• Art - Blog - Crafts - Creativity

    Larger than life

    Just a quick post with my latest art journal page. I’ve got some neck/shoulder issues going on so sitting at the computer or sitting in general too long is very painful…so bear with me.

    I was inspired by the new theme of Out and About over at Art Journal Journey this morning. I hadn’t even intended on doing anything creative today. Once I saw my neat as a pin work space I knew I just had to make a mess. 🙂

    I didn’t have a plan as usual. I just knew I wanted to make a loose leaf page. It all started to fall into place for me as I added more media. The stacked paper and button flowers were not at all what I was going to use but my drawn and painted one just didn’t look like I wanted. Now I glad it didn’t. I like the whimsical touch these add. Since they seemed a bit oversized the words I found were perfect.

    I made a bunch of paper pieced embellishments at craft club on Saturday evening. It’s a fun get together where we all bring our own thing to do and get to craft with friends. Now I have a stash for later projects.

    Linking up with Art Journal Journey today.

    Art Journal Journey
  • Around home - Blog

    T Tuesday: new chapters edition

    Welcome to T stands for Tuesday…grab a cup and stay a while.

    Last week I had a scheduled post as the boy and I were on a college visit. It was a dreary day but we enjoyed our time on campus very much.

    As we were eating lunch in the dining hall, J said “I could see myself going here.” That’s good sign. This of course was just the first of several visits to different colleges that we plan to see. It’s a tiny very rural college, in fact they have a horse barn so students can stable their horse if they like. I can’t even make that up! It feels as if you are driving to the middle of nowhere. This thought had me giggling when we opened the info packet. The slogan on their brochure was “Welcome to the middle of somewhere”. Very clever!!

    The other thing I mentioned in last weeks post was that I was getting a new washing machine…here it is! I’m super happy with it so far. I’ve been working at rearranging and purging a bit in my laundry room/craft room first in preparation and now after the fact.

    Here’s a work in progress shot. So much stuff and so little space! Time to make some difficult decisions.

    Two bags of books and a box of misc was easier than I thought to get rid of. I also threw away half a bag of random bits and pieces that weren’t worth donating and brought a small stack of papers and supplies to my crafty neighbor to share with her extended craft circle.

    Ah yes…looking better! But now we just learned that my in-laws want to give us their treadmill….that means my sew table will have to be taken down and all my sewing supplies will need to find a new home…somewhere. It seems that my quest of organization and pairing down has only just begun.

    I have done some crafting and a bit of art journaling. My latest journal page is in the previous post. I’ll share my crafty bits I made at craft club in another post.

    That’s it for now. I have some errands to run today including a trip to Goodwill with my donations.

    What are you doing today?

  • Art - Blog - Creativity

    Almost forgotten

    I haven’t been abducted by aliens or went off the grid or any other highly improbable ideas…just taking some time off from computers. I’ve been diligently working at organizing my craft area, doing taxes for the family and caring for my mom. It seems there is no leftover time.

    That being said…I did take time to create a journal page. I once again created an overly thick page in a very skinny journal. The poor book will soon be permanently splayed open.almost forgotten art journal page

    I layered small pieces of both card stock and scrapbook paper one opposite sides of the spread as the base of my composition trying to create a sense of balance and movement through the pages. Then added torn bits of fabric and finally some thick upholstery trim again to each side.

    almost forgotten art journal page

    I then came in with color mists in a couple shades of brown. I dragged color along the edge of the page then lightly spritzed with water to make it run…dabbing off any excess as I went. Drying with my heat gun at various stages when I wanted something to stay exactly the way it was.

    almost forgotten art journal page

    Oh yes…I almost forgot. I lightly added modeling paste BEFORE the color mists making sure it was dry before the color processing. This gave some great texture.

    After I was happy with the color I lightly drew around some of the papers and smudged with my finger to create a shadow.

    The last piece was my found text. The phrase almost forgotten fit both the feel of the page and how I was feeling about my blog and the actual creative process lately. I’ve been putting creativity on the back burner for a little while and it’s making me crabby. Hopefully I can squeak in a bit of creative time here and there so I don’t get too snippy.

    almost forgotten art journal page