Tuesday, February 19, 2013

365 Week 8


After a frantic week of trying to keep up with the 365 and LOAD 213, I finally buckled and let a few days slide on the 365.  It’s not that I didn't create, because I did complete a scrapbook layout for each of those days.  I also did at least a little on my art journal, even if I didn’t finish the entry for that day.  So what I wound up with was several half-finished or barely started pages.

Luckily, today was a good day to catch up, and I spent the entire day working on my art journal, my LOAD entries, and this blog.  I am now back to my usual week ahead of everyone else (in order to keep the blog on time), and I had a lot of fun finishing up the daily projects.  If I can make it through the rest of February without getting to far behind, I’ll be able to sit back and relax a little in March and April before I have to get all revved up to do LOAD 513 in May.

You may be asking, why would I torture myself further by doing another LOAD in May when I can barely keep up with this one?  In the words of Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mt. Everest, “Because it’s there.”  I just can’t resist a challenge, and I’m using this one to help me learn to just think outside the box, get the pictures down on paper and be, in general, quicker about getting my pages done.  I’ve gotten so comfy sitting here cropping in my own room, that I often spend hours on one page, but what I really want is to get the same results, but do it more quickly.

The same thing applies to my art journal for the 365.  On some of my early entries, I took a lot of time planning it out and trying to make it look just “so”.  Now that I’m in a rush, I find that more of my projects come together really quickly.  Rather than thinking hard about the process or what steps I want to take, I’ve just gone with my instincts and tried not to second-guess my decisions.  Some of these pages came together in 20 minutes or less.  I think they look just fine.  What do you think?

Day 43:  Do I dare?


As you can see, this entry is not finished.  I dared to leave it only partially done and have come back to add something to it several times.  The background was created by cutting 1” squares from a magazine photo.  After I glued them down, I whitewashed them with a bit of gesso to mute the bright colors.

Day 44:  A promise never kept

As you can see from this entry, I have some hidden journaling behind the house.  I put hinges on the house so I could use the space behind it for my journaling.



Day 45:  Winter means….

I used the Tim Holtz crackle paint for this page.  The results aren’t exactly what I would have expected.  I had “painted” the paper underneath with a walnut stain so that the cracks would show the walnut underneath, but apparently the two reacted together and caused this dirty crackle blend.  Then I colored the dog with my Copic markers, but the Copic doesn’t react the same on this slick paper.



Day 46:  Time for...



I had fun making this page about one of my favorite self-indulgences.  The journaling is on a tag I made out of some scraps.

Day 47:  What the world needs now…



I don't know why, but I drew a complete stump on this one until I wound up with the song stuck in my head.  And then, all I could think of was the Jerry Lewis telethon, which made me think of the word love.  Do I think “love” is the answer to the world’s problems?  No, compassion would be a better focus for the prompt, but my stencil said “love” so that’s what I used.

Day 48:  A photo of me laughing

This one is actually a big joke in our family.  There really are hardly any photos of me and most of the ones I do have are terrible.  So what better way to illustrate the lack of photos than with an empty photo frame. 



Day 49:  Luck

I got a little stuck on this one, so I just started cutting stuff out and slapping it together.  It’s nothing fancy, but then, no one ever said it had to be, right?



If you’re still keeping up with the challenge, then you’ll be wanting the next 7 prompts, so here they are:

  • Yearly….
  • Am I afraid of change?
  • Which direction am I going?
  • Math
  • Never underestimate the power of…
  • Daydream…
  • Wealthy
I hope you are hanging with us!  If you started the 365 and missed a few days, don't worry, just pick up where you left off or anywhere in between.  If you're just now finding us, it's not too late to jump in, too.  I can't state it often enough that there aren't any rules to this little challenge.  So dust off your craft supplies and do something a little creative.  And while you're at it, post some of your work to our Flickr Group.  

We had a lot of activity in January, but February has slacked off quite a bit.  So to get you motivated, I'm offering a little incentive.  For each upload you make in February, your name will be entered into a drawing.  The more you upload, the more entries you'll receive.  We also want to know that you're following the blog, so if you haven't already joined and you're just reading it on the fly, go join!  Because each follower on the blog also gets an entry as long as they are also uploading pictures to the Flickr Group.

The prize will be determined by what kind of art/craft photos you upload.  So if you do mostly crochet, the prize will be related to that, or if you do mostly scrapbooking, it will be some kind of scrapbooking supplies.  So hurry up and show us all those great things you've been making with our prompts and good luck!

No comments: