NaNoJouMo day 9

Today's word- Forge. To advance gradually but steadily. Today was difficult. I struggled to get anything out. It just wasn't a creative day for me, but then again, I moved forward.
Today I managed the start of my stucco background. I will gesso it tomorrow and see where it takes me from there.

NaNoJouMo day 8

Today the word is Virtue. Today I worked on backgrounds.
I am not finished yet, but this is a start.

NaNoJouMo day 7

Today's word: Moment. I definitely had a moment today, with my back being completely out. I did manage to sit for awhile and do some art. I did some painting, and here is how it turned out:

NaNoJouMo day 6

Today's word: Esoteric - I suppose all my posts and drawings are esoteric. Unless there are more of you out there that really do care and I don't know about it. I still maintain it is the process of creating and sharing is what has made me who I am, and not the acknowledgment of such. Either way, here is what I sketched today.

NaNoJouMo day 5

Today's word: Equanimity. Sadly I have to admit this word is not in my known vocabulary. So like any good curious soul, I looked it up. It means: composure, steadiness of mind under stress, a source of strength.
HUMMM! That is a great word. Now to see if I can make something out of it.

Well, I am not sure this is any representation of our word of the day, but I did keep my composure today as I was sketching. LOL

NaNoJouMo day 4

Today's word is Quarter. Again, I am not sticking with the words as such, so today, I decorated the cover of my handmade journal so that it isn't so plain while I work in it. Hopefully it will be a bit inspiring for me to continue to stick with this project.
Here is my cover with the cover flap out:

NaNoJouMo day 3

Today's word is Fortune. Again, I am not necessarily working with the words, but just trying to get some kind of art journalling done. Today I did the mixed media background for this page.

NaNoJouMo day 2

Today's word is Choice. I guess today I chose to paint in my doll face. LOL I am not sure it turned out as I expected, mostly because I am working in a handmade journal and the paper is watercolor paper. It has a lot of tooth to it, so I am thinking that is why my color blending didn't go as I had hoped, but I am satisfied enough with it to continue on.

NaNoJouMo

NaNoJouMo stands for National Nonstop Journaling Month. Basically you do some kind of art journaling everyday for the month of November. To read the official beginning and specs on the subject check out d'blogala she is posting a new word ever day. The post about the inception of the idea is here: Intro
Today's word is Inception.

I am not necessarily working with the words, as of yet, but mostly my goal is to get something to paper each day. So today I worked on a doll face.

"I AM" journal prompt

This is an art journal page I did for a prompt with Milliande.ning.com called "I Am".
Basically I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about who I really am, and not necessarily about what other people think of me, so I thought this would be a good thing to art journal about.
If you would like to play along, you can, here is a link to the page: "I Am" art journal prompt

The Master's Touch

These are some Round Robin journal pages that I did for my sisters book which is entitled Hands.
I chose to do a bit of a spiritual type page, so have included the images of the hands from the painting Creation. I printed them and then cut them out and adhered them on top of my own background.
I call this background the "Stucko" technique, because it always looks like there is a layer of mortar on top of rocks. It is a fairly easy technique, which yields some amazing results.
First is a layer of old book pages, and then on top of that, torn pieces of decorative paper. In this example, the paper looked like old wood slats, but the tone was good, so it worked.
Once the decorative paper is adhered, (I used gel medium to attach it) then with an old plastic gift card, I scraped gesso over the entire surface, and then continued to scrape it till the paper started to show through again. You have to work fast, so the gesso doesn't dry on you, but if you do one side at a time it works pretty well.
Once you are happy with the amount of gesso, you just set it aside til it is good and dry, and then I took a distress ink pad, and smeared it across the whole surface, and then with a paper towel, I rubbed the ink around, and also it rubs some of the ink off. It makes for a lovely subtle aged color and pattern. Just perfect for this page.
Then I adhered the cutouts to the backgrounds, and then with my brown watercolor crayon, I outlined the cutouts, to help seat them into the page, and give it all a cohesive look. I also ran the crayon around the outside of the pages to give them an aged and vintage look. Then wet them with a small paintbrush. I added the lettering with some tiny alphabet stamps and a brown StazOn pad, and voila!

Mini angel canvas

This is just a little painting I did... I was feeling a little sentimental, and thought that a pretty little angel would be fun to paint.
It is done on a 6x6 inch canvas. The background is watercolor crayons, and gesso mixed. The wings are gesso then a light coloring accent with a pale blue watercolor crayon. The crown is metallic acrylic paints. The base coat of her face is acrylic paint, and then several layers and colors of watercolor crayon for accents and depth.
Everything else is done in acrylic paints. She was a ton of fun to paint, I may even do another one like her at a later date.

Memorial Day weekend

A few glimpses through our journey to Yellowstone.
It was a lovely day filled with great memories.
Awesome beasts!

YES! That is most definitely a grizzly bear!
Yellowstone lake (from the south side)

Lily pads~ taken at the Continental Divide

Old Faithful just starting to erupt.

Old Faithful in all her glory.

Old Faithful Geyser (that's a lot of boiling hot water)

The party's almost over :(

Our little dip in the surf of Yellowstone Lake- north side near Fishing Bridge
(it was extremely windy)

Abby getting her feet wet.

Quincy's little treasures

Lots of little houses

I am participating in a couple of swaps with the Paper Traders yahoo group, and both were making little row houses.
First was Keron's swap, and the theme was to make tiny little chipboard decorated houses.
Here is what I came up with.


Second was Connie's swap which is Creepy Cottages- we were to make the same little chipboard decorated houses, but this time a spooky feel or Halloween theme.
Here are my houses:


Both swaps were a lot of fun, and I can't wait to see what everyone else created.

Pretty Little face Bobbins

It feels good to be creating a bit again. I am not sure why, but the summer seems to have me busier than I had hoped, and I haven't carved much creative time in.
I made these for a swap in Paper Traders. They are painted on cardboard embroidery floss bobbins, which are just over an inch wide. It was fun to get my paints out and create little pretty faces. It should be a fun swap- can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with. :)

Look at what the cat dragged in!

Now that I have your attention, LOL, I will have to explain. I was just settling in for bed around 10PM, and from the open window came the cat bolting in, with something in her mouth. She was moving so quickly, that I could only imagine it was a mouse, since it was squealing wildly. As I chased after her, she was bound and determined to elude me, but I found her downstairs in the basement in Quincy's room, she had let the creature free, and was just about to pounce on it again, when Abby flipped the light on and startled her. Crouched in the corner was a tiny baby rabbit.
We knew we had bunnies in the backyard under the shed, but we didn't know we had babies! It was so cute, and scared to death.
I scooped it up and put it in a cardboard box, til I could get dressed and let it outside back with it's family. Good thing that cat is stupid, and doesn't know how to hunt. I checked it over best I could, and the only thing I found was a bit of slobber on it's back from the trip in the house in the cat's mouth. Here are pictures of the cute little thing.

A couple of Art Journal pages

I spent today cleaning off my art table, and it looked so nice that I just had to break out my art journal and do some pages. I had actually started on this first page awhile back, and just didn't know how to finish it, so I added the paper flowers, and the lace below the photo. I may still do more with it at a later date, but for now this is how it will stay. (the photo is of mine and my husbands hands atop my bouquet at our wedding, nearly sixteen years ago.

This page was for a prompt I am doing for our Ning site~ Milliande.ning.com
The prompt is to choose a word you don't know the definition of, and find the definition and do an art journal page about it.
I found a photo of this peacock, and decided it would be a perfect image for what I was going to journal about.
I have been watching some youtube videos from fridayeudaemonism, and was very curious of her title, so I searched for the definition, and what I found was that Eudaemonia or Eudaimonia means Happiness.
It was a perfect word for my art journal page.
I started with several colors of blue & green paints, dripped all over the pages. I closed the book and squished the paint between the pages. Then I opened the pages and dried the paint with a heat tool. Next I added some white paint and smeared it all around with a wet wipe, and then added the image of the peacock.
I added the word Eudaimonia in jet black StazOn with a shadow in violet, then added the word happiness in several colors of blue and green. I added some large eyelets and a gem eyelet in blue and greens. Lastly I outlined the words in black sharpie.

Rest well- dear friend

Rest well- dear friend, we will miss you dearly. May the heavens welcome you humbly home. You have always been special to us, and we will never forget you.

Pandamoniums Princess Aja Pe' Pe'
11/27/2002 ~ 3/11/2010

Quincy with her special girl Aja- a few last hugs.

Gothic Arches Renaissance Women

I made these arches for a swap in the Paper Traders Yahoo Group. The topic was Renaissance Women, and we were to use the Gothic Arch template provided. I made a set of these a few years back, so these will go nicely with the others I have.
The photos are not very good, but that is what I have. It makes them look a little crooked, but they are tall and narrow (7 1/2"h x 3 1/2"w)
I sure had fun making them, and may find time to add more to my book.

The end of Art Journal January

Well, here I am getting ready to post something all together different, and realized I never posted the last two pages of my Art Journal January. So I am taking a quick minute to post them. Day 30 and 31. The first of which is a fairly simple page, mostly done with a mixed up background of paint, gesso, and more paint, splatter paints, color mists and a little squishing it around with my fingers. Then I added some simple drawn images from a magazine, and colored them with markers, to make a simple but unique look.

Second is the last page in my journal, which is a fold out page, depicting gel medium transfer images of faces and eyes. I chose to take the opportunity to reflect on my month of journaling with this last page. I entitled it True Vision, with the reminder that I will create from within, with true intent, and with the hopes that I will learn, grow and see what and who I really am through my journaling.
As mentioned above, I started the page with many magazine cutouts of faces and eyes, and did a bunch of gel medium transfers with them, then I cut out a face and eye from a magazine, and adhered it to the top. I stamped the words with alphabet stamps, both on the flap and underneath. Then added my journaling and a bit of gold shimmer powder to the lettering.

I want to thank you all for traveling this journey with me, and hope to do it again next year. :)

Art Journal January Day 27

Ok, I went back and tried out the eraser art page. It turned out better than I expected it to. I had originally intended to do a face of some kind, but just couldn't wrap my head around it. I couldn't sleep the other day, so I got up and started to journal what was in my head, and this is what came out. It is a set of hands holding the light of the sun.
I used a scribbled background of 2B, 4B and 6B charcoal pencils, and then smoothed it with a smudge stick, then I "drew" with my kneaded eraser until I got the outlines I was looking for.
Lastly I added some light yellow and flesh colored watercolor pencils to give it a little more dimension. I wrote the words with my trusty sharpie marker. :)

Art Journal January Day 29

Today's prompt was awesome- I got to get MESSY! I started with a triple layer of acrylic paints, in blue, green and purple.
Then added the swirls with distress crackle paint, then layered on alcohol inks in several colors and colored sharpies in different shades of purple.
Then to top it off, I spritz with three different color mists.
This was absolutely a good time- letting go of lots of the feelings I have been having the last few days, and thinking about how when I was a little girl, I would twirl around in my pretty dresses, til I got dizzy and fell down. I loved to twirl and spin- ah, memories.