Favorite things

One of my favorite ways to journal is to prepare the pages for journaling later. And then when I'm ready, I write in the empty spaces. Here's one of my favorite pages created this time of year.

I just painted the background and then glued scraps from my art table!

Are we having fun yet?

It's been a very busy October at work, so not much downtime for journaling. I was inspired by one of my students, Beth, to get a-crack-a-lackin' and express myself! I was actually working on a "have fun/party" theme, but kept hearing the circus tune from several of my friends and co-workers. When it is so hectic, I tend to tease my co-workers, too, by saying "are we having fun yet?" So all this clicked yesterday and the pages evolved to express what you see here. I love when that happens! Are you having fun yet?

Cone Flower Pages

I had a week off for vacation, so my creative juices were flowing. I took the layered pages (shown below) and finished them with a cone flower theme. My Mom always had gorgeous cone flowers in her garden and I just loved the color and shape of them. I went to a yard sale yesterday and got one of these cards, so then the rest just came together as shown! Thanks, LuAnn, for the card as my inspiration! For the other page, I used Kelly Rae Roberts' technique of painting on top and letting the paper show thru. I probably applied a bit too much paint, but wanted the bold colors of the flowers. Try it yourself - it's fun!

Enjoying the Summer

I hope you're enjoying the summer. I've found it challenging to accommodate everyone's availability when setting up workshop dates, so I'm trying something new. Please contact me with a date that will work for you and I will teach the workshop when YOU are available! Thanks -- and enjoy the beautiful summer!

Art Journaling Workshop

Thanks to Diane and Heather, we had a great art journaling workshop on Saturday, May 30. It was great to see the progress both of them made in their journals and their creative expression. Diane brought along a Kelly Rae Roberts book with a technique for creating a background with writing papers and then using a brayer to add layers of paint. Here's my first layer.. later I'll add to the pages.

Happy Memorial Day

Holidays make me think of family -- and then I miss my Mom. So.. I scanned a spread from the memory journal I made her. Memorial Day always meant opening up the pool -- so here's a photo of my daughter, who had some help from my Mom to look like "Miss America." The other photo was taken at Inner Harbor with one of my mom's favorite sayings! (Lauren, age 3, with Mom)

Geraniums

Every May I put geraniums in pots on my hot, sunny deck. Here are my journal pages. I love the simplicity of these! Enjoy!

Happy Mother's Day

A spread in the memory journal I made for my Mom.

More yellow..inspired by the roses and springtime!

I was working on some yellow pages before I received the yellow roses, so I guess one inspired the other. Look closely for the journaling I added.

workshop today!

Thanks to Jami, Skie, Marion, Shelby, Nicole, and Rachel for a great workshop! You were all natural journalers from the beginning! Amazing to see all your pages. Keep up the journaling!

Life overcrowded?

This is part of my "balance" journal. Although the pages are a bit more "planned" than I usually do, I wanted to high-light this quote. So the pages were inspired by the quote to not do "too much" on these pages. There are lots of layers of thin paper you may not see, but I love the texture and color combinations. I also know that I won't lose this quote - because here it is, in my journal! I felt compelled to use the bee - BE yourself, B for Betsy, busy as a BEE. Still striving to bring a new look and feel to my journaling. In progress...

Hope Yellow Roses

Jay got me these roses over a week ago and they keep getting more and more beautiful!

Easter Eggs

It's that time of year! Yeah! I get to dye eggs!! This year I used beets, spinach, oranges and red onion skins to create my own non-toxic, organic egg dyes. You'll see them pictured here. The spinach and orange eggs didn't look colorful enough for me so I cheated and put them in some Paas blue egg dye (oh, well!). The spinach ones turned a wonderful spotted color after I put them in the blue dye! Don't you just love it? Happy Easter!

Round Robin Aqua book completed

I wanted to share my completed Aqua book- 10 fabulous artists each contributed a page to the book, while I completed a page for each of their books. You'll see the artist's name credited under the page she created. Click on the flickr boxes (Below right) to see the pages I created for them.

Cover by Betsy

Tags from the Artists(L); "Home page" (R)

My page (L); Linda Manning Findley (R)

Linda Manning Findley (L); Linda Kunsman (R)

Linda Kunsman (L); Karen Ouellette (R)

Karen Ouellette (L); CindyMcMath (R)

Cindy McMath (L); Debby Harriettha (R)


Debby Harriettha (L); Christine Shebroe (R)

Christine Shebroe (L); Caryl Hoobler (R)

Caryl Hoobler (L); Pam Barnes (R)

Pam Barnes (L); Sanna Burgess (R)

Sanna Burgess (L); Artists Tags (R)

Yoga Page

My next journal is based on a "Balance" theme, something that I am working on in my life. I thought I'd share a page completed. These are larger pages, so it takes a bit more time and thought, but it is a nice balance of thinking and non-thinking. Very relaxing and rewarding. Enjoy!

Spring wreath

Today was the day to clean up old leaves and dead branches in the yard - and bring out my Spring wreath. I pulled the wreath from its box, only to remember that all the decorations had fallen apart, been picked off by our neighborhood bird (that nests in our tree every Spring), or knocked off by people going in and out. Off to Michaels to shop for new decorations! Yeah - I love shopping in craft stores! I bought a handful of picks, foam eggs, birds nests, and a cute bird - and hot glued everything in place. Looks great and spring-y on my red door, don't you think?

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.