Friday, September 28, 2012

Is there anything more beautiful than a cat?

I don't think so. Not even George Clooney can hold a candle to this gorgeous furball. He's a Friends of Felines Rescue Center cat. You can see him on their 24 hour Cam over at Ustream, along with his house mates and the volunteers that work there.

My intent was to make this a beautiful page for a beautiful cat, but I got carried away! I think it was the pink and black. Or maybe it was the dots. Or the fact that my white journaling pen just kind of disappeared into the Dylusions Ink. I knew it would fade but...wth? I had to use a Bic Wite-Out pen on the words you CAN read.

Doodling is fun, and once you get into the "zone" you can go for hours without realizing it, but I have a problem with patience and I get sloppy. I wanted the words to be artistic but I was lazy. I'm a total disgrace to the lettering classes I've taken from Joanne.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Inspired by...Joanne Sharpe

I'm signed up for another fun class with Joanne Sharpe that starts this month. She's such an amazing person and loves what she does so much that her enthusiasm is contagious. I thought this would be the perfect time for a repost.

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Do you know Joanne? If not, you should! She's been published in Art Journaling, Somerset Studios, Cloth Paper Scissors, and more! I've seen her work often and marveled at what she can do with letters, so when I saw her online class I signed up on the spot! One of the students in class named Joanne the Queen of Lettering, and rightly so. She definitely knows her stuff and even better...she knows how to teach it! I think everyone that started in February is pretty close to being done but they're still very active! The enthusiasm is amazing!

I'm only on Lesson 6 but look what she has me doing already! And I know what's up ahead so I'm definitely looking forward to it!





There's a ton of comraderie and laughter in this group, and you can join the fun by signing up at Letter Love. Classes are only $35 and so worth it! I really can't wait to do the next lesson! I'm just so slow and so easily distracted...but there's no rush because everything will be available to me FOREVER! For $35 I have total access to every lesson and every video forever. So I can take my time and REALLY enjoy the class. --originally posted 3/4/12

Monday, September 24, 2012

This is one of my "don't know if it's finished or not" pages. I like it. It has a lot of stamping, and color, and a beautiful vintage lady. No journaling, but then I don't really journal an awful lot. I get more out of making the page than writing about it, or whatever I was thinking at the time. Sometimes there will be journaling underneath everything else but that's rare.

I know my pictures are not coming out clearly and I apologize. I think I hit the wrong button somewhere and I'm trying to backtrack to find it. Boy, just when I thought I was doing so good.. Have a Happy Monday! Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Whimsical Workspaces

I was just catching up on some online posts and read one from Rhomany about a workspace class she's conducting in October. I love workspaces. I love looking at workspaces. I love being in workspaces. I love MY workspace! But you know what? It's kind of a mix between scrapper and art journaler...lots of stuff around that I'm not using right now, making it hard to find the stuff that I DO use! So I signed up and I can't wait to begin!

I didn't hesitate about this one either because Rhomany is offering a "Pay as you can" price. What?! O.M.G. What a neat idea! Maybe I don't need this class, maybe my space is highly functional as it is, or as it's going to get, but I don't know that for sure, and for the whopping price of $8 I'm going to find out! Eight dollars! Sorry, but I just have to say O.M.G. one more time. O.M.G!

I just wanted to share that.

Check it out at Whimsical Workspaces

Friday, September 21, 2012

Peace

I seem to be doing a lot of pages lately with ladies, and a lot of pages with Dylusions Ink Spray for the background. Lovin' that stuff! As usual the background here is Dylusions but the stamps are Tim Holtz. The beautiful rose stencil is from Plaid. My lady is a magazine cutout and I have a ton of them! Not to mention the freebies I pick up here and there on the internet.

This is one of my favorite pages because of the color explosion. I just love it! (Maybe you can see it better if you click on the picture) It's so hard for someone like me to break out of her box, but these beautiful inks certainly do help!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful week-end!

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Inspired by...Christy Sobolewski

About two years ago I found Gulfsprite's journal flips on YouTube and I was mesmerized.  Not only did she have a LOT of journals, but she was putting up videos of OLD journals and shared the progression in her art from 2008 to 2010.   I could see that she wasn't afraid to show the bad days when the art didn't work for her and not everything came out pretty!  That stuck with me...not everything was "pretty".  Her own words.    It was only natural that I jumped at the chance to take an online class from her.  Yes!

I joined her very first session of 30 Days of Art Journaling and got a whole lot more than I bargained for.  I've taken a lot of online classes and Christy's has to be one of the best out there.  I loved every minute of it!  I made some unbelievable pages under Christy's tutelage, and it wasn't all that hard.  I just did what she told me to do, which is pretty much the key, right?  Do what the teacher says....if you can understand it.  I had no problem understanding because Christy's a damn good teacher and she isn't afraid to share all that knowledge.  The daily videos didn't hurt either, being able to watch Christy creating a page in her journal every day was awesome.

This page of flowers is one I learned from Christy and I have to be honest with you...I thought I did one hell of a good job!  It didn't look exactly like Christy's page but it was close enough for me and I was one happy girl!  I did it!  I painted a background and then I painted flowers on top of it!  Me!  I painted!  Whooohooo!  Damn, that was a good day; I'll never forget it!

I remember Christy was working on drawing faces at that time, too.  Now that she's accomplished at that as well, she also teaches it along with several other classes.  She has a great Facebook Group that shares their art and their knowledge without hesitation.  This is a private group and you must request to join.

Christy's Website Gulfsprite
Facebook Group Art Geeks
YouTube Christy Sobolewski


 


 

Friday, September 14, 2012

On this page I used a digital stamp from The Octopode Factory on Etsy. I absolutely adore the Octopode stamps! You can also get these in good old fashion rubber but I don't think they're available in the U.S. so I use the digitals. Depending on what you're doing and how elaborate you want your piece to be, fussy cutting is definitely required. The two elements on this page were easy to cut out, but I did another page last night using a good number of digitals and boy, I was cutting forever! But I really enjoyed putting the page together and that's what counts. (Can't wait to show it to you but I'm getting way ahead of myself!)

SO! Background by Dylusions! Lots of miscellaneous stamps here. The three colored mushrooms are from a magazine ad. I didn't add color to my girl because she's different from all other things, and although she can fit in easily with nature, she has a hard time elsewhere. She knows she's different, she can feel it on the inside, but people won't leave her alone to be who she is. Everyone wants her to be something else. Journaling to this effect was added after photo.

The Octopode Factory Blog

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Inspired by...Art Journaling for Women

"Art Journaling is yours, it's personal to you, and here we have a safe place to share!" ~Lesley Regan Ratcliff~

Art Journaling for Women is a free Facebook Group where you can share your work, find some inspiration, support others, and know that you're among people of a like mind. This is a group of several hundred art journalers from all around the world. Every day there's more eye candy to look at and ooh and aah over. I'm always fascinated by the work of others, and this is probably the best place I've found where everyone is welcome to post their work. I enjoy the posts and I love the inspiration I get from other journalers. Especially when everyone is down to earth and super into having fun and supporting each other.

You should stop by and check it out. It's a private group so you'll have to ask to join if you're interested, but who wouldn't be?

Page done 10/2011 with Adirondack Color Wash and Stencils

Monday, September 10, 2012

When God closes a door...

Here's a simple page made with Dylusions Ink Spray and miscellaneous stamps. This was so easy to make! I'm loving the Dylusions Ink Sprays! The colors are vibrant and they're easy to work with! They're quite magical to be honest.

What saying would you think of if you saw a picture of a closed door? This is the one that always comes to mind for me, but somewhere along the way, some wise person (or smart ass, depending on your point of view), decided there was more to it. The wise person in this case, I believe was my late sister. She always chose her words so well, especially when she wanted to get a point across.

If you have a few closed doors in your life, maybe you should give them another look..

Friday, September 7, 2012

Isn't she cute? She's a Gorjuss stamp and her name is Ruby. There are so many cute stamps out there, and try as you might, you're going to get hooked on one of them! I have four Gorjuss stamps and I'm pretty sure there will be more.

Ruby helped save a page that I hated. I don't remember what was on the page before, but I'm pretty sure it was done with Ranger Color Wash, and I covered it up with Pan Pastels. I really like the pan pastels, haven't learned how to use them very well but they sure do cover a multitude of sins. The only problem is when you mix two mediums together like that, you sometimes end up with a funky color. I did this a while ago so I don't remember what colors I used exactly, but when I sprayed the hearts/flowers stencil (color wash on pan pastel)...they came out green. Ew. So I took some gesso and painted over the green...they turned blue. Oh. But it was okay! I was totally "good with it". Even after I put the border down the center of the page, I was good with it.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Inspired by...Donna Downey

Donna Downey has this thing that she does on Wednesdays and I'm pretty much addicted to it. She calls it Inspiration Wednesday. Each week, on Wednesday, (just in case you didn't pick that up the first two times), she produces a YouTube video while creating in her journal. You know what? It's fun!

I love to watch as Donna talks to herself us and describes what she intends to do, or not. Sometimes she has a plan, sometimes she just wings it, but she always makes an outstanding journal page! She's down to earth and honest about what she's doing, even admitting it when she doesn't have a clue. She's very entertaining and I love her thought process.

But more than that, I find Donna to be very inspiring. As accomplished as she is, there are days that she just doesn't "feel it". I've watched her talk herself through these times, quite often putting the brush down and stepping away to think about it. What she always ends up with though, is a piece that she's "good with". OMG, what a concept!! Video after video I've heard her say "I'm good with that" or "Yeah, I like that", or even "I think it's done now". OMG! I really don't think I've ever heard words like "awesome", "beautiful", "gorgeous", or even "brilliant", (although there are times that Donna Downey is extremely brilliant).

I know that every time I open a journal, I don't have to create a Rembrandt. I don't have to try and please someone else, I just need to please myself. But it's hard to practice that when you expect too much of yourself. I think we all do that to some degree because we want to push ourselves and accomplish more. But for me, being 'good with it' is good enough.

Visit Donna's blog: Simply Me. Watch Donna's videos: Donna Downey Videos

This is the first article in my own version of Inspiration Wednesday. Check back each Wednesday as I share some of my favorite people with you.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Serendipity

At times I'm astounded by the creations I make. I seldom have a plan in my head of what I'm going to do and I just start making a background. When that's done I don't always know where I'm going next, but the pieces come together...slowly. This is one of those pieces. I wanted to use my Dyan Reavely border stencils so I went ahead and inked it with Forest Moss Distress Ink. That was it....the brain had nothing more to add. I was stuck with some pretty color that kind of looked like water, and a mossy green leaf border.

Don't EVER let anyone stop you from clipping pictures and saving them! Just do it, and don't throw them out! You never know when you'll need help to spark an idea, and that pile of clippings that's been sitting there for a year? It just may have the answer!

I knew she was perfect for this page as soon as I saw her. She looked like she could walk on water and I just happened to have some! Then I was stumped again until I found my birdcage stencil. Mind you, this all took about a week to come together. In the meantime, I was working on other pages, doing other things, while this page put itself together.

And that, my friends, is called serendipity. "The accident of finding something good or useful while not specifically searching for it".

Background done with Dylusions Ink Spray and Luscious Leaves stencil border. Miscellaneous stamps.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

A new beginning...

Happy September to you and happy art journaling day to me! Today, I plan on playing with some Dylusional Ink and making a fun two page spread in my composition book- turned journal. I've found that my comp books don't scare me like the hard cover journals...I'm not afraid to just let go and let the paint (or ink) fly! I normally use Strathmore spiral bound journals, but I bought a couple hard cover books and everytime I open one of them, I freeze up. Using the comp book was a quick fix because it was "there", and now I'm having some fun. I'm hoping I'll get so relaxed that I can move on to the hard cover journals without bursting into tears. :-)

Before I start playing with something new, I want to share this page with you that was totally inspired by Kathy at the Paper Pumpkin.

When working with a comp book, I like to first glue a couple pages together to give them a bit more body, and then apply a coat of gesso to the top of the page. Comp book paper is smooth and doesn't have any "teeth" for the ink/paint to hold onto. Without it, Dylusional Inks just sink into the paper rather than mix together and blend as you want them to. You can watch Dyan Reavely's videos for some great demonstrations on how to use her ink sprays. She's fabulous and so much fun!

The background is a combination of stamps and stencils that I use most often, and then I stenciled the flowers in the foreground with a black Micron. Once I filled in the color with Prisma pencils, I outlined them again with ink and black marker to make them pop. My beautiful vintage lady is a print that I picked up at Pringle Hill. I outlined her with black marker as well so she wouldn't just blend into the background.

All in all, I was really quite pleased with the end result, and very happy with the inspiration from the Paper Pumpkin!