Joanna Grant Mixed Media Art

COLLABORATIVE ART PROJECT WITH JUDY WOOD

Hi again everyone!

Like my post last week, this project was another collaborative one, this time with my arty friend, the talented Judy Wood.

Judy sent me this beautiful background to work with. It's about 8" X 10" on watercolor paper. The colors are just gorgeous and the scans really don't do it justice. It has a beautiful metallic sheen to it. It's also highly textural. Judy said to me that she saw a beach scene when she looked at it (in landscape format, obviously). I turned it to portrait format and began to see possibilities of my own.

The first thing I did was take some of my gelli print scraps and collaged them on to the background (far left and far right of the piece). Down the center, I added some collage elements (courtesy Teesha Moore).

Next, I added a couple more of Teesha's collage elements to the bottom right and upper left.

The next step was to use an old credit card and white acrylic paint to get the streak effect running vertically down the piece.

I added my central character next. Her body is another Teesha collage element and her head is an image from an old catalog.

More collage elements (upper left corner and upper right of the piece) and some additional elements added to the body, including a black outline in china marker to make the central image stand out a bit more.

In the next step I added another character to the right side of the piece (she's made up of a couple of different elements). I also added some of my own handmade art doodle circles.

Next, I painted the stars in gold Silks (shimmery acrylics) and used some recycled scrapbooking supplies for the dangles the stars hang from. And finally I added some doodling to highlight areas of the piece.

I was amazed how quickly this piece came together. Very often when I am working on collaborative pieces with other artists, it seems to take forever to get going on it. This one came together in a matter of a few hours and was done. Obviously, I was in "the zone" when this opportunity came my way.

Thank you, dear Judy, for this fun project to work on together. I hope you like the final result.

Thanks for looking and I'll see you all next time.

Cheers!

Joanna

COLLABORATIVE ART WITH GINNY MARKLEY

Hi All;

A few months ago I posted about how my dear art pal, Ginny Markley, took a half-finished piece of my art and made a stunning finished masterpiece with it. We had traded each other a partially done piece of art for the other to finish and return. Here's the link to that post:

Ginny Markley & Joanna Grant Collaborative Art - Part I

Anyway, it's taken me this long to get time to do a blog post on Ginny's piece she sent for me to work on.

Here is what it looked like when I got it. It's about 8" X 10". Ginny used gelli prints and assorted collage elements to get the piece to this point.

I sat for quite a while trying to figure out what to do with this piece. There's more pressure on you than you'd think when it's somebody else's work and you don't want to mess it up with a wrong step. I finally just decided to dive in and not worry about that.

I started with a bit of doodling and then used a scrap of corrugated cardboard and white acrylic paint to make the marks you see on the left side of the piece.

Next, I added some of my gelli print flower cutouts to her dress to jazz it up a bit and legs to the little character on the right.

Then, I continued to work on the little character on the right, building up its outfit. I also added some black outlining to her dress to make it stand out a bit more and some highlighting of the gelli print flowers.

After that, I added some doodling and a funky little collage element for her hair. Some gold metallic acrylic paint went into the background near her right hand. Her bracelet got a facelift too.

Then, I stenciled some hearts in purple and red Silks (shimmery acrylics). They "hang" from some recycled scrapbooking sticker doodads.

Next, I added some funky flowers to the lower left, using reclaimed scrapbooking doodads and some checkerboard paper for the stems. She also got a groovy necklace (more reclaimed scrapbooking supplies).

Lastly, I added a funky border to the top of the piece, along with some collage elements on the left (blue and white squares). The quote was the very last thing to be added.

This was a very fun project to do with Ginny, even though it took me a few months to actually complete it. I'm glad she was so patient with me. If you'd like to see more of Ginny's wonderful work, you can find her blog here.

Playing With Paint - Ginny Markley

I hope you enjoyed seeing the process this collaborative piece went through from start to finish.

Cheers, my friends!
Joanna

LIMITED EDITION ART PRINTS now in stock!

"Honor" (Namaste - I honor the light in you)

Etsy Listing - "Honor"

Hello friends;

I thought I'd share with you some of my recent listings in my Etsy store of a new line of limited edition art magnets I have had made.

These are all reproductions of my original mixed media work. Each magnet is about 4" X 5.5" and has a semi-glossy professional finish to it.

They make great gift ideas (easily mail one in a standard No. 10 envelope). You can jazz up your kitchen appliances or those boring office filing cabinets too!

More designs to come so stay tuned.

Thanks for looking!

"Enjoy The Journey"

Etsy Listing = "Enjoy The Journey"

"Sing Your Song"

Etsy Listing - "Sing Your Song"

GELLI PRINT PACKING TAPE ART MAGNETS - HOW TO

Art Magnets Made With Gelli Tape Transfer Technique

Hi friends;

Here's a long overdue post for you on how I make those art magnets, using my gelli prints on packing tape.

If you haven't see the Gelli Arts video on how to make cool, arty packing tape with gelli prints, then go here first to see what I am talking about:

Gelli Arts Packing Tape Video

So, here are some photos of two of my Gelli plates with acrylic and dimensional paints.

12 X 14 Gelli Plate With Acrylic & Dimensional Paints

6 X 6 Gelli Plate With Acrylic Paints

And here is the tape I made from those two plates:

Gelli Tape - No Glitter Or Pearl Ex Powder Used Yet

Gelli Tape With Teal And Purple Glitter Added To Fill In The Sticky Areas

The tape was just about the perfect width for me to make backgrounds for my art magnets I create so often. I use those sticky-backed business card-sized magnets you can buy at the office supply store. They are 2" X 3.5" and are great for making small-scale art magnets.

Sticky-backed business card magnet blanks

All I had to do was peel off the white paper from the magnet, put the gelli tape on the magnet (remember, it's VERY sticky) and then trim the edges.

So now I have the backgrounds of the art magnets ready, what am I going to put on top of the Gelli tape?

I started by adding some of my doodly flower collage elements. And then I added even more doodling on them with my Sakura Moonlight Gelly Roll pens (this step not shown).

Next, from my ever-increasing stash of stuff, I pulled some cute vintage-style graphics that measure about 1" X 2" and which I had already put under those sticky-backed resin pieces you can buy for such purposes. They are great to use for making pendants and domino art. I believe these images came from Lisa's Altered Art.

Resin Blanks (left) and Vintage Images Under Resin (right)

I used some E-6000 (similar to GOOP) to adhere the vintage images that were now under resin to the magnet backgrounds. Clothes pins held them in place until they dried.

And here are the finished pieces. The scans really don't do them justice as they are very bright and shiny because of the packing tape and the resin.

If you go back to the top of this post, you'll see a couple of examples of another style of magnet I made using some sweet vintage images of ladies and their dogs, and with this same technique.

I hope you've enjoyed this little tutorial and I'd love to see what you create with your gelli packing tape.

Until next time ...

Joanna

PRIZES, PRIZES, PRIZES to be won by YOU ... at GELLI JAM this summer!

Hi all;

Well, we're winding down the last two weeks before our ONLINE workshop "Gelli Jam" premieres with Artful Gathering.

Just in case you missed the details, check this out. In addition to all the fun we are going to have in the workshop, you can win one of over 20 different prizes that will only be available to those who are registered in the class. All kinds of original art by me and other cool stuff will be available.

Sure hope you'll join us. More details at:

Artful Gathering 2014

We'll create all this cool handmade art journals in the workshop

PRIZES, PRIZES, PRIZES TO BE WON!

Just a few of the many, many prizes you could win!

Win one of these limited edition art notebook/journals

Lots of my original art will be available to win!

Head on over to Artful Gathering to get registered and we'll see you there for all the fun this summer!

Cheers!
Joanna

HUGE GIVEAWAY with BIRDNUTS MIXED MEDIA BLOG ! CHECK IT OUT !!

AND THE WINNER IS ...

KIM JOLLEY ... CONGRATULATIONS!

And thank you to all of you who entered and for your support.

I so appreciate it.

Hope to see you at Gelli Jam this summer!

WOW!!
My friend, Denise Phillips from BIRDNUTS MIXED MEDIA
and I have a FANTASTIC giveaway for YOU!

To promote my GELLI JAM ART JOURNAL WORKSHOP with Artful Gathering this summer, Denise has so generously agreed to host a HUGE giveaway on her blog for me. This is an ONLINE workshop starting July 16 and running through August 26.

Denise, a fellow Canadian artist, has a fantastic blog about her artful adventures. Here's the link. You'll want to hop on over there to check out the giveaway as well as see samples of her fun, irreverent art.

BIRDNUTS MIXED MEDIA BLOG

All the giveaway details are there for you.

And here's the link to my workshop. I hope you'll join me! We are going to have SO much fun using a gelatin plate and recycled materials you already have to create awesome handmade art journals for yourself or others.

GELLI JAM ART JOURNAL WORKSHOP

Here are some of the things we'll be doing in this ONLINE, work-at-your-own-pace workshop.

I`ll show you how to make ALL of these awesome journals!

SEE YOU THERE!

Cheers!
Joanna

It's a TREASURE HUNT! Check Out What You Can Win !!

C'mon, play along!

The artists from Artful Gathering 2014 are participating in a treasure hunt and YOU could win some wonderful prizes.

Find out more details here: Artful Gathering Treasure Hunt

And be sure to check out the Artful Gathering program book to see the details about my classes: "Gelli Jam Art Journal Workshop" coming this summer!

Good luck on the hunt!