Painty Fingers Challenge.

One of the wonderful artists I have "met" during my creative journey this past two years is a wonderful southern lady named Dede.  She goes by INKWELL most places.  She does many types of art from portraiture to collage and everything in between.  You can find her blog here and her Ustream channel here.  Not only does she willingly share her talent but does so with humour and without judging those of us who still have so much to learn.  

Although I consider myself a scrapbooker turned mini album maker turned box and paper construction designer, I enjoy all art forms.  But to be truthful never understood collage or abstract art.  Although I have a degree in Music Education, and we covered general similarities between music and and the fine arts, I never had the opportunity to learn much about these two art forms.  Thanks to Dede I now have a deeper understanding and appreciation for collage and am learning more about abstract art.  I don't think I will ever be accomplished at either BUT I do understand more than I did 2 years ago.  

To truly understand how difficult this challenge was for me you have to understand that one of my O.C.D. tendencies (we all have 1 or 2 admit it) is that I don't like dirty fingers.   If I get ink paint or glue on my fingers the baby wipes come out IMMEDIATELY!  

Well now that all that preamble is over with, on to the challenge. Dede challenged me to do an entire 3 hour stream with paint on my fingers.  I was not allowed to remove it!!  GASP.  I know what you are thinking . . HOW CRUEL!!!!    Well a few of you were thinking that.  And you might say "What would ever make someone who doesn't like paint on their fingers accept such a challenge?"  Good question but I have a very good answer.  

You see,  Dede likes measuring about as much as I like painty fingers.  So her end of the challenge was she would build a kit (a Treasure / Card Box kit) that I put together for her.  She has to measure and cut the chipboard, hinges and papers to create a box to hold A2 size cards - or any treasure she wishes to store inside.  

Monday was the day for my end of the challenge.  I started my stream at the usual 4pm est (you can find a link here ) and after gessoing my journal pages got my fingers all painty.  Here is a photo . . . 

 

OK even looking at this I have flashbacks.  Heehee.  I ended up with a journal page that I am fairly happy with . . . 

I decided that my most successful outcome would be to use some scrapbooking techniques on the journal page. So I used craft acrylic paints for the background and some leftover scrapbook paper for the tree and tire swing.  I stamped the title and printed family photos on regular copy paper and punched them out with my 1 inch circle punch.  Since I used my Epson printer the ink did not run when I adhered the photos with the GOLDEN matte medium.

So my next job is to put together Dede's kit and get it in the mail ASAP.  So watch for a blog announcement about Dede's part of the challenge!

Thanks for coming

Jean