Pink Bird Studio

Sunday Postcard Art - Home Sweet Home

This week's guest host at Sunday Postcard Art is - me!  I'm so thrilled to host this fun challenge, and I'm excited to see how others interpreted the theme I chose - Home Sweet Home.  Here's my card...

Look Show 2011

It's that time of year again - time for the Look Show put on by the Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria (CACGV).  This year I'm taking in two pieces.

The first was going to be a background for a collage.  I had all sorts of plans for it, but when I got to this stage I decided to leave it as an abstract.  There are papers underneath that show in some spots.  I took this from the side because when I took it head on there was too much flash.

Above is called "The way you make me feel".  I will leave it to the viewer to decide if that's a good, bad or indifferent feeling...

This other piece was a lot of fun to make.  I used a thick layer of light molding paste on the canvas, which I carved the letters into with a bamboo skewer.  After waiting for a couple days for it to dry thoroughly, I painted the heart and background.  After that was dry I put a wash of light umber over everything.  I made the umber quite thin with glazing liquid and even added a bit of water because I wanted it to get into all of the cracks.  Talk about alarming - covering everything in brown paint!  It wiped off just the way I had pictured it though, but after I got it in the frame I see that I still missed a few cracks (even though I thought I had looked at it upside down and sideways doing touch-ups.  A few more touch-ups and it should be ready to go.  I was happy to get both done and framed a full four days before the deadline!

This one I called "Three big questions".  The colours are a bit washed out by the flash.  You can get a better idea of the colours in this side view, but you can also see those pesky white spots still showing that I need to touch up...

Sunday Postcard Art - Altered Mona

This week our guest host Marie gave us the theme "Altered Mona" for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge.  Fun!  Here's my card:

Sketchbook Project - the Beginning & End

I have finished my book for the Sketchbook Project - yeah!  The postmark date was today, but there has been an extension to January 18 - still just in the nick of time.

What started as a fairly flat Moleskin journal is now about 2.5 inches thick.  These final pages are a bit blurry on the edges because of this - despite my best efforts to hold it flat.

Here is what I did for the cover (and yes there is a bingo card underneath the paint and ink):

My theme (loosely interpreted) was "A Day in the Life).  Because there are 42 spreads in this book I called it "42 days".  The Art House Co-op people who are organizing this project recommend no 3D objects on the cover because the books will be handled so much in transport and hopefully people looking at them!  I thought my colour choice might get people interested in my book...

This is the last page in the book.  I left the back inside cover (and front) blank, because I think they are putting some sort of library card system in place. 

This was such a fun project.  I'll be a bit sad to see the book go, but I am looking forward to hearing if anyone looks at it!  They will be e-mailing the participants whenever their book is checked out. 

More Sketchbook Pages

Well, tomorrow is the deadline to postmark sketchbooks for the Sketchbook Project and I think I'll make it after all.  I have one page and my covers left to finish.  Phew.  Here are a few more pages:

First is just a collection of postage from stuff that's come in the mail from US, Canada, UK and Germany (including a piece of the envelope from my sketchbook).

Next is a page of platitudes from a certain coffee vendor - I mean, are you kidding me?

Last, a spread that started with one of those fun word cards I picked up at Ruby Dog's awhile back.  Must get more of those next time I'm in Vancouver if there are any left.  This one had the words "call" and "came" on it. Heart stamp from Tim Holtz, alphabet stamps and handwriting background stamp from Hero Arts, "call collect" label from Papier Valise, and image from ARTchix Studio.

Another Sketchbook Project Page

Don't you love getting good junk mail?  The entire two-page spread was covered with the back of a take-out menu that came in my mailbox yesterday!  I covered up the name with the strip of ledger paper stamped with a row of houses from Hero Arts.  I stamped the menu page with my favourite flower stamp from Rubber Stampede using Stayz-on ink (the menu is glossy), and added the lovely lady from ARTchix Studio and found words from old ledger paper.

More Sketchbook Pages & more calendar challenge

I made a couple more spreads in my sketchbook project book using my old Cavellini calendar pages.  This is part of a challenge to use up last year's calendar (and potentially win an ARTchix Studio gift certificate!).  You can find all of the details on Helga's blog, or see my original post about it here.

This first page includes the dates, bird, flower, postmark and numbers from my old Cavellini calendar.  Butterfly from ARTchix Studio, and various found papers etc. from my stash.

This next spread includes dates, flowers and green handwriting background from the calendar.  Added were some scrapbook paper, old ledger paper, and lovely images (woman, clock, butterflies) from ARTchix Studio.

Sunday Postcard Art - Hobbies and/or Pastimes

This week, the theme for Sunday Postcard Art is Hobbies and/or Pastimes.  I chose mail art, of course.  Maybe that's a bit of a cheat, but it is one of my favourite pastimes! 

 

Sketchbook Project

Thought I would share how I'm using my postcards for the Sketchbook Project.  This first one was made at "Collage and Film Night" at the Vancouver Island School of Art in October.  We watched "How to Draw a Bunny" and made mail art with found materials - what fun!

 

This one was from Sunday Postcard Art's Travel Theme.  I am adding these to my book and stamping the date and theme on the facing page. 

Sketchbook Project

Well, I've decided to really pull out all the stops and try to get my sketchbook project done on time.  As the e-mail I received from the Art House Co-op today reminds, there are less than two weeks 'til the mailing deadline. I'm "cheating" by using a lot of my postcards from Sunday Postcard Art, so I won't show each and every page, but here are a couple done in the last few days.

This first was done on Sunday:

When I say "how done is done enough?" I'm being serious.  Does each and every page have to be "finished" or even "started" to be "done?  I'm not sure it does - that certainly wasn't one of the rules.  So if I get to the deadline and the book is 3/4 full I might still just send it in.  Any thoughts?

The second spread was fun.  I used some sort of vocabulary card that I bought at a recent visit to Ruby Dog's Art House that had the words "know" and "jump" on it.  I added the rest of the words with my trusty Hero Arts alphabet, and stamped the skyline and stars (Tim Holtz), and finally added the found image that I clipped from a newspaper last time I was in Vancouver.  I knew it would be put to good use eventually!