Sunday in the Art Room

    Hi everyone. Happy Sunday.  It's already Sunday, and it was just last Monday. Did Tuesday through Saturday get kicked off the calendar? 😉

   Today I have a journal page for Matilde's Houses and Building challenge at Art Journal Journey and also for Creative Artiste Mixed Media Blog and their challenge #127.  I'm also joining Nicole for her Sunday in the Art Room and Gillena for her Sunday Smiles .Sunday

   I'm happy with how my page for today came out, and I really like the way I created a hill going up with actually having to draw one on my page.

  I started with a page in my ledger journal and used some green-yellowish paint over the whole background. Then I used some pink paint and an Impression Obsession background stamp in parts of that background. I then took some purple paint and sponged it on randomly. I finished my background by using a handwriting stamp and added some handwriting in a dark brown.

   I then stamped the 2 house images and fussy cut them. I decided to leave them white so the the other colors on the page would pop more, and I also layered them.  I then used a punch out (from 49 and Market) of a strip of flowers along the bottom to anchor the houses and to create the hill. in the front of the houses I also added a fussy cut potted shrub (cut from a  sheet of paper) and a punch out bird. I stamped the quote at the bottom.

   I finished the page by painting some clouds above the house with white acrylic paint. I then outlined them with a black Stabilo pencils and used a wet brush to smudge the pencil.

   Last year I planted some chamomile seeds into a pot. We  had seen a lot of wild chamomile while driving around Greece in 2024, and when I saw this seed packet, it immediately brought me back to that adventure.

  This year this chamomile has come back with a vengeance.  Not only are they growing in the pot, but they've filled in the area around the pot too.

    

   I hope the whole area fills up the chamomile because they make me happy. And this is one spot we struggle to get grass  or just about anything to grow.

    And one thing I've observed this year is that when it rains or in the dewy evening, all the flowers move their petals downward. 

   And then, when the sun comes back out, they flip them upward. 

    Sometimes nature surprises me and creates beautiful gardens without me having to do any work to get there. Now I just need to figure out how to make chamomile tea. 👍

   Have a super rest of your Sunday and start to the new week.

   

Sunday Art-Pelicans and Hummingbirds

     Hi everyone. I hope your weekend is going well.   We're having some nice weekend weather and finally some beautiful May temperatures. ❤ It feels even better since we haven't had a lot of this weather so far this spring.👍

    Today I have some bird inspired art to share for a couple of challenges including Nicole's Sunday in the Art Room (Sitar) and Gillenas's Sunday Smiles. I'll also be linking a up to Art Journal Journey and  Tag Along (and ATCs too) It's a busy post for certain. 😉

    First, let me share this page for Mia's Birds challenge over at Art Journal Journey. It's part of a trip journal I just finished making, the trip being my weekend away in South Carolina. By the shore we saw lots of pelicans; they are always fun to watch. The big guy at the bottom (of my page) reminds me of one time when the hubby and I were somewhere (maybe coastal North Carolina) eating lunch on a dock and this one pelican flew in and landed on  piling. He kept watching us eat. As soon as we looked at him, he turned away like he didn't care we were there. But as soon as we went back to our lunch, his eyes were on us again. 😄

   I started with 2 pieces of paper. The base paper is covered with seagulls,  (more birds, right?), and then I cut part of this wave designed paper to put on the bottom. This paper was plain light blue wit the dark wavy lines, so I decided to add details using blue and white paint pens to color in some of the waves on the paper. 

  The tiny flying pelicans are stamped and then fussy cut before I glued them down. I created the large piling with some scrap paper, and then I stamped and fussy cut the big pelican. I lost some of the stamped details when I colored him in with the dark brown marker, so I added some white flecks to him to try to give him a few details.

   Finally I added a white cloth sticker sun that I painted yellow, and then stamped and added the quote (Impression Obsession).

    Here's one of the inspirations for my journal page today. I reminds me I should have added some white to the pelican's head. 😏

    You can see the punched holes and the metal binding rings on the right side of my page. This is the first time I made my own 2 ring binder journal cover. I hadn't known you could buy unattached binding rings up until recently.

  Here's the cover of that journal.

   I cut an old book apart and covered the actual covers with a recycled  Amazon bag and then I used cloth bookbinding tape to cover the edges of the cover and to make a spine. I used pink stencil paste and a stencil to add the texture to the cover. What I find really strange (but also interesting to look at) was how much lighter that pink stencil paste looked on the black binding tape than it did on the paper bag. That was true even when I rubbed some watery orange acrylic paint over it. Hmmm.  

 

   To finish the covers I used some chicken wire designed cloth tape along the edges and used some TH metal book corners. The Charleston stamp is something you can collect and should put into a special stamp collection book, but I usually buy them and put them in (or on) my travel journal. I use a TH metal frame that was in my stash around this travel stamp.

   And I definitely don't want to forget to share the tag I made today for Pinky's  Add Some Pink challenge at Tag Along (and ATCs too).

   I started with a brown paper bag colored tag that I rubbed some Versafine Claire Pink ink over.  Then I fussy cut the heart out of a sheet of paper, and I punched out the hummingbird (49 and Market) and the daisy  (Stamperia). I did use a light pink marker and colored in some of the daisy's petals. The quote is from a TH quote set, and I finished off my tag with some pink lace cloth trim.

   That's all for me today. Hope you have or are having a wonderful rest of your weekend and start to the new week.

Everyone Likes Flowers, Right?

    Hi everyone. Happy Thursday to you.  Slowly spring is coming. We're back into some chilly chilly temps at night way below freezing. Brrr.  But at least the ground is about 85-90% snow free. And today we have no inclement weather in the forecast either. 👍

   Today I have a spring journal page  for Chris's challenge at Art Journal Journey. I am also linking up to challenge #124 at Creative Artiste Mixed Media challenge blog since I have used more than 3 types of media on my page.

   My page started with me using up some left over blue and green paints. It really was just a wipe off my brush page but it had potential. To pull it together I took a brick stencil and some white gesso.

   The actual flowers are from a punch out set of images from Art by Marlene. I arranged them, glued them down and then used 2 different green paint pens to make the stems and leaves. To enhance the flowers I took some yellow daisy cloth trim and clipped the daisies into separate pieces. I glued a daisy down in the center of each flower and then added a small confetti piece.

   I also had a die cut on my work table that I hadn't used. It's the shape of a card you'd wrap threads or yarn around. I didn't wrap anything around to but I outlined the edges with a white paint pen. Then I inked those edges with a blue ink pad  similar  in color to some of the blue on the background.

   I stamped the butterflies and quote. I also added a a bit of black and white color to the butterflies to make them stand out more. 

 If you stop by frequently you might have seen the photos of my jar of tulips. Sadly they never bloom very long, but even as the blooms start to go, I think they look pretty cool. They also make great photo fodder. Here's a few more recent photos I have taken of them.

And if I brighten up the photos a bit, here's what I get.

Have a wonderful Thursday and (if your an occasional visitor) have a great rest of the week.

Spring Art

   Hi everyone. I hope you're having a good weekend. Last night we changed the clocks (spring ahead), and so today I will probably be all out of whack.  😂 The light evenings are going to be great though, and it means we're on our way to better weather. 👍 (Hopefully soon.)

  Today I am joining lots of different challenges with some spring themed art. It is Sunday so I'll be joining Nicole for Sunday in the Art Room  (also known as SITAR). I'm also joining Gillena for her  Sunday Smiles . I have a journal page so I'll be joining Chris for her Spring Forward challenge over at Art Journal Journey. And last but never least, I have a spring flower tag so I'll be joining  Tag Along (and ATCS) for Lynn's Spring Flowers challenge.

   My journal page today is definitely a mixed media piece. My inspiration started with this set of metallic stickers with a couple of children and lots of kites. I'm not sure why kites always make me think of March and spring, but they do.

   Besides the stickers, I also used some paint. I started by inking the background with a blue ink pad. Then I used some blue watercolor paint over it to brighten it up a bit more. The paint also covered in all the little spots that the ink pad missed.

    I wanted the children to be flying their kits in a grassy field. and I didn't want them to be way down at the bottom so my page would be all sky. I placed them part way up the page. At this point they were floating in the sky. 😉 Then I used 3 colors of green acrylic paint and painted "stripes" to represent the grasses. The beauty about metallic stickers is while the paint is wet you can wipe it off the image, and even when it dries, you can lightly scrape off any little bit you don't want.   I also covered up the foot on each person who was standing in the ground because my stripes made the grass look long, and therefore their standing foot wouldn't be showing.

   It didn't look exactly right at this point, so I used some green paint and painted a few horizontal stripes to create the actual ground. When I was doing a bit of watercolor splatter on the other page of this journal spread, I accidentally got a bit of red-brown paint on this one, but I  don't mind that. In fact, I'm happy with the way my ground came out. Making grass come out is a trickier process than it seems. 

   I colored the kites with Sharpies and added a couple of other kite stickers. I used some slightly watered down white acrylic paint to make the white clouds, and I cut the blue clouds out of a sheet of paper.  I  outlined those clouds with a black Sharpie. The sun is also a metallic sticker from another sheet, and I used Sharpies to color in the face.

   To finish off my page I stamped the main quote from a TH set, and I pulled off a quote and mini butterfly stickers from the same sticker set as the kites and added them to the grass. It's hard to read that quote but it says laugh and play.  Finally, to pull it all together, I used some of the same blue watercolor paint I used for the sky and lightly splattered it on the background and I used some more watered down white acrylic paint for a second light splatter. 

Now that was a long explanation. Sorry. 😏 Here's my tag that I will be linking a up to Tag Along (and ATCS).

    I started with an old black tag from my stash. The right side was a bit rough so I used a black Sharpie on the edge to cover up where the black had worn off.

    Then I experimented and took some iridescent ink pads and rubbed them directly on the tag. I then let the ink on the tag dry for a few days.I really like the sheen that they created

   When the ink was dry, I fussy cut some spring flowers from some 49 and Market paper and added them. I then added a punch out letter from a set from Stamperia (I think). I die cut the green clover using an old Quickkutz die. I inked the clover to give it some depth and drew in the details. I then added some metallic paper items. They include the gold clover, the pink flower border and also the yellow chick. I did  a bit of coloring on the chick to bring out the details.  Finally I stamped  the quote in white from an old clear stamp set, but since I don't have the paper labeling any longer, I am not sure who made it. 

    That's all for me. I hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend and have a super start to the new week.

    

Friday Faces- And a Knitting Update

    Hi everyone. Happy Friday. Today I'm posting to link up to Nicole's Friday Face Off and Gillena's Friday Lunch Break.

   It's been another fairly quiet week for me. The hubby is still in recuperating mode with his back, but he's definitely improving- actually quite a lot. 😏  We've had some snow and some cold weather this past week too. And there's some really cold weather coming this weekend and then a lot more snow coming this weekend also.  Or so the weather folks say.  Is it February yet? 

  For my faces this week I have a couple of things to share. First here's the cover of a homemade journal that I found. For some reason I made it and put it away  in a drawer, and I recently rediscovered it while looking for something totally different. I shared this photo in my post yesterday.

    Here's a new journal page that I made in a different (but store bought) journal that I'll be linking  up to my "What's Up?" challenge at Art Journal Journey. It also has a face on it.

    The words are hard to read since I used black letters for them, but they say,"If...Only".

    I've also done a bit of knitting, mostly last weekend while I watched some football playoffs with my husband.

   It looks like there's a lot of solid black up near my needles, but actually there are various dark colors that just don't show up. If I lighten up the photo more you can just barely see that. I think when I get past this area and add more blue and white you'll be able to tell better. At least I hope so.

   With the brutal cold coming on Saturday (they say it will feel like -20 degrees F/ -29 degrees C) and then some predicted snow Sunday into Monday, I think there will be a lot of knitting getting done. ❤

  To wrap up this post, I was wondering if anyone (in the northern hemisphere) had some good views of this week's Northern Lights. I went out to look for them, and with my phone I could just make out some color. But I did get some fun night sky photos  so  I'll end this post with those.

 

At first, it was too cloudy for any sky phenomena. 

I don't have a very clear northern view, but you can just make out some faint pink on the left.

This (above) photo is just interesting because the  horizon looks almost like daylight, but you can see the stars on the top of it.

And then (below) a little later just the stars.

And finally, the view when I left the deck light on. You can make out just a tad bit of snow in the trees.

    Have a super Friday and start to your weekend. I hope it's not too cold or if you are in the south of the planet not too hot. And that you have some good weather too! 😉

   

I'm A Guest Designer

  Hi everyone. Happy first Friday in December. I'm actually writing 2 posts for today since I received the honor of being a guest designer over at Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge Blog for December. Thank you ladies for having me again. It is always fun to be a part of the team for a month.

   It was requested that I make a holiday page, so I decided to combine several of my favorite things about Christmas. 😏

    I started by inking my ledger journal page with red ink. I added a bit of washi tape along the left side just to ground my collage items. I'm not sure where the North Pole Tracking slip came from, but I had it in my stash. I started with that, and then I added a berry branch as well as a white poinsettia "flower" from 49 and Market. I dabbed some snow on the berries and although you can't see it, I added some yellow small bead like PIMS to the center of the pointsettia. Then I die cut the Santa in his flying sleigh (Frantic Stamper die), and I added a tag that I made. On the tag I used a bit of a 49 and Market for branch and stamped the quote.

    Then I used silver paper and die cut some snow flakes, and I used black paper and die cut some musical notes and staff (Cornish Heritage Farms). And since my page has snow, and since in my area we always hope for a white Christmas, I took a bit of white acrylic paint and a scrunched up paper towel to add a little dusting of it around my page. 

    You can use any theme for your page at Creative Artiste since their theme is always Anything Goes, but be sure to use at least 3 types of media on your page. 

    Once again, thank you ladies for having me join in for a month. I really appreciate your support, and I love supporting you back also.

    And since my page relates back to winter, I am also joining Sharon's Winter challenge at Art Journal Journey.

   Happy December crafting and I hope everyone has time to take a break and join in at Creative Artiste. ❤

  

 

Art & Photos from Another Walk

   Hi everyone. Happy end of another week.  This past week was busy even though I didn't have much on my calendar. I've been trying to do a few inside cleaning projects that need to be done. However, I can't say I've managed to get very far into my list. I shouldn't have started  by cleaning up my art space because that seems to have turned into a major project. 😉 (But it is much needed.)

  It's time for Nicole's Friday Face Off and also for Gillena's Friday Lunch Break. I also have a journal page for Wendy's A Moment in Time challenge at Art Journal Journey. On my journal page is my face for Nicole's challenge.

   I used  a maple leaf stamp with red ink, some orange ink and a stencil with blue paint to make the background.  The number square is from some older packaging I've kept to use because it was too nice to toss out. Then I added some leaves and clocks, both images from AALL & Create. I added a small crow from a roll of clear tape and also some string that was sitting on my work table. I'm not sure who made the girl's face because she was loose in my stash (I suspect I cut her out of a sheet of paper) and finally I used a TH quote to finish my page.

 

    I believe the new challenge at Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge Blog starts today, and I'll be linking a my page up over there also.

   A couple of weeks ago I was out for an appointment. I decided it was such a lovely day I needed to go walking afterwards. I ended up heading to the Urban Forestry Center in Portsmouth (New Hampshire) since I hadn't walked there in well over (if not longer) a year. 

   The dogs and I had a lovely walk, and I thought I'd share some photos from it today. 

   First here's some relaxing views along the trail. Along one side of the Urban Forestry Center is a salt water marsh and river.

 I also had some fun taking some close up photos.  This white fuzz in this next photo at one time was some blooming asters.

I believe these yellow berries are a form of bittersweet. 

Here are some tiny crab apples.

Any guess who's been this hole?

These attractive red berries are winter berry.

These purple berries are poke weed berries, not elderberry, and are poisonous. .

  That's all for me. Have a great rest of your Friday and start to your weekend.

    

Time for a New Challenge

    Hi everyone. Happy Tuesday. Since it's Tuesday and I'm posting that means it's time for a new challenge at Try It on Tuesday.

      But first, thank you everyone who joined our Autumn Colors challenge. And thank you Elisa for being a wonderful guest designer for that challenge.  The last 2 weeks went by so fast, and now it's time for our new topic which is HALLOWEEN. 

   I'm sharing a page from a little Halloween journal I created this month. Sadly the dot on the exclamation point at the end of the word boo fell off and went somewhere. 😒

    I covered my page with this bone paper and I ran it at a diagonal to give it a little more interest. Then I die cut the pocket from some black left over packaging.

    I then created a couple of tags. They didn't take long because I used a lot of stickers and pre-printed images for them.

    For this tag I inked the background with black ink and then splattered some black watercolor paint  to give it some details. Except for the little bat circle, all of the images are from an old sticker set I had in my stash. The little bat circle was also in my stash, attached to a brad from October Afternoon.  I cut the Brad part away and then attached it.

     The other tag came pre-printed, but I still splattered black watercolor paint over (but once it was finished this time.) I added some Janet Klein images from AALL&Create  to it, and then I finished by adding a puffy star sticker (from the same sheet as the ghosts in the other tag) and also a word from a package of Tim Holtz Halloween images.

    Don't forget to check out all the other Halloween inspired art by our designers. There are some super ideas there!

   This challenge, as always, runs for 2 weeks, and at Try It on Tuesday you can link up any type of art related to the challenge.  I think not super scary Halloween is lots of fun, and so I'm looking forward to seeing what creative pieces people share.  I hope you'll join us at TIOT. 

   I am also linking this page up to Elle's Steampunk, Halloween or Halloween Steampunk at Art Journal Journey.