Fall Flowers

Happy December everyone. We're already in the last month of 2018! Wow! 

Today I am joining in for Bleubeard and Elizabeth's challenge over at Art Journal Journey. This is a page from my calendar journal which seems really out of place here in New Hampshire right now, since we are crisp with some  crusty snow still on the ground. The tall flowers were already in the calendar for coloring, but I added the small stamped ones, the words, the yellow background spots and also stamped the postmark.  It is a nice fall garden view. One thing I love about the seasons is that they each have their own color, and these are definitely the colors of autumn.

I also have a flash back to 2014 and a card I made for a niece at Christmas which I am linking over at Second on the Second, also over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's. 

I made a little pocket on the backside to enclose her gift and die cut the skate from a Sizzix skate die.

You can see the full post here: Saturday Afternoon Project.

I'm off on a weekend mini-road trip so I probably won't get to link this up until later tomorrow.

Happy new month and thanks so muc for visiting.

Saturday Joy

Hi everyone. I am very happy it is Saturday, and I got a much needed sleep in. :) Today's plan is a much needed house cleaning (or at least starting it) and some art all afternoon.  I will even get the house to myself for a few hours which sounds heavenly to me.

Before Thanksgiving I started a holiday journal. It's in a big old book  snagged from the discard pile at my school library.

At about 1500 pages it leaves me lots of room to pull out pages and still have lots of pages to alter, and the best part is I can use it again next year (and probably for a few years) because I will never manage to alter all the remaining pages in one season.

I was excited to see Sheila's latest challenge over at Art Journal Journey. The theme is Let's Celebrate,  which means my holiday journal pages link up with AJJ. Great choice of a theme Sheila.

My first one is called the dancer. I didn't really have any plans for this theme when I started.

I started this page using the top layer of a red city napkin-which you can see on the left.  But I noticed the second napkin layer still had a light imprint of the upper part on it and that was way too good to waste, so I added to to the right. Then I painted the dark night sky and added the little metal stars to fill in the space between the top of the page and the napkin.

OK, now what? So I went through my box of Christmas paper and stickers and found these sticker sheets  I bought last year after the holiday. They are actually tags and other images from the Nutcracker which are meant to decorate gifts. I got 2 packages for like 99 cents and to me why waste them on gifts? So I added the mouse, the dancer and the 2 big stars. They seem to fit in the city theme.

The quote is my own and it's pretty silly.

The lighting is terrible because the hubby snagged one of my best work lights for one of his plumbing projects, but I should get it back today. :) He's an excellent plumber and as I write he is getting my bathroom back in shape. (More happy Saturday news)

And since this is a Colorful piece, I am also linking up to Try It On Tuesday.
And before I forget (because I did at first), it is December second, which means it is time to join in over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog with a repost. I am going back to December of 2015.
Here's a link to post: Winter.
And here's the journal page that I showed you that day.

Since I was a little rate remembering it was the second and came back to add this in, I will get by everyone's posts later since it is after 11 AM and I have chores to accomplish.

And the moonrise last night was pretty spectacular.

 I snapped these on my phone. why is why there is no close up shots. But I think the bare tree branches looks pretty cool.

Time to get some projects done  instead of sitting here on the couch. Have a great weekend!

Back With Some Art

Hope everyone's week has been good. Mine was a bit crazy, but life has been that way all year so what's new? But the heat has gone and the weather of the last couple of days has been gorgeous, so I will be happy with those small things.

Here's a journal page for today.

I am linking this page to both Paint Party Friday  and Art Journal Journey. Thanks to Kristen and Eva for hosting PPF.  And this month's theme at AJJ is TIME. Thanks to Yvonne for hosting.

So my page is on the theme of time.  I started with watercolor paper and first used some transparent molding paste on it, then I painted the page so you can just make out the trees and the moon. Then I did a lot of stamping, both directly on the page and on paper. The paper images were colored and fussy cut out.

So my time idea is story time, so I stamped this cute little girl on her chair (B Line Design) and then added all the story characters. None of them are actually story specific images, but they are things you can find in all kinds of books and stories.

So my husband is taking today off to HOPEFULLY finish his part of the ceiling so I can finally get my living room back together. The room's been pulled apart for 5 weeks now so we could replace our water stained ceiling-get rid of all the reminders of last winter! It is exciting hoping that I'll be able to get my house a little bit back in order.

And who knows what's up this weekend? Do you have any plans?

 I hope whatever you do it is wonderful.

Thanks for stopping by!

Time is Flying

Happy May Day
! I can't believe April is over! I can't believe my vacation week has flown by so quickly!

Well, yes I can believe it because time always seems to fly by, especially when the weather is improving and the days are getting so much noticeably longer.
Its been a good but busy week, not as much Rand R as I thought there would be, but that is also a true fact about vacations. You always think you are going to have more time to do more things than there you actually do.And more downtime too.

So this week I have some vacation art to show you.

 These are intaglio Gelli prints. I made them by using some foam board, a pencil and a ruler. I carved lines in the foam board. Then I rolled black acrylic paint over the foam board and pulled a print directly off the foam board to take off the black surface paint. But that still left black paint in my pencil carvings, so when I then laid the foam board paint side down on the Gelli plate and rolled it again, the paint in the creases left an intaglio style print which I could them print onto my paper. 

Here's my foam board.

 I used my Silks paints to color in the sections, and then I used black pens, white pens and a bit of black Sharpie to make the Zentangle designs.

I used a little Copic coloring too.

And on this one I stamped a bunch of images along with the Zentangle doodling and coloring.
And I think the orange house is finished. The colors are off, but it was pretty cloudy yesterday afternoon so I snapped these on my work table (right after I finished up). I'll get a better shot on some sunny day for you. (Also the markers on the bottom edges don't help.)

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by, While you're at it head over to Paint Party Friday and check out what some great artistic people have been up to.
(And as always, thanks to Eva and Kristen for hosting.)

Yahoo! It is Friday!

Happy Friday everyone! This Friday is especially a good one for me since I start my week long vacation after work is finished today. No big plans but some little jaunts in the planning. I've been holding off scheduling anything since I love the feeling of having  whole open week. Guess it is time to actually decide what I might do before the week is over, but truthfully the idea of being low key is really appealing. A little yard work, some reading, some art time, finishing a few little cleaning projects....sounds decadent and fantastic to me.

So this week I've had a lot going on; I caught a little virus which put me to bed with a bad headache, and I also went with my husband to his  kidney transplant orientation down in Boston.  I did manage to squish in a little art the other evening, including some work on some paintings. The orange house piece is almost finished, and I will show you that next week, but I did start another piece.

The yellow chair!

The chair is a bit out of proportion but I have plans for that. Plus, I kind of like its small seat and the  too tall  back quirkiness.

I have been using up the extra left over paint on my palette to make some backgrounds.

These are nothing special, but these backgrounds have turned into some journal pages.

Next week I really want to spend a morning or afternoon with my gelli plate and do some printing. My painted  paper stash is very  low right now so it is time to replenish, plus I want to make some spring/summery colored pages. I really should get a small plate that they now have. I have a big plate, but I tend to pull it out only when I go into mass printing mode. Not that that is a bad thing, but I think maybe I would use a smaller plate on a more regular basis.

Maybe use- that's the key phrase there.

So update on my husband's kidney situation:  it looks like we'll be able to do a transplant in the fall. Smile. (But it is still kind of scary!) Right now we have 3 active people who are willing to donate a kidney to him, myself included. We have 3 other people who have mentioned they would, but we have to see if they actively want to get involved.  It is way too big of an issue to ask people, but the hope is we can do it in October or November and then be able to move forward with this bump in road in our lives.

I still can't get over where life can put you-unexpectly.

I'm sure many or most or even all of you know that, but it never fails to surprise me.

Linking this week's work to Paint Party Friday. Thanks to Eva and Kristen for doing this every week. If you haven't been or haven't been by recently, be sure to stop by and check out all the clever and cool pieces people post.

Hope everyone has some fun weekend plans and thanks for stopping by my blog!

Dragons, Fish and Snow-Oh My!

Here's a journal page I recently made. I actually had used this dragon stencil on another page with some spray ink, and this dragon was made by flipping over the wet stencil and pressing this negative image onto a clean piece of paper. Then I added lots of various colored paints and got this look.

This dragon is one of my favorite pages. I like the movement he seems to have and how all his colors  really look natural to me. Such a long way from the white page he started out on.

And here's a doodle journal page. I did this away from my play space and I didn't have a white pen. That's the one thing I wish I had  used on this page, but I am otherwise happy with my silly and slightly ugly fishies.

Its all about the play.

This artful play has been helping me cope with my husband's kidney issues. What a couple of weeks it has been.  Kidney issues were the last thing on our minds when the hubby wasn't feeling well at the end of January and now we are starting to prepare ourselves for the fact he is going to need a kidney transplant down the road. All this in less than a month. Yeeks!  

But the good news is my vacation starts today after work. Not that I have anything wildly exotic planned. I am just thrilled to be off from work. Sleeping in,  hopefully painting a wall in my daughter's old bedroom then getting my bookshelves put together (finally) and my books moved into them once the wall is done.  Time to get those long IKEA boxes off my living room floor (finally again). I am hoping for naps in the afternoon,  time to bake something quite yummy, and maybe a little day trip or something I haven't yet thought up. I might even be decadent and spend a whole day in my pajamas reading in bed and sipping hot tea-getting up only to make another cup of tea. That's the best part about the start of a vacation break-all the potential.

I have just one wish-No Snow!

But somehow I doubt that's going to happen.

I think all this snow and ice in my backyard will be here until July!

Thanks for stopping by my blog, and please check out all the great art at 

Paint Party Friday. It will be worth your time, I promise.

A Few Little Things

Here's a journal page I made a little while back.

There's a lot going on with it. I like all the detail layers in the background. I made it with a lot of stenciled layers. Also some spraying. And it all started with a small Gelli print on a large piece of watercolor paper. I like the colors I used too.

I like the stars and even the flowers. I guess I am pretty happy with this journal page.

Ha-ha.

And here's a few unfinished tags I've also been working on.

I'll warn you, they are in really an early stage and still need a lot of work.

Just me, experimenting and working on a bunch little pieces all at once...well doing  little bit on this tag and then a little bit of that on another tag.

I found this background stamp while cleaning out the other day and boy do I love it.

Its always nice to come across something you forgot you had.

I've got a few ideas how to finish this  tag too.

Once I do that I'll post it again.

With a little more TLC they will hopefully shape up into a finished form.

This kingly one looks a little bit muddled.

Lately I've been playing with tags. I like the size of tags, and I am thinking of binding them all into a book once I get tired of making tags.

This tag needs some coloring TLC and a word of some sort. Or something else!

But I think it will finish up just fine.

Funny how photos really show you the flaws in your coloring.

Posting this to Paint Party Friday. Stop by to check out what some talent people have been up to!

Yesterday I took a trip back to my favorite craft store that is clearing out the entire inventory (but they claim not permanently closing). I bought some paints and some brushes. I bought a few more stamps and some more blank tags. A few Copics and a couple of Fudball pens. All marked down!  I once again tried to only buy things that really interested me and things I use..not just buying to buy. Its always fun to get some things you've had your eye on for awhile.  Hopefully this weekend I'll have some time to play.

So do you have any fun plans this weekend? 

We've got the super bowl on Sunday, and deflategate or not, go Pats!

Hope you enjoy yours.

Journal Views

So this background was in my pile of ready to use pages. To me the red dripping paint drops  look like bleeding hearts-they formed randomly when I made this page.  And since they were on the Eiffel Tower, this page made me think of the tragedy that happened in Paris last week.

 So I made this page.

The color is a bit bright here, but my photo cut off the edges of the page.At least the page doesn't have that grey tone indoor photos often get.

The color on this view is a bit dark but you can see the page edges better. The very edge of the entire page is outlined with gold paint.

Freedom to speak and live a life you chose is an important right for all of us. 

It is really tragic when someone tries to take that away. 

That's all I will say about that even though I could say a lot more.

OK, let me realign my thoughts and move over to lighter topics.

 It is finally the weekend for me-after a never ending week.

And I have a long weekend too-yahoo!

 I am really excited about that. I have a few little plans, and I am hoping for a little play time too. Nothing big planned, but that's not a bad thing.

I got my markers all organized on my work table this past week.. I bought 3 of these marker holders over the past couple of months on Amazon, and I have been bit by bit reorganizing.

Makes me happy!

I can slide them under my shelf and it has made a lot more space on my table. I used to use some old coffee mugs to hold my makers and pens, but they were a little too high to slide under shelf, and hence sat out more in my work space. Plus, now all my colors are more organized and it is a lot easier to find what I want.

Smile! 

Hope there's something fun in your life this weekend!

Thanks for stopping by.

And check out Paint Party Friday for some great art, great stories and a great place for people to connect.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone. Can you believe it is 2015?

 I've been enjoying a vacation this past week. I've done some cleaning in my studio and around my house, went to the movies and saw WILD and also the last segment of the Hobbit series, have taken a few beach walks, read and have been watching last season's Downtown Abbey getting ready for season 5 which starts airing here in the States this coming Sunday.

I've also had some art time-Yahoo!- I spent the other morning gelli printing and painting and stenciling and just making some backgrounds to use later on.

What fun!

This one is my favorites. I used some Golden liquid acrylic to make the drips, and I love how they just randomly turned out to look like hearts.

The Eiffel Tower stencil is from Sheena. I used it a lot.

I made some of my backgrounds on watercolor paper and some of them on deli paper.

Back on Black Friday Stencil Girl had had an on-line sale, and I picked up a few new stencils.  I hadn't had a chance to use any of them, until I made these pages that is. The birds are quite fun.

And I love the bunnies too. I kept layering and layering on this page until I finally got something I liked.

 I was using some Liquitex Basic paint and it seemed to be drying awfully fast. I think it had to do with the heater I was running and the cold late December air being pretty dry. The Liquitex soft body acrylics seemed to stay moist longer. I got a much better page from them, and was able to get a few more presses on my Gelli plate.

So that's all for me today. Enjoy your weekend. Hop on over to Paint Party Friday to check out all the fabulous art that links in every week.

I've also linked to Art Journal Every Day. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Rich Texture

Happy Friday everyone. Glad you took a moment or two to stop by.

I love the texture on this page. I started with a gelli print and then I layered some stenciling in red paint over that.  I took the back  piece off a sticky felt cut out (I used the felt on another page I made), you know the part you are supposed to throw away, and used matte medium to attach it onto this page. I thought the cut out design  was too pretty just to waste.

Then I added some painted writing washi tape, doodling and this lovely dove which is an ancient Penny Black rubber stamp.  I've used this stamp a lot in the past several years, and I still seem to go back it.

I also added some sequins. They didn't photograph as sparkly as they really look but do make the page a bit more festive.

Speaking of festive, my daughter and I did some gingerbread playing the other day.

We made these  Snoopy doghouse gingerbread houses. They came in a kit we had bought. This one above us is hers.

This is mine  Big red frosting mess! Ha-ha!

We laughed and laughed and had a good time making them.

Amd last night I went out with a few lady friends to celebrate one of their birthdays. We went to the British Beer Company. I had a yummy Shepard Pie Pasty.

Don't know how British that food is or not. I know about Cornish pasty. That's British.  I know about Shepard's pie, but not sure if that is a British Food or not. Either way, it was delish.

When we left it was snowing and with the white lights of the city, it was really pretty. This photo didn't quite pick up the snow, but the lights are still pretty-in their fuzzy grey way.

I wish I had my camera and had walked around checking out the holiday decorations. Instead I left to go home and got stuck in the end of the work traffic so my 45 minute ride took twice as long.

Oh boy.

I am linking this page to Paint Party Friday.  Check out everyone's contributions this week here Paint Party Friday

Thanks for visiting and stop back again soon!

Today Yesterday Now

Hi there! I took last week off for Thanksgiving break. It was Black Friday here in the US and the hubby and I went out and did some shopping. But I'm back today with a journal page that's different for me. Lots of red and I put my images and words on the bottom.  I let the paint and stenciled background speak for itself.

Then I added the little squirrel die cuts because this page just called out for them. Something a little whimsical.

I don't know where this page came from since when I get up most mornings lately it isn't very bright. Such a dark time of year.  I use a light alarm to get up on those still night like mornings for work, and it broke when I put it on this past Monday. Now I am using the alarm clock  and how I hate to wake up to noise. Having the room get slowly light is such an easier way to wake up.

Hopefully Santa will think to get me a new Biobrite light!

I've also been dealing with my mom's dementia a lot this week. We now have a social worker involved so hopefully we can get her securely placed in a some type of care facility soon.

Just getting to this point is exhausting, but knowing we have some help is a huge relief.

That's it for me today. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

An Elf and Golden Deer

Yahoo! It is Friday. I've had a crazy busy week and am really ready for the weekend!

I showed you this page awhile back.  I did a bunch of stenciling and spray painting and then didn't know how to finish off the page.

This past weekend I did some magazine cutting and some die cutting and finished it off in a rather silly way.

Been trying to push the envelope a bit lately. Try new things. Do something I wouldn't usually do. 

I think page is a good example of that for me. 

But I must admit it is really fun to push that envelope. Trying new color combinations. New layerings of stencils. Saying what the heck and just trying it. 

I also like the double take view on this page. By flipping the stencil  and having slightly different base painting I got 2 different views. 

Something good to know about this stencil...and true for other stencils that are similar.

And pulling out a very old stamp from Postmodern Design was fun. If you've been stamping awhile, remember all the great quotes you used to be able to buy? Wordsworth? Postmodern Design? Even Penny Black used to have all those big and awesome quotes. I love quote stamps, but now a days you just can't find them the same way. There's a lot of great card quote stamps, but not so many big quotes-just plain quotes, There's still some, Oh well, trends came and go and  probably better for me because it takes away the temptation to buy them.

Ha-ha!

So any plans for the weekend? I'm going to hockey game tomorrow night and hopefully having some relaxing down time the rest of the weekend. Ready to play and sleep in and just not have to function on a schedule.  Between my busy week and the colder and even a bit snowy weather this past week, my brain is telling me its time to hibernate, but I am not ready (or able) to do that yet.

 Glad you stopped by and wishing you a great weekend!

Splatters

I haven't had a lot of art time this past week, seems like there's been a million little things and about 100 big things keeping me out of my play space.  But I did manage to squeeze in a little bit of more paper doll playing.

I really am addicted.

This time I stamped 2 different images and then cut the heads off so I could switch them.

Gives me even more opportunities to create some new people.

Love it!

This gal would also make a good jazz singer I think too. In that long dress she looks like she could be on stage. Maybe not the devil about to poke her though.

I also played some more with Pan Pastels on this page. I'm learning how to use them and how they work!

Love learning new things!

And I've had some other fun this past week in the non-art department.

The other night I got to go see one of my favorite biologists speak at a local theater. It was really interesting and a fun evening out with several of my co-worker friends.

He just published the second book of his trilogy about humans on Earth.  I haven't read the book, but I have read some of his other books. Like his ant book. He can make ants  fascinating. Who would ever think ants were that exciting? (But they really are. OK I am a GEEK!)

EO Wilson is 85 and still got a lot to say. I'm glad I got to hear him speak.

Before the presentation I did a bit of walking around Portsmouth and came across this pirate.

I saw this fun saying in a window display but had a hard time getting it to  photograph clearly.

Think this is still a cool photo.

And here's some last blooms in my garden.

This daisy like chrysanthemum's originally came from my Grandmother's garden, then to my mother's and then some clippings to me. I love how they give some last of summer beauty.

So this weekend I am hoping for some quiet time. I've got a bookshelf to assemble and some books to organize. Plus I want to play in the play space. I need some art time to help me cope with life's challenges (like my 85 year old mother and new administrators at work that are trying to change everything). How about you? Up to anything exciting? Or are you looking for some relaxing down time like me?