A Model Sanitarium...

A Model Sanitarium

"Sometimes I think I need to have my head examined"

"Hands down"

Here are some photos of my explorations in my XL Moleskine journal. No prompts, just what comes to mind when I am left to my own devices and just let go...

Enjoy... please click on any pic for a larger view. Have a creative weekend & get out and make some art. I spent a couple hours enjoying some 74 degree weather here in Long Beach, CA.

Creative Explosion...

From Orly's Avineri's latest art journaling class on "Wild doodling". This week we were joined by ten amazing teenagers. The class was a blast and everyone enjoyed it. This page is titled "Welcome to My World" Click on any page for a larger image.

"Fishes"

"What does the Stamp of Your Life Say"

"What does the Stamp of Your Life Say" page 2.

"Cowboy Dance" page 2.

"Cowboy Dance"

"What are You Hiding"" page 2.

"What are You Hiding?"

Many sides page 2. Includes my hand-cut stencil of myself as a teenager.

"My Many Sides" includes my hand-cut stencil of myself as a teenager.

Welcome to my journal page 2.

Welcome to my journal. 1st page.

Being in Orly Avineri's art journaling class has inspired me to do more art journaling on my own. These are my pages enjoy. Click on any page for a larger image.

Long Journey

Long Journey
Originally uploaded by bkasstle

Playful Journey unfolded. This is from my first class with Orly and her Saturday morning Art Journaling group. This cronicles my journey from Kalispell, Montana in 1984 to present day, living in Long Beach, Calfiornia, with a few stops along the way....

Remember, click on any image for a larger view...

4 Helping Us See

This two page spread is for Orly Avineri's 2009 Art Journal Round Robin. Here is a link to her original post regarding the Round Robin. Orly is a wonderful supportive artist and friend. She has been published in Artful Blogging. She is going to be teaching at Teesha Moore's Journalfest this fall. I am attending her Art Journaling Classes at Harmony Works on Wednesday evenings. Click on the image for a larger view.

The eyes are a gel 'skin' image transfer I did using Regular Gloss Gel. I printed the image on plain cardstock and applied the Regular Gloss Gel and waited over night. Once it was dry I spritzed some water on the paper, rubbed off all the paper and then cleaned up the image transfer. It was actually really easy to do and you get a wonderful result. I then applied the 'skin' to my journal page with Soft Gel and it worked like glue.

My pages also include scrapbook paper, vintage ephermia, stenciling and spray painting & glimmer mist for some shine(and grunge)... enjoy! Give image transfers a try.

2 pages, plastic lace placemat

2 pages, plastic lace placemat
Originally uploaded by bkasstle

These pages may end up being backgrounds but I like how complex they are as is...enjoy!

Inspired & my Large Visual Journal.

Good morning! I have been overwhelmed by the traffic and comments to the blog since joining Seth Apter's Buried Treasure on The Altered Page . "Thank you!" does not do justice to how much I appreciate your kind words. You can click on any photo for a larger view of it.

This page uses one of my favorite wall stencils above Afro Girl's head and some lace cut number scrapbook paper, Afrom Girl is from Stencil 1 book.

This page uses dragon from Stencil Me In and wrestler from Stencil 1, a Tim Holtz mask on the top. I tend to do pages in twos, I am going to bind these loose ones in a book.

I have large 11" X 14 1/2 " Journal I have been using as a visual journal. It has been so fun to just spray right on it! At first I was first a bit hesitant but I just jumped in and it is working out to be great!

These pages use a lace plastic placemat on the left and stencils from Stencil Me In book.

This page uses bug stencils from Ginny's Small Studio and a stencil from Stencil 1 book, punchella. Everything has been oversprayed with Glimmer mist in copper. I love how it came out all grungy and aged.

The inside cover, with punchella and stencils from Stencil Me In & Stencil 1 books, Heidi Swapp masks.

This page is only a spray painted background. All of my pages start out like this before I spray on them. Have a great day and go make a mess and make some art today!

Buried Treasure

My internet friend Seth Apter over at The Altered Page is doing a collaborative project called "Buried Treasure" in which invites bloggers to find special features of their past blog entries and repost their favorite posts. I have started blogging relatively recently so my favorite post is actually a very recent post. I have very recently taken up being creative and expressing myself through "art". I actually believe I did was not fully aware of how important creating and expressing myself until I took Mary Ann Moss's "Pure Experimentation: Stencilry" class over on Dispatch From LA. It freed me of many of my fears of color, and and my need for perfection. It allowed me to just play... And it freed me to fail and just spray over something I did not like and start all over again from the same piece of paper. More importantly it is just plain and simple fun in the sun... Increasingly these spray paint art features are becoming more and more personal for me.

Here is the original post "This is a some artwork done with a stencil I cut of an old picture of my Great Grandpa Barley on my father's side. I still need to do some work on it and I need to get better at scanning these but you get the idea..."

This time I have decided to include the original photo of my great grand father Barley.

My blog has led me to make some amazing artist friends I may never meet but their support is very important to me. Thank you for stopping by.

Family Stencils Part 1

The first of my hand cut stencils in my Family Series. This is of my sister Sheila, it is her high school graduation portrait. I will probably recut it again I was not too happy how her right eye turned out. I have not had time to do anything creative in a while so it felt good to do some spray painting.

I certainly enjoy spray painting in my beautiful back yard on a nice summer evening.