Thanks to You

 Hi everyone.

Today is the last day of January. That makes it my last day hosting at Art Journal Journey.

My last page for the month is my way of saying thanks to all of you who participated and to all of you who stopped by my blog with kind comments. 

The background was one of my practice pages from my Creative Jumpstart classes. I also added one of my tyvek masks I made in another Creative Jumpstart class. The flower is hand drawn, and the angel is part of a stamp from AALL & Create.

The words on my page are my thankful wishes to you.

Thanks everyone for joining in with your Favorite Things.  I was very inspired by all your art journaling. You are all so talented and inspirational.  That was needed to get me moving for the new year. All your posts were therefore much appreciated! 

Even if you aren't an art journaler, your kind  comment words were also much appreciated. This page is also for you. Any positivity right now in this dark covid winter is worth reading/hearing.

Thank you!

Summer Owl

Happy weekend everyone. Here it is January 30th already. The month is winding down so quickly, and I wanted to share this page for the Favorite Things challenge over at Art Journal Journey before the month is over.

Today my page is about one of my favorite birds and is also one of my favorites I made for this month at AJJ.

My background was made with stamping, paint, and small bits of printed tissue paper. I drew and painted the branch. The owl is a cut out from an owl image sheet, and the moon is a chipboard piece from Stamperia.  I finished the page with some glitter, just to give the page some moonlight sparkle. You can really see it here in this close up.

In the summer I hear the bard owls in the woods a lot, but with everything closed up to stay warm it's been quiet. Occasionally I get to see them also.  It's been quite a while since I've seen them, but always a treat when they appear.

 I can't wait for when the birds start to sing again, and for when it actually gets loud outside. Here in the woods winter can be so quiet.

Wishing you a fantastic rest of your weekend.

 

Another of My Favorite Things

 

Hi everyone. Happy Friday. Another week has flown by very quickly. How has yours been? Mine has been good. I feel like I got out walking a few days, and also accomplished some things I've been wanting to get done. Those are good things to me, and about all I can ask for in this covid world.

I am here today with another page for Art Journal Journey.  For the next few days the challenge is Favorite Things. There's been so much great art this month. I've loved stopping by and checking out all the entries. The month isn't quite over yet either, so feel free to join in if you have a journal page that works.

Today my page started out with some doodles. I like some of them and not so much others. It was a good start for a journal page however, so I added a bit of stamping from a Janet Klein AALL& Create stamp set.  I must say besides baking being a favorite thing of mine, I do like these little folks. They are cute without (in my opinion) being cutesy. 

I haven't done much baking these last few weeks. Last week I  found this recipe for a Bishop's Cake, which was something new for me. It was pound cake like cake (not too sweet, doesn't need frosting, and is a bit heavier in texture for those of you unfamiliar with pound cakes), with added almonds, chocolate chips, maraschino cherries and raisins. I added walnuts instead of almonds because supposedly I am allergic to them (although I have had unknowingly had a few with no reaction, but better safe than sorry), and I left out the raisins as no one else in the house eats them. It tasted great, but even though I buttered and floured my non-stick Bundt pan, the cake still stuck and came out in 3 pieces.

This heart pan is one of my favorite pans, and I've used it a lot without any issues. I think what happened was I dozed off when it first came out of the oven, and it sat too long in the pan. Too bad because it would have been pretty. It was not too sweet either, and it didn't need any topping, which is one of my favorite types of everyday cakes.

Next time I will just have to bake when it doesn't interfere with a late afternoon nap I may or may not want to take. Smile.

We're in the deep freeze again here, so there may be more baking on my agenda later today or this weekend. 

Hope all is well with you.

Thanks for stopping by.

More From Creative Jumpstart

 Hi everyone. 

 I am really behind with my Creative Jumpstart class. I'm hoping tomorrow when it turns bitterly cold and windy again  (and I can't get outside)  that maybe I will sit myself down on the computer and catch up on some of my lessons. Then make some art. Smile.

Let me head back to January 14th's lesson with  Sarah Matthews.  We were making paper quilts that day, starting with cutting random pieces from scrap paper to make a background. You can see mine above with only one stamped image.

After that we were to hand carve a stamp. You can see my hand carved stamp above also, and then stamped here across the paper quilt in this next photo.

Sarah Matthews used multiple colors to stamp her images, but I kept mine black and created this linear pattern on my page.

I found cutting paper squares and gluing them down with a glue stick very relaxing. I may have to make a few more backgrounds like this. It was also a great way to use up some scraps of paper. 

I am linking my page to Art Journal Journey as making art  and relaxing are both favorite things of mine.

And anytime I get to walk, I love that too.

This past Tuesday one of my walker friends texted me and asked if I wanted to take an afternoon beach walk.  Oh yes I did. Although it was just around 32 degrees F or O degrees C, there was no wind, making it a relatively warm walk.  And Mr. Pete loved it. ( Maddie missed out being at Doggie Daycare. )

The beach was basically empty so Pete got to run. That wore him out. I am grateful for having a beach to walk at during the winter when the trails are snowy, and also for having friends who will walk so we can actually see each other.  It will be nice when we can actually get together and sit down someplace-smile.

Hope your week is going well.

Art for Wednesday

 Hi everyone. 

Happy Wednesday. I'm here today with some art for Art Journal Journey. This month the challenge is Favorite Things, and there's still a few days left to join the fun.

My page began in my drawing journal. I was doodling crescents as well as coloring and decorating them. I like the spend the evening watching TV with my husband since he is gone all day at work, and it is a good time to use my drawing journal. Just like knitting, drawing is a good way to keep me busy and awake if the show doesn't demand my full attention. 

Although I like this background on its own, I thought it would make a great journal page.

I used  matte medium to to put down some scraps of printed tissue paper.

I then drew the clouds and painted them. I also added the bird stamped image that was sitting on my worktable, after coloring and fussy cutting it. I made him a little nest of bird feathers I had picked up on the beach and were sitting in my stash. 

Finally I used some pink paint to make a spot for the quote.

This page has lots of my favorite things in it. What I like best however is when a page comes together in the end.

Hope your week is going well!

T Stands for The Past Week's Highlights

 Hello and happy T day. 

I hope everyone had a great past week. It ended up being a fairly busy and productive week for me. I managed to get a few things on my to do list accomplished, walked with my group one morning, and  I actually went out to lunch one day last week (wow). Well it was take out eaten in my car. I had allergy shots one morning, and the doctor's office is near my husband's office. So I called him when I got out, and he was having a bad day, so I drove over, picked him up and we went and had take out burger's from 5 Guys. 

I like the color reflections in the aluminum foil wrapping of my burger.  The bad thing is now my car smells like burgers-ha ha! Not  an exciting lunch, but fun to hang out with the hubby a bit during the work day.

This past weekend was very cold with winds up to 40 mph. With the winds it felt close to zero (degrees F or close to -18 degrees C).  I had to pull out my new heavy duty arctic winter coat which I bought on markdown last summer and had hoped I could keep it in the bag all winter.  No such luck. I felt bad for the birds and the empty feeders so I ventured out into the cold to fill them.

Good thing we had the wood stove going inside. My daughter was home Saturday. She and I spent the day at the table near the heat working on a puzzle.

This photo is my ticket to T day as you can see my Diet Coke as well as our snack when we got frustrated with how the puzzle was going. 

Stop by Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to see what the T gng has been doing. 

This puzzle was really hard, or maybe it is just that I am not very good at puzzles.

We did manage to finish it.

Or at least the best we could as a couple of pieces went missing between start and finish. 

The puzzle board underneath is something my husband made for me many years ago.

I also started sewing my wall quilt together. I've been working backwards  and cut a bunch of triangles out of my hand dyed fabric. I finally got around to working on it (nice since my sewing machine is near the woodstove), and I sewed the triangles together to make diamonds, and then I laid the diamonds out on my bed to get an arrangement I liked.

Sorry, it's a bit hard to see on my plaid duvet cover.

I then pinned these triangles and went off to sew them together. Now I need to cut some more triangles to square off the sides. 

My biggest issue is that I am not good a getting all my triangles sewn to be the same size, even though they started off the same size. And even though I made my stitches the same size. I'm just not good at being exact, but oh well. That's why I will never be a traditional quilter.

I was excited because after my burger lunch last week I stopped at Joann's fabric to get some more white thread to sew these pieces. I found a piece of batting in the remnant bin. Even better all remnants were on sale for 75% off, so I got a big piece (about four times the size I need) for under $4.00. Thread was also buy 3, get 2 free, so I was able to stock up on that too. I haven't visited Joann's Fabric in months, and my quick visit felt like a big outing.  Smile.

More to come with this project. 

The other good news is my mom got her first vaccine last week with no side effects, and my husband is getting his this week.  It will probably be several months before my turn, but once he gets his second shot at least it will take a bit of worry off of me.

That's all for me on this T day. Hope yours is a good one.

Thanks for visiting. 

Last Week of January

 Hi everyone. 

 It is hard for me to believe we are starting the last week of January. It seems I was just picking up my holiday decorations and wondering how I would  occupy myself during the month with winter howling around me. Thanks to a spell of not so bad winter weather, I've made it this far, and I am shocked that we only have a week left to go until February.  

We are in the deep freeze with winds this weekend however, which has meant lots of indoor time with the wood stove going. Looks the like the nights in this upcoming week are going to get pretty cold also, down near into the teen degrees F (or about -10 to 12 degrees C). And chillier days too. I think the mild winter weather has headed for a vacation south. I wish I was too. Smile.

My page for Art Journal Journey today was made with one of my favorite techniques.

The background is watered down blue, brown and grey acrylic paint. I also stamped some paint circles using an old empty tape roll.

I used my favorite technique to make the tree. 

I started by stamping a tree image I really like. I stamped it twice just slightly overlapping because I wanted to the make the tree wider and larger. This became my base image which I could then paint over. You could say I used the stamp in place of pencil sketching. 

I added a little white snow under the tree and stamped the birds. 

I finally added the TH sticker words and also some white ghostly looking leaves that are clear stickers. To me they are dreams of the spring and summer. Or at least dreams of some milder weather than this weekend.

That's all for me. I hope your weekend is going well.

Art For Friday

 Hi everyone. Happy Friday to you. 

Today I have quite a few pieces of art to share. First of all, I have a tag for this latest challenge at Tag Tuesday. This  latest challenge is hosted by Michelle and her theme is Fairy Garden.

I used some left over ink to make my background and stamped the rest of the images. A few images were fussy cut and colored, the rest were stamped directly onto the tag and colored.

I also completed the challenge for Day 11 at Creative Jumpstart. The teacher for this lesson was Riika Kovasin.

We were asked to use sales receipts ( or online order receipts in my case) to create squares. I used 2 left over receipts  that came in holiday gifts I had ordered online. I painted one with various colored watered down acrylics and the other one I stamped with various repeated images.

 Instead of mounting my punched out squares on an envelope as the class instructions, I went my own way mounted them right in my journal. I actually loved the envelope idea and writing a letter to ourselves for the future, but I am also trying to complete some other class lessons as well as some challenge art, and I want to have these pages for future idea reference. I was afraid an envelope in the mess I usually create would get lost.

After we created our squares, we were to make an artistic person to put on them. We could use photos, magazine cut outs, stamped images, drawings, you name it. I drew a body and then used an Art by Marlene punch out for the face on my first page.

I had some left over squares and decided to use them on another journal page. This time I used all Art by Marlene punch outs (you sure get a lot  in a booklet for not a lot of money) and made a slightly different type of page. 

As I've said before, I am picking and choosing what I actually make, depending on whether it's something that interests me. I am watching all the videos though as they are all really good. I really needed this little art tickle the class has given me. That is one of my favorite things. It feels good to be trying out or retrying new techniques instead of doing the same thing over and over.  I am linking up to Art Journal Journey and my favorite things challenge. 

I noticed on Jo's (Let's Art Journal) blog she mentioned  the square challenge Country View Challenge, so I thought I would join in with these pages too.

That's all for me today. I hope everyone has a great day and start to your weekend too.

Winter Views-Walking

Hi everyone. 

 In the last couple of weeks we had some fairly mild winter weather in my little area of the world. I say fairly mild because our daytime highs were right around freezing (32 degrees F or O degrees C) which made it mild enough to do a bit of walking.

The biggest problem was that night time lows were cold enough that any daytime melt refroze overnight.

The rail trail in Wolfeboro would have been nice to walk, but it was too slippery. At least when I took this photo last week.

So I drove over and checked out the docks and whether the Big Lake (Winnipesaukee) had frozen yet.

Just a skim coat and definitely not safe. Once it freezes you'll see all kinds of ice fishing huts out on the bay.

It was a very grey day, and we've had too many of those this month.  I do like the look of the blue mountains across on the other side of the lake though.

I did notice one of the other bays  (Alton Bay) on the Big Lake must be frozen enough for some ice fishing huts. I don't think I'm ready to walk out on the ice, but since these fishing people need to cut a hole to put their line in, they should know if it is safe or not.

Once this bay  freezes solid they actually open an FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) run airport out on the ice. I know there are other frozen lakes where planes land, but I don't believe there are any other FAA airports in the lower 48 states. This is from our state's Department of Transportation page about the airport.

 

Alton Bay Seaplane Base is a public-use seaplane base in the summer and a plowed ice runway in the winter.  It is located in Belknap County and provides direct access to Lake Winnipesaukee, as well as, access to the local restaurants and shops that surround the bay.  The airport is run by a dedicated group of volunteers who assist pilots (seaplane, ski, and conventional) flying into the bay throughout the year and who also plow the ice runway, parallel taxiway, and parking area according to a specific plan set and GPS coordinates in the winter.  The ice runway attracts several hundred pilots during its 4-8 week season and it can be one of the busiest airports in the state on winter weekends.

 You can also see photos of the runway here: Alton Bay Seaplane Base if you are interested.

No runway yet this year though.

Then last Saturday it really warmed up, and we had a day of heavy rain. Luckily all that rain  got rid of the ice on the road into my mother-in-laws house. When my husband went in to check that all is ok  (my MIL is living with my sister-in-law for the winter) at her house and with his boat that he stores there in the winter, the dogs and I walked in to get some exercise.

The road was a bit muddy, but not too bad.

The wooded areas were still a bit icy, as you can see from this iced frozen footprints. 

This past Monday was a holiday here in the states, which meant no school for my still working friends. My walking group and I got together and walked about 5 miles that morning. We started first at the beach and then went to the Urban Forestry Center in Portsmouth (New Hampshire, not to confuse you with other places called Portsmouth). I've shown you photos from both places before, but here's a few more.

We had some fabulous morning sunshine, and it felt great to be out in it. As usual however, by two PM we were back in the clouds. We even had an afternoon snow shower at my house.

It only takes us about 45 minutes to walk the beach, which is why we walked 2 places. 45 minutes was not enough time for us to chat and catch up.

 The Urban Forestry Center is about a 5 minute drive from the beach. When we arrived there, we walked further down than I had ever walked before. There were some nice views of the tidal river.

I am hoping the snow free weather continues for a bit. I'm not sure that will happen though. Those weather people are saying we are going to get colder temperatures starting this weekend and maybe some change of weather next week. I am thankful to at least get as much walking weather in as possible as it is January Maybe I can squeeze in another day or 2 of walking before winter cold and snow returns..

That's all for me. Thanks for visiting.

 

Dreaming

Hi everyone.

I thought today I would share something for my Favorite Things challenge over at Art Journal Journey that has  some hope and fun to it.

I started with a Citra-solv  transfer on some watercolor paper. I thought the final image looked rather exotic, and it got me dreaming about when I can travel again. (Someday! Hopefully sooner rather than later.) I decided to give this page a travel theme because traveling is one of the top things on my list of favorite things to do.

The flight attendant is an  AALL&Create stamps by Janet Klein. I stamped her 4 times, and I gave 2 of those flight attendants the airline cap and 2 of them the carry on bag.  Then I added some Japanese book paper, a few little printed paper circles, some paper tape, and some other stamped images and words. Yes I purposely added the partially ripped piece of tape at the top. We're all a little roughed up from Covid right now, as are any travel ideas or dreams. 

I haven't made any plans to go anyplace at this point. I know a few people who have, and in a way I don't blame them because tickets are pretty cheap right now. Cheap tickets aren’t a big enough incentive with the risk of catching covid for me however . Who knows when covid will start to decline? I don't want to tie up lots money with airlines wishing. Maybe this summer or fall  things will be good enough to start going places. At least places in the car hopefully.    Until then, I guess like everyone staying low key because of covid or who can’t go away for whatever reason, it will be either in books, art or on TV that I get out and about. And right now, I just want to get through this winter.

That's all for me. Hope you enjoyed my page.

 

The Winter Blues

 Hi everyone.

I'm here today with a new challenge at Try It on Tuesday . This time our challenge is the Winter Blues. 

We're NOT asking for sad art!

For the next 2 weeks we're asking you to use the color blue in your challenge. Add a bit of winter, and you have the Winter Blues. 

I don't know about you, but if January had a color, I would have to pick blue.  Maybe because I am living here in New Hampshire where the only real outdoor color at this time of year is the bright blue sky.

That blue winter sky inspired my art. My journal page started with some shades of blue watered down paint on my background. I hope the middle doesn't look to streaky, as I wanted the sky to have some depth and motion to it. 

 I added some printed blue paper to create the land. I tore it to so that edge would look similar to the an actual horizon. On the paper I added some scraps of printed tissue paper as well as some stamped snowflake images and also some painted stamped circles.  The fox and the mostly circular images setting from left to the right on the page are from a pack of Stamperia winter images.  Notice the sun is smaller and has set. (Oh I  miss  the amount of it we get in winter. Smile.) 

I also added some tiny metal bits from my stash.

I  stamped this winter quote from a Paper Artsy set by Alison Bomber to finish off my page.

Be sure to also check out all the inspiration from the other designers!  There are some great Winter Blues pieces there.

I am also linking up my page at Art Journal Journey and the latest Favorite Things challenge. 

Blue is one of my favorite colors, and circles are a favorite shape. 

Thanks for visiting. I look forward to seeing your winter blues creations over at Try It on Tuesday!

T Stands for the Baking Bucket List

 Hi everyone. Happy T day.

Last week  I  was checking out the baking blogs that I occasionally stop by and read. One of these blogs had a 2021 baking bucket list. I thought this was a great idea because just like with art, there are always new recipes and food  you think about trying. Having a bucket list also means there are things you are looking forward to in the future, and so it is a hopeful thing. Plus, I must admit, I like to write lists.

I had some fun and wrote my baking bucket list.

One of the things on my baking bucket list for 2021 was to make bagels. So why wait?  

The dough was pretty tough, not to make but in texture. The recipe said it would not be a soft dough. Amazingly the recipe was  also exactly spot on getting the amounts of the ingredients  correct. I didn't need to add any extra flour and/or water, which (for those of you who don't make bread) is   fairly common  when making yeasted breads. 

The bagels were then shaped and refrigerated overnight.

Once out the fridge the next morning,  I put them in boiling turned down to simmering water  briefly. The recipe recommended you not let them warm up or they would rise too much and close the hole.

Then I baked them on my old and  well loved pizza stone at 500 degrees F. Ten minutes on one side, then flip them for another 2-5 minutes.

They looked pretty good when I took them out of the oven. Would you like to join me for one?

You can see the cookbook I used for the recipe. It's called the Jewish Baker by Shannon Sarna.  It's an interesting book as it only has recipes for 5 main items, but many variations for each. 

For lunch I toasted one, added some light cream cheese and made a cup of green tea. 

This is my link for T this week over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog. 

And for those of you who may want to know what else is on my baking bucket list for 2021, here it is for now.

1- brownie ice cream bowls

2-a vertical layered cake (where the layers are flipped so they go up and down on their thin sides, not flat on their horizontal side like is usually seen) 

3- a mirror glazed cake

4-Madeline cookies, as well as/or some other French treats

5-a braided Scandinavian pastry and maybe some other Scandinavian treats

6-more non-white bread loaves- more rye, spelt or other grains

7-expand my sourdough repertoire

8-a savory British style meat pie

9-a Mardi Gras/carnival King  cake

10-Japanese milk bread

11- a babka loaf of bread or other filled bread loaf

And who knows what else might tempt my fancy. I'm always on the lookout for new treats.

I also want to share a big thank you to Mia. My gift I won for her birthday giveaway arrived this past Saturday.

I won this cool mask mold. Thanks Mia for having your birthday giveaway!

To everyone else, thanks so much for visiting. Stay safe!

Colorful

 Hi everyone. Hope everyone's weekend is going or went well. 

This is the long Martin Luther King weekend here in the US, and it seems especially important to celebrate a man who believed in peaceful protests after so many recent events here in the US. It is also important to celebrate him because Black lives do matter, which is what Martin Luther King was all about. 

I'm not sure how much authenticy I can add to this day. We had a teacher at school who marched with Martin Luther King as a young man, and he could say so much on this subject. This teacher was also friends with Jesse Jackson, another American black leader, and Jesse Jackson came to our school once to speak. My voice is small next to theirs, but I mention this because those stories, like all sorts of people's stories, are impactful. 

On a much lighter subject, two of my favorite things are clouds and color. So why not combine them?

Here's a page for the Favorite Things challenged, hosted by me, at Art Journal Journey.

The clouds are doodled; the background painted and the words are written in by me.  I added a couple of sparkle stars just to finish off the page because I liked them there.

Hope you like my page also.

I wrote this last night (Saturday night), and it was a dark and wet start to the weekend here. Rain, not snow, but certainly a good day to watch tv, read and nap. Hopefully the sun will be back soon so I can find some ambition. 

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Crayons, Ink and Paint

Hi everyone.  Happy Friday!

I've been slowly making my way through the Creative Jumpstart classes. I've watch  more videos than I have created art for, and I've learned quite a bit. I really like how everyday there is a new artist with an approximate 10 minute video. Everyday is a lot to keep up with for me, but I'm working at my own pace and time schedule. No stress, no pressure.

Today's art is from Day 5, and  guest artist Birgit Koopsen's class was called the Distance is Only Physical.

This page began by writing with a crayon on some watercolor paper, and then brushing on some Distress Inks from the refill bottles  (over the crayon marks). Although I remember learning about doing this technique years ago, it has been a very long time since I used it. It was fun to rediscover it.

Then we were instructed use acetate to make a mask. The video talked about tracing a body shape from a magazine page, but I drew my own and cut them out. We were then  to use black paint to cover some of the background around the mask to leave some exposed crayon writing.

I  didn't like how my black page looked, even adding in some of the other details introduced in  the class video. I ended up adding more paint and then rubbing some off some of the partially dried paint  to show bits of the writing. I also did some stamping with a row of plastic circles as well as using wax pencils and a bit more paint for the details.

There's not much left of the assignment left on my page . After all my fussing about I like the new background, but I am not crazy about my masked people. Perhaps I should have just painted over them, but it was worth staying at least a little bit true to the lesson.

However, I made 2 more pages based on this class. I'm saving one for another day, but this next page I really like.  I even used the same mask, but I love how these ladies look in their  dresses. (I cut out one upper body and 2 different bottoms-one with pants and one with a skirt).

This time I used bronze metallic paint rather than black. 

I'm linking up to Art Journal Journey and the Favorite Things challenge.  Two of my favorite things is learning something new and rediscovering forgotten techniques. 

Have a great start to your weekend.

 

Toys and Play

Hi everyone. 

Today's journal pages are for the Favorite Things challenge at  Art Journal Journey . This first one is all about supplies and some familiar tools for many of us.

I drew these in my drawing journal, added some actual paint to the brushes and the tubes of paint, and I also stamped a quote. The view is as if you are looking down on a white work space. 

These toys are some of my favorite things!

The only actual name I used is the ones on the 2 markers at the top. I used my box of  F.C. markers to draw this page along with both a black fine point pen and a white Uniball Signo pen. 

 I also finished my page for Day 4 of Creative Jumpstart that I showed you, unfinished, the other day for T.

 I had some blank space in the middle that needed filling, and I figured out what I wanted to put there to fill it in. .

Ignore the shadow of the spirals along the left edge of the page.

That's all for me. Hope your week is going well.

 

Big Moon

 Hi everyone. We're getting close to the middle of January, just a couple of days and we'll be there-already.

Last summer I bought myself this drawing journal. I picked it up because it was a marker journal, and I wanted to try more  marker drawing  without  having the colors seep through onto the next page.

What I didn't plan  was that this journal with so many white pages would be rather intimidating .  I didn't use it for several months. That may sounds strange as I use journals all the time, but I wanted this one for drawing, or should I say in my case, practicing.  Specifically with markers. I'm not as confident marker drawing (at least not yet) as I am splashing paint around on a page.  Although I write my daily journal and use some small marker doodles in that format, moving them onto a large journal page was a little scary.

My next reason for letting it sit was this question. What to practice draw?

I recently convinced myself that I just needed to pick  up the notebook, open it to a page and make some marks. No penciling in a piece first.  Just drawing straight with my markers. Good, bad or whatever.

One of my first pages was just making this rough and tumble plaid out of colors I really like.

Then I realized I could turn this into an art journal page.  This small realization made me excited.

I thought the  ink dropped on paper filter (I made awhile back) looked like the moon, and the colors on it matched my background.  So I rubbed some black and grey ink on my page, not enough to dull it too much but just enough to give a slight idea of night. Then I added the paper moon.

 

Last fall  while watching something bland on TV, I was looking at used rubber stamps on eBay.  I came across a set of 50 stamps that I really liked. There were some  woodblock looking people (you can see them above) dancing and also some other items to create mini scenes. The problem was the price was about twice what I wanted to pay for them, but I bookmarked them anyhow. A couple of days later I got an email from the seller, slashing the price 50%. I guess they must have been sitting online for too long. and when I showed some interested, she figured she might be able to unload them. Since they were right in my price range now, I picked them up. 

I've  used them to create this circle of dancers. A warm summer night dancing  out under the stars with no covid to worry about sounds like fun to me right now. 

I doodled in the musical notes as well as the word dance.

I am linking up to Art Journal Journey and this month's challenge of Favorite Things.  I love the background plaid colors, the dancers wiggling to some funky music, and also this journal. (The paper holds up really well with paint, glue and matte medium too. If you are curious, it is a Bee Creative journal.) Not only do I like my filter paper moon, but the real moon in the sky is also a favorite thing too.

Thanks for visiting my blog!