Today I'm sharing what I created for week three of
The Original Documented Life Project™ The Journal!

For this challenge, I wanted to create pages that exuded the joy and delight and life that color makes me feel.
I challenged myself to use a variety of colors – without black. I really love working with a limited palette in my paintings, but it was fun to challenge myself to try something completely different and so whimsical!

This journal spread is how I see the world – filled with colors!

After applying gesso to both pages and allowing it to dry, I layered bright colors of heavy body acrylics, incorporating Cathy Nichol's Tree of Change stencil (above) and Traci Bautista's CHA stencil (below), adding my own lines, marks and brushstrokes, too.

I included lots of flowers as a tribute to Georgia O'Keeffe!

I really love how open to interpretation the DLP challenges and prompts have been!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog!
I hope you have a wonderful week!

From his bio:
Jules de Balincourt was born in 1972 in Paris and moved to the United States with his family in the early 1980s. He lives and works in Brooklyn (NY). De Balincourt’s painting can be interpreted on several different levels.
The image is always an encounter and an invitation to escape, going from pure utopia to dystopia.
De Balincourt moves through space, zooming in on details that attract his attention, as what he himself calls 
“a tourist of globalisation who consumes culture visually and intellectually and conveys or disseminates his personal visions by means of images.”

He frequently uses stencils, tape, and spray paint in the creation of his work, too!

See more of Jules de Balincourt’s art on his website at www.julesdebalincourt.com.

TGIF!

Welcome to Day ONE of the StencilGirl and Craft Attitude Blog Hop!

For today’s hop, I wanted to try Craft Attitude in my art journal! Being January, I created a spread that reflected on memories and experiences of 2014 while looking forward to 2015.

I traced Carolyn Dube's Blueprints of Archeological Treasures stencils (both large and small) with a black Identi-Pen to add rectangles and Terri Stegmiller's Merry Go Round stencil to add some organic curves onto the pages. I used Mary Beth Shaw's December 2014 StencilClub stencil to add 2014 and 2015.

Next came DecoArt Media fluid acrylic in yellow and green...

Blue and red...

And oranges until it was complete! I really like the mosaic/stain-glass effect of the colors and shapes:

I hope I've inspired you to try Craft Attitude with your StencilGirl stencils, too!

Before you leave, be sure to enter the GIVEAWAY for a package of Craft Attitude and a StencilGirl gift certificate!

What do you have to do to enter? Just leave a comment below!
All comments left this week on all blogs in the hop will be eligible for the giveaway.
Comments close Sunday, January 26th at 11:59PM Central Time.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog!
If you enjoyed today's post, I'd love for you to follow my blog on Feedblitz, bloglovin' or NetworkedBlogs!

Good luck winning!

Today I'm on the StencilGirl Talk Blog sharing a gift I made for my sweet niece!

Here's a peek:

From her Artist Statement:
My life’s work is from an aerial perspective, a view of the earth I choose to transcribe onto silk using dyes in the ancient medium of batik. The art comprises a series of narrative landscapes inspired by the terraqueous reaches of the continent, where realms of earth, sea and sky converge. Each area is carefully researched, often by hiking the terrain, exploring the waterways by boat, and painting studies on location. Geology, topography, maps, charts, and satellite images are studied to identify features of visual interest.

Photographing from the open windows of my grandfather’s 1946 Ercoupe plane with my father or brothers as pilots, we explore the natural wonders unaltered by man. I also hire instructors who guide me over their familiar landscape such as the canyons of northern New Mexico or the Appalachian mountains. Experience flying various aircraft allows me to set up photographic compositions with ease. When positioned, I hand over the controls to shoot with digital Nikon cameras. During an excursion aloft, as many as five hundred photographs are taken which will then be reduced to the best designs. An organization of the land emerges revealed only by altitude.

The textile artwork of Mary Edna Fraser has been collected and exhibited worldwide.
In 1994-95, she was the first woman to be honored with a one-person exhibition at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. She has completed numerous public commissions including batiks for the American Embassy in Thailand and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Publications reviewing her work include Smithsonian Magazine, Air and Space, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, National Geographic and New Yorker.

See more of Mary Edna Fraser’s art and learn more about her on her website at maryedna.com.

TGIF!

It’s week two of Art to the 5th Academy's Documented Life Project 2015! Yay!

January’s Theme
The Blank Page and How to Face It!

January 10 Challenge & Prompt
Art Challenge: Gesso
Journal Prompt: "The beginning is always today." -Mary Shelley

After applying a layer of gesso and allowing it to dry, I added a layer of  DecoArt Media fluid acrylic in Cobalt Teal Hue and tried Paula Phillip's Easy Reverse Stencil Technique using Mary Beth Shaw's
9" x 12" November StencilClub stencil. This technique was very fun and I highly recommend trying it if you haven't!

I continued adding more layers of DecoArt Media fluid acrylics and gesso tinted with these fluid acrylics, incorporating Terri Stegmiller's Bold Flower stencil and the letters BE from Jessica Sporn's Three Trees stencil.

The lowercase be was created with Carolyn Dube's Vintage Typewriter Alphabet stencil.

Love that the word "begin" starts with "be."
And I'm still having fun combining stenciled letters with adhesive letters...

I loved using gesso as a foundation, tinting it with acrylics and using it to build layers and create textures through stencils!

Here's to another year of beginnings and growth!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog!
Hope you're having a wonderful week!

This Friday’s featured artist is Jennifer Hill of JHill Designs, a small design studio located in the Fort Point district of Boston, Massachusetts!

I especially love her city map prints!
These maps are paired with the coordinates for the city/borough and the year the city/borough was settled.

To see more of her work please visit www.jhilldesign.com and check out her blog at www.jhilldesignblog.com. Her Etsy shop is www.etsy.com/shop/JhillDesign.

TGIF!

Each month, there’s a theme. And each week there’s an art related challenge and creative journal prompt.
I love that we are encouraged to interpret both however we wish! 

January’s Theme
The Blank Page and How to Face It!

January 1 Challenge & Prompt
Art Challenge: Book Paper
Journal Prompt: Be Your Own Goal Keeper

After watching the tutorial videos by Roben-Marie Smith, Rae Missigman, and Lorraine Bell, I was super-inspired! I tried combining techniques from each in my own art journal spread.

To begin, I tore and collaged a variety of papers onto my art journal pages, adhering these with gel medium:

I had a plethora of papers to choose from: old book pages, security envelopes, sheet music, steno paper, survey maps, paper rulers and a variety of graph papers...thanks to Mary Beth Shaw bringing me to the St. Louis Teachers' Recycle Center on Saturday!!

I also found these cool add-on pockets at the St. Louis Teachers' Recycle Center, and collaged papers onto one of these as well:

Once the gel medium dried completely, I brushed a thin layer of gesso onto the right-hand page and add-on pocket to give the papers cohesion. Then I grabbed my DecoArt Media fluid acrylics! I added Burnt Umber around the edges of the page and the pocket to give it a vintage look:

Next, I added Hansa Yellow Light, Green Gold, Blue-Green Light and used Mary Beth Shaw's December StencilClub stencil to create the year "2015" and Carolyn Dube's Uplifting Words stencil to add the word "go." I love that the word "go" is the beginning of the word "goals!" A few black letter decals completed the word "goals":

I brushed on Cobalt Teal Hue, Cobalt Turquoise Hue and Naphthol Red Light and added fun month stickers Mary Beth Shaw gave me from the St. Louis Teachers' Recycle Center, too. I tore a piece of lined paper to fit inside the add-on pocket; I'll list my 2015 goals on this paper. On the left-hand side of this spread, I made notes about the variety of papers I incorporated in the process of creating the page on the right-hand side.

Below are two more details:

I had such fun layering papers, paints, stencils and stickers...then tucking my 2015 goals inside for safekeeping!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog!
Hope you're off to a wonderful 2015!!

Today I'm on the StencilGirl Talk Blog sharing what I created with Mary Beth Shaw's January StencilClub designs in my art journal!

Here's a sneak peek:

Be sure to go to StencilGirl Talk to see all the details!

Have a wonderful week!

After receiving her BS in Psychology from Colorado State University, Margolis continued her research in Neural Psychology while studying portraiture at the Art Student’s League. She furthered her studies in art at Parsons School of Design and the School of Visual Arts. During a Microscopy course at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, through the New York Microscopical Society, Margolis was inspired to diverge from her investigation of figurative art to create work exploring the universality of macro/micro patterns.

Read more about Karen and see more of her art on her website at karenmargolisart.com!

TGIF!