Back From The Garden!

I see that the last time I posted something was back in March.  That was when the weather turned nice and I was out in the garden every chance I had.  The weather is turning dismal again and I am back in my craft room.  My sister came up from Florida and helped me rearrange some things to make my craft room a little more organized.  Organizing created more space and therefore led to a shopping spree to take up that new space.  These are the new goodies:

 

It was hard to get a picture without the glare but I think you can see everything.  I went to A. C. Moore and they had EVERYTHING in the store on sale for 40 % off and sometimes more than that.  So of course more ended up in my basket than I had originally intended.  The items that I am most excited about are the "Typewriter" stamps.  I bought upper and lower case and can't wait to use them.  (the butterfly on the package is one that I stamped on vellum and colored with markers and perfect pearls.)  I added a couple new colors of acrylic paint in the hopes that I will pull out the gelli plate to make some prints.  I added Tim Holtz "Autumn Gatherings" die, a "thing a ma.jig (I've wanted one of these for a while now) and I bought several stamps to add to my collection.

I can't wait to spend some good crafting time with all my new stash.  In the mean time here are a few pages that I worked on but haven't posted yet.

I did this page a while ago.  I love the stampotique stamps.  I used the gold varigated flakes and a heat glue medium for the angel wings.  I stamped the girl on a separate piece of paper, colored her with markers, cut her out, stamped the image on the page and glued the cutout over the stamped image.  The circles were done with inka gold (in red) through a stencil and then embellished with a black Pitt pen and a white Signo pen.  The angel was left unfinished for quite a while.  It took me a while to be inspired before I created the "creeper".  This page started as a waste page.  I used it to clean my stencils or stamps.  After looking at it and wondering what to do with the page, it came to me that the angel needed an admirer. So I used the same methods to create "creeper"  Then stamped the words and embellished with the white Signo pen.

NEXT

I used this Hummingbird stamp to create the next page. 

 

 

I stamped the image on the page and then went about doodling.  I colored it using glitter pens.  You can see the glitter a little better when you enlarge the picture.

This is a close up of the bird to give a better view of the shiny glitterness!

This is the most recent page and commemorates a road trip that I took with my sister.  We were "trying" to get home from Marion, Illinois and ended up going the wrong direction.  We had directions from mapquest and two GPS's and we were still, going very fast in the wrong direction.  The nice police officer did not give us a ticket AND pointed us in the right direction.  I can't wait for the next opportunity to be on the road with my sister again.....never a dull moment.

A little late with this post...

These are two pages that I did a couple of weeks ago, but a friend borrowed my camera so I couldn't get a picture.

The flash from the camera washed out the color a little.  I can't wait for winter to be over so that I can get natural lighting again.  I love this little girl.  The original photo is below.  I cut and pasted her into a Word document, sized the picture and printed it on card stock.  I did the same thing with the birds and the mushrooms.  The cage isTim Holtz "caged bird" die.  I embossed it with "aged silver" embossing powder.  Then I gave it a patina look by rubbing "Broken China" distress paint and then rubbing gold "rub n buff" randomly.  The leaf branches are from a Martha Stewart edge punch that I cut and colored with distress markers.  I added a flower that I made from the Tattered Flowers Die, cut from white card stock, colored with distress marks and attached with a brad.  I added buttons to the coat from "adhesive faux pearls" by "Recollections".  The background was created by gluing Tim Holtz tissue paper to the page. The page was then given a wash of color by spraying the page with water and  covering it using distress paint daubers.  I added some molding paste through a stincel in various areas.  I used a white Signo pen to outline some items and added the phrae "A bird's song is sweeter when he is free".  The doodles covered my phrase a little.

This was inspired from a pocket folder that my sister gave me.  When I was cleaning my work space I found the pocket and opened it to see what I had put in it.  Low and behold, it was a pocket full of posies that I punched from Tim Holtz "Tattered Flowers" die. I put them in the pocket to use at a later time.  Seeing them spill out onto my work space gave me the idea for this page.

Flaunt Your Colors!

I drew this in pencil and then went over it with my Pitt pens.  It is colored with Derwent Intense Colored Pencils.  I used a water brush over the colors and used my white Signo pen to add the dot details on the wings.

I Love Learning New Techniques!

I am taking an on-line mini Workshop by the very talented Valerie Sjodin.  She shows how to create the beautifully creative edges to her art journals as well as fitting words to spaces and painting with fluid acrylics.  Sooooo much information in a mini workshop.  This is my first journal cover that I created.  I have a lot more practicing to do.  I started out using fluid acrylics on the edge but I didn't like the results I was getting.  I switched to markers and liked the colors a lot better.  Valarie is planning a larger Workshop and I can't wait.  The deadline for this workshop is Sept 1, 2013  and is open until November.  It is SOOOOOOOOOOO worth it,

Stamps and Doodles!

So, I'll start off by saying, I don't like how the background turned out.  But I love everything else.  The flowers are from a single stamp that I stamped three times using a mask.  Then I doodled in the rest.  I colored it in with markers.  Now here is where it went bad...I tried to use water color markers for the background.  I don't think I would get the hang of using them even with a lot of practice.

Madhatterz Tea Party

I had a lot of fun putting this page together.  It was inspired by coming across the lady with the teapot body.  I put that together a couple years ago and never did anything with it.  When I saw it, while going through some of my stash, I thought, it is about time she had some legs.  So I went through some of my paper doll collection and found the perfect legs for her.  However, she was a bit misproportioned.  Looking at her made me think of Alice in Wonderland's Madhatter's Tea Party.  So I started doing some image searches on google and found the wonderful picture of the rabbit here.  I found the teacup here  I tried to find the link for the tea party sign but I can't find it.  I have it pinned on my pinterest board but the link brings you to some UK shopping site.  Have no idea how that happened.  I pinned it so that I could refer back to it to give credit but..... I colored the rabbit and the teacup with distress markers (I really love these markers. They're so versatile).  the little birdies were from a teacup photo I found here
 
I created the background with pan pastels, stencils using distress inks, and some stamps. I printed the words "curiouser and curiouser" and cut them out and colored them with my distress markers.  Then I glued everything into place and outlined everything with a Pit Brush pen, to make it stand out.  I added a little doodling and there you have it....a page that makes me smile when I look at it.

His Eye is on the Sparrow

I saw this method for using the Tim Holtz Distress Markers on the video on youtube http://youtu.be/jmYdEsHdnjs.  I wanted to give it a try.  I started out stamping the two birds and coloring them in using the method they described.  It looked easy enough.  I think it came out pretty good for my first try.  I definitely need practice with blending.  I then did some searches for poems about birds and found this beautiful poem and knew that is what had to go on my page.  I typed it up, printed it from my computer, distressed it, glued it down  and added some doodling.  I love the message.  A simple reminder that "He" is taking care of us.  What a nice reflection to end my evening.

Working With What You Have.

I did the background on this page a few weeks ago and I hated it.  I was trying a method that I saw on the Internet and for some reason I chose gray as my main color and added barn red highlights.  It reminded me of a big boring ugly battleship.  So I decided to leave it for a few days and come back to see if I changed my mind..... I didn't.  Since I had some time today, I thought I would play with it and see if I could save the page.  I really wish I had taken a "before" picture.  It looks completely different from where it started.

I had no idea where I was going with it.  I started by adding some more colors of acrylic paint (turquoise and Ivory).  I tried some stenciling with spray inks but they seemed to just sit on top of the paint.  They didn't absorb. I finally sprayed some Dylusion ink and it took.  I stamped the bird because I thought he was cool and I was going to do some layering with other stamps (that didn't happen).  I added the lace down the side because...well, lace makes everything look prettier.  Next I stamped the lady on a scrap piece of card stock and colored her with water color pencils.  I stamped a crackle stamp with Sepia Archival Ink over the image.  I used a stencil  template and drew an oval around her and cut her out.  I distressed it using Tea Dye ink.  I placed her on the page and decided that more was needed.  So, I tore some newsprint scrapbook paper to frame her in.  I used Vintage Photo distress ink on it.  Next, I added the flower that I made a few days ago.  I tore paper for leaves and distressed them with Vintage Photo ink.  I doodled around the frame and the flower.  I hot glued the feathers using a piece of paper that I punched with a half inch punch.  Then I was looking for some type of quote or saying to put on the page.  I found this quote from Jane Eyre, "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will."  I thought "perfect, this makes the page look like it was well thought out", when in fact it just evolved!

Good Day For Journaling

Here are the latest entries in my Art Journal.  I have been trying to work under the concept that "there are no mistakes" in Art Journaling.  This is very difficult for me as my "inner critique" is shouting....you didn't mean to do that, what were you thinking. This leads me to the first entry below....

 I completed this page and was very happy with the way it turned out.  I love the bird with the extra long legs, singing out to the world. I love the colorful flowers and the borders that I was trying to incorporate.  This was my first attempt at this lettering method and I thought it came out very nice.  The page was beautiful.  Then.... The mail came and I received the Dylusion Ink Sprays that I had impatiently been waiting for and proceeded to try them immediately...on the next page in my journal...I didn't realize how much they would bleed through the page <sheepish grin>.  Thus the big ink blobs on this page and the green polka dots on the girls face.  The ink blobs I can live with but the polka dots make the girl look like she is ill.  Very, very hard for me to think..."there are no mistakes" and..."I didn't mean for it to turn out this way, but I like it" because, I' don't really like it.

 

This is the page that I did that ruined the previous page.  My sister was up for a visit and had just returned home.  I was missing her and wishing that she lived closer.  She has a thing for Owls and I was feeling a bit silly and came up with this page.   I love it!  I love the colors, I love the new  Dylusions "Further Around The Edge" leave stamp, I love the owls, the girl, the highlights on the leaves, everything.  I am so glad that I bought the Dylusion inks.  They are beautiful and I am so glad that I got them.

I used the Dylusion sprays on this background but I was a little trigger happy and sprayed a bit too much.  I didn't like the way the colors blended so I painted the page with Gesso, thinking that I would start over again.  Turns out that the water based ink sprays didn't cover as well once the Gesso was on the page.  I then switched to alcohol inks, which worked great.  I stamped the bottom of the page with a flower stamp using archival ink.  Then I used markers to color the flowers. I stenciled the tree, drew some bees and added a butterfly sticker that I found in my stash.  I added a bird from some pictures I found through Google and added the saying, which is a subtle reminder to myself.

I wanted to play with lettering and I also wanted to keep a list of supplies that I felt my sister needed to have.  I thought this would be a good way to have some ideas for Christmas presents this year. I started by cutting some scrapbook paper to cover the page because the ink from the previous page bled thru so badly.  Then I drew some lines with a pencil and drew the Title in pencil.  I traced over the pencil letters with a black marker and added the detail.  I will continue to add things to our wish list as I find things that we "need" and once the page is full, I will erase the pencil lines.  As a last thought, I used Perfect Pearls and stamped the little sparrow in the upper right corner.  I think he is very cute.

First Attempts at Art Journaling

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 This was my hall for the day.  Michael's Craft store had a coupon for 15 percent off your entire order and one for 50 percent off of any one item.  So this justified my getting all these goodies to add to my stash.  In the upper right corner is chipboard with a metal ring.  I thought this would be fun to make various art doodles or journals or something.  The items below that were in the dollar bin.  They will be great to embellish pages. The black pens are a set that has various weights to them.  These will be fun to use while practicing Zentangles.  The white markers are watermark pens.  Can't wait to try them. The rest are all stamps that I thought would be fun.  Oh and I left out the stamp pad....it is watermark ink also.


Now onto some of the art that I have been playing with....Remember a few weeks ago, I didn't know the first thing about how to doodle.  So I have come a long way.  I will never have great artistic skills but I can at least get by and have fun.

 This was done the day that I had my eyes dilated.  I had also bought some color pens and started playing with doodles and filling them in with patterns.

These were ideas for different patterns.  I always go brain dead when I try to think of patterns.  This way I can have a little library to refer to.

Soooooo, I was hoping that if I doodled exercising that I would lose a few pounds!  If only it worked that way.  Anyway, I think these little stick figures were cute.

This was done after a day of weeding my garden in the hot, hot sun.  It seemed like I would never get ahead of the weeds.  I think they were growing back as soon as I moved to another spot.

 This was after I saw a picture of a cat and dog and I thought, "I can draw that."  Hence the question mark after the word "cat".  I think the dog turned out okay.

 Now I am getting my Zentagle on.  This site http://tanglepatterns.com/category/a-tangleshttp://tanglepatterns.com/category/a-tangles has a list of wonderful patterns and tutorials on how to do them.  These are examples of my practicing.  The page on the right has a few more drawings.  I saw a card with the little girl with the jump rope and it inspired me to try it.  The other little lady with the flower was inspired from a journal page that I found on the Internet.  For the life of me, I can't find the page to give credit.

So now I have my steno pad that has my pencil drawings.  I vintaged it up a bit by spilling my coffee all over it.(Insert sheepish grin here)  More Pics of the same style of little girl and Zentangle patterns.

 

More pattern playing. 

This was done after the coffee was spilled and explains the reason for the spill.  I was mad at my daughter and got up in a huff and knocked over the remainder of my coffee. 

This was my very first attempt at Zentagling.  The next few pictures are the first pages in my official Art Journal.

This is hard to read but it says "In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt"  I like that since I do a lot of gardening in the spring.

I don't have anything on this page yet but I worked on the background and when I have some brilliant inspiration, I will put something on it.

Learning to doodle. That's right....I said learning.

I have been looking on-line for mixed media and altered art projects to ewwww and ahhhhh over and I saw a lot of journal books. The journals that I saw were wonderful and the people that create them are quite artistic.  As I was mesmerized by the projects that I saw, I was also intimidated.  I could NEVER do that, I have zero artistic ability.  Seriously, you don't want me as your partner in Pictionary!  I have a hard time drawing stick figures.

Then yesterday I bought this wonderful book, "Journal Bliss" by Violette.  It says to quiet your inner critic and begin by "PRACTICING" doodling by making faces, drawing borders, drawing from nature and creating flourishes.  I thought, you either new how to draw or you didn't and I knew that I didn't!  So this made me think, what the hech, I might as well try it.  I don't have to show it to anyone and if it is an epic fail, well at least I tried. The first thing I did was get a piece of paper and a pencil.  Then I sat down all excited and ready to draw...something, but what?  I was at a total loss.  I don't doodle. I had no idea where to start.  So I Googled it.  That's right, I Googled "doodling", to see what people doodle.  I am always amazed at what you can find on the internet.  I finally saw some ideas and put pencil to paper and below are the first attempts that I made.

 I know ..... not real impressive, but I was excited.  I was at least doodling!  I made two attempts at drawing a squirrel from a tutorial that I found.  You can see from the drawing below that I did not do very well with either attempt.  I did get frustrated with myself and the inner critic was screaming, "see I told you that you couldn't draw".  So I set my pencil and paper aside and decided that was enough for a first try.  Geesh, just thinking of silly things to draw and let my juices flow took it out of me.

This is my second effort at doodling.  Again, it isn't anything impressive and my son and all my nieces and nephews that have super powers when it comes to art, would scoff at me.  But for someone who couldn't even think of WHAT to doodle, much less doodle it, I am very happy.  My next move will be to add some color to the mix.  I think I now have the confidence to try some journaling. This is going to be fun.