Art Is A Process

The Pennywise Yahoo community has a lot of really great swaps throughout the year.  The fat book page swaps are one of my favorite.  The current fat book theme is “See The World” using a luggage tag template that was provided.

Alert!  If you are in this swap and want to be surprised you should stop reading now.  This blog post could be interpreted as a swap spoiler and I wouldn’t want to influence you in any way.

It was easy to decide that I wanted to do something with the ocean because of all the stuff I have that I could use (and use up!) in doing it.  Plus, I just love the ocean!

As I was working on my tags I became very aware of my own personal art process:

1. I am a social artist.  I gain enthusiasm and inspiration when sharing a play day with other artists.  The afterglow of spending time with friends making art lasts for days and I love this intensely creative time.

2.  I don’t usually have a plan for how the end will look, I just ride the wave of “now” and see where it takes me. 

3. I make a big mess when doing art!

For the first part of my tag process I covered chipboard with paper from Design Originals.  Then I clear embossed part of the image with a shell stamp to give the illusion of water.  Stamp credit: Stampington and Company

Friends can be the best resource of all for ideas and inspiration.  My friend Julie came to play and shared some recycled heavy acetate with a wave shape cut from one side.  The wheels started turning and I knew I wanted to incorporate that wave into my design.

I thought about the wave on the sand square of my dollar store art (see previous post) and decided to use that technique on my tags.  I cut the acetate to match the length of the tags and then squeezed out a line of Sure Tac Glue.  I then placed shells along that line and added clear micro beads for grout on the spaces in between.  The glue will dry clear.

And that is as far as I have gotten so far.  I think I’ll continue to share my process as I experience it with these tags.  One thing is for sure, I definitely have a messy process!  Here is a picture of my table:

Hugs, Suzanne

P.S.  If you are interested in joining the 10 for 10 luggage tag swap and receiving one of my tags in trade, please contact me!  The due date is August 31st – still a whole month away!