a new year

Happy New Year!

I know you've all been there........the desire to make art tugging at you, but life getting a bit too busy and in the way.  Couple that with a muse that just flat disappeared the last few months of last year, and I didn't get much artsy stuff done.

So, that's behind me - new year, new art commitment, new excitement to get back to my art room and get painty hands again.

Starting off the year by working in a round robin project that's been going on for a few months (the only arty thing I've done - so glad I committed to that!)

Established the border first then hunted for the right quote. Though I'm a little rusty on my lettering, it sure is fun to get back in the saddle!

week #21 for 365/2 (part 1)

May 19-25

#138 - finished working on Laurie's round robin journal pages:

Inktense pencils coloring in doodled flowers on the back of the folio.

#139 - the center spread started with ink sprays and drips, layered with colored tissue papers and topped with a napkin flower (love the translucency of those napkins!) then the writing is with a Signo white pen - "flower" in many languages.

#140 - some mail art. I found my spray inks did wonderful things when sprayed on slick cardboard and spritzed with water!  One has a cutout of one of my photos and the other has a hot glue doodle glued on.

Keeping busy here - hope you're having a creative, productive week......

My favorite part of spring in my yard is my clematis - it's gorgeous on the railing of our deck!

week 12 for 365-2 (part 1)

March 17-23 - this week I got a jump on my Documented Life page and finished up my round robin journal page. I'm finding that this 365 commitment is perfect for me. It's helping keep me focused on creating daily but flexible enough to work on anything that comes my way.  I'm loving my art so far this year....

#76 - the last spread for Peggy's round robin journal page..... a collage of gardeny images from seed catalogs and a garden book set off by a pretty floral flap - under the flap, some lettering.

#77 - Documented Life week 12 - the theme is to cut up a magazine page and ADD stuff.  I opened a magazine 'Destinations', a luxury travel magazine from work and got to cutting..... I don't usually finish my DL layout so early in the week, but it just sort of jumped onto the page..... I doodled here and there....

This is a very different type of page for me. I don't usually write personal notes in my journals, but we've had a stressful week, full of job and financial worries and it just felt right.  It's obviously weighing on my mind because the first words I noticed were Blue and Story - that's me this week. - everything on this page refers back to my worried state of mind this week.....

#78 - I hadn't done anything today; I was tired from work, stressed with personal stuff and tried to talk myself out of making art.  Then I went upstairs to check laundry, walked by the art room, went in and lo and behold, my art journal called to me.  I didn't have the interest to do something very complicated and in fact found a couple of pages that I made last year as I was playing with techniques.  I added circles and circles and circles with oil pastels, a bit of acrylic and black ink.  I'm still searching for 'peace of mind' so the circles are more indicative of how my brain is working these days.

#79 - So here's creativity in progress - :) - I spent a good part of the day figuring out my book format for my ALAW project.  Originally I was going to do a flag book but I decided it wouldn't work with my alphabet. So, back to the drawing board (literally) and some cutting and folding while I worked out how things might fit.

That's my week so far.....hope yours is going well!

week 11 of 365-2 (part 2)

Finishing my week out with this bit of creativity (Mar 10-17):

#73 - the Documented Life theme for this week is to use a bird on your page in some way - that's an easy one.....I love using birds in my art.

#74 - I've joined another round robin with the great ladies of the first journal round robin I did. This time we're just sending a single folio created on watercolor paper to be bound into some type of book when the swap is complete. My first pages are for Peggy who chose "nature" as her theme.

The starting point is a photo I took of a park in Savannah - I used acrylics over collaged text papers to extend the image.  In reality the paint colors are a bit more vibrant......

#75 - another page in Peggy's round robin journal - thought the bird and flowers carried her nature theme....

Also, finished up my letters for the ALAW "place" theme......I'm going to present them in a flag book so that's the next step.  I haven't made one before so I'm planning on making a practice one since my letters are done a bit early....

O-Oregon; P-Philadelpha; R - Rabat, Morocco; S - Suzhou China; T - Tenerife (Canary Islands); U - Utah

V - Vermont; W - Washington; X - Xian China; Y - Yellowstone; Z - New Zealand; J - Jamaica

I'm looking forward to another week of creative endeavors - and to seeing what you all are up to!

round robin art journal

I got my completed round robin journal back and it's so utterly amazing!  There were 6 of us participating, so I had the privilege of having five talented ladies make lovely art for me.  The theme for my handmade journal was Favorite Quotes and there are some old favorites as well as new-to-me quotes.

Here's a page by page browse through my journal now that it's made it home to me.

The cover I made and my theme.

This spread isn't signed but I think it's by Carroll.  It has an amazing amount of layers and the little lady on the right is adorable - those articulated arms slay me!

Most of the contributors don't have blogs so I can't link to them, but I can thank them - once again!
The one below is by Paula G. - beautiful painting

This delightful layout is by Carroll D - the stitched in painted face flips over for an extensive quote on the back and those teal pages are just a wealth of texure and color with a bit of gold sparkle. I love the dimension added here!

The teardrops and diamonds are a raised texture (gesso through a stencil maybe?) and the lettering had to be time consuming - (not signed but I think it's Leslie's)

Peggy L put together the next two pages below - this spread has 3 great quotes and is beautifully collaged.

I love the soft color, the doodles and the quotes - so many great inspirational quotes!  Thanks Peggy.

Paula also did this page of hearts.  I love that the biggest ones are loose and mobile and the quote is written inside the folded white hearts. Such a clever idea and beautifully executed!

Again, not signed (come on ladies, how do I know who to thank???) - could be Leslie or Laurie

Laurie created this colorful, textured layout and each of those hand drawn letters is cut out for an extra layer. So pretty!

The back cover I made a pocket for each lady to make a tag:

Stunning, right?  This was an amazing experience and one I'd love to do again.  The only thing to mar the pleasure is that Peggy hasn't received her journal back yet and I mailed it over a week ago.  We're a little worried it's lost in the mail somewhere which breaks my heart since I know she would love the pages that were made.  I'm still hoping it turns up!

week four of 365

Remember my 365 is just to do something creative every day so here's what I managed this week:

Finished my pages for the round robin journal and got it in the mail

painted with watercolors - I'm a little rusty, but this was FUN!

I've come across several ladies who are participating in The Documented Life and as I read about it and gave it some thought and decided to join in.  My version will be tailored to me of course......most of the other ones I saw used tip in pages into a daytimer type journal for their weekly prompts.  I really don't journal (as in writing about my life/feelings, etc.) so I'm going to work the prompts and use the journal for lists (my fave) and art notes and whatever comes to me.  I'm playing catch up for the first few weeks:

Week One - my front door

I love taking pics of doors and windows - I don't know that I have any deep, thoughtful reason like "window to my soul" or "door of opportunity" or anything.  More I think I'm just fascinated with the architecture and composition challenges. On the left I have a few notes about things that happened that week.

Week Two - selfie

I digitally altered a photo of me and on the other page I wrote words that describe me.

Week Three - junk mail envelope

I used a UPS envelope, I made a tag writing what I like about making lists and one the other side I have a list of my 2013 accomplishments.  Then I started a list of 2014 goals......

Mail art - still lovin' mail art and completed a couple of MMSA themes.  If you didn't find time to join in the mail swaps last year, please try to join when you can this year - the rewards are many AND it's just plain fun to get all that creativity in your mailbox.

MMSA orange / aqua swap

MMSA ATC stamp head swap below

Then I found a link on MMSA promoting a request for Valentine's Day postcards for kids in the hospital.  I made a few cards (below).  If you'd like to make some cards, please send to:
Star 106.5
Valentine Cards
5345 Madison Ave.
Sacramento, CA  95841
Or, maybe your own community is having a similar giveaway.

So that's my peek into my creative week...... still playing a bit of catch up on the Documented Life and the 365 since it took me a week or so to figure out my plan but I hope to totally catch up this week.

How are you feeling creative this week?