Playing with Paper, Scissors and Glue!

Happy Spring and Happy Day 4 of the 15-Day Sit In! As we Americans, like those of you in other countries, learn to occupy our time at home in the next 2 weeks, I know I for one am so thankful for having an art hobby I'm passionate about. Because the truth is, as luck would have it, I have not left my house since my birthday (Feb. 29). That means I've been willingly sequestered for 19 days already, but I can do another 19, no problem, as long as I have some art to work on. However, it's not always about creating the masterpiece. Sometimes it's just all about playing with paper, scissors and glue.

So, you may or may not know about the glue book I've been working in on and off for quite a while now. Its theme was originally supposed to be Puns, then expanded to all Word Play when I realized I was not Punny enough to fill that many pages; then, I added in spreads on every color. I hadn't yet made a green spread and since Art Journal Journey's theme this month is "Green" -- well, DUH!

Here is a photo of my glue book that I recovered awhile back after it began to fall apart. I completely L-O-V-E how it turned out and am so glad I attempted it. You can read my post about recovering it HERE and you can see the finished pages so far of the glue book HERE.

It's a lined diary journal, so every naked spread begins looking like this. The paper is very good for gluing, though, and the signatures are sewn, which is why I saved it when Dear Daughter no longer wanted it.

Beginning to collage green papers from my stash with glue stick, which is the only thing I try to use in this book. I also severely limit colorants to occasional stamping with ink. I have been very tempted to use paint but I work in one of my mixed media journals instead. This glue book is just for glue and paper (okay, if the paper's been stamped on or painted on, but only added as collage). The goal is to keep the pages flat - no dimension.

Page filled. Now to add on smaller pieces...

LOL, well, I do drink a LOT of green tea, so....

And fast forward to the finish. I got really into it and forgot to take pics. I used some huge scrapbooking letter stickers for the word Green, coloring with ProMarkers; old scrapbooking stickers of green words and phrases; cigar labels, die cuts of Sizzix architectural corners and Cuttlebug space/celestial shapes around a Spellbinders 6-pointed star; green and white floral paper border tape, plus a few more little things.

  

Just kept adding until I was tired of glue sticking and it looked "done" enough to stop. I added the "5 !!" because Green has 5 letters. ;-)

  

Here are the rest of the close-ups. I am in love with the space/celestial scene I made! I have several of these hexagram die cuts leftover from a Hanukkah card I once made. I wanted to use them on this spread because they are all green, but I hesitated because it's also the Star of David shape and I did not know if I was showing disrespect by using in my secular art. So, I Googled and found out it's not exclusively a Jewish symbol, but also an ancient symbol referring to the 7 oldest planets in astrology and cosmology. So I decided to use in that context.

 

  

I love doing these kinds of pages for the process, not the end product which I do not really focus on. It's a way for me to use those ancient supplies from when 12x12 scrap booking was the norm 15 years ago. And of course, a great way to use scraps...and I might add, I spent no time agonizing over what items to collage. I looked only for green items and grabbed what was on top of the scraps, so had I been more discerning, the spread would have been more meaningful but would also have taken twice as long. Plus doing it this way is good exercise for the old noggin to figure out a way to take these sundry pieces and make the layout at least pleasing to the eye. ;-)

Thanks as always for coming by! Don't ever forget that when you run into days when neither you nor your Muse feel like making a masterpiece, you can always do something like this! It's Practice and that is what counts. Stay crafty, my friends, we will get through this! XXO

CHALLENGES:
1.   Art Journal Journey March Challenge: GREEN
2.   Outlawz Paper Ala Mode Saturdays 3/14-3/27: Reach For The Stars
3.   More Mixed Media March: AG + Opt. GREEN
4.   ABMTTC #112: AG
5.   ABMTTCX March: AG
6.   A Place to Start March Challenge: UNCONVENTIONAL MATERIALS: USE A HOUSEHOLD OBJECT/ITEM -- I used tea bag packaging and labeling and cigar labels in my collage.
7.   CHNPPC March: AG + Patterned Paper
8.   TTCRD 3/17-3/23: AG
9.   MAWTT Challenge #116: Anything But a Card
10. Classic Design Challenge #3: Always AG