Happy New Year

Hi everyone. 

 Welcome to 2021. Happy New Year to you!

I can't say my New Year's Eve was anything different from normal, even with Covid.  The hubby and I had a nice dinner and watched quite a few episodes of a Netflix movie .  We're wild ones, aren't we? (Ha-ha-ha).

I want to say a final thank you to Tracey for being a fabulous host last month at Art Journal Journey. I had a lot of fun creating art and telling the stories behind the art. It was also a lot of fun to read those stories. 2020 was a great year at AJJ. There was a lot of inspiration from all the hosts and all the entries. I think 2021 should be great too!

I'm this month's host at Art Journal Journey; and since I like what I wrote over on AJJ homepage, let me repeat myself  a bit.

I think many of us can say that we are glad 2020 is in the books.  It is time to look forward to  many good things, including , hopefully,  a year where we  can get past the  major pandemic issues.

It is also time for a new challenge at Art Journal Journey. I chose Favorite Things as my theme this month.  Starting the new year on a positive note is a good way to begin, don't you agree? Have some fun and make some art about your favorite things. It might be a page about something you love, or perhaps you will use a favorite supply or technique to make your page. Maybe you will just include a favored item within a page. This theme is really open to your personal interpretation. 

 Let's start this year in art with some positive energy.

One of my favorite pastimes is walking, and it seemed an appropriate way to enter the new year. As I hope the new year will be a good one, I have included a rainbow,  a butterfly and flowers. They may be overused  as symbols, but they certainly are things that make many of us happy.

I started my page with a background that was created by taking a wet painted page and squishing it to a plain page. The plain page picked up  these cool blues and greens and became my background.

I first penciled in my walker on the left, so I stamped the footprints on the right (not to interfere with my walker.) I had to play with the walker's hands a lot, and I ended up really pleased with they way they wrapped around the walking stick. The head is a little small in proportion (or maybe I should say the hands are a little big), but even so,  I am not unhappy with that result.

All the flowers are punch out from an Art by Marlene image punch book. When I was looking for flowers I came across the quote and knew it was what my page needed.  I thought the quote by itself on the right side of the page wasn't quite enough, so to keep it positive, I added the rainbow and butterfly. They are also punch outs. 

I am excited to host this month. I am thinking of lots of my favorite things, and I'm looking forward to seeing yours in your art.

I hope to see you over at Art Journal Journey during 2021, and I definitely hope to see you during January. 

Yesterday we had a bit of a warm up. Just enough to make me want to go outside, and not so much to turn my dirt road into mud. The dogs and I took a nice little stroll. Since my page is about walking, here's a few photos I took.

Pete loves to run and leap.

The beaver pond in late December.

My mid-morning walk meant only 1 car passed us, so I let the dogs have a bit of a run. 

Maddie always goes the the drainage ditches on the side of the road. I don't know why.

I am glad I could get outside a few times this week and walk. It always puts me in a good frame of mind. It was a nice way to end the old year.

Have a great start to the new month and new year.

Thanks for visiting.