Sunday Art

   Hi everyone. I hope you are having a lovely weekend.

   Today I want to share my last journal page for Mia's  Background challenge at Art Journal Journey.  I'll also be linking  up to Gillena's Sunday Smiles.

  Thank you Mia for hosting again this year. You know we really appreciate it. ❤And thank you everyone who joined in. ❤ This past month I focused on making my backgrounds more of a part of my page rather than just making a background to put my page on. It was a nice challenge to change up my thinking and approach a  page a little bit differently.

  I found a page in my ledger journal where I had glued down 3 cloth hexagon pieces and then had done nothing else to the page. I decided to finish off this page.

   I started with an orange ink pad and a smaller design image rubber stamp. I decided to go grungy and do some overlapping in spots.  Then I took a piece of felt cut like lace  that's been sitting in my stash for way too long. I cut it to fill in the edge by the book's binding where my mounted rubber stamp wouldn't fit. I also cut the felt to work around the edges of my cloth hexagons. Once I glued it down and that was dry I used an orange Sharpie to color in the flowers that were in the lace.

   To finish the page I wanted to add something that wouldn't interfere with the background. I took 3 black and white stem/leaf images that I also had in my stash. I went with no color because I wanted to keep the orange on my background the focal color. I went with leaves also because there's a few flowers on the page in the felt lace and also in a couple of the  hexagons so the leaves felt appropriate. To finish the page I used a sticker quote.

  The orange in my journal page reminds me of autumn, which really has started to take on some color in my area. Here's a few photos from a walk I took Friday morning.

   That's all for me today. We're having a bit of a warm up this weekend, which is nice.  Have a super rest of your weekend.

 

Sunday Art

     Hi everyone. I hope you're having a super weekend. We (me, the hubby and the 2 dogs) leave this afternoon on our adventure to Quebec. I am excited but also wondering  how the dogs will make out. We've taken short trips with them, but never one for so many days. And hopefully I have everything I need so they can cross the border easily, especially since August 1, coming back into the US with dogs includes a whole list of required items. 😞

      Let me start today's post with a journal page for Aimeslee's Anything Goes challenge at Art Journal Journey. It's been fun to have an anything goes challenge so I can post whatever I've  been working on or older pieces I haven't shared yet. ❤ Today's page is one I made a while back for another challenge and ran out of time to share. I'll also be joining Gillena's Sunday Smiles.

 I like how the background has a fabric feel to it. I inked the page with various ink pads and then used a stencil and white gesso over it. The woman is cut out of an old magazine page, as as her wings. I left her white except to color in her boots and her hair. I then decorated her dress with some flowers and decorated her wings with some colored Stickles glitter glue. I built her a base to stand on that was made with a watercolor crayon, some ric rac trim as well as a scrap of lace. Finally I stamped the quote. 

    I also have a tag to share for Sandie's Numbers challenge at Tag Tuesday.  Sandie requests we have at least 3 numbers on our tags. 

     I focused only on numbers on my tag, starting with the 4 stitched  numbers. I cut those out of a  dashboard tag from when I had my car in the  garage  to get a few maintenance items done.  After inking my tag background, I stitched on those numbers, and then I used a couple of stamp sets and stamped some other numbers. I didn't think my tag needed anything else, but I did add a few little colorful confetti pieces just to finish it off. 

      Let me finish off this post with a few ocean views from the other morning. I was on my way to meet some friends for a walk and took the scenic route to our meeting point.

It was definitely a day for egrets. I must have passed 20 of them on my drive.

     That's all for me today.  I  have a scheduled post at the end of the month and 2 more for the start of October (since I won't be home until October 1). If I have time I'll share some trip posts along the journey, but I'll have to see how that goes. Have a great rest of your weekend and week ahead otherwise. Au revoir!

Thursday Art

 Hi everyone. 

I'm back today with some more assorted art starting with a tag for Michele's Back to School  challenge at Tag Tuesday. Today's tag is a little different as I took the view of a teacher looking at their students, rather than student looking at back to school.

I stamped the quote, die cut the apple, and stamped as well as fussy cut the little bookworm with the mortar board on their head.

I also have a journal page for Aimeslee's Anything Goes challenge at Art Journal Journey. 

     Back in 2017 (or so) I made a journal about the night sky. I should say I started that journal, but when it was put on the shelf, it wasn't quite finished. I decided to finish it this fall, and this is one of the new spreads I recently made.

     The left hand side of the background is a page I pulled out of a very old calendar I had (as you can see from the fringe at the edge of the image). I kept this calendar because it has fascinating very old style illustrated pages.  Since my journal has narrower pages than the calendar was, I cut the illustration.  Most of the page is on the left, and there's a little bit of it on the right. I stamped, colored and fussy cut the rocket and Saturn before adding them to my page.

     On the right hand side I added a strip of black polka dot paper (the darkness and stars) as well as a couple pieces of gold diamond trim. After staining up the remaining uncovered background I stamped this old quote that I had in my stash.

    We've been having such gorgeous weather this week I have been making a lot of effort to get out and enjoy it. Yesterday Mr. Pete and I took a lovely long walk. Maddie spent the day at the vet's getting a day long blood glucose curve done, and finally, for the first time since January when she went on insulin, her blood sugar was down to normal. ❤   

      Here's a few photos from my walk.

That's all for me today.  Hope you're having a great day. 

T Stands for Signs of Early Fall

 Hi everyone. Happy new week to you. Today it's time for T again over at  Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog. This is a longer post today, but mostly photos.

         Last week I finished up my summer lake job (was that only last week?), had a day out with friends and had some  time to do a few things that have been on my list.

Like going apple picking. The Macs and Cortland (2 of my favorites) were ready for picking.

I bought some artificial fall blooms to put on my fireplace mantel. They were moved there after I finished arranging them and taking this photo. 

I made some pickle relish with some of the cucumbers from my garden.

And I also made chocolate zucchini bread with some garden zucchini.

The bread came out delicious, but even more precious is the fact that my mom sent me this recipe years ago. It was good to see her handwritten note on the paper. ❤

We have some early signs of autumn right now, including some cooler temperatures (which are not supposed to  last).

Here's a left over sunflower head and also the last of my wild blackberries finally ripening.

It's mushroom season.

And seed head season too, along with wild asters being in bloom.

My roses are having a second bloom and look beautiful.

Some of my dahlias are blooming now too.

The remains of summer flowers are looking interesting, although past their peak.

My garden is in no-man's land time right now. It's a bit too early to pull things and transplant, and  it's late enough most of the blooms have gone past. In my wild-flower bee garden there is still goldenrod blooming and some tall phlox too.

After all this activity, I need a cup of warm tea and a photo for T day. Here's some green tea in  my NH mug.

       Just an FYI that if you join tomorrow I won't be able to visit your blog until evening because I'm off on a sculpture walk early tomorrow morning (I need to leave at 7:15 AM) and then I have to vote in our state offices primary.  Have a great T day and week ahead. 

Camera Gear

 Hi everyone. Happy middle of the week. I hope your first week of October is going well.

Today I have a journal page to share for Neet's In Gear challenge over at Art Journal Journey. 

My page today is about how I love taking photos. My camera has always been one of my most valued possessions. Do you still have a film camera? I have my old film one squirreled away in the attic, but now my camera is digital. If you own(ed) a film camera,  do you remember picking out the right type of  film from all the available choices?  And of course nothing was instant like it is now also. I don't miss having to pay for film developing, and I definitely like being able to play with my photos on the computer now.

My page today is made with printed paper. I used one sheet for the background. It was missing an edge (because I cut something out of it) so I used a scrap of coordinating paper to fill in the gap. This lady is cut out of another sheet, and the camera and film image is also cut out from some printed paper. The 3 large quotes in the middle of the page are from one of my favorite old sets of 7Gypsies stamps. To finish off this page I added a quote sticker and 3 chipboard gears that I colored to look  old.

And speaking of taking photos, last Friday morning I went for a short "hike" with 2 friends. None of us had been to this trail before, and it was really quite lovely. We walked down to the Isinglass River in Rochester. Rochester is the New Hampshire city just a couple of towns away from where I live. 

My friend's pink fleece really popped in the forest.

There was even a small waterfall.

And a rope swing with this scary ladder. 

And there's just a touch of color coming on the leaves here.

These tree roots among the rocks look almost like a sculpture.

Time to walk back to the car and go get some breakfast. 👍

Hope your week is going well.

Thanks for stopping by.