Ghosties

  Hi everyone. Happy middle of the week to you. More rain is due to fall at my house today-hurrah. Hopefully today's lighter showers will help the drought a bit. 😀

   Today I have a simple page for Elle's Steampunk, Halloween or Steampunk Halloween challenge at Art Journal Journey.

    I used a sheet of black designed paper as my background.  I took a very old Martha Stewart jack-o-lantern border that was 12 inches long, and I cut it into a few pieces. Then I chose a few pieces to use on this page. Phew-I'm glad to actually use these jack-o-lanterns because  it's been in my stash for maybe even 20 years.  Time to use some of these really old time items up. 😏

   I stamped a TH ghost, fussy cut  and arranged him behind the pumpkins. I glued everything in place. I darkened the ghost's eyes and added some black glitter glue to them. I also added some white glitter glue over the ghost. The quote is also from the same ghost image set, and I debated whether to stamp it on white paper and fussy cut it or whether to just stamp it on the page. I decided to go with directly stamping it on the page, even though it doesn't stand out all that much. Finally, I finished by adding a gold paper foil moon.

   And even though it seems later than normal, we finally have some leaf color. 👍 Hurrah! It's mainly because the oaks are starting to turn, which means it isn't really later than normal because the oaks are always at the end of the foliage season. Yesterday I had to drop Miss Maddie off at the vet for a teeth cleaning, so Pete and I went for a nice long morning stroll. I don't think leaf color mattered to him, but I enjoyed it a lot.

    I am always very attracted to the mix of colors in each leaf.

     And this poor tree has some kind of health issues. BUT, to my artistic eye, the black rings really make these leaves quite stunning. If I designed fabric these leaves would be a great inspiration for a bolt  or two of cloth.

    Then put all that individual color together, and you have scenes like this one.

   And ha ha, even the pumpkins were getting into the multicolors too.

  That's all for me today. I hope your day goes well for you.

Her Gears Are Turning

Hi everyone. Happy Thursday to you.

Today I have a page that I am sharing with 2 challenges. First of all I am linking up to Neet's In Gear challenge at Art Journal Journey.   I am also linking up to Creative Artiste Mixed Media blog for their challenge #98. These challenges  at Creative Artiste are always mixed media, and always Anything Goes. 

I made my background by layering some various washi tapes. Then I embossed the gear image on some craft graph style paper. I fussy cut out the embossed part, and then I  rubbed  some brown ink over it to bring out the embossing.

I added this TH lady. She is a woman with some big ideas and the gears in her head are turning. I die cut the flasks and test tubes, and then I inked in the colored liquid. After that I added some doodles and some small little art dots (for lack of a better word) to the glassware to show some action going on. To finish, I die cut the light bulb at the top and the shine word. The shine word was colored with a silver Sharpie, and the light bulb was also colored with a Sharpie and then I added some yellow glitter glue to make it bright. 

Let's hope her big ideas come to fruition. I love  her expression as she looks serious but also like she's having fun, even if she doesn't want people to think she's having too much fun. 

Let me finish off my post with the last of my photos from the train trip  from North Conway (New Hampshire) to Crawford Notch that the hubby and I went on last Saturday. (You can see the other photos here set #1 and set #2 ).

While waiting in line to board the train I snapped a photo of my ticket, 

and here's this fun vintage display near where you boarded. Those pieces of luggage definitely seem awkward to move, especially compared to modern luggage. 

This greeter had obviously been waiting too long for the train to go by-ha ha.

And here's a couple of vintage New England house and barn scenes.

Here's the Saco (pronounced sock-o) river,

some colorful foliage,

and the back of my ticket. Number 6 was a funny addition. I wonder how many people even bothered to read it.

I zoomed in on this view because from the distance we were at, it looked a bit like a moose.  Sadly, it actually was just the root ball of an upturned tree.

A couple more shots like I like.

Looking down on the road as we made our way into the notch.

And finally, the money shot, one more view from on the mountain side looking back into the notch.

Thanks for visiting. 

Wrapping Up September

 Hi everyone. Happy Friday and almost weekend to you. And as hard as it is for me to believe, October is almost here. Once again I have to ask, where did September disappear to? I am almost certain I'll be saying the same thing in October since I have several important birthdays that month, as well as my wedding anniversary and a few other items on the calendar. Plus, hopefully, everyone's October will be a really gorgeous month with no hurricanes, no tropical storms, no long stretches of hot or very cold weather...etc.

Today I want to share my last page for Elle's challenge at Art Journal Journey. Thank you Elle for hosting this month and sharing so many cool pages. It was a really fun challenge, and l liked having so many choices in the theme. And thank you to everyone who joined Elle for her challenge also.

Elle's challenge was Books, Cats and Tea, and I decided to end the month by including all 3 topics on  my page.👍 The book, as you can see in this next close up, is my favorite part of the page.

This book image is stamped. After I stamped it I then fussy cut it and stamped the kitty on the bottom. I also outlined the edge in darker black. I  used some book words from a small set on the open book page. I've used some other words from that same set on some other pages earlier this month. Then I scribbled in some writing and inked a bit on the page to make the book look older and well loved. 

The teapot and cup are die cuts. The line of books is one giant 12 inch sticker that I've had for way too long. I cut it into 2 pieces to use on my page.  And my background was made with white gesso and a stencil, and then when the gesso was dry I used mostly red ink (but not only) to color it. You might have noticed that the teapot is cut out of blue paper that had the same stencil image on it, only made with pink paint. 

To wrap up my post, let me share some more photos from the gardens at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art. I visited there last week, and even though I did not go into the museum,  I walked around the grounds. Today I'll share some flowers and beautiful views, since those are always  good ways to wrap up a week.

Here's a close up of this sperm whale statue with the views around it.

Have a great start to your weekend.

Cleaning Off My Work Table

 Hi everyone.

Like many of you artsy folks, my work table collects lots of scraps and other bits and pieces.  The other day I decided to sift through them and make a page for Elle's Books, Cats, and Tea challenge at Art Journal Journey.

I started by adding dots and  a die cut circle. I doodled a red scalloped frame around it and added the white dashed line along the edge.  

Just like the die cut circle, everything else came off my work table and were arranged as you see them. The big tea word and the small tea word were on 2 freebie stickers I picked up at a BBQ place back when I visited Charleston. I cut out just the  T-E-A parts.  As an afterthought, I used some very watered down black acrylic paint on the part of the background still showing.

I think there's a definite story with this page. It all has to do with the beautiful lady on the bottom left. My version of this story is that Marny, the beautiful lady, is coming home from a very long and fancy  party at 4 in the morning. She is still too wound up to sleep, so she makes herself a cup of herbal tea (no caffeine as she eventually hopes to get some sleep) and sits outside her door, watching the night sky lighten up with morning.

What's your version?

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope your Thursday is going well.

More from Iceland

Hi everyone. Happy Sunday to you. I'm having a quiet low-key weekend. How about you?

Today I have a spread from my Iceland travel journal to share.  I actually photographed this spread in 2 separate images,  because for one thing, these pages in my journal don't want to lay flat. I also thought because the second page needs a bit of explaining it would be better to show the pages separately.

The overall general theme is birds. This first page mostly uses some old postage stamps that I had from 2016 when I went on my first Iceland trip. The stamp down on the bottom right is one I picked up on my most recent trip. 

The next page ties in with birds, sort of. I added the white candy wrapper image because not only did I enjoy that candy but they reminded me of bird's eggs.  Well maybe not if you broke them open. grin. The red-throated loon (or diver) is  cut out of a brochure and was a new-to-me bird that I saw.

I also added in a little journaling tag. This tag is taped in between the 2 pages. On the back I wrote about some of the birds I saw but did not have stamps to share. The bird on that taped-in-tag is NOT a bird I saw in Iceland but I liked it and it's size so I added it.

You can see the book paper (Icelandic writing) on both pages. I attached the gas receipt because it was interesting with all the different numbers that showed up on it, and also because the paper was so thick compared to what we usually get in my area. Does it fit in with birds? Not really, but whenever we made a snack purchase we did get receipts so it does tie into my page. And even if it doesn't  tie in, it looks good on the page. grin

I also added the girl. She was  on a brochure I picked up on my trip to Charleston, SC in May, but I thought she looked like she could be in Iceland with that scarf she is wearing.

Since I have those book pages, I am linking up to Elle's Books, Cat and Tea challenge at Art Journal Journey.

Today I also have some more Iceland photos to share. Sorry for you ornithologists out there, these are not bird photos. But  if you like stunning vistas along the ocean, these photos are probably for you.

I'm also linking up to Gillena's Sunday Smiles.

That's all for me today. Have a great rest of your weekend.