Blue-Footed Booby and Getting Ready for September Lists...

30 Days of Lists is starting again on September 1st! Are you participating? I am all signed up and ready to go! I still have a lot of room in the journal I started the last time, so I'm continuing on with that. It's the one that my sister Renee made for me. I added a title...
They're doing it a little differently this time. It costs $6, but they have set up a forum and private blog, and they are going to have lots of prizes! If you want to get in on the fun, click here.



I finished the monthly theme assignment for "No Excuses," last night. The theme is Travel, and the assignment was to do a watercolor sketch of somewhere you would like to go. My sketch is inspired by this photo I found on the internet...
I think the blue-footed boobys are so cool! I'd love to meet one one day! Click here to see more photos of them.

Thanks for visiting and I will see you again soon my friends!

Two New Art Journal Pages...

Hi everyone! I finished a couple of art journal pages over the weekend that I can't wait to share with you! They are both in my vintage record album journal, which is the main one I am using these days.


The first one started off looking like this...
It's a page from a children's book called "I Walk At Night." It was being discarded by my local library, so I snatched it up. I just love the illustrations! They remind me of my own cats - Willie and Johnny!

I made it into an ode to our late nights in the scraproom (click to see the details)...
You can't really tell in the photo, but it's very sparkly. I don't use glitter that much, but this warranted busting out the stickles. Ha. Other things used include: miscellaneous scrapbook paper and ephemera, gesso, neocolor II crayons, Stabilo pastel pencils, Bienfang Watercolor Brush Pens, Sharpie Meanstreak, and Pan Pastels.


Back in November 2009, I took a month-long workshop from Kelly Kilmer called "A Prompt A Day," and I just loved it! In fact, I loved it so much that I took it again the next month! December got busy tho, so about the last ten prompts went unfinished. Until now! This page is inspired by one of the prompts from the class, which asks you to use a photo of yourself that particularly resonates with you. I pulled out this one, because I love how proud of myself I look! It was before the cultural norms kicked in that tell you to be modest - HA!
The journaling is one of my favorite quotes. It's by Marianne Williamson, and was used by Nelson Mandela in one of his speeches. Click on the image and you will be able to read it.


I will leave you with one of my new fave pics of Willie and Johnny. I call it "synchronized cats..."

Until next time - SHINE ON MY FRIENDS!!!

August News Page...

I thought it would be fun to do one "In The News" page each month in my daily journal. Tonight I finished the one for August...
Nothing super artsy, but a nice mini-time capsule for future reference.

I'm putting the finishing touches on my August Daily Journal, and getting ready to start a new one for September. Can you believe it's already almost September? Where has the summer gone?

August Tiny Sketch No. 2

Here's my second tiny watercolor sketch. It's 2" x 3.5," or the size of a gift/credit card. My goal is to do four by the end of August...
Done with Pelikan Watercolors, Stabilo Pastel Pencils, Neocolor II crayons and Pitt Pens.

Thanks for visiting and I will see you again soon my friends! Have a fabulous Thursday!

Tiny Watercolor Sketch...

Part of my No More Excuses journal includes doing periodic little watercolor sketches. They are the size of a gift card. I think it's a great idea and it will help improve both my sketching and painting skills! Here's my first one...
This was done with Pitt Pens and Pelikan Watercolors. I recommend the Pelikan Watercolors highly if you like intense color. I have the set of 24 opaque colors, and I love it!

I went to my monthly girls crop day yesterday and had a blast. Worked on the back cover of my new journal from the art retreat. It's just about finished - yeayyy!

Thanks for visiting my blog! I will be back soon with another update!

An Amazing Sister's Getaway...

Hi everyone! I'm sorry I've been absent for the last ten days. My sister Renee and I got together to go to an art journaling retreat! It was at a really cool place in Malibu called Artinfusio, which is run by Gina Armfield. The instructor was Pam Garrison, who besides being a talented artist is such an amazingly sweet person!

The first thing we noticed when we pulled in to the hotel was this amazing sculpture of...

THREE RAVENS!!! How perfect is that? Since the raven is my animal totem, it seemed like a good sign, plus the way the ravens were arranged, we thought that maybe it symbolized the two of us being watched over by our mom; who would have been so happy to know that we were having this time together.


Here's a photo of the retreat center, which overlooked the ocean - such a beautiful location...

playing with colors...

Our instructor - Pam Garrison...

The down side of the weekend was that after the first day of the workshop, I got sick (no fun!), so we missed day two. RATS. I didn't get my journal bound, but I did finish the front cover. Here's how it turned out...
Renee and I continued creating back at her place for a few days afterwards. It was so much fun just hanging out together. There is nothing like spending time with your sister - someone who understands you, shares your history, and makes you laugh like crazy! I love you kiddo!!! Can't wait til our next getaway!

I came back feeling super-inspired, so I will be back soon with regular updates to share! Have a wonderful weekend my friends, and thanks so much for visiting my blog!

Journal Fodder Junkies and Deck of Prompts Swap...

I've got two new things to share that I'm so excited about!!! The first one is a challenge I discovered through this inspiring page by Rafael Lopez jr. The challenge is called Journal Fodder Junkies, and they have weekly art journal challenges. They started back in March, and I decided to go back and do them all!

The first challenge is to answer the question "Who Am I"? I've been thinking alot about music lately, so I decided to take a musical twist on the question, and here is what I came up with. I did the page on a record sleeve page of my art journal...
There is something about music that, when it touches you, you can find yourself within it. Know what I mean? I think that's where the magic is. (The owl image is from the Owl Barn Calendar.) The CD insert is from a Mix CD that I made for my trips up north this summer.

To add to it, I did this page on the back of the mandala that was in the record sleeve. It's lyrics from a couple of songs on the CD...

I'm really excited about the Journal Fodder Challenges - they really make you think! Thanks to Rafael for the inspiration!

My Soul Journal Group is doing an ATC swap called the "Deck of Prompts." Everyone is making cards with journaling prompts on them, so when we are all done with the swap(s), we will have a whole deck! How fun is that? Here's a sneak peek of mine - they are all different...
I envision filling up a whole 7 Gypsies drawer with these - wouldn't that be fun!?!

Thanks for visiting and I will see you again soon!

New Writing Journal and "No More Excuses" Workshop...

I got a new writing journal from Papaya Art, and I could not POSSIBLY be more excited about it! Isn't it beautiful???

The beautiful artwork is by Anahata Katkin. Now, I did just make a whole bunch of handmade art journals, and I love working in them, but this is a whole different kind of journal. It was made specifically for writing, and you can SOOOO tell! The paper in this journal is sooooo smooth, that my pen just glides across the page effortlessly. It makes writing pure joy. The pages are beautifully designed, and the paper is nice and thick, so there is no show through. In fact, I love this journal so much, that I went back to Papaya and ordered some more!!!

Anyhoo, that brings me to the new workshop I signed up for. It's called "No More Excuses," and it's taught by Gina Armfield of Atelier Artistico. I was looking for something to put a little pizazz into my writing journal, and this turned out to be the perfect thing! The workshop gives you all these fun and light-hearted assignments on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. The workshop brings you through a whole year! Here's what I've been up to so far...(p.s. you can also get a sense of how beautiful the pages are in the papaya journal)





If you want to check out the workshop - click here. And if you want to check out the Papaya Art Journals - click here.

Thanks for visiting and I will see you again soon!

Full-Tilt Boogie Grand Finale Journal...

I finally finished my Full-Tilt Boogie Grand Finale journal and I'm excited to share it with you! The reason I am calling it the grand finale is because:

It's got the most pages of any of them (over 200)
It took the most time to put together (because each page is a collage of papers)
and I finally got brave enough to use my antique velvet photo album as the cover!

Here's how it turned out...

The size is approximately 8" x 10"...
I just love the embossed velvet...

I really had fun using up scraps for the pages. Some of these pages may end up being completely painted over, and some of them may stay just the way they are with only journaling added...








The left page is a beautifully decoupaged file folder that I got in the vintage goodie swap I recently participated in. I can't remember who it is from - so if you are out there, let me know and I can give you credit! I just love it!
Those are just a few of the pages. As I fill it up I will share the finished pages with you.

I wish you a wonderful and creative weekend my friends! Thanks so much for visiting!!!

Inspiration Journal Pages...

I'm having fun cutting and pasting in my inspiration journal. Here's my first finished page...

This one is almost done - I will probably add something above the graphic of Neil Young...

I'm not picking these images with any particular idea in mind. They are just images that grab me for one reason or another. Each beautiful in it's own way. My favorite part is putting the colors together. I have a lot more pages that are half-way done. I will share them soon!

I hope you are having a great week! I will be back soon with another update!