New center piece

I have a metal box as a centerpiece on my dining room table.  It is so fun to decorate for every season.  Here's this season's creation!

Gotta love stenciling

Here's a group of art journalers just stenciling away! I love it!

Art Journaling Workshop at Walking Winds,  Nov 17

Join us in January at Walking Winds!

Glue Journal: Fall Colors and Sunflowers

Here's my glue journal again.  I went back to the scrap paper box and selected the butterfly paper leftover from the debris journal page.  It seemed to inspire me to use fall colors. The sunflower pages were created with strips of paper glued together in a grid.  These aren't my favorite, but I wanted to try gluing strips of paper to fill the space, like a quilt or mosaic. I still like tearing, so the second page includes a torn piece.

Linking to Artsyville's Glue It Tuesday.

Debris Journal - Heart, Head, Hands

Here's my spread to "define myself as I would like to be" as inspired from my Divine Contract workshop.  Some cardboard tracing, cutting and tearing-- SO fun! Then collage with paper scraps found on my desk. The tea bag tag on my desk was perfect: "Your head must bow to your heart". There's journaling underneath the flap, too! Used paint and then a bit of red pastel for accents.

Linking to Artsyville's Glue It Tuesday."Debris Journal" inspired by Michelle Ward. Check out her blog for more.

Debris Journal - Love and Joy

Here's my joyful page of cutting cardboard, painting and stenciling. My Muse was with me on this one!

Debris Journal - close up

From Michelle Ward's workshop: Here's a closeup of my debris journal. Shows the layers of cardboard that were cut, folded back and glued down.  The holes were made with a push pin. Then gesso before painting, and finally journaling. More to come. . .

Glue Journal - Fashion spread

Here's the rest of the fashion spread.  My inspiration for this page was "putting together an outfit".  First the dress, then the shoes, bag, etc. I liked Hanna's suggestion of making "style" pages, but I didn't find enough to cut out for that.  I'll be on the lookout for future pages though. Happy GIT!

Linking to Artsyville's Glue It Tuesday.

I attended CREATE NJ this weekend for two great workshops.  First, "Debris Journal" by Michelle Ward.  Here's a sneak preview.  I'll be working on this journal over the next few weeks. Check out her blog for more.

I also enjoyed Joanne Sharpe's "Artful Lettering from A to Z" class.  I've always enjoyed both lettering and watercolors so it was fun to return to something I used to do. Here's also a preview of what I've started.

Glue journal - Fashion

My daughter gave me a pile of fashion magazines so I went thru them looking for ideas to cut and paste! I started out with the face and then found the black and white zebra designs (My daughter likes this print).  Then I found the diamond pattern pants and nails!  Just a fun quick page that reminds me of my daughter. I'm working on the spread which I'll share soon.

Linking to Artsyville's Glue It Tuesday.

Glue Journal continues

I continued the Blue theme onto the page across from my blue bird page. I started this one differently, layering and layering until the poppy image with red mulberry paper ended on top.  Once again, I covered layers of magazine page pieces with found papers in my scrap box. (If you look closely, you'll see a bicycle.) I'm really loving the simplicity of this!

I had an evening of quiet time, so completed the Zen spread next.  All pieces were from my scrap box or saved magazine pages.  The rose is a transparency, which now has found a new home. I like placing transparencies over text papers to see the layers underneath.

Linking to Artsyville's Glue It Tuesday.

Glue Journal - Blue

Back to the scrap box!  I had a feeling of blue come over me and then I opened my Smash book to some blue pages.  So, I started gathering, layering and pasting blue pieces together. I then cut out the bird for on top.  The bottom right paper was a piece of scrapbook paper that I painted over - again found in my scrap pile.

Linking to Artsyville's Glue It Tuesday.

Glue Journal - Pink

I'm continuing the practice of gluing paper scraps into my Smash journal. So, this week, I took a gelli print I had hanging around and then found pieces of pink to create a collage.  It came together very quickly. I just layered pieces to coordinate with the gelli print.  Then I noticed that the page also coordinates with the Red page because I repeated the "frond" in the print and some of the same colors. I really love the simplicity of using up my old scraps that never found a home.

Linking to Artsyville's Glue It Tuesday.

Glue Journal - Red

Once again, I sat down with my paper scrap pile and Smash book.  (This is becoming a fun challenge.) These were all scraps -- the old text sheet was painted with a white-wash that I never used.  The French newspaper came from my friend, Linda.  The red paper in the lower left was made by me.  I took red craft paper and stamped with a cherry blossom rubber stamp dipped in bleach; then I added squishes of gold metallic acrylic paint.  I always liked this paper, so there was a scrap to include here. The frond was an experiment when I took Michelle Ward's Frond Chronicles class.  We cut our own stencils...so instead of stenciling I traced the stencil onto scrapbook paper and cut out a beautiful frond.  It didn't work at the time, but found a home here.  Read more here.

Thanks for visiting, and thanks for including me in the Glue It Tuesday fun!

Linking to Artsyville's Glue It Tuesday.

Glue Journal - Eggs

The shape of last week's avocado inspired me to duplicate that shape with the egg.  The nest image, one of my favorites, was in my paper pile, started the inspiration.  The piece at top is a scrap of beautiful printed vellum. I love taking all the leftover scraps and giving them a new home!
Linking to Artsyville's Glue It Tuesday.

I want to share a spread in my Glue/Smash Journal.  The background papers were already there, but they reminded me of summer patio lights.  I was saving this container-gardening magazine page (because I want a patio like that), so I tore it in half and glued it here.  Every time I look at it, I'm transported to a summer night with patio lights, warm breezes, and lots of green plants.

A card-making day

I had some fun making cards today --- a get well card and baby card. The bird images are from ArtChix Studio and the bunny was stamped, embossed and painted with Radiant pearls. It's my signature card for babies! I forgot how much fun this is -- when I have time!

Glue Journal - Avocado

I found this lovely avocado in a magazine, but the caption was what inspired me: "Avocados are proof that nature loves us". So I was thinking about dear Mother Nature when I found pieces of green in my paper pile and this was the result. I guess there's more tearing than cutting, but it's definitely glued.
Linking to Artsyville's Glue It Tuesday.

Glue Journal - Pink

Here's my latest glue project for Artsyville's "Glue It Tuesday".  I worked with some color copies from previous journal pages and layered some Japanese writing tissue paper and printed vellum.  I've always loved the coneflower image -- so now it has a home!

Glue journal - Tea Time

Here's another attempt at cutting and pasting into my glue journal.  This was inspired by a tea pot in a magazine and thinking about "tea time". I cut the watch out of a Fossil catalog last Christmas (and Santa delivered it!) to add to the page. I made it in time for Artsyville's "Glue It Tuesday". It was relaxing to simply cut out shapes and glue to the page!

Writing quotes

We're all loving the warm spring, sunny weather.  So you may notice the warm sunny colors and the fact that I took this photo right on the deck! Since work is the busiest time of year for me, I struggle to spend a few hours a week on my art journaling. I wrote some quotes directly in my journal, again inspired by my Divine Contract class I am taking. These were written pretty quickly, but I'd like to take more time doing some lettering.

I love using rubber stamp alphabet sets, but wanted to try something different. I've always enjoyed typography and lettering but just haven't done it in a while. So I will be practicing up on my lettering, but for now, I could complete this for the weekend.

Glue journal

My new Smash journal will be used as a glue book.  Just cut and paste and glue! Sounds so simple to simply cut, paste and glue.  I've been cutting and pasting all my life. There are times at work that people are amazed I can actually make a small sketch or cut and paste pieces together without doing it "on the computer".  Oh well, we all have our special talents!

I have been intrigued by Artsyville's "Glue It Tuesday", so here is my first attempt.  It's just a start, but I had this photo and didn't want to lose it, so this started my first page.  Thanks, Maggie, for the inspiration!

Journaling with words

I've seen quite a few blogs and workshops lately focused on words when journaling. I have an entire journal dedicated to words, in fact the name of the journal is the Balance journal.  As usually happens,  it took me through a situation in my life where I was trying to do just that - balance my day job time with my artwork time.  My current journal also reflects what is going on in my life right now and is much influenced by a class I am taking.  The Universe is sending me all kinds of signals that I am acutely aware of.  All these signs are helping with my "homework".

One of my signs is a daily song that I receive every morning.  For many days the same song was coming to me so I decided to journal about it. It took me several days to really "get it" and put the lyrics to use. All the lyrics are written on the right page below. I also talked to three friends who got the "ah-ha" moment when I mentioned the words to this song as an example of what they were going thru.

I reminds me to face my fears and SHINE, rather than hiding behind the fears that keep me from moving forward.  Another sign was finding the Kelly Rae Roberts eBook, Flying Lessons, which asks similar questions as in my class. I am finding synchronicity everywhere these days, as mentioned in an earlier "beautiful" post.

This quote was in Kelly's book and again, I decided to create journal pages to highlight the message for me.

I am also experimenting with white pens, to find the ones I like best. So, hopefully, you can read this and ask yourself what makes you come alive! Let me know your fav white pen and what brings you alive! Happy journaling!

Red Rock Canyon

I had an amazing experience of biking thru the Red Rock Canyon.  At first, I was surprised to learn the first 5 miles went uphill. I gave it a try and then decided to ride in the van because my legs were shaking! I rode about a mile in the van and then got out to bike again.  Went further this time but rested again when the climb was really steep.  When the van reached the peak, I got out and rode the rest of the 10 miles.  Most of it was downhill but there was a "wall" and then another crazy hill.  I rode for about 6 miles without seeing another biker or the van. I was totally alone out among the rocks!  Finally I spotted a traffic jam of cars and rode closer to see 6 burros by the road --  Just standing there having a good time.  I rode on and finally spotted some bikers and a van way down the hill.  There was the group of bikers! We waited about 15 minutes for the final rider and the backup van to appear. I may not have rode the whole 15 miles (since I sat in the van for two-three miles), but I made it to the end! Yay!

A doodle a day...

This week was a very busy work week that prevented me from blogging.  Here's the "Doodle a Day" page from the doodle book.  Since I doodle directly in the Art, Doodle, Love book, my book, pens and pencil are all I need to get in a little meditative-doodling time.  You'll see influences from Zentangle here as I love the repetitious patterns. It has a calming effect.

I also worked on this during Holy Week, tried a new weekly page approach.  It was fun to do and fun to fill in each day. I prepared the page by painting the border then filling in with an alternating grid of orange and purple.  I stamped the numbers and the eggs as fun borders. I completed it by doodling in the border area more with a white gel marker. (started here)

Hope you had a wonderful Easter holiday!

This year's eggs

My Easter traditional is to dye "onion skin" eggs.  My grandmother and mother did this every year. I start saving the skins in February until I can fill a pot with them.  Us red or yellow onions, or a mixture, it doesn't matter. Just boil, allow to sit after turning off the heat and this is what you get.  When cooled, rub them with a little oil to make them shine!

A new tradition is trying a different way each year to take the photo. So I went for a Zen-look this year.

Another family tradition is to "Box" eggs at Easter dinner.  Each person chooses an egg. Then one person holds his/her egg while the other person hits the egg from top.  The egg that doesn't crack is the "winner"! Enjoy your Easter!

Doodle book

I got the Art Doodle Love book by Dawn Devries Sokol and started the first page - the intention page.  I did some wonky doodles on the color already on the page. Then I started using some lettering doodles within my writing.  What fun!  Give it a try.  I look forward to doing more.

"Beautiful" pages

Today I finished the other side of the yummy background colors page.  This week I got a tea bag fortune that read "There is beauty in your presence".  Then Jay came home from a long week and called me "Beautiful" all weekend.  When I was in my studio today the "Beautiful" song was playing from a Glee CD.  So this is the result of my mind playing this scenario. I added gesso and oil pastel around a hand-cut heart stencil then glued strips of Japanese newspaper.  As I was working, the blue paint strip fell off the shelf so I wrote the lyrics to the Beautiful song right on it.  The ink ran a little but I added some turquoise and liked the effect.  Everything was so filled with synchronicity today!
I also have to say, I love working with these spray inks on a wet page, you get wonderful results like the blue burst in the right corner.

Yummy colors

I'm delighted that I had energy the other night after work to play with some brand new spray inks.  I'll finish the other side and share soon, I hope!
These are Dylusions London Blue, Turquoise and Fresh Lime. I love using Japanese newspapers, too.

Experimenting with the gelli plate

Here are my first experiments with the gelli plate.  Since I tend to like a simple, "less is more" design, I felt it was more interesting to crop the prints looking for an interesting focus.  There will most definitely be more experimenting!

Fossil ferns

I got out my poly paper and started cutting some stencils and masks, as we learned in Michelle Ward's Frond Chronicles class.  I wanted an old, fossil look here.  Gesso pages first, then add layers of paint and stencils, blotting some color after spraying with water.  Then stencil using a dry brush.  I added pieces of an old farmer's almanac as the finishing touch! Have fun!

Passion for Pink.. and hearts!

You all know my passion for pink and for hearts... so this time of year, I had to play with pink...

It was just fun to play without a real concern for the final product. I just love these colors.

Found a dear old friend

A dear friend from my Cedar Crest days has found me!  So I dedicate these pages and inspiration to her! Thanks, Jo!

You can visit her blog too!

The left page was hanging around a while, so I quickly got some color down on the right a few days ago -- paint spread with a card, some spraying thru circle templates, some glaze. The layers of black and stenciling happened this morning.  I also included some Turn, Turn, Turn lyrics as I played my "Feeling Groovy" playlist to remind me of younger days. I've been blocked for months and this literally happened in fifteen minutes. Hope my muse (and Jo) sticks around for a while.