Clouds

 Hi everyone. Happy Friday.

 I'm here today with a new page for Sheila's challenge of a Single Flower at Art Journal Journey

This time I created a page that used a flower as an embellishment.

I had this blue background (a Gelli print) in my stash from one of the Creative Jumpstart classes I completed. The lines radiating upward (on it) had me thinking about sunshine.  I painted in the rising sun with various warm toned paints, and I also used some watercolor pencils to finish it off

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The clouds are some fun acetate stickers I got on Etsy. I used more than half the package making this page, but I  love how they worked and got a bit carried away. As they were only a couple of dollars, I think I need to order another package for myself. Smile.

I played around trying to get the bottom of the page to be something I liked. After layering colors and some tissue paper, I finally stamped the heart chain and decided I liked this result. I stamped and cut apart this quote (an ancient stamp but one of my all time favorites) as well as stamping  the big flower. I colored and fussy cut the flower also to finish off my page.

The tulips I shared several days ago have really opened up and won't be around much longer.

One of them in the bunch that is a bit more passé  has a slightly different color from the rest. 

I enjoy watching tulips go through their whole bloom cycle.

I'm guess this means I'm going to need to get another bunch of flowers soon. These tulips won't have petals much longer.

Have a great start to your weekend.

A Tag and Some Graffiti

Hi everyone. Happy Thursday. Hope everyone is having a good week so far.

Today I want to start  my post today by sharing a Steampunk  tag for Sandie's challenge at Tag Tuesday. Maybe not exactly 100% steampunk, but definitely masculine and with a steampunk vibe.

I'm using a  tag with the tab because I decided I am going to connect some of the tags I make into a little book.

My background is stamped and inked. The light and the gentlemen are stamped on acetate. The words and quote are stamped directly onto the page and then I added part of a copper paper die cut that I inked a bit to make it look less shiny and also to bring out some details.

I also want to show you the last of my photos from my walk at Odiorne State Park last Friday.  I mentioned yesterday that part of this park used to be known as Fort Dearborn, built during World War 2 as seacoast defense.  That's the focus of my photos today.

All that  is left  to the fort are these cement bunkers. Now they are pretty much covered in graffiti. Since I was attracted to the bright colors of the graffiti and took quite a few photos, I decided to post them separate from yesterday's nature shots. This park is also within the bounds of the school district that  my friends and I worked in, and we had to wonder how many of these works of graffiti art were created by former students.

Some of the graffiti is just messy paint, but some of it isn't horrible art either. There's some pretty nice colors too.  Whoever created parts of this graffiti must have purposely come with different colored spray paints.

 

 We decided whoever did the yellow bug on the left of the above photo didn't have any of us for biology. They obviously didn't know insects only have 6 legs. Smile.

I know not everyone likes graffiti and might even see this as ruining a historical structure. While that is true, it does brighten up some  bland cement. Too bad it's so messy in places.

Hope you have a great ! 

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Thanks for visiting. 

My Third Road Trip

 Hi everyone.  Yesterday was extremely windy and bitterly cold. It sounded like I was standing next to a big waterfall all day, and it looked like the tundra with snow blowing.  I guess winter was showing her teeth and not in that big of a hurry to leave. 

 Hurrah! It only lasted for a day, and we are back to more normal March temperatures. 

Today I have a photo post with some pictures from my last little road trip.

This time I met my beach walking friend and one of our teacher friends, and we went for a  beautiful day, winter walk at Odiorne State Park.  

Yes, the ground still had snow on it. It was pretty solid though and only a  bit slippery in a few spots. We took it slow and went for more the act of walking (and talking)  rather than a workout walk.

We still managed over 10,000 steps too.

I've shown you views of Odiorne last fall when I walked their with my daughter. This state park is located right on the ocean. The track of land was the first mainland settlement area of my state,  back in the  early 1600's. At that time the ocean  off the New Hampshire coast was a large fishing area for Europeans fleets, and this was a popular trading area between the local Native population and the fishermen.  The Odiorne family  settled the land in the 1660's. They farmed it , and it stayed in the family until World War 2, when it became Fort Dearborn, part of the coastal defense system for the area. Tomorrow I'll show you what's left of the fort.

I'm not sure what kind of hawk this is except  that it is not a red tailed hawk.  Anyone know? I'm thinking maybe a Cooper's Hawk, but it was hard to tell as I couldn't see the chest.

We started off in the wooded part of the area, and then came out to the beach side.

 

Perhaps you might remember this jetty. I still want to walk out on it, but the tide was still high enough that there was a lot of water in the little dip near the beginning of it.  Oh well, another time.

We walked back along the shore instead of through the snowy woods. 

There must have had some strong seas over the winter as there were more washed up lobster traps here too. 

It was a great walk and fun to visit someplace other than the beach.

Hope you enjoyed the photos, and I appreciate your visit.

Say It With Flowers

Hi everyone.  I'm here today with art for the newest challenge at Try It On Tuesday.

 Since Mothering Sunday is coming up on March 22, and so many mothers love flowers, our challenge for the next 2 weeks is Say It With Flowers.  Of course I realize that you don't have to be a mother to love flowers. 

I'm addicted to making mini-books lately, so today I have a garden mini-book to share with you. 

Sorry for the fingertips in a few of the photos!

My book measures 3x2 inches (7.6  x 10.1 cm) and is made by folding a single sheet of water colored paper into a little book. This particular book is made with the paper being water colored on both the back and the front, so I didn't need to make  separate front and back covers.  I glued the basic book together and then used some green tape around the binding for extra hold.

I did some stamping and coloring to create my designs. The quotes are from TH, and I also added a few plastic gemstones to finish off my pages.

I had fun making this book as it made me think about my garden getting green and blooming, but not until the snow melts.

Be sure to check out the design team art too. If you should need some inspiration, there's lots of  great ideas there.

I also wanted to share a flower page for Second on the Second over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog. I went back to March of 2019 and found this page, which was also made for a different Say It with Flowers challenge at Try It On Tuesday.

Thanks for visiting, and I look forward to your flower art!

T Stands for Changes of Scenery

 Hi everyone. Happy March to you! I'm excited for spring to be getting closer, although as I have written  many times before, one never knows if March will be spring or if it will still be winter here in New Hampshire. Either way, this is usually the last tough month of weather to get through, and some years it isn't very tough at all.

Last week besides a couple days of light snow,  we had some sunny weather and even some much warmer days compared to the rest of  February.  It was really nice to see blue sky, and since I was tired of the same  scenery,  I went for three little road trips.  I live in  great part of New Hampshire because, as some of you have asked, I can be at the ocean in an hour or less (30 minutes depending where I go), and I can be in the mountains in about an hour also.  It just depends which  direction I drive.

Thought I'd take you along for some views this week for T.  Be sure to stop by Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog  where we share our weekly drink related post.

A week ago Sunday we had some beautiful blue skies. The temperatures were in the high 20's (around -2 or -1 degrees C) so it was still a little chilly. It was a good day to sit in a warm car though, even better because the sun was streaming through the windows.  I dragged the hubby along for a ride, although that didn't take much arm twisting, and we headed north for a mountain drive. 

We decided to take a drive along the Kancamagus Highway, locally called the Kanc. It is a little over 56 mile drive through mostly National Forest. We drove to and started at the west end, which is further from our house. We drove east and ended up with the shorter drive home, although I completely forgot about Sunday afternoon ski traffic. I don't suppose either way I went would have lessened that, but it was still a beautiful drive.

This  photo  below didn't capture the sparkle, but these trees have some ice on them.

And how about this snowbank in one of the plowed pull offs?

I wasn't surprised but was still a bit disappointed that more of the pull off areas weren't plowed.

I don't usually go north. I guess I prefer the ocean.  My next trip was later in the week when I went down to the ocean.

 Last Wednesday temperatures were near 50 degrees (10 degrees C). That meant it was much too nice of a day to sit inside. As my yard was still snow covered, and my road (being gravel) was slushy mud, the only place to walk was the beach. This time I headed over to York, Maine for my walk. 

I am particulary fond of this beach because it is long with hard packed sand. I also love it because  back in my 20's I used to rent a condo for the off season near this beach. Back then I used to come home from a day at school and go for a beach walk. I do wish I could still beach walk without having to drive there.

I took the dogs with me last Wednesday also. I want to know why York Beach makes them more excited than other beaches or any place else they go. They were spazzing out in the car once I got about a mile away from the beach itself, and for the first few minutes of my walk they were acting as though they had never been on a leash. Smile.

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You can see we had hazy sun that day and a really low tide with the moon being so close to full. 

I thought the effect of the sand down by water in one area looked really interesting.

I also liked the shape of this seaweed also. I took this first seaweed photo because I though it would make a great carved stamp.

This next one had some cool texture.

In this last photo you can see Mr. Pete.  Maddie was there too, but she didn't want to get in the photo for some reason. When I stopped  to snap the photo, she went back besides me.

A road trip is not complete without a drink. Nor is a T day post.

I hadn't drank more than a sip since I had left the house. It usually takes me 2 days to finish a bottle this size, and most of this had been drunk the day before.  I'm weird, but I like it better when it is a little less fizzy.

I took one more road trip last week, but I think I've made my post long enough for one day. I took a lot of photos at my next destination.  I'll be back with some more photos  in my Wednesday post. and then I'll  finish those on Thursday. In case you are curious.

Wishing you all a happy T day, a happy new month and a great week too.

Bees and a Bloom

Hi everyone. Happy March.

I am excited for the new month. March means spring officially arrives, although here in New Hampshire one can never know if spring weather will arrive or not.  However, longer days and the promise of  real spring being not so far off in the future is exciting.

Of course there's a saying that goes March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb. I hope the lion is sleeping (better yet hibernating)  a lot  this year.  Smile.

March also means it's time for a new challenge at Art Journal Journey. 

Thanks Valerie for such a fun Heavy Metal Challenge. And thanks to all of you who joined the challenge last month.

This month we want to welcome  Sheila and her  challenge of  one single flower.

My first page for the month is a cheery one. The background was made with bright yellow, bronze and copper paint. I had a piece of heavy plastic packaging  that I die cut into some hexagons. I also inked them with some Staz On black so they would show up more on my page.

 I drew the flower , colored and cut it out. The little bees are Hero Arts stamps that I stamped, colored and fussy cut. I'm not sure you can see the one on the flower but he's my favorite. Finally the bee definition is an ancient Stamp in the Hand image from a set I've had for probably 15 or 20 years.

This month I am hoping it will really BEE spring-ha ha. 

Thanks for visiting, and I hope you'll join Sheila and the team over at Art Journal Journey with your art.