing paper to make sure it would fit the background and test out the pattern before tracing it to heat and bond and to fabric.  After the pillows were completed I decided the drawing paper cut out would make a nice collage element.  I've had that idea on the back burner for some time now; finally the idea is ready to come off the burner into reality.  

Do you ever have an image in your head that you'd like to create and it doesn't exactly go the way you had planned?  The collage in my head was a background of neutral paper and paint on which the Hawaiian style palm trees would be placed. All I can say is that it looked good in my head. 

I selected  a 20 x 20 artist canvas and scrapbook papers with lots of texture in neutral colors. 

A limited palette of craft acrylics in peony, linen, flesh and grey.  With a bit of water added to the paints, I laid on a light coat of color to the canvas with random brush strokes.  I like to add some color in the background along with paper just in case the papers don't overlap or touch there will be color to bridge the gap.

You can see in the photo above that I had already added a piece of scrapbook paper to the canvas.  I chose it because of the neutral color and the fact that it has text on it to add interest. AND it has my grandson's name JACKSON on it, in the final product it doesn't show but I know it's there <wink>.

When adhering paper to canvas I use Mod Podge or a gel medium.  Layering the papers and textures so they don't compete with the design is important.  I also add paint around the edges to blend any straight paper edges that look funny to me. 

Here is when I realize I've hit the grey paint a bit too hard in one section and it is standing out under the paper design like a sore thumb.  I tried applying more light color into the background but it wasn't covering the grey ......

Geez, this project just isn't turning out the way it looked in my head! 

Okay then, time to go to Plan B and you will have to wait to see how I solve this problem.  I'll be back in February with another post on the final outcome.  

Until then, grab some paper, paint and canvas and get busy!!

Bee Creative!
Suzy

     

CHANGES ARE COMING

Hello!

Time is rolling along this month at a fast pace and I'm jogging along trying to keep up.  Does that sound like you?  Seriously, I don't know if it is just me trying to keep up or if everyone else feels the same way.  We live in a fast rapidly changing world of technology where once we lived at a slower pace where people wrote letters and waited for a reply, it seems unreal and most unlikely today! Personally, I'd enjoy a slower pace but NOT that slow either, there must be a happy medium. 

Speaking of moving along, have you noticed Sunshine and Lollipops is getting a face lift? A new and improved format arrangement?  What do you think so far?  We are moving toward changes in content and posting on a more consistent basis. My 2015 goal is blogging on a regular weekly schedule. After three years of blogging rather inconsistently,  I've come to the realization blogging takes more thought and more preparation time and more planning than I have been willing to admit and it is important to me. It is important to make more time in my schedule to produce blog worthy posts rather than scramble at the last minute to meet a blog deadline.  This stuff (planning, blogging consistency) doesn't come naturally for me because I'm more of a fly by the seat of your pants kinda gal. But I am trying to change my fly by the seat of your pants style in order to bring you better and more consistent content. To help me with scheduling I've purchased several calendars (pocket and planner) to jot my notes in (because I'm old school), AND printed out a free monthly blog planner online AND I'm making use of an online calendar.  I know, it's a bit overkill, isn't it? Perhaps this is where I go wrong in my effort to keep everything written down (little obsessive that way), but I DO love planners and calendars! How about you? What methods do you use to keep track and on schedule?  

Planning ahead is key to keep things rolling along so I've also created a fun way to track my progress each month in a mini three ring binder (previously a SMASH journal converted to Blog Journal).  It's strictly for blog post ideas and a visual way to keep track of my TO DO and NOTES. I'll share one with you each month.  Here's my January planner pages: 

Goals for 2015 

Monthly Blog Calendar 

WORD Reminder 

Please join me each week for posts featuring Sketchbook Tuesday and Travel Journal Thursday, Heartstrings (featuring crafts, sewing, Home Decorating) Knitting with a Mission, HeART Craft (features Paint/Paper & Collage and Monthly Calendars).  Looking forward to celebrating my fourth year in Blog land with you! 

Bee Creative! 
Suzy

COME WITH ME TO THE SEA

Hi Everyone!

The prompt for Journal 52 WEEK 2 is Somewhere: A Simple Place.  This could be a place you love or want to visit or a fantasy place, a place that has meaning to your life.  What came to mind immediately was the place where I have lived near most of my life, the ocean.

Did I mention about trying to use up the supplies I have on hand for this journal project? My aim this year to use up some of the supplies I've accumulated and so, there may be some odds and ends used as embellishments.  I'm good with that, hope you will enjoy it too!

  COME WITH ME TO THE SEA........

Chelle asked us to build a frame around our page, add lines for text and to use magazine images.

This is how I made my page:

A very thin coat of Gesso is applied with a credit card to smooth it over the page. Gesso as a base for each page gives it "tooth" and allows colors to flow and not seep onto the next page.  I also put a piece of wax paper under the page to protect the others underneath from gesso seepage which can "glue" the papers together.

Most often I don't have a plan when I start but this time there was a sparkle of an idea in my brain (although I didn't think it through very well), that would include a starfish stamp, a painted wave, text and a border of some kind.  I thought if I laid down the blue and green in the shape of a wave cresting everything would fall into place from there.  Putting the writing on the page before more color was applied made sense.  I drew wavering lines for the text to fit in the blank space created by the wave shape, then wrote the words on each line.  Come With Me To The Sea was the title line so I printed it boldly, then the rest was written in cursive.  I used a permanent black ink pen (waterproof when dry) to thicken up the letters and lines some, and as you can see when the ink isn't totally dry it will smug! Lesson learned.

I had to hunt down (seriously) the starfish stamp and started stamping them on the page when I realized I'd gotten a bit ahead of myself and needed to create a border.  SO I dig through my box of scrappy stuff to see what can be use for the borders. Another option would have been to draw my own borders in or cut out magazine images.  A piece of a Teavanna bag caught my attention, the design was amazing, and neutral in color. BINGO!  I started cutting the tea bag into pieces fitting them together into a border that seemed to imitate driftwood.  Adding the coral seashells for a pop of color, sand dollars and some pearls to represent treasures from the sea.  If you zoom into the page you'll see the words: treasure, discover, timeless, laugh, smile and enjoy!   The dimensional flourishes represent the cresting waves and give the page a bit of interest.

Hope you enjoyed the process!  Let me know what you think about this page, I appreciate your comments.

Suzy

JOURNAL 52

Hi Everyone!

I'm very excited to reveal a brand-new challenge I've begun for 2014!  It's called Journal 52 and it is a FREE workshop online with Chelle Stein.  It is 52 weeks of creative prompts and techniques to try!  That's right! It is FREE.  Each Monday Chelle announces the prompt on Face Book on the Journal52 page and there is a Flickr group also.   It's not too late to join in the fun!

This week our prompt was Up UP and Away!  Chelle posts her page and tells all about the techniques she uses, so you have a prompt and some techniques to try. If you are a newbie, then this is the place to start!  It is a very supportive group with all ranges of experience in art journaling.  Check it out HERE.

 Each week I will share with you the thought process and some of the techniques I used to create my page and I'll post them here each Saturday.

So, here is my first Journal 52 page
UP UP and Away!

Right here and now I will tell you that I struggled with the Up Up and Away prompt!  All I could hear in my head was that 60's song: Up Up and Away in my beautiful balloon....so my first idea was to make a box from patterned paper with the lid opening up to balloons escaping into the atmosphere.  I made a cardboard template cloud and sprayed blue ink over it, like a stencil, moving the cardboard cloud around to make cloud banks. After it dried, I really didn't care for it, so I gessoed over parts of the page.

 My heart wasn't into it, my head was engaged but the heart, not so much.  You see, I work best without a preconceived idea or theme, more intuitive.  My box of papers, clippings and tidbits of this and that sat at my feet waiting for me to open it and discover where to take this design.  I like digging through the box, it has gum wrappers, silly paper cards, magazine clippings, tissue papers, book text, stamped tags, paper scraps even an old needlepoint canvas that I pick up along the way. Anything unusual or things that speak to my heart, go in the box for collage.

 So I dig through and start pulling out a few papers, a card and Whoo hoo! A tiny bit dress maker's pattern catches my eye and sparks something within!  Using the pattern paper over the clouds to cover them up and adding a bit of dictionary text to cover the background area, now I liked that!! After gluing down the paper in random fashion, I resumed digging in my treasure box to find other things that speak to me.  Like the flapper girls, they were on a card and I cut them out, two together to represent friends and one to represent me. They are kicking up their heels and having a grand time, they speak of fun and friendship to me.

 In my box I found a napkin with a giant purple flower and another napkin with pink flowers, text and the Eiffel Tower.  Ooohlala, that made for a bit of interest over the pattern paper and text!  Travel and flowers are two things I love, the romance of flowers and the dream of traveling to Paris....that lead me back to relationships and thus the head of the man and the thoughts of re-kindling of romance. And more flower stickers!!!

The pear represents the desire for a healthier lifestyle this year and the tag with LIFE LIFE and butterflies represents the changes coming. The words Thank You represent a grateful attitude that comes from the heart for all gifts and blessings the Lord has given to me.  In return, the tag that reads From Our Home to Yours represents sharing with and giving to others from our blessings.  

I hope you have enjoyed coming into my world of journal making and collage.  I would love it if you would leave me a comment and then join me in this adventure for 2014!  You can catch my Journal52 weekly pages here each Saturday.

Happy Journaling!
Suzy

ICAD WEEK 4

Hi Everyone!

It's Week 4 of the Index Card A Day (ICAD) challenge, we're into Day 29 and  I'm still pumped up about the remaining 32 days!  

It's been a pleasure spending time with my daughter and grandson, taking walks, caring for the baby and spending time with my granddaughters.  I love being with them and seeing my older grands loving on the newest one. It has been a great week.

My art time has been limited this week. The challenge has been to find a block of time to make some art, write blog posts, update Facebook and Flickr with the latest photos, etc.  Guess I didn't realize how much time it takes to do these things each day and the amount of time I spend on the computer. Not complaining, just sayin'.  You all know what I'm talkin' about don't you? 

Anyhow, I've put together the individual cards for your viewing pleasure, just click the tab (Index Card A Day) on the right side bar. 

Happy Doodling!
Suzy

COMPOSITION JOURNAL

Hi Everyone,

     Do you love or collect paper?  For someone who is not a scrapbooker, there is a large amount of scrapbook paper in my possession.  I love the stuff! The patterns, colors, texture all sing to my color loving heart!  So what to do with this paper abundance? 
     Since scrapbooking is out of the question for me, journals seem a likely solution to the paper problem.  I found lots of inspiration on YouTube when I typed in journals.  One in particular that appealed to the paper hoarder in me used a Composition notebook, the kind you find at the Dollar store.  YouTube has many videos on this subject to stir your creative imagination just type in Composition notebook journals and see what comes up!

      Now, all of you journal ladies stop cringing at the thought of using scrap paper, it was just a jumping off point.....

Paint over the paper, add stamps, rub ons, stickers, collage and other stuff to round out each page. Add as much or as little as you like. 

     The most time consuming process was the page prep: gluing the lined paper together (for sturdier pages) and cutting the patterned papers  down to fit the notebook pages and gluing them on the lined paper. Then the pages needed a bit of reinforcement: I used masking tape to reinforce the seam area of the pages.

    Then came the fun part!  I LOVED picking out each paper and finding another piece to work together and then the painting and decorating was an absolute blast! I could hardly wait to get home each day to play in my book!

    This project took about 1 month to complete, working only for limited time in the evenings.  If you have a stack of scrapbook papers, stickers and other bits and pieces that you don't know what to do with, try making one of these.  I guarantee that you will enjoy the process! Have fun and oh yeah, buy extra glue! 

Be Creative,
Suzy

THE RIGHT FORK IN THE ROAD

Hi Everyone!

Please join me today as we take the right fork in the road at Grant Village and drive along Yellowstone Lake through wooded areas of pine. 

Come and read more about this day by clicking on the TRAVEL JOURNAL tab above. Thanks for coming along of the journey, next week I'll be wrapping up this Travel Journal and I hope you will join me for the final adventure on a hike above Jenny Lake. 

Happy Travels and Happy Journaling!

Suzy