Flutterby Mr. Butterfly

Gelli Printing is just plain fun.  The color combinations and the textures are endless.  Each pull is a surprise.  As you can probably tell, I like color.  Oranges, Blues, Hot Pinks... have been calling to me all summer.  The background of this page is made with pieces of Gelli Prints.  I tore them and glued them in a random arrangement. The flower is another set of Gelli prints done with a flower stencil that I bought at WalMart and then cut out.  

Then the doodle bug hit me and I doodled away until my butterfly was born.  This page is a bit simple. That's one of the joys of an Art Journal.  Anything goes... even a 4 line ditty about the change in seasons.  I won't win a poetry award but it made me happy to write it, so this page was a success.  

I've heard many people talk about the Zen-like meditation they experience while doodling. Doodling doesn't affect me that way.  Cutting does... I can go almost into a trace while trimming images.  I could do it for hours if my elbow didn't protest.  Years ago when I taught stamping classes, my students would moan because my samples always had neatly trimmed images. I would have a card finished before I realized that I'd spent 45 minutes trimming all those tiny pieces of paper.  

Link to: Sept. Gelli Party, Paint Party Friday

Gretchen's Camper

My friend, Cheryl, has been drawing this darling little hippy girl name Gretchen. We've really enjoyed seeing Gretchen appear in different 1960/70s outfits over at Mixed Media Madness.  I decided to make Gretchen a camper.  Every good hippy needs a camper.

My friend, Jenn at APR chose Rainbow at this weeks theme.  I think Gretchen's camper fits the bill perfectly.

Purple, Aqua, Orange and Teal

                       
Amber and Lynn requested Owl Tags, also.  Aqua and purple for Amber and Orange and Teal for Lynn.  I'm disappointed that the Orange and Teal one didn't scan true to color.  This was the best I could get the scan to do.  In person or tagson the owls are a nice rich teal.  My Stampin Up owl punch has been very popular this week.  The orange tag is made from a paint sample.

Link to:  Creative Everyday and APR (lots of eyes and toes in this one.), Orange You Glad It's Friday

Free Bird

The challenge this week in The Mail Artist Corner is your favorite song.  I don't know that I have a favorite song.  Truth is I don't listen to music much these days.  I really like the quiet.  There seems to be a lot of noise in the rest of my life so when I'm home... I love the quiet.

I wanted to use this bird and the two blue backgrounds so I made the page and then googled bird songs until I found one I liked.  I'm not a big fan of Lynyrd Skynyrd but I do like this song.

This blue backgrounds are both Gelli prints. I'm not sure what stencils were     used for the blue background on the right. Probably more than one.  The left one is a saw blade that I cut myself using a picture from the internet.  I'll never, ever cut another stencil like that one.  The bird is also a gelli print.  The background of the left page was done with another stencil I cut myself.  I did the lettering elf with a black marker and then outlines the letters with my favorite White Signo Gel Pen.  I added some Washi tape for interest.

Link to:  The Mail Art Corner,  The Sketchbook Challenge, Creative Everyday, Glue It Tuesday