• Art - Blog - Creativity

    AJJ: Adore

    July 25, 2025 - By 

     

    My journal page for today I simply Adore…yep, I said that…couldn’t help myself. When I came across the handmade paper in my stash I knew I had to use it. The leaves and flower petals that are embedded were so inspiring!

    Just look at that texture!!

    Next I found the back of an envelope that was beautifully aged. The ideas really started flowing at this point. I thought about a romance…love letters….flowers.

    Whoa…I didn’t think I was that much of a romantic.

    This couple looked like they really adored each other.

    I used elements from several different ephemera packs including some Tim Holtz.  I’m on a mission to use up some of the things that I “just had to have” which pretty much turned into hoarding them.

    I hope you’ll stop by Art Journal Journey and check out some of the other artwork that is being created for my theme of Botanicals this month.

    Side note: Yesterday I realized, while updating my challenges and collaborations page, that this is my fourth time hosting over on Art Journal Journey.

  • Art - Blog - Creativity

    AJJ: recycled bag

    July 23, 2025 - By 

    Today’s page for my Botanical theme over on Art Journal Journey was inspired by a paper shopping bag.

    A few years ago a teacher I worked with knew my love of collage. One day she brought me a stack of colorful and unique shopping bags she didn’t have the heart to throw out. She was a bit sheepish about giving them to me but I was thrilled!

    The background is one of those bags…slightly wonky and torn. I loved the cyanotype leaves and chartreuse “A” over the top. The words up the side made me think of a sunny morning when the dew glitters in the sunlight. The birds are singing and butterflies fluttering about.

    After selecting a strip of scrapbook paper that fit my color scheme, I once again I used some pieces from my Tim Holtz ephemera pack…can you tell I’m trying to use up some things from my stash? I layered these on top of a bit of mulberry paper as well as a scrap of handmade paper and a label.

    Simple collage that fits my Botanical theme.

     

  • Blog

    T Tuesday: almost lost my blog edition

    July 21, 2025 - By 

    Sunday morning was a rough one.

    I’ve had a notice on my blog dashboard saying I was running an old version of PHP and it should be updated. I waited until Mr. G was available to help as I was unsure exactly how to do the update. After logging into our webhost and updating PHP, my blog had a critical error. It was literally gone. I couldn’t even log into the backend to change things. Completely locked out. I was just sick. I’ve been blogging since April 2007 and to have the feeling that I potentially lost everything was devastating. Yes I had backed it up before the change but when I was locked out that wasn’t helpful.

    Obviously we were able to recover it because you’re reading my tale. However those regular visitors will notice that things look different. My cute background theme like the image below is gone.

    Turns out it was not compatible with the updated software. UGH. Now the themed watermark I created is irrelevant. Yes, technically it’s still a watermark but not themed for the page.  😥

    I’ve got things functional but not to my liking yet. This will definitely be a work in progress for some time.

    I’m trying my best not to mourn what I lost but to change my mindset and look at it as an opportunity to start something new. Renew and refresh.

    Ok enough of that…moving forward…

    After a bit of rain earlier, I went out to enjoy some of the flowers in my yard. I’ve went a little wild with the flowers this year with no regrets.

    I also have no regrets spending time with Marvin. He’s my shadow during the summer.

    T stands for Tuesday