She Art Class with Christy Tomlinson

I've been taking Christy Tomlinson's She Art class and I LOVE it! It's so much fun, and Christy is so entertaining and so cute to watch! She talks to her "she art" girls the way I talk to my cat.....(makes me feel right at home)! I just kicked back and watched all of the videos from beginning to end because I enjoyed them so much! On my second viewing I started to make a background, not on canvas, but on watercolor paper cut to 6"x12". I really didn't want to ruin a perfectly good $3.00 canvas :-)

I'm such a coward that it took me all week just to finish the background! Honest! I'd paint a little and leave it. Stamp and leave it. Stamp again and leave it. You'd think I was working on a life sized painting or something. What a wuss. Then I got completely carried away with the rub-ons but she's still pretty darn cute. I even gave her lots of hair and some flowers and bell bottoms, because she wanted to be a flower girl when she was younger. Hope you like her...I'm working on another one now!

Collage with Stencils

The other morning I was able to watch a little bit of Inkwell's live Ustream. As usual, she had this gorgeous collage she was working on and I couldn't stop watching! All I can say is, thank goodness I have a laptop that I can move around with me!

I wasn't happy with the way this collage had turned out, so I hid it away not knowing what else to do. But after watching Dede work with her stencils, I was totally inspired to retrieve my collage and begin experimenting. I went a little bit overboard, I think, but it was fun and it totally changed the look of the collage. Such a small thing but a great learning experience.

Travelogue Page

There's only one month left in the round robin swap I'm in at Your Paper Pantry! The months have gone by so quickly and I'll soon have my travelogue back! I can hardly wait!

This is my contribution for Dawn's book, asking us to decorate our page in the style of our favorite era.

Just a few more journal pages...

The following are two-page spreads in my little journal.

This page was worked on while watching an all day stream-a-thon on Ustream. I've published it once before in my blog, but have since made changes.




My Ode to Chocolate grew from a mess...and is still a mess...albeit a tastier one.



My page done in watercolor crayon, I love the soft look it gives.

Win Crafter's Workshop Stencil's from Journal Artista

Journal Artista aka Paula is having a contest, so to speak. All you have to do is use a stencil, any stencil, in an art journal page, add a link to her blog and there you have it! She's giving away some Crafter's Workshop Stencils, and if you've ever used a CW Stencil, you know just how neat these are! I have three of my own (yes, I said three!! lol! If you saw her Ustream video on CW Stencils you'd know why this is so funny to me), and I love them!

I picked this page to show the use of a stencil in my journal, but you know what? It's not a CW Stencil! The flowers are from a child's little stencil book and I loved how they turned out, so here it is. I might make another one using my CW Stencils just because the one Paula shows in her blog post is soooo pretty! Yep, she's quite an inspiration!


So really, if you're not familiar with Paula you need to get familiar! Join in and watch her Ustream programs every Wednesday and Saturday evening. You'll be glad you did!

I've been busy...

but I haven't scrapped a thing! I've done some art journaling though. Almost have a whole book done, another one started, and then there's the ongoing/neverending junk journal. My goodness have I learned a lot just by doing it! Over and over and over, I've watched videos on YouTube, Live Shows on UStream, I've taken this workshop and that workshop, and I never really felt like I GOT it. Really, truly, GOT IT! This person says believe in yourself, that person says just do your own thing, they all say "you're an artist because you (pick one...or two) say so, I say so, you create art, you took art classes, you drew this, you painted that". Well, guess what?

I'm NOT an artist!!

I never was and I never will be. I can't draw a thing, the only painting I ever did was by numbers, and if I were graded on all of the workshops I've taken.....ohh, a dismal failure...I can't even doodle.

But I'm having FUN trying, damn it! Yes! I like playing with paint and paper and stamps and colors and cutouts.....sounds like scrapbooking doesn't it? To me, it's very much like scrapbooking, I'm just not adding family pictures and trying to make them look pretty. Don't get me wrong, here....just because I don't consider myself an artist doesn't mean art journalers aren't artists, because most of them are. They're fabulous artists. People like Kelly Rae, Christy Tomlinson, Traci Bautista, JournalArtista, Inkwell, all fabulous Mixed Media Artists that I admire and have learned from.

Geez, my pages wouldn't hold a candle to what these women do. If a page looks good, I had a lucky day....or several days, as it takes me a while to "create" anything. The good news though, is that I'm finally seeing some improvement in what I'm doing. Maybe I'm getting it afterall because it feels like a light bulb went off, or it's the wonderful workshop of Christy Tomlinson's that I'm taking now. It's making a lot more sense to me.

More about these artisans and some of the workshops I've taken later.