Artful Excursions

Friday night was Date Night, so my husband and I had a fabulous steak dinner before heading to one of our favorite haunts, Briggs Auction.

I had looked online earlier in the day, and saw that there would be an amazing collection of ephemera up for auction--all kinds of postcards, photos, stamps, and ledger books.  I've finally learned, though, that the sort of things I like to bid on go up at the very start of things, at 5 p.m., and we didn't get there until 8 p.m.  Not a piece of ephemera in sight!

While there is no such thing as "too much ephemera," and there may not even be such a thing as "enough ephemera," I wasn't too heartbroken, since I had so many jackpots of late, acquiring a pretty good supply of photos, postcards, postage stamps, and even ledger paper.

I did walk out of there with a couple pieces of art, though.  No one was showing much interest in two framed pencil sketches from 1890, so I jumped in (actually nudged my husband in the ribs to jump in) and got them:

I just love the idea of the artist taking up his pencil back in 1890 and making these drawings that I now own.  I am partial to the first one, and here is what the back tells me:

I love how the person writing the label in 1973 includes "my grandfather" in the description...sounds like he or she is proud of Martin L. Burgett and his art!  The second picture has a similar label, but states that the drawing was done specifically in 1890.  I am going to include at least one of them on an Art Wall I have in mind in my workroom, Studio 791.

On Saturday, I headed to the ArtStampScrap Tour spring event, and came away with yet another passel of goodies for my journaling and art-making.  I was interested to see that a good number of the booths were carrying waterbrushes.  Either I just never noticed them before I "discovered" them recently, or everyone is (rightly!) jumping on the waterbrush bandwagon. 

I got a set of three for much less than I pay for one at my local craft store.  I also bought two glitter pens.  Weird for me, I know, but I've already used one, and they have a pretty and surprisingly subtle effect.

One of the thing I am most excited about are these gems (for lack of a better word):

At the booth, they were doing a Make and Take where participants just glued pretty paper to the back of them to create pendants with bails similar to the ones shown here, but I envision creating collages to put on the backs for one-of-a-kind pendants.  Future Etsy product?  Maybe!

And, of course, I couldn't walk away without a whole load of new rubber stamps. 

This time I ventured into unmounted stamp terrain.  I had purchased several unmounted stamps, along with acrylic blocks, at an earlier show, but never really used them properly.  I didn't know what I was missing!  I came home on Saturday, and played around with all of my new (and old!) unmounted stamp images with some really fun results.

I did one Make and Take, which was a little goodie box that doesn't really fit my style. 

But with the help of Cibele Glazer, I got to use some of the Faber Castell Gelatos.  They are described as "creamy color sticks," or, as Cibele put it, "lipstick" for your paper!  They are really fun to use for blending:

Now I have some pictures to hang, some rubber stamps to use, some pendants to make, some index cards to create...I think I have plenty to keep me busy for quite some time!

Week in Review

I've been having so much fun with the Index-Card-a-Day (ICAD) challenge, made even better by all the fun feedback I've been getting from you wonderful people!  (You can check out my first two cards--the fireflies here and the toadie here--if you haven't seen them yet.)

I've gotten on board with some of Tammy's inspirational prompts for the rest of my cards this week, and thought I would share the whole week's efforts at one time:

ICAD2:  Card #3

Theme:  Yellow

I made this postcard after waking up at 4:40 a.m. to take my friend Christina to the

airport on Sunday morning.  Ouch! 

ICAD2:  Card #4

Theme:  Maps

This index card sounds like it was complicated to put together, but it actually only took about 15 or 20 minutes.  I used a green and red pen to write on the index card some thoughts about the nature of the differences that divide us from others in the world, and whether or not we would discover more similarities than we would expect, if given the chance to find out.  Then, I put a splash of green over the writing, and used a bottle cap inked in magenta to add circles to the background.  I collaged a picture of a girl from a magazine article, with the skirt cut from an ink-edged swatch of map.  Finally I used various colors of pen to add a border around the card.  I think it looks kind of cool; I'm especially pleased with the map-skirt, and will be trying something along these lines on a larger scale in the future.

ICAD2:  Card #5

Themes:  Dragonfly, Grid, Dictionary

I think I like this index card best of all.  I glued a dictionary page to the index card, and

painted over it with French vanilla acrylic paint.  Then I added a few different colors of acrylic paint in a grid pattern over the card.  I used pencil to draw the dragonflies, then went over them with black pen.  I added blue and black watercolor paint with my waterbrush to one, and red and black watercolor paint with my waterbrush to the other.

ICAD2:  Card #6

Theme:  Fish

I like to call this one, "You win some, you lose some."  Yeah, it doesn't look so great, but it's still kind of fun.  I painted the card with blue acrylic paint, then stamped the fish with black Staz-On ink.  I used acrylic paint to add color to the fish, and paint and marker for my seaweed.  I highlighted the fish then in black ink.  I just kept going back trying again and again to make it look better.  Then I reminded myself,  This is an index card, and tomorrow is another day.  Wrap it up!

ICAD2:  Card #7

I didn't follow a theme for this one, but just used a doodle I've been doing a lot lately. 

I call it, "Wheel-spoke amoebas."  There's no deep significance,

just a great way to pass the time and calm my mind!

So far, so good with this ICAD challenge.  It has been a lot of fun to see what the day will bring, and what style is going to come out of the day's effort.  It is a great way to keep me doing something creative on a daily basis, without feeling too overwhelmed at the prospect.

If you want to learn more about the project, check out the details at Daisy Yellow!

Taking It on the Road (and a Toad!)

I have never taken my art journal in public to work on.  I shrink from the idea that someone might walk by me, look over my shoulder, and see a sub-par work in progress!  And I don't feel prepared to chat about my art-making, even though I write about it on my blog all the time.

I had the opportunity to ease into public art-making this weekend, when I worked on my second ICAD for Daisy Yellow's challenge at a coffee shop while a good friend was in town visiting from Texas.  With Christina there, we could chat as I worked, and somehow that made me feel less conspicuous.  She took my picture at the Seven Stones coffeeshop in Media, so you could see my on-the-road art space:

I have my index card, along with my water brush and a set of watercolor pencils.  Later in the evening, I completed the card on the back patio, where a rubber stamp and a bottle of wine were additional art supplies:

I have to tell the story behind this little frog card:  The night before, we had a rain storm, and my husband came up from his basement workbench to tell us that a little toad was trapped in our window well, and was looking at him through the window:

With that priceless expression, this little toadie clearly earned a spot on a daily index card!  Christina and I made up a haiku together:

late night visitor

seeking the light of our home

refuge from the rain

We felt like we were back in our high school English class!

(By the way, we all went out to rescue the little guy from the window well, and set him free in our yard.)

I even bullied Christina into playing around with my water brush and markers in the little Moleskin notebook that I carry around in my purse.  She thinks she might have enjoyed herself, but she wasn't willing to confess!

Tammy provides us with some great prompts for the ICAD challenge, but it's also fun to use the cards as a kind of daily diary of something interesting that has happened that day. 

Wishing you an artful week!