Day 16 in 30x30 project – Where storms and stars come from

 Happy New Year's Eve! Last day of 2013. Here's my submission to this project today.

You’ll see a few of these coming up over the next few days.

I’m working on my sea landscapes because there are so many gorgeous quotes about the sea/ocean that I want to work with. This one was labor intensive because at first I wanted the whole poem on the page, but realized halfway through my lettering that it wouldn’t all fit. That’s where the “…” comes in and I used the last stanza to finish it up. The line breaks aren’t the same as the original, which bugs me (as a poet, I know how important line breaks are).

Day 15 in 30x30 project – Journey to Faraway places

 “It is better to travel well, than to arrive – Buddha” Like the “thickers” from 8/30, I have a bunch of alphabet stickers too, that I won’t use usually. So I began this one with alphabet stickers on a page. Over those, I did a pink and yellow wash. It was too bright, so I added some of a 1950’s pattern over top. You know how I love travel quotes, so the Buddha one went on, with a bird charm, a sticker (which I used a stain to color an orange) and a rub on. And I called it done. I like the texture underneath the paint.

more after the break...

Day 14 in 30x30 project – Fly

For today’s submission, I added printed pages to a page, washed over with 4 (FOUR!) colors – teal, orange, purple and pink. Added some paper, rub ons, stickers, all with a bird theme or letters/numbers. The colors were too bright, so I washed over it all with a buff color. Then I added the chevron in teal using a stamp and added the FLY rub-on. In review, I think adding paper with some of these colors would have made it more cohesive and make more sense. I like how it turned out, but I’m not sold on using more than 2 colors yet! Lol

Day 13 in 30x30 project – Hope

This one is simply an experiment with texture and some borders I bought last week. Started out with a purple wash on the page, glued down the borders and painted them a blue. Because of everything going on, I didn’t think a quote would work. Now I see, I probably could have made the borders blend better into the background so that there was less difference. I think the words would have popped better if I’d done that. I used a light purple for stenciling the words. Stenciling on those borders was hit or miss because of their height. I’m not exactly happy with this one, but lesson learned. The background is too busy for anything else, I think. I think? Maybe there’s too many words? Anyway…

Day 12 in 30x30 project – The ocean takes care of each wave

For today’s submission I began this one with a wash of teal, stamped a pretty rosset in green over that for the background. Found this quote, loved the blue/green and thought they would work well, since the sea can be this color sometimes. The other bits are stickers. I practiced hand-lettering this one in a font that I’ve used before and want to use regularly so it becomes second nature. I want to do this with several fonts so that I can simply choose which one to use on my canvases and go from there. I need to practice making all the letters the same size. I tend to get bigger at the end of the quote. Lol

Day 11 in 30x30 project - I’m yours — you know it.

I love this quote. This page started with bits of dictionary pages, then a wash of teal and green acrylic paint. The letters are stickers and then I used some rub ons, jewels and other stickers for the other bits. The spacing of the letters is off, so I had to go down the page. I’m not thrilled with how it looks. I love the lettering and I think this is one font that I want to mimic with my own handwriting.

Day 10 in 30x30 project – Happy Christmas!

I hope this holiday finds you well and grateful for family and friends! Here’s my contribution to the joy of this season.

This one started off with this awesome washi tape of red polka dots on the page. I lined up the dots as best I could. I de-stressed with some brown stain, some other washi tape. I really love this color combo – brown, red and mustard yellow with some hints of green. I also used some rub ons and stickers freely, then of course, I used some of the number stickers that I have and will most likely never use except with things like this.

Day 9 in 30x30 project – Go confidently

This is one of my favorite quotes “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined.” The picture is blurry – sorry! This started with a lot of color, then I tamed it down to blue and neutrals. I am struggling with stretching myself into using more color. I’m not a huge fan of this one.

Day 8 in 30x30 project – It’s never too late

 

I decided to use up all the numbers that I have in my “thicker” collection. I coated a page in a “buff” acrylic, then began adding the stickers and puzzling them all together. When done, I painted everything the same “buff” color. Bringing out all of my metallics (which I love), I painted everything using some shading. I was stuck for a few days on what to do with all the numbers until I realized I had a bunch of gears/time/clock type rub-ons, so I used those. This was tricky because the numbers are raised, but I think it looks interesting. I added some 3D elements in the form of gears. I decided on a quote, added it and some rub-on words that go with it.

“It’s never too late to be what you might have been. – George Eliot” 

detail shot after the break.

7/30 – 30x30 project

A return to some of my favorite colors: reds and purples. This one is a stretch because I usually don’t use them at the same time. The quote is a rub-on I had. I also used stickers and washi tape. 

6/30 – 30x30 project

This background started with all the other orange ones, and then I found this awesome poppy sticker. I put it on, and then began drawing others around it (learned to draw a poppy, too) The quote is from a rub-on sheet I had. I’m totally in love with this one for its simplicity and the bright.

5/30 – 30x30 project

Another orange one, but this one I used a burgundy at the bottom, with some stamping to add interest. I used several stamps, including a “You + Me” stamp for the copy. I'm not really loving the large "love" at the bottom, and I think the heart is turned the wrong way. But I'm calling it done, anyway.

4/30 – 30x30 project

This one has a layer of paint, then a layer of tissue paper from a dress pattern from the 1950's.

 I didn’t do any stenciling on this one, added some raised ephemera scrolling, painted that and experimented with freehand writing. 

It’s not perfect, but I love exploring typefaces and seeing that my handwriting isn’t as horrible as I thought.  

3/30 – 30x30 project

My foray into orange begins. I started several of these today because I put too much paint on my palette paper and just went with it. Here’s one that I actually finished today.

After the background was dry, I found some washi tape that worked with the orange and also had other colors (towards my goal of using colors outside of my comfort zone). The washi tape has hot pink, purple and orange in it…not colors I would normally use. Perfect for this project though! Once the washi was down, I began adding other layers with stencils, brads, stickers. I used a rub-on for the butterfly and then painted it with the three colors. The words are from a stencil, and I decided to use even the most mundane words for this project. I feel like “Live Laugh Love” is very over-done, which is why you won’t see it on my canvases, but for this project, I am letting go of any stigmas.

 I drew some swirls in the corners and called it done. Love the dots on this one.