Guest Blog Post for Quirky Dutch Summer

Hi to anyone who has stopped over here from the Quirky Dutch Summer series at Marit's blog.  I'm glad you came to visit me here.  Marit has been a blogging friend for many years and we connected more when she started her magazine called Featuring and I became a writer/contributing editor for her publication.  The Quirky Dutch Summer series will have lots of prompts and technique tutorials throughout the summer, so be sure to check it out.  It's not just for Dutch artists!

I am a guest blogger for her series today!  The technique I shared is about using contact paper to mask off shapes while using watercolor paints.  You can see the steps I used to make this artwork:

As a thank you for reading my blog, enter "SummerTime" in the coupon code box at the checkout of my Etsy shop to receive 20% off your entire order.  I have greeting cards, postcards, prints and collage packs.  Thanks for reading my blog!

Sticky Journals Guest Post: Ana Polari

This Sticky Journals Guest Post comes from Ana Polari.
She titles her post "Bunny Vomit".  I LOVE what she has done, but then again I love cute and colorful things.  ha ha.  I'm glad this challenge forced you to step out of your comfort zone, Ana, and I love what you have done... especially using the sticker as a silhouette to trace.

Here's Ana:

My sticker postcards:

Even though I follow a lot of blogs and always like to leave a comment on someone else's post, I've never been interested in joining challenges or group projects. For challenges you usually have to make a number of art pieces or write posts on your blog on certain days. I guess this works for many people, it keeps them inspired and motivated. I, however, could never join these challenges because I'd feel too much pressure and so I'd create things I don't like just to beat the deadline. 

But this time I decided to make an exception.

One of my guilty pleasures are stickers. I love them! So I was very excited when Marcia Becket invited me to be a guest artist for the Sticky Journals challenge on her blog, Art & Inspiration. She sent packs of stickers to several artists and now shares what they created with them on her blog. Here's a peek of what I got:

Personally I could never use stickers on my books and journals for two reasons. One, I feel that a sticker on one of my pages would make it less mine. And two, stickers are very cute, and I don't want what I do to be cute. Lots of glitter, baby animals, colors and words like 'happiness' and 'hope'...it's just not my style. So instead of making a book I chose to make some postcards, because mail art allows me to experiment and step outside of what I consider to be my style.

This is the first postcard I made. I tried different sticker combinations before I got this idea. The golden frame is that part of the sicker sheet that you usually throw away. The curious thing is that I made this postcard first and then I thought of making its 'sister' using the original circles. 

When I finished these two postcards I went back to the sticker pack and searched for something that made me feel inspired among all those cutesy animals and colors. I chose a kitty with a ribbon on its tail.

 I copied the silhouette and created a kitty mosaic which I painted using watercolour pencils. This is the result:

Finally, after a long struggle with the stickers' cute and joyful influence, I just let go and made this bunny postcard. It hurts a little to look at it, and while I was making it I had to stop for a moment to write on my notebook: 'color headache flash insomnia'. So I guess I like this postcard and at the same time it makes me want to vomit. Cute and color overload! If it were a page on one of my books it'd be in the trash by now. But it's a postcard so I like it, and I'm glad I chose this format.

This challenge was harder than I thought it'd be. But it was fun and gave me some unexpected results, so I'm gonna keep all the stickers I didn't use and I'll take them out whenever I want to take a step out of my comfort zone again.

• Más postales y mail art // More handmade postcards and mail art
• Mi tienda Etsy // My Etsy shop

Check out the other posts in this series about using your stickers and tapes in art journal pages:

1.  Sticky Inspiration
2.  My new stickers & some pages with them
3.  Using patterned tape in an art journal page
4.  Guest Post:  Marly Martinez
5.  Tape Lines artwork
6.  How to Create Your Own Stickers Using Picmonkey
7.  Sticker Art Inspiration 
8.  Cutting out shapes from tape
9.  Guest Post:  Chandra Newton

10.  Adding doodling to stickers 

11.  More Circular Stickers

12.  Guest Post:  Rachel Mims
13.  Sticker Inspiration

Art is Basic website
My Art
Etsy Shop
Pinterest

Sticky Journals Guest Post: Rachel Mims

Guest Post:  Rachel Mims

I sent out 6 packets of stickers to 6 different artists and throughout the summer I will share with you what they have created.

I have been following Rachel Mims' blog for awhile now and it is so interesting to see what she does in her art therapy classes!

Here is what she wrote at the beginning of June:

"Today is June 1st - the 1st day of ICAD.  Did you make your card?  I made mine:

And then I put it in my art journal.  I started doing that last year - using the cards as part of my art journal pages - and really liked it so I am going to do it again this year.  Here is the page:

Of course, the card and that tab at the bottom (which came off of some junk mail) both open up.  I did some extra writing under the ICAD but not the tab.  Here is a picture of them opened up:

Do you see the stickers that I used?  This art journal page is FULL of them.  There are luggage tags from a trip (or 2?) that I took on American Airlines, a name tag from a dinner I attended, washi tape and stickers from Marcia Beckett.  Marcia is hosting a sticky journal challenge/guest artist challenge! As part of this series on her blog, http://marciabeckett.blogspot.com, she sent me a package of stickers:

That's a lot of stickers, right?  I am really excited about using them!!!  So, that is why I got started right away!!  I got the stickers yesterday, I used them today.  Today I just used the stickers that matched my page... I tend to do that - stay in a color scheme.  Also, for some reason those number stickers really spoke to me.  I already know when I am going to use my other yellow 66 sticker!!"

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Check out the other posts in this series about using your stickers and tapes in art journal pages:

1.  Sticky Inspiration
2.  My new stickers & some pages with them
3.  Using patterned tape in an art journal page
4.  Guest Post:  Marly Martinez
5.  Tape Lines artwork
6.  How to Create Your Own Stickers Using Picmonkey
7.  Sticker Art Inspiration 
8.  Cutting out shapes from tape
9.  Guest Post:  Chandra Newton

10.  Adding doodling to stickers 

11.  More Circular Stickers

Art is Basic website
My Art
Etsy Shop
Pinterest

Sticky Journals: Guest Artist Chandra Newton

Guest Post:  Chandra Newton

I sent out 6 packets of stickers to 6 different artists and throughout the summer I will share with you what they have created.

Chandra writes,

"When I received the package of stickers I immediately tore into them. The first stickers to catch my eye were very industrial. Some numbers. Some geometric shapes. I envisioned an industrial/graffiti style page. I set to work straightaway. 

 

I got the background painted, set down a couple of stickers and I hated it. I couldn't see past my perceived mistakes. 

 

So I put my journal aside and picked up the package of stickers yet again. The first set of stickers to catch my eye were four pink squares stacked atop one another. The first thing I though of was a paint strip. I liked it. So, I laid them on my page in the same manner. Of course they are slightly more askew than they were on the paper backing. But, that's okay. Next, I pulled out a sheet of reinforcement tabs. A theme and color scheme were beginning to take shape at this point. I had to use the pink ones. I decided to lay them from the bottom up, staggering off the page. This reminded me of bubbles rising up from the bottom. 

 

 

Thinking of rising bubbles, I grabbed my floral/gear like stamp and some pink ink. I stamped haphazardly across the page. Using my non-dominant hand I drew lines along the edge and bottom, as a sort of border. 

 

 

This page is simpler and more pink than anything I normally do, but I like it. Despite its simplicity, it feels complete. It suggests movement and growth. It reminds me that I don't have to be perfect to move forward. It reminds me that (like this opportunity) it's okay to try new things; to step outside of my comfort zone once in awhile.

 

--

Chandra Newton

poesraven@operamail.com

 Thanks so much, Chandra for sharing your lovely journal page with us!

 Check out the other posts in this series about using your stickers and tapes in art journal pages:

1.  Sticky Inspiration
2.  My new stickers & some pages with them
3.  Using patterned tape in an art journal page
4.  Guest Post:  Marly Martinez
5.  Tape Lines artwork
6.  How to Create Your Own Stickers Using Picmonkey
7.  Sticker Art Inspiration 
8.  Cutting out shapes from tape

Art is Basic website
My Art
Etsy Shop
Pinterest
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