Art 101 Week 2

Texture!!!! I love texture.  Texture was the subject for this week's prompts.  Using household items and beautiful bits of nature, I was able to create some pages that made me pretty happy!!!!  I also used some modeling paste with some stencils but have not been able to finish that page.  But I will finish that this weekend.  The first tactile texture was created using a fiber mesh tape that I found in my husbands workshop (shhhh, don't tell him, hahaha).  I left it on the paper  and applied paint over it, and in another area I applied paint and then lifted the tape off the paper.

First I wrote down some everyday textures that I see around me just to get a start on what I could use in my journal.

Mesh Fiber Tape left on page and painted over.

Above I used a plastic fork that I pulled through the paint to leave this texture.

I had bought some new gel pens and there was a plastic holder that the pens were in.  I kept it and used it to make the marks above that are in the teal color.

I used a cork from a bottle of wine to make the marks above with gold acrylics.

Pulling up the mesh tape after applying paint and letting it dry a little, left me with this texture and then I went over it with the plastic fork dipped in green paint.

Using an old pattern tracer and black india ink left me with this lovely little black pattern across my paper.  I have to give credit to Molly Anthony for the idea to use the pattern tracer.  I inherited all of my mom's sewing tools when she passed away and she had more than one of these tracers, so I put one to very good use since I am awful at being a seamstress!!

Next I used Riet's technique for visual texture and applied layers of paint along with plastic wrap and lifted the wrap to leave marks in the paint.  I love the soft texture it left behind which was perfect for the fragile, dried hydrangea flowers I was adding and the one, sweet violet boom that was braving the winter outside.

I also had found a Fern Frond that I loved the color and texture of and wanted to somehow use that on this page as well.  It was too big for this journal so I decided to try and stamp with it.  I applied some black ink and pressed as gently but firmly as I could to leave an impression behind.  

I love using bits and pieces of nature in my pages.  It connects me to the outdoors and adds some life to my journal.  I will keep the fern frond and find a way to attach it to a page in my larger journal.

For my final page, I just went back to my usual technique for creating texture which is to lay down some vintage papers, maps, etc.  Then I applied paints and some white for highlights.  Next thing I knew, this sweet little, Miss French Canadian, who later let me know her name is Amelie, appeared.

She was a joy to discover and fit right in perfectly on my page.

I really enjoyed this week with Get Messy and learning new techniques for achieving texture on a page.  I still have that one page with the modeling paste that is now dry to go work on and will finish that this weekend.  

I hope you all have found some way to be creative this week and get out and enjoy nature and all the little things there are to see and discover if you take the time.  

Until next week.....

Au revoir!!!!!