India Mixed Media Scrapbook: Take 1

I traveled to India last fall with my husband, and we fell in love with the country, the wonderful people we met, and the glorious colors everywhere we looked! I wanted to make a scrapbook of our journey, but not in the traditional sense...I wanted to take a mixed media approach. 

I started by printing a lot of my own papers, using DecoArt Americana Premium acrylics, my gelli plate, and stencils. This way, I could recreate some of the colors I saw on my trip in my papers.

My dancing hula girl, bunny, and water garden accompany me as I work.

Samples from some of the pages I made, using marks and stencils.

I also added gold touches to a number of pages.

Now, I have a good selection of papers I can pull from as I work on my pages.

I decided to use an old art journal I had on hand and removed the pages. I began by adding lines or splats with watercolor, then went in with acrylic paints and stencils. Here are a couple of samples.

Since I had deconstructed the album, it was easy to  paint the cardboard covers. I started with a layer of gesso, and once that dried, went in with a couple of blues. To get the variation you see here, I wiped off areas with a baby wipe.

I stenciled in some partial mandalas with gold paint, layered on some wonderful papers, images, ribbons, laces and objects. I also colored some of the elephant in with gold doodles. I got these awesome materials to use from Gwen Lafleur, who was a fellow traveler on our journey, and a mixed media artist. I love how the cover turned out!

My first page inside will be this compass rose mandala. I found a map of India in an old atlas and cut that into some of the points, used some of my handmade papers for others, and cut apart a photo I took while there that shows the exact location. Lots of layering, color, and doodles in this one.

Pages in progress...I'll probably go back in and add some journaling and maybe a bit more.

One of the wonderful aspects of making a scrapbook of your travels is reliving the experience and memories as you work on it. I hope you've enjoyed seeing my work in progress. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Maura

Planning Time!

I think it must still be the teacher in me that loves to create a new planner for the year. I used to alter my teacher's planner each year to make it uniquely mine - always easy to find in the pile! Now, I look forward to creating a calendar to keep track of all of my creative deadlines. 

Inspired by my journey to India this fall, I knew I wanted to work in some of the vibrant colors I saw there, and try out woodblock printing. 

 FRONT cover

BACK cover

I started with this Kraft planner I found that is very similar to one I made from scratch last year - what a time saver to have it already blocked out!

Step 1 - paint a layer of gesso over the cover, not worrying about carrying it out to the edges.

Step 2 - add a layer of Titan Buff

Step 3 - make a box of orange in the center of the covers

Step 4 - Add depth to the orange with several transparent and semi-transparent fluid acrylics.

Step 5 - Add a layer of blues around the orange box.

Step 6 - Use a baby wipe or damp cloth and swipe down into the blue to create a bit of texture. 

Step 7 - Add more depth to the orange with the Andy Skinner Whirlpool stencil and Q Gold.

Step 8 - Do the same step with the blue, using Andy's Bubbles stencil and the fluid acrylic. A cosmetic sponge works great with the stencil, so you can dab just a bit into it.

Step 9 - Time for some gold! I tried a few different techniques with the Indian wood blocks, and the best was to use a brayer to roll out the paint on a gelli plate, then brayer directly onto the block to print with it. 

Step 10 - The Peacock wood block was not leaving a great impression on the orange, so instead,  I stamped it onto the gelli plate, and then used that to stamp the orange section. 

Step 11 - I felt like I needed more with the peacocks, so stamped them again onto leftover gold on tissue, then cut them out and used the DecouPage to attach them. 

Step 12 - Add washi around the orange block.

Step 13 - My box full of wonderful goodies from and inspired by India arrived just in time from Gwen LaFleur! Inside was her beautiful Peacock Feather stencil, so I went around the edges adding in feathers. 

Step 14 - Time to add more gold around the edges of the cover.

Step 15 - I cut some thin strips of this marvelous gold paper, and used the printed elephant and attached these with the DecouPage.

Step 16 - I decided to add more gold onto the washi tape. 

...and the peacocks.

Closeups...

Step 17 - Create a bookmark to keep track of the month with some sari ribbon and beads.

Step 18 - I thought I was done until my son suggested adding something in to each of the months to tie the inside to the cover. I started by stencil the feathers with orange and blue.

Step 19 - Then, I used these tiny woodblocks and stamped an image onto each of the months.

I am now ready to start my planning for 2018 in my India inspired calendar!

 

I would love to hear what you think! Please let me know if you have any questions.

Be creative!

Colorful and Amazing India!

My husband and I recently returned from a life changing trip to Jaipur, India. 

We went on an Arts and Crafts journey with Craftours and met some amazing people! I wanted to share a bit here with all of you. 

Would we go back to India? That would be a resounding YES!!

This is my all time favorite photo and experience while I was in India - meeting all of these beautiful people in a small village outside of Jaipur!

NOTE: 

LOTS of photos, so get yourself a cup of Masala Chai and sit back and enjoy!

TEXTILES!

 We went to this awesome place and learned how to do Kantha embroidery. I have finished my piece and plan to turn it into a pillow. 

These are my two helpers who showed me how to do the embroidery.

BLOCK PRINTING!

This gentleman made me a couple of small elephant prints in two colors.

Can you imagine having all of these blocks for printing? 

Printing with mud and sawdust...

Indigo dyeing...

Gorgeous prints...

I was amazed at how they did these overall prints.

He is carving a wood block...

And here is the one I printed!

PAPER!

We visited a paper factory...

Look, they made my color!!

RANGOLI!

We learned how to paint with colored sand, rice and flowers! 

I LOVE the colors!!!

Here is my practice one - it only looks "good" where I used a stencil, the rest looked like a preschooler did it, LOL!

We visited an orphanage and I fell in love with these beautiful children! The boy in red painted this and all of them are so proud of him!!

THREAD JEWELRY!

We learned how to make necklaces with threads, holding one end wrapped around our big toes!

Look - I did it!

JEWELRY/GEM CUTTING!

CARPET WEAVING!

POTTERY!

We each got to paint a piece, they glazed and fired them overnight and brought them to the hotel.

For you mixed media fans out there, yes that is Gwen LaFleur! I was thrilled to meet her in person!!

HENNA PAINTING!

THIS!! This has been on my bucket list and I was so excited to finally do this! The artist was amazingly talented - love it!!

This is how it looks after the henna flakes off.

CLOTHING!

This gentleman helped us to choose our fabrics and clothing styles. Tailors work overnight to make your outfit and bring it to the hotel the next night - I was amazed!

Michael's new shirt, and my silk outfit. ( I also got a cotton outfit)

I had the pleasure of chatting with this young lady each day at our hotel about life in India.

FLOWERS!

Gorgeous marigold necklaces for the day we rode the elephants.

I was drawn to India by the beautiful colors and I was not disappointed. 

After I got home, this is the collage I made inspired by colors and textures I experienced on my awesome journey. You can read more about it here.