Owls in the Dessert

Happy Friday everyone.  Another week is winding down and it is almost April.

I am ready.  :) This has been a tough March here in New England with a couple of accumulating snowstorms and lots of cold and grey days.

Speaking of snowstorms, we have one coming tonight into tomorrow. 5-10 inches are predicted, which is a big storm in February never mind on April 1.

Maybe we'll see bare ground by May 1.

Ha-ha!

But it was a fairly fast week for me. I'm not sure what I will do this weekend with the snow coming, but I am signed up for an art class tomorrow morning if the weather should cooperate and I still want to go see Beauty and the Beast at the movie theater. 

So today I went Southwest for my journal page. 

These large cacti are called saguaros and I think they are fascinating. They can grow really tall- like a 10 story building (or more) and when you have a lot of them they form a saguaro forest. They can live for over 100 years too.

How cool is that.

Here in the US they are found mostly in Southern Arizona, and several years ago I got to go see them.

 I had fun painting this page. I worked backwards because I made the cacti first and then I went and did the background. 

I had so much fun I decided to paint some saguaros on a canvas. I had started a painting I truly disliked, but the background had some great coloring, so I painted my cacti over that and then added some  molding paste stenciled stars.  I decided to leave the background colors just as they are.

I'm not done yet, because I want to add an owl like I added to my journal page.

Maybe some details on my spines too.

Owls do make nests in these huge cacti which I think is pretty amazing too.
One last link up to Yvonne's great theme over at Art Journal Journey.  Today is the last day to go Out and About.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

In the Night

Happy Friday everyone! This has been a busy week at work for me, although it was just the usual work things, nothing unusual. My classes have big tests today, and then midterm exams are next week so the kids are a little stressed. Of course some of them are their own worst enemies not doing what they needed to do , so they are keeping me busy hoping I will excuse them from something or allow them to play catch up. Some of those kids have legitimate reasons, but some of them aren't getting much sympathy. And then they are wanting help to get ready for today's test. Its the end of the quarter so they are worried about their grades.

So I've had a lot of evening art time this week to relax. My daughter has gone off to Florida with some friends, so on the nights my husband has dialysis it is pretty quiet. I have  done some playing, lots of painting, and really need to do a bit of cleaning in my happy space. :)

I made this owl without doing any sketching or planning. I really just wanted to try to make a flying owl and didn't really care what he ended up looking like. It was all big art experiment. I thought the dark Gelli printed background would be a good place to try since owls are flying around in the night.

I also decided that I was going to take my  owl outline (which looks like a kid drew him), and without too much fuss add feathers to him.
I must say I am really happy with the finished spontaneous results. It was a pleasant surprise (especially after looking at how he started)  and I learned a bit too. :)
I am linking up to Paint Party Friday. Thank you Kristen and Eva for hosting this great place to spotlight our art.

Any fun weekend plans? Mine is wide open but tomorrow is the hubby's birthday so I told him we could what he wants to do for the day. Let's see if he thinks of anything or even wants to do anything. :) Its not looking like great weather this weekend, clouds and some rain, but in another way its great weather to relax since next week the kids have midterm exams and they will keep me on my toes too. Plus, fingers crossed, maybe surgery for my hubby at the end of the week.
Have a great weekend everyone.
And as always, I appreciate you stopping by for a visit.

Wrapping Up the Iceland Journal

Today I can officially say I am all finished with my Iceland travel journal. Big smile on my face!
It was time to get it done!

And I apologize if I've shown any of these page photos before.

I used a tri-fold cover that I removed from an old book. You can see what it look like when  I first open the cover and fully open the book.

There are 2 sections with book pages. One of these sections has 2 signatures and other has one.

And the back cover has this useful little pocket.

Here's a few inside pages I haven't yet shown you. At least I don't think I have shown you these.

I loved using these postage stamps to help create the atmosphere and show something about the journey. I bought a huge lot of used stamps on eBay for not a whole lot of cash, and I think they made a great addition to my book. I used stamps before in my travel journal, but this time I went crazy with them.

They work as well as the old map I cut out of an old atlas.

You might have noticed in older posts about my travel journal that I cut up a few travel brochures and used them to make my pages. Along with some postcards and playing cards I brought home.

I know that stamped words are not Icelandic but Swedish. 

I'm linking up to Paint Party Friday, because it is Friday and time to celebrate the end of another work week.

Thank you Kristen and Eva for hosting.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

By The Sea

 Happy Friday everyone! Its good news here in the US as many people have a long Labor Day weekend ahead.  Summer's last hurrah is what some people say about this weekend. All I can say is that the first full week of school has left me exhausted and I am ready for a little R and R.  (New kids to meet, a new schedule to get used to, lots of meetings and organizing, getting up a couple hours earlier than I did all summer...back to school is always so busy.)

So last week I was busy and didn't get to join in at  Paint Party Friday, but I am back this week with a couple of journal pages for you. My summer journal is literally so thick it isn't laying flat, so I apologize if the photos look a little lopsided.

This top page was all hand sketched and painted. Then I used some watercolor pencils to add in the details. I originally cut the boat, the building and the rocks out of a book page, and then I painted them and added in the details.
And this other journal page began with this photo I took. Then I painted in the base of the rocks and some water around it. I really wanted to use the photo on this page because although I have been to this lighthouse many times, I never had visited it from the water side. It was very exciting for me to see it from another view, and I wanted to record that moment.

That's all for this post today. I have a second post today for  Elizabeth's fun monthly post Second on the Second .  Hope you stop by and check  out round two for some fun  second view posts. Maybe you'll even show some of your art from past posts too. 

Have a great weekend everyone.

Back to Iceland Again-And No, I'm not on a Plane

Happy Friday everyone. Another week is winding down, and considering it was a pretty quiet week for me, it still flew right by. I spent a lot of time working in my journals. I worked on pages in my summer journal, and also made a big push in my Iceland journal.  My goal is to finish that before I got back to work at the end of next week.

 I am linking up to several challenges.First of all, I am linking up to Try It On Tuesday. The latest challenge is book pages, and that's what I used as my background to make these two pages here. When I made my journal I used some pages from a  child's book about Iceland and Greenland that I found on eBay.  The left side of the spread in the back soft cover of the children's book. I stitched and then put some gesso inside the stitched part, and than I added this fun postcard of the Reykjavik Cathedral I picked up. Since it is labeled Icelandic punctuality, I added a couple of wrist watch stamps and also the little metal number. 

I also wanted to make a page about all the flowers in bloom.  I had bought this rather big lot of used postage stamps from Iceland (also off of eBay) and I decided all this page needed was for me to attached the stamps in an organized manner. I think the flowers look great on the printed background.

I liked how this worked so much I decided to do it again with some more stamps. This time I painted the page with some light blue paint and then attached some geology related postage stamps.

Iceland is so much about it geology, in fact it wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the separating of 2 large geologic plates. Traveling with 3 other science geeks, you know we had some geology talk. :)

Flowers and geology are both wonders of nature. They are also a really interesting part of the island that is Iceland. So I am linking up to Art Journal Journey. The theme this month is Nature's Wonders chosen by this month's great hostess, Gill.

Finally, I have one more journal page to show you. This is another page done on a book page, and also part of my Iceland travel journal. I wanted to make a page in my journal about some of the unique Icelandic drinks I had that week. I took a few slight liberties on the labels. The first beer-the Einstock- had a gorgeous Viking head, which I could not draw, so I used a Viking stamp I own in place of it. And I had to outline the white letters on the second beer bottle so they would show up better.

Because I painted these I am also going to link up to Paint Party Friday. Thanks Kristen and Eva for hosting.

Stop by all these web pages to check out some interesting art.

And since I showed you a postcard of the Reykjavik Cathedral, let me show you a few photos of this interesting piece of architecture.

 This is the view of the front of the cathedral from across the street.

Here's a couple of close ups. The picture above was taken with my phone and these next 2 with my camera.  I just love the dreamy colors my camera caught.

 These rock like ridges remind me of the Volcanic rocks you see on the island. The building,  given artistic license and in Scandinavian modern style,  resembles the volcanoes on the island.

 Inside the cathedral

 This cathedral is as stark as the Icelandic environment.

 I love the sky color outside the windows here. It  looks painted, doesn't it?

And this is the large set of organ pipes in the back.

 I think the cathedral is interesting architecture and really reflects the Icelandic environment and what I know of the culture. I'm not sure I'm in love with it, but it made me think.  I guess that means the architects were successful in their design.  What do you think?

Hope everyone has a great weekend, and thanks for visiting my blog.

Fairies, Elves, Giants and Gnomes

If you visit my blog regularly you are probably getting tired of seeing my Iceland journal. I have another spread to show you today. The theme is those fantasy folk that many Icelanders (especially in the past) believed lived in the island's landscapes. In Icelandic they are called Huldufólk. 

The left side of my spread is a painted mountain with my abstract glacier coming down. I created the face in the rocks by painting a coat, then laying down a die cut, then adding more paint. Once the paint had started to dry I removed the die cut and what I got was this nice image. I added some black molding paste and sand to make the ground on the base, painted in the greens and yellow flowers, and then  after doodling and painting the little fairy homes on a separate sheet of paper, I cut them out and added them.

The left side is made with a Gelli print on deli paper, along with the addition of the Icelandic postage stamps and the elf/gnome cut from a playing card.

I suppose these guys are part of nature's wonders, especially if you think of them in a fantasy way, so I am linking up to Gill's fantastic themed challenge at Art Journal Journey.
And since it is Friday. let's party. Paint Party Friday that is.  Thank you Kristen and Eva for hosting every week.
(And stop by both challenges to see some great art too!)

Some of you may remember this photo I took.

These are fairy home I discovered when we stopped at this wonderful little church right next to the ocean. They were on a little knoll behind the church. I used them as my inspiration for the little fairy houses in my page.

We noticed this little church on our first day in Iceland. Can you see it in the photo below, way off on the right.

 We turned off and headed down towards it.

  And here it is close up, although I somehow managed to cut the top of the steeple out of my photo.

 A side view with some of the little cemetery and one of the pretty windows.

 Who knew dandelions in a field would be so pretty? 

 And we actually got to go inside of this church. Most of all the little churches were locked- and we saw a lot of them. They looked perfect up against the mountains and open fields. This church was very pretty inside.

So we had a pretty successful trip into Boston to meet with the kidney transplant team. (My husband needs a transplant.) It might be as early as October. My husband has a couple of other tests to get done, and I (as the donor) need to meet with my team in a few weeks. Keep your fingers crossed that all goes well in the next few weeks. :)

I'll be back early next week. I'm off for a couple of nights with the hubby along with his sister and her husband.

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend everyone.

Puffin Power

Happy Friday everyone. I can't believe this first week of August is almost over. As my hubby says "Nothing goes faster than July but August." And I think that is true.

So today I have a quickly done page for Art Journal Journey. This month's hostess is Gill, aka Gibby Frogett and the great theme is Nature's Wonders. Here's a page in my summer journal that works for that theme.  I painted this background to represent a grassy knoll, some lava rocks and the blue sky. Then I added these 2 adorable puffins I cut out from a tourist brochure, drew in the Icelandic flag and stamped the plane. I added the banner for a title and as a date, since this journal is more of a day to day art journal than just an art journal of random pieces.

I am also linking up to Paint Party Friday since it is Friday and time party with some paint. Thanks to Kristen and Eva for giving us a great site to link up to.

So the one thing in Iceland last week I wanted to see was a puffin, and I came home thinking I didn't manage that. But then when I was going through some of my photos, I looked carefully at this water picture. Well it wasn't just water, but 2 birds that I tried to photograph. They were quite away out from shore, and my zoom lens only goes so far. I thought they were both guillemots, 2 arctic birds.

So when I got home I wanted to enlarge my photos, and low and behold, only 1 was a guillemot and the other was a puffin! That put a big smile on my face for sure.

 Not the clearest photo because I cropped it so much but here is the puffin. Very obvious to see. :)

And here's the guillemot, spreading his wings and stretching. 

Hope everyone has a great weekend coming up and has something fun in their plans. Not sure what is on my agenda yet, or I should say my husband's agenda which effects me, but even so I could easily have fun playing in my happy space and reading in my hammock.

Thanks for visiting today.

My Summer Art Journal

 Happy Friday everyone.  Time for a party, as it Paint Party Friday again. Thank you Eva and Kristen for hosting. 

So the heat and humidity is back here in New Hampshire. We've had a lot of it this month but one thing for sure, my gardens are loving it.

So today I have some doodled, stamped, colored and painted pages from my art journal. They're nothing special but just me having fun and keeping a journal of the summer. 

The top page is me playing with some of my animal stamps while trying to work through a little mental stress.

Last week was  wait for medical results for my husband. As I was working on this page, I was thinking about them. I had been thinking about them all week actually, and I had some of that uncover stress. You know, it is there, but not not staring you in the face. Then you get good news and you feel all the weight lift off of you. You're then filled with a lightness that makes very happy.  

As I worked the hubby called with his good news, and that changed what I was doing with this page.

 (FYI-The hubby needs a kidney transplant and I'm his donor. We were waiting on his test results to see if he was ready for the transplant-which came in while I was in the midst of my page.  Now we're waiting for my team to once again clear me with the hopes that I take first quarter off from school and we do the surgery in September.) Keep your fingers crossed.

 And these are just some more fun.

I'm away next week so I won't be joining the party next Friday. 

 I'm really hoping to go see the new Star Trek movie this weekend. This is the one movie I've wanted to go see all summer.  They've done such a good job with these last 2 new ones that I have high hopes for this one. And it got great reviews too.

And I think the hubby wants to go out in his boat, if we don't get thunderstorms. We shall see.

 Hope you have a great weekend.

And as always, thanks for stopping by.