ICAD 2015 Weekly Update No. 3

Gentle Reader ~~~ Week Three of ICAD 2015 is drawn to a close {did you like the pun?}  

Day 15 and the prompt was Route 66 ~~~ Yay! Road Trip! Are you packed? Do you travel light? Shall we join the circus? okay, maybe not that last one, as I am not cut out for the trapeze or to be a clown ~~~

We are also given media prompts, and for week three these are collage, paper, old books, lists, and found text. So, imagine my delight when I found, in the deepest, darkest recesses of Spider Village {aka The Attic} an old book, tattered and torn, no cover, and not in any salvageable state of repair with a map of the United States and some very usable text with the names of the states through which Route 66 winds along  from Chicago to Santa Monica ~~~

I drew the VW impression on water colour paper and cut it out, along with the Route 66 sign and cut them out after colouring in then stuck them on the 'road' ~~~

Day 16  Greeting Card ~~~ as I make a lot of greetings cards, I twisted my interpretation around and focused on 'greetings' in many languages, including a nod to one of my favourite authors, JRR Tolkien by including Elvish.

Day 17 Wabi~sabi

This was a new one on me so I had to look it up. The time needed to study this concept {as I am understanding it} would be a life time, so to grasp such a deep concept and respond to it quickly was a juxtaposition in itself.  I made a conscious effort not to over think and responded quickly, producing a very simple card.

Originally, I shared it on the Daisy Yellow ICAD 2015 Facebook page simply entitled "Wabi Sabi".  However, I noticed that everyone else was explaining theirs and mine was being completely overlooked so against my better judgement I wrote the following to explain it. Sadly, I feel that in explaining my thoughts I have defeated the purpose of my presentation.  I welcome your thoughts and input on this.

I am reluctant to explain this as I feel it defeats, almost undermines, the concept, but as everyone else is explaining their wabi sabi, maybe I should explain some of my thoughts on what was a very quick response to a very deep and intangible thought process.
This is not perfect. Only God can create perfection, yet the transmutation of what He creates becomes imperfect whether through use, damage, or natural decay, or other forces.
The flowers are missing petals, the background is loose and unfinished, as if broken in places.
Two previously pressed buttercups from my garden are simply arranged, secured to the paper where they fell naturally from my hands.
By pressing the flowers, their imperfections and beauty are not repaired, but frozen in time, or at least the decay is slowed down.
I purposely chose yellow as the background, for gold was often used to repair broken artefacts in the concept of wabi sabi.
Simple, imperfect, incomplete.

Needless to say, I am disappointed that it required an explanation, which undermines the intention of my response to the concept. Sad.

Moving swiftly on ~~~

Day 18 and the prompt was Tree House ~~~ well, do you remember my photographs last Autumn of that fungus growing from the tree trunk, looked exactly like a doorway to a fairy house ~~~

so, betwixt that and my lovely and talented friend Donna's inspirational Fairy Tree House, how could I not do a mixed media interpretation of a Fairy Tree house ~~~

Day 19 prompt was Snow Globe ~~~ yay! I love snow but what can I do that is different?

I can't get a good photo but here is what I did. The background is hand dyed tissue paper in blue because blue is a beautiful colour often seen in snow/glaciers with a high oxygen content. The lamp post stamp is partly to hide that dreadful red line, and a nod to Narnia where it is always winter never Christmas ~~~ the globe is made from pva glue that I painted into a circle and gently pressed in the golden snow flakes. When translucent and almost set I carefully lifted it and placed it on the card as a giant snow bubble ~~~ after I made it, I'm also seeing the bubble in which Glinda arrives in Wizard of Oz!

Day 20 and the prompt was Colour Wheel ~~~ so, I did one of the things I love doing best of all ~~~ just pushing that lovely, thick textured acrylic paint around on paper {or canvas} ~~~ there is something I find just so incredibly satisfying just pushing paint around and getting it to resemble what you had in mind ~~~ anyway, I blended my colours on the paper, you should see the palette!

I'm showing you this portrait shot of the same image because the light went a bit off on the top and it looks rather heavenly ~~~ serendipity!

Day 21 The 1970's

What didn't happen to me that was a milestone in the 1970's? I came in to the decade as a newly formed teenager and went out of it as an old married woman of two years!

It was not my favourite decade, but what I do remember about it were the colours and patterns. I adored Mary Quant and Biba {all swoony now} and I had the most gorgeously coloured clothes and wallpaper. I found a Sheena Douglas embossing folder that is so evocative of many of my clothes and 'that' wallpaper, so I just played and played with it.

Gentle Reader ~ I should warn you, there are now many images as I take you through the many cards I made for the 1970's ~~~ so why don't you take a moment to make a cup of tea and fetch a slice, or two, of cake?

Okay, everyone sitting comfortably?  Then, I shall begin ~~~ there wasn't much I actually liked about the decade ~ the music was, by and large, cacophonous and loud; I cared little for the movies; I loved dancing but did not like discos as everyone was smoking and ended up drunk {shudders} and the following morning I reeked of smoke and could not hear properly; I hated the constrictions of school; my list of dislikes of the 70's could go on and on. However, it wasn't all bad. I was a free spirit, still am, and I spent a lot of time on my own, which suited me because I could read, walk in nature, and spend a lot of time bobbing about on the ocean blue sitting on our boat. I did adore the fashions of the day because they were odd, colourful, and quirky ~ although did I really love tank tops, elephant bags, and teetering platforms? Ye Gads! We all thought we were the bees knees! I loved long flowing maxi skirts and smocked tops, long silky scarves and big chunky ethnic jewellery. My favourite colours were aubergine, and all those clashing colours of orange, pink, and lime green. I loved the daisies and floral patterns that abounded everywhere and I had an eye shadow with which I fell deeply in love. It was one of those dreadful cream ones that slid everywhere and contributed to the Giant Panda look that was sported by so many teenagers back in the day ~~~ it was purple and shimmery. In one light it was the palest, moonlight silvery purple, but change the light and it was the deepest, moodiest, sultriest colour I have ever seen and I was smitten both by it, and all things purple.

Last night, I found a Sheena Douglass {very talented and absolutely lovely lady} embossing folder that had a distinct 70's feel to it and in many ways reminded me a lot of my clothes and 'that' wallpaper, so off I went and put my trusty Cuttlebug {mine is pale green ~ swoon ~ and I love it the most of my die cutting and embossing machines ~ the only reason I bought a Grand Calibur was the convenience of embossing A4}

Oh, I'm digressing now ~~~ back on track ~~~ I took the embossing folder and just started running my index cards through ~~~

This was the first off the presses ~~~ I stamped a daisy directly on to the index card, then I put a sheet of hand dyed tissue paper on top and ran the two layers through the Cuttlebug. I traced the daisy through using Spectrum Noir alcohol pens and ended up with this ~ not likey ~~~

so I tore off the tissue paper and got this ~ likey ~

of course, you turn things over and you get this ~ likey lots!

I was playing with different lightings too, so here is another one ~~~

So, this one I used the embossed side of the card and using soft pastels in very 1970's colours of orange and pink, I did a sort of wax rubbing to highlight the raised sections. Then, I used an alcohol pen in lime to fill in the de~bossed areas ~~~ very 1970's I think ~~~

Same image, different lighting ~~~

This is a reverse image of the next process {below} and I like the way the colours bleed through the cheap quality index card ~~~

Everyone is saying this looks like an embossed leather ~~~ it is red acrylic paint mixed with PVA glue to coat the card, embossed and then areas picked out using alcohol pens again ~~~

Close up detail ~~~ you can see the lines of the index card!

Another one using wax resist but leaving the areas in between white.

These next two are the hand dyed tissue paper on its own showing the two sides embossed and debossed ~~~

and finally {did someone say 'phew'?} this one is very simply an index card roughly painted with left over paint from the Colour Wheel card, dried, then run through the Cuttlebug which seems to have lifted some of the colour leaving useful white highlights ~~~

Well, there you have Week 3 of ICAD 2015 ~~~ I don't think I planned to write half as much, but I wanted to share Day 21 as I found myself doing what I should ~ working through and producing a lot of samples rather than just the one finished piece.  Much fun was had ~ although there was a lot of clearing up too! {giggles}

I hope you won't be put off and will come back next week! Thank you for dropping by and I'm looking forward to reading what you think, what you like, what you don't like, in the comments!