Most of May's Art Journal Pages

It seems way too long since I posted my pages, and with us leaving next week for our big trip to Florida, I thought it best to at least post what I do have finished.
The funny thing is...I think I got so behind, because I tend to want to work in Chronological order, and the Week 17 prompt threw me for a loop.
Not that is was all that hard to decide what helps me Refresh, or renew, but how I was going to portray that on paper in a book - Harder than you would think!!
I REALLY struggle with drawing realistic things- characterized, I can do, but to make something look more real- HARD FOR ME!!
I chose to incorporate Pedicures into my Refresh pages, because, I have never had a salon pedicure since we practiced on each other in beauty school, and let me tell you- we were not good at it- LOL!
Last fall, Quincy really wanted to go for pedicures, so we went, and it was a blast. So relaxing, refreshing and rejuvenating. Here is the kicker- I couldn't find an image of a pedicure on the internet, that I liked, and I think it is clear, I don't draw well, so it took me FOREVER to get the feet sort of close to the idea I was after. Now, I know they are not "pretty" feet. I wasn't going for your stereotypical super model feet, I was going for your 40 year old, stay at home mom who has never taken great care of her feet- like ever.  Quincy laughed, and said they look like old feet, and I retorted- "Good, that's what I was after". Don't get me wrong- if I had the skills to draw a great set of feet, that look all beautiful and natural, then I would have been all for "pretty feet", but it isn't happening.
I have added journalling since this photo was taken, but you get the main idea here.

Week 17 - Refresh 

Week 18- Creative Hands

This one was not so hard- I knew I wanted to trace my own hands, and use them in the page. I have seen lots of times where people use their hands to make a heart, so I thought I would give that a try.

I wanted to do the technique where you make a linear pattern across the page, and it makes it look like the images are popping off the page. Not a technique I have ever done before, and it did not turn out as I had envisioned, but hey- that is what an art journal is for- trying new ideas, techniques, styles, with lots of failures, some successes, and a few acceptables. This is one of those. 

Week 19- Photography

This page is still in the works, I have ideas, but have not fully wrapped my head around how I am going to put it together, so we will see later what develops.

Week 20- Inspired by a Book

AH! I love this idea, and I have the perfect book. One of my all time favorite reads is The Help. I am usually not much of a reader, because I have severe dyslexia, so usually by the time I am a few paragraphs in, I have forgotten what I have read, or I am so confused, because I have read it over at least 3 times, that I tend to get lost and not be able to follow the story line.  Not with this book! The Help was such a pleasure to read, and I enjoyed the personalities of each of the characters. Celia, I think is one of my favorites. I think I can really relate to her, and the troubles she had with staying pregnant. Out of 12 pregnancies, we were blessed with 2 beautiful daughters, but also had many, many years of heartache, and the toll it took on my body was immense. I would have loved having a large family, but it was not God's plan for me here on Earth, and I am OK with that. I cherish the moments I have had with raising my daughters. It was definitely not easy to have two kids with special needs, but it makes us stronger, and I think more empathetic to others that may be struggling in their lives as well. I love how that struggle played out in the book, and how Minny and Aibileen had such a good friendship, and stood by each other- through thick and thin. 

I love how Hilly, got a taste of her own medicine- literally! She was so determined to make the help use outside toilets, that sassy, Miss. Minny made her a special pie all her own! LOL

I love how Hilly's mom, just laughed and gave it right back to Hilly, and I love how Miss Celia put Hilly in her place by writing her a check to "TWO-SLICE HILLY" that was epic! 

It is a great read, if you haven't already, I highly recommend it, and the movie was great too!!!

Week 21 - Making a Mandala

When this prompt came up, I thought to myself- "EASY"! Boy was I ever wrong!! I get the whole idea of making a circle with repetitive patterns, and even adding Zentangles or something similar to it. That all sounds super simple, but wow, it is not! It was hard enough just dividing the circle into segments, and then just when you think- "I can do this" you get a mind block, or your eyes wig out and you can't tell which lines are your drawing lines, and which lines are your guidelines. I have an all new respect for those people that must spend hours, days, weeks, making intricate designs in their mandalas. My mandala took me 2 days, and now that it is complete it looks so simple. It was a good stretch for my brain though, and I am happy with the Bohemian look it took on after I colored it. I played with my Derwent Inktense Pencils- I LOVE THEM! They go on just like a colored pencil, but then when you wet them, they are the most vibrant colors. The best part is after they have been activated with water, and they dry, the ink is Permanent! Who doesn't love that- no need to seal the page, which in this book is a benefit, because it is getting REALLY thick, and we are only mid year. I am trying so hard to work flat, but if you know me, I love texture, and it takes a lot of conscience effort to not add big bulky stuff to my pages. Again, it is a good exercise for me, to step out of my norm.

June starts with the prompt- TRAVEL, since I am behind, I will most likely wait til we return from Florida, and journal all about our prize winning trip! 

That is all for tonight, I will come back soon with more fun stuff- summer is busy, so hopefully I will fit the time in to update you all on our goings on!

A Bit of Art (being swapped)

I have been dabbling in a bit of art lately, and just finished a project for a swap I am participating in for the group Paper Traders that I am a member of.
It was a one for one swap, and we were to contact our partner and get a general idea of style/type of the kind of journal they would like to receive. My partner is Shelly, and she was drawn to the Nick Bantock style. I have not ever made anything with his art as inspiration, but did a little research, and found most of his art is rather quirky, with few specific topic based projects, and found many of the elements he uses in his art are vintage travel elements, so I ran with that as I created this journal for Shelly.
I actually tried doing a process video for my YouTube channel, but it was not meant to be, as I started the video, my memory was full, so I stopped and tried adding another memory card, but discovered it was not compatible with my video cam, so brought out the other one, and got another 1/2 hour in, and the battery died- tried recording while charging, and that was not going to work. It had to charge by itself, so thought I would just switch to taking still shots as I went along, but learned as I was finishing up on the project, that I forgot to stop in between stages to snap photos, so it was a dismal failure.
The journal was to be made using a manilla envelope for the covers- folded in half, and using the closure flap as a front cover flap to close the journal with. I did play with the technique a bit before hand, so that I could be comfortable with sending out a quality product to my recipient, but wanted to add my own design to it a bit, so i made an inside pocket for both the covers.
I had used white envelopes for my trial journals, and so when I went to use the manilla colored one, I coated it with Gesso. It was not the look I was going for, so was kind of a waist of time, and ended up covering almost all of it with decorative papers, which made the covers way more sturdy anyway. I trimmed a 1/16 of an inch off the bottom of the envelope, and then lined the envelope with some scrapbook cardstock in a vintage map pattern, and then adhered it to the inside of the envelope to sturdy it up a bit. then folded in half, and added paper to both sides of the closure flap, and then cut two pieces of card to insert into the front and back covers once the journal was completely decorated.  Here are a few photos of how it turned out.

This is a photo showing the inside covers, you can see here on the right side, one of the pockets I created.

Here is a photo after the book was completed showing both the front cover pocket and the back cover pocket, where I made a 1/2 circle opening so that the card insert would be easily pulled out or put back in.

This is a photo of the finished journal all tied up and ready to go, I attached several glass beads to the binding to spice things up a bit.

This is the finished journal flattened out, so the back cover is on the left and the front cover on the right, with the beads hanging on the binding. I used Gafer tape, to reinforce the folded edges, so the binding wouldn't tear out, or so the front flat would not tear off with use. I am thinking it is pretty strong and secure. :)

I hope Shelly likes it!

Art Journal January DAY 7&8

This is a combination of both day 7 and day 8.

Day 7 was the collage background, which consists of metallic gold tissue paper, red mulberry paper, some metallic gold and red paisley wrapping paper and a vintage looking background paper from I think Anna Griffin. Then I took a watered down gesso wash and brushed it over the pages. It made to metallic pages too milky, so I took a towel, and wiped a bit off here and there to let the metallic show through a bit. Most of the wrapping paper wiped rather clean, but the tissue soaked the gesso well, so where I wiped it off, it is just a slight slimmer when held at an angle. It is really quite interesting.

The prompt for Day 8 was to create the "soulmate within" the description:

~ create an expressions of those parts within you that long to be whole unto itself.

Many of my very closest friends and family know what I have been going through since I was just a young wife, and it seems the older I get the worse things are, but I just struggle so much sometimes with finding the help I need to get through the bad days. I have not been feeling "whole" within myself, so I felt inspired to do this page.

It may not have any significance to any of you, and that is ok.

Playing Catch-Up

Well, I have been busy creating art, I just have not been posting here on my blog. I guess I have just been busy. I feel bad for not posting, so I am going to try to catch-up and share a bit.

Here are my journal pages and projects that are still "in progress" for my Artist Dates on the Milliande Creativity Club for women.

This is a journal page, that I started by water coloring and then using a rubber band printing over the top. The challenge was to use rubber bands in your art process in some way. I plan to alter it still, and then to journal on it.

The next challenge was to make painted papers. We were able to do anything we wanted with the painted papers. I plan to adhere mine to some journal pages.
At the time I was working on a swap for another group, Paper Traders, the swap was Anything Zetti, so I used a bit of my painted papers for the backgrounds of my ATC's.

This last one is the Artist Date challenge called Belle of the Ball, and it was to invite the Strawberry Princess to the Christmas Ball. I am still working on mine, but I have my Princess drawn, and I am not sure yet how I will finish painting her, or making a background. It might just stay as a solo princess painting.

This House Is Me

This is page two in my art journal. The journal prompt was to draw or create a house that shows the essence of you. I guess I was feeling a little childish when I colored my house, because I made it very rainbow, and I colored it with cheap little kids watercolor paints from the department store. I intended to make flower boxes under the windows when I got done with coloring it, but then I wanted to keep it really simple, so I didn't draw them in. I was also feeling rather dreamy as I was drawing- hoping for someday to have a home. Not a large home, but one with a pitched roof, and foyer. (Not a mobile home like we live in now.) I know they are big dreams, but they are dreams, and if I don't dream, then I will not have anything to work for right? Now, I am not sure that I want a rainbow colored house. No! I think maybe a sage, or gray colored one, with white trim, and maybe a white picket fence. Very traditional looking, but I am not really picky. I suppose if someone gave me a rainbow colored house I would be thrilled, and I would save my pennies and repaint it someday!

Tin Box

This page is the third page in my art journal. My first digital page. The prompt was to journal something that you are grateful for. At the time, I was feeling rather bummed out because it had been raining non-stop for almost two weeks, and we had this stupid hole in the roof because of the old air conditioner (that didn't work mind you) that leaked like a sieve. Our family is crammed in a trailer house and I had this stupid bucket full of water sitting in the middle of the hallway floor. Needless to say, I think this prompt came at just the right moment, because I needed to really dig inside myself.
Even though I cuss it often, I am truely grateful to live here. We have a HUGE yard, and we are able to do just about anything we want to with the place, and the landlord did fix the hole in the roof- he just couldn't fix it while the rain was pouring because the tar wouldn't seal if it is wet, or cold.
I took a picture of the "ugly" door that is covered in bathroom tub surround- it is interesting to say the least, but now at least it is waterproof. :0) I do have a lovely pot of flowers that was a gift from a friend for helping with her daughters wedding reception. They are so lovely that they look so out of place there, but I love them so much, I don't care!

Art Journal Prompt

I am a member of an all womens Yahoo group, and we have been working on some Art Journal Prompts. This is the information on the prompt:

A Spiral - Art Prompt

~the spiral is seen as a universal symbol for growth, movement, and change.

What does the symbol of a Spiral mean to you?

*Paint, Collage, Doodle, Sculpt, Quilt, Journal, Digitize ... a spiral that originates from deep within your heart center and spirals out into your world surrounding you.

This is the spiral I created, it originated with a photograph of my daughter printed on canvas. The spiral is then done with oil pastel, and some white gesso. I also used some gesso and colored pencil to achieve the flow for her hair. I added the gem for a necklace, and the rhinestones, wings, and crown for accents.

Altered Journal - cover

Hi all-

This is the cover to my art journal.

It started out as a baby book. It was printed paper, light blue with darker light blue printed baby words. For one, I don't have babies at home anymore, and I never did have a boy. But I found this little book in the clearance at a shop that was going out of business, and it is the perfect size for me to play with.

SO....I altered it.

First I gave it a going over in streaks up and down and side to side with white gesso.

Let it dry, and then started adding things.

The letters are adhesive rub-ons, (you rub them on, and then when you pull the top paper off, they are sticky) I then glittered them.

I put down the images of the birds, and then the chipboard flowers in the corner.

When that was all dry, I gave it all a wash with pearlescent watercolor.

I did not really like the way it covered up the glitter, so I took a wet paper towel and tried to remove the watercolor from just the glitter letters. It seemed to work out ok.

When that was all good and dry, I added some glitter heart clear backed stickers here and there.

It looks quite pearly in real life, but I realize it is hard to see in the scan.

Because of the rings, it ended up getting a lot of light in on the left side, and the pearl finish doesn't really show.

It was pretty easy to do, but was kind of fun to see it just come together. No planning- just "plopping" as I call it.

Anyway- Hope you like it.