Friday, September 20, 2013

Friday-10am

Feels wonderful to have been busy creating this week!  I forgot to take a before picture of the Zendala Dare template for this week, so I borrowed it off of Erin's blog over at The Bright Owl.
Back to doing my own thing...
...with nothing but dots, circles, straight lines, and a couple curls with a pop of color.  So relaxing!!  I thought it looked kind of lacy. 
And this is a two birds with one stone happy coincidence--for both Jennifer's Artist's Playroom over at Just Add Water, Silly and the next workshop I started of the 21 Secrets Workshops.  Jennifer's challenge this week was your favorite color or colors.  I don't really have one because I like them all, so I thought the rainbows were appropriate.  ;)  
This next workshop is called Games Journalers Play and in this one we make our own deck of prompt cards in a tin.  I already had a generic Altoids tin...but what to make the cards out of?
Scrounging through my stuff, I found a couple of bristol ATC cards--20 in a pack.  (Never did get into making ATCs.)  I ruined one trying to cut it down to the right size, but figured it out and cut them all down.
Then rounded the corners with a corner punch... 
...and ended up with 39 cards. 
How to decorate them?
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You know I would want them to basically all be the same like a real deck of cards, right?  I came up with the rainbow idea using my Lyra crayons.  Of course, I wanted them to be as even as possible... 
...so I made a guide I could use to double-check.
Even practiced on some of the removed strips as to how to blend them.  A damp brush with plain water worked the best.  I know--I am so anal. 
Then I started in...assembly-line fashion, as I am wont to do.  Also had a small bucket with a damp washcloth to clean my fingers on the right there.   
As you can imagine, this took me a lot of my time sessions! 
Ended up wrapping the crayons in pieces of paper towel because I took off all the wrappings long ago...but I've never held one crayon for this long and they (unlike M&Ms) melt in your hand--LOL! 
But I finally finished this step.  They are all colored and ready for a damp brush...one color stripe at a time.  Perfect activity to do while watching TV (some program that doesn't require my full attention, of course) or listening to an audio book.
Once these are all blended then I will see how messy the white sides are.  They will probably need a coat of gesso.  Next I will glue or tape on the prompts to the white side.  I printed off the two lists she gave us, picked out 39 of the prompts that I liked the best, and cut them out.
I think that's all I am going to do to the side with the prompts--we'll see.  Last step on the cards will be to seal both sides with a liquid sealer of some kind--some mod podge, gel medium or something along those lines.  Then if I want to decorate the tin, I can.  Not sure I want to, though, because I'm really not sure if I will use these much and I might want to use the tin for something else later on, you know?  We'll see.
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Anyhow...
I'm having a good time on these dark, damp days.  It was 51 degrees when I got up this morning and it's been drizzling away.  I have been at the art table or writing letters and haven't cracked a book open yet this week!  That tall stack of library books is calling me--and I need to give my back a break today after all that coloring, anyways.  I am so grateful my body has been in a cooperative mood lately and hope to put a dent in the prompt cards over the weekend.  Time will tell.  ;)
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I hope you have a really good time this weekend...no matter the weather, no matter what bumps in your road.  :) :)
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"The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts."
Marcus Aurelius

23 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

your zendalas are always magical.

Sherry Ellis said...

It always amazes me how creative you are. You sure keep yourself busy with your projects!

Anonymous said...

I love the cards--so bright!!

Unknown said...

Love your Zendala; it's quite unique.

Janie Junebug said...

The cards are beautiful. I wish it were that cool here, but then the natives would wear heavy winter coats and complain that they're freezing. I don't think I'll ever stop laughing at people who wear hats, coats, and mittens when it's 60 degrees.

Love,
Janie

Jenny Woolf said...

That is such an interesting quote from Marcus Aurelius. I am starting to appreciate the Greeks and Romans. They were made so boring at school that it has taken me all this time to come around to them!
Your art work is always beautiful. I never knew you could buy something for rounding off corners. I could have done with that many a time when I had more time to do art and craft.
Enjoy your weekend, Rita!

Veronica Roth said...

These are brilliant Rita! it's so fulfilling to do art, isn't it? I love it. I also love the Aurelius quote you wrote! Brilliant. :)

DJan said...

Wow! Those are super colors, Rita. I can't wait to see the finished product. I love your zendala, really love it. It is indeed lacy :-)

Beth said...

The zendalas are beautiful!

Victoria said...

Super gorgeous zendala...now one of my faves..very captivating! Pure magic! So lovely to see all the creative work you are doing and the process...fabulous! HUgs..wishing you a beautiful Autumn!
Victoria

~*~Patty S said...

Brilliant quote and your rainbow cards turned out really well!

Your doodles are fabulous...really Love how that turned out and it is fun seeing the before and after

Happy Weekend to you Rita...I appreciate your visits to my Magpie's Nest along with your thoughtful and nice comments!
oxo

Maw said...

Your Zendala is great! It's so simple and perfect!

Anne's tangle blog said...

I like your zendala a lot. A great example of 'less is more'.
I'm so glad to hear you feel better!!!

Annette P.-L. said...

So lovely and delicate zendala!

Darla said...

Nice work on the zendala. I like the idea of cards in an altoid tin. I have a hard time making something is "groups" though. Your method looks great.

Darla

Anonymous said...

Your prompts could go into fortune cookies. :-)

Carol said...

Love the Zendala!!!! the cards are coming along nicely. As for a sealer just a word of caution ....speaking from experience...mod podge tends to make them tacky and the stick together. I had to throw away half a deck of inspirational quote cards because of this. :(

Far Side of Fifty said...

I want to do zendalas too..I have some copied off from last winter. No time...everyone elses crap come first. I wondered about that chair cover and how it would do with cat hair..sounded like Far Guys vehicle and Chance...I did find a thing that works..not sure what it is called, it is a softer plastic brush.
Finally some sunshine today:) :)

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

And here it is Monday morning. Yes, I've been absent for days, sitting at my computer for only a few minutes at a time.

To answer your question, yes, Sunday was the first day of autumn and I suspect my back problem is probably similar to yours.

That zendoodle is unbelievable. You do such a great job. I see one of yours and it makes my hand start to ache (grin).

Nice set of cards. Loved the colors, too. My favorite color is plaid, and I suspect yours is now stripes (grin). Have a super Monday. I'm headed to bed.

Anonymous said...

That's a lovely Zendala.

Intense Guy said...

Hey! I see the Etsy shop is open once more!! Hurray!!!!

Queenie Jeannie said...

OK, so I answered my own question on what these were for, lol! Pretty cool idea to have creative prompts!!

AliceKay said...

The cards are really colorful. Nice work. :)