Wednesday, October 14, 2015

DLP Week 35

September theme was Journaling with Photos, and the Art Challenge for Week 35 was 'photo transfers'.  There are many ways to make photo transfers, and some I've had good luck with and others not so much!

I had painted the page spread with black gesso one day, with no plan in mind for what would come next.  I usually start out a new month by trying to make a calendar that reflects the month's theme.  But this time, I used calendar numbers from a vintage calendar I got from Good Garbage (a store in Louisville that takes donations and sells them at a reasonable price).  I had been waiting for a month that matched the date/day to one of the calendar pages I had.  Tuesday on the 1st... got it! 

I put masking tape down and used stencils and writing to note the theme, etc.  On the left page, I painted a light colored acrylic paint and stamped on it with black writing.  I picked the quick and easy transfer method:  package tape transfer (instructions can be found numerous places on the world wide web).  After I attached the transfer, I went over it with matte medium so it would not be so shiny (but it still is).
On the right side, I painted another light color where I will do some journaling notes about the process.  I used the dabber top to make some partial circles (and promptly forgot I had wet paint there, turned the pages to a previous page, and these pages stuck together!  Always something)...
The second week in September was of the digital photo variety.  I've struggled with that one!  More on that later.

Sunday, October 4, 2015

DLP Week 29

Just a quick post for Week 29, which was in July, but I worked on it in September.  Not sure it followed the theme and challenge at all, but September was a weird month for me.  At the first of the month, I lost my job.  Spent a lot of time filling out applications online, scanning local classified ads, etc.  Definitely a period of transition, and definitely not something you want to be doing when you are in your 60's. 

But in spite of all the worry and anxiety, it was oddly a time of peacefulness for me.  I was waiting to hear back about a couple of jobs, and in my downtime, I worked on several pages for July.

Happened upon this quote: "New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings."  I made the whole page about uncertainty, trying to figure some things out.  The background papers are printed from the internet, with lots of codes and ciphers waiting to be understood.  On the left is a card and some papers from an old vintage Boy Scout fingerprint kit.  Life is puzzling, mysterious.  If I don't figure it all out by the time I leave this world, that's okay.  Life is an adventure too, good or bad!

And, by the way, I am starting my third week at a new job, doing what I did before, doing medical transcription from home, as I have done for over a decade.   Great company, and I love my job and the people I work with.  I am blessed to always have the right thing come to me at the right time.  The universe unfolds as it should!

Week 11 Borders

I am not really so far behind on DLP Journal that I'm just at week 11, it's just that I never posted a picture of that week.  I kept thinking I'd go back and add more writing.  I haven't.  But I still like the page.  Plus, I have failed miserably at the challenge for Digital Imagery for September, and went back to look at some pages I liked to make myself feel better!

The theme was Borders.  That was back when I was making color copies of journal pages onto label sheets.  Perfect to make a border!  (The pictures were close-ups from Gaye's journal.)

Really like the gray background.  Not sure what it says about me that I like the gray better than any bright colors!

The first thing I did was stamp out "Week 11".  I almost chucked the whole thing then and there, as I apparently cannot stamp two 1's right beside each other without one being higher than the other.  But I kept going anyway.  Used some stencils and did some writing.  Later I added a face from my scrap stash.

Calling it good, whether I end up adding anything else or not.