simple syrup | lunanista

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altered art book, Altered books, art journal, cherries, cherries with pits, collage, Elsie de Wolfe, gratitude, hostess gift, Liquitex paint pens, painting, painting workbook, paper art, quotes, simple syrup, Watercolor pencils

I am back in my altered book journal and decided to document the process of this week’s entry as I’m experimenting for a larger piece. I started out with the back of a piece of watercolor paper from last week on the left hand page. I found this quote on the blog Hey It’s Frances To and it really struck a chord with me. I really like what she has done with her lettering portfolio, too. So when I saw that the Journal 52 prompt was Positive Change we had another week with synchronicity! Hooray! My lettering is a little half hazard as I have not been practicing it very much lately, but I do like how the page came out overall. While my vision problems continue, I am finding different things I can do to express my creativity and make my life interesting and hopefully add to the beauty in the world. The flowers were cut out from a scrap of leftover map that I like to use as a metaphor for my intentions for where I am headed. I used marker in the middle and blue watercolor pencil around the outside of each flower.

The right hand page started with a few slaps of the paint that I’m using in our unplanned bathroom remodel. The shade of green is called Peter Pan and my son just finished working as the music director for our children’s theater production of Peter Pan Jr. It was just another funny coincidence that we chose that color – not intentional. The latex wall paint was not adhering well to the page so I used a credit card to spread a little gesso on the page. I added some blue acrylic paint for my sky. My cityscape was inspired by a project in the book The Painting Workbook by Alena Hennessy (now listed in my Reference and Recommendations page.)

I liked how the blue didn’t really cover the top of the page and I really covered the bottom of the page with the green. I used a tip from the Painting Workbook and drew into the wet paint with a watercolor pencil, but it didn’t work very well. I don’t know if that was because it was latex wall paint instead of acrylic paint. I will try again another day. I really did like how the scratched out flowers went through to the original colors on the page. I tried a few different brands of watercolor pencils and the Inktense ones left a little color, but none of the other ones did.

I decided that I wanted to make an Art Deco building in my cityscape so I cut different papers into shapes that were Art Deco inspired and I painted them in colors that made me think of Art Deco. One of the techniques that I used that I was pretty happy with was putting the long thin strips down the center of the band-aid looking pieces to make “windows” on them at regular intervals. I recently got a set of 3 Liquitex paint markers and I am really loving them. They were great for adding details to my “building.” I played around with the different paper shapes until I came up with a building that I found interesting. I did some journaling with a white pen on the blue sky and glued everything in place. I painted the flowers with the orange Inktense watercolor pencil after experimenting with a few other media and I drew some leaves and grass with green markers. I learned a lot in the process of making this page and I hope this has been instructional for you too!

On a totally unrelated note…

I made a cherry simple syrup without pitting the cherries. We got 7 pounds of cherries from our CSA and that is a LOT of cherry pits. For the last pound or so I was looking for something to do that would not require removing the pits and I had a hard time finding anything. All the simple syrup recipes I found required pit removal. I decided to try it with them in and it worked beautifully. So here is my version:

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

a bunch of cherries without stems but with pits

Simmer everything at a low heat for at least 10 minutes and then squish through a sieve. Keep the syrup in the fridge for as long as it lasts. It is fabulous in lemonade or iced tea. I don’t know what the shelf life is because mine doesn’t last more than 2 weeks. It also makes a lovely housewarming gift or summer party hostess gift.