GPP Street Team Crusade No. 52

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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!

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!