Funny Toucans

 Hi everyone. I hope everyone's having  a nice weekend. 

It's very hot and humid here again this weekend, before we get another cool down this upcoming week. 

I'm up early today as I need to head off to Massachusetts for my niece's bridal shower. The shower is at 11, and I have a  2+ hour drive, as long as there's no traffic to slow me down. And last night we had a wedding in Maine. I responded to both of the RSVP's when both covid numbers and gas prices were much lower than they are now. I guess next week I will be testing to be sure I didn't catch covid, even though I did/will mask up for much of these events, but you can't eat nor drink with a mask on, can you? 

The wedding was  fun though. Much of the wedding was actually outside, and it luckily was much cooler at the coast than it was at home.  The bride at the wedding has known my daughter since they were 2 years old, and I know both her and  her mom and step dad quite well.  And my niece is my  only niece not through marriage. Since her mom died of breast cancer a few years ago, I feel like I needed to go and be there for her.  Plus, she is my niece, and I want to enjoy this part of her life with her. I'm sad that I can't stop on my way home from the shower and visit my mom though, as I go right through the area where she lives. Her assisted living is in the midst of a covid outbreak, and they are requesting no visitors until it settles down. It is probably best since I'll have been to the 2 events, but it's time for a visit.

Enough  babbling. Today I have another  bird page for Matilde's challenge over at Art Journal Journey.

Several years ago when I was still teaching I went on a school sponsored trip to Costa Rica where I saw wild toucans. My page today is inspired by not only that adventure, but also by this fun set of toucan stamps I have.

I started my page by inking some foam stamps and stamping them on my page. I used purple and red ink with the stamps. I used green ink for most of the background. I was trying to create a very abstract rain forest, or at least the feel of one.  I left some whitish space where I wanted to stamp my toucans. Then I stamped my toucans directly on the page, and I colored in the toucans  with markers, as well as giving them a few details too.  

I then stamped the flower (which I also used white ink to color), some small background images, and the small words which are all from my toucan stamp set. Finally I used a stencil and a Sharpie to  add the large phrases.

This would have made a great travel journal page, although that was one trip that I never created a travel journal about when I got home. (I was also getting college credit for the trip so  when I  came  home I had to write  a paper instead.)  Oh well, if I ever go back on my own maybe I'll collect enough "items" to make a journal.

That's all for me. If I don't get by your blog today, I will do some catching up tomorrow.

Have a great start to the new week.