Counting down to the New Year

I am really having some fun with this new adventure we've begun together...and honestly, I can't think of a better group of ladies to work with!  We aren't close in proximity, except for Betty and I, but we're truly kindred spirits.

For this weeks prompt, I started out by painting my background...then measured and penciled in my calendar grid....once I got it done, the rest was really quite easy for me.  I went over my grid using a white Signo broad point pen, added my lettering, my numbers and finally my snowflakes....the snowflakes were made with the Signo and a couple of Gelly roll pens...I completely forgot to take step by step pictures...it's a problem, I know, but one I'm working on...lol...so on to the pictures...

A full sized shot of the finished calendar for the month of January.  I was incredibly pleased with how this one turned out.

White lettering with pink gelly roll shadowing,

I had soooooo much fun drawing these snowflakes!  I kind of went crazy with them.

Marking New Year's Day!!!

Another shot of the snowflakes

A close-up of one of my larger snowflakes.

And there you have it!  I hope you found a little inspiration among the pictures!

Catch y'all later!!!

Holiday Season - AJ pre-launch post #4

So, I gotta tell Ya, this one was tough for me. I haven't really been feeling the usual excitement I get with the holidays. To me it's been a little more like crazy madness. What's mad about the holidays?    What's more mad than all the shopping, and trimming that must be done? This year just seemed like it was all about the crazy.  And so I came up with this!!!

Kinda crazy, right?  But think about it...what makes us the craziest about the holidays???  All the shopping and fighting to find the perfect gift, sale after sale and deal after deal, not to mention hiding the goodies from the kids and finding enough alone time to wrap ONE present, let alone the 30 something hidden thru the house.

Supplies:

Small Dylusions Journal (2 pg spread)

Modeling paste

Acrylic Craft paint

450 glue

sale clip-art from the internet

happy mail envelop cut into squares

sequins

white cardstock-1 sheet...if you do it right, you can get your snow AND your tree from it

rubber stamps - I used a cheap music stamp from Michael's and a Dyan Reavely background stamp

rhinestones

black ink pad

white chalk ink pad

white Signo pen

scissors

UHU glue stick 

tweezers

brayer

palette knife

I began by grabbing 2 shades of green craft acrylic and putting dots over half the cardstock, then blending the colors with a makeup sponge (if you haven't used a makeup sponge for paint application, I highly recommend it.

Classic Green and Thicket

Blended gives you this.....

A big green blob...lol.

Now, I set that aside to dry and moved on to the background...

Black and pool blue...as you can see, I'd already started the background when I realized I'd forgotten to get these 2 together.

Once I had the paint all over the pages, I then mixed in some modeling paste...

Blended it all together, and spread it around across the tops of the pages, to create a textured, stormy sky....

I snapped a closeup of this to show just how much texture a couple of tablespoons of modeling paste can give you...and it's fun to touch once it's dry.

Now back to that big green blob...I cut it out in a rectangle shape, folded it in half and fussy cut it to make this!

Back to the background we go, gluing down the wavy white cardstock  and then gluing down the tree.  Next comes the clip art and the "presents....

Now we're getting somewhere!!  It's really starting to look like a spread now.  So here's where I step back for a minute and take a good look at it...am I happy with the way it's coming along?  Is this going where I thought I wanted to go?  Yes?  Let's keep going, then!

Next, I started decorating my tree....

I used blue sequins for ornaments, then I went to town with a little bling...

Ok, so maybe it was a lot of bling, but hey!  I'm from Texas and there's no such thing as too much sparkle!

Next, I added the music stamp....

And then I started with the white chalk pad and dots all over....

I love this stuff!!!  But if you're gonna use it, be sure to write BEFORE you put it down, because pens don't like it!

Here's the completed spread....and I am pretty pleased with the way it turned out!  

And a close up...

All in all, it really came together quite easily once I had a plan and got going...some of the work was intuitive,  but I went into it with a plan in mind for what to use.

Hope you found this helpful...I had a lot of fun with this one, once I got going....

Catch y'all later!

Pre-Launch #3

Wow...I'm looking at the calendar as I type this and realize there's only a week and a half until Christmas. Are YOU ready???  We've gotten all but ONE of the big gifts bought...the rest can be picked up in bits and pieces as they're found...

But!  That's not why I'm here today...no, I'm here to share with you my take on the Pre-Launch #3 prompt, Winter Wonderland.

the full view of my 2 page spread...

A close up of one side...

And a close up of the other side...

Keep in mind, please....you do NOT have to create a 2 page spread every time you do a prompt, or any kind of work in your journal...it's a personal preference thing...there are no rules other than being true to yourself.

Supplies used:

Acrylic paints

Stickles

Liquid pearls

Cardstock

Inka Gold

Scissors 

UHU glue stick

450 glue

Stabillo Marks all pencil 

White uniball Signo pen

The order in which I did this stuff may not be true to how I actually did it, and I forgot...again...to take pictures as I went...I'm sorry.I'm still trying to get used to blogging with an instructional mindset...

I painted the background first, then cut and laid down the white cardstock to make my snow drifts.

The trees are plain white cardstock, painted with 2 shades of green using a makeup sponge, then folded and fussy cut on an angle to create a tree once it was unfolded...super simple, really.

Once I got the trees into place, and glued down using my 450, I went to work on decorating them...Stickles and Liquid Pearls were my weapons of choice here, and like everything else down here in Texas, there's no such thing as too much...I loaded those trees up!  I believe the best looking trees are the ones that look like they could collapse under the weight of their ornaments.

Once the Stickles and Liquid Pearls were dry, I went around the trees and snow drifts with my marks all pencil, then used a waterbrush on the marks...a little depth, tho if I'm honest, I suck at that part...lol.

Next came, for me anyways, the MOST fun part...MAKING SNOWFLAKES!!!!!  Yes, I do have a thing for snowflakes, just in case you didn't "snow" that by looking at the background.  Using my white, Uniball Signo broad tip pen, I made snowflakes all over the blue sky, as if it were still snowing there.

Then, feeling as tho my trees were still lacking somewhat, I made little white dots all over them around and between the ornaments...call it snow, call them lights...whatever...it worked.

I also used the crystal Stickles on the snow drifts...all along the edge to give it a little "shimmer".  Once I was sure everything was good and dry, I took some Inka Gold in Silver, and using my finger tip, lightly swiped some across the page, to resemble blowing snow.  At least, that was the idea behind it when I did it...lol

And there you have it...Winter Wonderland for Artful Journeys!  Hope you enjoyed reading about my process!

New Journal and a releasing of old baggage

Anyone that knows me well, knows that I am fiercely loyal to my family and friends...and I take it very personally when people do things to hurt or cause problems for them...so I'd been having a rough time over the last week and a half or so due to the actions of other individuals, and had really let it get under my skin.(imagine Tommy Boy with the roll after Richard hits him across the face with the 2x4)  Problem was, it was bleeding over everywhere and I was staying angry about it all the time...So, I thought a little retail therapy and a lot of journaling would help...and I ended up with another small Dylusions journal, that I spent the next 48 hours glaring at because my muse was silent...actually, that's not true...she was telling me how she couldn't work while I was still so angry.  So, I typed everything up and tucked it into an envelope, which I then sealed and taped into my daily art journal, then made the conscious decision to let that shit go...well, it worked!  I got inspired...sort of...ok, that's bullshit...I forced myself to put paint on paper...and slowly but surely something emerged out of the ugly...

Restoration - the word was provided to me by my oldest daughter, understanding what I was trying to express yet couldn't articulate!  She knows me too well, that one does...lol

 Inspired by the success of that spread, and a cute little card made by one friend, and sent to me by another friend, I went to work on the next spread...a little over 2 hours later (that includes my drying time), this is what I had wrought....

Acrylic paints and inks along with scraps of paper, and that cute little frog by Betty Guffey Richardson, and I was thrilled with the result...Isn't he just adorable.  And just in case you can't read the text, it says..."He wasn't a prince until he kissed me"

So I guess what I'm trying to tell you is this....

if you're having trouble creating, ask yourself what negative thing you're holding onto...then let it go...and see what happens!

Later, y'all!

Pre-Launch Prompt #2

I have to say, I am so glad I thought to bring my laptop with me on our weekend jaunt to Oklahoma...I can't even imagine trying to do a blog post from my phone or tablet..lol.

So, this week's prompt is to catalog our paints/markers/pencils/etc.  Well, I'll just be straight up honest with ya, right now...I didn't do all of them.  I have 3 sets of colored pencils, and pastels that I did NOT even touch for this prompt!!!  And, I am pretty sure that I missed quite a few bottles of paint, as well...lol.  Also, I didn't get all OCD about this...I've seen some color catalogs, broken down into Brands, colors and all the grids of color nice and neat and uniform.  Yeah...I did NOT to that...but I did catalog most of the paints and ALL of my Tim Holtz distress markers...I figured that was a good enough start...lol

My Tim Holtz markers...some of them need to be replaced as they don't get used much, because if I decide to add something to a page later, that shit is gonna go slip sliding all over the place!

Now for the paints...

There are more...and I have acquired more since I made these charts, which I have added to the list there...but no picture! Sorry!

So there you have it...I am not loyal to one brand or another...I am not worried about perfectly aligned boxes of color, or anything like that...I just can't!  This prompt was hard for me, because I don't like quite a few of the colors I have, but I keep them in case I need to use them...although, I have to admit, I would rather have pink grass in a pic, than use a green that actually looks like grass.  It's just me.  I didn't sort out the paints by brand, because that is NOT how I have them sorted at home...they're sorted by color - pinks/teals/aquas/blues/reds/purples/others...it's what works for me...might not work for you...and that's OK!

Hope to see what you decide to do with your colors...until next time...

Happy Arting!

December!!

Well, December is here, as is the cold and wind in North Texas!

Our joint venture, Artful Journeys is up and running and seeming to do well, which for one, I am grateful.  I'm hoping to see our numbers climb as we progress...

So, I have decided to do a December Daily type thing this year...although I will probably just include it in my daily art journal, simply because working in more than one journal is just too distracting for me.  And to have THREE going at the same time means something will get ignored.  It's just how shit works in my house...what can I say?

So, every post relating to December Daily will have a tag added to it, so that it's easy to find, but that's about where the total separation is gonna end...lol.

So really, this post is just a quick intro, and I will be adding more soon...thanks for popping in...now...go create something beautiful and delicious!