An Army of Valentines!

This year, I sent out a small fleet of Valentine's cards.  I was inspired by a collection of commercial pop-up cards I saw in the grocery store. I researched how to make box cards, and created a prototype based on the beauty of bare tree limbs branching.

I sketched the first card, and cut out the spaces between branches with an X-Acto knife.

I painted the branches with watercolors.  When the paint had dried, I painted the interior of the card a mix of Permanent Rose, Alizarin Crimson, and Pyrrol Red.

Once I had one card complete, I traced more copies, then cut & painted them as I had done for the first.

Then, I used double-stick tape to close up each box.  You can see the overlap in the photo below on the bottom right of the picture.

The end result was a collection of Valentines, each with their own quirks, but all quite similar.

What would you like to create a series of?

Happy Creating!

Painted Collage Papers for Care December!

I recently discovered artist, teacher and art journaler Kasia Avery on YouTube.  She has a delightfully enthusiastic teaching style that makes creating easy & fun.

If you haven't seen Care December, her free art journaling class yet, you can check it out here:

https://www.everything-art.com/p/care-december-23

In preparation for participating in Care December, I followed two of Kasia's YouTube videos on making papers of your own design and colors for art journaling. These are the videos I followed to create all of these painted papers. 

Video 1: https://youtu.be/78hXnnl8fdU?si=DGuh25Km8VmQNK7D

Video 2: https://youtu.be/ki9E6mQPxgw?si=sXCrQRdX24cF23hh

 Kasia uses a lot of different supplies, but a person can just use what they have on hand and have success.

I used office papers and forms from The Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse, my favorite thrift store in Pittsburgh.  They sell everything from fine art materials to vintage items, photography equipment, fabric, jewelry & scrapbooking supplies and lots more.

I spent a lovely afternoon splashing acrylic & watercolor paint on a variety of book pages, magazine pages, pieces of graph paper, used gift wrap tissue paper, music sheeting, old maps, etc., and turning them into colorful papers for art journaling.

I worked on a big piece of kraft paper on the floor to give myself lots of room to paint.  I turned on some inspiring music, brewed up a hot tea, and experimented with lots of different techniques and materials.

 The beauty of this approach is that I didn't have to drive to a store and purchase anything new.  I used what I had, and the items I had found secondhand at PCCR.

Each piece of brightly-painted paper was made in my own intuitive style, so it will match my art journal. And, I got to spend an afternoon playing with paint, listening to music, lost in the hum of creativity and joy.

I hope you'll join me in doing some creative self care this December!

Copyright 2023 Betsy Bangley.