Art Like Always

Hello Readers!

My muse showed up this evening and demanded we make a book. 

The zentangle envelope was done last night.

The little doll armature is still looking the same. The foils laying there under the envelope will go in the cereal box book. The envelope probably will too. I cut the end off the envelope cause I needed a piece of paper to use as a template to make the holes in the owl book. So now it's not even an envelope any longer. I'm gathering fodder for the cereal box book.

The green crochet cotton tells us the brown basket is still on the muse's radar also. I've not done anything more to it but it is sitting there waiting.

I've changed my days and nights around and am spending my awake hours in the darkness of night. When I got up at around 8pm on Thursday I really wanted to paint something! I gathered up the gessoed newspaper hanging on the line in the closet and painted them with the intention of making a book.

I drew the owl on cardstock with markers, cut it out and glued it to the cover of the  book. I painted the corregated cardboard covers with wall paint and cheap acrylic craft paint.

The pages are painted on each side. This shows you the colors of the pages. Only the dark blue one is a different color on the opposite side. That one is light blue on one side, dark blue on the other side. Outside of the two covers is that light green speckled with a darker green. Inside of the covers is the plain light green.

I laid them out on the washer and dryer to dry.

Here's the book finished. I put eyelets in the covers and sewed the single 6 page signature with yellow crochet cotton thread in the coptic stitch. The book is 7 inches square.

The newspaper pages have a weird feel to them. They have a coat of gesso on each side and then a coat of cheap acrylic craft paint on each side. They're strong, but they don't feel at all like paper.

I have no idea why owls are on the muse's radar so much this year!

The little ladybug book I showed you yesterday needed an envelope to send it to its new owner. I cut a very large bubble envelope into a single sheet about 10x12 inches. I painted it with wall paint and cheap acrylic craft paint. 

The ladybugs were made using a sponge stomper (used for painting stencils). I painted the black outline with a small paintbrush and made the dots with the end of one of my tools-a spade shaped spoon. I think it's a jelly spoon but it really looks like a square nosed shovel. It's a handy little tool when working with glitter.

I made this sheet into an envelope.

I've outted the address on this envelope. I wrote the address with a white paint pen.
The motto here is to use what you have it. This ladybug envie is much more interesting than a boring manila colored envelope! Cheaper too! I prefer to call it being frugal as opposed to being cheap....

I now have six faces made for the cone doll bodies. These guys have yet to be cooked. The last time I played with polymer clay I about burnt down the kitchen! I killed the toaster oven! Gonna wait to cook these till I fire up the regular oven. I could use some cake! Intuition is telling me to keep this on the back burner till further notice. I generally listen to that little voice as it is more often right than wrong. Good news is I got a new toaster oven but I am not cooking polymer clay in it!

I cleaned off the kitchen table last Saturday. I needed the space to make rice crispy treat eggs. That endeavor was a total failure and I didn't end up with anything remotely resembling an egg! I ended up with a squarish slab of rice crispy treats with m&ms stuck in the surface. 

I did accomplish cleaning off the kitchen table though! 

That sheet of newspaper that was taped  to the table is now on the shelf in the cutting room waiting to be turned into a book cover. The one taped there now will be saved when it too becomes too gooped to take anymore paint. I didn't tape this one down though....I might before it's all said and done but I didn't see the need when I started painting the bubble wrap ladybug envelope. 

I hadn't seen the top of the kitchen table in months! 

And now I can't see it again.....

The lamp is new too. Well, not really new....it was out in the burnt house. I was in need of more light over that table! 

I wanted to show you all some of my tools.

These are sea sponges, foam from a box that contained a bracelet at one time, memory foam, foam shoulder pads from a shirt. I use these to make patterns on painted papers. Each one makes a different pattern.

The black sponge is a filter of some sort. It came from a small appliance of one kind or another. I''m really uncertain how it came into my possession. I probably found it out in the garage or brother gave it to me. I used this tool to put the darker green onto the lighter green of the owl book covers. It makes large irregular splotches. 

The red sponge on a stick is the stencil stomper I was talking about earlier. I made the ladybugs with this tool. 

There's a sea sponge in the upper left. I have many different sea sponges. This one is not very large...it came that way in the package. The larger ones I sometimes cut down to a manageable size.

The round tube is from a roll of tape. It makes nice circles when dipped into paint.

Look around your space and I'm betting you can find some unusual tools to use in your creative endeavors too!

I do not know what tomorrow will hold. I'm sure something will come to be. Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to.

Be good to one another!

It matters!

Peace

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