pamgarrison

gossamer blue december memories

I'm the guest designer over at Gossamer Blue this month for their December Memories Kit.  It's a really beautiful kit with tons of supplies for those that like to document their December. Look at all that was in the box! :

I was seriously wowed when I opened the box. There is so much to love. 

I love the unique colors in the kit, especially the golden striped binder. I like to leave my binder covers plain, for stacking on shelves, and sliding in and out bookcases without knocking off any embellishments. This cover, with it's gold stripes and pretty sage green binding make it decorated without requiring anything extra in my mind. The pink and red combination on some papers, and less traditional mixes are a favorite too, as well as the products designed by designers exclusive to the Gossamer Blue kit. 

 

These colors....the minty turquoise, warm red, gold and white...I'm not usually a huge fan of red, but I'm really liking this combo this Christmas. 

So very many fun embellishments in this kit. I love it when kits have exclusive items, and this kit is choc full of them! 

And so many fun papers, with duplicates so you can try out different ideas and use different ways. 

So fun to unpack each item, taking them out of their packages and putting in something that makes it easier to use over the month. Once I'd done all the sorting, I put everything back in the box the kit was shipped in for easy access this December 

I included a few items to the box that I had bought additionally:

I love the new designer collections, Gramercy Road, On my Desk, and Get Happy over at Gossamer Blue too, and added a few items from each. 

I also added rub on stars from Studio Calico, and letterpress cards from Jamaica Makes.

With the kit unpacked and all extras gathered, I was good to go.

Let the fun begin! This will be the third year I've documented December. For those books I just put the book together as the days went by, without any planning or page prep ahead. That works out for me because I use the photo captured on the day as my jumping off point for choosing colors, papers, and  embellishments.

This year I decided to follow a few ideas I had from seeing the kit items, but make them non specific so I could still remain flexible as to where they will fit in over the month.

I took one of the paper cut out trees, attaching it to another tree sticker from the darling Get Happy line and added a paper banner cut out of one of the 3x4 cards. It'll make a very cute see through pocket item:

I like that the tree is offset due to different sizes. If I didn't like that, I could always cut it to be the same size. Here's how the back looks:

Added one of the stars from the kit...and mabye a number for the day of the month will be added. I like to have each day numbered somewhere on the page. 

I printed out the design I made for the blog hop (seen at the top of the blog post) and decided to use it as a title page. 

I was thinking about using the puffy word "magic" and puffy arrow....but then I tried this paper banner:

I like it better, a stronger statement. 

Just a fun little date number tag for the first day in the book. 

On another page one of the 4x6 papers with a paper banner on top. I'll wait to see what happens on the day I want to use it to decide what to write on the banner. I like to add some embellishments on top of the page protectors on occasion. 

Ever year I like to keep all receipts that are holiday oriented in my December book. This year I'm using one of the gold and white striped bags in the kit. I'm going to simply punch holes in the bag and slip it on the rings. I added a few different items from the kit on top which seemed a little tongue in cheek for the bag full of receipts. ;)

I have also kept a to do list in past books. I thought this striped paper was perfect for that use in this year's. A few more fitting embellishments on it seemed to make it more fun than the average to do list. 

I plan to sew these JOY flags onto the page on top of a photo when I get one that matches the colors. 

The last page I prepped was one I think will be placed toward the end of the month. I used a piece of printed transparency (Allison Kreft) that I had left over from last year, punched holes in it and put it directly in the binder. We're actually going to Paris in December (!!!) and I think the silver Joy to the World is a great embellishment for a photo of us from the trip. The acrylic snowflake is so sweet as a finishing touch.

One more day until December officially begins! Want to see some more December Memories fun?  Here are the other participants in today's Blog Hop, click over to see what they're up to in their December Memories prep:

 

 

Anabelle O'Malley

 

Beshka Kueser

 

Brenda Weaver

 

Cindy Liebel

 

Diane Payne

 

Erin Taylor

 

Eyoung Lee

 

Heather Leopard

 

Jessica Lohof

 

Jill Cornell

 

Jill Keller

 

Jina Jean

 

Kasia Przbyt

 

Katie Ehmann

 

Keisha Campbell

 

Laura Rahél Crosby

 

Magda Mizera

 

Maria Lacuesta

 

Melanie Blackburn

 

Michelle Wooderson

 

Naomi Atkins

 

Pam Garrison

 

Rebecca Luminarias

 

Tara Anderson

 

Vanessa Perry

 

Yana Smakula

 

 

 

 

 

sketchbookery class begins anew

Since a new round of Sketchbookery fun is about to start up tomorrow, I thought I'd share some sketches I've done since last time. Above is one of my favorites. I painted it with brush and lamp black DS watercolor from a photo I took in Italy. It was fun to try to loosely interpret the important parts and catch the gist of the scene. My favorite part is the people, kind of crazy but still recognizable. As I said in my last post, Mary Ann's Sketchbookery class really got me started sketching and using watercolors more regularly than ever before. I fell in love with the idea of lots of sketchbooks full of page after page of places I've been, things I've seen, still life renderings etc. I'm still on sketchbook number 3 here. I am taking my time and enjoying the process. 

I love Mary Ann's new class promo, have you seen it? 

SKETCHBOOKERY promo new from MAM on Vimeo.

 Sign ups start tomorrow for this next session. I'm looking forward to more inspiration, more practice, more fun!

Here are some more recent pages of mine from my sketchbook:

 And here are some sketches from my Italy travel journal that I completed either there or once home:

Lots of different styles, lots of different subjects, hours of entertainment. It's official, I'm hooked!

 

flowers for friday

I instagrammed the flowers  pictured above 2 weeks ago (I can't believe it's been that long, I was thinking one week tops), and the top photo yesterday. Although I've had various other pulls and pushes on my time between the two, I've been exploring with watercolors when I can. Specifically watercolor painting in a loose, trying to get looser way. Trying to go more toward imagination vs. rendering or sketching something real.

On scraps from another project...

On half done pages in my art journal...

On papers found near me...basically anything I can, when I can. I'm having lots of fun. This flower fantasy fun started in earnest here, and it's really taken hold of my imagination, I'm constantly thinking of things I want to try "next time". 

I mentioned on that post that I felt I was onto something, meaning something in my own artistic development. One of those times when it feels like one's universe is expanding in a new direction. I also said that in a strange way, I feel like all my interests are sort of melding in my head, like my voice is becoming stronger even when I'm thinking about expressing it in different mediums. 

I'm having a hard time explaining what I'm thinking. Probably because I'm not too clear on it myself. Also probably becuase I tend to think that way anyway, big loops of big picture...not broken down into clean, defined sections. (More unclear stream of consciousness for you there.)

For example, I'm really noticing how I hold the brush differently and use the brush differently, when watercoloring, oil painting, abstract acrylic paintings, art journaling. Pretty sure the oil painting class brought that on, seeing the way that Leslie held her brush. Well, the fact that oil brushes are longer usually, and for a reason; arm vs. wrist, started me thinking differently. I'm fascinated right now in how my touch changes and how changing how I use my hand/arm/approach changes so much in the result. Certain mediums naturally bring out a different style and that is just so cool to me.

I'm using different brushes than when oil painting or acrylic painting, that's no big surprise, but what did surprise me was that I'm using different brushes when watercolor painting vs. watercoloring sketching. And I'm using the brushes differently, applying the color to the paper differently. And that really surprised me too. Oh, how I love the discovery from experimenting! 

I'm not sure if it's obvious in the photos above, but the papers are very different too. More exploring, more discovering. 

It's too early for me to have any favorite supplies to share, I'm still deep in the play, so excited about all the new territory ahead. But, I would be remiss if I didn't mention again that this whole watercolor world really opened up for me when I took Mary Ann's Sketchbookery class. I am not just saying that because she's a good friend and a new session is starting soon. I'm saying it because it's true. I learned a lot, and believe that's where this door started opening for me; by learning and practicing watercoloring and sketching more than I ever had via her methods and tools. If you want more watercoloring info right now, I'd suggest starting there... who knows where it will lead YOU! 

p.s. It's Friday!!! Hooray!!!!!!! xo

 

paint.plan.play class

I'm painting, planning and playing along with the Studio Calico Paint.Plan.Play class led by Ashley Goldberg. I've been a fan of Ashley's for a long time and was so happy when she starting designing products for SC, and even happier when I found out she was teaching this course. When I was invited to be one of the contributors for the class it was a no brainer. My example page will be up in the classroom later, but in the meantime, I'm thoroughly enjoying all her videos and lessons and experimenting her way. You know I love any excuse to play with art supplies, especially when it's paper and paint and mark making. It's an ongoing class, so it's not too late to sign up if you want to join in. Here's some of the fun I've been having:

I'm using one of the Studio Calico handbooks from last year. They don't sell them anymore, but you can find this one that I'm using and others on Amazon. 

I made a mess of my inside cover, trying to do something similar to what Ashley did (paint pen on her inside cover pages) so I covered over my mess with pretty gold paper from Daiso. If you want to see it before I "fixed" it, scroll to the end of the folder showing the most gold circles over on my SC class page. 

Sweet Jennifer sent me some snail mail. The envelope was too cute to not include and my scrap of art on tissue paper was perfectly colored, so I slapped it on there and punched some holes, done! I do think it's fun to have a book made of rings becuase it's nice to be able to move pages around to suit any whim. 

I put the card she illustrated in there too, next to paper Ashley designed for the class kit. 

I've got a long way to go until the book is full. 

Oh darn. 

 

more fall decor, more pumpkins

Thought I'd share this recent patch of home grown pumpkins. You may remember earlier this year, my friend Mary Stanley gave me a little tutorial on how she makes her rug hooked pumkins and I made this one.

Last month, with my Halloween born and holiday loving SIL's b'day coming around the corner, I started another. And then I made two more. 

The white guy cracks me up, he seems so not sure about how he ended up here.   

I used Mary's technique to close it up. Mary teaches these and other things like owls and birds, crows and rabbits and more in live classes, and also sells them on her etsy and in shops like our friend Syd's Art Hus in Solvang. 

Because a huge motivation for lots of my nostalgic crafting is so that I can hand them down to my children who will hopefully put them out on occasion for years to come, I wanted to have them labeled so they don't forget they are hand made and pitch them ;). I used labels I bought from NameMaker. 

It's finally starting to feel like fall around here...well, occasionally...this weekend it did, today, it's more like spring again. Southern California continues to have strange weather. 

Hopefully we'll get some more fall before the calendar says it should be winter...

 

fall felt wreath

I couldn't resist a little fall fun with felt. It's becoming a yearly tradition. (like previously here and here) I only had a little bit of time, so was wanting a craft that was pretty quick and easy. A wreath...bingo! 

Here's how I made it:

I cute fabric into 1.5" ish strips and wrapped it around a styrofoam wreath form bought at a craft store. 

Every so often I would put a pin in to keep it in place. 

Next I started going through my felt. I found that polka dot felt above on sale at JoAnn's in the clearance isle. its very easy to pull out the polka dots and it's nice thick wool. I have collected felt for as long as I can remember, especially wool felt or wool blends. I've found it at antique stores, thrift stores, flea markets, and friends have even found it for me (thanks Holly!). I have found bolts of it at a fabric store and bought a yard of each color. Heather Bailey sells a blend on her website and Benzie Design too. 

Once the felt palette was selected, I just went to town cutting leaves. 

I cut these tiny leaves out of the scraps. I'm going to use them for something else. 

Then I just started pinning groups of leaves into the wreath form with dress pins. 

 

 

See the pin? 

Now you don't, well, not totally- if you try you can see it. But layering is the trick to hiding it. 

I thought about leaving some open spaces and letting the fabric show, but as per my usual, I went for abundance instead:

Abundance and color, two of my favorites, felt puts it over the top!

And that's all there is to it!!!  

Hmmm...would be pretty in paper too....

  

oil painting class day 2

Day 2 at Studio Crescendoh learning about oil painting with Leslie Duke. So fun. I was excited to get back to it on day 2. We first went on a little foraging excursion looking for possible still life subjects. 

Love Jenny's apron! Clearly lots of fun has been had while wearing it. (You can see her latest paintings here by the way.)

That weekend it was the city's annual día de los muertos celebration. (Last year I blogged about that here.) Pretty colors everywhere you looked. 

I took a minute to really study what I love so much about Leslie's class demo from the first day. Such strong strokes, color blocking, more a suggestion of the leaves than detailed wisps. Such great energy and texture. Here's a closeup:

Isn't it delicious? Leslie described the consistency we were trying to create with our oils and mixing medium as icing, looks just like it to me!

Here is the persimmon she painted the first day while we watched in awe. 

My pieces from day one getting worked on during day 2. 

I got to work touching up my radishes. Adding some contrast, highlights, color and mostly changing the leaves to be more suggestive.

And then I tried to bring some life back to the persimmon. 

Trying my hand at short blocks of color and more suggestive leaves:

Not quite icing, but getting closer. 

Next up were the apples that were just begun the day before. Unfortunately, I seemed to paint a bit of the life out of them too. I liked them best at the end of first day. 

Whenever I have the good fortune of getting back to these, I will add some more highlights, lowlights, and more interest to the background colors. That blue especially is much too flat!

My supplies. Here's my palette near the end of day 2:

I am a messy mixer, that's for sure!

While we were painting, Leslie began another painting, this time of a jar of thread. A student had requested something other than fruits and veggies. Leslie said that she was a little apprehensive about it, becuase for her, it's a very different thing, she wasn't drawn to it as a subject on her own. I loved that she reminded herself to trust her process and jumped in. It looks like the class is empty and she's painting at lunchtime, but we were all huddled behind her, watching intently. 

Pretty awesome! Looks like a jar full of candy. 

We would watch her, paint a little, watch her, paint some more. Heaven. 

I had brought in a little branch of magnolia leaves and started to try to paint them. It was a big disaster and I ended up scraping off my board entirely. Class was nearing the end and I asked Leslie to begin on it herself, so I could see how I could have approached it. Again, I was having a hard time seeing the lights and darks and not just the all green tops and brown undersides of the leaves as one color, and how to be suggestive with the flower pod, not detailed. Leslie did point out that I was a little overambitious with such a subject, which made me feel better about the disaster I had made, and then began a new demo. 

Oh, that's how! She had to stop here, but I loved it so much I bought the unfinished art. I love that it's a reminder of the day and a way for me to study the process, not just the finished piece. And the reduced price for an incomplete piece was nice too ;).

And suddenly, the day was over and a few signs from the weekend were all that remained. I thought it fitting that the day ended as colorfully as it began and snapped this photo.

I learned so much, and I am looking forward to trying my hand at oil painting again in the future. I am also very interested to see how this might impact some of my art journaling and acrylic painting...color blocking? attempting still lifes? smaller canvases?

Time will tell!

 

another jag in the road- day 1

Last Friday I found myself here, at the sweet little San Clemente Art Supply store, about to take another offshoot on the road of my usual creative pursuits. I was shopping for required class materials, since I was taking a weekend class in oil painting over at Studio Crescendoh, taught by Leslie Duke. 

I started getting some of the colors for class and then kept adding pretty colors to the basket. Well. I had no idea how expensive oil paints can be...especially the series 3 and 4 tubes. I'm grateful that the cashier had no issue with me saying, "how much? oh, no, I can't get that, sorry" over and over. It's hard when you are an art supply addict and color lover both ;). 

How cute is Leslie? Very! I'm a big fan of her work and was so excited to get to learn about her process and see her create in person. While I've never done oils, I knew going in that there was a reason for that. I knew that they are known to be difficult to work with and also very slow drying which requires patience. Adding the still life aspect to it takes it further out of my usual big, messy, whatever goes, instinctual type painting with acrylics. I would be challenged to be cleaner, more precise, to be uncomfortable with the materials. But hey, I love a creative challenge. While I know some find it hard to be at a level of creating that doesn't line up with their level of taste (paraphrasing there a great quote by Ira Glass that Leslie shared with us):

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

I enjoy the no expectations, nowhere to go but up, end of the art learning curve. For a bit anyway...I mean, of course, I wouldn't enjoy it as much day after day after day...I do want to see evidence that I'm learning in the results. But that said, I appreciate that good art shouldn't come instantly, I don't expect it to be easy, and that while perhaps certain things can't be taught, like natural talent, whatever skills and talent you do have can be improved upon with practice. All this to say that being a student is very fun to me, which in turn improves the learning I do.

Say what? I'm going to assume you get what I'm fumbling all over my words trying to say- the same thing I always do- if you're interested in trying something, by all means, I encourage you to, and hope you have low expectations about result but instead, enjoy the journey! 

It's a real treat to see what other artists do, what they use, how they think, and watch their minds and hands work. I loved Leslie's paint palette that her friend made just for her. 

We discussed natural light and how to see differently. I was having a tough time seeing the shadows and lights and darks as well as I would have liked. I should have looked in my camera lens, because they are so much clearer in this photo then to my eye in person!

We also discussed composition. I ended up breaking my standard lean to of odd numbers and decided to paint 2 radishes for my first excercise. 

I always have to remind myself that as much as I want to start trying, I'm really there to learn and my favorite way to learn is to watch. We were all mesmerised, watching her work her magic. 

My makeshift palette and my still life set ups. Time for me to try my hand at magic making. Spoiler: It ain't easy, but it's worth it! 

I did find it nice to be working in a smaller, more contained area. To have clean enough hands (at the beginning anyway) to take notes. You can see my two paintings that I spent most of day one working on in progress here. I did a single persimmon and 2 radishes. 

My radishes were my favorite at the end of day 1 by far. I knew I had to get back to them the next day, but felt there was hope I'd like them when done. 

My persimmon was a little overworked and I'd taken some of the life/energy out of it. I was glad that the day was wrapping up just so I'd stop messing with it!

About 50 minutes before class was over, I decided to start a third painting (of three apples) and see if I could just be really quick and free and not overthink or over fuss. Of course, the apples quickly became my favorite. It was just the beginning of course, but I felt a freedom and an energy in the painting that wasn't in the others...can you see it? 

...the second day of class coming up next post!