Category : Creativity

622 posts

Acrylic pouring

Ever heard of acrylic pours? I hadn’t until a couple months ago. I watched endless streams of YouTube videos on the process. It looked like something I could totally get into given time, space and willingness to get messy. Two out of three aren’t bad.

I did manage to eek out some space to at the very least make due so I could try this out.

My very first attempt I used red, orange, yellow and white with Golden polymer gloss medium. Some videos use silcone or WD-40 in the mix as well but I am not a fan of using any sort of aerosol in the house especially in my minimally ventilated basement. acrylic pour

I’m pouring onto a previously used canvas board that I coated with gesso. I put a bit of white paint around the edges to hopefully assist with the paint moving all the way out to the edges.

acrylic pour

I did what is called a dirty pour. You dump each of the premixed paints into the pour cup in alternating fashion. I really had no idea what I was doing so I just poured them as I felt like at the moment. I then turned the canvas board upside down over the cup and flipped the whole works over. Flip cup technique OR dirty flip cup technique as some have coined.

acrylic pour

I was amazed at what happened. The colors mixed and migrated. Color bubbled up from underneath.

acrylic pour

It was mesmerizing. Even the paint that flowed off the edge was beautiful.

acrylic pour

These colors made me think of agates…especially Lake Superior agates.

acrylic pour

When I moved the canvas to allow it to dry I ended up losing some of the magic. I fear the secondary location wasn’t completely level so more paint rolled over the edge than I had wanted.

acrylic pour

Here is the end result. A little more pink than I’d hoped but interesting none the less.

I’ve created several more and even took a video of part of the process on one attempt. I’m pretty sure its my favorite end result. It’s so darn fun. I’m experimenting with cheaper pouring medium. I’ve only had one big failure and guess what!?  I just did another pour straight over the top of it.

More to come…I promise.

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Remember the summer

I’m back from vacation! It was wonderful…mini-me and I had a great time. Now that I’m caught up on laundry and all the other not so fun stuff once you get back home, I wanted to get creative again.remember the summer

I dug into my scrap bucket for inspiration. The background paper started out lavender…some distress paints did the trick on toning that right down.

I’ve been very drawn to blue/orange combo lately. It’s bold and exciting. remember the summer

The tickets attached to the page are from a family road trip in the early 1980’s with my parents. Amazing that mom still had those little bits squirreled away in a box of memories for so many years. The colors fit perfectly and cemented the direction I was headed with this page.remember the summer

The tangible bits of ephemera brought the memories alive within my head. I knew I had to use them and remind myself to remember that summer.

Linking up with Art Journal Journey for Summertime Love

Art Journal Journey

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Fun this summer

After a long day of landscaping…more on that in another post….something fun was in order.

fun this summer

I started with a sheet of page protector paper…random colors and stamps included. Note the date and circle stamping in the upper left. I was thinking fun so sunny, bright colors came to mind. I used my favorite tools to add this much needed color…my fingers! If I’m creating, I’m seldom without paint on my hands.

fun this summer

I used watered down paints on scrapbook paper to give life to this ice cream cone, using foam tape to give the scoop some dimension. I wasn’t sure I even liked this page last night I figured I’d be changing things up this morning.

Nope…after a good nights sleep, I like it! All that was left was to add the sentiment this morning.

Linking up with Art Journal Journey for Summertime Love

Art Journal Journey

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T Tuesday: gardens and more edition

This week I thought I’d give you a look at how my gardens are doing followed up with some art.

FYI-photo heavy post

The deck box garden holds my yellow pear tomato plants each year to keep them from cross pollinating with the red regular sized varieties, This year I think I got a few seeds mixed up. I have some non-pear shaped tomatoes on a couple vines. Hmmm. Time will tell. I also have my Egyptian walking onions, radishes and jalapenos in there. Resting on the edge is a new to me shepherds hook. Mr. G is going to move one hook about 10 inches down for me when he digs out the welder.

The shed garden is going gangbusters after what seemed like a very slow start. I have tons of tomatoes on the vines. Even the bedraggled plants that came home from Biology class with J are doing fantastic.

The pumpkin and this tomato included. I really had no hope for either of these plants so I didn’t work very hard making a good home for them. Obviously they don’t care a bit.

The yellow summer squash and zucchini are getting large although the zucchini hasn’t produced anything yet.

The yellow ones are tasty though.

The first bit of bounty from the garden has arrived.

I am dealing with this pest though. Anyone know what it is and how to get rid of it without chemicals? I’ve been knocking them off and squishing them but the little munchers keep coming back for more.

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We changed things up a little this year and didn’t attend the local parade for the 4th of July. Instead we went to a party close to our old neighborhood. We figured out that we hadn’t been to their annual bash in 10yrs. I forgot my phone at home so no pictures from there.

We came back for the standard evening shenanigans on our block. J had 6-7 friends hanging out by the end of the evening. You wouldn’t believe how quickly 3 large pizzas can disappear.

We joined a neighbor in their front yard for the awesome view of the fireworks, What a fun night.

Of course, there was lots of overindulging of all sorts so my drink of choice the next morning was….

alka-seltzer.

I did take a bit of time for creating. I’m not sure how I feel about this page now that its dry.  The colors of the stains were so fun and vibrant before they dried. Now the page is a little dull.

I went back and added these paper beads I made years ago to try and dress things up a bit. I love that they’ll hang outside the book begging someone to open it up to take a peek.

I’m planning to work on the landscape edging around a flower bed before it gets too hot. The humidity is what is so bad right now. UGH! I get very cranky in the heat.  And don’t even talk to me about my hair.

What are you doing today?

T stands for Tuesday

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Life as we know it

Art journal. It’s been so long. I’ve missed you.

I sat down to create the other day. I had nothing in mind. No colors, technique or even medium planned. A piece of paper caught my eye. It was one that had been used to protect my works pace, journals and the like.

It was covered with random bits of color, stamping, scribbles and even a couple of holes. Not much to look at really but better than the blank page staring me in the face.

I adhered it with a glue stick and began to add more color to balance things out using gelatos. Have I mentioned how much I love gelatos?!?

After adding the cool blues around the edges I was really beginning to like where this was going. I then added the orange as a bit of a transition to the center pinks.

MY love affair with circles came shining through as I began using my finger to create white islands in the sea of wild color.

A piece of painted watercolor paper from my scrap bucket seemed to jump out at me to give a bit of dimension to the page while still keeping the over arching theme of circles going.

The last piece was a bit of found text. It fit so well.  Back to creativity. Back to circles. Back to blogging. Back to life as I knew it.

Linking up with Art Journal Journey.

Art Journal Journey

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T Tuesday: returning edition

Hello!! I am still here. It’s been a while.

Gosh, that sounds like the beginning to a song… I’m awful with names of songs/singers/authors/actors/movies/etc…so if it is one…sorry, I’m just not going to be able to commit any brain cells to that information. I have WAY too much other pointless trivia floating around in there.

So I took a bit of a blog hiatus after mom’s passing and funeral. I just wasn’t able to “find my voice” for the blog. I think my bout of laryngitis is over now.

During my break we traveled to north to do another college visit. This one was University of Minnesota Duluth. I completely forgot to take any photos on campus likely because our tour remained inside all but one brief walk outside as a shortcut. The awesome thing about UMD is that all the buildings are connected by tunnels and concourses. You literally don’t have to step outside if you don’t want to all winter long. I’d be blissfully happy if that’s where either kid decided to go to school.

Mini-me and I did our traditional sea glass hunting. The view is lovely…

and we always manage to find treasures.

The kids and I walked down to Grandma’s (host of Grandma’s marathon that had been run just the day or two before we got there)

Both times we’ve eaten there, we’ve been seated right by this sign. Too funny! I didn’t take the obligatory beverage photo but rest assured it was there and it was of the adult variety. Why not…we were walking!

Back at home I’ve been keeping busy with gardening, driving back and forth to the high school for volleyball and some volunteer work I picked up. The choir director put out a call for anyone with sewing skills to mend the robes before they are dry cleaned to save the program some money. So far I’ve mended 20 robes. 

It’s mostly split sleeves but there have been some zippers and collars as well.

It’s all hand stitching and the stitches need to be hidden. Thank you Mrs. Wilwerding for teaching me how to sew in the 8th grade. My kid’s high school also thanks you for indirectly saving them lots of money. I’m hoping when I drop off this latest batch of 6 robes that at least some will have been taken by the others to mend.

I have been a little creative as well. Here’s a little sneak…

What are you doing today?

T stands for Tuesday

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Back at it…finally

It has been a while girls and boys. Every time I sat down to write a post, I just couldn’t. I was stuck…blocked by emotion. Not sure how to move on with my blog while still dealing with the grief of losing my mom. Somehow it felt wrong. I know that is crazy talk but it took a while to move beyond that thought. So here I am…back at it.

I’ve been busy with a number of things…

such as this wreath. It came together quite nicely from some clearance items. I’m thinking about hanging it under the eaves on our deck. I haven’t actually taken it out there to see if there is enough wall space but I think it would be a lovely addition to the space.

I’ve experimented with some acrylic pours that I’ll share in another post.

The sun is finally out today…we’ve had rain, rain, rain today. I found this cute little nest laying in the yard after a recent storm.

Today was also the first CSA drop off date. They were supposed to start last week but there had been a terrible hail storm that had taken out a lot of the crops. I have to say that I am very pleasantly surprised at the high quality and quantity of produce I got today.

Those carrots are so good!!!!! They taste just like I remember as a kid…only not so gritty. I used to pull them out of the ground, swish them in the rain barrel and eat them.

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