pamgarrison

Sep 28, 2012

Still working on it, bit by bit, I'll get there eventually (I hope?, No, I know!) I plan to get a lot done this weekend including more photos to share...

studio move update part 1

 

Hello blog world. I'm sorry it seems you get the short end of the stick from me of late. I was on such a good posting roll before my life got out of control again. Each day that passed made it feel harder to catch up and fill you in. I'm weird like that, wanting to start at the beginning and be thorough with my update and because of that, fall farther and farther behind...anyway, enough of that...I'm here reporting in with all the latest craziness going on in photo version. :)

Above is a photo of my new "studio", "art room", "office", whatever you want to call it. Still a work in progress, and this is an Instagram photo, so of course, it looks better in the photo than in real life. Cropped close too...but I'll show you the uncroped version, don't worry. That's where you, blog readers, don't get the short end of the stick. On Instagram, I may keep up to date more with going's on, but on the blog you get the full scoop.

Here's where the trouble all started. This is another instagram, showing me putting together a sewing cabinet that I bought (I do not enjoy putting together furniture, but now that I've done it a lot lately, I'm coming around to not despising it.) I bought this cabinet, and really love it. Here's why:

I tell ya, that Martha sure does know her craft storage. I put it in the downstairs guest room, because the truth is, I want to use my sewing machine a lot downstairs for different things, as well as my handstitching supplies, so I wanted easy access to it. And I had the room for it, as it's a pretty big cabinet.

Truly love having a place for all my sewing goodies...all but fabric that is.

And that started me thinking, wouldn't it really be better if all my art needs were downstairs vs. some up and some down? Which led to these three journaling pages:

I say help me because I knew how very much work it would entail, and how much resistance I would be met with by my family, especially husband, about all the work (help) needed, and also because he built out that sweet closet for me in the room I was using upstairs. Remember this post?

Am I really that lazy that going upstairs makes a difference? But truly, I think so, mostly because 1. I like to be with my family, where my family is, and 2. I really want all my various interests in close proximity to each other. The computer, painting, sewing,art journaling, paper arts, etc. and I never ever brought paints up to the art room, just brought supplies down to use. The other concern was that the guest room set up was very nice for guests. But really, if you only have a handful of guests a year, not even every month, is that worthy of sacrificing the every day living?  I decided I had to do it, flip flop the guest and art rooms. ugh.

And so it began...

part 2 in next post...

new stamps coming soon

Very excited to show you my newest set of clear stamp designs that I'm anxiously expecting any day now. There are three new sets to add to the other 9 that I've had previously. I had such fun thinking of what I would want for journaling, memory keeping etc. when designing them, and can't wait to get to try them out myself.

This is obviously the one where journaling was especially on my mind, with stamps for numbering your journal, starting and finishing dates, etc. so it's the Journal This! set.

I'm kinda crazy about the create daily stamp. That's going to get used a lot around here.

This set is called The Story of Us and has stamps that I thought I'd use for Project Life next year, as I'm planning on participating for the first time to document our daily lives and tell our story.

 

Same with the set called Right Here Right Now:

Can't wait to use the pie chart to show how our time was spent on any given day.

Until the new stamps come, I'm still having good fun playing with the previous sets:

Just like all my other recent technological developments, these stamps wouldn't have come together without Sarah's wise and patient teaching. If you wanted to make some of your own stamps, I'm sure she'd be happy to help you as well. Or better yet, if you are local, she's got a beginning photoshop for artists class this weekend at Studio Crescendoh.

And if you're interested in my stamps, I'll be listing them as soon as they arrive. You can either look on my blog sidebar for a direct link to my stamp shop, or my etsy shop, they'll be in both!

happy friday!

                                                   Oh, how I love Fridays!!!


        They fill me with a sense of hope and excitement for the days ahead, especially when we don't have too much on the schedule.

 

I was feeling it this morning when I played in my journal.

Welcome Friday, bring on the fun!!!

new class i'm co-teaching with jennifer mercede

I'm super excited  to be teaching with Jennifer Mercede for a whole weekend (three days for those that choose). I've been a huge fan of Jennifer's work since the first moment I laid eyes on it. But when I met her, took a painting class from her, and created alongside her, as I posted about here, my world opened up. She's clearly the real deal, you can see tell that from her art, but what you might not be able to tell is how generous, kind, humble, authentic and playful she is. I found it lovely to be her student spending time soaking up her creative spirit.  We became fast friends as like minded art lovers often do, spurring each other on with ideas and creative thinking and playing, and have been dreaming up collaborations of all sorts, including teaching a class together ever since. Which is what I'm telling you about today:

We'll be together at The Art Clinic teaching and students will get two teachers for the price of one for the weekend! Not bad eh?

We'll both be sharing the way we think, the way we create, and both be leading exercises and sharing insights as we create alongside you.

We'll be sharing our favorite mark making tools, and telling you why they are our go to's when it comes to creating.

And our favorite mediums for painting, doodling, art journaling.

Our love of color too, which we both seem to share a unique slant on.

...um, is that paint name really "Terracotta hell" ?

 Our favorite paints from inexpensive to expensive, our favorite colors of those paints, our methods of mixing colors.

Our approach to paintings large

and small

and of course journaling, always journaling

and doodling exercises

and the painting on brown paper fun that's so popular with students

and so much more to the teaching.

I haven't even mentioned the other fun stuff like a free wine tasting on Saturday night and a trunk show of both our work. The Art Clinic itself, and hosts Syd and Carol and how great they are. {Be sure you remind me to have Syd tell the story of the Halloween Michael Jackson brought his kids trick or treating at her door, it's pretty funny.}And then there's the Art Hus, and the town of Solvang itself, located in the heart of the beautiful Santa Ynez Valley. It really is going to be a great weekend.

Want a hotel recommendation? Coming with a few friends and need help finding a house to rent?  Coming from the airport and need a ride? They've got the answers you need. For info or to sign up, contact Carol at lifsart@verizon.net or call (805) 588-0876.

 Hope to see you there!!!

 

 

inside the new art journal

I was showing the students some of my favorite journaling  go tos, one of which is sewing paper- the first photo shows confetti in an old security envelope that you get with your bills, inspiration from Mary Ann Moss'  Remains of the Day class (still love and recommend that course, and NOT because she has become my friend!).

The second photo shows a stamp by my new friend, Christine Adolph used as background, with my own arrow stamps on top, couldn't resist using my own stamps, now could I?!? No, of course not, too fun for me to have to play with!

When teaching, I often show many different techniques on one page, so they can tend to look like a hot mess by the end, with only close up spots pleasing to the eye. It's not like I'm a minimalist regularly, so if I'm saying that, you know it's true, haha.

We talked about different pens and lettering shortcuts too, that's always a request from students.

And some fun with stencils as well:

I love the stencils over at The Crafter's Workshop. They were kind enough to send me some to use as class demos. And hey, they even did a little post on their blog with some of my photos I sent along with my email reporting  the student love and  enjoyment of their product. I'm going to order some to sell when I next teach, as they don't sell retail and I want my students to have easy access. I especially love the latest designs by  Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and Dina Wakley. I've been talking with the owner, Jaime Echt about possibly doing my own private label line. (You probably know me well enough to imagine I've got ideas galore when it comes to patterns/designs/backgrounds!) Of course, I'll keep you informed as to the developments there, but hey, if you want more info on that, here's a post she did about making your own stencils. 

Here's another stencil Of Julie's used on the same page:

I keep thinking of ideas for an art journaling stencil line and a scrapbook line too, for all the Project Lifers (which I am pretty sure I'm doing next year). Like I said, the ideas, they aren't my problem, it's prioritizing them and focusing on them while keeping up all my other obligations that I'm deficient at, not the dreaming up ideas of ways to play and make art! (again, you likely know this about me by now, I know)

Luckily, I have a friend that does not share similar issues with focusing and finishing, and doesn't hesitate to  set the record straight with me (aka boss me around), and she has informed me that I must complete my online journaling e-course next. As soon as my kids go to school, I need to get the blinders on and commit to finishing that. I know she's right, and so I will.

More sample pages from teaching above and below:

Have you been art journaling? You can put a link in the comments if you'd like to share. And if you are waiting for my online class, thank you for your patience, it's going to be worth the wait, I promise!!!

For those who want to take a live class with me, last art journaling class for the year is in October, a joint class with the fabulous Jennifer Mercede (!!!) at Syd and Carol's in Solvang. More details on that this week! Registration is already open and hopping, so I wanted to make sure I get you, my art journaling friends, the info before the announcement post.

art journal made while teaching last weekend

Happy Saturday blog land! I failed to show you the journal yesterday, as promised on the last post. Never ever know where the time goes, but it seems it runs away from me constantly. Harumph!

The top photo is a little bit of journaling fun I had this morning, before I started getting serious about photographing the journal, editing the pictures, and preparing to write this blog post. I do love playing in my art journals. Can't imagine that that will ever change for me. And no, I don't journal every day, I'd like to though, and this summer I've made an effort to journal regularly, keeping it as one of my main artistic means of expression.

While teaching last weekend, I was demo-ing the method we were using to create the paper to cover our journals with. Here is my demo in process:

We were not focusing on result or a plan, just on different aspects of design/color etc. So, when it came time to use my paper to cover my journal, I decided that I really wanted to have the big bird element on the cover and not the back of the book. Not a problem, I just cut it in half and started sewing other pieces of paper to it until it was sufficient size. Like this:

Just a giant patchwork of paper...and a Trader Joe's chips bag (the blue strip and lettering at the bottom) and some washi tape too.

I love the addition of this apple from a Rifle Paper calendar and suggest you might want to go snap some of them up, as they are on sale half price. I love Rifle Paper products, they make such awesome journal fodder, (besides being beautiful in their original intended purposes). Here's a close up:

and more of the sewn spots:

The potato chip bag had no problem conforming to it's new task:

Here it is finished, covering the book:

The front cover:

Inside the front cover:

The back cover:

Inside the back cover:

The journal is large, 11x 14 and full of hand bound watercolor paper, and is:

Oh how I love a brand new journal and the fresh start it brings.

Next post I'll share some of the inside pages.

I'm working on developing my art journaling ecourse, so everyone that wants to learn more about how I art journal will have access to the info, no matter where you live. Thanks so much for all the interest and requests for info, it spurs me on to get the task done!

{You can also come pick my brain, see my journals, learn this technique in person next month when I co-teach with Jennifer Mercede at ArtClinic- more on that soon!}