It's definitely all about the process.



















I started out with a 4x6 canvas and a quick wash of acrylic paint in a shade of fuchsia I love.  I usually cover the whole surface so no white shows - why would I not do that?  I just wasn't feeling it today.



















I have a box full of collage elements - including many pieces of scrapbook paper that I cut into circles a few months ago.  I considered using one - I like the contrast between bold pink and a black and white pattern, but the size seemed all wrong.  I moved on.



















I added brush swipes of bright yellow, and a border of tissue paper and painted coffee filters.  Notice that I am now making a habit of putting a coffee filter under my projects.  Why should my newspaper-covered table get all of the leftover paint and brushstrokes?



















In fact, a coffee filter that had just been used earlier today became material for the flowers in this painting.  I love those colors!!!  At this point, I think I decided that I didn't want to use any green.






































I positioned three circles for flowers, and several drops as accents.





































I found a painted index card in my box of collage elements, and cut the stems.  If you've been reading this blog for a while, maybe you remember that I use remaining paint in my palette on index cards - this has been useful for all kinds of projects.



I like the colors in this stage of the project so much!  I wish it felt finished at this point, but it didn't.  I have yet to reach a comfort level with minimalism.  Would this even be minimalism?  Probably not.







































Instead, I added tiny coffee filter dots and flower centers.






































After feeling like my flowers had too much white, I added fuchsia into the largest flower with a tiny paintbrush.  And then, around two hours later (three full half hour cooking shows and parts of two others, probably) I added a few more white dots and called it finished.






































This particular piece isn't perfection, but it's incredibly fun.

Some photos from recent weekend activities:

I took a day trip to Cincinnati, where three year old Aven and I created an art project together. Photos below show the process.

 

 We started out with watercolors, and painted a mostly orange page, a mostly blue page, and a page of whatever she wanted that was not part of the project, to allow her some creative autonomy.

 

 Aven chose a bird from an assortment of paper punches I had brought with me. I did the punching, this particular punch was too big for her hands.

 

When Aven counted to twelve birds, we started arranging them.

 

I used small adhesive squares and positioned them at somewhat-equal distances apart, a few at a time. Aven adhered each bird to the orange paper.

 

The finished product was simple, colorful, peaceful, and sweet. Aven seemed proud of her accomplishment!

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 In January, I went to a surprise party for my friend Nikki, who had no idea! It's fun to prepare for a surprise party, and I think she really enjoyed it.

 

 For me, the party was a reunion of co-workers past. I have known some of these ladies for ten to thirteen years! It was great to see them again, even if some of them look a little blurry (I promise, they are not blurry in real life).

 

 I started another unfinished project when I opened up a package of chipboard shapes. I loved painting these Valentine-y embellishments, but I didn't get much farther than this - at least not since that day, maybe I'll start again sometime soon.

 Have a wonderful week!

I'm not introducing anything new to the world here, since the internet is already plentiful with foam stamp projects, but I tried making some yesterday and it was awesome!
This was my process:

1. I bought wooden cubes, sticky-back foam and non-adhesive foam. everything you see here totals less than five dollars.


2. I cut shapes out of the foam with scissors. (I should have used my Fiskars titanium non-stick scissors for the sticky-back foam, but I wanted to use smaller scissors, so I used these pink titanium cutter-bee scissors, which got a little sticky, but cut nicely.) Then I peeled off the backing, and positioned the foam. It was the easiest thing I have ever made.


3. I tried some more stamps with the regular (non-adhesive) foam. I started on some letters, figuring that working with the regular foam could make it easy to think backwards - all I would need to do is cut out a letter, then glue the up-side. It worked!
Regular white glue worked just fine, and quickly.




4. I had so much fun just cutting out simple shapes and stripes. I love the patterns they make when the stamp is turned or printed in a line.




I think this would be a perfect rainy-day craft for any kids who can operate scissors. It's inexpensive, results are almost immediate, and has the potential for not a lot of clean-up. You could even double up on images and add foam to multiple sides of the cube. And, the stamps can be used over and over again!



I can't wait to integrate these into more projects. Be on the lookout!

My favorite photo from this experience is above...a balloon popped as I was taking this picture - it was purely unintentional!!!

I spent New Year's 2002 in Houston, travelling by minivan with my Mom, sister, and my sister's two kids. That week, and pretty much the entire road trip home, we watched The Princess Diaries - over and over and over, something like nineteen times. Halfway through the road trip back to Indiana, it just became a game of knowing all the dialogue. And then seven-year-old Katie and I loved this scene:



It was sometime way back then, that I told her we would make a balloon dart painting, too...at her high school graduation party. So we did.

We practiced the weekend before, thinking you could just put pour acrylic paint into water balloons and then tie them and be ready. It isn't that easy, the paint just thickly drips out and fills the balloon without stretching at all. After failing multiple times and turning parts of her yard blue with paint, Katie found a blog that mentioned using a pressurized bottle and watering down the paint. I wish I could find this blog, because I want to credit it - that advice was so helpful! We went out and bought six Ice Mountain water bottles with sport caps, and then I diluted the paint to about 50% paint, 50% water.



On the day of the event, we made sure all the balloons were stretched. She poured paint, then I tied balloons. We made the balloons small, about 2-3 inches, and mostly full of paint. It was a great system! The process of setting up was so, so messy. Paint was everywhere! I would definitely advise that all balloon filling should take place outside, unless you're some kind of expert balloon tier. Some of the balloons were just a little too full and splattered all over me! It was comedic at that point.



I brought string to tie to each knot, then individually duct taped each string to the back of the canvas, so the string hung over the top. Then, whenever a balloon would pop, we could just pull the string to the back, to minimize mess and the risk that balloon pieces would dry on the canvas in the sun.



The backyard setup was simple. We folded a piece of burlap over the fence, taping it around the fence loops with more duct tape, because it was windy outside. We put two paper ream boxes on the ground, and covered them with plastic tablecloths from the dollar store, which made excellent tarps. The canvas sat on top of the boxes, but It was also duct taped around the fence loops from behind, so the wind wouldn't move it.



The day of Katie's party was warm. Ninety-three degrees. What I learned while I was still setting up is that a water balloon resting on a black canvas surface in the hot sun will pop all on its own. No darts necessary!



Many of the balloons stayed intact in time for her friends to arrive. They had a great time throwing darts and watching the colors flow! We used a pack of three cheap metal darts. We also coiled neon chenille stems around the bases, because otherwise, we may have lost them in the grass.







The finished product turned out awesome. We were so happy with it! It's going to make an incredible addition to Katie's dorm room this fall!

When I sat down to make the piece I posted two days ago, I decided to photograph the process. Before I started, I knew which canvas I wanted to use (I had pre-painted it, and it was more pastel than usual) and which words I wanted to use. I just wanted to let the rest of it happen.

I started out using a coffee filter. Coffee filters are completely awesome for mixed media - they are sheer like tissue paper, but withstand paint and tearing and scissors so much better. I had pre-painted this coffee filter as well, and decided I would write a stream-of-consciousness list of phrases on its surface with fuchsia ink and a tiny-nibbed fountain pen:


The ink dried quickly, and I cut the coffee filter into little pieces. I like putting borders around my mixed media projects, and I usually use torn tissue paper for this, but I decided today that I would use the coffee filter, altering the direction of the words (upside down, sideways, ink side down, etc.) until I had covered the edges. I used Mod Podge for this.


Keeping with the theme, I knew that I wanted to add a big heart, and I wanted it to be fuchsia as well. I considered cutting paper, but then thought I might experiment with wax paper.


I painted the wax paper with acrylic, then added some white swirls, then scratched into the swirls to leave some clear areas. After taking the picture below, I decoupaged the heart onto the canvas. You can see some of the pastel yellow background underneath the scratched off areas.


At that point, it was time to work on the words. I am really enjoying a cut and paste technique with words right now. I have a bin full of pre-painted index cards, scraps, telephone book pages, origami papers, etc. and I chose a few that would complement the colors I was already using.


I painted on each of the papers, positioned them, and glued them down with Mod Podge.

This is the point where the doodle painting begins (An awesome Pinterest follower used the phrase "doodle paintings" to describe my work and I like it!). I collected some paper punches (particularly stars), painted over some of the scrapbook paper and the striped paper I'd created myself, then added layers of embellishments, and painted flowers, stars, dots, leaves, pennant garlands, and other designs, until it felt complete.



It felt complete, but I wasn't happy with it. It felt full, but bland.


It needed some more visual dimension in the form of deeper color. I contemplated using oil pastels for about five seconds, then brought out the watercolor paint.


After the watercolor dried, it felt finished. The process is complete!

I didn't make a single present this year (at least, I didn't make and finish anything in time for Christmas). I did take a few hours out to make Christmas cards, though. Here's what I did:

First, I painted index cards (maybe twelve or so? I didn't count...) using five paint colors: red, fuchsia, lime green, reef blue, and white. Some were more plain, and some were patterned. Then, I forgot to take a photo of them - but here was my palette.

I cut the cards into little strips and piled them up on the craft table in a big heap.

I used blank index cards as a surface upon which to lay stripes of each design. I glued each stripe down with mod podge.

After the cards were dry, I started to cut each one into a tree-like triangle shape.

Then, in true Julie-fashion, I didn't want to waste the excess, so I made patch-work-esque trees from the scraps.

Here is a little land of trees:

I bought pre-made cards and glitter paper, and used a square of glitter for each background. I used gold foil paper for each star. Everything is held together with double stick foam tape, so there is just a bit of dimension, and no gluey mess. Each card is a little different. And I like that I could write any message I wanted inside.



Of course, you could skip the painting part altogether and just use construction paper or scrapbook paper for the trees. I just like painting.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas!