Mixed Medias

I can't believe January is almost done! I've been having a lot of fun with this project and I hope I can keep it up. I'm wondering if I should start trading with other artists or if I should wait until the whole project is complete? The one thing that's a little tough with ATCs is that you don't get to keep your art. You trade it! But then it's awesome because you get to have art from another person. I have so many cards from past trades. I feel a little bad that they're just sitting in a binder. I wish there was some cool way to display them. Any ideas?

Here are my new cards:

Day 16 - I was suppose to make a stamp out of a sponge or a potato, but I didn't have either, so I made mine out of a hot glue gun stick...weird I know...but it worked! (I just carved out a diamond shape with an exacto blade)
Here are some pictures of the process:

I seriously LOVE color. One of my favorite things is opening a new box of crayons or felt markers and just seeing them all in order. AWESOME! I even organize my clothes hanging up by color. See my I *heart* Color board on pinterest to further explore this obsession.

Day 17 - I felt like I cheated today! :\ But I have to remind myself that I made some simple rules in my head when I first started this project and one of them is that photography totally counts. I am keeping this in mind especially because I have a baby coming at the end of June! I was excited to see that today's challenge was to be inspired by eyes. I LOVE Jordan's eyes. They are like a mood ring. Sometimes they are really blue, sometimes green, and sometimes grey. (I still have to print this photo though because I need to buy ink for my printer...or have the photo developed somewhere...yes, I'm being lazy.)

Day 18 - This past Summer our poor little car got totally dinged by a crazy hail storm! After having it repaired, we found a handful of random bolts and things in our cup holder...and also our GPS mount was missing...so weird. Hopefully those bolt things weren't holding together anything important. The yellow outlines on this card are the tracings of said bolts/screws/whatever-those-are-called.

Day 19 - I realized after making this that it's sort of morbid. It said to make something that floats...I meant the piece of plastic floats...if the fish floats....that means it's dead. Oops....

(piece of white paper under so you can see it...but the card is actually clear)

Day 20 - YES! I get to work with clay? Clay is my favorite medium. I wish my pottery wheel was not in my storage room but you can't really do pottery in an apartment...you have to be in a well ventilated area and it's messy. One day when I have a garage, I will set up a studio there because I totally miss the feeling of a lump of clay spinning in my hands on the wheel. 

Day 21 - These are the words Jordan said to me when things were starting to get more serious between us. Summer 2006 - a Summer of love! What a romantic!! 

Day 22 - Watercolor and Colored Pencil (no exciting story today)

Day 23 - We receive SOOOOO many flyers! But you can make cool art out of them I guess.

Day 24 - This celtic knot was fun but tricky to draw. And I found WAY more complex ones in my google image search. I'll have to tackle them another time.

Day 25 - I'm glad it was nice out this day! I went for a little walk to find this twig. I actually really love this card. 

Day 26 - I thought about this one all day then finally thought to make a portable ocean! You've got the sun, you've got the smell of the beach (perfume strip from a magazine), you've got a mini palm tree, and you've got some legit sand from Kauai, Hawaii!

Painting, Sewing, Beading, Folding, Drawing and more...

I love that this project is helping me think outside the box. Sometimes when I first read the challenge, I'm like, "What in the world am I going to do for that?" But then I start with a little idea and it just grows from there. Then I end up with a card that I normally would've never made. Fun!

Day 9 - Most mornings, Jordan and I make smoothies for breakfast. They are a great way to get a lot of nutrients.

Day 10 - I love using watercolors. I love how you can't really tell them what to do. You just have to let them do their own thing. Maybe this card is "boring", but I was tired and only had a few minutes. Even though it's plain, I think it still has life to it.

 Day 11 - I love running. I love the feeling I get when I push myself. I especially love feeling the wind and sun in my face. (This isn't a drawing of me though. I don't think I've ever done a self portrait...hmm...maybe one day this year.)

 Day 12 - I spy with my little eye....

Day 13 - I love Russian Stacking Dolls. I'd love to get a set. My mom told me I wanted a set so bad when I was little so I got one for a gift. But then I ended up giving them away to a friend or something....she told me I used to do that a lot. Like if it was a sibling's birthday, I would go into my room and pick a favorite toy and wrap it up and give it to them. I don't really know why I did that. I guess I just want people to be happy like me and if I know something makes me happy (even if it's just the superficial happiness that comes from a material possession), I want others to feel that happiness too. 

I put a wet tea bag on this paper then took it off and it kinda looked like one of those dolls, so I drew on top of it with a black pen.

Day 14 - This was suppose to be "microscopic"...

Day 15 - I couldn't find any dollar bills in my American change jar so I used the next best thing (jk, it's even better than a US dollar)...Canadian Tire Money! Oh yeah!! And I only had to waste 5 cents (of store credit) instead of a whole buckaroo.

Books as visual art

Day 8 - "Transform an old book into something new by cutting, folding, gluing and so on."
I searched my house high and low for an old book but couldn't find one I was willing to "wreck". So I settled on photocopying a page from an old book and working with that. I chose the pages of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - a classic. I can recall my mom reading to us from this book when my sisters and I were little. I'm pretty sure I would draw and doodle as she read.
Secret obsession time - I LOVE clothing tags. Seriously, instead of throwing out your tags, you should give them to me. I'd love you for forever and a day. I especially love fabric tags or any sort of unique tag. 
For this card, I used a fabric clothing tag (under the film), a cardboard clothing tag  a film negative, some beads, and string. Just a little collage.

This challenge reminded me of a project I did when I was a teen. I used to work at the library so I got a discarded board book and made an altered book. This is seriously SOOO fun. Just rip off all the existing artwork and make your own! I made all the pages when I was younger, but never finished the last page. I finally completed it a year or so ago.

 sewing pattern, magazine letters, photo by me

 Paper made by me, fake leaves, watercolor trees, hemp, magazine cutouts, scrapbook paper, handwritten quotes

 Paint chips, magazine cutout, page from book with pencil, guitar strings, drawing of eye on sketch paper, Jones labels, tissue paper

 Pastels, hand embroidered and buttoned fabric, hand burned suede, clothing tag, photocopy of pencil drawing by me

 scraps of my photography, paper envelope with pencil drawing

 Watercolored paper with quote in handmade envelope 

 Background from design book, pencil sketch by me, chopstick, clothing tags

 Ribbon, clothing tag, hemp, magazine cutouts, clothing tag with envelope, pencil crayon sketch, fake flowers

Quote on cardboard inside tag

 Back of book - sewing patterns and photograph by myself