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Thursday, 29 April 2021

2021 Topic 5 Find Your Vibe with JOFY {by Lynn Good}

  2021 Topic 5: Find Your Vibe



Lynn has been exploring whether she has a style in this post. I think she definitely does, and she concludes that it's mixed media and bright colour. This really useful soul searching exercise (that's a great one for us all to consider) has translated into a wonderfully bright and happy layered art journal page. 
~ Keren.

Hi everyone, it's Lynn Good (Memories on the page) with you today, and I'd like to share with you an art journal page that I have created for the topic  "Find your Vibe". 

This got me thinking - do I have a "style" and I don't really think I do, but what I did realise is that mixed media and bright colour are what come easy to me. 



I had no idea where the page was going to start - you know that "Break a blank page" problem!  So I decided to do what makes me happy and I stamped some writing onto tissue using JOFY89 and JM10




I tore this up and adhered to my page using matte medium. I used a page that I had already adhered some coloured tissue and tissue stamped with JOFY98 stamp onto. Once the tissue was dry I randomly added some gesso using a spatula. 


I stamped and fussy cut flowers from JOFY98 which I coloured with my favoured paints - Cherry Red and Zesty Zing.  Once the paint was dry I highlighted areas of with coloured pencil as well as added pencil to the outside of the flowers to create shadow and the illusion of depth.



I stamped the sentiment from the set - JOFY98 and I felt it was how I was feeling at the start of the page - hoping it was going to work out!  But generally if you go with what makes you happy (mixed media and colour for me) you can't go wrong :) .




I added some white paint pen to the flowers and glitter on the centres as final touches.

I hope that you have found some inspiration to have a go at this topic - do share it on Facebook and Instagram.

Lynn Good


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Tuesday, 27 April 2021

2021 Topic 5 Find Your Vibe with ESN {by Ellie Knol}

2021 Topic 5: Find Your Vibe


Taking the humble piece of paper and transforming it into something completely more than the sum of its parts is part of what inspires Ellie's vibe. Add in some nature themed images and her gel prints wonderfully morph into books.
~ Keren
 
Hi everyone,
it's Ellie Knol with you today, and I'd like to share with you the process of making 3 books using 3 gelliprints for the front cover.
I first struggled to start on this theme... but after making notes I came to a point where I realized what gets me going: the vibes that inspire every time I start a project. 


The text on stamp set ESN47 from Sara Naumann gave me the final push in the direction I took. 


Making books and gel-printed papers, using Scripts and postal themed (ESN05!) product. Nature... that's what I love, that's what I do (did), over and over again... My vibe... 



The first book: heat embossing (Seafoam White Embossing Powder from Ranger) in a collage style onto the colorful gel print. That's all. Really. Nice? 




The second book: just as for the first book.. the stamps from Sara are so beautiful.. less is more... 


Oops.. the third book is a tiny one (ATC size). Why ? Read on and you'll find out. 


Three spiral bound books: two A5's and one tiny one. 




Let's start from the beginning.. I've made three A5 size gel prints; monoprints to be precise... they were one of the 'vibes' that led me to making these books. Aren't they pretty? 

These are the stencils I've used to make the monoprints: PS051, PS074 and PS136. 






The first two gel prints: front cover for two books. What about the third gelliprint?
To start off I heat embossed the main image from ESN47 with a chunky embossing powder... the script was really a mess
I knew it, but wanted to use it because of it's color.. can you relate?
 ... toss it? No.. I saved part of it by making the tiny book. 


Some more pictures of the books.As there is a green-yellow color on them, it's quite a challenge to catch the in-real-life colors. Changing the daylight lamps giving indirect light helped a little but gave more 'darkness' on the pictures also.   
Enjoy... 





I've used three stamps sets from Sara Naumann: ESN46, ESN47 and ESN05.
 




I stamped the sentiment from ESN47 on the inside cover of the two bigger books with brown ink, and on the front cover of the tiny book with heat embossing seafoam white powder. 


Have you ever made a book? It is such fun!! Especially when you combine it with unique gelliprints, they are your very own and very personalized; gorgeous to give as a present. The beauty of what we love to do : creating with the use of beautiful art materials. 
As far as I am concerned the stamps and stencils I've played with are so beautiful, useful, and very versatile. Eclectic, authentic and unique. 
Inspirational, just as they are... nature themed is a plus, and combining all of the stamps and stencils is just amazing. 

Go do what you love to do... and see the beauty of what you did... 

Ellie Knol

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellie.knol/  

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Sunday, 25 April 2021

2021 Topic 5: Find Your Vibe {Topic Intro}

 2021 Topic  5 - Find Your Vibe

Hi everyone, Keren here with a brand new topic. One that might find you excited at the prospect of creating, or perhaps you might be feeling a little jaded creatively speaking. This is two-in-one topic is pretty different depending on the way you think about it. Like a crossroads and you get to pick the direction. One way to express the theme might be to dive into creating your own vibe- working out who you are and thinking about your own style if you feel that you have one. The other side of the coin is finding your vibe when it has disappeared. What are the steps we can take to reacquaint ourselves with a missing mojo?

What IS your style? Are you a layering lovely, supremo of the simple or a prima painter? Do you prefer vintage, cute and quirky or mixing up styles. Perhaps you don't know what your style is.. do you love soft and subtle, graphic with lots of lines and angles in your designs or a truly mixed media piece using different products and unusual substrates? So how do you find your vibe without copying? Perhaps start out with books or an internet search and use an all encompassing search term like 'mixed media'. Start off with looking at pictures and only pause when something really 'speaks' to you or you can't stop staring at it. Ask yourself what is it about this piece of art that I love? Is it the colours, is it the type of image, or perhaps you're drawn to the shapes, words or paint techniques? Do you wonder 'how did they create that, I want to design like that too'?

ClothPaperScissors

Cathy Nicols has a great article here about finding your creative voice and it is a good place to start if you're looking to find your style.
We all learn by copying and imitating. 'Painting by numbers' gave so many of us the possibility of being a better artist and improving our skills. But copying doesn't always sit right with us- we want to try and create something more original. Can any art ever be truly original? This quote is a good one to start thinking about.

Source

Sometimes creating art takes courage. Nikki Acton's mini journal contains a wise quote.


So to start with, maybe just go back to basics. Who are you? What do you love? Grab a journal or a blank page. Start to sketch ideas or an image. Be uniquely yourself. 
This is an inspiring piece from Sara Naumann.


It might be that you're looking for some inspiration to get going again. We can have patches where creativity just seems hard to find. Call it missing mojo, a dry patch or vanished ideas, how do you find that spark again? Here's a few ideas:

1. Start with an idea. 
What would you like to try? Is there a substrate you've always wanted to create with or a new product you've never dabbled with? Try a blank sheet and write whatever comes into your head. Sketch an image you've always searched for but could never find. How about simply grabbing some paint and doing something a little abstract. Pavla Hozikova created these great backgrounds and then produced some art with them.


2. Find a source that inspires you (or none at all).
Where do you normally get inspired? Nature, magazines, Pinterest, blogs? Visit your favourites or google and find somewhere new. But sometimes we're tempted to spend so long online that we end up clouded by everyone else's ideas. Having some time away from your usual inspiration can perhaps free our minds up to create new thoughts.

Saraccino

3. Experiment. Try something brand new. 
A new technique, a new way of using a product. Combining craft supplies to make a new thing. Etsuko Noguchi has made something wonderful by experimenting. If you're looking for some new ideas or a refresh of old techniques, check out this previous post about the Creative Laboratory.


4. Find A New Vision.
Do you have a goal? Something you've never done or a place you've always wanted to go. Could it begin with an art journal page, or a piece of expressive writing. Would you love to teach, learn new skills, do a Facebook Live, present your art somewhere new. Try stamp carving or design a set of stamps you've love to see in print. Could you sell your art, get it printed on fabric or on a coffee mug? Get someone to hold you accountable for your new goals. Set your horizons elsewhere. Echo Seth Apter in this piece; be the change.

PaperArtsy Blog

5. Edit yourself.
Sometimes we need to do things differently and if you're goal oriented, maybe start with a new goal. Set yourself a challenge to complete a unfinished piece, or dabble in some textile art, or do that pottery course you've always wanted to do. Set a goal, and do it! Sometimes going tentatively forward just feels much better than stagnating where you are. Grab your older sets that haven't seen much inky love recently and make something just for fun. Perhaps you can swap stamp sets with a friend. Perhaps editing yourself is agreeing with yourself that you won't self sabotage when it comes to creativity.

PaperArtsy Blog

Mark your struggles with an x, plan to make changes! Hope this above piece by Donna Gray inspires you to begin.

6. Collect a box of art bits, inspiration box.
Grab a load of whatever is on your desk or squirreled away in your drawers. Those snippets of partially finished pieces, Half coloured stamped images, spare die cuts, fun ephemera and pieces of 'junk. Gather it together with some ribbon or lace if that's your thing. Dig out left over gel prints or discarded pieces of patterned paper and put in a box ready to fire your imagination when it has dulled. Gather some for a friend and send them to inspire others. Jo Firth-Young created this gorgeous junk journal that might give you ideas.

PaperArtsy Blog

7. Begin again. 
Start with the new. One of the best pieces of advice I heard recently was from a fabric designer who said whenever she gets a new design notebook she scribbles in the first page which gives her permission to make her mistakes and she's not so anxious about wrecking the new pages! This piece by Kate Yetter is a wonderful piece with lots of details for your eye to explore and I thought this would be a good place to end our thoughts.


We hope that you'll be inspired to create something new, whether you're full of ideas or feel you're lacking some. Finding your vibe might take a little work, but it will be well worth the effort!

If you want to create along with us while we explore this topic, please share your makes on our social feeds so we can follow along. Instagram @paperartsy or why not join us and post in the PaperArtsy People Group on Facebook. Make sure you tag us in your contributions, we love to see what you get up to in your creative world!

 

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