I also layered washi tape, paper, a label, small sticker of a friend's art, and glued in a piece of gift paper from a friend.

Still loving how open to interpretation the DLP challenges and prompts have been!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog!
Have a great week!

Check out all of Jennifer’s maps on her website at www.carlandcartography.com and in her Etsy shop at www.etsy.com/shop/CarlandCartography!

TGIF!

Inspired by Rae Missigman’s 15 Minutes of Mixed Media, I’ve been working in my small Dylusions art journal in addition to my large Dylusions art journals.

Like Rae, I use my smaller art journal to test materials and techniques that are new to me. I also use the pages like underpaper – to wipe off paint brushes, my fingers, stencils, rubber stamps – so I am not wasting any materials that remain on my tools. It’s fun and gives me an immediate background, too!

While I love having large blocks of time to make art, the small chunks can result in more spontaneity for me.
I created this first spread simultaneously to creating my DLP Week 6 spread:

Layers of pages and papers, glue and gesso filled the background. Then it was time to play with my brand new set of QoR watercolors a wonderful friend sent to me in the mail! And I practiced writing illegibly (lyrics that spoke to me) in permanent pen.

Below are details:

And I created the spread below while making my DLP Week 7 pages (which I'll be sharing Monday):

This time I practiced writing illegibly on dried black gesso with my new Uniball Signo Gel pen in opaque white ink. I even glued in a piece of the gift paper that my QoR watercolors were wrapped in!
Below are details:

I'm also experimenting with leaving more white space, and adding black and white.

It’s always exciting for me to see other artists use my stencils to create art!
Below are some recent sitings of my map stencils being used creatively.

Jessica Sporn painted an inspiring art journal page (with a video tutorial!):

Carolyn Dube made a colorful world! She shares a video tutorial, too!

Michael Trent created this card on his blog...

...and has a tutorial for this card on StencilGirl Talk:

Tommy McDonell layers worlds in alcohol inks and paints!

And check out Sabrina Alerly's video tutorial showing how she "stamped" a stencil with ink to make this lovely holiday card:

If you use any of my map stencils, please contact me so I can share your creation in a future blog post, too!
Have a great beginning to your week!

This Friday’s featured artist is Bhaval Shah Bell of Cartoloji Iconic abstract maps!
I love the modern shapes, contours and colors of her maps!

Indian artist Bhaval Shah Bell lived in Kenya until the age of 19. She moved to the UK, for further studies and now resides in the Washington, DC area. Through her own multicultural background, she knows that individuals relate powerfully to maps of places that are important to them.

Cartoloji is an independent company based in the Washington DC area since 2011. At Cartoloji, Bhaval combines her passion for art with her love for the world and creates iconic abstract map art as a result!

See more of Bhaval’s original art in her Etsy shop at www.etsy.com/shop/Cartoloji and on her website at www.bhavalshahbell.com.

TGIF!

For this challenge, I layered it up! Layers of pages and papers, glue and gesso filled the background. Then it was time to play with my brand new set of QoR watercolors a wonderful friend sent to me in the mail! Next were layers of messy handwriting (lyrics that spoke to me) in permanent pen and graphite, acrylics, rubber stamps, stencils, and a black Stabilo. I even glued in a piece of the gift paper that my QoR watercolors were wrapped in!

Below are details of my pages and layers:

Thank you so much to the ladies of Art to the 5th Academy for the inspiration!
And thank you for visiting my blog!
I hope you're having a wonderful week!

Sunday afternoon, I had the privilege of leading a printmaking workshop at Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital.
This workshop was part of Mercy's Healing Through the Arts program: a series of free art workshops designed to enhance healing for patients and their families.

Making monoprints with Gelli Arts plates and StencilGirl stencils was new to everyone. But after a quick demonstration, there were lots of laughs and lovely prints! They really inspired me!

This Friday’s featured artist is Joao Machado and his extraordinary map collages!
I’m amazed by his technique of organizing small pieces of maps into intricate mosaic portraits! 

Learn more about Joao Machado on his website at www.joao-machado.com.

TGIF!

The last two Wednesdays, I've shared the first and second of three commissions I created for a gallery manager to commemorate her recent travels to Africa. This week, I'm sharing the third!
This painting is a gift for two more of her traveling companions!

This painting layers collage, vintage maps, graphite, acrylic paint, and a porcupine quill and coins from Africa on a 9" x 12" stretched canvas. I framed this in a handmade black wooden frame, too.

I layered portions of my Map stencil along with the north symbol from Mary Beth Shaw's Private Collection 15.1 stencil, Cecilia Swatton's Feathers and Nathalie Kalbach's Elephant Parade in this piece, too.

Below are details of the work:

And below is an image of all three commissions together!

It's an honor and delight to work one-on-one with patrons to create special paintings.
 
If you'd like to commission a mixed-media map painting or series of paintings, please feel free to contact me.
I'd love to work with you!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog!
Have a wonderful week,

What is underpaper? I didn’t know what it was a week ago either!
But Lorraine Bell explained beautifully: “it’s the scrap paper you put UNDER your art as you work on it. It catches the splatters and over sprays, it’s what you wipe your fingers and your paintbrush on.”

My underpaper (shown above) is where I rolled off excess paint from my brayer and wiped off Carolyn Dube's Scribble Scratch Handwriting stencil while making gelli prints for note cards.

Inspired by Sandi Keene's process shared on her blog post, I used my round and oval Fiskars squeeze punches to punch out flower petal shapes. Easy. I used a glue stick to adhere the petals to my journal page. I really love knowing that the flowers of my garden lie beneath the cold, winter ground, so the flower image was important to me for this prompt.

Then I dipped a paintbrush in clean water, brushing over the background to blend the color futher.

Thank you so much, Sandi, and all the ladies of Art to the 5th Academy for the inspiration!
This was my first time using underpaper in my journal, and I loved it!

Thank you for visiting my blog!
I hope you have a wonderful week!