A Journey In Creativity

Bind-It-All Binge

2012-01-22T21:37:00.000-08:00

Okay, I admit it - I love most all art supplies. But tools have a special place in my art supply heart! And among the tools I currently have the Zutter Bind-It-All is one of my favorite. You can check out their website by clicking HERE. I have the older blue Bind-It-All (BIA). Good thing I got it when it was blue as it is pink now. I hate to admit I might not ever have got to know how much fun it is as I would probably have never bought a "pink" tool. I'm just not too fond of pink. Anyway, I did get the blue BIA and I love it. You can see it in the photo above.
One of the things I like most is that you don't have to measure much. For the book and covers you basically need the center of the side you are going to bind. I use leftover paper from other projects in whatever sizes they happen to be and can go from there. Once I decide on the book pages, I just make a cover using one of those as a guide and make it slightly larger. Or, sometimes I have something I want to use as a cover, and go from there and cut pages slightly larger.
Recently I had my BIA and all kinds of paper out to make a Smash style scrapbook for my niece for her 12th birthday. It is 8 x 10 and turned out great but I forgot to take photos of it so will have to share photos of it another time.
As long as I had all the stuff handy I got out some postcards to use as covers and made a whole bunch of books! I even refilled a small book I had made awhile back and used up. Most of my binding is 3/4" silver O-rings as I bought a huge box of them from an office supply store. Alot (really ALOT) more reasonably
priced than buying them in 2 or 6 packs.
The green "Nurture Nature" postcards are ones I had made from a collage of mine. The rest are commercial post cards. Here's a bunch of photos:

The backs are cardboard or chipboard I covered with paper on both sides.
The Nurture Nature books will be available for sale soon on my Etsy as mini sketch books or journals. Great as a small journal to have with you, a good travel size! I'll post a notice here and on Twitter when they are available.
Thanks for taking a look!
Have a CREATIVE week!

Postcard Challenge 2012 - Week 3 Brazil

2012-01-20T16:23:00.000-08:00

I used Prismacolor Pencils and Derwent Inktense pencils for the postcard. Wood laying on the jungle floor was shavings from sharpening my pencils. They were just laying there and looked like they should be used! Words are hand stamped with India Ink Black stamp pad (my very favorite black ink pad).

Learn all about Darcy's great Postcard Challenge by reading about it on her blog HERE.

Postcard Challenge 2012 - Week 2 Spain

2012-01-13T04:08:00.000-08:00

Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Artist rendering
At Dusk

Used watercolor paper
First layer of background and sky - watercolor
Finished with Prisma colored pencils and black Microm pen

To make the back a little easier to read:

Learn all about Darcy's great Postcard Challenge by reading about it on her blog HERE.

Postcard Challenge 2012 - Week 1 Austria

2012-01-06T04:00:00.000-08:00

My first ever Coptic Stitch Book!

2012-01-04T15:39:00.000-08:00

I finished my book for Darcy's Postcard Challenge 2012.
It's the first time I've ever done a Coptic Stitch binding and I really like how it turned out.
The pages are alot thicker at the bottom because of the pockets I added to each page to hold the postcards so to accommodate for that I used pretty thick thread for the stitching of the binding.

The binding is one inch strips of tyvek that I painted a copper color with acrylics.
I got the idea and instructions for making this"Coptic Stitch binding for individual pages" book from watching Barb on UStream. You can see the recording of how to make the book HERE. Thanks to Barb for always being such an inspiration!
Below are some pictures of the completed book:

I have my postcard started. I think for me, the hardest part will be figuring what to write on the back. This creative writing is pretty far out of the norm for me, but always a good idea to get out of one's own normal, right?

Thanks for taking a look!

Postcard Challenge 2012 - The story Begins...

2012-01-02T23:56:00.000-08:00

As mentioned in my last post, I am taking part in a really fun challenge for 2012 that Darcy has created for us and explained on her blog. You can read about it HERE. The idea is based on Nick Bantock's Griffin and Sabine series of books where mysterious characters correspond.

One of the first things we need to do is create our own story and characters.

Here's what I've come up with so far:

The story begins…

The Characters

#1 is Sabrina. She lives in a small town onthe Oregon Coast but does not spend much time there. Sabrina is a photo journalist and travels theworld photographing interesting locations for the various travel magazines shefreelances for. But she uses a P O Boxin Oregon as her mailing address and has friends manage her mail and forward itto her.

Her address is:

Sabrina Harrison

P O Box 251

Rockaway Beach OR 93137

USA

#2 is Declan. It is thought that Declanlives in London. However he is somewhatsecretive. As the saying goes – he couldtell us where he lives and what he does but then he’d have to kill us as we’dknow too much. So, better not to know,don’t you agree? His mailing addressseems to indicate he works for the British Government. Perhaps he is some sort of spy? Is there a real life James Bond? And is he it? Wonder if we’ll ever know…

His address is:

Declan McCabe 73179

c/o The O.I.C.

Number 17 ½ Downing Street

London

IM2 YR1

As the story begins, Sabrina hasreceived a small package in the mail with a strange London address. What the heck is “The O.I.C.???

Inside the package she finds a packetof photographs and negatives she had lost on her last adventure. They were lost somewhere in SouthAfrica. She had been quite upset she hadnot been able to locate them as the negatives are irreplaceable. Without them she would not be paid for hertrip all over South Africa. So you canimagine how relieved and grateful she was to find them in the mail!

A note inside thepackage states “Dear Ms Harrison, Ifound this packet of photos under a bench near the Bull & Bush Pub in Gaborone, Botswana. Inside was yourbusiness card with your information and address inside so am sending them toyou. Yours Faithfully, Mr. DeclanMcCabe”.

Sabrina feels compelledto respond to this Declan McCabe, wondering what is inspiring her to dothat. Perhaps the same feeling thatcompelled Declan to return the found photos to her in the first place.

So, the postcardcorrespondence begins…

Stay tuned, much more to follow as the year progresses and these characters communicate with one another from locations yet to be revealed.

Thanks for taking a look!

Have a creative week!

Postcard Challenge 2012

2011-12-31T04:52:00.000-08:00

DarcyW, a UK artist, has posted a really great challenge on her blog for 2012. You can read all about it HERE.

I need a few good challenges for 2012. And it is one postcard a week. Surely I can manage one postcard a week.

And the swap is inspired by Nick Bantocks Grffin and Sabine series of books. I love those books!

I just about have my characters figured out. Just need to come up with a few more details.

And will finish binding my book in the next couple days.

Here's the start of my book:

Front cover

Inside front cover - I'll insert a written note outlining my characters here

One of the inside pages - with flap I'll slip postcard into each week

The book is 7' by 7". The front cover and inside front cover flap are bits of paper overlayed with black tulle and then stitched in place. The postcard flaps are all cardstock covered with maps and deco paper stitched in place. (yes, I did zig zag stitch around 52 flaps - go ahead, call me insane! lol). I got the coptic stitch binding for single pages idea, as well as the idea for using the tulle, from watching my creative friend, Barb, on UStream. You can find her channel HERE.

I'll be back to post my finished book and talk about my characters soon. And hope to have a year of postcards to share here.

Thanks to Darcy for such an inspired idea!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!

2011-12-25T02:51:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!!!

Eiffel Tower

2011-12-18T03:10:00.000-08:00

I currently love everything Eiffel Tower. Not sure why, I have no great desire to travel to Paris (but I would NOT turn down a chance to go!). And no plans anytime soon. But I am intrigued by the image and it catches my eye wherever it is.

I got this fun stamp set that feeds my love of the Eiffel Tower and has alot of possibilities for creating stuff with an Eiffel Tower theme. Here's what the stamp set looks like -

And here the tag set I made using some of them -

Below is the 3 separate pieces before I tied them together with 3 strands of ribbon.

The largest tag is a kraft tag, the middle is a manilla tag, and the smallest is a strip cut from a 12x12 sheet of scrapbook paper that has Eiffel Tower postoids on it. You can see I also used one of the postoids from that same paper on each of the other tags. I sprayed all the tags with my very favorite spray, Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst Saxifrage Olive Copper - you can find it HERE. Then stamped the images with VersaFine ink. I added some charms I had to the little strip of postoids (the Eiffel Tower charm I had was the exact same size as the image on the paper - how cool is that!).

I'm really happy with how it turned out!

Now I need to get a couple more Christmas things made so I can play some more with this stamp set!

Hope you all are having a creative weekend!

Happy Holidays!

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

2011-12-09T19:07:00.001-08:00

Continuing on with quick projects, I've got out Christmas supplies and have been playing around with making tags. All different sizes, based on 6x6 paper pad and what size scraps I had.

Here's some of the tags I have so far -

All of the rubber stamps used are from a set by Prima called North Country. You can see it by clicking HERE. Some of the papers are from the 6x6 collection of papers from the same North Country collection by Prima. Other papers were stuff I had on hand from other years (I have alot of "stuff". LOVE my STUFF!). The die cuts are various die cuts I found on Ebay already cut out. I don't have any Christmas dies (yet) so had to spend a few dollars to get some stuff from people that do have holiday dies.

It's alot of fun having all kinds of Christmas stuff out and putting together tags. Now I need to go put some fibers and ribbons on these and see about decorating some envelopes. If I have your snail mail address you might end up with one of these in your mail box!

Thanks for taking a look!
Have yourself a creative weekend!

Happy Holidays!

Bee Sweet or Be Square

2011-12-08T02:49:00.001-08:00

Here's my silly cat, Maui, keeping me company while I art by using the empty box I set on the chair next to me:

She's a lot of help! lol

Time is a Gift

2011-12-02T11:40:00.001-08:00

I've been making small art projects lately. Mostly postcards and tags.

Here's a postcard I finished a couple days ago.

The images are cut out of magazines and glued to a heavy cardstock base.

The letters were printed out on cardstock ans then punched out with circle punches and glued down.

I used Tacky Glue for all the glueing.

Thanks for taking a look!

Have a creative weekend!

California Dreamin'

2011-11-21T03:06:00.001-08:00

I have a friend that is currently living in Ohio due to family obligations. But is dreaming and planning for the day she can return to Sunny California, preferably San Diego.
In honor of her birthday earlier this month I made her a Folder Tag Holder full of California themed tags (as inspired by my art friend and mentor, Dede - you can see the kits she sells to make these yourself on her Etsy HERE).
I didn't get a chance to take pics of the folder before I mailed it off but I did manage to scan the tags so shared them with you here.
When I first thought of the idea I went on Google and searched for California and San Diego Travel Guides and went to the websites and ordered the free paper copies. When they got here I went through and tore or cut out many images. I covered the outside of the book with California maps. Then gathered a bunch of dyed tags and some watercolor paper scraps and started sewing on images. I've been having so much fun sewing on paper lately!

I'll get Debbie to take some pics of the Folder Holder for me and share those with you another time. But wanted to share these with you in case you are in need of some warm sunny thoughts and/or some California Dreamin'!

Thanks for taking a look!

Hope you all have a creative week!

Owl Ornaments for sale on ETSY

2011-11-19T02:42:00.001-08:00

You can now find my Owl Ornaments for sale on ETSY by clicking HERE.
Thanks for taking a look and I really appreciate any purchases,

Also while over at ETSY check out the great stuff my friend, Debbie, has listed. You can find her ETSY by clicking HERE. She is one of the most creative people I know and has some great ornaments, charms, really awsome hand dyed ribbons, and more. Including these these great Altered Matchboxes:

Have a great weekend everyone!

It's Raining Owls!

2011-11-17T15:06:00.001-08:00

Purple and Green owls

Musical Owls

Blue Owls

And an assortment of Owls decked out in their finest Christmas attire!

I've been sewing and sewing owls and plan to list them on my Etsy. I'll let you know here and via Twitter when I get them listed.

The owls are all the same size. They are approx 3 1/4" tall and 3 " wide at the ears.

They are alot of fun to make. I swear when I glue the eyes on they each develop their own personality!

Thanks for taking a look!

Hope you have a creative day!

Sewing Postcards

2011-11-07T03:12:00.000-08:00

I've had my sewing machine out to make some fabric Christmas ornaments - I'll share those here when I get finishing touches on them.

I decided as long as I had the machine set up I would play around with sewing on paper so made some postcards. Here are a few of them:

I used a combination of magazine images, fabric and stamped quotes. I had a great time playing with the sewing machine and the zig zag stitch!
If I have your address, you never know, one of these might show up in your mailbox!
Hope everyone has a creative week!
Thanks for taking a look!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T03:54:00.000-07:00

Oh, this is post # 100! Spooooooookkkyyy! lol

Lilies

2011-10-29T16:29:00.000-07:00

Here's my latest journal page:

The background is sprayed with a homemade spray I made with reinkers. All the pieces are glued down with matte medium (I used Daniel Smith brand, you can\find it here) . The very back paper is some round ephemera pieces I have, I cut it half and glue the pieces down, then adhered the lilies magazine image I had fussy cut. The leaf is an actual leaf I had dried between the pages of a book. "LILIES" is hand written with a Sharpie® pen on a scrap of watercolor paper I painted Lime Green. And the text is hand stamped (a Printworks rubber stamp). How appropriate as what has a more wonderful fragrance than Lovely Lilies?!?
Thanks for taking a look!
I hope you are having a CREATIVE weekend!

Magnolia Journal page

2011-10-26T17:18:00.000-07:00

Magnolias are one of my favorite flowers. Awhile back I got a card from a friend that she had made with a magnolia she had put on the front. A day or two later I got a card from another friend and she had used a Magnolia postage stamp to send it. Then while out and about I had gone to an antique store that had a painting of a magnolia very similar to the one on the card that had a black background. A journal page inspiration/idea started building in my head!
Heres' what I came up with:

I painted the background with layers of gesso, black acrylic, and dark green acrylic. Then I used a Tattered Angels mask for the fence and used a makeup sponge to sponge two shades of green acrylic. I used another mask and two shades of green again for the mask in the upper left corner.
I toned down the white on the postage stamp with green ink and also, edged the magnolia image I had torn off the card with the same green ink. The page needed one more thing, I looked through a bunch of magazines and found the center image. Everything was glued down with matte medium. The magnolia from the card got a sort of cool texture, almost crackled. Here's a close-up you can sorta see the texture:

Cool, huh?

Here's a close-up of the masking also:

I really like how it turned out with the two shades of green.

Thanks for taking a look!
Enjoy the rest of your week!

Ok, I'm ready for the REWARD!

2011-10-24T01:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a journal page I made based on a fortune cookie fortune "Your path will be difficult but will be rewarding".
When I got the fortune my first thought was that it would be great for a journal page. I've had it sitting on my art table for awhile. While looking through ALL the stuff I'm saving for collage and trying to organize it I came across this winding river image I've been saving for just the right thing. The two just seemed to go together!

The background is acrylics - maroon, white, and a drop of ultramarine blue. They are blended and spread around with a palette knife. I printed the words out on card stock. I edged everything with an olive green ink pad to grunge it up a bit. Everything was glued down and sealed with acrylic matte medium.
I put and extra REWARDING at the bottom for good measure.
Bring on the rewarding part!
Thanks for taking a look!
Now - go do something creative!

My Poor Neglected Blog & Postcards

2011-10-21T01:56:00.000-07:00

I have been seriously neglecting my blog for over a month now.
In part because my camera is not working, in part because I've been doing more organizing and consolidating my art stuffs (or atleast trying to) than creating, and partly just being lazy!
I have a couple journal pages I will scan soon.
And I've been playing around with Halloween tags and a few bookmarks I hope to share with you soon.

In the meantime, here's a couple postcards I finished yesterday and today:

I painted a piece of watercolor paper green to start this pc. Then sprayed it with Wild Plum Color Wash for the splots. Then cut up some scraps of decorated paper I had from last year and glued them down. Then punched some skull and crossbones out of same paper and glued them down. Also glued down some Halloween confetti. Last thing I did was edge the whole postcard with Black India Ink (my fav black ink pad).

This one is watercolor paper I colored orange with Inktense Pencils. Then edged with Black India Ink. And stamped the quote with same ink. Then glued the image from a Just For Fun rubber stamp that I had stamped on a seperate piece of paper that had a watercolor background.

Hope you enjoyed taking a look at them and I'll try to post art here regularly!
Thanks for taking a look!
Now go do something creative!

A Day To Remember 9-11-01

2011-09-11T19:22:00.000-07:00

A day that changed the world...

In honor of all affected by that day, my mom, my niece and I made the following envelopes as part of

the Remember September Mail Art Memorial Project. You can read all about it by clicking HERE.

Above is the one my mom, Myrna, created.

Above is the one my niece Piper, who is 11, created.

And, above is my decorated envelope.

My friend Debbie, is the one who originally told me about this mail art project. She participates each year and you can see her envelope for this year on her blog by clicking HERE.

Thanks for taking a look at my blog.

Remember September

2011-09-10T12:42:00.000-07:00

For several years I've participated in a Remember September Mail Art Memorial. Last year my mom, Myrna, and my niece, Piper, contributed art also for a three generation participation. Here's what we sent last year:

Above is Piper's, below is my mom's, and then mine.

My mom and I are going to Piper's for pizza with her folks and brother's later today. We are going to make another set of three generations of Remember September Mail Art.

Pictures to follow in my next post.

Since September 11th falls on Sunday this year you can mail an envelope today or Monday.

So, there is still time to take part.

You can see lot's of great mail art as well as learn all about the project HERE.

Check this out for a chance to win Pan Pastels

2011-09-06T16:26:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back online at home so have internet access without having to go to the library. They are going to miss me at the library! lol

Check out this post on Lin's Yours Artfully blog for a chance to win some Pan Pastels. It's a great opportunity to try out something new. Give it a try - you may be the lucky winner! I know I'm hoping I will be!

Good luck to us all!

fyi - no internet access

2011-08-12T16:48:00.000-07:00

Just to let you know I won't have internet access for the next few weeks.

I'll try to check in here or my email a couple times at the library or on someone else's computer.

And I'll be back to regular programming (lol) next month!

Now if I can just remember what my email password is!

Later,
Kimber

30 days of Get Your Art On

2011-08-07T00:16:00.000-07:00

I took part in Traci Bunkers 30 Days Of Get Your Art On. You can check out her blog HERE.
I did good on the art part, but the posting art, not so much. At one point I was getting all stressed about how behind I was and finally figured out how that was working against me. The point was to spend time making art each day and I was doing it for me. So I gave up on worrying about scanning or photographing and posting.
I really got into the habit of making art every day. Made me remember how much I like to do art. It's my comfort zone. Makes me happy. And we all need all of the "do things that make me happy" thing, right?
I like doing art, I like thinking about the art I did before I go to sleep at night, and I like waking up in the morning and going into the art room to look at what I did yesterday. And Getting My Art On everyday gives me a chance at all those. So I thank Traci for getting me on track with that. And hope that any time in the future I get slack about being creative I challenge myself to another 30 days to get the habit back!
Here's a few journal pages I did during my 30 days:

This was done with craft acrylics, dye inks, stencils, punchinella, and rubber stamps. The circles were stamped with bottle lids. The word were printed on ledger paper and cut out and glued down with acrylic matte medium.

This background is craft acrylic paint and then punchinella and pigment ink over that. The owl was drawn with Inktense Pencils. The whites of the eye were done with white watercolor crayon. The owl was outlined with a black water-based Sharpie paint marker.

This was done on a watercolor wash green background. I wanted to play with some new Crayola Slick Sticks . They are so creamy and smooth and colors blend very nice. I used them for the circle background. I used a rubber stamp and black dye ink for top and bottom borders. The Peace sign was something I had leftover from another project. It's a watercolor background and lines are drawn with a Sharpie. The blue along the right edge is a piece from a wooden fan that was coming apart. It was natural wood color but I colored it with the blue Crayola slick stick and glued it down. Page looks kinda groovy, huh?

I have alot more to share, several projects are for swaps and I don't want to spoil the surprise for anyone by showing them yet. A few others I need to scan or photograph (I'm really bad about getting around to that!)

Thanks again to Traci Bunkers for inspiring me to Get My Art On!!!

Hope you are all having a creative weekend!

Great mail from Inkwell-Coffee and Art in the Morning

2011-08-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

I found an envelope of really fun mail in my mailbox yesterday...yay! It was from Dede, known as Inkwell on Ustream. She streams a couple times a week and has some giveaways and I won a great postcard that Kare had sent in for Dede to give away. Here it is:

I love it! Love the humor - cracks me up. Thanks so much Kare and Dede!

Dede's Ustreams are alot of fun. And she is an awesome artist and shares so much with us. You can find her HERE on Ustream. An especially fun stream she did not too long ago was Coffee and Concrete Art in the Morning where she made some decorated background papers in her driveway. It was a blast to watch!
And lucky me - she sent a piece of that background paper along with the postcard. Check this out:

Thanks so much Dede! I love it! See you on Ustream. You are a sweetheart for all you do and all you give away! And I LOVE your laughter!
Hope everyone has a creative day!

Guess what color...

2011-07-27T19:33:00.000-07:00

I'm making some 4x4s for a swap with some of my Ustream art pals.
Just finished the backgrounds.
Can't show them to you yet so as not to ruin the surprise for anyone.
But I'm guessing you can figure out what color they are from this pic:

Yes I am a messy artist! And I think it's more fun when I make a mess...lol!

Get Your Art On - days 4,5,6,7, & 8

2011-07-09T13:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, finally time to post some more Get Your Art On days! Blogging is definately going to be the challenging part of this for me.
Day 4
Decided the Tim Holtz die cut gears would make great fireworks. Kinda difficult to see on the scan but made them sparkly by gluing on sparkly bits and glitter glue.

Day 5 and 7
I worked on these pages Tues and Thurs and forgot to scan in between. Now I'm trying to be sure to scan what I did that day each night, whether done or not. They are in my Bird Altered Book.

Day 6

I had alot of appts and errands this day and was pretty worn out when I got home. My art for this day was art preparation. Time to recycle some magazines so went through cutting out words, phrases, and images.

Here's a few words:

And a few images:

They'll end up in some fun collages one of these days.

Day 8

This is a journal page inspired by song lyrics:

I'll put the lyrics on the opposite page of my journal. I don't know how I ever found this song and lyrics cuz it's not my usual style of music. Just goes to show...step out of your usual now and then, might find something you really like! You can check out the song on YouTube HERE.

Today's Get Your Art On is outside drying and not done yet so it'll get posted another day.
You can read all about 30 Days of Get Your Art On HERE.
Join in! You can start your 30 days at any time!
Thanks to Traci Bunkers for the inspiration!

Have a GREAT weekend!

30 Days of Get Your Art On - Days 1,2, and 3

2011-07-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

I am taking part in Traci Bunkers 30 Days of Get Your Art On. You can read all about it on her blog HERE.
I can get my art on everyday, not a problem if I just focus and I REALLY want to do that. But blogging each day just isn't going to happen so will post every few days (or maybe weekly). But that's okay, this isn't about daily blogging!
My goal is just to spend some art time each day - minimum 30 minutes to whatever works for that day. And to have fun doing it!
My first three days were playing in my art journal.
Here's Day 1:

The background is watered down craft acrylics. The tree and trunk is Derwent Inktense pencils. The small trees at the base are stamped with pigment ink. And the words are hand written with a Sharpie pen.

Here's day two:

I first covered the page in gesso. Then a layer of Golden's Diarylide Yellow fluid acrylic. Drew on the flames shape and then highlighted those with Derwent Inktense Pencils. Once done I used Golden's Dioxazine Purple fluid acrylic for the night sky. Even though it looks black in the scan it is a very dark purple.

Here's day 3 (completion of what I started on day 2):

I'm not sure why I ended up with a Halloween type theme in July, except that I let my muse take me there, and I really like Halloween stuff, especially skeletons.

I stamped the skeletons in white acrylic. Cut out the big heads from some scrapbook paper I had leftover from a previous Halloween page (you can see it HERE). Stamped the stars with lavendar pigment ink. Then glued the heads in place. Last thing was to stamp the words with a black India Ink inkpad.

So there's the first three days! I look forward to lot's more art in the next 27 days...hopefully it'll be a habit to fit art time into each day by then! It's a peaceful and relaxing activity for me. Not only helps me to quit overthinking all the negative thoughts in my head, but it's fun!!!

Join in! You can start your 30 days at any time! Once again - you can read all about it HERE!

Thanks for taking a look!

Island Hopping, Aloha and Passion Flower

2011-07-02T01:00:00.000-07:00

Seems I've been more into art journaling than blogging lately, so, have a little catching up to do.

I've been hanging out in semi-sunny Oregon making journal pages about Hawaii. My mom and a couple cousins are planning a trip to Hawaii that is coming up soon. I like their approach to the whole Hawaii theme! But a trip there is not in the stars for me right now...maybe another year.

Here's the first page, titled Island Hopping:

The background is iridescent acrylic paints and Color Wash. The white strip is decorative tape (which I had to get as it has one of my fav tropical leaves and a Sea Turtle-I adore Sea Turtles-on it). The maps of the Islands are images I got off Google. The full image of Hawaii is a postcard I made from the front of a tablet I got in Hawaii. I've also stamped some tropical images here and there.
And, as you can see in the following image, the postcard flips up the reveal the Island Hopping title and a stamped postoid of the state fish of Hawaii, although I did take it upon my artistic self to alter the colors. And, as you can see the opposite side of the postcard shows a Hawaiian scene with palm trees and a hammock I wish was outside my door!

Next is a page I made from an ad I saw in a magazine the other day. The background is again iridescent acrylic and Color Wash.

I tore the main image out, then tore strips from around the edges. Usually I would color the white edges but in this case I really like the way they look left white. Before I glued the image of the surfer down I stamped the wave 3 times with acrylic paint. I had the letters left from a set of grungeboard letters and I painted them white with a Ranger dauber bottle of acrylic paint. Then glued them down. Last thing was to put a Hawaii postage stamp on white cardstock and then cut out with postal decorative scissors.
And, Voila! It was done!

The last page is one I made using an image from the cover of a catalog that I have been saving since 1997. Yep, I said 1997! I was surprised when I saw the date on it...whoa was that ever TREASURING!

I made the background using two shades of green acrylic paint.
Then, using a technique I learned from DeDe of Inkwell Studios I tore the image out, glued it down with gel medium (it wrinkled more than usual-I think I got it too wet...). Then went back with the 2 shades of green acrylic and painted around the edges. Alot easier than fussy cutting - I think that's what had me treasuring this picture all those years. No way I could cut around all those stamens or whatever they are. Then I drew the letters on with pencil, painted them with acrylic, then outlined in black with a Sharpie pen.
I still need to do a little touch up where the torn edge is but wanted to post it here before I move on.
Dede's blog can be seen HERE. She is an amazing artist and shares so much knowledge on her UStream shows. You can find the link to those on her blog. She is alot of fun to watch!

Thanks for taking a look!
Hope all my Canada friends had a wonderful Canada Day!
And hope all of us enjoy the Fourth of July weekend!

Go create something!

GPP Street Team Crusade No. 52

2011-06-29T20:27:00.000-07:00

Michelle Ward of Green Pepper Press host a Crusade every month called GPP Street Team Crusade. You can read all about this month's Crusade HERE.
This month her challenge to us is to think about how the change of seasons affect our choices when creating. Like we pull out our summer wardrobe, do we pull out or summer colors?
I love all colors and there are some I use all year long, but I also don't make a big change in wardrobe from season to season. Living in the Pacific Northwest, we don't experience much extreme weather. Winter requires a coat and summer (usually and hopefully) doesn't.
But even though I still find my art is influenced by summer. I think the added hours of daylight have a big effect on me.
Green is about my fav color and I use it alot. And when it's sunny outside I think I tend to reach for lime green often.
In the summertime the trees in my art are full of bright green leaves , in the fall the leaves in my art reflect the fall colors, and in winter the trees in my art are bare branches.
My art is heavily inspired by nature, and the seasons have a direct effect on what I see in nature. I love to check out a few favorite trees each season and witness the beauty of each unique season
Looking through my current art journal I find some definite influences in different season. For example, a page created this month, a summer or tropical theme, bright colors:

A page from last October, a flower theme which could reflect summer but a dark background:

This was a thought provoking Crusade. Was interesting to ponder how the seasons affect our creativity.
Thanks for the inspiration Michelle!

Violet Green Swallow

2011-06-28T18:33:00.000-07:00

I just did a simple page in my Altered Bird Book using one of the backgrounds I had already prepared. When I can't get my creativity flowing I sometimes just go through a journal or altered book and do some backgrounds. Doesn't usually take much time for the ideas to start coming to me for more creativity. Making backgrounds might be my fav part of the process most of the time! Then once I'm ready to add something it's fun to go through looking for a background that'll work.

This time I found a black background with some iridescent green paint on it. I sprayed over it with Wild Plum Color Wash then wiped it with a baby wipe so it was streaks instead of dots.
I had a postcard I've been saving to put in the altered book that my friend Debbie sent me. She had added the words "Birds of a feather" and I added the stamped feathers. I lightly colored them with violet colored pencil but it didn't show on the scan. I taped the postcard in at the top so I can flip it up and read the message on the back.
I think the page turned out great. Thanks Debbie for the cool postcard!
Well, back to some major reorganizing of my studio area...I've been at it a few days but had to take a quick break to do some creating.
Hope you all are enjoying your summer.
Thanks for taking a look at my blog!

Stencilage Journal Pages

2011-06-17T03:33:00.000-07:00

I've been having a lot of fun playing with stencils. They are especially fun to use with some of the sprays out now - Glimmer Mists and Color Washes are a couple. Stencils are also fun to play with with spouncers or foam brushes and paint or ink.

My very talented friend, Paula, aka Journal Artista, is hosting a contest and will be giving away some Crafter Workshop stencils. To be eligible to be in the drawing for a stencil you need to make some art using a stencil and share a link to it on her blog Linky. You can read all about it on her blog HERE.

Back to the fun I've been having...here's a page I finished today:

The background is all craft acrylic paints, The design in the upper left corner and lower right corner were made with a Tattered Angels stencil. I kinda grunged them up with some extra paint and Color Wash spray. Decorated the background with dots made with pencil eraser, circle made with rx bottle and some stenciled flowers with a stencil I made with the Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Florals die. I never completely plan my journal pages, kinda let them evolve as I go. And this time I had some die cut flowers laying around on my art table, as well as a couple scraps of colorful watercolor paper. I liked how the bright colors looked with the dark blue so played around with placement and glued stuff down with matte medium. Looked through a list I keep of words and quotes to use in my journal someday and decided "If not now, when?" was a good choice.

Guess maybe I use prompts backwards...most people pick a prompt, then do the art. I sometimes know what I want to say on the page, but usually I do the art and then decide what it's saying to me.

I'm really liking that Tattered Florals die. Here's some more stenciling with it:

And still more:

These both came about with what us Journal Artista Ustream friends call Paulaisms. "Use what is around you on your art table". Probably not her exact words but close.

For the gold and blue page I was painting book pages with watercolors and then die cutting the flowers. After cutting out the yellow ones I set the leftover paper aside and it was on top of the book page I had painted blue. Looked pretty cool! So an idea was born! I painted the gold background, glued the blue page down, then the yellow. Looked sort of plain so added some cut out flowers. Still needed something so used some of the die scrap as stencils abd sprayed with bright blue spray I made by mixing Glacier Glimmer Mist with some bright blue Memories reinker ink.

I used matte medium for gluing down all the pieces on these pages.

The green page started out as a background page I was going to post to show the stencils. In addition to the flowers I also used sequin waste (or also called Punchinella) to stencil the dots. I did that first, then put the flowers down and sprayed over them with Color Wash. (fyi - I get my sequin waste HERE) I love sequin waste and use it all the time.
Here's the background page:

I got a magazine in the mail today and saw an ad with those ribbon flowers (do you all look through magazines thinking "I could use that in an art project!"? sometimes the ads catch my attention more than the rest of the magazine). Right away I was trying to think what to do with those and thought the bright colors would be great on that green background. So while watching the Artistic Bikers Thursday Ustream from the fabulous Oasis Studio I fussy cut the flowers. And Blade was talking about summertime and things that represent summer so I thought summertime would be the perfect title for this page. I've been wanting to see how ledger paper would feed through my printer so once I got the text how I wanted it I printed a page out of an old ledger book I got off ebay for 99 cents awhile back. Worked out great and I'm really happy with the page.
You can get links to The Artistic Biker Ustream and YouTube from his blog HERE.

And if you want to see more stencil art, check out a page I did a little while ago - Click Here
This page was definately Paula inspired with the many layers added to it!

Thanks Paula and Blade for all the inspiration I get from both of you!

If you read all the way through to here I applaud you. If not, I understand, it got pretty long. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Kingfisher(s)

2011-06-12T15:45:00.000-07:00

I seem to have a "thing" about Kingfishers with this book. The cover is covered with Kingfisher postage stamps from Australia. As well as a couple more Kingfisher stamps on the spine.
I finished up a couple pages in the book last night that are all about Kingfishers.

The first thing I did when I started these pages was glue a 12x12 scrapbooking paper to the pages with matte medium. I've been working in this book off and on for a couple (or maybe even a few) years and some of the pages are starting to fall out so glueing that paper in reinforced these pages. Also I've been taking advantage of numbers already in the book so cut out a window for the 7. I used stamp decorative edge scissors to cut out the borders for the stamps as well as frame for the 7. I could only find six of those stamps and needed 7 so scanned and enlarged one to get the seventh. Arranged the stamps and glued them down. Then stamped the word KINGFISHERS.
For the other page I thought since it's a Kingfisher I would use the crown on the scrapbook paper to embellish that point. The image is drawn on a piece of Fabriano paper with Prismacolor watercolor pencils. Then smoothed out with water and a paint brush. I went over the blue with metallic watercolor paint. Once completely dry I painted background with very light green and edged with a bit darker green. Glued that down and then stamped the word KINGFISHER.

Here's a couple other pages I've done in the book using the numbers in the book:

The other thing I did to the book this weekend, in addition to glueing in 12x12 paper to reinforce pages, was to go through the book and use patterned packing tape to put loose pages back in the book. As well as using the tape to reinforce pages coming loose. Here's an example of one of those:

Thanks for taking a look!
I hope you are having a creative weekend!

something to CROW about

2011-06-07T18:28:00.000-07:00

Although I've slowed down some I've been trading ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) for quite a few years. And I have a couple huge notebooks full of them. And they are a lot of fun to look through every once in awhile. I trade alot of cards with my friend, Debbie (she's hosting a great giveaway on her blog, you might want to check it out by clicking on her name). And they are all great ATCs but there is one from a couple years ago that is my favorite. And I decided it needed a place of honor in my bird altered book. So here it is:

I had a black background page already and mixed up some acrylic paints to get colors to resemble the ATC background and the moon (which is a plastic bingo game piece) and used punchinella/sequin waste to color the background with dots. Then stamped a crow on 3 small pieces of card stock and colored the edges with a black ink pad. I glued down the ATC and the 3 stamped birds. Needed something more and after some thought decided to stamp the bird directly on the background a few times to balance out the page.
So that's the favorite ATC and the page I created around it. I like having it in a place of honor!
Thanks for taking a look!

Owl

2011-06-05T00:42:00.000-07:00

Owls are just about my fav animal and bird. I think they are beautiful and fascinating to watch. I've been watching a couple families of Barn Owls on UStream the last few months. From eggs hatching to the young owls fledging. Really fun to watch (except when they tear a little critter apart to eat...I know it's part of their reality but I chose not to watch those parts!).
Inspired by those beautiful owls, and a desire to play with my new watercolor pencils I drew this owl:

I drew it on a card of smooth Fabriano paper. I had a page in my bird altered book that already had the copper and platinum background paper on it. Sometimes when I can't come up with an idea or am not feeling very creative I just play around with backgrounds in a journal or altered book. Then the background is all ready when something comes along needing a page - as in this case. I adhered the owl drawing to the background with triangle shaped dark copper brads.

Thanks for taking a look!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

A Whimsical Little Bird

2011-06-03T01:57:00.000-07:00

A friend gifted me with a set of 24 Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils that she never uses. Yay! They are really nice! I wasn't even aware Prismacolor makes watercolor pencils. I really enjoy playing around with watercolors.
Here's the first thing I drew with them - A Whimsical Little Bird:

First I drew the little bird with a pencil. Then filled in the color with the pencils. After I took water and brush to it the first time, I went back over it with a white pencil to add some shading/highlighting. I was drawing on a piece of cream colored card stock. I tore the edges with a ruler for a sort of deckled look. Next I put some of the blue pencil on a page in my bird altered book. After smoothing the the pencil marks out with water and brush I sprayed the page with a mixture I made of Glacier Glimmer Mist and blue Memories Reinker ink (careful if you try this - if you get any on your hands it doesn't easily wash off-takes days to wear off-is it a bad thing to have blue hands???).
Next I found a piece of decorative paper to layer with the bird. I fussy cut some of the flowers to put along the bottom side of the bird picture, as well as a couple more here and there. And called it done!
Thanks for taking a look!
Hope you have a creative weekend!

Seven and Seventeen

2011-05-26T18:16:00.000-07:00

Doesn't everyone eventually draw pears in their art journal? Well, I just did. Here's my pears drawn and painted with Derwent Inktense Pencils:

I've said it before but worth saying again - I LOVE Inktense Pencils. The colors are so vivid! They also now have Inktense Blocks. I don't have any of those yet but they look like they would be lots of fun.
I rubber stamped on tissue paper and glued it down with matte medium. I use Daniel Smith Matte Medium for gluing down lightweight paper items. I then glued down some postage stamps with a pear image. I did that to help tie in this page to it's facing page where I did a Pear collage. Here it is:

I did the background with several layers of craft acrylic paints and gesso. Both pages were started off with a layer of gesso so the medium I applied wouldn't sink into the paper. I used some punchinella (sequin waste) to add some dots interest to the background. I stamped the pear/poire stamp (Stampers Anonymous) on tissue paper and glued them down with matte medium. I stamped the sketched pear stamp (Art Impressions) 3 times on decoative paper and cut them out and glued down. Then added the three postage stamps with pear image to the lower left corner. Collage didn't look done..needed something on the top left. I was walking by the buffet and there's a bowl of tickets my niece use to play with and noticed some that seemed the right color of yellow so grabbed them. Glued them down and softened the edges with an inkpad and stencil brush and called it done!
This was a good exercise for me as I pretty much never use yellow. Green - all the time but not much yellow. Always good to use a color you don't usually use. Helps me to appreciate the color more. Also, always good to try to draw something...practice makes perfect, right? Not that I want to be perfect but hopefully keep improving!
Thanks for taking a look!
Enjoy Memorial Day Weekend!

Color Wash, Gesso, and Stencils

2011-05-10T01:28:00.000-07:00

I am enamored with spray colors in my journal! I'm having fun with a couple dif kinds but I have to say Adirondack Color Washes by Ranger are my favorite. The colors and the way they react with Gesso just make them way TOO COOL!
I've learned so very much about art journaling from my friend Paula, aka Journal Artista. Check out her blog HERE. Not only will you see some great journaling but you'll find links to her YouTube and UStream videos where you can find a wealth of info on art supplies, techniques, and art journaling.
One of the key things I've learned from Journal Artista is about layering. I'm nowhere near as fearless as Paula when it comes to layering but I'm working on it!
Here's a journal page I made using many layers of Gesso and Color Wash:

I used Wild Plum and Stream Color Wash. And I was using White Gesso made by Daler and Rowney. The stencil I was using is a Tattered Angels stencil - from their Ironworks package of stencils.

I started off this journal page with a layer of Gesso on the page. Next I just played around with spraying over the stencil with Wild Plum and Stream Colpr Washes, and Gesso. The cool thing about Color Wash and Gesso is that when you paint Gesso over anything with Color Wash the Color Wash bleeds through. My final layer with the stencil was where I sponged Gesso over the stencil in an area where I had got a little heavy handed with the Wild Plum and it was really dark. Be sure to either let each layer dry or dry with a heat gun if you want the colors to not blend together.

Along the left side I painted a vertical stripe of Gesso and while still wet rubbed with baby wipe to blend some of both colors of Color Wash. I couldn't stamp over it as Color Wash would bleed through the Gesso and the stamped letters would be hard to see.. So I used some Grungeboard letters from a Tim Holtz idea-ology pack called "Mixed Minis" for the word COURAGE. The little key and the two florishes are from that same Grungeboard pack. Painted them all white with Gesso and glued them down. Hit it with a few light sprays of the Color Wash so Grungeboard pieces aren't so stark white.

You might need to click on the picture to enlarge if you want to see it, but, I hand wrote "Courage is KEY" as that is what I was thinking about as I made this page.

Thanks for taking a look!

Hope you are all having a creative week!

What I want to try next is Tim Holtz Distress Stains. Looks like one could get some cool backgrounds with those. I don't have any yet but I noticed they are on sale at one of my favorite online stamp companies - Red Lead Paperworks. Check out the sale HERE. Soon as I have some spending money I'll be heading there!

Sing Sing Sing

2011-05-04T02:33:00.000-07:00

Seems like every once in awhile I forget how much I like to create with tags. Before I got into art journaling and atcs and was mostly a stamper I used tags ALL the time.
So this week I have been playing at creating with tags. Here's one I used for a page in my bird themed altered book:

The book is filling up and getting thick and has stuff sticking out of the edges like the ribbons and yarn on this tag. Love it when an altered book or art journal starts to get to that point! I don't know...maybe makes it feel more cherished to me.
For this page I chose a page that I had already put some leftover patterned paper on - I do alot of backgrounds ahead of time, using leftover paint and papers from other projects. Or sometimes just to try a backgound paper idea or technique I want to try. Also helps me sometimes when I can't get started or come up with a creative idea to just start out by making backgrounds.
I took a standard shipping tag and covered it with sheet music using gel medium as the adhesive. Once good and dry I cut around the edges of the tag to trim off the sheet music. Then repunched the hole, stuck one of Tim Holtz idea-ology reinforcer stickers over the hole, Next I stamped the "sing sing sing". I screwed up the second "sing" so had to rescue that by gluing a K & Co bee over the G I messed up. Then glued the K & Co bird and nest image onto the tag. I had a strip of scrapbook paper with music notes on it. Tore the edges for a more shabby look and glued it to the background. Found some coordinating ribbons and yarn for the tag. Once I had those attached through the hole I glued the tag down. That's it!
Thanks for taking a look!

Crate Label Birds

2011-05-01T17:06:00.000-07:00

Happy May Day!
Here's a spread in my Birds of a Feather altered book. The crate label images are from a little calendar a friend sent me. I decided it was time to quit hoarding, eeerrrrr, uhhhmmmm, I mean TREASURING (I don't hoard!) and give them a place of honor in my book!

For the First Pick page I applied Golden acrylic to the background with an old hotel key card. Scraping the paint on this way is my current favorite way for putting down acrylic phint in my altered books or journals. Then I used sequin waste and a heavy inking of a foam brush to make the black boarder. I stamped the word "spring" across the top and stamped a bird themed postoid rubber stamp all over before glueing down the label I had cut out with deckle edge scissors. (you might need to click on the image to enlarge it if you want to see the stamping as it didn't show up so well in the scan) I glued everything on these pages with matte gel medium. I glued a flower I had die cut out of an old book page and then painted with same red paint as the background in the upper left corner of label.

For the Kentucky Cardinal label page I chose a page I had already covered with black patterned paper and glued the label down. I die cut a bunch of flowers using Sizzix's Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Florals die. Sprayed them with Cranberry Color Wash (made by Ranger). I glued them around the label, and cut one in half to glue on the side of page to sort of pull the white edge into the design.

Thanks for taking a look!

I hope you had a creative weekend!

It's okay to color outside the lines!

2011-04-15T17:05:00.000-07:00

One (of many) things I've learned as a mixed media artist is that precision is not always necessary or desired. I need to remind myself often that "Art has no rules". And, while I'm sure many artists would disagree with that I know it is how I want to create.
Having an art journal really helps me with that. I love to experiment in my art journal. Especially with backgrounds. And since it is MY journal there definitely are no rules. If I mess something up I can look at it as a flopportunity and go with a different idea or adapt my original. It's not like I ever have to show it to anyone - that's up to me.

Another way to free things up and let the attempts at precision go is to color outside the lines as I did in the postcard you see below.

I doodled the image first with a fine point black Sharpie. The design was inspired by a blog I get alot of inspiration from - Geninne's Art Blog. She share's great examples and ideas of color, texture, shapes and design in her art and photography. Once I had the flowers drawn I painted the whole thing blue (didn't show up on the scan) and left it pretty wet so I could let the other colors bleed onto the paper. I love playing with watercolors and watching how they run together on the page. I really like how it looks when colored outside the lines.

Another fun way to make these flower doodles is to make the background first. You can "splotch" some splashes of different colors. Then you can use those splotches to decide where to place flowers (or not-remember no rules!). I have the background page painted for a journal page:

I'll be doodling on it the next couple days and will share the journal page when done.

And I'll keep reminding myself to not worry about how precise it is and not take myself too serious.

Art has no rules!

Thanks for looking at my blog! Have a great and creative weekend!

DIY Postcard Swap 2011

2011-04-09T02:14:00.000-07:00

Here's examples of the postcards I made for ihanna's DIY Postcard Swap. I made 10 postcards for the swap and they were all a variatiom of these 4 designs. They were all sort of a spn-off from some pages I was doing in my bird themed altered book (I'll post those soon).
They all started with watercolor backgrounds. I sprinkled then with salt while wet to make some fun designs. Then found some of my fav bird stamps, stamped them on tissue paper with permanent black ink, then tore them out. This is a trick I learned from a journal artist friend, Kerri . Once you have the tissue paper image you can "glue" it to your background with gel medium. I like to use matte medium. This process makes for a lot sharper image when putting an image on cold press watercolor paper which has a rough texture. I stamped or wrote the words on each card. They went out in the mail on the 8th so are making their way to thier new homes!
Thanls for taking a look.
Have a fun and creative weekend!

Life Happens in Real Time

2011-03-31T18:04:00.000-07:00

It's too true, huh? Life happens whether you are ready for it or not! Might as well be ready!

Here's a journal spread I did using watercolor pencils, watercolor crayons, and Inktense pencils, along with Gesso and acrylic paints. I used all those mediums for the background - many layers in the style of my friend Journal Artista. The designs on the background are gesso and craft acrylics (the green is all craft acrylics) - freehand and used bottle tops for the circles. I collaged and sanded a clock I cut out of a magazine on the "in real time" page. The words are all adhered to corrugated paper I tore the top layer off before painting with gesso. LIFE and REAL were stamped with gesso and acrylic paint. HAPPENS and IN are adhered to scraps of coffee to go sleeves painted with gesso. And those words and TIME are all letters cut out on a die cutting machine.

I think that covers it!

Hope you enjoy!

Remember - your LIFE is happening right now! Celebrate it!!!

I did it again!

2011-03-30T18:51:00.000-07:00

Old age must be going to be smooth sailing for me cuz this stuff in the middle sucks!
I just spent another week in the hospital with fluid in my lungs and intraveneous antibiotics for an infection that also got my diabetes way out of whack.
This after a month in hospitals and rehab over Christmas and New Years!
But I'm home now and on the mend and taking care of myself so no more hospitals!

And some journal pages to post real soon...much more fun than talking about hospitals!!!

Time for some Postcard Fun!

2011-03-11T16:16:00.000-08:00

Ready to jump start your creativity?
Looking to get some really fun mail in your mailbox?
Looking to try a new background technique or make
some art to welcome spring to get past the winter doldrums?
How about a Postcard Swap?!?

Check out the Postcard Swap IHanna is hosting. You can read all about it here.

Hope to see you in the mail!

Songbirds

2011-03-07T19:51:00.000-08:00

After a long period of time, I finally have something to post here!

It's taken me a long time to get my creative mojo back after being so sick for so long.

I've had plenty of ideas but not very good at executing them. I've spent alot of time sitting at my art desk "thinking". But one day I got going and have been working on this page in my Birds Of A Feather altered book. The birds on branches are from a large sheet of Cavallini paper (my friend Debbie sent a bunch of the images to me - very cool stuff!). The background is sheet music. I tore some pieces, applied gel medium to the center of the pieces and pressed them onto the page. When dry I tore off the edges that weren't glued down for the torn edge look achieved. Then painted purple with watercolor crayons. Next I put down the 3 stripes of tape (some green tape with birds on it). I wish the tape wasn't shiny - maybe I'll finish with matte medium to see if that tones down the shiny. Next I glued down the two bird images with gel medium. Last I had some die cut birds I glued on with gel medium. I just got a die cut machine before I got sick and have barely used it. I don't have many dies but did just get an alphabet and used it for the letters for "Songbirds". I used glue stick to apply them. I figured I would make a huge mess using gel medium on something that small. I'm messiest enough as an artist as it is!

Thanks for taking a look. I hope I'll have art to post more often going forward. We'll see...

MIA

2011-01-12T14:18:00.000-08:00

If it seems to you like I fell off the earth the last month or so I must tell you it feels like that to me too. And I sort of did!
I got really sick in December and ended up in a hospital or rehab center from Dec 11th until I got to come home Jan 7th! Not much of a Christmas or New Years for me this year. I'll have to get healthy and make up for it next Christmas and New Years. Fortunately I hope to have the opportunity to do that.
As I work my way back to healthy I hope to include creativity so hope to post here.

NaNoJouMo

2010-11-22T03:58:00.000-08:00

I've been a little lax about scanning lately. I started a new job last week and put in 40 pretty intense hours of training at the computer so didn't want to put much more time in. But this weekend I got a couple pages scanned so want to share them with you.

NaNoJouMo day 19 the word was FRAY. Since I was feeling a little frayed from a week of training I extended it out to FRAYED and the page above is what I came up with. The background is watercolor pencils. Then I used a piece of mesh fabric with frayed edges. The word is on a piece of ledger paper that I first drew a bunch of lines on with a sharpie and a ruler. Then tour it out of the ledger paper and inked the edges with a black ink pad. Then I stamped the word "frayed" on the paper and adhered it and the mesh down with gel medium.

NaNoJouMo Day 13 the word was MYSTIQUE. Below is the page I made inspired by that word. I decided it should be a tribute to the ever mysterious, ever powerful Feminine Mystique. And I wouldn't want to say anything more about it and take away from the Mystique!

The background is watercolor crayon. I then covered the whole page with used postage stamps stuck down with gel medium. Stuck a blue border of stamps on 3 sides with more gel medium. Then printed the words on a piece of ledger paper and cut it out with postage stamp decorative scissors. Edged it with teal ink and stuck it down with gel medium. Last step was to put more stamps down on and over the edges of the ledger paper.

I'll share more as soon as I have a chance. I want to thank Dawn again for sharing NaNoJouMo with us. You can check what she's posted for it all month on her blog here. Thanks for taking a look.

Equanimity - NaNoJouMo

2010-11-13T01:50:00.000-08:00

Here's another page I did for NaNoJouMo. You can find more info about it in previous posts or there is a link on the sidebar of this blog.
The prompt for this page was "Equanimity". I had to look it up to make sure I knew what it meant. Good thing cuz not sure I did!
I used watercolor crayons, white acrylic and a brayer for the background colors and layers. The collaged flowers and circles are cut from decorative paper. And various rubber stamps were used on each layer. The words were stamped on last.
I really like how the colors turned out.

With NaNoJouMo I find that I don't journal and/or create fast enough for a daily prompt. The goal is not to complete a page everyday but to journal everyday. I am doing that and I will keep a list of all the words but I don't think I'll make a journal page centered around each one. My goal with art journaling is to create no pressure art so words that don't do anything for me would be pointless for me to journal about. That's not to say that I won't challenge myself and use words I wouldn't normally, just that I'm not going to make something using every word. But I don't think of that as the true goal of NaNoJouMo - I think of it as a way to explore your own journaling and to get in the habit of journaling everyday and it is working wonders for me to that end. It is so good for my heart and soul to make a point to be creative everyday - whether in a few hours stretch or even just to fit in 20 minutes on a stressful, rushed day.

My best words to offer to you - take time to do something you really, truly enjoy everyday. Make the time! You'll realize benefits. Being happy isn't always a given, sometimes you have to reach for it and take it in whatever small bits you can get it, and build from there.

Library book sale at the expo center at the fairgrounds this weekend - I'm hoping to find some cool books there for inspiration and art materials for some bargain prices.
Hope you all have a great weekend!

NaNoJouMo - CHOICE

2010-11-12T04:03:00.000-08:00

Here's another page for NaNoJouMo - Dawn DeVries Sokols' prompts for journaling everyday this month - you can find the original post here. And be sure to check out her blog here to see lot's of link to what others are doing for NaNoJouMo and lot's of inspiration. All the daily prompts are posted there too.

The background for the page is a rubbing from a rough surfaced picnic table. It doesn't show real well in the photo but it shows the wood grain. I drew squares of various colors on the background. Stamped out the word "CHOICE" on squares of scrapbook paper. Edged them in various colors and glued them down. Then I printed the words for the rest of the page on a couple dif pieces of patterned vellum and attached those with brads.

Thanks for taking a look. And be sure to check out Dawns' blog and NaNoJouMo at the links above.

NaNoJouMo - one week down

2010-11-08T12:01:00.000-08:00

I've been participating in NaNoJouMo. You can see the original post here. It's Dawn DeVries Sokols' idea to give us prompts to get us journaling every day for a month and it's alot of fun! Check out Dawns' blog http://www.dblogala.com/ to see lot's more about it and lot's of inspiration.
The first week is over. It started Nov 1st and goes for the month. Here's what I did for the first day:

I don't usually do anything to the first page of a journal. Or, save it for last. But with the start of NaNoJouMo and a word like "Inception" it just felt right. I went all with words for this one and started with a piece of scrapbook paper. I used ledger paper for the words and the 1. Grunged it all up a bit with a stencil brush and ink and sequin waste and more ink. I think it ended up looking pretty fun for a first page.

Here's another page I did. The prompt for this day was "Fortune". And since I'd been saving this fortune cookie fortune (aka hoarding) to use someday this seemed like the perfect time. You can click on the picture for a bigger image but just in case you can't read it, it says "You will emerge from uncertainty into great peace and freedom.". I've had alot of "stuff" going on in my life for a few years now and am ready to move past the uncertainty and great peace and freedom sounds wonderful - bring it on world!

I have more pages in various stages of completion. I'll share them as I get them scanned. The challenge isn't to complete a page each day. The challenge is to journal each day, whatever works for you to that end. So think about it and check out Dawns' blog - it's never to late to start. Just Begin Where You Are!

Have a great week everyone!

Book made with Bind-It-All

2010-10-31T15:20:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-29T14:38:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-28T14:16:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-23T21:24:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-22T12:14:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-19T12:10:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-18T21:11:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-15T21:17:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-12T17:24:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-07T17:18:00.000-07:00

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!

21 Secrets - Art Journaling Workshops!

2010-09-19T19:54:00.000-07:00

Have you heard about 21 Secrets that Connie of Dirty Footprints Studio has put together. You can read all about it here.

It is 21 workshops from 21 dif artists! Wow! And you can work them at your own pace. There'll be videos for each.
It's artists like :
Paula Phillips - The Journal Artista - she has a couple streams on UStream each week as well as a bunch of YouTube tutorials, and her blog JournalArtista here. You can find lots of great art examples for her in all three places. Her calss is going to be about windows and doors to the soul - should be great!
Leslie Herger of Comfortable Shoes Studio who will be teaching about glazes, how to use them, how to make your own, etc. Leslie is a journal artist, painter, master book maker - just a tower of knowledge in the art world! She streams on UStream, does youTube tutorials, and has a blog Comfortable Shoes Studio here.
Samantha Kira - The Journal Girl will be teaching how to journal on canvas. Samantha always has great new ideas and creates really fun pages! You can find her on UStream and her blog, Journal Girl here.

So be sure to check it out here! I'm sure you'll be excited for a chance to get so much information from so many wonderful artists!

Bird Altered Book

2010-09-16T01:24:00.000-07:00

Here's another couple number themed pages in my bird altered book. Plus on the right side I made use of the printed words on the page. Just had to add the word birds. You might need to click on the pic to enlarge so you can see the other words. I love it when I can incorporate the words on the page! I also got a chance to use some of my fav blackbird rubber stamps. As well as the blackbird postage stamps. Years ago, prob atleast 10 now, I bought a lot of postage stamps on Ebay - I think it was 7 lbs - and about half of them were bird stamps from Ireland. Yippee! I love stamps with birds on them. They are my fav! I may never run out. Unless I ever do get to a project idea I had to cover a wood chair with them. Think for a minute how many stamps would equal 7 lbs - it is alot! The rest of them were mostly Australian, again lot's of birds, including the ones I used to cover my Bird Altered Book.

I also did a quick page using one of the other things I like to collect (I'm a COLLECTOR not a HOARDER!). A postcard. This is a really nice vintage one so I put it in with photo corners so as not to damage it. The backgrouns is scrapbook paper with an edge. And I spread some white pigment ink on it before I wrote Baltimore Oriole on it and inked the edges. And drew the line in the center with the same black sharpie I used for the words.

Hope you enjoyed taking a look!

Have a creative weekend!

Remember September Mail Art Contributions

2010-09-11T00:20:00.000-07:00

Here's the envelopes my mom, my niece, and I made to mail on September 11 (Saturday) as part of a mail art tribute to those heroes that saved lives and those that lost lives on 9.11.01. That's three generations of Mail Art! Pretty cool, huh?
You can read more about the Mail Art Tribute here.

Here's my mom's envelope. I love that eagle she drew! Wish I could draw as well as her. Maybe someday...

Here's Piper's envelope. She's 10 years old and just started 5th grade. She is becoming quite an artist. It is so fun to make art with her. Today we were at her house but we spend alot of art time here and I have my paint studio all set up in the garage and we have a great time.

Here's my envelope. My original plan was to do alot more to it. But when I got to this point I liked it alot just as it was. Taken me a long time to learn when to quit with an art project!

My very good friend Debbie is who originally told me about this mail art project. I've done it off and on since (I think) 2003. But I think she has done it every year since 2003. You can see her contribution for this year's tribute on her blog here.

Thanks for taking a look. Let's all take a moment to Remember September 11, 2001 today.

Remember September Mail Art

2010-09-10T13:14:00.000-07:00

I should have posted this atleast a couple weeks ago...but...I didn't so I'm posting it today just in case anyone has a chance to participate.
Here's a chance to honor those heroes from September 11, 2001 by contributing to a Mail Art Memorial.
All the info is HERE.
Sorry for the short notice. My mom, my niece and I are going to decorate envelopes to send tomorrow after we pick my niece, Piper, up at the school bus today.

Here are a couple I sent in previous years:

Hope you have a chance to participate. If not, save the website for next year!

I'll post my envelope for this year later, after I finish it.

Thanks for taking a look at my blog!

Stop Hate. Starting Here.

2010-09-07T20:59:00.000-07:00

Here's some info about a very interesting art project you can participate in.

It's called "The Butterfly Project" hosted by The Holocaust Museum Houston in Texas, USA.

Their mission is as follows:

The Holocaust Museum Houston is dedicated to educating people about the Holocaust, remembering the 6 million Jews and other innocent victims and honoring the survivors' legacy. Using the lessons of the Holocaust and other genocides, we teach the dangers of hatred, prejudice and apathy.

And the tag line following it reads:

Stop Hate. Starting Here.

The project is about remembering the children that lost their lives in that terrible time in history.

Trudi Sissons - Two Dresses Studio is putting her own spin on it for another unique way to participate. Click here to find the info.

You can also find links on Trudis' blog to the info about the original project and the Holocaust Musuem Houston.

I hope you'll think about participating in Trudi's project!

By following and reading Seth Apters' blog The Altered Page is where I learned of this project. You can see his blog here.

Thanks Seth, for always being a great source of information!

Something Fishy

2010-08-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

Here's a journal spread I did using some fish postage stamps I'd been hoarding for awhile. First I used craft acrylics to paint the background in stripes of bright blue, turquoise and orange, Threw the orange in as a try at using a color I never make art with. Next I drew some swirls across the page with a watercolor colored pencil and softened it with some water and a brush. Then I started gluing stuff down - postage stamps, fish I cut out of pictures, a few gold scrap fish I painted with acrylic, a ticket I'd stamped a fish on, and a piece of ledger paper I'd printed the words "Something fishy" on. Then I stippled over it with dark blue ink to blend it all a bit. Last thing I did was stamp a fish postoid style stamp a few times in white pigment ink.
I was glad to put those old postage stamps to use. I really like creating with postage stamps. And shopping for them online. So many cool images out there.
Thanks for taking a look!
I hope you all have a creative week!

More bird altered book pages - finally!

2010-08-29T12:33:00.000-07:00

Finally, I have some more pages in my bird altered book to post. The finally being due to the fact that my studio area was such a huge mess I couldn't find the book for months! If that isn't a sign it's time to clean up, I don't know what is! As it turns out I ended up swapping a storage area in my computer room with the area I was using for my art studio. Do you know how much work it is to move from one really full space to another really full space - whew! That's why we usually move to new homes instead of just moving around in the one we have! Ha!

Anyway, now I have more room as well as having my art table under a big window for lots of natural light, and having it in the same room as my computer. And, BEST of all, I found my precious bird altered book. I really love working in this book and have all kinds of ideas and bird stuff I want to use.

Above are acrylic backgrounds, using a couple dif colors of paint. I then wrote "bird" on the page with a black fine point sharpie. On the left page I covered the background with netting. Then used brads to adhere the two small squares I had painted birds on (cards like these are available in my ArtFire shop here). The background and the birds are all acrylic craft paints, the outlines and feet are black fine point sharpie.

The page above I made using decorative papers and rubber stamps. Also some nailheads glued on the page.

And the last page I have to share today is a black matte acrylic background stamped on with white pigment ink. The word CRANE was stamped on white paper and then glued to the page. I decorated the two corners with large leaf sequins adhered with brads.

Thanks for taking a look!

More Text Messaging - GPP Street Team Crusade No. 43

2010-08-27T17:35:00.000-07:00

Here's another page of text from magazines for this months Crusade (read about the Crusade here):

I put an assortment of words down all dif directions. Then painted over the whole page with Golden Fluid Acrylics in GreenGold and rubbed it off some words to make them stand out a little more. The words going every which way made me think of directions so then I used a compass mask (made by Tim Holtz) over the word "west". Again using Golden Fluid Acrylics, this time in Phtalo Green. I also used the reverse parts of the mask on the page and also some circles using various bottle and jar lids. I'm not sure what else I'll do to this page but it'll be good for a future background.

Thanks for taking a look!

Molokai - swimming the good life!

2010-08-12T02:48:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd update you on my betta, Molokai, after originally posting about him in May when he first came to live with us. You can see the original post here.

He's doing great, seems happy. I've never had a fish before (except maybe a brief experience in early teens with a goldfish - i sort of remember marking a grave with sticks in the woods next to our house in Montana) so not sure how to tell if he's happy? He seems to swim around alot, interact a little, and love to make threatening faces and body motions at the handsome betta that visits him in the mirror.

As you can see, I even decorate his aquarium with the art background papers I love to make. You can see my original posts about the deli paper backgrounds and links to Marilyn Rocks' great video tutorials here and here.

My cat, Maui, seems to enjoy having Molokai around to watch.

Or is she thinking about dinner? Hmmmm...

Text Messaging - GPP Street Team Crusade No. 43

2010-08-11T10:08:00.000-07:00

This month, Michelle Ward, of Green Pepper Press, issued a Crusade for us to use text cut from magazines for journal pages. You can read all about it here.
Thanks for this Crusade, Michelle! Not only do I need to use more text in my journal, but I really need to take the time to go through some of those magazines I've been saving to cut text and images out of!

Here where I started:

I noticed alot of red and black in the text in the collection I had started. I decided since I don't use red alot I should play with red for a journal page. The big red "A" caught my attention. Since A is the beginning I though that would be a good start so put that in the middle of the page. I was going to say I didn't pick what words to use, but, since I was the one that went through magazine, and then the one to pick the words out, I did pick the words. But my main criteria in selecting these was color and the width and length. So above is my "test" layout.

Then I went to work on the background for the page, first - white gesso, then a strip of striped packaging tape.

The next step was to put some color down with acrylic paints. So I turned the journal on edge and applied some red acrylics and hit it with the spray bottle of water and let it run down the page. Soaked some up with paper towels and let it dry thoroughly. It was looking entirely too pink for my liking so I decided it needed some contrast. I used black acrlyic paints and a small bottle lid to add some circles.

Next I glued down my text with Golden Gel Medium. I forgot to take a photo at that point (it's hard to remember to take photos of all the steps along the way!) . But it still looked to me like it needed something so I took a black Sharpie and drew the circles and lines over the top.

I'm liking how it turned out, even if it is red and I'm not much of a red person! Thanks Michelle for inspiring me to step outside my norm! How cool is that?!?

Thanks everyone for taking a look!

GREAT mail day!

2010-08-09T19:05:00.000-07:00

Aren't bloggers and artists just the nicest people? I think so! And that has been one of my favorite things about having a blog - the connections, sharing, kind words, and encouragement. And a very generous and talented blogger I have connected with through her blog surprised me today!

I got this great mail art from Roben-Marie at Every Life Has a Story.

Here's the front:

I wanted to scan it before I opened it so it was a made rush...lol!

Here's the back:

Isn't it beautiful?!? I LOVE it!

And inside I was lucky enough to find some of Roben-Marie's great postcards.

You can see this example of her file folder mail art as well of lot's of other great art at her blog here.

She's also a guest curator at Crescendoh (CONGRATS!) this week so be sure to check that out.

Thanks so much Roben-Marie! You made my day!

I love going over to get the mail and finding some fun mail art in my mailbox!

Round and Round

2010-08-06T16:02:00.000-07:00

Do you ever just feel the need to finish something?

I don't often (just ask my friend Debbie how I am at swap deadlines...).

In my journal lot's of pages are works in progress and I like it that way. I work on a journal page for awhile, then go on to another. Or sometimes I just work on backgrounds for awhile and another time get inspiration for what to do with that background.

Today I felt like finishing something.

This journal page has been in the works for a long time. First I did a layer of gesso, then background with aquas and greens of craft paint I smooshed around with a wet baby wipe. Loved the color so let that sit for awhile. Then, while working on some trees I had made out of dictionary and book pages I had painted green I got the idea for the large circles and painted the borders and cut them out of the leftovers of the painted text - all inspired by my fav art how to book. It's by LK Ludwig. I added the bright green dots at the bottom with sequin waste and acrylic paint. And the maroon dots with acrylic paint and the stick end of a paint brush. Then the page sat for a long time. Just the other day I bought a few colored pens (Bic Mark-It, they were open stock at Staples for 69 cents each if you bought 10, so I got 5 and my mom got 5) and drew circles around the maroon dots.

Today I decided to finish the page and dedicate to the thoughts that were going 'round and 'round in my head last night when I couldn't get to sleep. I punched circles out of dark green cardstock, then stamped letters on lt green paper and punched them with a smaller circle punch. Glued them all together with my ever essential and trusty glue stick and adhered to the page.

I really like the way all the layers come together to make the page. More layers than usual for me. Maybe not as many layers as my friend, Paula - Journal Artista. She is the layer goddess! Does really beautiful pages. You should check out some of her vids on YouTube . She shares alot of great journaling. Has some great tutorials for beginners too. Also does some live journaling on UStream - you will meet a great group of artists there. You can find info about her UStream from her YouTube.

Very inspiring!

Hope everyone has a great summer weekend!

Stay cool and creative!

Festival of the Trees # 50 - Trees through a kid's eye

2010-08-01T14:47:00.000-07:00

This month Roberta at the Growing with Science Blog is hosting the Festival of the Trees 50th festival - Trees through a kids eye. Roberta has posted a great contribution with alot of fun information and some great links. Be sure to check it out!

I shared my previous post about my 10 year old niece Piper and the altered book she is making about Trees and Nature and the picture posted above of her torn paper collage. You can see the original post here.

And be sure to check out Growing with Science Blog and Festival of the Trees for lot's of other great information too! Festival of the Trees has been going on for 50 months now! Wow!

Following is a photo of Piper, earlier this summer, helping her Grandma paint a mural at Thompson's Mills State Park near Shedd, Oregon.

Thanks for taking a look at my blog!

Zen?

2010-07-29T03:09:00.000-07:00

Here's a journal page I finished recently using Zentangles and some other stuff. Zentangles or Zendoodles are really good for me to do sometimes when I'm thinking too much. I tend to do that alot and once I start doodling on the page I can get pretty absorbed in it and quit all that thinking and free up my brain to move on the other stuff. So this page reminds me of one aspect of that and stopping the thinking helps me to be creative so I can always look back at this page when I need to find inspiration. I like to do the Zentangles in my journal too because my journal is my place to play and experiment and it doesn't have to be perfect.

The bees and the "creativity" is from a big sheet of paper I have. I use Micron pens for my Zentangles, I have a .03, .05, .08 - various widths.

Thanks for taking a look at my blog!

Enjoy!

Journal pages - inspired by nature, of course

2010-07-24T12:59:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I posted journal pages so I'll do a little catching up here.

Here's a collage I made using photos I took in my yard and my brothers' yard. Also used a pic out of a USPS catalog and photo copied a couple stamps I have from the State Flowers and Bird series. Then I printed the text out on ledger paper. The small words you can't read (might be able to read them all if you click on photo to enlarge) are words inspired by gardening like sunshine, rain, cultivate, etc. The background is deli paper painted with acrylic. I now always have some near me when painting and clean all the paint off my brushes and sponges before cleaning them. I love how it goes down on a page. I cover the back with gel medium then stick it down. It always gets some tiny wrinkles which make for a great texture.

Here's a two page spread I did of Oregon Grape. My mom painted a couple murals at an Oregon State Park near Shedd, Oregon this summer. The park is called Thompsons Mills State Park. I drove her back and forth to work on the murals and had alot of time to spend there while she painted. I took my journal and a small bag of art supplies. I had a sample set of watercolor pencils with me - 5 pencils. There is Oregon Grape growing all over the park. So, since I'm trying to work on my drawing skills this summer, I decided to draw a branch. And since I was using the colors I had on hand it is non traditional colors. I printed the words for this page out on ledger paper and glued them down. While I was there I also made a background on the facing page, not having a definate idea for it at the time. But ,as we were packing up to leave for the day I found a branch of Oregon Grape on the ground and put it in my journal. A day or two later I made a leaf print from it using Golden Fluid Acrylics ( I'm pretty sure it was Phtalo Green). Oregon Grape leaves are pretty stiff to start with plus this one was dried out from being on the ground and in between journal pages for a couple days so the print is not real intense. Because of that I outlined it with a black Micron pen. I stamped the words on this page with rubber stamps. I think Oregon Grape is one of my favorite plants and I'm really happy with how these pages turned out. I tried to think of something else for the drawn page as it seemed sort of plain, but finally decided it showed the "bones" of the Oregon Grape better left that way.

This next is a drawing I did with black Micron pens on a background I painted with acrylic paints. I used cheap craft paints in various greens. I had seen some note cards that were stylized prints of Acacia in various colors and liked the look of the plant. So I looked it up on Wikipedia and found a lot of varieties! Found an image I liked (it doesn't grow around here) and printed it out and drew this picture from it. Realizing, of course, that you can't duplicate nature I did go for an exact Acacia but my own version in black ink. In keeping with the ledger paper theme in this journal I again printed out the title on ledger paper and glued it on. I think this is one of my fav journal pages so far. But then, perhaps I think that each time I complete a new page! Ha! Well, it's hot here today. A good day to stay inside and work on art!

Hope everyone is having a creative weekend!

local color - how could i forget?!?

2010-07-21T20:27:00.000-07:00

Blueberries! July in Oregon is all about blueberries! These are all from Anderson Blues in Corvallis Oregon.
But they are closed right now waiting for more to ripen. Today I got 10 pounds from Springbank Farms in Lebanon Oregon. Not much compares to a fresh picked blueberry! Yum! We are quite spoiled around here.
What's the best local crop for eating where you live?

Local color

2010-07-20T00:58:00.000-07:00

Today I'm sharing some art that nature helped me out with. Some photography. I was into photography long before paper arts and journaling took over my life. I'd say it was my first artistic love but really it is nature that inspires it all. So here's some of natures' best from around the Willamette Valley in Oregon.

These hydrangeas were all growing in front of a medical plaza. A dozen bushes or more. They were so beautiful! I started out to get a few shots of the blue ones for a page in my color inspiration altered book but there were so many and so many color variations I just kept taking photos. I have lots more but I won't go on and on and on anymore than I have with hydrangeas today!

Next we have Oregon Grape - the Oregon state flower. They have yellow flowers in the spring but I missed those...maybe next year! The first is in early June when the grapes are still green. The next two are later in June when the grapes are turning purple. Lovely bushes with the shiny green leaves!

Last photo to share today - this varigated holly from a bush here in my yard. I love the dark green of holly and the light edges add a nice contrast.

Hope you enjoyed the tribute to some of the wonders of nature.

Thanks for taking a look!

Repost of a favorite buried treasure

2010-07-15T04:28:00.000-07:00

Seth at The Altered Page is hosting a collaborative project giving readers of his blog a chance to choose their favorite past blog post on their own blog. His project is to list all those with a link on his blog under Buried Treasure. This isn't his first collaborative project and in addition to his wonderful art you can find a whole lot of interesting information by checking them out on his blog.

I wanted to participate and since I'm sort of new to blogging it wasn't too hard to go back through and find my favorite post. It's about INSPIRATION. I do like the journal page alot, but the subject is why I chose this one. I'm always interested in sources for inspiration. And I always hope I'm being observant enough to see or hear inspiration around me. I think, as artists and art enthusiasts we tend to be a pretty observant bunch of people for the most part. Do you agree? Surprises me some of the things that inspire me sometimes.

So, here's the post again - I hope you all enjoy it!

(it was originally posted here)

Lot's of different things inspire my art - nature is a big inspiration, colors also spark many ideas. Something I like to use for inspiration is song lyrics.

I just completed a journal page inspired by the Shinedown song - The Crow & The Butterfly. (lyrics can be found here)

The background is acrylics. I turned the journal on it's side and put the colors of Golden Fluid Acrylics along the binding and sprayed it with water and let them run down. Once dry I wrote the lyrics with a white pen. The crow I drew and cut out of black paper and glued on. The butterfly is a rubber stamp (that I recently got out of the $1 bin at Michaels-pretty nice, huh?). The title I printed on ledger paper and cut out (ledger paper is sort of a unifying theme in this journal. It's along the bound edge of all pages and used somewhere in most of the pages). The dandelion at the top I painted over the top with golden acrylics. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I love the bright colors in the background, and the white writing, and the bird, and well, I guess I like it all! I enjoy the song too...I'm sure you can find it on YouTube if you want to give a listen.

Here's some tags I created in the past using song lyrics for inspiration:

Think about some of your favorite songs or lyrics, look up the lyrics online if you aren't sure of what all they say. What does it make you think about? How can you use that as inpiration for an art project?
It's alot of fun to think about!
What else inspires you? I'm always interested to hear about inspiration...

Nurture Nature Journal Page

2010-07-14T21:31:00.000-07:00

Here's a collage I made in Carmen Torbus' Spill It Revisited online class. I used Golden Fluid Acrylics and Golden Gel Matte Medium. It was a great class and I learned so much about fun ways to use acrylic paints! You can check out Carmen's class here. I highly recommend it if you like to play with acrylics and want to learn a fun technique for using them. I really enjoyed it!

Once I got the torn paper, mesh and acrylic paint portion of the collage done I did a leaf print using Golden Fluid Acrylics in Phtalo Green and leaves from a Japonica Pierias shrub in my yard. And added the Nurture Nature words which I had printed out on ledger paper. The original collage was 9 x 12 but I cut it down to square to fit into my art journal and glued it to an existing page. I think I'll use some antiqued brads in the corners to add a little interest. Just haven't decided on the color yet. I have some small square brads I think will be just right.

I hope you are staying cool wherever you are! It's been pretty warm here in Oregon.

Thanks for taking a look. Go create something!

GPP Crusade 42 - Strip Ease

2010-07-12T00:20:00.000-07:00

This month the theme for the GPP Crusade is Strip Ease. You can read all about it here.

For my contribution I took some printed papers and tore them into strips. I had these hibiscus flowers I had cut out of a piece of scrapbook paper that I wanted to use for a journal page but I wasn't having any luck figuring out what to use for a background. Then when I was thinking about the Strip Ease idea I thought that might work so picked out some papers, tore them into strips, glued them down and gave it a try. I played around with where I wanted papers torn with a white edge (thinking that went well with the white edge on the flowers) and where I didn't. I like how, just by accident, the words "WIN WIN" ended up showing up so well.

I had the following page in an altered book that I did last month so thought I'd share it also. The theme for this book is color and for this blue page I tore strips from magazine pages and glued them down. I tore these strips so the white edge showed for more contrast between the blues. The middle of the page had part of a fuzzy butterfly body which made me think of big hairy moths which give me the creeps so I had to cover it up! I punched one inch circles out of the magazine pages and covered the partial body with them.

There's still plenty of time this month to check out the Crusade and participate yourself. Go here for all the details. Then see what you can come up with. It's a great way to spark your creativity and move your muse into action mode , plus it's alot of fun!

Thanks for taking a look!

Tags for swap and journal page from leftovers

2010-07-09T21:50:00.000-07:00

The Yahoo Mini-Books Group I belong to had a swap I participated in with the subject "Things That Fly". Each person was to make a 3x5 tag for all participants and then mail them directly to each participant. I made my tags out of watercolor paper. I coated both sides with gesso, then used acrylics and a spray bottle and painted on an orangish backgound. I then used punchinella/sequin waste as a stencil to add the blue dot design. At that point I cut the paper into 3x5 pieces and made them into tags. Then rubber stamped the image and words. Lastly was to add the blue hole protectors to the hole I had punched (white ones bought at an office supply store and dyed blue with ink pad) and then add the yarn.

Once I got done with the tags I had all these strips of watercolor paper with the orange paint and blue dots on them. I just started playing around with them and kinda started weaving them together. It was looking pretty cool so I though I'd put in in my journal. I had this blue background I had made by rubbing a colored pencil over the page while it was resting on the rough wood of an old picnic table and got a wood grain design. I decided to use that as my background for the weaving. And as long as I was sitting there with all the leftovers from my tags I decided to glue a few of the holes around the edges. Then I decided I should use the little triangles left over from cutting the top corners of the tags off. Those and gluing a few more of the left over holes around the weaving, as well as using a bird paper punch on a scrap and adding those completed the page for me. It was pretty fun to use up my leftovers like that!

What do you do with your leftover pieces from a paper project?

Creating with texture

2010-07-03T16:41:00.000-07:00

I came across this video on You Tube for creating textured art and really liked what I saw! I decided to give it a try. I'm on this use what I have kick (in part because I am a supply junkie and have ALOT of stuff) and found a jar of spackle so decided to give that a try before I go out and buy joint compound. I used a 5 x 7 canvas board. Once I spread the spackle and let it set up a little I used lids and the stick end of a foam brush to make some circles. And then a square chopstick to add some designs as well as a rubber stamp. Once it had dried overnight I sanded it down to where I wanted it and coated with clear acrylic medium. I had also seen this video by the same artist and painted my piece once the acrylic medium dried using this technique. I used Golden Acrylics - Fluid Green Gold, Heavy Bodied Quinacridone Violet, and Fluid Phtalo Green.

I didn't really like the piece much until I got to the third color - that made all the dif in the world! So, if you don't like what you got just keep adding another layer until you do!

I wish you could see it in person and touch it and feel the texture!

Pretty cool, huh?

Zendoodle ATCs

2010-07-02T07:15:00.000-07:00

Here's some ATCs I made for a Zendoodle Swap at Milliande Art Community for Women on Ning. I haven't participated in alot of swaps lately but I'm kinda missing them and getting fun art in the mail! So I've tried to sign up for a few lately. I got off track meeting deadlines for awhile so quit taking part. But I just need to discipline myself cuz if I don't send any fun mail out into the world I'm not going to get any showing up in my mailbox - and I want mail art!

Thanks for taking a look!

I wish you all a happy and safe 4th of July!

Color Inspiration and Grids

2010-06-28T20:51:00.000-07:00

I'm working on an altered book with the theme Color Inspiration. I'll use it to help me out when I'm stuck for ideas or need to check out colors or color combinations. Color inspires alot of my art ideas - I'll see what I think at that moment is the perfect color and will be stuck with it in my head - I'll have to create something using that color to release it from my head!

This month is Michelle Wards' GPP Street Team Crusade No. 41 and the challenge is Grid Lock. You can check it out here.

Here are some pages I did recently in my Color Inspiration AB using grid layouts:

For this page I masked out the squares then painted the page with black acrylic paint. When I removed my masks the text showed through. I really like to leave some text showing in an altered book when I can. I like the way it looks. I then stamped the puffin rubber stamp in each square and hand colored the beaks. I love the contrast of the black and white on this page.

This page is photographs I took at an Oregon State Park called Thompsons Mills. It's an old flour mill and I was fascinated by the rusty gears and parts I found. I took alot of photos so may definately have another rust page for this altered book. I thought the specks of paint and the haphazard stamping of "RUST" sort of fit with the subject matter of rust.

The facing page to this one follows and has a rust background. In addition to looking at this page to see the dif shades of rust it also gives me ideas for combining colors like rust and turquoise. I love the way they look together. Although I would say the turquoise background does enhance the rust more than the rust background enhances the turquoise.

This was a page in a magazine. As soon as I saw it and the "Tranquil Turquoise" I knew it was destined for my color book. And since I had already decided to do the rust page with a turquoise background this seemed like the perfect stuff for the facing page. It was alot of fun to cut up the pieces and figure out how to arrange them. Just cutting out squares all the same size was just not going to work for this grid!

Thanks Michelle for the Crusade idea. I'm really enjoying working with grids!

Owl Collage

2010-06-24T20:39:00.000-07:00

Here's a collage I did as part of the Spill It online worshop I took from Carmen Torbus. You can read more about the workshop in this previous post, I am soooo LOVING this workshop and all I'm learning about acrylics!!!

For this piece of art the lesson was transfers. I learned alot in this lesson - mostly to learn from my mistake and move on. My orig transfer was too similar a color and didn't really show up.

So, as you see in the completed collage (first photo) I painted over it in black.

I then used some of my very favorite owl postage stamps that I had been hoarding, because I love owls, to complete the collage. I've been wanting to do something cool with those owl stamps for a long, long time so I'm glad I finally came up with something!

I've finally decided it is alot more fun to have something I made with a fav supply I have than hanging on to the supply! What am I saving them for?!?

I am an art supply junkie! There, now I've admitted it!

Anyway, hope you enjoy the collage. It's pretty cool, huh?

Inspiration

2010-06-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

Lot's of different things inspire my art - nature is a big inspiration, colors also spark many ideas. Something I like to use for inspiration is song lyrics.

I just completed a journal page inspired by the Shinedown song - The Crow & The Butterfly. (lyrics can be found here)

The background is acrylics. I turned the journal on it's side and put the colors of Golden Fluid Acrylics along the binding and sprayed it with water and let them run down. Once dry I wrote the lyrics with a white pen. The crow I drew and cut out of black paper and glued on. The butterfly is a rubber stamp (that I recently got out of the $1 bin at Michaels-pretty nice, huh?). The title I printed on ledger paper and cut out (ledger paper is sort of a unifying theme in this journal. It's along the bound edge of all pages and used somewhere in most of the pages). The dandelion at the top I painted over the top with golden acrylics. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I love the bright colors in the background, and the white writing, and the bird, and well, I guess I like it all! I enjoy the song too...I'm sure you can find it on YouTube if you want to give a listen.

Here's some tags I created in the past using song lyrics for inspiration:

It's alot of fun to think about!

What else inspires you? I'm always interested to hear about inspiration...

Playing with paints - monoprints

2010-06-20T14:33:00.000-07:00

I spent several hours Saturday out in the garage where I have set up a paint playground (use a garage for the car? but then the driveway would be empty!). I have an art desk and a card table. Even a couple easles and all my paints and applicators and stencils and lots of paper. The garden hose is even close by for easy clean up. And it can all stay out so it's ready to go at any time - loving it!

Yesterday I decided to give monoprinting a go - as described by Michelle Ward in one of her GPP Street Team Crusades from a few months ago. I hadn't yet found this great blog at that time so wasn't in on the Crusade. But it looked like so much fun! And it was! Check out my results:

Some of them I love just as they are, some will be great in collage, some will be great touched up with a black pen, or colored pencils. Most of all it was a BLAST to play around with these. From drawing and stamping designs to cut out on a tyvek envelope to picking colors and paints to spread out on the piece of acrylic to pull the print from. Give it a try sometime!

Having a BLAST spilling acrylics!

2010-06-14T23:49:00.000-07:00

I've been taking an online workshop from Carmen Torbus called Spill It!.

I've loved playing around with acrylics for awhile now but Carmen has taught me to take it to a whole new level and really helped me expand my creative use of them. Now I get a whole range of colors out of each bottle and from using colors together.

Also, I tend to be a messy artist anyway so anything that tells me to Spill It! on purpose and get my fingers into it and messy...well, all I have to say is more power to it!

Here's my first completed collage above - this one is pretty much all paint with a few touches of some fav paper added at the end (then painted over again). She's also taking us through some transfer techinique, more collage, using words and using inks. I'll have more art to share with you soon.

I would highly recommend this workshop if you are looking for some fun backgrounds, great art and collage pieces, want new ideas and technique, want to see a great artist at work, and/or want to meet a very nice lady online!

A great idea for altered books or any book!

2010-06-12T13:53:00.000-07:00

My friend Debbie has just open her ArtFire Studio and is selling the wonderful book thongs that she makes. She uses the most amazing beads and they are beautiful.
The perfect thing for marking your favorite page in an altered book or to use as your bookmark in any book you happen to be reading. Also, would look great adorning a coffee table book you might happen to have sitting out!
I love the turquoise one shown here. She gifted me with a beautiful one - I'll take a photo of it soon to share with you.
So, head on over and check out her artisan studio here . You'll have to keep checking back. Rumor has it she'll have more great stuff for sale soon including some destash from her stores of lots and lots of really cool stuff. In fact, if you check out her blog here you'll see a chance to buy a mystery box of some of that cool stuff direct from Debbie. I've got boxes of stuff from Debbie before...I can tell you from personal experience that she can fit an amazing amount of stuff in one of those flat rate boxes and you won't be disappointed by what she sends - it's all really good stuff!!!

Art through a kids eye

2010-06-06T21:37:00.000-07:00

My 10 year niece, Piper, spends alot of time at my house doing art with me. We recently set up an art desk in the garage and use that for all our painting (I'm out of room in the house, plus I like to make messes!). We have easels, and paints, and brushes, etc. We're all set. Piper and I spent some time over a couple days playing out there over Memorial Day weekend. Piper is working on an altered book. Here's a torn paper collage she made of trees. I love it! And especially how she used her fingers to paint the word trees. We went to the thrift store to look for a book to alter. She found a really cool little cookbook that had a border around each page. I really like how she left the background painted so a little bit of that shows through. You can see a little more about Piper and her art in this previous post. Thanks for taking a look. Feel free to leave a comment, I'll be sure to share them with Piper. I'm meeting her school bus when she comes home tomorrow and will show her this post then. Of course, I'll see her later in the week too. She did give me permission to post a photo of her great art. :)

Cutting out red and blue!

2010-06-04T16:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple pages I did in the Color themed altered book I just started. Just started going through magazines and garden catalogs looking for red and blue stuff and started cutting. All images on both pages are adhered with a glue stick.
I actually had been saving the bottle of hot sauce for awhile for just the right use - probably therefore the Red Hot Red title! I first painted the background pages with gesso for these red pages. The text still slightly shows through which I really like the look of. I used the non brush end of a paintbrush, the non foam end of a foam brush and a q tip to stamp the dots.

The blue page all started with an ad with butterfly wings and this word -

It pretty much fits perfectly with how I think of blue thanks to blue in nature - blue skies, ocean, mountains, etc. Guess I didn't just cut out blue, for one page I simply tore strips. Then punched circles and squares out for both pages. And used a stencil and midnight blue craft acrylic for the word "Blue".

Thanks for taking a look!