Time for a New Challenge at Try It On Tuesday

   Hi everyone. Happy Tuesday.  Since it's Tuesday it's time for a new challenge over at Try It on Tuesday.

   Thank you everyone who joined our Pretty Papers challenge. There were lots of pretty papers which I enjoyed seeing. (And of course, lots of great creations from those papers too.) ❤

    For the next 2 weeks our challenge is Animals (Real or Imaginary).  I had a hard time deciding what animal or animals to pick, but then I thought I'd go with something a little different and chose turtles.

    I was inspired by this old Hero Arts turtle stamp since he's carrying the world on his back. 

    I started by gluing down some scraps of paper, and then using some turquoise ink and this interesting background stamp I finished my background. I stamped, colored and fussy cut the turtle. It's a great image, and I believe many native North American cultures believe that a turtle created the world. I would imagine there are some other cultures that believe that also, but I'm not a world mythology specialist so I don't know off the top of my head.

    I added a couple of turtle stickers, as well as a piece of a navigation map. I framed the map using a cardboard frame  I also used a bit scrap trim off my work table down on the bottom right. Then I finished my page with a quote off the same Hero Arts stamp set that the turtle came from.

   And don't forget to stop by and check  the design teams blogs too. There are so many animals out there that there is almost an unlimited choice of topics. 

   I'm looking forward to seeing your creations and seeing what animals people pick for their entry(ies).

Creepy Crawly and Then Some

    Hi everyone. Happy Friday. I hope your week is going well. This post has several link ups in it, mainly because there are Friday challenges I like to join and also the month is winding down so I have some art challenges to join too. 

    Let me start with another  art journal page since these 2 challenges are ending soon. Today's piece is for Mia's Background challenge at Art Journal Journey. I am also linking up to this month Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge # 119. There challenge there is always Anything Goes, but you must use at least 3 types of media on your page.

      

   I started my page by inking a TH insect stamp with black ink and then stamping it several times all over my page. I then used a brown watercolor crayon and colored in some spots. After that I used a wet paintbrush to smush the color around the background. Some of the black ink wasn't quite 100% dry so it smushed that black with it. 

   I then used a small stamp and some red ink as well as adding  a scrap of red mesh I found in my stash. I then added some plastic rings (also from my stash) to create a design on the red mesh. Finally I used some red stickers to create my phrase.

  You might have noticed I hadn't been posting for a bit. My husband, myself and our 2 dogs took a trip to Maine where we then caught a ferry and headed over to Nova Scotia, Canada for 10 days. I still haven't really been able to do much with my photos from my adventure to Maine and Nova Scotia, but I thought I'd share a few random photos again just to wrap up my post. 

    I'll start with this silly view of my and my husband's faces for Nicole's Friday Face Off  and also for Gillena's  Friday Lunch Break .

     The downside of traveling with dogs is having to keep a large supply of poop bags on hand.  The dogs were great overall. They'd sleep as late (or as early) as we did. They rarely barked, and they love snoozing in the car. It helps that they're 11 and 12 years old too, and the weather was cool enough we could leave them to relax in the car here and there.

    I didn't know Nova Scotia had its own tartan plaid. Of course Nova Scotia means New Scotland, so I'm not surprised.

    This is a sign of one of the driving loops we took while driving out on Cape Breton. Cape Breton is the far eastern island in Nova Scotia. It's connected to the mainland by a causeway. I'll have a couple of posts later about this area of the province.

     Here we are getting ready to line up for the ferry in Bar Harbor, Maine. That ferry  would take us to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia in an approximate 3.5 hour trip. On the trip heading over the ferry wasn't very full, but on the trip back the ferry was at full capacity.

We stayed in a mix of hotels and Air B&B's.  One of the cabins we stayed in had this great deck with a gorgeous view (more about that some other time). Here's Miss Maddie relaxing in the late afternoon.

   It's not often I see yellow asters in bloom. I love autumn wildflowers, and we saw a lot of them.

   Our trip was a mix of nature, local history and local culture. Here's a view from a museum we visited about Alexander Graham Bell. Who knew he did so many interesting things? I thought he just invented the telephone. This is just a tease so I'll share more about that in a later also.

    And finally, some wildlife. We saw so many deer on our trip, as well as a few other animals.

    That's all for me. Have a wonderful end of your week and weekend ahead.

Wrapping Up July

  Hi everyone. It’s almost the end of July, and today I am sharing my final journal page for Halle’s Botanical challenge at Art Journal Journey. My page has a bit of a fall feel, but with the heat many of us have been dealing with, in many ways the chill of fall sounds fantastic. Of course, I'm really not trying to rush the year nor the arrival of autumn, I just wish it wouldn't be quite so hot. 😏

  My page today  is from my Nature Journal.

     I started by using yellow and orange ink on my background, and then I added 2 pieces of tissue paper with some birds and writing on it. After that I stamped the quote (not sure what company made this quote stamp but it was wood mounted.) Then I sprayed the page with some sepia colored spray ink to give the background a little more depth. Finally, to finish, I added a couple of laser cut images from 49 and Market as well as a crow cut out of some clear tape.

    Thank you Halle for hosting and also for picking such a great challenge theme too. I loved it. I hope you had fun too and want to join us again another year. I also want to thank everyone who joined in. Of course it's only July 30, so there's still a little bit of time to link up a botanical journal page if you'd like. 😉

    Let me end this post with some other botanicals. Since I am obsessed with flowers, I hope you also enjoy these views. And they are definitely signs of summer.

    And if you've made it this far, I'll finish this post with a visitor who stopped by my house last evening.

Can you notice Mama hiding in the background?

Have a great rest of the month.

 

Thursday Art

      Hi everyone Happy Thursday. I hope your week is going well. When I was scheduling this post last week I accidentally forgot to fix the date, so it posted for  a short time before I noticed that mistake. I only mention that because if it looks familiar, that's why.

       We're in the heat and humidity, so today is going to be an inside day with the AC running. I'm actually excited for an art day because I don't get them as much as I'd like lately between working, gardening, and other things in life. 😏

     Today I have some art for a couple of challenges. I'll start with Halle's Botanical challenge at Art Journal Journey.

    My page feels a little bit like fall, but I think that's because I chose the colors for the grass that I did. I really like this stamp, and grasses are really overlooked plants. Especially tall wild species that get pretty seed heads and even colors.

     I started using  brown paint and a stencil to create the sun-like image. Then I stamped the grass ( from an older Paper Artsy set by Lin Brown) using brown, yellow and orange Versafine Clair ink. After that I colored the sky with some blue watercolor paint. I'm not sure who made the stamp set with the words I stamped along the bottom of the age, but they all came from 1 set. Then I used a bit of washi tape at the bottom, added the gold foil paper sun and also a couple of cloth clouds from an old set of sticker by Studio Calico.

    Since I have so many types of media on my page, I am also linking up to Challenge #117 at Creative Artiste Mixed Media blog where there challenge is always Anything Goes.

   Today I also have a tag for Tag Along and ATC's   too. This month Brenda chose the theme which is In the Garden or Anything Goes. 

     I made this tag by starting with this die cut piece of white paper. The woman's face is some Dina Wakely tissue paper.  The birds and the fern frond are punch outs from 49 and Market. I have lots of ferns in part of

My yard so I think they work for the garden end of the challenge. I stamped the words, inked the edge of my tag, and added a black border with a Sharpie. I finished by adding some little confetti ladybugs. 

     That's all for me today. I hope everyone has or is having a wonderful day. 

   

Yellow Blooms

       Happy weekend everyone. I hope since it's Sunday that your weekend is going well.

   Today I have a page from my Nature Journal to share for Halle's Botanical challenge at Art Journal Journey.. Since I used various media on my page, I am also linking up to Creative Artiste Mixed Media challenge blog where the theme is always Anything Goes.  And since it's Sunday, I am linking up to Gillena's Sunday Smiles.

    I started with a yellow vintage designed paper background. I created a pocket, and then decided my pocket was kind of bland, so I glued some scraps of this bee tissue paper over most of it. I tried using this fence image on top of the pocket. I liked how that looked, so I added the fence and  some  paper flowers as well as a  bow. I used a bit of white pen ink on the center of each flower to give the flowers a little more dimension. 

    After that I created a bookmark style tag to put into the pocket using stamps and some more yellow flowers. This time the flowers were a sticker, as was the bee I added. I also used a 49 and Market acetate filmstrip and stamped some quotes on it. To finish my page I put some washi tape along the bottom and added a cloth sticker of the sun, which was uncolored to start with. I used markers to make it yellow.

    And speaking of flowers, I have lots of yellow and other colored blooms in my gardens right now. To finish off today's post I'll share a few views of them.

Have a super weekend and start to the new week.

Time for a New Challenge

    Hi everyone. Happy Tuesday. I'm here today because it's time for a new challenge at Try It on Tuesday. 😀

    First let me thank everyone who joined into our Add Some Text challenge. It's always fun to see how people use text and if they have any special words or just words. And I don't want to forget to give a  big shout out to Rosi who was our guest designer. Thanks for joining us.

    Our new challenge is Summer Blooms, and this is the backside of the piece I shared for our last  (Add Some Text) challenge. 

    

    I started by stamping the names of all those flowers on the left side of my piece using either a Creative Expressions or Woodware stamp. I don't have the paper backing it came with and I honestly can't remember which company made it. 😟

    After I stamped that I inked the background with turquoise and then a bit of light brown ink. I used some washi tape to border the stamped image. I then stamped a large AALL & Create image that had a lot going on, but within that there was this giant flower. I stamped the image on some book paper, and I fussy cut the giant flower out. After attaching it to my page I outlined it in Sharpie to give it some oomph, used a bit of pink paint and added some colorful confetti pieces to the center. Then I finished with the sticker quote.

    And don't forget to check out the other design teams flower pieces too. 👍

   I hope you're inspired by flowers and will join us at TIOT during the next 2 weeks when this challenge runs. Remember we accept all types of art. And if art journaling is your thing, you can link up your flower pages over at Art Journal Journey also because this month's challenge is Botanicals hosted by Halle. I will be linking my page there also.

    Thanks for visiting my blog, and I can't wait to see everyone's flower art. 

Some Garden Photos And Art

     Hi everyone. Happy Thursday to you. My post today is also going to be for Friday Face Off  and  Friday Lunch Break, which I hope to have time to link up to tomorrow. Tomorrow, as you know, is July 4 (since today is July 3), and here in the US it is our Independence Day. I'm not sure whether we are still much of a democracy anymore, but if I put politics aside, it is the big holiday for my husband's family. Many of us will be at the lake tomorrow enjoying what looks to be a beautiful day. (And if I don't get by your blog before the weekend, I hope you'll understand.)

     Here's some more garden photos. I hope you're not sick of them. 

     The other day I had 2 mama wild turkeys and their babies pass through the yard. (Ignore my grass in the photos; it's a disaster. 😏) I had to take the photos through the window since if I stepped outside they'd be gone.

     My zinnia seeds are  growing great, but I'm waiting for my begonia tubers to  sprout. I didn't get them planted until late this year.

    In this next photo you can see brussel sprouts, lemon grass, parsley, kale, and some basil seeds that have sprouted.

Can you also see the 2 duck faces?

The tomato plants have gotten huge,

 and I have lots of green bean plants starting to flower. The peppers in the back of the beans haven't grown very much, but I do see some flowers.

     The milkweeds are starting to bloom too. They smell fabulous.  You don't even have to be up close to get a whiff either. No wonder why they attract butterflies and bees.

And there are still roses in bloom.

    All this plant growth and blooming inspires me to once again join Halle's Botanical challenge at Art Journal Journey.

    I don't like the stamped quote in the middle of this page, but they are there and that's all I can say. 😏 I made this page as an ode to walking in a garden.  I started  using 3 shades of blue ink. I used those blues on the background, the splatters and the butterflies. I had originally painted the edges of this page with some bright color and I really hated how that looked, so after some white paint and then some more blue ink, I took care of that. I added the frame that started out white, some fussy cut flowers, a stamped and fussy cut bird and finally a couple of little half-pearls. 

  That's all for me today. Wishing everyone a happy rest of your week, and if you're celebrating the July 4th holiday, I hope you have a lovely holiday too.