The Word is... "Sing!"

Hey everyone!  It's the 15th of the month again, which means it's time for the One Little Word Challenge!

The word for January is SING!

Here's what I came up with...

 I had fun with acrylic paint, collage bits, and lots of paint marker doodling on this one!

 It was made from a page in my junque journal that originally looked like this...

Can you tell who that is?  It's a pic of Judy Garland and her daughter Liza Minelli!  I found it in an old magazine (I think from the 60's?) and added it to the journal when I originally put it together.  When I found out our word for January was SING, I knew it would be perfect!

What does the word SING make you think of?  Do you have a photo you've been meaning to scrap that would work?  A journal page you could make?  Come on over and play along with us at One Little Word!  You've got a whole month, and we'd love to see you!  Click here to go to the challenge!

Thanks so much for visiting today!  Have a wonderful day!

Journal 52...

Hi friends!  Are any of you participating in Journal 52 this year?  It's a free, year-long workshop that my friend Anne participated in last year; and it looked like so much fun, I decided to join in for 2015! 

The first prompt was "Pathways."  Here's what I came up with...

I realized as I was making this page, that this is the third time in the last year I've used that song lyric on a journal page.  I  must be feeling a special connection to it!

In my Year of the Spark class - we were asked to submit a "creative selfie," so I used this page for that too.

I'll leave you with the song that inspired the page - "On The Road to Find Out" by Cat Stevens...

P.S.  If you want to join in for Journal 52, click here to go to the website.

Thanks so much for visiting, and I wish you a beautiful Monday!

Alchemy Cards so far...

Hi friends!  I'm excited to share the Alchemy cards I am making in my Inner Alchemy Circle group.  The focus is on Animal Spirits and Archetypes...

This is a whole different kind of project for me, and I'm loving being part of it...

The biggest part about making these cards for me is reflecting on the meaning and energy that resides in each one...

I was attracted to the course because of my love for working with animal totems; but I am finding the archetypes fascinating as well...

I am really loving the spiritual nature of this project.  I am learning a lot about the symbolism, and it's so fascinating!

The cards have a lot more meaning than just the three words I put on each one, but I wanted to have a simple reminder of what made me feel the most connected to them...

The cards are 3x4 inches.  By the end of the course, I will have a complete deck of 28 cards.  I plan to use them for creative inspiration in my artwork and perhaps also in life... 

So far I have 12 done...

I am so looking forward to finishing my deck and putting it to use!  I will keep you posted on the progress...

Thanks so much for visiting today!  I appreciate each and every one of you!

Beginnings...

Right now all of the classes I'm taking are having their own version of a "beginnings" lesson.  At first I was a little worried about it, cuz I don't want a bunch of repetitive pages; but each one is a little different, and I am delighted that they are all falling together quite naturally!

The first Documented Life Challenge is to use book paper and work with the theme:  Be Your Own Goal Keeper.  Here's what I came up with...

 

(book paper, gesso, acrylic paint, tombow markers, pencil, white poster paint pen, shipping tag)

 

I kept it pretty simple and listed three goals for the year:

1. Go on Adventures,

2. Create Something Every Day, and

3.  Approach all things with Love.

 

I already had the first Lifebook lesson on the next page; so together they make this spread...

That gave me the idea to use the next two spreads to represent my other two goals.  This is my first Book of Days spread...

(gesso, ad image, acrylic paint, fabric spray ink, neon oil crayon, markers)

The image of the girl and her dog is a gesso transfer that I colored with paint and ink.  I usually have a terrible time with transfers of any kind, so I was delighted that it turned out!

and then, here's my final goal, represented on my mantra page from Artfully Inspired Life...

(tombow marker and pitt pen)

It's a fun challenge to make all the different classes work together in one journal. I thought about giving each workshop it's own book; but I've tried that before and I always end up with half-finished journals all over the place - ha.  This way I don't have that problem!

I hope you are having a super-groovy week, my friends!  Thank you so much for visiting!

 

Workspace Wednesday - My painting station...

Hi friends!  Here's a quick Workspace Wednesday post for you...

This is how my painting station looks right now.  It sits on one end of one of those folding banquet tables in the middle of my studio...

I keep some big sheets of kraft paper underneath everything to keep it clean.  As a side benefit I can create some pretty cool hand-painted papers with them, just by wiping my brush off before sticking it in the water to clean it.

I keep one set of small tubes of lots of colors on the table.  The bigger paint containers are stored away unless I'm using them.  You can barely see it in the right hand corner, but there's a big pink craft sheet as the main surface for painting.  I find that putting the underpapers to the side (rather than actually under my project) makes it easier to wipe paint onto them without risking getting the wet paint all over my project.  Also, there are two water buckets - one for rinsing off warm colors, and one for rinsing cool colors.  Helps to keep your water from turning to mud so fast.  I keep the covers on the buckets to keep the cats from investigating...

 

Acrylic brushes are being stored in an old marker organizer...

Watercolor brushes and water are kept separate from the 

acrylics, to keep them clean and working nicely. 

The nice thing about the water basin covers is they are also palettes!

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments.  Thanks so much for visiting!

The Watcher and the Doodle Girl...

Hey friends!  How is your 2015 going so far?  Mine is going great!  I want to thank you so much for all of your comments on my recent posts!  I really appreciate hearing from you!

I just realized I never shared these two portraits from the Radiant Faces Workshop - (which I am still LOVING by the way)...

This is "The Watcher," which was taught by Kylie Fowler.

She is the one who lovingly watches over me - kinda like a guardian angel...

 (photograph, acrylic paint, gesso and marker)

She started as a photograph of me, and morphed into someone completely different when I started to add paint over the top.  It's the first time I've done a paint-over collage technique and liked the results!


And this one is called "The Doodle Girl," taught by the fabulous Joanne Sharpe.

She represents my 70's soul...

(Copic marker and pitt pen)

I still have one or two portraits to go in this class.  If you are interested in learning various styles of portrait-creating, I highly recommend Radiant Faces.  The diversity of each lesson has been amazing! 

Thanks so much for visiting today!  I appreciate you!

The Beauty of Gray (No Excuses - Week One)...

The theme for this year's No Excuses Program is "A Year of Color."  As a color enthusiast, this makes me absolutely GIDDY!  Each month focuses on exploring a different color.  The color for January is Gray...

This is my spread for the first week...

On the flip-out I pasted the workshop handout for the month.  I blurred out the information, since it is a paid class.  I pasted on a couple of photos from pinterest to spruce it up a bit..

No Excuses is a journaling program designed by  Gina Rossi Armfield.  If you want to know more about it click here.  It's based on a desk diary format, and it's tons of no-pressure fun!

Thanks so much for visiting!  I appreciate you!

All Things With Love - (Life Book Week One)...

Today's journal page is my interpretation of the first Lesson in Life Book 2015...

"All Things With Love"

(acrylic paint, neocolor II crayon, markers, pencil, book paper, rubber stamps 

and black journaling pens)

Like yesterday's page, I spent hours and hours on this one too. I loved being able to take my time and  I'm really happy with how she turned out.  I followed the lesson and added my own style too. 

My word for this year is "Love," which is why I chose the phrase I did, and why she is carrying a heart in her right hand.  My goal is to approach everything this year with love in my heart, and I tried to make my sunshine girl's expression reflect that.  The moon in her left hand is a symbol of the magic that night time holds for me.

I'm already behind on making a journal spread every day in January, but I'm hoping that there will be some faster pages ahead.  :)

Thank you so much for your visit and for your comments!  I treasure each one!

January Creative Goals and first Journal Page of the New Year...

Hey friends!  How's your new year going so far?  Mine is going great!  I'm taking an insane number of workshops this month and feeling very inspired!

One of them is Joanne Sharpe's Artfully Inspired Life.  The first lesson went up on the first, and it's jam-packed with fun stuff to do!  The first thing is to create a title page - here's mine...

 (pitt pen, QOR watercolors, tombow marker, white uniball signo pen, stickles diamond glitter)

This page took quite a few hours to complete, but I was taking my time and getting zen with it.  So much fun and so relaxing!

I made myself a goal of doing one journal spread each day in January.  At the end of the month, I will re-evaluate for February.

Here's a list of what I'm participating in this month, (with links in case you want to join in!):

Artfully Inspired Life with Joanne Sharpe
Lifebook 2015 with Tam Laporte and many more
Book of Days 2015 Vol. 1 - Ordinary Beauty with Effy Wild
2015 Year of the Spark with Carla Sonheim and Lynn Whipple
Sketchbook Skool Bootkamp with Koosje Koene and Danny Gregory
Inner Alchemy Circle - Animal Spirits & Archetypes with Mindy Tsonas and more
No Excuses: Year of Color with Gina Rossi Armfield
Documented Life Project with Art to the 5th Academy


I did not start out with the intention of taking this many workshops.  I signed up for Life Book and No Excuses many months ago, and then, as each of the other course description showed up online I was like - Yes!  I must do that too!!!   I eventually ended up with this ridiculously large list.   I am looking at it as a challenge to see if I can keep up.  No pressure, just fun!

Thanks so much for visiting today!  I wish you a Super- inspiring Saturday!

Journals of 2014...

Looking back at all of my 2014 journals makes me happy.  With just a few exceptions, these are all complete...

 The one on the very left was actually started in 2013 and finished in 2014.  The one on the far right is my 2014 planner journal, which still has a few weeks in December to finish. and the two next to it have some pages left to complete, but for the most part they are all full! 


 Here's another view where you can see the front covers...

I learned so much this year, and connected with so many friends through my online art groups. I feel so grateful for all of it! 


My plan for 2015 is to have one spread complete for each day; and one art journal for each month.  I hope I can do it!

Thank you so much for visiting me today!  I wish you a wonderfully creative Friday!

Happy New Year! And a belated top 2000 post...

Happy New Year!  Welcome 2015!  It's my favorite day of the year again! Yeayyy!

I had all kinds of posts planned for the end of 2014, but life was spinning at breakneck speed and I regret that I didn't get any of them posted!  Ack!

For one thing, Marit's Top 2000 party has passed me by!  For the first time in the six years of the party, I missed the whole thing - drat!  Sorry Marit!  I made a page for the first day early, and saved it, then went out of town for Christmas, and forgot to bring my blog password, so I couldn't post it.

Even though I am wayyy too late for the party, I want to share the page I made for day one:

Coming in at #1860 is "Up Around The Bend" by Creedence Clearwater Revival...

Here's a fun video I found with a look at bands and events of the 60's, set to "Up Around The Bend..."


I had the songs all picked out for the rest of the days of the party, so I may still do them at some point, just for fun.  If I do I will be sure to share them with you here.

I'm so excited about the New Year!  My main creative goal is to complete an art journal page every day!  Today, I'm busy binding my January journal so I can get started!

How about you?  What are your creative goals for the year?

The Word is... RELEASE...

It's the 15th of the month again, which means it's time for the One Little Word challenge!  This month's word is...

RELEASE

"Release" was the perfect word for me, as I've been dealing with this transition into retirement.  It's so funny, cuz I thought that retirement would feel like one big Saturday; party time all the time, right?  Well, it's weird - it's like I had all these huge expectations for myself, and now I've been dealing with alot of (self-induced) guilt because I'm not "producing" as much as I thought I would be.  LOL.  I talked with a friend of mine who also recently retired, and she has had some of the same feelings; so maybe it's not that uncommon when you retire.  It's like, I've been working for so long that it feels somehow wrong to relax.  Aargh.

Anyhoo, it was therapeutic for me to work on this page...

How about you?  What does the word "Release" mean to you?  Come on over to the One Little Word challenge and  play along!  We'd love to have you!  Click here to go to the challenge!

Thanks so much for visiting today!  I appreciate you so much!