You Suck Monday

Everything Matters

2011-12-24T08:51:00.000-08:00

A repurposed YSM project! - Goog

2011-12-23T08:54:00.000-08:00

This was my Brain Dead Journaling page, remember? That was good times!

But since I always feel like my backgrounds need a purpose, I cut it up and made these:

Cute, no? I'm totally in love with them!

Goog 11/17/11

2011-11-17T20:21:00.000-08:00

Silly YSM girls, just missing our Ajae...

I see a scratch'n'sniff children's book in our future!!

Brain Dead Journaling 11-3-11

2011-11-05T21:21:00.001-07:00

This was fun! Six steps and u have a recipe for a background and never have to have fear of the blank page again. Here's the steps...1) choose 2 paints 2) paint page one color, edge page with second color and blend with fingers or baby wipe. 3) spray color over stencil 4) stamp around edges 5) drip some paint or ink 6) add texture Wallah! Everytime you do it it comes out different!

Arting Every Day

2011-11-05T20:49:00.001-07:00

I just found "Art EveryDay day for a Month" challenge. My friend April Cole posted it on her blog when she joined. I started painting a page day in my journal starting October 1st. I filled a journal I made with 31 pages of paint :) goal accomplished. I sit down with no intention except for to cover that page with paint before the end of the day. I have learned a lot and had fun and played with my toys!
I already have November's journal made so I thought this challenge fit perfect in my daily art practice...so here we go!

Goog - 11/3/11

2011-11-03T18:29:00.001-07:00

Here's my paper:

Step one is just slap on some color:

Step two is a darker shade around the edges:

Here's a couple of steps combined, oops! Texture, stamping, etc.

Drippage:

Some more stamping and I'm done!

I inked around the edges, too. It's hard to tell in the picture. Also, the first layer is SUPER shimmery, and some of the sprays I used are glimmer mists

Supplies for Journal-A-Long on 11/3/11

2011-10-31T09:30:00.000-07:00

This week we're all going to play TOGETHER. Sometimes it's hard to start, right? It's hard to take that journal that cost you ten bucks, or twenty bucks or whatever and just slap some paint in it. I promise you it's better to USE that journal than to just let it sit on the shelf. This week we're all going to make a background TOGETHER.

Supplies we MAY (or may not!) use:
- Blank Paper (loose OR in a journal)
- Ephemera - this literally means "something of no lasting significance" (trash, ticket stubs, receipts, paper scraps, etc)
- Texture tools - bubble wrap, punchinella
- Ink pads - the stuff you use for stamps. (We will most likely use permanent inks, if yours are NOT permanent they will smear if you add paint or water on top.)
- Paints (any and all) and brushes (whatever kind you like)
- Water (we like spray bottles)
- Background stamps (not faces, not people - dots, circles, squares, bricks, etc)
- Masks and/or stencils (we use these words interchangeably)
- Some kind of glue (stick, matte medium, gel, whatever)
- A heat tool if you have it (we'll use ours to dry the backgrounds faster. If you don't have one, don't worry about it!)

What we're going to make is just a background. We will brush on paint, drip it, splatter it, etc. We'll use water even on the cheapest paper and watch it buckle and then paint on it some more. We collage on anything and everything. Gather up some things you think might be fun, some colors that YOU LIKE. Don't think too hard about it. Kelly and Goog head straight for the brightest colors, while Ajae likes hers more subdued. Just go with what you like. If you don't have stencils, cut out some magazine people in interesting poses. If you don't have stamps, use wine corks or the bottom of your shoe. Best of all, you don't have to use your journal. Just use a blank piece of paper if you want. Then, if we fuck it all up, who cares? You're not stuck with it! You can just throw it away and all you've wasted is a little paint and some time.

10/27/11 - Goog

2011-10-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

OK, so I took this broshure from the front desk at school. I like it because it's not one of those letter-size z-fold ones; it's five papers, folded in half and stapled so it's 20 pages. Perfect mini journal, right? Sorry for the dark picture, I was in the middle of Science and the lights were off. (Clearly, I was bored!)

This is what takes FOREVER and is why I never do altered books. Painting the whole thing white took three days.

I sort of had fun playing with the cover...

Used my own stamps for the words, of course.

I'm thinking it could be kind of a mental health journal. Today I am...scared, happy, cranky, whatever. Just using the phrase to figure out why some days I just wake up and I'm already pissed off or I'm too lethargic to take a shower and put on some damn jeans or I have a shit load of energy and clean the whole house.

T-Minus Two Days to...

2011-10-25T21:53:00.000-07:00

TRASH ART!

Goog - 10/20/11

2011-10-21T19:56:00.000-07:00

Hellooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo suckers! Who missed me? I know, I know. I'm very missable. So, this week's topic was COLLAGE. I'm super, super, extra horrible at collage. Can't help it. I just stink at it. So what did I collage for you? Inchies. They're pretty hard to screw up because they're tiny.

I did about...what is that, 16? I cut them first, then sort of smooshed them together and used a plastic doily to spray over in two colors, and then just collaged my buddy's pics on top. I'm either going to write or cut out words for them, I think. They're pretty dang cute, I'm actually surprised!

Circles, circles, circles...

2011-10-02T22:15:00.000-07:00

Shall we art-a-long? Bring your circles of all sizes and we'll show you how we like to use circles in our work! Kelly will be our ringmaster - oh, wait...circLES not circUS. Still, you know us. We'll see you on Thursday, October 6 at 7pm in the usual place...

Cheap Thoughts Journal : )

2011-09-30T11:47:00.000-07:00

CTJ has saved my life : ) Well, of course that's extreme, but it truly has helped me over some creative hurdles.
I personally have been on an art lock down... it's a rut I've been in for awhile and I'm struggling to work through it. YSM has been helping alot also!

The thought that I can pick up my CTJ even when I feel NO creativity or inspiration whatsoever is a comfort to me. There's just something about no expectations.... after I play in it, or vent in it... I sit back and re-read it and look at it and I love how it makes me feel.... It actually gives me a sense of artistic accomplishment even when I thought that wasn't possible, and desperately needed to feel it.........

I highly recommend it ♥ Here's some of my pages.

This is a pen sketch. (added color) This is something I enjoy and practice in an effort to loosen up and to help me overcome my perfectionism struggle with my work.

I LOVE MY DOGS♥

Pen sketch of Kelly I did during YSM : )

As always... thanks for all the support and friendship ya'll! xo ajae

9/26/11 - Goog

2011-09-28T07:01:00.000-07:00

Cheap Thoughts Journal. I'm in love with this way of journaling (which some of you won't think is "real" journaling. I have mostly cheap thoughts. I don't spend my time worrying about who I am or who I want to become or where I want to be in the future. I'm an "in the moment" kind of chick, mostly, so this kind of journal is perfect for me.

I'm particularly in love with this "home page" (that's what we call the one where we write our appointments, etc). If you look closely, you'll see Zombie Bunny (he was the original and inspired all others), a teeny calendar of the entire month, and a shiny bit of a Cadbury Cream Egg wrapper. I heart it.

Please notice the tabs - they are randomly placed on pages that have NO special meaning and contain bar codes, pieces of chicken McNugget containers, and bits of music. Oh, and one is made from a piece of tape.

This is my cousins at Stirling castle in Scotland three years ago...

This is an envelope...

Holding a picture of my son snuggled up on the couch in a quilt I made for him before he was born when I didn't know if he was going to be Liam or Lorelai:

This is a drawing I made with one of those pens that had the four colors of ink in it:

This is a cake:

This is my iPhone:

This is just random ugliness:

I dislike the word "junk" (even when you spell it "junque"). To me, junk is trash. I don't keep trash. Ever. No junk mail, no receipts, no "scraps" of paper. I love throwing things out. So this is NOT my junk journal. Yours can be your junk journal if you want, but mine is not because it isn't trash. It's not filled with trash, my thoughts and feelings are not trash, my pictures are not trash, my art is not trash. This is a collection of the ridiculous things people say and the even more ridiculous thoughts in my head and the random colors I want to splash around and the things I keep for absolutely no reason. It's unique and it's me and it's not beautiful. I don't need it to be. Doodle. Make ugly stuff. Write ugly thoughts. Stick in pictures you took on your phone that have no where else to live. Smile.

Ajae's Art Tapes

2011-09-21T20:25:00.000-07:00

Hey awesome people!!!

This was soooo fun to me! I just loved doing it, and it for sure beats the heck out buying those expensive pre-made decorative tapes. I also feel like they are more gratifying to use... cuz I made them myself!

Pretty much ANY kind of tape can be used... as I tried most any and all I could get my hands on, and the same goes for what and how you decorate them with. Everything I tried seemed to work... and it's so cheap to do, so it's okay to really experiment with whatever.

These were just painted with cheapy acrylic paints. All the different tapes took the color well.

These were actually (left over from previous YSM) alcohol inks on the shiny kind of tape. Then I actually just mod podged those heart on... after it dried good, the stayed stuck down.

This is just messin' around with stamps and junk : )

I am fond of the "journaling" tape ♥

Here's a few close ups.....

And lastly... I loaded the tapes onto vintage spools.... and I'm not sure what the tall thingy is, it was just with the spools when I found them! Anybody know?

I think they look adorable just sitting out like this : ) Would make cute gifts also!

Thanks again everyone for participating in our YSM shenanigans.... trust me, we don't take ourselves seriously, hahahaaa!

We're all just artygirls at heart...wanting to connect and have fun... right?

Xo's ajae

P.S. I really miss Goog on our live show, but am so proud of her !!!

9/19/11 - Goog

2011-09-19T20:58:00.001-07:00

OK, you know me. I am NOT a saver. I'm a purger. I love to throw things away. I don't keep little bits of stuff. BUT - often when I'm covering a journal I use 12x12 scrapbook paper and cut off long strips. These, I keep.

Here are some:

This is a sticker-maker:

Here are strips of paper that are now TAPE! (Or long stickers!)

Rolled up!

This is a chunk of contact paper I'm spraying with alcohol inks:

After I was finished, I cut it into strips:

And here is something I "taped" with it!!

Good times!!

Tapes Midweek Update - Goog

2011-09-17T09:18:00.000-07:00

Using contact paper and alcohol inks to make "tape"...

Using my mini Xyron and paper scraps...

OK, people, this is FUN! Do I say that for every project? I guess I do...I'm just trying to entice more people to try these silly things!! See you Monday - I hope. I have class from 6-10:30p (Central) but my teacher said she's going to let us decide if we want our break time as three 10-minute breaks or one 30-minute break. I think we're going to decide on one LONG one (that's what she said!) and so I'll tune in then. Either from school, or I'll run home since I live less than a minute away. Otherwise, I'll just post my final stuff here on the blog and cry because I miss you guys.

9/12/11 - Goog

2011-09-12T21:38:00.000-07:00

I did NOT enjoy paper marbling. Sorry for all of you who love it, but I didn't like it at all. I watched a million YouTube videos and tried all of the techniques I saw. Here are the results:

Alcohol inks in water:

Food coloring in water:

Food coloring mixed with oil in water:

Alcohol inks dripped into shaving cream:

Food coloring in shaving cream:

Alcohol inks sprayed onto shaving cream:

So, the alcohol inks worked, but they seemed to eat at the shaving cream and they made very faint marks. The only one that was really successful was the food coloring in shaving cream. The colors are very vibrant and only smeared the way the did because I rinsed off the shaving cream with water.

This was an EXTREMELY messy, annoying process for very little payoff. Most of them were totally unsuccessful, and the ones that were successful are mostly extremely faint. There's also a lot of white in the background and I'm not a person who enjoys white space. The shaving cream was messy, the inks and food coloring stained the countertops even when I wiped them immediately. Not fun and I will not be doing it again.

Get your TEXT on.... : ) ajae

2011-08-26T13:43:00.000-07:00

Hey ya'll!!
I had fun with this one...all of us use text in so many ways, so it wasn't a stretch to come up with some stuff, and that's what I've needed latley...easy. Next week will throw me for a loop as I have never used alchohol inks, but I think it's time to step back out of my comfort zone.....

Anyway, here's some of my shots from last week. If any of ya'll are wondering... I am smitten with my iphone camera apps and use the ever lovin' heck out them. My fav's are camera+ and hipstamatic : )

This is goofing around in our Cheap Thoughts Journal.....

I'm so fond of this little journal page for some reason......

Anyway.... Ya'll have a great weekend and we'll see ya on YOU SUCK : ))))!!!

xo ajae

Midweek update - Goog

2011-08-24T06:36:00.000-07:00

Hey, suckers. I made my own alcohol inks and here they are!!

It was super, mega, ridiculously easy. I got my Sharpies and spray bottles from Wal-Mart. Oh, alcohol, too. I've never had rubbing alcohol at my house - what do you rub it on? Anyway, I made them and you can, too! My markers did NOT pull apart easily like the woman in the video's, but I just used my enormous pliers to snap them where the colored part meets the gray part.

Here is where I was spraying (it's really a terrible book):

That's red, and I really like how bright it is, especially compares to the sprays we made with the Rit dyes. I love those colors, too, but they're mostly dark shades, and these all turned out pretty bright!

Wait - but, Goog, why would you make more sprays when you already HAVE sprays? Alcohol inks are permanent on all surfaces, while the rit dyes are only permanent on porous surfaces. That means metal, plastic, glass - we can color those things with our alcohol inks! Try making them, I promise it's the easiest art project you've ever done!

8/22/11 - Goog

2011-08-23T06:58:00.001-07:00

You Suck Monday this week was about text. I like it as background. Very rarely is text my focus but it's a really great way to add a layer, to add texture, with very little effort. Examples:

This is a canvas journal I just made. She was looking EXTREMELY boring and slightly awkward until I added a little text stamping. My stamp doesn't have anything on it you could actually read, it's just scripty gibberish, but it makes a difference!

This is the girl who started You Suck Monday. I journaled on her before adding paint, and in her hair after adding it! It looks really shiny on camera, but in real life you can barely see any of the writing.

Here's one where there was a huge blank space and it needed "something". I love the quote and how much the writing adds to the piece!

That's "the Ugly Me" and he's drawn on book text, but there's also journaling underneath him.

I was feeling crappy today, so I didn't make anything specifically for YSM like I usually do and I was surprised to see how much stuff I already HAD with text as a part of it and how often I use text. Start with a text stamp. Or a book you hate.

Link to Video...Making your own alcohol inks

2011-08-22T20:08:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6z5JgUOw3U

Ajae's collage for Suzi : ) and DooDleS!!

2011-08-22T09:24:00.000-07:00

Hellooooo gang!!
I hope everyone is well and happy... this will be a quickie, cuz I've been a slacker! I was having some issues with blogger, but I think I figured it out. But it's been bugging me that I haven't posted here. So here it goes and then I need to get figure out what to do for Text for today!!

Here's my collage project for Suzi's birthday : )

I'm gonna fool with it a little more.. but this was fun. The flowers are from my yard : )

Here's some doodles.............

So there you have it! Sorry about not posting lately... See ya'll tonight on YouSuck!!!

xo ajae

SUCKERS!!!

2011-08-22T06:53:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow suckers. (Mini me is always walking around and saying to random people "Hello, fellow citizen" so I was just trying it out. Feels very formal.) We have been HORRIBLE about posting here to tell you what we're up to! We kind of assumed everyone has facebook but I know that isn't true! So today we're going to suck at text. We'll be using text in the background of things - stamps, books text, whatever we want. You can use text however you want!

Come join us for live chat, you know you wanna!!
http://www.linqto.com/rooms/suziblu/
9pm Eastern time (if you don't know how that translates to your time zone, JFGI - Just Fucking Google It. This is the slang of our youth, people. For reals.)

8/15/11 - Goog

2011-08-16T07:29:00.000-07:00

I'm not a good doodler. Never have been. I don't doodle while I'm on the phone, I never doodled in class (I took copious notes in class), I'm just not good at it! Then what happens is I'll doodle one little thing and it comes out pretty good and I'll think "I can TOTALLY doodle!!" but then I try again and find out I was wrong. So, here's my YSM doodles, and it's OK if you think they're ugly because I know they are!!

This one's just a flower on book text, glued into my Cheap Thoughts Journal (CTJ)

This was me trying to give my self a contained area to doodle in (I like circles!)

More circles (kinda). I like things to go off the page (I have no idea why).

Then with these two pictures, I wanted to show you guys how much of a difference something as simple as WHAT you're doodling on can make. Here's my CTJ page with little roses:

And here's little roses on book text:

I think the book text makes a big difference, especially if you're not a great doodler. It just adds a little something that makes me happy!

8/8/11 - Goog

2011-08-09T15:06:00.001-07:00

Collage is one of the many things I am horrible at. I'm not good with composition, or "matching" colors - I kinda like things to clash. Example: one of my socks is purple with orange and green circles, the other is pink and white stripes. That's just the kind of chick I am! Anyway, collage was the game of the day and here is what I made:

It came out pretty good, I think.I sort of chickened out and did a collage mosaic.I cut the bottom and top of the cupcake out, then carefully tore them into pieces, keeping them in the exact order I needed them to be so it would look like a cupcake when I was done! It's still collage, so it still counts. AND it's for my best friend Suzi's birthday and she liked it so that's all that matters!

Crackle You Suck Birthday - Goog

2011-07-26T15:36:00.001-07:00

The name of the game is: crackle. I'm horrible at crackle. Usually. I don't know what happened - something about YSM changes me and I'm able to be successful in ways I've never been able to before. So, this first one is Inkssentials Crackle Accents by Ranger - no one else has ever heard of it, so it's possible that I've had this stuff for a thousand years. It's CLEAR. It's a top coat, so it's not one of those "paint one color, let dry, paint crackle, let dry, paint another color" blah, blah, blah. You just paint, let dry, then put the crackle on and it cracks when it's dry.

This is Elmer's Glue-All. That's the white glue you can get right now for twenty cents at Wal-Mart because of the back-to-school sales. For this one I did a bottom color, let it dry completely. Then put the glue on. While the glue is STILL wet, paint on the second color. When it dries, it cracks.

This is the folk art crackle medium. For this one, you have to paint the bottom color and let it dry, then the crackle medium and let it dry, then the second color and let it dry.

These are my birthday cupcakes.

NO HEAT GUN. Use yours if you want. I didn't and I've heard you're not supposed to. Be patient. I'm not a patient person, so if I'm telling you to be patient, you can do it! Also, I didn't use the cheap craft paints on any of these projects. They're all either Liquitex or Golden.

Shrinky Dink Suckage.... ajae

2011-07-24T10:37:00.000-07:00

Better late than never!! Anyhow.... I must admit, I don't see any more shrinky dinks in my future. Hahahaaa! It was OKAY, but that was enough for me.

I traced one of my girls out of my sketchbook, and decided to go big after Goog told me how much they shrink, and boy was she right! I used a whole sheet of this stuff. It was cheap at AC Moore. But I had to sand it first...

Here's the girl traced onto sheet...

And then I just used prismas to color her....

Then I wrote on her and hated it, I should have left her alone!

And I cut out a piece from the bottom, intending to make a stand for her.... She really shrunk, and was all bendy and warped, I hated it. Then Goog and Kelly told me to re -bake her, so I did, and I mashed on her out of the oven and she got flat.

Then I did these (on a white sheet) just to make sure I gave the shrinky dink experience a fighting chance... and no, it didn't convince me...

This is a stamp I carved

These are just regular stamps.... I did a before and after with a quarter for reference so you can see how much they shrink.

So there you have it.............no more shrinky dinks for ajae : )

I hope crackle works out better, or at least that I like it! hahaa! xo ya'll.....

Goog 7/18/11

2011-07-18T23:42:00.000-07:00

I've never used Shrinky Dinks before and, much like stamps carving, I wasn't really looking forward to it. And yet, I had an ENORMOUS amount of fun! First of all, there were no blank Shrinky Dinks at my Michael's, so I got the imitation ones.

I really wanted to print on it and make key chains, but the printing didn't really work.

Then I tried using one of my cartoon drawings, but the markers smeared a LOT. I cooked this one anyway, just to see what happened - the shrank from 4x8 to 3x1.75 inches - WAY more than I thought it was going to shrink!

Next up: Suzi Stamps. This was the best yet.

Look what happened! How cute is THAT?!?

I'm gonna get some of the ink jet kind to try because I really want to make a YSM keychain!

Art Doll for 7-11-11

2011-07-18T00:03:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately this show's recording got lost in cyber space :( I started my doll on the show and finished it this last week. This is still a work in progress pic but thought I 'd share what I had so far. :)

I used a stamp of a sun with rays for her head and punched with a circle punch. I used polyester lace to glue to her arms with gel medium and trimmed the excess away when it was dry. After trimming I coated it again with the gel medium and it is on there really well. I used tulle for her skirt and sewed with embroidery thread to gather the skirt and just tied in a knot behind the doll.

She is mostly finished. I wanna put some sequins on her skirt in silver since she became a moon doll. I added patterned paper to her thighs and silver embossed her calves. I hope you guys got a chance to try art dolls. There is a gazillion things you can do and they are fun!! I think I might adds some wire and beads as rays coming from her head. I'll let you know!

Mail Art (from a while ago...) from Kelly

2011-07-17T23:40:00.000-07:00

This was one I created before the Mail Art show. It's 4x6 done with acrylic paint, stamps, embossing, masks and texture making (cardboard peeled apart) It was really fun. I chose a series of steps and we made them together. Each of ours came out so different!!

This one is a landscape one and I can't turn it around in blogger...sorry :) same steps as the other one only using different colors and papers. This one I did during the show and it was a blast to see what people were creating with us!

Ajae's "doll" ArT 7/11/11

2011-07-14T08:18:00.000-07:00

Well, just to say... I wasn't to terribly excited about the doll art concept...like Goog wasn't with the stamp carving. But we must try new things with an open mind, right? So when I sat down to ponder this project ... it slowly started to have an ajae twist on it. Alot of my art usually ends up reflecting something that's going on with me and my life at the time. And to say that I had been consumed with Devil for the past 7 days would be an understatement!
Turned out it was a total reprieve for me from being so sad and worried. I enjoyed the process, and am enamoured by my DeviL DoG ArT Doll♥

It all started when I saw the doll template Kelly posted.... I thought, why couldn't I make one for a dog!

So I started with a loose sketch of my Dev.....

Once I got it how I wanted it... I just sorta thought about how each moving piece would have to be shaped and where the brads would be located... then I traced each part separately onto tracing paper.

Then I flipped it over and graphited (word? hahaaa, I think not!) the back with a soft graphite pencil. I used the Design Ebony pencil. I love those and have used them since high school. Then I re-traced the template onto regular posterboard. The rougher side, not the slick side.

I started to cut it out, but decided to lay a little color down first with my prisma's. I don't know where the idea to add the art papers to it came from, it just popped into my head. So I started flippin' through my stash and when I saw the "i love you " paper... I knew.

I used the same tracing paper to mark and cut the art papers.

Then I glued the art papers to the corresponding pieces with liquitex matte medium. Then I cut them out!

I gotta confess, at this point I was having too much fun, and forgot to take any more pics! But what I did after I cut them all out is... shade each one more with primsa's and pan pastels. Then I sprayed workable fixative, as I always do when I use the pans.
Adding the brads was easy, just start the hole with something sharp ( xacto, small sharp sissors) and start small and make the hole only as big as nesseccary. Then stick in the brads... Easyyyy Peasyyy : )

OH! And I got my amazing mail art from Marilyn!!! Aka... Pippin, and Kelly Momma♥ I LOVE it, thank you so much Marilyn!! Here's a picture of them together!! ( if your reading this K Momma... yours is in the mail today, sorry so late!)

And a quick Devil dog update... she still has some "ruff" moments, but overall she has continued to improve over the last week, so we are hoping we are out of the woods so to speak for a good long while!!!

Love to all... from Ajae and the Devil♥

Art Schedule

2011-07-13T19:39:00.000-07:00

Hi, ladies! A few of you were wondering about the art schedule that Kelly makes me follow, so here it is:
Monday - You Suck Monday
Tuesday - Cartoon/Copic (we draw cartoons and color with expensive markers)
Wednesday - ATCs
Thursday - Petite/Portrait (in other words, Suzi stuff!)
Friday - UFOs (UnFinished Objects)
Weekends are for The Masters Program (we pick someone to study every month)

Feel free to use this or make your own. Having even a small goal for each day keeps us creating even on days we don't necessarily feel like it.

Goog 7/11/11

2011-07-11T23:04:00.000-07:00

Mine is a pretty loose interpretation of the word "doll", I'll admit. But I don't like dolls. At all. They're creepy. Now, if creepy is what you're going for, more power to ya. But that's NOT what we were going for, so here's what I did.

I got some foam board at Michael's. You can get HUGE sheets of it, but until I find a better way to cut it (and maybe get a car because it would have been awkward to try and get it home) I'm going to stick with the small ones. This was a bi-fold one that I cut in half so I had two 9x12 pieces.

Then I printed some pictures that I thought might be fun cutouts. I made them large enough to cover a letter sized piece of paper, left one color, made one black and white, and blended one. After it was printed I glued the paper onto the foam board with Golden Regular Gel and shoved it under my husband's (super heavy) laptop.

Then I cut around Mini Me with an Exacto knife and used sandpaper to smooth the rough edges. I would have preferred a nail file, but when I suggested that my husband snorted and said "Have you ever met you?" So, if you have a nail file (or a car to go to the store), that might be better - but I have no idea, since I've never tried it.

Then I glued a little extra piece of the foam board onto the back so Mini would stand upright. Hubby has decided he wants an office job (he's a chef), so he has a place to put it.

Is it a doll? Maybe not. I hope I don't get fired from You Suck Monday!

Art Doll Supply Ideas for July 11th, 2011

2011-07-09T00:33:00.000-07:00

Art Doll supplies are gonna be easy...tassels or fibers or yarn or crepe paper or fabric (for hair), card stock or cardboard to cut doll out of, scraps of patterned paper to make clothes, brads (for joints), scrap fabric and ribbon to make clothes...I'm sure I will think of more to post later but here's a start. If you have any ideas to add please post. We wanna hear 'um!! I will try to get a pattern for a basic doll posted that you can print off and cut out to be ready to play on Monday. See you then :)

Link to Recorded July 4th Podcast of Make Your Own Stencils

2011-07-05T16:19:00.000-07:00

http://www.linqto.com/PlaybackRoom.aspx?roomname=suziblu&name=SingleExplicit_2011_07_04_20_05_59_561

Goog 7/4/11

2011-07-04T21:25:00.001-07:00

I dunno why but we were kind of unprepared for today. This Monday snuck up on us! But we still played and had fun and here are some of my results!

Swirly tree:

The bird and birdcage were contact paper stencils cut out with Kelly's fancy die cut machines! The silhouette is just one of my own pictures - I cut it out and used the negative part for the silhouette. I don't use fancy brushes or anything, it's a Crayola cheapie brush and plain old black paint.

This one is the opposite - I taped the part I cut out down and painted around it with my fingers. The flower and leaves are contact paper stencils, too, cut with Kelly's magic machines.

Here is where I smashed the tree in my journal, the took it out and smashed the pages together.

Here are the journal pages open:

The tree is just laying there, but I wanna put it in there just like that, I love it! So much for a mask, I think I'm just going to stick it in. I love that it's imperfectly cut and that the black marker scratched off in places!

This is one I've had in my head for a long time. It's a picture of Mini Me, of course, and I didn't do it right. I have to figure out the positive/negative space and how to cut it out paint and layer it all correctly...

That's the picture I used, after I altered it so I could use it. I really wanna make this work, but it's hard for my brain to figure out how to do the layers!

Next Monday: Stencils

2011-07-01T21:47:00.000-07:00

We're going to try making our own by any and all means. Come and play along with us!!

MaiL♥Art...6/27/11...ajae

2011-06-29T15:49:00.000-07:00

Alrighty then....how much fun was that!! I love monkey see monkey do with Kelly!! We will definitely have to do more art in steps like that. And I was thrilled that so many decided to participate and share on cam. Thanks to each and everyone of you : )

Okay, I did manage to capture in progress pics of the first one I did. But not the one we did "live", I was too busy scrambling to just achieve something. On that note, I work at a much slower pace than Kel and Goog. They popped out two to my one both times. But I think this is worth a mention because it just proves that everyone works differently. Try not to chastise the way YOU work. Do I wish I was faster, sure, but I realize that I may never get faster... I suspect it's just the way I'm wired.

I started with a card stock blank card from ac moore, and trimmed it to the proper size. Splashed on a first coat of color.... notice I wasn't very careful and even left some white to show through. Then Kelly said it was time for texture, so that's when I decided to use the piece of lace and sequin waste.

The card warped a bit , then got flat again as it dried. But in the end it did still warp a bit, I think I may adhere it to another card to sturdy it up before mailing.

Next up, text paper. Mine was from and old book. I tore it into a heart shape, deepened the edges with a prisma colored pencil, and then added texture on top of it.

More texture and stamping.... I forgot what my base color was, but at this point the accent colors I used for the texture were two walnut ink sprays in walnut and terra cotta. I rubbed Golden's quinacridone nickel azo gold with my finger in the sequin waste holes.

Next up add tissue paper... pretty self explanatory, I loVe this paper and can't remember where I got it, I think it may have been a gift.

Then I added my pressed pansies (from my garden :) and yes, I used the golden matte medium, just multiple coats, then some more stamping here and there.

Then pretty much done, but I new I needed some purple somewhere else .... so that's when I used a purple pan pastel to shade around some of the elements..

I think I still fiddle farted around with it some, but basically this was what I ened up with...

Here's the one from the live broadcast.

I added some rub-ons across the top and right side. It could use some tweaking I think, and it's not my usual color pallet, but it's all about trying new things on YSM, right!?

Thanks a bunch again for playing with us ya'll. I may be be mia next Monday due to July 4th festivities with the fam. But hoping I'll be able to make it. If I don't see you then, I hope everyone has a happy and safe Independents Day!!!!! Go USA♥ xo's... ajae

Goog 6/27/11 - Mail Art!

2011-06-28T10:55:00.000-07:00

OK, I'm usually WAY better at taking "in progress" pics but today all you get is the finished ones! These are the ones I did tonight:

It's a 4x6 piece of PopTarts box, paint, book text, tissue paper, an owl stamp, a lil chunk of scrapbook paper, and the girl stamp I carved. The photo is crystal clear on my phone and looks like ass here - I have no idea why!

This one I messed up a little. The stamp wasn't clear, so I tried to RE-stamp. Never a good idea. It came out decent, but not good enough to send anyone, so I put it in a journal.

Believe it or not, we Suckers are a little camera shy and so before YSM we always have a "meeting" on skype. Since we were doing an art-a-long, Kelly being the teacher, she wanted to practice first, so here are the practice ones:

Same process, but this was a brownie box:

(The goal was to have one portrait and one landscape, that's why there's two.)

And since I'm not a paint-waster (user yes, I have no problem using my supplies, but I don't like to waste them) I started on my July/August journal cover and sort of did what I was doing for the Mail Art.

I really love the journal cover and Mini Me calls it "your journal with the pretty cover".

If you want to actually mail your Mail Art, you have until NEXT MONDAY to send me your address at aguarino87@yahoo.com. Do not send it to Facebook, do not text it to me. Email. If it's not in my email by next Monday at midnight, you're SOL. (That's Shit Out of Luck for anyone who didn't have high school teachers like Mrs. S.) I do NOT make exceptions and I live in Minnesota, which is Central Time. By 12:15am next Monday everyone will have a partner and I will email you ONLY your partner's address. After that, it is OUT OF MY HANDS. I will not be held responsible for anyone who doesn't send mail or doesn't receive mail. Just mail it and let it go.

Mail Art-A-Long for 6-27-11

2011-06-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

Kelly is going to be prompting us tonight to make a 4x6 postcard to mail to each other!! If you wanna participate, here is a list of some thing we might use:

A substrate of some kind - we're going to be using thin chipboard, we like to recycle our cereal boxes!
Paint
Collage medium
Glue stick
Patterned paper
Ephemera
Something to make texture with (bubble wrap, corrugated cardboard, etc)
Stamps and ink
Stencils or masks

Don't worry about things like: what kind of paint, ink, collage medium, etc. We're just going to use what we've got and have a silly time. And THEN when we're done, we're going to mail our sucky postcards to each other! Sound fun? Grab what you got and suck along with us tomorrow at 6PM Pacific, 8PM Central and 9PM Eastern. Hope you can play along !!!

Kelly's Show and Tell 6-20-11

2011-06-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

Moley (moleskin art journal) Etherial Girl

Flower Pounding: How mad do you have to be to beat up flowers?

Homemade opaque sprays with acrylic ink and gesso/ glaze mixture using masks

Illustration Friday Prompt -Launch..."You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment." Henry David Thoreau

WIP

OOOhhh!!! this was fun!!!! I got some pouring medium and some pouring bottles and mixed some iridescent air brush paint into it and the cool thing is it dries like it's wet and it's dimensional!! I am very amused by this and have much more playing to do!

Kelly "Crazed" Stamp Carving 6-20-11

2011-06-24T10:24:00.000-07:00

For those of you who were at our podcast on Monday you saw me start to carve this pretty girl...clearly something went awry!!! She was pretty to start with I swear but not all of us possess Goog's magical stamp carving mojo. The crazy thing is that I really like her!! I know she looks like she belongs in "TheScream" painting...I know she looks like she has lost her mind...but in a good kinda way :)

I like her so much I am going to do a print of her and enter her into the MN state fair. It is a juried exhibition so I will let you know if she gets chosen!!

This is how she started out

I was still doing okay here. The thinking in negative space vs positive space was very difficult for me. Especially the eyes!! Look at first picture heehee!

Lets move to a another attempt at stamp carving :)

This is a polymer eraser for like .89 cents. I drew it on the top and carved around it. I could have carved away the extra lines but i left them cause I liked it. It gave it some character

I'm not gonna give up on making a pretty girl stamp! I am working on the next one already. I had Goog hold my hand for the eyes and hopefully she will come out pretty! I'll let you know what happens!!

Ajae... stampcarving love ♥ 6/20/11

2011-06-23T20:00:00.000-07:00

Wow! That was fun! I'm just stoked over Goog enjoying it when she thought she wouldn't!! First of all I wanna apologize for being such a goober on camera... it's fun... but new : ) I'd love to see more of ya'll pop on... even if it's just to show us your dog/cat/kid... whatever and just say HI!
And just to reiterate... we are just a group of crazy... easy going.. fun loving girls... flying by the seat of our pants... having a good time because we love ART. That's it... no pressure or crazy expectations here, just us doing what we want to because it's FUN to us : )

Anyway... about the carving! Of course I started off silly with the potatoes... but it brought back memories for me, and I thought it would show that anyone can stamp carve even with out stamp carving materials. The main thing with spuds is... after carving, they are pretty wet and you have to give them enough time to air dry (not in the oven on 250, they warped) before they will grab the pigment. That takes a while, over night would probably be good, and then you can use them for at least a day or two.

This was my favorite tater... And just to show ya'll even though it seems silly... you really CAN use them in your journals!

This journal page was from our YSM transfer suckage day : ) But I love this page, and know it will be awesome when I'm done with it.
Oh... and theses were the tools I used. They are clay tools you can get from all the typical craft/art stores.

OH! and talk about silly... I forgot about the breast- pad- stamp- art! For this I just used a small pair of sharp scissors. Goog teases Kelly and I cuz we repurpose things. I guess this is a good example of that, hahaaa!

All right now... the real deal! What I decided to do was use this journal sketch of my Devildog hound. And yes, that is her real name and she lives up to it regularly! So... I got a piece of tracing paper and traced it with a soft graphite pencil, I used a 4B. The soft graphite makes it possible to transfer onto the carving block.

Then flip the tracing paper face down on your block and burnish it. I used a brayer.

The block and the carving tool I used was by Speedball and I got them from Michaels.

Then you just dive in and start carving! I find the carving process very meditative to me and relaxing......

As you progress, it's really helps to go ahead and ink and stamp it, as it shows you what parts still need to be removed.

Almost complete... TADAAAH! If you haven't tried it... give it a go, it's sooo fun!

Special thanks to everyone who checked in on us last YSM! It was soooo much fun sucking at stampcarving : ) Xo ajae

Goog 6/20/11 - Stamps!

2011-06-21T19:05:00.000-07:00

OK, I told all of our listeners this the other night - I had ZERO desire to do this. I'm not a stamper. I don't make cards, probably because I don't SAVE cards (that's right, people, if you send me a card it ends up in the trash) and the only stamping I do is underlayers for paintings. OK, I will confess that Kelly has an amazingly impressive stamp collection and I have been known to stamp a whole bunch of mermaids and make them into bookmarks and stuff like that. Anyway, I didn't wanna do this. I stressed about it ALL week, which defeats the purpose of YSM in the first place. But you should hear some of the things I've talked Kelly and Ajae into doing. So, they both really wanted to carve stamps and it was my turn to go along with what they wanted to do for once!

When I was pretty sure I couldn't carve stamps, I thought "Aha! I'll just do what me & Suzi learned at CHA with the marshmallows!" So I took a bunch of them and got started. All you do is heat it up with your heat tool (don't hold the marshmallow, the heat tool is TOO HOT and you'll burn yourself) until you can see the surface start to change. It gets a little shiny, but DON'T let it get to the "toasted marshmallow" point - that's too toasty. When the surface changes, mash something into it.

Heart brad:

Wedding cake brad:

This is a stamp of a stamp, I mashed it onto my text stamp:

The bat symbol (I mashed it on Batman's chest):

Then I was SO chicken to do this that Ajae, Kelly, and I had to be on skype together. This is the speedball rubber I started with, it's 3 inches by 4 inches.

This is a girl I drew in my journal in PEN - there was no erasing, no lining up of the features, just an imperfect girl. I printed her picture on plain old #20 paper, then traced over the lines with a regular #2 mechanical pencil.

To transfer her onto the rubber, I just put the paper face down and burnished it with my iPhone 3G. No special tools, nothing difficult.

Then I carved:

Stamped:

Carved some more:

And now I LOVE her!!

Here is a link to the tool and to the rubber. I got my tools and blocks and marshmallows at Michael's, and I had to ask where all of them were! If you've ever wanted to make your own stamps, now is the time!!

She still looks pretty bad...

2011-06-16T07:15:00.000-07:00

It was HARD to get a good picture of her, so I'm just posting a shitty one. The magenta paint is SUPER freaking shimmery, the head is flesh-colored, and the wings are iridescent. But she still looks like crap!

HOWEVER - I enjoyed working with paper clay and will be getting some next week with my 40% off Michael's coupon.

Kelly 6-13-11 Podcast Journal Page

2011-06-14T15:31:00.000-07:00

So while sucking with my suckey You Suck Monday peeps in the podcast I did this journal page. I'm still into spraying color using masks, stencils anything really. What I did here was smooched some paperclip into a random spot on the paper, stamped into it with a polka dot stamp and baked it in the oven. I used my own colorwash sprays and some glimmer mists to mix some color up . I'm not done with it, but so far I'm liking where it is going! I'll post more pics when I finish it :)

Kelly 6-13-11 Bang Head Here!

2011-06-14T13:15:00.000-07:00

You Suck Monday podcast was fun!! If you missed it...we missed you! We will try to get a link to the recorded podcast on the site...We were playing with Creative paperclay...or any clay you happened to have on hand.

This is my art journal page "Bang Head Here". I made it by smearing the paperclay into my paper, stonehenge 90lb print making paper, (my current fave for art journaling). I put saran wrap over the top and rolled a little with my brayer but not too much. I didn't want it to be even. I used a fondant mold from Michaels cake deco section and pushed it into the paperclip. It sploodged out in the center which was a happy accident seeing as that became the space where clearly I have banged my head many times. I baked it at 250 in the oven on a cookie sheet for 15 minutes because I am not a patient person :).

This was what it looked like before the black wall. I used Tim Holtz Distress ink in Fired Brick, appropriate huh?. I didn't tape down this one on the cookie sheet in the oven. I just threw it on there but wrinkles don't bother me :) If wrinkles bother you, tape the corners down with masking tape before you bake in oven.

I took a stiff brush and pounced it into my weathered wood distress ink pad and ran it between the bricks on the wall. I didn't want white mortar cause the wall is worn and well used :) It got a lil too dark so with a liner brush i picked up some gesso and mixed it with water and softened it up a bit.

The page isn't done yet. I'm thinking of putting some more grafiti on the wall. But I love it!!!

Sent from my HTC on the Now Network from Sprint!

Goog 6/13/11

2011-06-13T20:42:00.000-07:00

I am someone who is OK with limitations. I can't use real clay. I tried, remember? I think most of my problem is I can't knead it. I have an issue with my right hand and arm that prevents me from that kind of thing. Paper clay is a wonderful solution. I really want to make clay stuff! I really, really, really do. So this is a start.

Aluminum foil, a skewer, thin cardstock, and duct tape (it's not "duck", people)

Wings - I just pressed it flat using a bottle of acrylic paint as a rolling pin and cut them out with the edge of those green scissors you can see in the corner (25 cents at Wal-Mart)

Clay over the cardstock/foil/skewer "figure"

This is it with the wings attached, laying on the roll of tape with bits of foil wedged under it so it dries in the position I want it to:

Tomorrow, I'll paint it and see if I like it! So far I think it's pretty cute, and it's exactly what I had in my head so I was successful in that regard. I think I'm going to try and do a more stylized face next time, with features. Maybe. We'll see. Baby steps.

Goog 6/6/11 Part 2

2011-06-08T09:02:00.000-07:00

i know, sequels are never as good at the first one...BUT I think in this case part 2 might win. I let a BUNCH of transfers dry completely. Not overnight, like I was originally thinking. The way yo tell if it's completely dry is to touch it. Is it cool to the touch? If so, it's not dry. If it's just room temp, you're good to go!

This is on muslin:

Fabriano paper with matte:

Fabriano paper with gloss:

Left one is gloss, right one is matte:

I would say that I like the gloss better for this because it doesn't leave the surface glossy but it's easier to tell when all the paper is off because the texture change is greater. I wish you guys KNEW how BIG an accomplishments this is for me! I've sucked at this for YEARS!! Yay Goog!

Goog 6/6/11 - Transfers!

2011-06-06T19:39:00.000-07:00

I think this was the most fun YSM yet. For those of you who weren't there, we linqto'd and it was awesome stuff.

So, here's the deal. I used THIS:

I got gloss AND matte - there is absolutely NO noticeable difference. (But Goog, how is that possible? I have no idea, it just is what it is.)

Here is the result on canvas board:

Stonehenge #90 printmaking paper:

Muslin:

So far paper = good, NOT paper = not good. I have a gloss and a matte on each of the same surfaces to see if letting it completely dry makes a difference. I'll update then!

Attention all suckers!

2011-06-05T07:11:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we're going to suck at TRANSFERS! Please get whatever you've been wanting/trying/failing to transfer and join us. It's going to be sucky goodness. Or at least sucky fun.

Kelly May 23rd, 2011 On making ugly backgrounds

2011-05-31T20:22:00.000-07:00

So I struggle with things, all kinds of things but for right now I'll talk about my struggle covering up a "pretty" background. I start a background, I like it, then I don't want to cover it up with anything. This puts a damper on my layering process which I suck at and have been trying to work thru. So...here's what I was thinking, If I make an ugly background on purpose, I can work at layers and not get stuck and finally leap this chasm that is preventing me from layering, something I want to be good at. Here is my attempt at making an ugly background...

I used Radiant Rain daubers, made dots and then just smeared. I drizzled some gesso over the greens, sprayed the whole thing with homemade color wash...

Then I took a paint brush and covered the whole mess with pearlized teal air brush paint, except i got a dribble and took a napkin to dab it off. Guess what? Cool colors showed through where I had removed the paint with the dry napkin. Because I couldn't stop myself.... I stamped with white ink over the top and then....it wasn't ugly any more and I am back at square one!!!

I like how this came out. I like the process of not expecting a successful outcome. IT WAS FUN!!! I guess I will have to try to conquer this layering issue of mine another way. Hope everyone had a great memorial day weekend!

FABRIC! Goog 5/30/11

2011-05-31T06:17:00.001-07:00

I really, really, REALLY want to paint on fabric and have fabric journals and make stuff with fabric. I quilt and I've made tons of costumes for plays and blah, blah, blah...but this was FUN...

I just laid down some stencils and sprizted some Rit dyes I made over them. I fucking LOVE it. Things went a bit awry after this because I wanted the colors to sort of bleed into the white parts (it's not really white, it's cream colored) so they weren't so STARK. I added a little too much water and everything went kinds cloudy. But I'm gonna do this AGAIN because I love it. And I'm getting fabric paints.

Goog 5/23/2011

2011-05-23T20:03:00.000-07:00

WOW, this was a good one. I mean a sucky one. I have an idea in my head, I swear. it's a little hard to explain it...

Here's the "head"...

I rolled it out with a wine bottle like I do with cookie dough (yeah, yeah, buy a rolling pin):

Head on a skewer, "body" ready for clay wrapping...

The red one was REALLY HARD to knead (and I have nerve damage in my right hand so it took FOREVER). I smashed me text stamp into it to give it a pretty cool texture, then wrapped it around the foil shape.

WTF, right? Why was I thinking it would smooth out with the clay on it?? I threw it out, all of it. I apparently can't use "real" clay. I'm going to try it again with paper clay...

Ajae's Box : )

2011-05-23T14:41:00.000-07:00

Hey Ya'll!! I'm happy to report that I woke up feeling fairly optimistic and happy for it being a Monday. It was refreshing, cuz usually I'm dragging and feel pretty indigo.... Funny also because I had alot of work and catch up to do ( unpack, a ton of laundry, put away food, clean out coolers... etc...) as we had been out of town on a camping trip since last Thursday. On top of that I lost my phone charger cord. So.. I'm late with my YSM shenanigans....

Anyway.... about the ART BOX project...as usual I'm not finished with my box yet...but got the backround going to my satisfaction. I loved doing this, it was so fun and will for sure be doing it again. here it is so far....

One of the things Goog and I figured out is that we probably should have used more bags. I don't recall if Kelly thought the same ( her box was bigger I think) but Goog and I both used three. It was fine, it stands up and all but I think adding even just one more may have helped it seem more stable, or substantial.

The first layer of color turned out a little like puke yellow, but Kelly was kind and insisted it was golden rod, hahaaa!
Oh, and I gessoed it first, so you can see the textured lines on the box. It bugged me at first... but then it grew on me.

Then I added a cobalt teal and another greeny color and got this... then I used a cotton ball and gave it a hint of a border around it with a burnt umber.

Then a text stamp... Walaah! I'm thinking about painting my dog(s) on it : )
So it's getting late in the day... and I haven't had time to You Suck yet! Goog wanted to do clay... I picked some up when I went to get a new phone charge cord, so maybe tonight we'll goof around with it!

I hope everyone has a great week!! xo ajae

Kelly May 23rd, 2011

2011-05-23T07:11:00.000-07:00

Ahh, Monday...we meet again. This Monday I greet with enthusiasm as it means my lil boys are off to school and it will be quiet for a blessed 6 1/2 hours. We missed the tornadoes here in Minneapolis yesterday and had no damage from the killer storms. I'm feeling grateful for that :)

I have been MIA for a few Mondays here but they have sucked for other reasons besides art gone awry. I have these conditions that all seem to be represented by letters. FMS, MPS and CFS and if that wasn't enough we shall throw CTD in there just to make things interesting. I do need to confess that one of the Mondays I was in Southern California with my sister. That Monday didn't suck at all.

So in the spirit of the YSM club...I am going to admit that I have been sucking at suckiness. I did play with the trash box project and have a few pics to share today.

I want to say that trash art has become one of my favorite surfaces to play with. There's no expectations, no preconceived notions of attained grandeur with my trash cause well...it's trash. I chose a popcorn box to paint on. Its destiny will be to adorn my daughter's desk at work when I finish it. Turns out she loved my trashy poppy art :)

Goog 5/16/11

2011-05-17T06:05:00.001-07:00

Un-oh, I didn't post yesterday - I suck!! :) Ajae and I sucked together yesterday (skype is a wonderful invention) and here is what I did:

I stuffed my box with three grocery bags, but I think it could have used another!

Masking tape to close it up!

I hate gesso, so this is just a little white paint, sloppily applied.

I suck again because I forgot to take pics of the next two layers! First I used a light yellow, then a teal, and then because every project should have a little, quinacridone magenta. Then I used a big stamp to just sort of add a lil something - it's HARD to stamp on a box.

Then I used a toothbrush to add some speckles...

Got a few on my brand new netbook...

AND my crackers...

And that's where it is right now. I'm not sure what I'm going to add. I was thinking of using my Suzi stamp (stamping her, coloring, and putting her on with Pop Dots so she stood out a little) but the stamp is twice the size of the box!! So, we'll see where it goes, if anywhere.

Ajae... 5-16-11

2011-05-16T10:46:00.000-07:00

Hey All Ya'll YSM'ers... like they're soooo many of ya'll, hahaa, never the less... here we are!

Last Monday REALLY did suck, well..except for Kelly. She was mia because she was on her way home from having a fun vacy in Cali. But poor Goog had a sick munchkin, and I was also sick as the dickens.... I think everyone is on the mend now though, thank goodness.
But I did manage a little art in honor of our YSM. I decided to try a method with conte' crayons that Pam Carriker does. She has a tutorial that she did for Strathmore Visual Journal's on youtube if you want to check it out here.
I hadn't used conte' crayons since high school, and remember not really diggin' it back then. But I've had so much fun smudging graphite to shade lately... I thought I'd give it a go. They take a little getting use to, because they're like these square little sticks, but I ended up really liking it.

I started with just a basic girl, and just layed down the shadows with the black conte' crayon.

Then I justed smudged them all out. I mean really smudge!! I used a paper towel at first, but then switched to cotton balls, which I liked better. (I also used a 6B graphite pencil, a blending stump, a kneaded eraser, and a .05 zig millennium black pen.) I think she looks a little alien like here, but she gets better.

The main idea is to use the conte' crayon for all the depth and shading, then "lift" the color back off the page with your kneaded eraser to create your highlights. Keep working it back and forth and layer until you start to get something that you like. I should have taken more pictures of that part of the process, but when I get going and forget to!!

Then I added some words and journaling to her with my zig pen. This is taken with my hipstamatic camera app on my iphone that I'm totally smitten with. I play with it everyday....

Anyway, I kept going back and forth with the shadow's and highlights.... and I knew I still wasn't done, but not still not sure where to take her. I decided to print out a picture of one of my camilla blooms from my garden, and print it out in sepia tones and loved the way it looked.... So then I decided to incorporate sepia into the whole piece. I also deepened the flower and leaf shadows with the conte' crayons. (they come in sepia tones also.)

For the backround I also used some pan pastels in the same colors. She's still not finished... something more in the backround I think, we'll see. It takes me forever when I get to this point with something....

This week I want to try this.............it looks so fun!! I found this on Youtube a long time ago... and always wanted to give it a go! I love projects that have no real rules, just art play : ) The artist is Megan Hoover. Here's Part One:

Here's Part Two:

Have a great YSM ya'll.... xo ajae

Goos is multi-talented...

2011-05-09T21:04:00.000-07:00

Here is how you suck at taking your kid to the doctor.

Step 1: You don't have health insurance and for some reason Minnesota has a HORRIBLE program for kids so the "doctor" is really a PA in the Minute Clinic at Target.

Step 2: You don't know that the clinic opens an hour later than the store on Saturdays. So you have your husband drop you off at 8am - hours before the rest of the mall is open, so even though you're AT the mall, there's no where to go to wait for the clinic to open.

Step 3: You decide to go to Starbucks to wait and have breakfast.

(An emormous cookie and iced green tea make everything better)

Step 4: When you get BACK to the clinic three minutes after it's open, the PA tells you that it's going to be at least an hour before she can see you.

Step 5: Have a really cute kid so she takes a look at his puffy red eye and tells you to try some allergy drops. :)

Step 6: Feed the kid some more. (Apparently allergies make you tired and hungry.)
Step 7: Make the kid walk 1.5 miles home (at least I squirted him in the eye with the juice first, right?) while he tells you over and over that he's tired and asks fifteen thousand times about his friend Wormie that is just a worm that was on the sidewalk LAST time you guys walked to the mall and is now a dried-out dead string on the sidewalk but who he's in love with and blows kisses to when you walk or drive past the spot where you saw him.

The End

Goog 5/2/11

2011-05-02T20:09:00.000-07:00

Here is today's YSM project:

I know what you're thinking. "So what? It's just another journal. Everyone makes those."

Well, this was my first time using coptic stitch on the covers. Usually I just bind the paper block together and then I make the covers and glue the block to the covers. And to make sure I have enough thread, I measure the length of the book times how many signatures plus one. So since THIS book is five sigs, I measured six lengths of thread. (OK, the first time I only measured two lengths, but I realized I was an idiot BEFORE I started and cut a new piece of thread.) So, five sigs, six lengths of thread - that sounded right to me. The problem? I had to sew the COVERS, too! So I'm sewing on the back cover and I realize it's not going to be enough thread. I decide to just ADD some thread and I tie on another piece. Square knot, of course, everyone's always talking about how strong square knots are. The first time I tug the string, the knot comes apart. Now I have to pull the thread back a few stitches and re-tie it. It worked that time, but still, who's the idiot who's bound a million journals and still can't manage to do it right? Me. That's right people.

Ajae is a messy mess...

2011-05-02T16:48:00.000-07:00

Alrighty then! Here it is, another YSM : ) Funny story, Well, not really, but I couldn't sleep this morning and was up at 5:00 ( this almost never happens to me ) But I thought to myself,... "Hey! Lets go get a head start on a U suck project for today!" Well the second I set foot in the art room, which I like to call Slydog Studio, but almost never do...... I knew that wasn't happening any time soon.
Truth is, not only does my slydog studio suck on this Monday.... It's quite sucky most days, as I am not the most organized person in the world. And once I get going, things just tend to get pushed around and buried. But this I know about me, and try not to get too cranky with myself over it.

This is an older photo, but more often than not, this is what my work table looks like. This is about what it looked like this morning, but I didn't take a picture before because at the time I didn't realize I would be sharing this nonsense.

This is on a much better day... with my steadfast friend Jezebell keeping me company as she often does along with other fine feathered friends : )

This is it today after I policed it all up. This is where all my U suck projects get started. On days it works out I skype with Goog and Kel on my little netbook you see there on the right. Hasn't been the case today yet, but hopefully later : ) I'll post a pic later if we do! Have a great YSM everyone! We'd love to hear about your YSM experiements!! xo ajae

And then there was Ajae....

2011-04-25T08:17:00.000-07:00

You Suck Monday has changed my life... hahahaa! Seriously though.... I NEVER did ANY art on Mondays before Goog and Kel decided to include (drag) me. I always go straight into a funk on Mondays and promptly throw a personal pity party because every week my husband has to leave because he works out of town, and doesn’t return till late Thursday evening. It totally blows, as we’ve been living like this for 2 years now...blah,blah..that’s another story.

Anyway... I knew my friends, Goog and Kelly, had come up with the YSM concept and were having alot fun with it. They knew that I knew about it.... but I just thought I’d be a debbie downer and ruin for them. But you know what? That didn’t happen... they let me play anyway! Even when I’m kinda quiet and don’t always follow the rules : )

But that’s the whole point of YSM.... Your totally off the hook, always with a “get out of jail for free card”...no matter WHAT you do or try!! This is such a freeing concept, especially for those of you who may be like me, I struggle desperately with "perfectionist syndrome". This is an awful characteristic for artists because it can stop you dead in your tracks. When I start really liking something I’ve done, I totally freeze up, terrified that I’ll ruin it for sure!

What YSM has done for me is, not only does it get me out of my funk on Monday’s... I’m actually doing more art and trying new things. It’s helping me learn to get over the hurdle when I feel too terrified to make another mark. I’m soooo glad that Goog and Kelly didn’t give up on me : ) They are truly good, silly, easy, fun friends!

I hope all ya’ll decide to give YSM a go! I know you’ll like and it can really help you grow!!! Try something new for the simple sake of trying it... it may turn out dreadful... or it may turn out mediocre... or it may turn out great! Either way it doesn’t even matter...because it’s YOU SUCK MONDAY!!!!!!!!! But one thing is for sure, you are guaranteed to learn something from each and everything single thing you try! xo's... ajae

Here is a YSM project that I ended up really liking! The theme was trash art, it was suppose to be done on a brown paper lunch baggy, but I had to break the rules and do it on an old envelope. ( I swear I didn’t have one ya’ll ) I’m still playing with her and will probably put her one of my journals : )

Any Given Monday...

2011-04-18T16:42:00.000-07:00

Some things are universal...like the fact that Mondays suck. For me they are a sharp contrast to the weekends filled with people, chaos and sound. Mondays are a quick departure from six people in the house to one, me.

Transitions are a challenge for me and Sundays to Mondays are one of the ones I don't like. I am always slightly off balance on Mondays, like the earth's axis is slightly out of whack, and I feel kinda lost. My friend Goog, you met her last Monday, and I usually take the opportunity to do something we haven't done before and it's totally okay to suck at it. On any given Monday we could be painting, drawing, whining, complaining, stamping, scrapbooking, laughing. Whatever it is..it's okay because it's YSM.

We drug our friend Ajae in with us, you'll meet her next Monday. In fact, now we look forward to You Suck Mondays. We aren't attached to the outcome, we play with abandon and sometimes some really cool stuff comes out of it, but if not, no worries...its YSM!!

By the way, I'm Kelly and welcome to You Suck Monday!!!

This is a journal page from one of our Mondays where we were playing Donna Downey style. It's not someplace I would have traveled on my own, but I wanted to play along. I was a little nervous to drip. You can't predict the outcome! It was a blast and this became one of my favorite journal pages.

The Beginning - Goog

2011-04-11T17:02:00.000-07:00

Monday is one of "those" days. It doesn't make sense for me, personally, to think of Monday any different than any other day. I'm a stay-at-home mom, so it's not "back to work" and my kid only goes to school on Tuesday and Thursday, so it's not even "back to school". Weekends have NO affect on my life whatsoever, so why would Monday be a day that I dread? But for some reason Mondays suck. Even for me.

One Monday I spent all day working on a face that just never quite looked right. I whined and complained all day to Kelly. The next Monday, the same thing. Neither of us were happy, nothing we tried to do came out right, we were just not happy people. So we decided to just accept Mondays as a day that we were just NOT good at stuff. Don't expect anything awesome on Mondays.

Then came the genius idea - why not use Mondays as an "experiment" day? Every artist has things they want to try but are scared to or don't have time to or make up some excuse not to. Since misery loves company, we dragged Ajae into YSM, too.

The three of us sometimes decide on something we're going to suck at - one Monday we were studying Donna Downey, so we all made drippy paintings. Sometimes we all do our own thing and just keep each other company. We laugh. We paint. We forget that we're supposed to suck.

This is what I sucked at today:

I worked on that piece of canvas on a different day and it's been sitting around for WEEKS because it was so ugly I didn't know what to do with it. Now I'm going to turn it into a journal cover! Success!!

We would LOVE for you to join us on You Suck Monday...