Day Five's challenge word was "Energy" and since this was Sunday for me, I was inspired to show how we use our weekends for "renewing" our energy by keeping things simple, by not having any plans and just hanging out. I knew that I wanted my page to be "soft" and relaxing as our Sundays usually are.
Every day of the challenge, Rhonna provides us with wonderful word art and digital art work for us to use while participating. After finding a gorgeous background paper that had the soft colors I wanted, golden yellow and white damask, I wanted to use the word art "energy" as a transparency on top of the damask paper. So after re-sizing the word art, I printed it out on my laser printer and then put a piece of "clear packing tape" on top of the printed word art.
Next, I placed the taped word in a cup of water and let it soak for about 5 minutes.
Be patient...and remember that this only works with laser printers and not with ink-jets printers. After it has finished soaking, you can remove it and blog it dry with a towel and begin "rubbing" the white printer paper off of the back side of the taped image.
You can see here that the first layer comes off fairly easy...if the paper is still resisting...then plop it back into the water and let it keep soaking.
Sorry for the "fuzzy" photo...but you can see here that the white paper all comes off in time and you will have a totally transparent image to use on your artwork. If the image is still "cloudy" then you need to keep soaking and rubbing...but it's worth it in the end.
Here you can see how I mounted my image right on top of my inspiration paper. Next I'm going to talk about how I prepared my background in my journal. This is called "direct-to-paper" in the stamping world...and I love these "chalk" inks for this technique. You just take the mini-ink pad or "spots" or "cat-eyes" as they are also called depending on the type of ink. I prefer chalk or pigment inks because they do not dry right away and can be blended with your fingers for a really soft look.
Next I went looking for some collage images for my two pages in my journal...which means that it is a good time to show you how I organize my collage images. This above photo shows you my two accordion files which I used to "sort" the different types of images that I like to collect.
The tall black accordion file is from when I taught "Dream Workshops" and large magazine images and articles are sorted here under categories such as, Things I Want To Do, Places I want to Go, Things I Want To Buy...etc. The smaller file has images sorted by art themes, such as Seascapes, Landscapes, Animals, Flowers, Women, Historical, etc.
In the back of this file are man-illa envelopes with "themes" for mini-albums or collages that I want to complete at some point...so when I find a real inspiring image, I just put it in these envelopes until I'm ready to get creative. Right now by DH is shaking his head at me and calling me a "Geek"...lol
For years I have been a magazine fanatic and have always saved tear sheets from them. When we travel and I'm going to work on my artwork...these two accordion folders come with me. DH makes fun of me because when we stay in hotels...I tear apart the "free" magazines...like I don't have enough already...SOMEBODY STOP ME...like that's ever gonna happen...lol OKAY BACK TO THE CHALLENGE:
Once you have found your images, place them on your pages and find an arrangement that is pleasing to you...this is when it is so cool to have a digital camera...cause just like when you scrapbook...once you pick these images up to put your adhesive on the back of them...you are never gonna get them back where you originally had them...unless you want to make "pencil" registration marks...but I can't stand to take the time and BETTER DONE THAN PERFECT...and if you snap a digital photo...you've got a cheat peak.
(Ooops...sorry for the flash here on this photo)...Once you have adhered your images you are ready to journal and add any other ephemera that you like. I like mixing up the "abc" journal stamps for titles and my old fashioned black "dynamo" labels. I almost always "ink" the edges of my clipped images and my papers and add charcoal pencil to create depth and dimension. When I journal...I sometimes use pencil for placement...but I get bored with that and just start writing...this is for me and I don't care about spelling...whatever! Here's a close-up of the left side:
AND last but not least...close-up of the right side:
This was a long post and I hope you all enjoyed it...this type of collage art is my favorite and I find it so relaxing when I journal like this...it RENEWS MY ENERGY!
I love the rub-on technique and your journal pages turned out so nice! Thanks for visiting my blog!
Sandy xox
Posted by: Sandy | September 15, 2009 at 02:18 PM
Hi Roberta
I enjoyed your blog post today. It made me giggle...firstly because my DH does the same..he doesn't get how I could enjoy pasting, sticking, etc! The other thing is the magazine thing...I too LOVE tearing up magazines. In fact...guilty confession coming up...I sometimes buy a magazine cos I see some awesome pictures in it I KNOW will look just great in a collage!! I feel like a ferret or a hamster sometimes the way I tear up magazines-ha ha!
The other thing is I love your explanations and photos of things, I have learned a few new things from your blog like the way you can create your own rub-ons using clear tape!! Now, I need to get myself an laser printer!! Have a great day! Thank you for your kind comments always, so appreciate it! I think I found a blogging buddy for keeps in you!
Posted by: Bonnie | September 15, 2009 at 11:58 AM