My Little Summer Journal, Some Pages

Some of the little pages I've been making for my summer memory journal. They aren't always neat or pretty  They are small and made quickly. Its the only way to keep up with it AND have time for other art projects.

I've doodled and colored and played with my rubber stamps. I've also used up some items that I've salvaged from other things. Like that tag in the above page that came on a bottle of coffee syrup I bought.

And I've made pages from magazine pages and used images from magazine pages.

I've been cutting out of this one magazine for a long time but I still keep finding things I like in it.

And I've used some of those papers in my stash.

The only bad thing is this cover won't be big enough to hold my whole summer, so it has become a book just for July. Luckily I had another cover laying around I can use for August.
Will be fun to make another cover!
And here's some of my latest reads for the summer.

It was a lovely day to lounge on the porch with a big glass of ice tea the other day.  I guess that's what summer is all about.
I hope you find a little time to lounge with a good book (or sketchpad and drawing utensil) today!
Thanks for visiting.

Summer Journal-round 2

 Hi there folks. Thanks for stopping by today. I have a few views from my "scrap" journal, a small 8x8 inch book that I am making a kind of a memory journal of my summer.

It allows me to keep a few notes and record the feel for what I was up to. I don't spend a lot of time on each page, that's the point of the small format, to make it quickly. Kind of a scrapbook in a way, but not so fancy pages or many photos.

I've been on the road this week taking a 4 day baking course, and I am learning lots of new techniques. I've also been eating way too many of my class projects too-but YUM! 

Anyhow my class is over in Vermont and my hubby has a meeting today in Vermont, so we spent last night over in Norwich. A fun little one night get away for the two of us. Easier than driving back and forth, not that it is the worst drive since there isn't too much traffic on most of the road and class doesn't start until noon, so I don't have to leave too early in the morning. But it  is still nice for a little change of scenery! I'll show you some photos of my class and my treats some other day when I get a chance to unload them off my phone.

But how about a few garden photos for a little splash of color instead?

Hope your day is going well!

Summer Journal

Hello everyone. Yesterday was a lot of sitting and driving but it was good to go see my mother. She is 85 and has some dementia, but she is still functioning pretty well on her own. Most of the time that is. The worst part of the day was all the heavy traffic driving home outside of Boston. I don't know how people can drive that route every day back and forth to work

But now I am home in the woods/country where I live-Yahoo-and although we are having a lot of rain today, I can use today at home to finish up a project and to play in my happy place.

So I have some views of one of my summer art projects to show you today.

I decided to make a little memory journal for the summer. 

It has all kinds of fun pages.  Doodled pages

and papered and painted pages. This one I have a little plan to add some black design to the pink painted border.

There's umbrella pages that lift up. And although you can't really see it, cards that flip up.

Here's the inner covers.  I'm using a Maya Road chipboard journal. It comes with some journal pages  that are also chipboard , which I will use, but I am adding some of my own pages too.

There's also fabric covered pages. These are some scraps for a recent play day I had.

And journal cards I made myself, even though I didn't journal on them.

A little different view of the umbrella page.

And how it lifts up.
I'll have more to show you as the summer goes on. I like the fact that this journal is 8x8 (inches) so the pages are small and I don't need to spend too much time making them.
I also like how I can try and add all kinds of things to a little journal like this. It isn't just about the art.
That's all for me today.
I appreciate you stopping by!
Hope your day is sunnier and brighter than it is here!

More Journaling

So wrapping up a second week back to school. 

I love the end of the work week.

Yeah- it is Friday!

Summer is feeling like a long time ago- its really cooled off and fall is in the air. I like that. Even though it is suppose to heat up this weekend.  Good, so maybe if  Dave's back is feeling better  we can go out in the boat and it will really feel like summer again. Give m summer on the weekend and cool it off during the week when I am back in the classroom.

And I am ready for a boat trip and a little fishing-

especially if I can catch a fish.
(not too many weeks left for that kind of fun before it just gets too chilly)

So today to celebrate Friday I am going to show you a couple more journal pages from my summer scrap-journal.

Been playing with my stencils as you can see. 

Spray inks.

And scribbling too.

So much fun and nothing too complicated.

Uncomplicated is always more fun than too complicated.

And another simple page. I simply painted the center of the page with some white paint, wrote in what I wanted to say, then added a couple of die cuts I cut and colored.

OK, so  maybe not the most technique oriented or in depth art.

But hey-

it works for me.

When I look back in 20 years it will hopefully put me back to where I need to be.

That's the point right?

I'm not selling product or representing a company and so I can just have FUN!

Thanks for visiting me.

I love it when you stop by.

More Journal Pages

How about some more journal pages. 

And here's page a page featuring your lovely blog hostess-

Me!

This page is pretty simple and features a lot of stamping.
I wanted it to be simple,
and blue-
because even though it was a hot day-
I wanted to portray the keeping cool part.
Which was my plan.
And the little book snippet at the top,
since I read on the dock.

I love the big numbers-

do any of you remember Ma Vinci?

Maybe she's still selling stamps.

But these are her

giant number stamps I've had forever and I

LOVE them.

The blue streak is just a watercolor marker blurred with a wet brush.

Now on this page I played with the background.

And I love how it came out.

I started with 2 different background stamps, some blue embossing powders and then some spray inks.

A few die cut images laying on the mess on my work table 

and then I cut the heads off of 2 old photos, actually from a Shutterfly book I have that has some major print issues. But still, I felt horrible ripping and cutting up this book, even though Shutterfly replaced it with a good no print issues volume.

But I do love how the page came out.

And a journaling page-with a title or top that I LOVE.

Here's a close up-

I die cut the July and stars  and then used that as a stencil to spray this-which I then outlined with a fine line Sharpie. Then I added the 2 die cut flourishes, and the ka-boom shape die cut. I stamped the words (Technique Tuesday) and after cutting that out I added that in.

And then I made this page. I used a painted deli wrap (Thanks Julie Fei-Fan Balzar for that trick) and  I added this fun old homecoming queen photo from an old yearbook I bought a few weeks ago for $2. Some tape, some die cut stars, some tearings from an old book, punched out tape and then the holes I punched. See that queen- that's me with everyone waiting and needing something from me. That's where the banner saying comes from.

So more other projects this week include some home improvement!

Painted a bureau, planning and shopping to repaint my kitchen cabinets (how far that will get I am not sure), did some major cleaning in my basement laundry room. Came up with 3 other basement clean ups we desperately need- 1) get rid of my daughter's old toy chest that has been sitting there for years 2) get some shelves to organize all the bottles of things (beer, wine, water, etc.) and 3) get rid of the laundry room rug- it is disgusting and look for something new.

We're in the icky humid and rainy weather-

kind of a BIG downer.

But the weeds going crazy in my gardens just love it-

maybe one of these days I'll get out to weed.

AND-

I needed to go paint patterns on paper and I made my book for the SEWN class

I am taking with MaryAnn Moss

otherwise known as

Dispatch from LA!

FUN TIMES!!!!!
Will show you some other day!

BUT-

the good news is this is a more mellow week.

Feel like I have a chance to do a few things!

AND-

less than a week-

we are flying to Colorado!

Can't wait!

Thanks for stopping by.

Keeping It Simple.

Sometimes you don't need a lot of "things" on a page to say a lot.

Just keeping it simple. My favorite style.

So the exciting news is today IS the last day of school for me. 

I am SOOOOOOO excited and ready.

Scrapbook Style Pages

Another week is rolling along. I can't believe it is the end of June, already. 

So how was your weekend and start to the new week? I was busy. Work at the lake, an end of year school party at one of my department member's homes, 2 Bruins games (on tv), going fishing with the hubby, huge thunderstorms and rain-poor Harl, my dog, was home alone and buried himself behind my washing machine. 

And now we're into the heat and humidity- wish  I didn't have to be working but these teacher work days are very low key. Today I think is the worst of the 3-boring! At least I expect it to be.

So here's a few pages I've made in my summer scrap-journal. Some of my pages are more scrapbook pages, as you'll see today.  Sometimes I draw, as you saw last Wednesday .http://fat-emma.blogspot.com/2013/06/ive-been-drawing-little-bit-more.html Sometimes they are more journal pages, as you can see on last Monday's post .http://fat-emma.blogspot.com/2013/06/5-days-and-counting.html

Here's something a tad more traditional.

It's a little busy to me, but decided I'd keep it.

Spice up my book a bit!

The fish tape was the easiest-I just stamped this little fish on yellow tape.

Yahoo! 

It is fun to be able to do whatever I feel like in this book.  Paint, paper, pictures, drawing, you name it, it is there.

One more.A combo page!!!

If you can image that!

Top view and

bottom view

I really like how this doodling of waves came out.

I also like my anchors-which are stamped, colored and outlined.

What do you put in your journals?

I'd love to know.

Thanks for visiting.

I've Been Drawing a Little Bit More

Bought myself some Tom's shoes earlier this spring.

Being a science teacher, I get a lot of comments when I wear these.

The shoes themselves are watercolor painted but  I acrylic painted the page around them, first a blue coat and then I stenciled some orange paint around them.

And I drew my deck pots, or at least some of them. This was back Memorial Day weekend when I bought my plants and put them in

To finish off these pages I added this cute little die cut bunny and the heart.

Playing in the gardens and in the dirt is such a satisfying this for me to do at this time of year.
I got a bunch of weeding and even a bit more planting left to do.
But that is half the fun.
The other half to admiring the work and the colors and produce it brings.
Happy Day.
More Bruins tonight. Go Boston Bears!
Thanks for visiting.

Numbers

Some pages from my summer scrap journal.

They aren't fancy or even super artistic but they say something about the moment I was journaling.

Seems like I have been using numbers a lot as of late.

Journaling about a little of this and a little of that.

What have you been using a lot of in your journalling lately?