New Challenge at Fave Things...

Hi everyone! The new challenge at the Fave Things blog is to scrap your "Favorite Feature!" This could be about you, your kids, your hubby...anything that has to do with yours or someone else's FAVE FEATURE...example: FAVE NOSE, FAVE HAIR, FAVE EYES etc.

Here's what I came up with...
I am just a sucker for my cat's cute little feet! I used the Basic Grey "Max and Whiskers" collection for this, along with some things from my stash.

So, what's your favorite feature? Come on over and play along with us! Click here to go to the Fave Things Blog.

In the Soul Journaling prompts, we went back to the earlier grid page and added some finishing touches. Here's the finished page...
Thanks for visiting and I'll be back tomorrow with another update!

Can't Stop Journaling...

I did alot of journaling yesterday and I'm excited to share it with you!

I completed another entry in my Soul Journal...


I finished my bird sketch just in time for the February sketch challenge...

Oh, and this morning I was visiting my friend Julie's blog and saw that there is a card sketch challenge going on over at the Studio Challenges; so I decided to play along. Here's what I came up with...
I used my Scarlet Lime Vintage Love kit for this one.

I've recently discovered Didi's flickr site and find her art journal pages so inspiring! Check her out here.

I'm looking forward to another day of creating today. Thanks for visiting and I will see you tomorrow with another update...

New Wonky Page Journal and Little Bird...

Hi everyone! I finally started my February sketch challenge page. I had a hard time coming up with an idea for the theme "opposites," so I decided to stretch it a bit and sketch a bird on a flower - which is just the opposite from what I see out my window now - SNOW.

It's just in the beginning stages, but here's what I've got so far...


I had to go out of town this week, so I brought along my latest Scarlet Lime kit to play with in the hotel room at night. I decided to make a new journal with the kit, and since I didn't have a paper trimmer with me - the "Wonky Page Journal" was born! It was so relaxing to just play with the papers and embellishments; no measuring and no trying to get anything straight. When I was done I had a pile of background papers cut, and a few pages all embellished and ready for journaling and photos...
My style is a bit wonky anyway, so it wasn't a big stretch, but for some reason I've never thought of cutting the base pages out by hand...


I kept the left sides straight to make it easier to bind later...





I've been writing in my Pre-Smashbook everyday too. I'm loving that as well. Journalling really seems to be my thing right now. It's so therapeutic.

I'll be back tomorrow with another update. Thanks so much for visiting!

Art Journal Every Day Check In...

I have really been enjoying my art journaling every day this week. I discovered a new website which I am so excited about - it's called "Soul Journaling," and it is really inspiring me! It's creator is Sarah Whitmire, and there are 22 prompts that are free, followed by advanced technique workshops you can purchase if you want to. The first three pages are from the Soul Journaling Prompts...

(yes, that's me at the ripe old age of 12)

If you want to more info about Soul Journaling, you can click on the widget in the sidebar, or click here.


I also did one page in my Grief Journal...


And finally, four pages in my Good Things Daily Journal...




The thing I am loving the most right now, is having a bunch of different journals to choose from each day, depending on how I'm feeling.

How about you? How is your journaling going? I'd love to hear about it!

Thanks for visiting and for your comments - I really appreciate them!

My Pre-Smashbook...

Have you seen the promo video for the new Smashbooks? I saw this and got really excited. Check it out...



But they don't come out until April! Then I saw this post at Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's blog, and got inspired to make this...
I just decorated the cover of a composition book, but I call it my "Pre-Smashbook," cuz I'm going to use it as such until I can get ahold of the real deal in April. I used my "Kaleidescope" kit from Scarlet Lime, plus some happy tape and my little bird stamp. I will share more of the insides on Thursday, with my "Art Journal Every Day" check-in post.

I hope your weekend is going well. There is a snowstorm just starting here, so the cats and I are hunkered down in the scraproom for the day...
P.S. I just got that tape dispenser with all the colorful masking tape from CSN this week, and I love it! I'd been wanting it for a long time, and finally broke down and ordered it. More info on it here in case you are interested.

Thanks for visiting! See you soon!

Art Journal Every Day Check In...

Hi everyone! This week was a little different for me in terms of art journaling. I decided to work in the tiny journal I made in Virginia's "Proof of Life" class. I decided to make it into a journal to record the little bright spots in each day. Now especially, I know it's important to acknowledge those. So, this week I made a daily page to record a good thing that happened. And I am calling it my "Good Things Daily" journal...


I dedicated the book to my mom, cuz I know she would want me to still see the bright things in life...

The quote is cut from a greeting card mom sent me at the beginning of January...

A wrapper from a Dove chocolate that I had at my crop with my girlfriends...

I shrunk down the sympathy card that Christina, Anne and Lynn gave me. I thought it was so beautiful I had to include it in my book...

This is a print that Christy Tomlinson gave out on her blog. She created it as a valentine for her readers...

More ephemera from my crop...






Hee hee, this moment was so cute...

and that's it for this week. It was so uplifting looking for one good thing to record each day! And I really enjoyed working in such a tiny format (3.5" x 5.5").

Thanks for visiting and for your kind comments. They really mean a lot to me!

The ABC Book is Finished At Last...

Back in 2009 I discovered the "Year in The Life of an Art Journal" group. Their theme that year was "The ABCs of Me." Their prompts (as you can imagine) throughout the year, were words that began with each letter of the alphabet. I did good at keeping up at first, and then started to get behind, and then, well, you know the story.

At my retreat in January, I finally finished the last three pages! Here they are...

V is for Vicarious...
W is for Wish...


This one was a little different. XYZ stands for The End...

Here is how the completed book looks...


If you want to see photos of all the pages, click here.

Also, the slideshow is up for the "New Shoes" challenge at Scrapping The Music! Check it out here!

Art Journal Every Day Check In...

It's time for my weekly "Art Journal Every Day" check in. I have to tell you that:

a. It's been amazingly helpful to have my grief journal to work out my feelings in; and
b. It feels sorta weird to me to be sharing my unhappy pages here. I'm not used to that. But I have to be real, and hope you will understand that this is my journey - full of ups and downs.

First, here are a couple of pages that are from before this week, but I hadn't shared them yet...


And here are pages from this week...



Another journal I worked on this week was this one from Virginia Tillery's "Proof of Life" class...
It's going to be really cool when it's finished, but so far I just have the pages cut and the album assembled...


It's a tiny album (3 1/2" x 5"); and it's intended to be a journal that you carry with you and collect all of your daily life ephemera, doodles, photos, and other things. Such a cute idea! You can see more about the class by clicking here.

Are you signed up for Art Journaling Every Day this month? If so, how's it going?

Don't forget to check out Julie's AJED weekly post today!

Heart Mobile...

The first project for the Valentine's Crop at Noel Mignon is an origami heart mobile. You can see Diana's awesome inspiration project here. Here's what I came up with...

I used a feather that I found on one of our neighborhood walks. I think it might be a turkey feather. The hearts are made from a combination of scrapbook papers, and the rose paper on the bottom right is vintage wrapping paper that was my mom's.

Thanks for visiting!

Fave Quote and More...

There are a number of projects that I meant to share with you in January, and didn't get to. So, even if it's a bit late, I still want to share them with you now. :0)

The first one is my layout for the Fave Quote challenge over at the Fave Things blog. The challenge closed at the end of January, but here is what I came up with...
I had so much fun making this layout. I used some papers from the "Emotions" line, which was designed by my friend Nat Kalbach. Her papers are absolutely gorgeous and so much fun to work with! You can check out the whole line here. I also used dictionary paper, acrylic and watercolor paints, and some miscellaneous background paper scraps.

The current challenge at Fave Things is to scrap your favorite game. Check it out here.

I've been doing a lot of online research about the grief process. Especially about how to use your creativity to help you through it. I've been listening to this, which has been helpful. It doesn't talk about creativity directly, but it does talk about doing the things you love and it helped me to hear that. Some of you have been sharing things that you have done in the past to help you through grief in your life, and I really appreciate that too - thanks so much!

Speaking of doing things that you love - Noel Mignon's Online Valentine's Crop starts tomorrow! I didn't think I would be up to participating, but now I'm thinking it might be good for me! It sounds like so much fun! The crop goes all week, with projects and challenges and games. Come on over and play along!

Thanks so much for visiting, for your comments and for your support. It really means a lot to me!