creative process

May

01

a little paperbag studio love. (and blog hop)

creative kits / creative process  Posted by / 8 comments

bloghop banner 580x335 a little paperbag studio love. (and blog hop)

so excited to share all this goodness. (and be sure to read to the end. because. well. it’s a blog hop.)

i have long been an admirer of roben-marie roberts-smith and her amazing work.

i am pretty sure there is isn’t a surface, medium or tool that she doesn’t shine at using or transforming.

her videos are the bomb.

her projects rock.

and her stamps. SIGH. awesomeness.

so get this. i am so excited to be on her design team!

she sent her new mixed media essentials stamp set to me last month to play with and i had SO much fun integrating them into my art.

PROJECT #1

he loves her. my first foray into adding a he-man into my work. love him. and the real life one i married. i water-colored the background and then used the same circle-doodle stamp (with a taupe-colored ink) over and over to create a consistent background then filled in the spaces between them with white ink. i love the subtle and cohesive look it created as a backdrop to my peeps and wording.

dd heandshe web 580x435 a little paperbag studio love. (and blog hop)

PROJECT #2

sketch book love. this was all about using goodies i have had on hand forever. i began with the large flower stamped in black ink on the front and back of the mini journal and added touches of white ink to make them pop and personalize them a bit. next, i stamped some leftover muslin with a repetitive arrow stamp in a complimentary soft rusty color. last, i folded the muslin strip in half and stitched an opening big enough to hold one of my most favorite sketch pencils and added my pretty little feather bundle and fabric flower trim.

dd sketchbook web 580x437 a little paperbag studio love. (and blog hop)

PROJECT #3

always. i have been in this most awesome groove creating my girls with big hair lately. this groove includes a lot of white paint and graphite with touches of color here and there. this stamp set inspired me to let go a bit and just play with paper, stamps and lots of color. super love this girl and what she has to say. you can see bits of almost every stamp in this set in all sorts of bitty details. so, so much fun!

dd woodart web 580x466 a little paperbag studio love. (and blog hop)

PROJECT #4

a display of love. so i had this super old set of stacking plywood frames that were actually supposed to be altered then strung together with ribbon in a row. but i had this idea of creating depth with them to really show off a bitty Instagram picture that is one of my all-time faves. SO. i pulled out a mini stack of patterned paper and stamped several of in the new set over and over again and then cut them out. i took a big ol container of modpodge and just started layering one over the other until all three plywood frames were covered with fun bits of the stamped paper. i stacked the frames (gluing them together with more modmodge and added the words “a display of love” from an old book page. i just used an old mat and frame from a homegoods art piece that i didn’t really like anymore. and there you go! it hangs in the dorm room now and is one of my favorite pieces!

dd layeredframe web 580x435 a little paperbag studio love. (and blog hop)

i seriously loved adding roben-marie’s newest set of stamps into the mix. it gave me a break from the seriousness of my fine-art work and gave me the freedom to just PLAY. if you want to grab your own set (and I know you do!) grab them here.

and now for an extra bit of love – i am giving away my “always” piece to one lucky (at least i think she is) girl! To enter for a chance to win – please do the following:

  1. friend me on fb and leave me a message on my wall – if you are already a friend – just leave a message.
  2. AND share this post on your fb wall mentioning roben-maries new stamp awesomeness.

i will draw a winner on my birthday, sunday, may 5th. good luck! (shipping is limited to the US – if outside the US, you will be charged shipping. Sorry!):

and now to send you on your way to your next blog in the hop!

Blog Hop Participants:

April Cole:  http://aprilmariecole.blogspot.com/

Carissa Paige:  http://carissapaige.blogspot.com/

Cynthia Shaffer: http://cynthiashaffer.typepad.com/

Jen Osborn:  http://identityseven.typepad.com/themessynest/

Kristin Peterson: http://alteredstatesstudio.blogspot.com/

Lorraine Bell: http://serendipitystudios.squarespace.com/

Roben-Marie Smith: http://www.robenmarie.com

Sandi Keene: http://sandi-keene.squarespace.com/

 

And another bit of fun from roben-marie. she is participating in the Stencil Blog Hop beginning on May 2. More about it here!

 

 

 

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Apr

10

I swim to save my soul.

creative process / word  Posted by / 0 comments


photo1 580x580 I swim to save my soul.

When I go for a drive I like to pull off to the side

Of the road, turn out the lights, get out and look up at the sky

And I do this to remind me that I’m really, really tiny

In the grand scheme of things and sometimes this terrifies me

But it’s only really scary cause it makes me feel serene

In a way I never thought I’d be because I’ve never been

So grounded, and so humbled, and so one with everything

I am grounded, I am humbled, I am one with everything

Rock and roll is fun but if you ever hear someone

Say you are huge, look at the moon, look at the stars, look at the sun

Look at the ocean and the desert and the mountains and the sky

Say I am just a speck of dust inside a giant’s eye

I am just a speck of dust inside a giant’s eye

When I saw Geneviève I really liked it when she said

What she said about the giant and the lemmings on the cliff

She said ‘I like giants

Especially girl giants

Cause all girls feel too big sometimes

Regardless of their size’

When I go for a drive I like to pull off to the side

Of the road and run and jump into the ocean in my clothes

*I’m smaller than a poppyseed inside a great big bowl

And the ocean is a giant that can swallow me whole

So I swim for all salvation and I swim to save my soul

But my soul is just a whisper trapped inside a tornado

So I flip to my back and I float and I sing

I am grounded, I am humbled, I am one with everything

I am grounded, I am humbled, I am one with everything

So I talked to Geneviève and almost cried when she said

That the giant on the cliff wished that she was dead

And the lemmings on the cliff wished that they were dead

So the giant told the lemmings why they ought to live instead

When she thought up all those reasons that they ought to live instead

It made her reconsider all the sad thoughts in her head

So thank you Geneviève, cause you take what is in your head

you make things that are so beautiful and share them with your friends

We all become important when we realize our goal

Should be to figure out our role within the context of the whole

And yeah, rock and roll is fun, but if you ever hear someone

Say you are huge, look at the moon, look at the stars, look at the sun

Look at the ocean and the desert and the mountains and the sky

Say I am just a speck of dust inside a giant’s eye

I am just a speck of dust inside a giant’s eye

I am just a speck of dust inside a giant’s eye

And I don’t wanna make her cry

Cause I like giants

song and lyrics by kimla dawson

you can see it here

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Apr

09

current (loud) whisperings.

creative process / the dorm room / word  Posted by / 7 comments

photo 580x580 current (loud) whisperings.

ox·y·mo·ron

/ˌäksəˈmôrˌän/
Noun: A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction (e.g.,faith unfaithful kept him falsely true).

sometimes I wonder how I put one foot in front of the other. in the literal and figurative sense.

those moments you get so frustrated with yourself that you can’t stand it. as a creative, you know EXACTLY what i am talking about.

i am a walking, talking oxymoron.

i am.

  • creatively anal
  • free-spirited perfectionist
  • compliantly stubborn
  • authoritative follower
  • self-conscious know-it-all
  • brave worrier
  • impressively normal
  • imaginative conformist

these (among others too numerous to count) are my “stuck” places. the in between flashes of frustration with myself. the flashes of doubt that turn into hours. waiting for my brain and heart to decide who the winner is.

current loud whisperings – will my need to create a “signature” look smack down the part of me that just wants to keep trying new stuff - will my need for perfection get in the way of letting go of the messy parts that others may actually find beauty in – and - will i consistently worry about everything until the emerging brave part of me gives up?

gosh i hope not.

ps. this rambling is brought to you by the intense internal battle to paint over this painting and start over. (committed do-over’s) more on this to come.

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Mar

12

tuckered out and tucked in.

creative process / the dorm room  Posted by / 11 comments

tuckedin 580x580 tuckered out and tucked in.

i am all about learning new things, trying stuff out and just digging into the creative possibilities.

most of the time. except when i am worn out and totally past overstimulated. and i was and still am. in an uncool, big way.

thanks to my friend, Christy Tomlinson and her amazing creative spirit (and her love of sharing all of her creative goodness), i have been sketching again. she loves painting girls and has gotten so brave about painting (gasp) faces.

sketching on the train, in airports, on the plane, and even on the couch watching tv. just to distract me from me.

i can do everything but the eyes. frickin’ eyes. they bring out the worst in me. i always get caught between my vision (hahahaha.) of what I would like my eyes to look like on paper and making them look real.

they always cross the line. and make me frustrated. i study hers. i study pinterest. i copy. i trace. i fail.

my eyes. DO NOT LIKE. my eyes.

so i had the weekend to do a bit of painting and i thought it was time for me to recreate a sketch into a mixed-media painting. i got fancy and enlarged it then cut it into traceable sections. it worked. i loved the piece without a face. and I wish i would have gotten over seeing it through. because I really LOVED that blank face. it was stunning.

  • cheeks
  • hair
  • lips
  • ears
  • neck
  • nose

i saved the eyes for last. (not sure that is the best choice in this situation)

my husband asked why i painted medusa.

 

i really wanted to like it. (and please don’t tell me i should have given the above photo. it took about a dozen instagram photos to get an angle that made it look good. TRUST ME)

so i thought i would start over and paint the face white. so i did. then the background i loved was ruined. and i was mad.

so i took it to the bathroom sink and scrubbed the shit out of it. and part of my background withstood the torture. and i walked away.

the next day. with new eyes (bhahahahaha.) i started over. sticking to my tried and true to remind myself that I am pretty frickin good. 

and that i have it in me to change it up. just not right now.

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Mar

04

she is a lucky girl.

creative kits / creative process / the dorm room  Posted by / 7 comments
PicMonkey Collage 580x580 she is a lucky girl.

she is a lucky girl (copyright-2013 danielle donaldson)

she is a lucky girl is a small but mighty mixed media piece that was inspired by clovers and bingo. my first offering in a series (hopefully) of mixed media kits with online insights into my creative process.

the learning curve was steep given that i had some serious doubts that i could even set up the tripod to capture it. that i couldn’t figure out how to get rid of my hand shadows. that i don’t like waiting for my one-and-only camera battery to recharge.

but here it is. i decided to create a fast-motion video to be sure that 1)you didn’t fall asleep half way through and 2) i could give you a taste-test of my creative ways.  (and it was almost two-hours of video).

and a suggestion. the music is corny. not a good way around it. i strongly suggest that you mute it and turn on your fave pandora station. i played my Madness station while creating it. that will really give you insight.

it includes the whole thing. good and bad. it is really important to me that i share not only the pretty parts but the ugly too. i screw up all the time. and sometimes my screw-ups totally mess with my head. and i work through it. or over it. or around it. we all have a picture in our head going in. just remember no one can match the picture in their head of what they want on the other end. no one can copy what i do exactly. that, my friends is what makes the creative process so frickin AWESOME.

you work through it and get better. and happier. and more confident in your ability to live creative. (and. BONUS POINTS here. it spills into your everyday. you are more open to sharing. learning. letting go of perfect. eyes wide open for brilliant little flashes of GOOD that surround you)

if you decide to play after watching the video – i have 2 kits left. i promise to send them out today – i am only making a dozen for each kit at this time to be sure that they have the love and care that I want to give them. so hurry! you can purchase one HERE.

a quick list of supplies that are MUST-HAVES in my world.

  • liquitex clear gesso
  • liquitex heavy body acrylic (titanium white and buff)
  • golden liquid acrylic (titanium white)
  • golden acrylic glazing liquied (satin)
  • general’s graphite pencils (sketch and wash & layout)

i use all of these in almost every single painting i create. the remainder of the supplies can be found in my clovers and bingo kit.

after watching you will have questions. please feel free to send me a note and i will do my very best to give some additional direction if i can. and be sure to share your art with me. it makes me ok with spending a whole weekend on making this thing.

 

 

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