48 weeks: week 2

Here's the spread for week 2 of Donna Downey's 48 Weeks. Much more of a doodle style for these pages.  I see people who do this style really well......not sure I'm one of them. I did enjoy all the layers in the background and how you can get lost just playing and making marks.

The Documented Life Project week 1

Another journal project I'm participating in is the year long Documented Life Project. Before online calendars and iPads with calendar apps, I always chose a planner for the year and used it to keep track of appointments and birthdays and events. I've missed doing that in a physical form and last year tried out Kate Crane's calendars where you write in a little bit in each day's calendar block. By the end of the year, instead of having neat little blocks, I had a jumble of written memories about each day.  Some days there was a simple sentence, but other days there was a lot more I wanted to write. I was excited to see this idea using a Moleskine weekly planner and altering it by adding a flap to each week and having a challenge prompt for each week. You have a place to write day to day stuff and events, another blank lined page for space if you want to journal more, and the extra added page for the pretty stuff that makes your journal even more "you". There's even an online class about altering your planner (more details HERE).

Here's my week 1 page : show your front door:

I used a gel medium transfer of a photo taken that week of our door decorated with a Christmas wreath. Funny, but we never use the front door! Is that true at your house, too?

Check out the weekly challenge prompts on the Art to the 5th blog.

My favourite LifeBook 2014 project so far....

I'm participating in LifeBook for 2014 after having completed last year's class. I love that each week you have a different teacher and a different project video in the teacher's style so you get exposed to many different ways of art journaling and can try out a style and see how it fits you. Instead of starting all the way back with week 1, I'm sharing one of my favourite pages done in Anna Dabrowska's (Finnabair's) style. I love the richness of her pieces and all the different textures that she combines so well.

Here's my page celebrating our 19th Anniversary this March.

Here are close-ups to see all the different textures I used.  Such a fun piece to do!!

48 weeks: week 1

I was always a fan of Donna Downey's Inspiration Wednesday videos and when she decided to stop doing them and created a year long art journaling class called 48 Weeks, I decided to splurge and take the class. Through her blog videos I have learned so many cool techniques and learned about so many different products and how to use them and I am definitely enjoying the class because it feeds my need to learn and try new things. I have completed the first set of 12 pages and will share them over the next couple of weeks. The journal is an A3 Moleskine which is HUGE! I have not worked this big before, but as the pages are filling up in the journal I am loving what all the space allows you to do.

This is the first spread:

A close-up of the left side with a gel medium transfer of a vintage image I've always loved:

...and this is the right side. Love all the texture!!!!

Hello Again!

Just in case you were wondering, I've been here all along, I've just had a new edition to my life over the past year that takes up a really big part of it. This is Nora. In this picture she's 9 weeks old and 20 some pounds. I hadn't had a puppy in 15 years and I must say that it's a good thing that they grow up fast :-) I really didn't expect her to rearrange my life as much as she did - you know, things like getting up at 5am, spending time housebreaking, spending time playing, going to puppy classes, etc. etc. Needless to say, it was impossible to have crafty pursuits! She's is now grown up at almost 1 1/2yrs.old and 132.5lbs (eek!) and she's not quite finished growing...... I do enjoy having a dog again, and I think the cats have finally forgiven me.

We've had a very snowy winter this year and here's another picture of her after playing in the snow:

Have you ever tried taking a selfie with a dog? I wanted to show just how huge she is and these are my attempts:

So this is us now. She hangs out with me, but she won't go upstairs where my project room is so I have had to become more portable. I am able to play in various journals and am finding time for my creative pursuits again and I have a lot of pages that I can share.

I hope to reconnect with all of you again!

CC2C week 34 tag

Here's my project for the final week of the Compendium of Curiosities Vol.2 Challenge using the glazed mosaics technique from page 60 of Tim's book.  Hard to believe we've worked through all the techniques of another book - so much fun! And a big thank you to Linda for being a terrific challenge host through both books.

After making the mosaics, I adhered them to a wrinkle free distress tag background with strips of dictionary paper in a loose grid pattern. Here are a couple close-ups of the mosaics:

Stamp credits: Paper Artsy, Stampers Anonymous, Inka Stamps, Cherry Pie Art Stamps

CC2C week 33 tissue tape flowers

This week is the next to last challenge of the Compendium of Curiosities Vol.2 Challenges (sponsored this time by Simon Says Stamp) using Tim's tissue tape techniques and this is my collage using the tissue tape flowers I created.  They remind me of old Prima collage flowers that I had in my stash quite a few years ago that I always loved.  I created a collage with them using a gelli plate monoprint on mulberry paper and a vintage dictionary page all sewn onto a piece of watercolor paper.  I just had to add some handwriting ;-)

Here's a close-up of the flowers with their sewn on vintage button centers:

You can also see some of the monoprinted background.  This one uses one of Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's Crafters Workshop stencils: "swirly garden" which gives a great pattern when used as a monoprint with the gelli plate. My favorite version (used here) is the second impression/ghost print after some of the paint has been removed by pressing the stencil to the gelli plate, removing the stencil, and then making the monoprint.

CC2C week 32: Snowflake Children

It's week 32 of the Compendium of Curiosities Vol.2 Challenge and page 63 of Tim's book talks about using the rosette die.  I did a slight variation and used the new snowflake rosette die and added images from some of my favorite photo stamps from Oxford Impressions - the bundled children from the Christmas sets: Winter Snow and Season of Giving. I love using these children in snowy scenes, in fact it would be simple to add a string to the back and hang these snowflake children from a window or even use them as ornaments on your Christmas tree!  They all were stamped with archival ink onto specialty stamping paper and had just a bit of color added to their clothes with Distress markers.

Additional Stamps for the sentiments: Technique Tuesday and Inkadinkado

The Whatevers #6 - partners in crime

I had a lot of fun playing with the November Whatevers photo! (Check the blog posts of Catherine HERE, Nathalie HERE, and Vicki HERE to see their stories and download a copy of the photo to play along.)

My multi-layered background has a bottom vintage book paper and washi tape grid layer, followed by gesso and then pink and peach Neocolor crayons, stamps from Tangie Baxter and Dina Wakley, doodling with a Stabilo marks all pencil aka Dina's "magic" pencil, as well as black and white pens, poodle pink and tattered rose Glimmer Mist splatters, and some finger painted white acrylic paint  that I've seen Roben-Marie Smith add so masterfully to her gorgeous backgrounds.  So much fun to be inspired by all those wonderful artists!!

I loved this background while creating and took a few close-ups before I built the page over it:

This side is the story:

For easier reading, here's the text of the story:

Christina, Dorothy and Maude have been partners in crime since their school days. As their ring leader, Dorothy’s schemes have brought them many adventures, and her charms have kept them from getting into trouble.  They once “borrowed” Old Mrs. Maybridge’s carriage and galloped the horse down Main St. because Dorothy wanted to know how it felt to drive.  Mrs. Maybridge was never the wiser, as the carriage was returned to its proper spot outside the general store before she had finished her shopping trip.  Dorothy’s sense of adventure has brought the trio to the beach today to watch the aeroplane demonstrations with the added goal of meeting a pilot.  Her next great scheme is to be a wing-walker, and Christina and Maude have no doubts she’ll do it...they just hope they get to keep their feet stuck firmly on the ground.

I think I first learned about wing walkers watching a Robert Redford movie "The Great Waldo Pepper". You had to have quite a bit of guts to walk the wing of a biplane or any plane for that matter!  According to Wikipedia, the first wing walker was Ormer Locklear in 1918 and even Charles Lindberg's career began with wing walking. Quite a few women were brave enough to perform the stunt at barnstorming shows throughout the 1920's. I'd definitely side with Dorothy's friends in my story and keep my feet planted firmly on the ground. :-)

CC2C week 31 collage

Week 31 for the Compendium of Curiosities Vol.2 Challenge and we're to follow the directions on page 51 of Tim's book for a distress ink palette.  I used mine to color a favorite heart stamp from Stampington and then combined it with random collage ephemera from French Kissed Postcards and Digital Collage Sheets to create my collage using a 7Gypsies book cover. Quick and simple this week!  ;-)