An "Inspired" Project

This is what I made in Tena's Clearly Beautiful class. My album ended up being a great little collection of personal "beautiful things" and included the bits and pieces of goodness I created in Kal's class.

Here's some thoughts:

1. The album was a great jumping off point. Tena created a classic structure that was really open for additional "stuff" and modification. Love that.

2. Working with Tim's Alcohol Inks was a really cool experience. I am not much of a "color blender "so I went with single drops onto the acrylic album pages to create the polka dot pattern (the inks dry super fast). The idea of drops came about as Tena told us some of the other cool things students had done in earlier classes.

3. I loved that I felt the freedom to play. I used less words than normal in this album and I like how it became a glimpse into my creative life right now. I like that there are miscellaneous marks here and there. I like that it is colorful. It was the perfect environment for experimentation.

4. I finished the album in class.

Here's a look at the entire album:

The photo overlay was a technique from Kal's class using a thick piece of plastic (can't remember the name, Kal?),
tracing the subject of your photo, and embellishing with pencil crayons. Added words cut from a random piece of paper for my title. The
clear acrylic album we used is similar to this one.

Collection of slide mounts from Random Arts. Photos adhered back to back on the acrylic pages.
 

Man, I love acrylic albums. Damask sticker from Heidi Swapp.

Pencil crayon drawings from Kal's class. I just cut them up and added them right onto the background patterned paper. This is probably my favorite spread.

The canvas piece is a graphite transfer (technique from Kal's class) from an old photo of me and my bike and colored in with pencil crayons.   

Old black and white photo (laser copy) that I had brought along to potentially use as a photo transfer.

The paper on the right side is one I have had forever. It has little metal "beads" that add great dimension and texture. Anyone know who makes it?

Another playful piece from Kal's class. Pencil crayons on cardboad.

Thanks again Tena and Kal. I loved this experience. If you ever have a chance to
take a class from Tena or Kal I highly recommend it. Both have such a great mixture
of technique and heart.

Also, check out the newest issue of my newsletter here. Today's topic is "getting real."