Wrapping Up February- the Weekend Post

Hi everyone. I wanted to share one more page for Valerie's Heavy metal challenge at Art Journal Journey before February is over.

Thanks Valerie for such a fun challenge. I had a lot of fun playing with metals  this past month. I really liked coming up with  ways to use metal or metallic elements in my pages.

My background on this page is much more complex than what I put onto it. I really like the light watery colors with the pop of some gold.  I started by drawing circles, coloring them in with markers, and then scribbling some writing in them.  Step 2 was to use a white crayon and scribble write around all the circles.  I then used some watered down acrylic paints to color the background.

To finish the background I took out my gold paint and painted some wax paper and also stamped some paint rings around my circles.

Finally I added black  marks to my now dry painted wax paper, crinkled it up and tore it into the pieces which I attached with matte medium to my page.

I love my background, but it didn't seem finished by itself. To complete it I decided to add the butterfly. I left it black and white for some contrast to all that's  going on in the background.

The butterfly is stamped and fussy cut, and the quote is a punch out.

The daffodils I shared in my post the other day  are now  withered  so I'll share this bouquet of tulips I've replaced them with.

You can probably tell, that like many of you, I'm waiting (impatiently) for spring.

Enjoy your weekend!

Assorted Friday Art

 Hi everyone. Today I have some assorted art to share as we start to wrap up the month of February.

I have another page for Valerie's Heavy metal challenge at Art Journal Journey.

This is also my page for February 7 with Cheiron Brandon at Creative Jumpstart. In this lesson we were creating a story with TH relatives and a created background. 

I decided I was in the mood to collage so I went my own way and used up a few scraps which is how my page came to be what it is.

I made my background by first doodling one night while watching tv. I wanted to do something with this background pattern so I  collaged some printed tissue paper and some left over wrapping paper.  I added a few pieces of  ruler printed tape, a piece of sanded down gold paper (it was too shiny if you can believe that), some word circle stickers as well as these ladies with their apple. This page still needed some more pop and the ladies needed something to sit on so I added the brown metal paper trim as well as the copper medallion. This is the first time I tried out this die and some metallic paper, and I must say I love the results.

I think background is still looking like individual pieces not a complete finished background, but it is what it is going to be, at least for now. Smile!

 My story is about these 2 ladies, Eleanor and Gloria, who are teachers. Eleanor on the left was given an apple by her students. I don't know if that is a worldwide idea or not, but giving an apple to your teacher is a way to show appreciation. She must really be loved because she got one giant apple! Gloria doesn't seem to mind not getting one, but being that big, Eleanor's could be easily shared .

And I have a little more art to share today.

Last Friday I showed you the little frivolous spring book I made (post here if you are interested: Watercolor Book #2)  There were still a few empty pages that I've now completed  from this project, and I thought I would share those today also.

After reviewing my post I noticed how light these last pages feel compared to the my first piece. I guess it's much like this month has been. Cold days and then for a few days earlier this week, some beautiful spring like weather. Now we're back to some colder temperatures.

That's all for me. Have a great start to your weekend.

Metallic Stars

Hi everyone. 

This month is winding down.  I  still have a couple of pages I want to share for Valerie's Heavy Metal challenge at Art Journal Journey before the month ends. Here's one of those pages. 

I used a Gelli printed page and then did some stamping. I added some images and also some little plastic beads along the bottom to create some texture.

I still needed some metal, so I added some silver and gold glitter to the stamped stars. I'm not sure how well that shows up in the photo above so here's a close up.

I'll finish off my post with a few beach walk photos from last week. No stars or even sun as it was another cloudy  (there's been way too many of them this month) day. These clouds were from the oncoming  second snow  that would move in that night.

There were also a lot of washed up lobster traps that day. 

If you look carefully you can count 5 in this next photo.

The signs of the shipwreck I have shown you before were all covered over by sand also. 

 Just these ducks were in the area now.

The beach was really empty that day because it was RAW and COLD! We only did one lap that day instead of our usual 2, although I don't think the cold bothered Pete. I pulled my big fleece collar (used as my walking mask because it doesn't steam up my glasses) down off my face for this photo.  It is NOT my usual go  out mask, but I did have that one in my pocket.

My favorite sky view is here.

Hope your day goes or is going well.

Thanks for stopping to visit.

 

Memories of Japan

Hi everyone. 

I want to share another page for Valerie's Heavy Metal challenge at Art Journal Journey This page once again  has a Japanese theme. My inspiration came from the scraps of the deep purple paper  I used on my page. They reminded me of purple silk kimono fabric.

I used a stencil and some gold paint to create the interesting marks on the background. I am not sure they are Japanese writing or just fascinating marks. They do look Japanese/Asian however.

I also used some metallic Sharpies to color in parts of the kimono.  I added a little more metal also. I  had this brass charm that I painted with some gold paint before I stitched it onto the page.

I've been looking through travel photo books and my various trip journals a lot lately. This cold wintery weather and the fact that it's been a year since I've ventured far has me feeling a little bit restless to go someplace.

 I probably wouldn't be wanting to go away as much if I actually could go someplace, but since I'm not able to go away, I want to go someplace. I think I have something that  should be called covid related vacation sickness. Smile.

Let me share a few more random photos from when I traveled to Japan with my school in 2018. A little more arm chair traveling to compensate for no real travel.

The bamboo forest, Kyoto

Lighthouse view, from south of Nichinan

Sign in park on hilltop, Nichinan. And also on that hilltop, a vending machine. The Japanese love their  vending machines, and we found them in so many unexpected places.

Looking down on Nichinan.

Fans in a shop window.

Mt. Fuji from the window of a bullet train.

Tokyo sunset from my hotel room window.

At a Shinto shrine in Nichinan.

Seaweed shop, Kyoto

Covered shopping area, Kyoto.

Shrine, Tokyo. This is a wall of sake barrels.  Below is a close up. They are art pieces in themselves.

Fascinating wall of lanterns in Tokyo.

Thanks for visiting.

 

T Stands for Scenes from Last Week

 Hi everyone.  Time for another T day. Since last week's T I've taken a lot of photos and thought I would share some of them.

Last T day we had a little bit of snow that turned into an ice storm. This was the tail end of one of the storms that really wrecked havoc in parts of the US. I hope if you were  one of those without  power and heat, that they are now back and you didn't suffer from broken pipes and flooding.

When the sun came out the next day, it was really beautiful, but wintery.

Friday morning I rode into Boston with my husband when he had an appointment at Massachusetts General Hospital. He's fine, but since he had a kidney transplant there almost 4 years ago he has become a permanent patient . Usually he just does monthly blood work and an over the phone check in, but every now and again he needs to be seen. I was worried about the roads being bad  driving into the city as this was the tail end of storm #2. This storm  also caused a lot of havoc in other parts of the US.

I think a lot of folks must have thought the same thing about heading out in the snow because the traffic was very  very light. It was a surprise, but hurrah for that.

The snow seem to be falling all day but didn't accumulate much until later in the evening.

I waited in the car because it was raw and wet outside, and with Covid I can't go into the waiting room. I read my book, and my husband was back soon enough.

I didn't have much of a view however.

We needed lunch on our way home as it is a just under 2 hours drive each way, and we went through a Chick Fil-A. Not that we're fast food folks, but we're not eating in restaurants yet,  and we were hungry. I have never seen workers anywhere wearing these fun little "weather tents" before.

Of course I forgot to take a photo of anything to do with our lunch.

In between stormy days I took a trip to down into Portsmouth to go to Trader Joe's to grocery shop.  They had their daffodil bunches. It didn't take long for them to bloom once I got them home in water. That gave  me a smile.

Oh yes, and I need to show you a drink photo for T. My husband took me out for lunch on Valentine's Day. We'd done our "dump" (waste/recycling center) trip, driven by the winter carnival in the town next to ours (photos here if you are interested Flowers for You post), and then we headed to see what was going on on the lake  one more town to the north.. This town was very quiet with barely anyone out and about, so we stopped for a sandwich.

 It was very romantic. Smile.

We split a sandwich and ate it in the car in the parking lot.

And it was a very good sandwich!

Be sure to stop by  Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog where we share our drink related posts. 

Just think, next week it will be March. Hurrah for that! 

Thanks for visiting and have a great week.