Book made with Bind-It-All

Here's a book I made for my niece for her 8th birthday.  I made it with my Zutter Bind-It-All (a nifty toy for adding the coil binding) and it was so fun to get to do such a variety of pages.  Take alook at the following variety of pages.

Thanks for taking a look!

willowing.ning.com - Art, Heart & Healing

I've been taking part in the FREE class Tam is offering at willowing.ning.com called Art, Heart & Healing.
Tam is a wonderful person, I just love her! She is so easy to learn from! And a true joy to watch!

Years ago, someone told me I couldn't draw. I think I can pretty much trace it back to a really traumatic experience with a substitue art teacher in 8th grade. Fortunately for me, Tam came along and didn't bother to tell me if I could draw or not. She just showed me how! I have never (or probably not since that 8th grade art class) seriously tried to draw a portrait. But I have to say for a first effort I am really happy with this portrait drawing! I used what watercolor crayons and pencils I had on hand, and not being into drawing people didn't have alot of "skin tones" so I'm not real thrilled with the coloring. Except I do love the hair color! (used my current fav Inktense Pencils for the hair) And I am thrilled with how the overall journal spread turned out. I love Tam's technique for painting and background.

Here's a closer look at the face:  (click on either picture to see a larger image)

Like I mentioned the class is FREE. So head on over HERE and check it out! She might just help you learn something about yourself and in addition to creating some great art you might create a happier you! That, of course, is up to YOU! Enjoy!

Fall is in the air - postcards

It's been cold and wet here in Oregon lately.  And very windy!  Looks like it is snowing leaves as the wind speeds along the process of the trees shedding their leaves.
A friend of mine that is too far away for me to go visit is sick and in the hospital, so I've been making postcards to send her so she'll hear from me daily.  Even got my mom to paint one for her.
Here's some of what I've sent:



                           

Using Inktense Pencils by Derwent

This is the card my mom watercolored.  It's the scene from where/when we met my niece's school bus the other day.

And the following is from a one-for-one swap I participated in at Swap-Bot.com.  It's Inktense Pencils again.

I put one of my favorite quotes about this time of year one the back

"Autumn is a second spring

when every leaf is a flower"

-Albert Camus

Hope every one is enjoying this season.  I think it is my favorite.

Thanks for taking a look!

The Spooky Gallery Journal Page

Ths week the challenge on Ky's blog The Gesso-Dragon is "Spooky" and in honor of this time of year she challenges us to make a journal page honoring something we like about it.  You can check out the challenge and the blog here.

I love Halloween and have alot of Halloween stamps I really like so decided to make a gallery page using a variety of those.  The background is craft acrylics.  The pieces are on a variety of card stock and watercolor paper.  I stamped and cut out images and framed them.  Drew the spider webs on and stamped the spiders as well as some of the gallery attendes in white ink.

The Spooky Gallery banner was attached with silver skull brads - love these!  The words "The Spooky Gallery" were printed out from a Word document on cardstock.  The background was colored with watercolor pencils and water was dripped down the page for the subtle black drips.

The larger skulls at the bottom of the banner are clay masks made by a local artist.  Oh wait, that was my imagination running away with me, actually I cut them out of scrapbook paper.  But wouldn't they be cool clay masks?

Spooooooooky, huh?

This page was alot of fun to make and it was alot of fun to get all my Halloween stamps out and look through them.  I got alot more...may have to do another Halloween project!

Thanks Ky for hosting the challenge!

Wisdom Journal Page - more on Inktense pencils

Playing more with Inktense pencils by Derwent  I made this background page.                                     

                                                                                                                                                                       

I started by painting a watercolor paper page in my journal with gesso. Then colored with the Inktense pencils and applied water with a brush and a squirt bottle and let someof the color drip down the page.  I then used some sequin waste as a stencil to make the dots (using pigment ink pads).  And stamped a owl a couple times that I used on one of the collage elements (see journal page below).

Here's that wise 'ol owl in the collaged page, stamped on ledger paper, which 

is used alot in this journal, sort of a recurring theme (the inner edge of each page is trimmed with it also).  The stamp is part of a great set that includes an awesome Raven.  It's available from Stampin' Up and I order through my friend Laurel's website here.  I stamped the

image of the man on a piece of decorative scrapbook paper, tore the edges and glued it down. (he looks Chinese, and wasn't Confucious Chinese and full of wisdom?)  I edged the paper pieces with coordinating inks to what I used on the background. 

I had started this page because I had been playing around with Zentangle letters and had doodled the word "wisdom".  I colored the background of the word with a deep indigo Inktense pencil after I had glued it down as the white background stood out too much.  I used a couple skeleton leaves. one was alteady teal, the other I colored with a pigment ink pad.  I cut the loop off some asian charms and glued them down over the leaves.  Added a used postage stamp and a cut out butterfly and decided that was all the wisdom I had to add to the page! I hope it brings me some wisdom...

Thanks for taking a look!

New favorite art tool - Inktense Pencils

I love using colored pencils and watercolor pencils and thanks to my friend Paula (JournalArtista on YouTube and UStream) I've found a great new pencil I am having alot of fun with.  They are Derwent Inktense Pencils 













They are water soluble and really brilliant colors.  Here's some examples of what I've done with them:

Here's a rather abstract still life journal page, I'm still working on it but wanted to share the intensity of the colors of the intense pencils with you.  If working on a porous paper like watercolor paper I would suggest a coat of gesso first to keep the colors from soaking into the paper.

Here's an example of the intensity of the colors once water is added.  These are a stamped image on a linen texture cardstock. The top image is with water brushed on, the bottom is of the pencils before the water,  You can see how they pop!

Here's another example of before and after the water is added.

If you get a chance, give them a try.  They are alot of fun and really great colors!

In the style of (I hope) Urgent 2nd Class Mail

One of my favorite artists is Nick Bantock.  And one of my favorite art books is Urgent 2nd Class by Nick Bantock.
An online friend, Catherine, mentioned she was reading the book and we decided to exchange some mail art postcards, therefore having actual mail art as they had to go through the mail!
Here's the postcard I made using acrylics for the backround, Nick Bantock rubber stamps, and used postage stamps.  For a last touch of green I used a regular hole punch and punched out dots of green paper and glued them on.  I colored the PELICOS rubber stamp image with Derwent Inktense Pencils (more on those coming in my next post).

And here's the card I got from Catherine.  I love the metallics in the background.  Also the adirondack chair - and check out the sea and sky in that image - wish I was sitting there!.  And I think any collage that includes postage stamps is COOL!

Making and swapping postcards is always a great time!

in pieces

About time I completed a journal page, wouldn't you say?  I've been making backgrounds and gathering "stuff" but not doing alot of finishing lately.  I just like making art, sometimes it doesn't even matter to me if I finish it!  But then, I need to close out an idea so I can move on at some point.  Of course, that doesn't mean I won't ever go back and add more...who knows!

This page is gessoed then painted with acrylics, with some 91% alcohol spilled on it for interest.  Then some scraps cut up from an old calendar picture that I used for a book liner.  I glued them down then softened edges with pigment ink pads.  Haphazardly stamped a few images, again with pigment ink.  Drew a few swirls with colored pencil.  Cut the shanks off a couple flower shaped buttons and glued them down along with a metal embossed pewter or silver flower sticker I had colored with lilac pigment ink.  Then wrote the words with a Sharpie water based white paint marker.

I'm really liking the color combinations.  Probably what drew me to use that calendar page in the first place.

Thanks for taking a look!

Postcard Swap

I made some postcards for a swap I'm participating in over on the ArtJournaling.ning.com site.  That is a great site to find alot of info about Art Journaling, meet alot of great people, see alot of photos, and there are free and pay classes.

Anyway, the swap was fall or Halloween themed (a couple of my favorite things!).  I painted watercolor paper purple and orange backgrounds with craft acrylics.  Cut them into 4x6 pieces.  Then got busy with stamps and punches, and scissors and some scrapbook paper.  Some of the stamps I used were ones I got out of the $1 bin at Michaels.  I like shopping smaller independant art and craft stores but not alot of choices where I live and you can't beat those $1 deals.

I cut my watercolor paper the wrong size so ended up with only one orange background...I skipped that measure twice cut once rule...oops!  But now I have some nice 4x5 pieces to make card fronts.

So above you see a couple Halloween cards and below is my one orange post card with a fall theme.

For the orange one I left the deckle edge of the watercolor sheet intact along the bottom.  I love how that looks!

Thanks Kerri for hosting the swap!

Happy Fall y'all!

Helping a worthy cause - A Place To Bark

A Place To Bark is Bernie Berlin's dream - she pours her heart and soul into it each day and saves lives of dogs and cats.
She needs our help to keep the place going.  You can check out The Place To Bark website here for lot's of info and ways to help.  You can see some really inspiring animal stories there that will be sure to touch your heart!

A great way we can help her now is by voting for her at the Go Daddy commercial contest:

Please Blog, Share View with every animal lover dedicated to Life & give @aplacetobark 5 stars! http://bit.ly/8XAaIY Rescued pets rule!

Please give A Place To Bark your vote today and tell people you know to join in!

Thanks!