July Theme
Ephemera
Week 27 – July 4
Art Challenge: Using Old Maps, Letters, Tickets & More
Journal Prompt: Life…with a history
I just LOVE ephemera! It’s a lovely, old-fashioned word for JUNK – at least that’s what my drawer of ephemera looks like in my studio! Here is where I drop every little tiny piece of anything and believe me, I am digging in it constantly for the perfect image or word for my art work. I am thrilled this month to be able to use up as much as possible!
Besides the old stuff, manufacturers and designers are creating “new” ephemera. I love Tim Holtz’ vintage photos and ticket stubs plus anything from 7gypsies! To start the challenge, I gathered a collection of paper around me to see where this might lead. I knew I was going to create a time line this week, but was wondering how I could use all of these gorgeous bits…
To get rid of the intimidation of the “blank page,” (remember that from our first month?) I took a prismacolor grey pencil and began writing things about my life randomly all over the page. I wrote illegibly and out of order, leaving blank spaces. These words are never meant to be read by anyone, they are only a background. I know what they say and that’s what’s important!
I painted three lines across the page with Martha Stewart’s Porcelain Doll craft paint – LOVE this color!
Next, I rubbed on some metallic fleur de lis rub ons from Glitz Designs. It looks rough and they didn’t transfer perfectly, but remember, I’m just filling spaces. I love the gilded look.
I was going to use pen and ink to do my own lettering, but the ink would not cooperate with the satin paint on the page. No worries, it gave me an excuse to use up some of the hundreds of packs of sticker letters I have in my stash!
For the rest of the page, I added words and pictures to mark milestones in my life…important moments and ballpark dates – things that are pertinent to me and who I am.
I love how my life started like this . . .
And now it is this . . . passages, possibilities.
I’m looking forward to seeing how you use your ephemera in this week’s challenge . . . HAPPY DOCUMENTING!
Our Featured Artist this week is the fabulous Erin Bassett! You can see her take on the challenge HERE
For more information on this week’s challenge you can find us here:
http://arttothe5th.squarespace.com/
Flickr
Instagram: #documentedlife #documentedlifeproject
Looking for previous challenges? click HERE
Visit our blogs: Sandi Keene, Roben-Marie Smith, Rae Missigman
Join us on The Art to the 5thâ„¢ Academyâ„¢ – a thriving “community” and classroom for “The Original” Documented Life Projectâ„¢! Find us on Instagram: #documentedlife
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Comments
What a rich, gorgeous page, Lorraine! LOVE that you created a timeline as your interpretation.
And your ephemera drawer looks WAY COOL!
I love this month’s theme of Ephemera!! 🙂
Using Old Maps…I can do that! 🙂
Thanks for all you do to organize DLP and inspire us each week!!
What a rich, gorgeous page, Lorraine! LOVE that you created a timeline as your interpretation.
And your ephemera drawer looks WAY COOL!
I love this month’s theme of Ephemera!! 🙂
Using Old Maps…I can do that! 🙂
Thanks for all you do to organize DLP and inspire us each week!!
Thank you so much Mary! We thought of you on this challenge and just know you will create something over the top! Love to look for your posts every week!
Oooh – this time line is so cool! And beautiful! I love this and how it depicts the history of your life in beautiful pieces of ephemera! Beautiful job, Lo!
thank you Sandi – it was something I thought I might struggle with, but once I got started, I focused on the good – it was therapeutic!
What a sweet spread this is. Everyone has surprised me this week and you are no exception. I’ve always thought that I needed to use my own pictures in order to tell a story like this but you have done the job in a unique way using the ephemera. It has a life of its own and I just love your story. The ephemera made it better since it fit perfectly with what you had to document. That last picture just made me saw Awwww. Great spread!!!
Thank you so much Mary! I love to use old pictures and make up stories about the people in them . . . this time I just substituted my own stories to go along with the images! Can’t wait to see what you create! Will you post?
Oh my goodness! I love, love, love what you did with this spread.
Thanks Crystal!
Wow, I really love what you did with this challenge! So fun to look at!
Thank you so much Amy – it was fun to create!
What a wonderful way to use "new Ephemera!" This page is so heartfelt and pretty and interesting to look at and read- I love every single thing about it! You really have a super creative mind and I always look forward to your inspiring takes on each challenge! xo
Love it! This is a really nice layout you have done. I have been inspired by your work this week with the telling of the life story and writing in the background.
That makes me happy to hear Krystal – I’m so glad you were inspired and thank you for commenting!
I am so inspired by this page. I have so much ephemera from my Scrapbooking stash and can’t wait to use it. I love how you have created your timeline using the ephemera.
I too love ephemera and often that is where I take my inspiration. This turned out wonderful.
Thank you Shirley, and for taking the time to comment!