Sunday in the Art Room

   Hi everyone. Happy new month to everyone. It's also the start of meteorological spring here in the Northern Hemisphere which for me, even though winter weather isn't done in my area yet, is at least a tiny step towards better weather. 👍 This is my second post today since there's a new challenge over at Art Journal Journey. If you want to check out this month's AJJ theme, you can click on the link at the end of the last sentence.

   Today I am joining Nicole for Sunday in the Art Room and Gillena's Sunday Smiles.

   Last week I didn't do a lot of art because I spent some time cleaning out my bookshelves. That project isn't done yet, but while cleaning out my shelves I spread out some old art journals on the bed in the spare room where my bookshelves are. It was very inspiring, and  now I have some new ideas that make me want to get back to art making. Just like in many things, I've been in a bit of a February art slump lately.

   I thought I would share a few pages from another art journal I made several years ago. This is also a cloth journal, but it's different from the one I shared last Sunday. Instead of binding the entire edge, I used a metal snap ring to hold the pages together.

Hope you enjoy it.

     This book is house shaped, and I used pieces of thin cardboard to stiffen the pages. To make it I cut and sewed whatever I was sewing onto each page. Then I took 2 matching pages and with the cardboard in between (the cardboard was just a tiny bit smaller than the pages) I stitched the fronts and backs together.  I sewed a loop onto each complete page to put the metal snap ring through. 

   The first photo is the front. Notice I made the front door able to be opened.

    To get all the faces on the next page I took some old photo booth photos that I had and transferred the images onto some cloth.

On the page below I used a rubber stamp on some white cotton fabric to create the main image. Then I painted in the window, view and cat using the stamped view as my guide.

   You can also see I did some border stamping. I used a variety of machine stitching and some hand stitching on my pages too. 

   

   I found this journal particularly inspiring. I think I must like the theme of home because I found 3 other home themed journals the day I pulled this one out. 😏

   That's all for me. Have a super rest of your weekend and start to the new month also.

Welcome to March

   Hi everyone. Happy new month to you. It's March. Time for spring.💮🤞Or at least we are now another month closer to when spring actually arrives. I'm certainly ready for some nice weather after a long winter with lots of snow and bitter cold in my area.  The good news is the days are getting longer, and the start of the new season (at least meteorologically) has arrived .

   Besides today being the start of meteorological spring. it is time for a new challenge at Art Journal Journey. Thank you Elizabeth  (and Bleubeard too) for hosting last month. You definitely made up for months you didn't post a lot by rocking the number of pages you posted. ❤ And thank you everyone who joined in also. It was fun to see your takes on Elizabeth's challenge.

   Now that it's a new month, we have a new host. I want to welcome back one of our former admins and  talented  hosts. You probably know Chris from her blog Pear Shaped Crafting. This month Chris' theme is SPRING FORWARD.

   My page today is an ode to early spring, before everything greens up.

   I started this page by using some dirty stencils that had stencil paste on them and  cleaning  off the extra paste on my page. Once dry, I used some Chocolate Baroque rubber stamps and a couple of shades of brown ink to create the spring view of a grassy field. I fussy cut both birds from a sheet of printed paper. After they were glued on, I highlighted their beaks with a yellow marker, and I used a bit of light green paint along the bottom to finish off my early spring field. 

   I also stamped a couple of dragonflies, though I do know you don't really see those insects so early in spring (at least around my area). They did fill the background nicely. 

   Then I had this piece of printed acetate on my desk, which I thought worked well as a countdown until real spring weather arrives. I also thought it looked better with this bow that I snipped off an old greeting card.  Finally I stamped  the  quote which is from a very very old Hero Arts set about the month of March.

   Let me remind you of our dreaded rules. We only accept art journaling, but any type of art journal. Please, NO cards, tags, ATCs etc. unless they are attached to a journal page. Also, not all of us admins have every social media type, so please make your link through an online blogging site, unless of course you don't want us to comment. 

  I am really ready for spring this year, and I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of spring themed pages. When I say I can't wait to see what you post, I really do need some spring in my life right now, and until I actually get it, your posts will be taking care of that wish.