My baby is 21 today!

Birds of a feather

Yes, I know.. more birds, but it's that time of year. I completed Sanna's pages for our Round Robin. Her theme was vintage sewing and songbirds; colors, red and distressed brown. I made the first page very vintage by sewing paper, lace and vellum, but page 2 I wanted to be fun, since it would be the last page in her book. I will post my completed book featuring 9 wonderful artists shortly.

Today's Journaling Workshop

We had a wonderful Journaling class today at Blick Art Materials. Thank you, RaeAnn, Susan, Rosanne and Alyssa for your enthusiasm and talent! Everyone brought a slightly different style to their journals. It was so wonderful to see. We played with pattern pieces and foreign newspapers, juicy vivid ink pads, prompts, and more. It was a joy to see everyone's individual story come out through the process of journaling. It never ceases to amaze me to see everyone's self-expression come to life.

Altered book - inside front cover

Open the cover -- and here is the inside front cover.

Altered book - covers

My altered book for Cedar Crest College is now completed! Here is the front and back cover.

Altered book - last spread

Here's the last spread of the altered board book I am creating for CCC as part of my artist-in-resident program.

I'm working on the cover and back cover - to come!

Happy New Year

As it turns out I opened a brand-new moleskin heavy-weight paper journal for 2009. (My journals rarely begin/end with the calendar year) I love these books - smooth, ivory paper that takes ink, markers and the occassional ticket or scrap of paper glued into it, and of course, a rubber stamp or two, my favorite.

The journal has reflections, thoughts, and also a list of wishes/desires for the new year. I'll share two with you: I want to learn more about making my blog more appealing and discover new ways to approach my art. Most of my energy goes into my "paper" journals, so I have to save some time for my "blog journaling". My creative issue: fight that never-ending voice in my head: "is this art appealing? am I moving forward? how do I advance beyond doing the "same thing"?"

Yesterday a student shared her journal with me. It was incredible! She took her first class with me in November and she's filled a journal already-- with her own style and own wishes/dreams/desires. Made me very happy to see her enjoy the process and hope that I helped to inspire a new love of journaling for her! Thanks for the inspiration, Rae Ann.