Portion Control

Hey. Why haven't I changed my banner from Valentine's Day? HUH? Am I living in the past?

No, Jethro. Here's there deal: I am into hearts lately. And flowers. Hearts and flowers. So, don't get all mushy on me. I like them, alright?!

When I heard about Portion Control, the challenge on Michelle Ward's Street Team Crusade for February, it was fairly early in the month, and I had an idea. Usually, I sit down and wait for those things to pass, but it just kept bugging me. As you know from my previous post, I've been working on this for awhile, but with that, I now feel that I've rushed it. I mean, this is the last day of the challenge! What am I thinking? Instead of being my journalling year, maybe this should be my cutting it close year! And I encountered a problem I didn't anticipate and so didn't have enough time to fix it properly. By properly, I mean: start over.

When I was just an art pup three years ago, I didn't think the first stencils I made would be four-leaf clovers, but, inspired by Michelle's story, and by the heart shape, I decided for this challenge to make four-leaf clover stencils. Here they are, in a shot I chose to set up poorly:


They're cut from different take-out boxes. Luckily, I'm too lazy to cook, so I have plenty of these boxes. For one of the stencils, there's a heart in place of the fourth leaf, making it a three-leaf-one-heart-clover. So, I had my tools and my inspiration. But I didn't really know how to execute it. After several starts and stops, here's the result:


It's not my ultimate vision, but I tried to bring in the four-leaf clover love as well as the portion control, by spraying over the four-leaf clover images a number of times. I painted over my first sprays, to leave a ghost of the shapes underneath. Then I found these kooky St. Patty's Day napkins and one of the images on the napkin is a four-leaf clover, so I cut some of those out and collaged them onto the piece. Finally, I tried to inject some mystery into it with an overlay of stamping, which I then doodled onto. The PROBLEM is, that the pens I used (Bic Mark-It) are not fast, and when I brushed medium over them after I waited for them to dry, they ran anyway. So a lot of my doodling (my beloved curlicues) was ick. So I had to cover them with more napkin (you may be able to see come of the swirls under the napkin). So it just looks too busy and hodge-podge-y for my taste, plus there are other smudges from the pens. However, I like some of the images so I didn't give up completely. All in all, I had a good time. I didn't think to take photos of the process, which is kinda dumb, considering I always thank people for showing their process.

My continual thanks to Michelle for her inspiration and tutorials. If you haven't been to her site, you need to get over there, because her archives are replete (extra-credit word) with tutorials and evidences, and there may even be some EYE CANDY there, as well, people. Oh, and my friend Kelsey and I were oohing and aahing over her rubber-stamp imagery just last night. (Or, in Kelsey's case, this morning.) So go to her Green Pepper Press link as well, and pick up some sheets. You'll be using them for everything, even to imprint polymer clay tiles.


Postscript: Go see Coraline! I was lucky enough to see it in 3-D. It uses stop-motion exclusively, no CG. Everything in it is made by hand, and the story was written by one of the masters of fantasy: Neil Gaiman. It's a testament to originality, craft, and imagination.