The End of July

Hi everyone.
I can't believe it's already the last day of  July. It is always a little bittersweet to start August since that brings the start of school, although not for a couple of weeks. It's not the start of school; it the fact that summer just goes by way too fast.

So let's end the month with one last page for Chris' challenge "We Are All Going" over at Art Journal Journey

Today we are all going to the sea.

This is a page from my fold out ocean journal. Each fold out has 4 sections, and so I am showing you the 4 sections of the page in these 2 photos. I've numberred them to maybe make it make more sense.

1.                                                                             2.

3.                                                                                  4.                           

I began my page by cutting up some beach paper I had. They are all in an 8x8 paper set from Graphic 45.  I used the pieces to collage my background. Then I added some vintage beach photos from a  collage sheet  as well as some mermaids in bottles from another collage sheet. Finally I used mermaid, jellyfish and dolphin stamps to finish off my spread.

And I had a nice ending to my month because I received some happy mail yesterday from Mia. I  wanted to share it with you.
There's also a little ink pad which I forgot to take out of the box when I snapped the photo.

BIG thanks Mia. It was so much fun to get a package from Greece- a new experience for me!

Hope everyone had a fantastic month, and that included today. 

Thanks for visiting.

Splatters and Splotches

Hi everyone!

I just thought I would share another fun splatter and splotches piece for the latest challenge at Try It On Tuesday .

Today I have a card I made for a wedding I'll be attending next month.

I don't usually make cards and I'm not sure my card making skills are at their top form, but I like the final results. 

I used a splattered designed napkin I had and a couple of stamped butterflies which I then colored. I added that to a tissue paper background, and I used a TH relative. 

I hope to see your splatter and splotches art over at Try It On Tuesday.

T Stands for First Thing in the Morning

Happy Tuesday! Time for T again.
Stop over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to join the fun.

I want to begin by showing the contents of an envelope I received as part of T Day's year 6 birthday celebration.

This fabulous art is by Linda K !

.And she included a few Dina Wakely goodies. (Dina is my favorite Ranger designer so this is a great selection.)
Big thanks again Linda for the happy mail!

So my T party entry today is this shot from breakfast a couple of weekends ago. This is what happens when the dogs wake both you and the hubby up before 5 AM and then everyone is wide awake. Thanks goodness our favorite breakfast hole in the wall place opens at 5.

Not being a coffee drinker and not wanting hot tea on a hot morning, I went for my diet soda drink to caffeinate me.  The pancakes were delicious and the fresh peaches were roasted before being sliced. They were really yummy too.
And the same thing happened this past weekend. Not going out to breakfast but the dogs waking me up early. So this time (since they didn't wake up the hubby), the dogs and I went out for an early morning walk.

And now the heat is full on so I think I'll skip the long morning walks until we cool back off. I worry the dogs will overheat in their fur coats.
If you are also in the heat, try to stay cool.
And of course, have a fabulous T day and as always
thanks so much for visiting.

We're All Going to

Happy Saturday everyone. It's a beautiful day here in New Hampshire. It is nice as my husband arranged for my 85 year old mother-in-law to have a little get together with her older siblings.If it was rainy it would not be such a good trip for them. 

None of them drive long distances anymore so a few of his cousins (who are drivers) will be there. Since my MIL lives on a small lake during the summer at least us "youngins" (ha-ha, that sounds like we were are talking about our kids) can hang out down on the dock while the octogenarians socialize on the deck which doesn't require them to use the rough stone steps. 

(And I am not trying to knock octogenarians. I know there are active octogenarians-like my mother, but I know my MIL with her back issues and her brother who has Parkinson's Disease are at least not as mobile as they used to be. But they do get around for certain!)

Anyhow, I am linking up to Chris' We Are Going challenge at Art Journal Journey Today I am sharing my travel journal from my Dakota trip earlier this summer.

I hand painted most of this spread, including the silos which I drew, painted and cut out. The North Dakota state is cut from a travel brochure and the bird from an old bird book as this is one of the species I saw which we don't have in my local area.

And a few of photos that helped inspire my page.

I still can't get over all the open land which we certainly don't have here in New Hampshire with all our trees.

Happy weekend and

Thanks for visiting also.

Here Comes the Bride

Happy Friday everyone! 

I was playing around with wedding ideas the other day. I was inspiring myself to make a card for  a wedding I am attending a  couple of weeks. This page was supposed to be my card, but ended up a journal page. (I made a different card which I will another time). Plus I had this paper I had cleaned off my paintbrush with pink and purple paint. So with some stamping, some musical tissue paper and some polka dot cloth trim, I got the base background made. 

Then I added the TH happy couple, a bit of die cut musical bits, as well as some paper flowers from my stash. I added the gears to the 2 white flowers as I thought they just worked. And then I layered all this on some white paper.

I am going to link up to Moo Mania's latest theme of MUSIC and also the Chris's We're All Going challenge at Art Journal Journey. Today we're all going to happy event. I hope they have a good band so we can dance.

Stay cool, or as cool as you can. I think we have a  warm up coming here in New Hampshire, but it looks like it won't get horribly hot until next week.

I am enjoying this gorgeous weather so too bad I can't get it to stay.

Thanks for visiting!

Wildflowers

Hi everyone. 

It's a much nicer morning than the last 2 have been (for me). It is definitely cooler and no rain like was falling yesterday. So I took a long walk and noticed lots of wildflowers on my way.

 All these lilies are blooming by the side of the road.  I think maybe at some point there was a house here, but it is gone and the woods have taken back the land.

  Here's another spot there must have been a house and now has gone wild.

 Even some grasses are flowering!

 And for some art today, I have a page from my summer journal.

I left the background plain and tried to paint the milkweed growing in my garden fairly realistically from a photo I took. They might not be field guide worthy but I really like how they came out.  I've had a few monarch butterflies in there feeding on them, but I took a lot of artistic license on my page in that area. I used a TH butterfly image, but it was yellow and black, so I used a Sharpie to color it orange. And I added some white. 

And there's my page!

I going to link up the Chris' WE ARE/GOING challenge at Art Journal Journey as today we are going (or went) on a wildflower walk!

Hope the week is going well, and thanks for visiting my blog today!

Splatters and Splotches

Hello there everyone. Time for a new challenge at Try It On Tuesday Already!

Thanks to those of you who joined us at Colours of the Rainbow. 

Now are you ready to use Splatters and Splotches?

I am working on an ocean book. The cool thing about this book is that is has these 4 part fold out pages. You can see that in my photos above.

But it is hard to see the splatters and splotches. So let me show you some close ups.

I used some Fred Mullet fish stamps I've had for years to make these fish. They are added to the background which is made by squirting paint and then making splotches with those paint blobs.

 I used the side of some pipe insulation to flatten out out the splotches.

 They I sprayed some liquid black ink and splattered some watered down white paint on the background.

Hope you join us with your own splatter and splotch art.

I can't wait to see it.

T Stands for Theodore Roosevelt

Hi everyone. Glad you stopped by for T today, as it is once again Tuesday. Don't forget to stop by 

Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to see what the T Gang has been up to.

Today for T we are going to the North Dakota badlands where I visited earlier this month on my summer vacation. We're going to visit Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

For those you who aren't familiar with the story, Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th president of the United States from 1901 until 1909. Before he was president, his first wife died in childbirth and his mother died of typhoid fever on the same day. (That must have been horrible.)

To combat his heart ache, Theodore went to western North Dakota to ranch for awhile. He absolutely loved his experience and claimed it made him the man he became. 

When a national park was created in this area, the park was named after Theodore.

Above is a page in my travel journal  I made about my visit to the park. 

The park has  3 areas: the north, the south, and  Elkhorn Ranch.  There is the cabin  where Theodore Roosevelt stayed in the South Unit and the Elkhorn Ranch where he ranched. We had time to visit the North and South Units but on 2 different days as they are not very close to each other. We didn't have time to go to the Elkhorn Ranch area. 

Here's a few photos from the south unit.

Besides buffalo  we also saw wild horses and lots of prairie dogs. 

And these cool mushroom shaped rocks.

I really liked this park.  There were lots nice little hikes to take which lead to fabulous views, and it wasn't particulary crowded.

But after a day in the park we needed some sustenance. We went to downtown Dickinson and found this brewing company.

When we arrived the  place was actually quite crowded, but it did clear out as we had out dinner. 

Here's my ticket for T day. We had this wonderful  Scottish style ale.

What goes great with beer? How about a yummy pizza?

Thanks for visiting. And have a happy T day and if you are not here for T, hope it's a good day.