Crafty Musings by Hagit

My handmade postcards

 Inspired by iHanna's postcard swap, I set up my own postcard swap in Israel. The turnout was fantastic, and we were each supposed to make 5 postcards. However, I decided to make 70, to thank all the participants, and I wanted to share the process of making all those cards here, because I just had so much fun making them!

This was my first batch:

And this is how I made them: I took a huge piece of white cardstock, and sprayed it. I love how unexpected the results are, and I tried spraying from close up, farther away, shaking up the bottles, so I came up with interesting backgrounds!

 When I was done just spraying the paper, I began spraying through stencils:

This is what my sheet looked like at this stage:

And from farther away:

I ramdomly stamped with distress inks, and then cut up the large sheet into postcard size bits: 

 

 At this stage I added stamping with Stazon, to complete the postcard and make it stand on its own.

I then added some inking to frame the postcards, and backed them with scrapbooking paper, and off we went, my son and I, to post them: 

Since I enjoyed the process so much, I decided to make dozens more!
It was a great opportunity for me to use my stamps, because I mostly hoard them, but hardly ever use them! 

So I started again, working on 4 large sheets this time: 

I tried to make small pictures using the stamps, and I absolutely love the result! They do look like little pictures, and I'm going to frame one to keep! I won't bore you with dozens of pictures, but here are some of my favorites: 

 

 

 

 

Which one did you like best?! :0)

Painting with Julie's stencils

I'm a big fan of Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's, and I was recently gifted with her fantastic girl stencils.
At first I thought they would be very limiting, because they're actual faces, and wouldn't that be boring if everyone suddenly started drawing identical faces?

But as I began using them, I realized the opposite is true! |The stencils are actually wonderful tools, which are actually quite freeing for someone like me, who is still afraid of drawing faces. When I'm using these stencils, I am free to enjoy the process and try out a million of ideas and techniques- I've painted with pens, used collage, altered their features, tried out different backgrounds, and they never look the same! They're so versatile and fun! Can you tell how much I'm enjoying them?

Here are a few of the paintings I've made, using the Summer and Edith and Maude templates:

This was my first try. I didn't have a canvas, and I drew it on a shoebox (do you also keep those?:)

Some collage and some painting, but I wasn't very happy with the result. This is the whole picture:

As I was painting on the shoebox, my almost-3-year-old son came along and wanted to join, and he wouldn't paint on paper. He insisted getting his own shoebox, and he also used the stencils! And then took a lovely dip of the brush inside black paint and went over it all. He enjoyed it so much! :)

This is the opposite side of the same shoebox, which I'm really happy with:

I love her wonky eyes, and how the bird fit perfectly in there!

And this is just some fun I was having tryig out Sakura Glaze pens:

And finally - a painting from this morning, that has many many layers of paint.
At this stage I was really in love with her: 

And then somehow I thought she needed more paint and generously put on some purple. I still like her, but it's no longer a love story!

 

So... which one is your favorite? :)

Playing around with stencils

Just played around with all some stencils, tried out different techniques I've been meaning to try, added some ink, sprays, stamps, and gesso, and had a great time!

If you, too, love stenciling, this Shepard Fairey video is a must! So inspiring! (via Mary Ann Moss):

 

Urban Inspiration

I can never get enough of these urban patterns.
I find them so very inspiring!
They stir my mind and make my hands itch - what will I be inspired to make? maybe somd doodling? image transfers? create a stencil from them? carve a stamp? stick the pictures in my art journal? 

Take this door, with the rust creating an intriguing pattern:

Same door, different angle:

And paint, splattered on walls:

And on the ground...

And some painted metal doors:

And how about these gorgeous circles? Wouldn't they make a magnificent stencil?

And more patterns:

I love this!

Do they make your heart sing as well? :-)

2013 DIY Postcard Swap

After a long pause in swapping, I recently joined ihanna's postcard swap, and had so much fun making serendipity postcards.

I learned about serendipity blocks a few years ago, when inchies were all the rage, and I participated in a serendipity inchie swap. The idea is to work on a large collage, then turn it around to the back/blank side, and cut it up to pieces blindly, not knowing how the inchies would turn out.

In this picture, on the left, you can see the collage I made back in 2008, and on the right are the inchies that resulted:

I really like working this way, completely unattached and unaware of the outcome! Of course, once you've cut up the collage and have all the pieces, you can work on them seperately, until you reach a satisfactory outcome.

So this is how I started my postcard swap. I worked on a very large piece of cardstock, collaging it with many bits and pieces - maps, tissue paper, tags, scrapbookig paper, and so much more. When I was done collaging I added some stamping:

After the collaging and stamping, I liked my collage so much, that I just couldn't bear the thought of cutting it up! So I let it rest for a few days.

And after that, I took another look, and added more stamping, I also made marks with pastels, pencil and ink, and stencils as well:

I then turned it around, and marked squares for my postcards, and cut them up, without looking:

I then had all my postcards, and I started giving them some final touches, mainly adding some washi tape and doodling, and I also framed each postcard with acrylic paint.

I have to say I really enjoyed the process, and I love the outcome, although I must admit there were a few stages along the way where I just wanted to throw it all away! It's hard working this way, it's challenging, and I love it! Just go on and on until you're happy, so what if you feel unsatisfied along the way, right?!

Here are some closeups of my completed poscards:

So what about you? have you ever done this serendipty block technique? participated in a postcard swap? please leave a link in the comments section, I'd love to see what you made! :)

 

10 minute art journaling challenge

I decided to go with Kelly Kilmer's challenge, and see what I can do in 10 minutes.
This is what I managed to do today, without having an idea of wherer to start and how to continue: outline a stencil, paste some paper, try (and fail!) a new type of image transfer, doodle over it, and scribble using crayons and paint pens.

It was fun! it's very liberating to just do it, without over-thining the supplies, paper, and how to start, and I'll continue working on this page in 10 minute spaces, to see how it ends up, and how much time it take all in all. 

Here's  another page I did in less than ten minutes some time ago. Although in this case, the background was already painted. I just stuck down some masking tape, washi tape, and doodled.

I prefer to take my time and enjoy journaling and thinking, but I also like using these timed challenges, just for fun, and also to better understand what I *really* need to have when I journal.

What about you? joining in the challenge as well? ever tried to time an art journal page?

Process oriented art

Israeli artist, Einat Aloni, in a post about her teacher, Sasha Galitsky (beautiful art journal in that link, don't miss it!), explains how she convinced him to be her teacher, and describes a lesson:

"Sasha gets angry when I outline my images in black ink. He can't stand the thought that I approach my drawings with a finished idea in my mind, he splashes some paint, adds a cockscomb, sticks a tail, turns the hands into legs and the ground into clouds".

Drawing by Einat Aloni and Sasha Galitsky

Don't you just love it? :-)

 

In My Art Journal

I have two more pages left in my current art journal. I'm so happy to be able to work in it more. I find it challenging and enjoyable, and it's a great opportunity for me to actually try all those paints/techniques/ideas I've been wanting to try! I love working in smaller journals, because seeing them filled up is great, but I'm also starting to feel the need for a thicker journal, which will also document my process. I wonder whether thinking about my next journal isn't just an excuse for me to feed my addiction to notebooks!

Anyway, here are some recent pages. This is one I really liked, and I loved working on it.

 

It stated out as a collage: 

 

 The reason I have a picture of the unfinished page is that I sometimes have such a hard time getting over the "oh, it's so beautiful" stage, that I like to keep a picture of it - just in case it gets totally ruined under all those layers! :)

The next page is one that took just a few minutes. I didn't have much time, but decided to work in my journal anyway, and I'm happy I did. It was a chance to use some colors and inks I'd been wanting to try out, and to doodle a really quick face - which is also great for me, because I'm always so afraid of faces! It so happens, that the time limit was great here, because I'm really happy with this pleasing guy. Nothing deep, nothing too meaningful, just play, really. 

This is another very quick page. I was painting with my 2-year-old (he's actually going to be 3 in only 4 months!!), he picked out the colors, and I squished them out onto our palette, and quickly brsuhed them on my page, before he muddied them! 

Over here, I decided to use a picture I had taken some months ago, of a giraffe in the Safari.
I'm quite happy with the outcome, but she sure taught me some lessons! There are so many layers going on here, so many trials and places where I was about to trash her! 

 This is how it started out- with a photo, printed black/white on regular printer paper. I then outlined her with pencil:

Painted gesso over her, and stuck on a background I had prepared in my journal: 

As I said, she taught me many lessons, one of which was how to use watercolors, and how much water to use so the color doesn't bleed as much as this:

And this is my last page, or rather, two pages, because I just didn't manage to blend them into one coherent layout: 

 I love both pages separately, but not both as one layout.
However, out of all the above pages, this one is probably the most personal one, where I actually wrote out some things that were on my mind, and tried to put them down.

Sooo... what did you think? was this too long? I love reading about processes, so I thought I'd share mine! Thanks for reading :)

 

Art journaling

I started a fresh new journal this week, and have been having great fun with it. I love the freshness of a new journal, it somehow feels different working in a new one, new opportunities, new idea, well, freshness! Do you know what I mean?

I'm trying to make some time for journaling every day. It's not easy, but the other day, as my son asked to do some painting, I opened my journal, and decided to paint along. It was a great idea, because althout we only painted for about 10 minutes (he's two and a half, and that's as much art as he can take! :), I used it as an exericise.

We used watercolors, and as I noticed how my son's use of colors and brush strokes are so different than mine, so free and careless, just letting his brush go anywhere, loading or not loading it with paint, not bothering to clean it inbetween, I decided to learn from him.

This is his drawing, which I absolutely love, and I stuck in my journal! I loved his dry brush strokes, which were created using way too much force on the brush, and I love how it looks like a fantastic little fish!

So this is my drawing, done by looking at him. I started on the left page, you can see the more vibrant black strokes, those were the ones I started with, and then I moved to drier ones. I also used a color palette I would never have thought of myself - mustard and purple??? and then I continued on the right side, and this creature appeared, so I decided to just go with it, and painted it. I love this page!

The rest of my pages I used to finally try all the new paints and markers I've been hoarding,

Try new techniques, and basically just enjoy myself, and see where each page takes me.
The images on both of the above pages were done using image transfer. The tutorial is here. 

I had a great time, and I hope to be able to incorporate more art journaling into my daily schedule! Do you manage to do that?

 

Guest gifts/favors

 

A few days ago, I invited some good friends over , and I wanted to give them something small, just for being good friends, for showing up and celebrating with me.

 I bought the sweetest little pocket books at a dollar store, and stamped them with this friendship stamp, and then started drawing little portraits.

I've just started drawing very recently, so I'm not very comfortable or confident in my drawing, but this was fun! I just let myself enjoy this as an exercise:

 

 And I was so happy with how they turned out, that I colored them in, and stuck them on my stamped pocketbooks:

 

 I then sewed small drawstring bags to slip them into, and I was done!

 

 Here they are, all together:

 

 I loved working on these small gifts, and since I'm always looking for simple ideas for quick gifts, I collected some on a Pinterest board, for everyone to use. Here it is, my quick gifts board.

What about you? do you have any good ideas for small, simple and quick handmade gifts?