Often when I'm playing . . .

 . . . I get a crazy idea.  When I do, I usually try it.  That was what happened this week when I was making cover paper for the Head Shots book in progress.  I love making painted paper, and when I wondered what would happen if I threw a stencil on the paper and then let it dry, I just had to try it.

I liked the results so much I had to try it again.

I particularly liked a couple of the closeup shots on the second one.

I just know I'm going to have to try it on every possible combination of colour and stencil, so you know my next few weeks are going to be fun!

While I've not yet made a mini book from the painted papers, I do have a lot of them on the go.

I normally work on these one at a time, but given I have so many in this series, I'm trying to do the repetitive portions as a group, so all the edges got treated here at the same time.  Next I'll be getting into the individual pages to work on them with stamps, stencils and whatever etcetera comes to hand.

And now that the cover papers for Head Shots are in creation, I'm hoping to finish that book in the next week or so.  I've made the painted paper for the inside covers 

and decorative edging, Eileen has supplied me with matboard to create the covers, bless her, and John has chopped them for me.  Progress is being made!

How's your progress been this week?  I hope that you're on a massive roll with your creative life...

I'm in...

...the studio again, and it's chaos as usual.

Three piles of Gelli print fragments are strewn across one of the student tables,

a chair is stacked with paintings in progress,

and a folded book in stage three awaits hours of unfolding, and then curling.

A painting, recently coated with gel medium and then textured with a natural sponge sits drying on the drawing table,

along with stacks of mini canvasses from the Have a Heart series, in varying degrees of progress.

My 8 x 10 Gelli plate is anxious to test run a newly designed house wrap stencil, even though it's not yet completed, 

while a stack of 'Head Shots' wait nearby for some attention.  They want to be made into a booklet right now please.

So much fun...so little time.  Isn't the life of an artist the best thing ever?  I certainly refuse to argue that.

Today I'm somewhere else...

You'll find my usual Tuesday post over at Balzer Designs.  Julie was kind enough to host me for a Gelli printing session.  Since I'm an avid fan of Julie and Gelli, I was delighted to join the list of her guests.

I spent a couple of weeks playing with two of her stencils (Tiny Circles & Silhouette Script), resulting in a series of 'Head Shots'.  Half a dozen of them are over on the guest post, which provides a link to the video I did about the process, but I thought I'd share some more for you here.

Those of you who know me well know how much I love gardening (can you hear me snickering?!), so this is certainly appropriate.

'Mistakes'

I need to admit that perhaps my mind plays a little too much in 'Artist Brain' mode.

'A Jumble in Here'

And what artist doesn't have her head filled with so many ideas that it's hard to keep up with them?

'Ideas'

This quote from Sara Genn has amused me for many years - 'Having a favourite colour is like having a favourite lung.'

'A Favourite Lung'

Ultramarine blue has so much 'Pow!' factor, doesn't it?

'Opulence'

Please do pop over to Julie's blog (check out all her posts), and enjoy!