Latest Painted/Printed Papers

Latest Painted/Printed Papers

Latest Painted/Printed Papers (Reds and Purples)

I said I would post more papers, so here they are. I am getting a lot of ideas for how to use these. I hope to have something to announce by the end of the weekend!

"Paper-Cloth" Pictures

So I am not sure if these papers seem much like cloth to me, but I am sure they could be sewn by hand or by machine. I haven't gotten that far with them yet. I still need to press them flat. I kind of like it when they are wrinkly, though. These papers have many layers of tissue paper, paper scraps, and white glue (watered down a bit). Which one do you like best?

Paper-Cloth

I have been meaning to take pictures and post some of the latest papery-thing I created lately. I will post pics tomorrow night, or for sure Saturday morning. To get your juices flowing, take a look at a great book that inspired me to work in a new way! It is Stitch Alchemy by Kelli Perkins.

Giveaway Winner Announcement

Meg, you win! Send me an email (courageouslycreating at gmail dot com) with your address, and I will send you your cd. Congratulations. Thanks to everyone for their comments. I will try to do more giveaways in the future, so keep checking back now and then!

-Briana

Painted/Printed Paper Sneak Peak

I finally was able to take some photos of my recent painted and monoprinted papers. I have a huge stack that I truly enjoy looking at. I explored many color combinations that I don't normally use, plus I used my favorite color combos, too. I will be creating something for sale with these papers soon! Hope you like them!

PS Don't forget to enter the giveaway in the post below. A winner will be announced tomorrow morning!

Technical Difficulties and Giveaway

Hi Everyone,

I just spent hours taking pictures of my newly painted/printed papers and BAM!-technical difficulties occurred. What a disappointment. Oh well, I guess I'll try again once my battery is recharged!

However, I promised to post a giveaway today, so I will at least stick to my word about that. To enter to win the new Tegan and Sara cd called Sainthood, leave me a comment regarding my blog. Positive feedback is always welcome, but I accept constructive criticism as well. I will announce the winner of the Tegan and Sara cd on Monday morning. Good luck!

PS The cd I am giving away is brand new, still in the wrapper!

Paper Picture Delay

HI-Sorry to say that I won't be posting the paper pictures tonight. I will for sure post some on Saturday along with a surprise giveaway. Be sure to check back on Saturday to enter to win!

Hope you have a great Friday!

-Briana

Painted Paper Night

image credit here

Just thought I'd share what a glorious time I had last night painting paper in my studio! I was feeling tired, and I almost went and turned on the t.v. (which is rare for me). Thankfully I thought of Roz Stendahl's recent comment on her blog stating, "You are never too tired to journal". Though I didn't end up working in my journal, I still made art. I was working on the recent technique from LK Ludwig's online class, Painted Printed Patterned Paper. LK taught her students the technique of monoprinting on a tray of unflavored gelatin. Now, I don't like to cook, even making jello is a stretch for me, but in the name of art making, I am proud to say that I DID IT! Silly thing to be proud of, I know, but I am so glad to have learned and tried this technique. I have always been a fan of monoprinting, and this gelatin thing adds a whole new flavor. I wished I had taken photos of my process last night, but my hands were full of paint for a good 2.5 hours. Perhaps I'll have some time to show you some of the papers tonight after work. Have a beautiful day!

PS From doing a quick search on Google, I found this artist who shows a couple of her monoprints on her blog.

Instant Journal Pages Set 1 Sample

Hi Again,

Just thought I'd share a quick photo of some sample papers from the Instant Journal Pages Set 1. These were printed at home with my ink jet printer and they came out really well! If you are interested, there is a Buy Now button to the right.

Japanese Toys

Tonight at the Visual Journal Collective meeting, presenter Jean Shannon (my apologies for any misspelling) shared her collection and art around Japanese toys. It was really interesting to hear how she became interested in Japanese toys, and how she went to Japan with her husband (who is a potter) to apprentice with a "living treasure" potter of Japan.

A Japanese artist that Jean admires a lot is Keisuke Serizawa. Jean showed us one of his calendars (as shown on the linked website). You can also learn more about Keisuke here. The technique he used on his calendars is a stencil dye process called Katazome.

Anyway, it was a fascinating art lesson tonight and I sketched a whole bunch! Happy art making!

24 Hours

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY OBSERVED

What an amazing human being he was

Well the past 24 hours have been pretty interesting. There hasn't been a lot of quality sleep involved because I was consumed by creating a Buy Now button on my blog. I even transferred my blog to another blog host, then decided to keep it on Blogger. I was sort of feeling crazy. I knew what I wanted, but I didn't quite know how to make it happen. Have you felt that way? (Feel free to share a bit of your story in the comments.)

So, I figured out how to get a button, but then I didn't know how to get the downloadable file to the customer. I did several test runs between my two email accounts and realized my file sizes were TOO BIG. I really didn't know what I was doing, but I was determined to figure it out! I did probably fifty or more searches on Google looking for answers. Man, there is a lot of crap on the internet! It was tough filtering through it all. I've learned at my ripe old age that things aren't black and white. There is a lot in between two options. I was looking for a free option, but found a lot of options where I could pay, if I was so inclined. What I am referring to are programs like E-Junkie and PayLoadz. I read tons of reviews, almost went with one service, then ended up going with another. Much of the info on what was offered was a little beyond my level of expertise. I do understand the concept of "too much money out of my account". I went with a free option for now. We'll see how things go. When one is trying to start up a business, there usually isn't much to start it up with, financially speaking.

All in all, I learned how to do a lot of things on my own in the past 24 hours. One thing I am really happy to have figured out is how to create a pdf document including other image files (i.e. jpg).

If you are at all curious about the Instant Journal Pages Set 1 for sale on the right of this post, I'd just like to share how I put it together.

1. First, I painted and stamped a bunch of paper.

2. I photographed my papers, trying to get the best detailed images possible.

3. I uploaded the images to my computer and into my photo editing software.

4. I resized all of the images to be 8.5 x 11 inches (roughly) at 180 ppi (pixels per inch).

5. I did a whole bunch of steps I probably didn't really need to do because I was still learning.

6. I saved all 15 + images and stored them on my computer.

7. I did a whole bunch of other steps and searches in Google for information.

7. I opened Adobe Acrobat and created a PDF document.

8. I put up the Buy Now option on my blog through PayLoadz, which allows you to pay by credit card or through your PayPal account. You'll receive an email with a link so you can instantly download your new paper pack!

There are examples of what you will receive in the post titled Instant Journal Pages Set 1 (scroll down posts to find this on posted on January 17, 2010).

Instant Journal Pages Set 1

"Picture Package" of painted paper 6

painted paper 4

painted paper 12

painted paper 15

Here are some examples of the papers you'll receive in your Instant Journal Pages Set 1.

To purchase this unique set of 8.5 x 11 painted pages for your personal use, simply click on the Buy Now button to the right. You will be directed to Pay Pal's site. Please be sure your current email address is listed with Pay Pal upon checkout so you can successfully receive your downloadable pdf files. Thanks for looking and enjoy!

Monday Journaling

More Journal Pages for January Journaling

This page has many layers. It was painted, then painted again, gessoed over, then tissue paper was glued on top of that. Finally I used a silver opaque marker and a pencil to do some writing on the page.

Here I have used an oil stick, acrylic paint, and opaque paint pens.

Random Shots from Saturday

Through the viewfinder of a 35mm canon with a digital canon

Through the viewfinder of a 35mm canon with a digital canon

close up of a kitty yawn

close up of kitty getting love

not sure . . .

curled up kitty- oh so bright tonight!

rad paper owl my bestie made for us for christmas

sock monkey mama and baby made by the talented rosemary riskin

my Elsie art corner

me and art

awesmome folk art animal. what do you think it is, maybe a deer?

cute kitty boy

so-silly-lady

I am very grateful to have purchased a new digital camera yesterday. The first one I brought home had fingerprints all over the screen and the battery charger didn't work. I was thoroughly disappointed. I exchanged it for a brand new one, and now I am extremely happy! Thank you Target for having sales, and thank you students for Target gift cards! Thank you husband for being smart and lending me your teeny tiny 16GB memory stick (that fits inside the adapter, that fits inside the camera).