Weekly Challenge

Sorry, I was not around the last couple of weeks. I was crazy busy with the Quilt Fest. This week's challenge is to use found materials or every-day materials to create backgrounds. You can use paints to help you out. Think string, think ads from the mail. think bubble wrap, think the middle of a corrogated box. Think green. I am in green mode since we just had Earth Day on Wednesday. Use coffee or tea as a stain instead of paint to create your backgrounds.

Have fun this week.

Weekly Challenge

You will have to tell me if I begin to repeat myself. Things tend to blur together because I do so many things at one time. This week's challenge is to write on fabric. What I have been doing is writing letters to my sister who passed away last May. I am telling her things that I wanted to let her know but never got the change to tell her before the cancer took her. I am not sure it is making me feel better but I feel the need to write to her. I have been writing on dyed muslin with Gelly Roll black pens - which work great BTW. You can also use black Sharpies. Just write about whatever you want. Just write, doodle, whatever you want to do. Then take what you have written and use it in your art. I have taken parts of my letters and used it in my fabric books. I have taken sections in it and have used it as postcard backgrounds. I have used it as flower petals. I had created puffy geometric shaped with it. It did not matter whether I could read the words any more or not. What mattered was that the words came out of me and that they were not bottled up inside me any more.

I am digressing a lot this week. So, you are to write on fabric this week. Just write, write, write. Take what you have written, cut it up, quilt it up, sew on it, do whatever you want, and create something with parts of what you have written. Have fun.

Weekly Challenge

I am muy busy trying to get ready for the Quilt Festival and working on my reading cohort (my reading master's class). I literally have a paper due every week - in addition to my regular reading and weekly assignment. I am kinda cranky right now.

This week's challenge is to go to your hardware store and go to the paint section. You have to spend about a buck ($1) and buy a plastic putty knife or putty spreader about 1.5 or 2" wide. If you don't know what one looks like, then you can just Google it. Here is a pict as well. I would scan but my scanner is on the fritz again.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VAB4WM/ref=asc_df_B000VAB4WM752322?tag=the004-20&creative=380337&creativeASIN=B000VAB4WM&linkCode=asn

http://tinyurl.com/c7feht Here is a tiny url link in case the long one above breaks.

I would not buy one wider than 1.5-2" because you lose control with the really wide ones. Splurge and buy a couple of them. They are very useful tools. I don't bother to wash them much. I just use a paper towel and wipe them off as I go along. I use several at once. They kinda gunked up sometimes because I forget to clean them. They then become part of art pieces or I toss them aside and use cleaner ones.

Instead of using a paintbrush, paint using the putty knives instead. Use these and apply molding paste or gel medium. You will get great texture.

Another thing you can do is take put some paint on a paper plate. Pick up the paint on the plate with the putty knife and spread the paint with it onto your surface. Scrape the paint along your surface. You will get great texture especially if your surface is kinda uneven. I do it with something bumpy or textured already on my surface. It works great.

Something else you can do is this. Take some different colored fluid acrylics or slightly watered down acrylics and squirt onto your substrate (paper). Do so randomly and sparingly. Scrape your surface in long sweeping strokes with your putty knife to pick up the different colors. You will be amazed at the colors that come up. Squirt again in uncovered spots and repeat. Do not go over with paint already on your putty knife or it will be muddied. Just put the excess paint on another piece of paper or scrap. You can use that for another background.

Pick up some molding paste, gel medium, or other texture medium with putty knife. Apply to your substrate. Make sure your substrate is heavier like watercolor paper, chipboard, or heavy cardboard. Swirl, cut, make chopping motions, and randomly apply medium onto surface so you get some cool texture. Let dry completely. Paint when completely dried. You might try flexing it in the opposite direction to see how it cracks when it is dried. I love cracks. I also love to use iridescent gold paint on the peaks of texture. You might want to try house paint with this. BTW, you can color the medium before applying it onto your substrate. I like to color it after I apply it. I am never sure how I want the color to look until after the acrylic medium dries.

Putty knife works well with crackle paste, too. Thicker layer for wider cracks. Remember to have fun. It is okay if you can't do it every week. Just remember to take a breath and to do art whenever you can. I am trying to fit a bit of art in whenever I can - even with my hectic schedule.

A Day Late - Weekly Challenge

Sorry, out of town for cheerleading nationals. I am still smelling chlorine in my hair. It was in Wisconsin Dells. It is only fun if you are a child groovin' on water slides.

This week is all about mail art. I am finally catching up with all the postcards that people sent to my 6th graders. Your job this week is to blow the dust off your paper cutter and cut a piece of card stock to a 4x6 size. Okay, you can cheat and take a piece of background that is around that size and cut it to 4x6. It can be fabric if you want. You need to put a focal point on it. Do something to it but it needs to be flat so you can just stick a stamp on it to send it to someone. NO fair if you put it in an envelope to mail it off to someone in pristine condition. You have to address and stamp it on the other side. You have to mail it to someone who is NOT an art person. Yeah, they might not get it. They might not appreciate it. BUT, but, but, you are spreading the love. You can always make more than one and send that one to an art person so you know it will be appreciated and loved - no matter what. You know that you can do whaever you want, I will never know the difference. I am just making it up as I go along. Do make the flat postcard and send it to someone. Make one for yourself and send it to yourself. You will come across it one day and it will amuse you. It amuses me when I come across it every once in awhile. I do it every so often when the urge strikes me to mail out an art card. I get in the mood and will do mail out a couple times a year.

Fast Eyes, if you are reading this. I so love the mail art that you send to me! You send me the very best postcards - art cards ever!

Go out and find some funky postage!

This Week's Art Challenge and Technique

This is a technique that I have posted before but with a little twist in it. I think I got it from some magazine workshop. I don't remember what the name of it is now. I think it was Faux Metal or something like that.

You will need the following supplies:

piece of chipboard, cardboard, or something like that

masking tape

Coarse sandpaper

little pieces of text
paper clip or something with a sharp edge for gouging

Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Mustard Seed (yellow), Frayed Burlap, and Green (optional)

glue stick or whatever glue you like to use

whatever other embellishments you want

1. Tear off little pieces of masking tape and put on chipboard. Overlap the pieces of masking tape so that it covers the entire area of chipboard.

2. Use the end of your paperclip and gouge marks into your masking tape surface.

3. Use the coarse sandpaper and rub into the masking tape surface and all of the edges. Wipe off residue. Don't be shy here. Apply some hard pressure.

4. Use a glue stick and randomly apply small pieces of text onto masking tape background. Let dry.

5. Use Frayed Burlap and apply all over surface of background. You can leave some of the text areas and use mustard seed on it later. Use mustard seed on the text areas and the green on the areas besides the text areas as accents, if you want. Let dry.

6. Add embellishments to the background.

7. Add focal points/images and complete your collage or art piece.

Belinda

Susan M brayer contribution for Weekly Challenge

made this using a Traci Bautista technique where you lay down dyed and still wet paper towels, then your paper and then a stencil and brayer over it. I embellished the flower with ink and some paint.

Susan M.

(Comment: pretty slick! It will make a great background- Belinda)

Weekly Challenge

Hi all!

I have been busy this past week with ISAT testing. It has been crazy nuts! It will all be over on Tuesday. I will be able to exhale. All my kids have shown up so far. Make-ups are no fun! Next week - I should have a technique to share with you for the weekly challenge.

For this week, I want you to do a little thinking. I want you to think about what your "art thing" is. Let me explain. We all have some "things" about ourselves. My kids at school will tell you that one of my "things" is that I like to drink Canada Dry Ginger Ale. That is a by-product of having an ulcer in college and from having morning sickness for 6 months straight with two pregnancies. It is a habit that I never gave up. I drink one a day for my digestive issues that seems to stem from my dad's side of the family. I also have a "thing" for purses. Love them! My art "thing" is metal and doodling. You will almost always find something metal on one of my art pieces. I also like to doodle. I will absently do it all the time. It does not have to be on an art piece. I do it when I am one the phone, during meetings, and even when I am in class listening to someone speaking. I think I do it so my mind has something to focus on visually while I am listening to something. I am not a very auditory person. I am very visual.

So, grasshopper, if you choose to accept, your mission for this week is to discover what your "thing" is (if you don't already know what it is) and make it the focal point of an art piece. How is that for a long run-on sentence? Make that "thing" loud and proud. Can you tell that I watched a lot of TV as a kid? Have fun.
Belinda

Weekly Challenge

I did not forget about all of you. I have been busy the last couple of days working on some samples for Creative Options. Since I am on that topic. Have the lot of you entered their sweepstakes or entered their contest for prizes and/or design team? Just thought I would mention it for those who are interested.
Here is the link: http://www.creativeoptionscrafts.com/sweeps/

I have found that I needed to go back into the depths of my art memory to find techniques and projects that I have done a long time ago. You all know what I am talking about. They are things tried and put aside. You might have loved it once but have gone on to other things. There is something to be said for the very organized people who have a portfolio or file of all the techniques or things they have done for future reference. I am not that organized. I just have a tendency to keep samples of everything I have done for future reference. I throw them in a file or in with my technique pages. I can pretty much look at the technique page and remember how I did it. If you are not one of those people, then you can depend on the internet to have it somewhere available for you. Do you remember how cool you thought something was when you tried it and thought how you were always going to do it? Then you went on to the next thing and forgot all about it?

Well, it is time to go back and bring back something old and make it new again. The challenge for this week is to take something that you have done before and do it again now. Rediscover it. You don't have to do it again the same way. You can change it to accommodate how you do your art now.

When I was doing samples for Creative Options, I wanted to make sure I created samples that appealed to not only artists who do my kind of art but other crafters as well. It was quite a challenge for me but I dug deep into my memory and came up with old techniques that were pretty fun. I might not scan and admit to doing them but I think they came out pretty well. 8-)
I stopped short of doing a 12x12 scrapbook page. I figured enough other people would be doing that. I didn't want to embarrass myself. No, really.

Okay, so, go have some fun. Go dip into your files and your memory this week. Find something old and make it new this week. See how you have progressed since you last did that technique.

Belinda

Susan M mandala

Here is Susan M's finished Mandala. Way cool!

Sunday Weekly Challenge

This Week's Challenge is to use a brayer. Use it in your artwork. Just can't use it to flatten something. Really use it. If you want to try something, you can try the technique I posted on my other blog - Brayer Acrylic Paint Technique: http://alteredbelly.blogspot.com/

Have fun! Belinda

This Week's Art Challenge

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone yesterday. Hope everyone did not OD on too much chocolate and cheesy cards. In honor of the Hallmark holiday yesterday, this week's challenge will be about hearts. Just create a piece with hearts in there. Anything and everything with hearts will do. I did a piece with hearts just now. It is drying. It so so friggin' cool that I will have to maybe do it as the technique of the month in Mixed Media Art Friends and perhaps host a swap for it. I definitely want to get other people's version of it for my own grubby little art hands. Will post it once they are dry. I did three of them since they are samples for a workshop proposal.

Have fun creating.

This week's Art Challenge

So far so good. I am keeping up every Sunday. This is a simplified mandala. You make of it what you want. You can collage it, paint it. Put things in the boxes that are important to you. You can put words in it. You can put pictures in it. Even colors inside will do. Make it your own. I don't know how it will turn out printed on your printer since I scanned it. If it turns out to be huge or too small, then email me using the link in the right column. I also saved it as a .pdf. I will gladly send to you as thus. Belinda.

Remember - have fun! You are welcome to share the results with us. Just send me your results as an attachment and I will post here. You will get your 30 seconds of almost fame!

Sunday weekly challenge

Before I even start, I have to tell all of you that I have a moleskin notebook full of ideas for challenges every week. I have been doing an investigative journal with my 6th graders for them to get better at using scientific method and for them to increase their background knowledge. I want them to question their world more. I did the same thing on the other side of my moleskin journal for artists. I thought it would come in useful one day. Yeah, it sure did.

This week's challenge is to take a doodle and do something with it. You can do whatever you want with it. You can doodle with it. Paint with it. Create a collage with it. You can make an art quilt around it. Do SOMETHING WITH IT. You can use one of the doodles that I stamped above or you can create your own swirly or doodle. Take a little something - something and make something else out of it. If you want, take a doodle, put is in your journal, make something with it, AND then journal about it, if you are art journaling. That would be something, wouldn't it? The point is to do something - anything!

This is a spin on journaling that I do with my kids at school. We take a little doodle and they draw a pict from a little something. They then write a little paragraph or story about it. They share and can even write parts of it together. It improves their writing skills, fluency, creativity, and helps their vocabulary. It is also a fun thing to do with your own kids. If you want to do it with your won kids, you are welcome to email the results to me and I will put it on the blog - giving your kids the credit. Very cute.

Have fun. Belinda

Weekly Challenge: Scrap ATCs

I had a leftover quilt sandwich from another project. I cut pieces of scrap fabric into little pieces and then zigzag stitched it on top of my quilt sandwich. I overlapped it. I left gaps to show some of the sandwich surface. You can click on the pict for a larger view.

I cut the quilt sandwich into the 2.5 x 3.5 ATC size. I got 5 ATCs out of it.

The bottom pict here shows the edges done with a zigzag and straight stitch to make sure the edges don't fray. I also took some gelly roll and Sharpie paint markers and did some doodling. I will finish it off later with a focal point. I have to root around and find a good used image to put on there. Remember the "used" part. It's Chinese New Year. Gotta do the family thing. Ya know how grandparents are. Gotta spoil the grandkids now (not me, my parents). Will post my final ATCs when I get them finished. Just wanted to get some of you started. You get the idea.

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This week's challenge is to use whatever you have at home to create scrap ATCs. You cannot buy anything to make this ATC. The kicker to this challenge is that the scraps you have to use is that the materials you use have to be truly scraps. The only new materials you may use are the binding materials and coloring materials. Binding materials would be your glue and thread. Your coloring materials would be your paints, markers, pencils, and the like.

Let me elaborate. You cannot use a new sheet of paper or a new cut of fabric. You cannot use a new flower from a pack of Prima flowers. You cannot use a new brad from a pack of brads.

You can pull off a brad from another project and use it on your ATC. You can use scraps of fabric that have been used from another project and use that for your ATC. You can use leftover pieces of card stock from another project for this ATC. You can use cardboard from a box for this ATC. The materials used in this ATC must have been used in some way before it can be used in or on this ATC. Find rusty washers or cut up old t-shirts or sweaters. Pop off the old buttons from shirts.

You don't have to do this from fabric. You can do this from paper, card stock, cardboard, matboard, or even metal. You pick the material at home. The only requirements are the

2.5 x 3.5 size and the used material criteria.

Have fun. Email me if you have any questions. Feel free to comment.

Announcing The Weekly Challenge!

This is a totally voluntary thing. You do not have to be a contributor/author to this blog to participate in this activity. The whole idea of this blog is to have artists commit to doing art on a consistent basis throughout the year. Kinda like exercising, not smoking, and eating right (correctly) for the rest of this year. Let's see how that works out, too.

Getting back to the challenge...every Sunday, I will come to this blog (not my personal blog) and give you a small challenge. I am not going to give a big challenge because I want you to be able to accomplish it in a week. I know how most of us are all very busy during the week with life commitments and other art projects. I want all of you who are reading this now to try and give it a go and do the challenge every week. Those of you who do are welcome to take a pict/scan your results and email them to me. I will post them on this blog. Send them to me in a small .jpg plz. I will post them during the next week with your first name and where you are from. For example: Belinda from Aurora, IL. You can remain anonymous and just do it for your own satisfaction. My email link is in the right column of this blog.

Remember, this is all in fun. There is no pressure. Do not feel the need to play catch-up and do the one from two weeks ago because your bugger boss made you do an incredibly impossible project and you are just able to do some art now. Just play when you can and email me when you want. I will post your results when you get them to me. Comments are always welcome. Artists love reading comments about their own art -don't we? 8-)

I will do my damndest (not sure that is a word) to post the challenge early each Sunday. If I don't, you are welcome to email and nag me. I have a life, too, and it gets in the way sometimes. I will do my best to be on time. Yeah, right. Remember, keep commenting on what the weekly contributors are doing.