Hang It Up!

Over at Michelle's Street Team, she's asking, "What's your hang up?" 

 Her challenge this month is to frame some of our own art and hang it in our home. I already have just a few that I'll share here: 

These are a couple of the first collages I ever did and I did them as a pair. They hang in my bedroom to remind me to create everyday.

This sconce hangs in our dining room. It's twin hangs on the opposite wall.

This is a oil painting of the area near where I used to live. I took an art lesson from a wonderful lady in Laguna Beach. It sits happily on top of a cabinet in my kitchen to remind me of the beautiful ocean.

  

And these are my favs. I have them hanging in my studio. 

I really like this challenge. I think it's important to surround ourselves with art whether it's our own or someone elses's, preferably both. My criteria for what I have in my home and surrounding me is that I love it. 

No Brushes Allowed!

It's Street Team Challenge time!

 

Last month was Text Messaging and thank you to everyone who encouraged me with their kind comments. It is truly a joy to participate in these challenges. I learn new things every time not only from working on my own project but also from seeing what all of you come up with in your interpretations of the challenge. It is so much fun to meet and hear from new friends from all over the world.

This month: In A Scrape, No Brushes Allowed. This month we were to scrape on layers of gesso and paint using an old credit card or flat edged tool to result in a grungy, textured background. My cup of tea, I love to work in layers and get messy! I was really excited to experiment with gesso as I have not used it that much. Now, I will use it a lot! The gesso and paint react to each other in interesting ways and create really cool textures together. So, without further adieu...

I began by layering brown acrylic paint over a layer of gesso and layering another coat of gesso over the brown. The layers created an interesting effect together. While that was drying...

I went back to a couple of earlier challenges (#27) & (#19) and created some stencils and masks. I made them out of old manila folders. I used these and scraped colors onto my background.

Then, using my stencils, I added a couple of stars in the corners and wrote a couple of quotes with a white gel pen.

I couldn't stop there, so here are a couple of others:

This one was made with some cool stencils I purchased from Tattered Angels. I absolutely love them. I think they work better with brushes or by spraying paint or ink on them. Scraping the paint across them required a lot of paint to cover the intricate details and it became really thick. After drying overnight, however, it has a really cool texture.

On this one, I started with gesso and scraped on some black plum acrylic paint. Then I spritzed on some water and let it set for a few minutes, scraped again and voila, cool splatters. I'll use this grungy background for something else later. 

Thanks, Michelle, for another great challenge. I learned so much on this one! 

Texting

 
I had so much fun with Michelle Ward's Street Team challenge last month that I'm once again participating. This month the challenge is to cut or tear typography text and use composition techniques to place on a page or two. I made a two-page spread in my art journal as I did last month. I tend to like to cohesiveness of a two-page spread. I was a little short on newspapers and mags and such to find cool typography and so was relegated to my daughter's discarded teen mags. I found quite a few cool and very colorful, albeit youthful texts.

I noticed that the messages in the teen mags are getting more and more positive, uplifting and encouraging.  Lots of color, energy and fun with a focus on the possibilities of life.Very cool!

I just ordered some cool stencils and would like to paint and/or spray over the top of these, but will have to wait until they get here.
Thanks, Michelle! Another fun challenge. I can't wait until next month to see what else you have up your sleeve!

Strip Ease

I took Michelle Ward's challenge...

 and came up with this:

This is the first challenge that I've participated in and I got so into it and had so much fun that I forgot to take pictures of the process! It was fun to simply tear the papers and then play with composition. I finished my pages with masks, stamps, and acrylic paint and Distress Ink. Then I added journaling and a quote. Wonderful challenge. Thanks Michelle!