My Other Creations: Blackout Poem Tribute

This week's theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog is, "B is for...."  When I started thinking about B things, the possibilities were endless!  You don't even know how close I came to trying to art-i-fy a piece of bread!  But in the end, I went with a project I'd been excited about for quite a while: my own version of a Blackout Poem.

What, you may ask, is a Blackout Poem?  We have the highly clever Austin Kleon to thank for that.  He's a writer/artist who had the inspired idea to go through a stack of newspapers with a black Sharpie and scribble out most of the words leaving only a few behind that formed a "poem."  As a lit nerd myself, I found this idea intriguing.  We crafty folks often add words to collages, but relying on the words that are already there and creating art around it?  I wanted to give it a whirl.  

I started by ripping out a page from a discarded book (and don't think my librarian side didn't cringe doing it).  I took a good look at the words.  We're used to reading words in the order in which they're intended, so it was a different sort of phenomenon to look at all the words independently and try to figure out a new way to connect them.  I eventually came up with, "You can generate geek magic."  I penciled around the words that I chosen, then got out the Gesso and painted out everything but those five words.

When it dried, I masked off the words using Post-it notes and reached for my acrylic paint.

I painted some streaks and smears down the page, covering everything in blue, green and yellow.

Next I did some stenciling and stamping and threw on a circular frame that I cut from some vintage dictionary paper. 

I added more stamping, some yarn and some fabric scraps, too.  And the best part of this project?  That moment when you pull off the Post-it note masks and see your poem showing through!

I thoroughly enjoyed this project and will never look at words on a page the same way again.  The only hard part was the pressure!  Usually if you mess up on an art project, you can scrap it and start from scratch.  But I had ONE unique book page with ONE unique set of words.  I know we say, "embrace mistakes," but let's face it: where else would I find another set of words that spelled, "You can generate geek magic"?  I couldn't mess up my one shot, so I'm glad this project had a happy ending. 

Thanks again to Austin Kleon, whose idea I absolutely love and absolutely stole.  But he also wrote one of my favorite creative books called, Steal Like an Artist, so I think he'll be okay with my respectfully-intended thievery.

I made this project with these fabulous supplies, which you can get at Simon Says Stamp.

Prima White Heavy Gesso	Dina Wakley LEMON Heavy Body Acrylic Paints	Dina Wakley LIME Heavy Body Acrylic Paints	Dina Wakley TURQUOISE Heavy Body Acrylic Paints	Donna Downey Dandelion Pods Stencil	Dina Wakely Mixed Media Stamps - Textures	Prima Honeycomb Stencil
Darkroom Door Dots Texture Stamp	Indigo Blu Script Stamp	Heidi Swapp Make Pretty Stuff Word Clear Stamps	Simon Vintage Dictionary Paper	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Ruler Ribbon	Fiskars Acrylic Blocks	Mixed Media Sponges Bars
Ranger Archival Jet Black Ink Pad	Colorbox Rain Forest Ink	Festive Berries Distress Ink	Ripe Persimmon - Distress Ink	Barn Door - Distress ink	Salty Ocean - Distress Ink	Peacock Feathers - Distress Ink
Distress Ink Pad - Tumbled Glass

 
And what will B your inspiration for our letter B challenge? (see what I did there?)  Upload your masterpieces to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog so we can be inspired together and so that you'll be entered in the drawing for the $50 Simon Says Stamp store voucher.  That would B a sweet prize!