Summer Slump

Summer Slump.  A slump... isn't that what baseball players say they are in when they aren't hitting well?  I think I remember that from when I was a kid and interested in baseball. I seem to be in a slump.  I went almost two weeks without picking up a paint brush.  This is very unusual for me.  

I am back to what a wrote about in January. I can get fixated on something and let everything else go by the wayside for a while. I love to read. I would often rather read than talk to people. The past two weeks I've read a lot of books. I've read instead of creating, cleaning or cooking.  OK. I'll get real here.... the cooking & cleaning are boring and they go by the wayside all the time.  

I've given some thought to why I do this.... there are several reasons.  I go through spells where I don't sleep well.  Whether I sleep or not, I still have to get up and go to my paying job so by the time I get home I'm tried and want to chill. Where I live it is very hot and humid and just sucks the life out of me. You know you are in the south when it's so humid you can stir the air at 6 am.  Like everyone else there are issues that arise that cause me stress from time to time.

All of the above combined and my muse took a vacation without me. I've told her over and over I want to go to the beach in January when it's not so warm.  Silly girl, I'm not sure where she went but I bet it's cooler than here.

I know the best way to bring her home is to get painty so yesterday afternoon I did just that. I watched Carolyn Dube's latest video and I really liked the grid idea so off I went.  I used a gelly print I had and I tore mine instead of cutting.  I decided to use modeling paste and stencils so I have to let is dry before I decide what to do next. The stencils are by Crafter's Workshop. The giant flower is a rubber coaster I found at the Dollar tree that I use it on my gelli plate. I love it. I got all those great brush strokes by adding a lot of glazing medium to my acrylic paint.  More to come when I finish the page.

Anyone else in a slump? Try some painting practice.  FYI if you have Matte Medium on your finger your smart phone touch screen doesn't work so well.  

Link to:  Carolyn Dube, Paint Party Friday, 

Acrylic Paint and Recycled Paper

I love working with acrylic paint.  I like how once it dries it doesn't move or change.  You can paint over it without making mud.  It is easy to clean up and even inexpensive craft paint works really well in art journals.

This birds are from a Sale-abration set by Stampin Up.  I stamped them on an old encyclopedia page.  They are painted with craft paint.

The background is pieces torn pieces of encyclopedia paper which are also painted with craft paint. The leaves and flowers are leftover pieces of a paper napkin that I used in another project.  I love how the words show through the napkin. 

It does my heart good when I realize I've made a page with mostly recycled items.  Do you recycle in your art work?

Link to: Paint Party Friday, Art Journal Everyday