Tuesday Tips & Techniques: Playing with Paper Featuring Barb Owen!

Day 4 of My Vacation: 

Making Collage Papers with Barb Owen

Day four of my vacation in Missouri was spent as an art play date with Barb Owen.  I met artist and author of "Normal Doesn't Live Here Anymore", Barb, online about 3 years ago, and we became fast friends.  This was our first opportunity to meet each other face to face.  Needless to say, we were thrilled!

We played with several different methods of creating papers to use as backgrounds and in collage.  As a bonus, we also took a brief side trip using fire.  I'm happy to report that all of my fingers remain intact!

The UStream videos total about 3 hours, but I think you'll find our day entertaining and even maybe informative.  I'll be doing a tutorial for each of the processes in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, pour your favorite beverage, pull up a chair, and get ready to be inspired.

I've also included images of the goodies I received from Barb, images of the wonderful papers I made on our play date, and the pages from my travel journal that I created from our play date.  Thanks for a wonderful day, Barb.  I had a blast!  Be sure to check out the other great UStreams that Barb has recorded.  You won't believe how many creative ideas my creative sister shares!  Also, be sure to visit her blog: The Art and Soul of Barb Owen.  It's been a few weeks since she last posted, but I spoke with her yesterday and she assures me she'll be posting again very soon.  Right, Barb?



Video streaming by Ustream


Video streaming by Ustream
Barb streams live on Fridays at 2:00pm EST.  Stop in and tell her hello - there are a great group of creatives who visit there each week, and they'll all be glad to see you!

Goodies From Barb

Barb gave me the most lovely goodies when I visited.  This journal she gave me is amazing!  It's packed full of her homemade papers using the techniques we played with during my visit.

I can't stop rubbing the heart embellished spine filled with wonderful fibers of every color and texture. 

Barb also gave me pages of quotes.  Don't you just adore quotes?  I'm especially fond of the quote Barb gave me from her own book.  Isn't this old typewriter font great?

She gave me burnt brown paper embellishments that she made...

And these beautiful polymer clay embellishments.

Barb also gifted me a stack of ATC sized prints of her original artwork.  They're gorgeous!

The Papers I Made

I can't begin to tell you how much fun I had making these papers with Barb!  I only wish you could see how truly luscious and glittery they are - the camera (and my photography) just doesn't do them justice!  Here are the first papers we made using the resist technique with glue and Scribbles fabric paint.

These are the paste papers....

and these are the papers I made using the stamping technique using paper towels, acrylics, stamps and stencils.  SO much fun to do!

My Travel Journal Pages - Day 4

Here are my travel journal pages from my day with Barb.  They aren't 100% complete, but very close!  I used some of the paper that I made on our date, a couple burnt brown paper embellishments, the "holey tape" that Barb generously shared with me, and photos of our day that I printed from the computer.

I hope you've enjoyed today's Tuesday Tips and Techniques post.  We have a wonderful online community of creatives, and if you get the opportunity to meet some of your online friends in person, I hope you'll make the effort.  There's just nothing like being "face-to-face" after an electronic relationship!

See you next time.  You still have time to enter my giveaway if you haven't done so already.  Instructions are HERE.  Scroll to the bottom of the post to find out how to enter.

CELEBRATE * LOVE * CREATE

Weekend Journal

HEALING

That is the word that best describes my past week.  My spider bite is mending well and my leg is back to 98% of normal.  My cold/virus/whatever is finally subsiding and losing it's powerful grip on my energy.  I'm looking forward to a new week with renewed creativity.

This past week has been a rough one for me.  I spent hours sitting in the sun, watching the birds, thinking of the projects I had no energy to attempt doing.  I fought  battled the force of guilt that kept popping up telling me what I could or should be doing when what I obviously needed to do was just take it easy and allow myself to heal.

"Appreciation is the highest form of prayer, for it acknowledges the presence of good wherever you shine the light of your thankful thoughts."  - Alan Cohen

In the midst of my misery, a package arrived.  Keith spotted it on the front stairs when he arrived home from work.  Neither of us had any idea what it could be as Keith went back to the front of the house to retrieve the mysterious package.  "It looks like you got something from your friend, Barb", Keith stated as he returned with the package.  

I was so excited!  Barb and I had spoken by phone several weeks earlier and during the conversation, Barb asked if I would be willing to except one of her Soul Dolls.  She said she would surprise me with one sometime and I never thought of it again.

(Barb and I have become friends through the Internet and our mutual love of art.  We've never met in person but hopefully will soon.   I was also honored and privileged to review her book, Normal Doesn't Live Here Anymore.  It's must reading for those of us facing aging parents and who may one day find ourselves in the situation of being a caregiver.  I highly recommend this book!)

When I opened the box, I immediately felt how much love was packed into it.  The handmade, hand-written card and the carefully packaged postcard and ATC greeted me before I met my new Soul Doll.

What struck me immediately was the bird theme.  Birds have been popping up in my work recently and have a very spiritual connotation to me.

As I carefully unwrapped my doll, I literally gasped when I pulled her from her protective cocoon.  I could feel how much love she had been created with, and I could sense immediately that she was an intuitive creation.  My horrible photography just doesn't convey how special she is or just how much of herself Barb put into her creation.  

Barb's attention to every little detail is stunning.  From the felted body, to the beaded bird fetishes, to the tiny necklace, to the detail on the back (complete with envelope that contains a small gift and treasured note), to the bird charms, Barb included so much on this beautiful creation.

Since I'm so far behind on my blog reading, unknown to me, Barb blogged about my doll before she sent her to me!  You can read all that Barb had to say HERE.  My doll also has two sisters.  You can see and read about them HERE and HERE.  All of these "sisters" are spectacular, but how Barb knew to send me the exquisite bird themed doll is uncanny.  Barb, like your friendship, I am grateful and will treasure you both forever.

And as we enter a new week, I'll continue my WIP.  (Can you see the bird on the left of the face?)  

And yet another bird appears in this WIP.  Do you see it?

I hope you're enjoying the weekend, and I hope you're finding ways to express your own unique and creative nature.

CELEBRATE * LOVE * CREATE