Wednesday 26 April 2017

Love/Hate Relationship

Oh my gosh, after quite a few months as a member of the Get Messy community, I'm finally starting to create pages based on prompts!! (yay me!) This week's GM prompt by Julia to create a page about contrasting personality traits, really resonated with me.

While I love the way I feel after working out (not to mention the health benefits I get), I really do not enjoy working out. I don't like to sweat. My husband on the other hand is a natural athlete and runs marathons. I know there are definitely some days when working out feels like a grind for him, but overall, he's never had a problem working out, probably because he's always been fit. I, on the other hand, struggled with exercise induced asthma as a child and was never good at sports (especially anything that required continuous running like soccer). As soon as gym became an elective in school, I dropped it like a hot potato, and so relieved that at last, I wouldn't have to be the last person picked on a team, or feel the embarrassment of failing miserably at any gymnastic or track & field event in front of my peers.

After marrying and starting a family I became more active. The truth is, the older we get, the more important it is to keep moving, and now I view working out as a necessary evil. I've made my peace with it and some days, being all sweaty doesn't bother me as much. Working out is now a regular and consistent part of my lifestyle and there is no doubt about it, I feel so much better for it!

Sunday 23 April 2017

Unique

As we continue to explore "contrast" in the Get Messy community, I created this page after pondering on the thought that I am but 1 of the 7.125 billion people in this world and while I share many similar experiences, I am totally unique (and so are you!). What could be more appropriate symbol of uniqueness than a fingerprint to convey this truth?

Saturday 22 April 2017

Contemplation

I tried Sasha Zeen's transfer technique again today, and couldn't quite get the result I was looking for, so instead, grabbed a piece of tracing paper and outlined the image, using a Micron pen. After watercolouring the image, I cut it out and adhered it on top of the acrylic layering page I created in GM's Season of Art 101. I love the translucency of the tracing paper and the end result!

Thursday 20 April 2017

Season of Contrast - Water

Inspired by Misty's GM tutorial on contrasting size and created this spread, focusing on "big" and "small" forms of water. I experimented with a new material (a discarded window screen) to build up some texture on the waterfall and added a bit of distress glitter for the water droplets.

Wednesday 19 April 2017

Suduko

I created this page using my Brother ScanNCut to draw out the puzzle pattern and then coloured it in with watercolours. I really enjoy creating scrapbook layouts that are unique, and creating my own embellishments. I also like the quote I included at the bottom of the page: "Life is like solving a Sudoku Puzzle, we know what to do to finish it, but we still need to open the gate to the future one by one, with what we know."

Sunday 16 April 2017

Season of Contrast - Whirlwind

I enjoyed participating in Amy Maricle's recent GM live webinar held on Good Friday afternoon. I was only able to watch about 30 min of the live webinar and then it was off to church to attend the Good Friday service. On Saturday, I watched the rest of the webinar and also Amy's "make your own stamps" tutorial, creating these fun little triangle stamps.

Saturday 15 April 2017

Season of Contrast - Mind Blown

Using the transfer technique again, as taught by @sasha_zeen. I don't know why the process feels so satisfying, but it is! I watercolored the image after transferring it to paper. So much fun.

Wednesday 12 April 2017

Season of Contrast - Intuitive Painting

After watching @diekleineriet's intuitive painting tutorial I couldn't wait to give it a whirl. I will confess that I struggle with the idea of painting over a good portion of the "intuitive" part of the painting process ... I really liked how the background turned out and it just seems counter-intuitive to me to paint it over. Once I was done, I looked for something in the painting to prompt an image, and thought the 4 circles at the bottom of the page would lend themselves easily as wheels, so I decided to create this urban landscape. It feels very juvenile to me, but I'm on an artistic journey so I'm just gonna enjoy the ride!

Monday 10 April 2017

Season of Contrast - Pattern Play

I played a couple of stencils and acrylic paint, applied 1 colour to each page and then added washi tape overtop each of the stencils and added in silver and black to create some contrast.

Hard Earned Win

It's been awhile since I've done a 12x12 scrapbook page but here it is! This page was inspired by my daughter Rachel who recently completed a 30km run on a cold spring day. She is a full time PhD student, teacher's assistant, mother, wife & board director of a daycare that her youngest daughter attends. I find it amazing that she even finds time to fit running into her already tight schedule! To say she's a go-getter is an understatement!

Thursday 6 April 2017

Season of Contrast - New Print Technique

Today's tutorial @ Get Messy was just so good! Thanks to the incredible Sasha Zeen sharing a new printing technique, I now have added another technique to add to growing list of creative possibilities. Instead of using the technique to draw a figure/face, I decided to try it out on a landscape image. I used waterproof markers which transferred quite nicely to the paper, so that was a bonus. I added a bit of watercolour and outlined some of the images with the markers where necessary and then painted the black "frame" in acrylic paint. I am going to have so much fun exploring how I can use this new technique in my art journal and scrapbooking.

Wednesday 5 April 2017

Season of Contrast - Perception

Finished my second spread for this season, exploring the contrast between a positive and negative mindset.

Monday 3 April 2017

Season of Contrast - Rainy Days

Hurray, we've just embarked on a new season at Get Messy, the "Season of Contrast", and I have to say: what a great subject! There are just so many ideas to explore. I didn't know where this page would take me when I started it, but was happy with the end result.

Saturday 1 April 2017

Sweet, Sweet Music

Don't you just love it when a page comes together effortlessly?  How this happens is a complete mystery to me, but I hope it happens with increasing frequency.

Getting ready for the Season of Contrast!

I picked up some awesome finds at the thrift store today and couldn't wait to get home and play.
I am going to use the journal in the foreground as my art journal for the upcoming Season of Contrast, so I got to work, covered the outside cover and inside page and created a title page. 





Spring Break Mini Album

This was so much fun to do! I created this mini-album using 1 piece of 12x12 patterned scrapbook paper (thanks to @sasha_zeen's tutorial). I'm mailing this off to my sweet granddaughters so they can re-live the awesome memories we made together during spring break.