Class project…done?

Well, I did embrace the imperfections and pushed on. The carbon paper technique I mentioned yesterday appeared a few more places.

and got more out of whack in the top left. Jeez.

Because the flower was from a book rather than a thin magazine, integrating it with paint was harder. My piece ended up with more colour than the samples by the teacher.

While it is better integrated, it still seems to be more floating on the surface than I’d like it to be. I think a thicker application of paint and more sanding might have helped, but this is still a first attempt at a technique/method very much out of my comfort zone. Will I try it again? Probably. But I really want to focus on the right images and composition. I don’t mind this one, I’m just not sure it says anything. It’s just a little vingette. I like the balance of it, and the composition, mostly, but it isn’t speaking to me. Maybe whispering, not sure. Anyway, I also have the little collage project as well, and really just a couple of weeks of appointments and commitments and deadlines to deal with. When did summer morph from a time when things slowed down into the busiest time of the year??

{sigh}

Progress on the class. Result!

Well, this has been interesting. I decided on a bit of a different approach to the Print & Paint class. Normally, I kinda follow along step by step. This time, instead, I sat and watched all the lessons first. I think it helped me focus, knowing that the end result might be worth the effort. As you will have seen, I collected up a bunch of things

and began trying to make sense of them as a cohesive whole. In the end, this is the basic idea:

There are a couple of interesting items used for the class, the most unusual would be the carbon paper! I really liked that sort of grid made of the pile of…. I think it was ginger, from (what else?) one of the freebie Waitrose magazines. And the teacher made special mention of the unpredictability when using the carbon paper, as you can’t really place the lines you scratch perfectly because you can’t actually see where they will end up thru the paper. And yeah, I certainly found that to be true. I am one who usually likes lines, and straight ones at that (unless they are circles LOL!) so not hitting the grid perfectly should have really irritated me. It kinda didn’t. I am trying to embrace the process. After doing the paint addition and masking out much of the actual images, Iadded some of the carbon paper lines and…

Not perfect but I am taking a moment to embrace the imperfections. I can see me adding in that technique to many projects…partly because you don’t buy just ONE sheet of carbon paper. I have probably 50 to play with!

LOL!

Letter Love

I know what I’m like – I rarely commit to a class as I know my follow thru is rubbish.  But I saw a link in a newsletter I get from Cloth Paper Scissors for an Artful Lettering video download. As I have said MANY times, I am not fond of my handwriting so I had a look. I downloaded the 70+ minute video class and really, liked it a lot.  I then went looking for more info on the instructor, Joanne Sharpe.  Lo and behold she had a 29 day class (Letter Love 101) starting YESTERDAY.  I dithered and dithered for a bit, worried it might be not-enough-different to the CPS class, but an email from Joanne set my mind at ease and I booked it. There are a few more on the site that I may take at a later date, as they all look good.

The first lesson was to make a covered composition book to use for a Letter Love practice journal.. Now I’ve never seen the traditional b&w composition books I remember from my childhood days here in the UK, so instead I had a rummage thru a shelf of blank books I keep and found these two possibilities:

We do seem to have a LOT of computer conference notebooks – I wonder why?  Anyway, I felt the Apple one was a bit too small and really liked the window on the Java one so went for that.  The paper inside is lined like a composition book baut a nice weight.  Not sure if I will do as suggested and glue two pages together throughout – and if I did how?  Glue stick or brush on PVA?

I’ve made progess on my cover and used (surprise, surprise) my various foam stamps AGAIN.  They worked well – I am particularly liking the embossed one.

The center window needs filling, and it has to be lettering, and I am feeling the Dr. Strangelove-love so it will riff off that.  But it’ll be tomorrow, as we have the most terrifically busy week this week, all to do with DD are her various events (including a PROM, which needs some sewing and some altering – she really doesn’t want to wear her leg splint and I didn’t want to buy two pairs of shoes, even if I could find appropriate ones for a dressy event, so the little ballet flats need straps to hold them on) and time is thin on the ground.

I am ever hopeful my WOYWW 3rd anniversary ATC will arrive from the Phillipines before tomorrow’s post, but it’s not here yet so it might not.  If it doesn’t I have a back up.  See you then!