languishing in DRAFT status...

I am still here, but my blog has been sadly neglected over the course of the summer. Not sure how that happens, other than sometimes my 'introvertedness' gets the best of me... I can only focus on so many things at once, and over the summer, my blog was the thing at the bottom of the list. But no more! 

I originally wrote this post originally back in May, but never hit the 'publish' button, so when you read it, keep that in mind... it's been more than a few weeks! 

A few weeks ago, I spent some time at a pretty fun estate sale. The person had an actual 'library' in their house- a small room (well, really a spare bedroom) with one whole wall of bookshelves chock-full of books. They were even separated into sections by subject matter! I didn’t really need any fiction books, but I did find a few things I wanted: a copy of Roger Tory Peterson’s Field Guide to Western Birds (finally- yay!), a very nice 2002 calendar, and a paperback museum exhibition catalog from the late 1980s. Why would I want these things? Well, the bird book is obvious; the other two, not so much... unless you happen to be into collage and art journaling! (or unless you wanted to know what day of the week something happened, back in 2002, I guess- lol!) 

Anyway, the calendar and the museum exhibition catalog didn't stay the way they were for long- here's a few selected pages of a 'just for fun' visual journal that I started:

papers include: scrapbooking, magazine, handmade
paper (textured) and an image from the internet.

Most of the pages are strictly paper, glue, and tape. No painting, no fancy stuff- just the basics (well, my basics, anyway). It was kinda nice to just glue things down with no real rhyme or reason other than I liked them together. Even if they didn't really 'go' together to 'mean' anything. (Tom asks me about that every once in a while when I show him a journal page, "but what does it mean?" "What are you trying to say with this page?" Honestly, sometimes the answer to those questions is, really, 'Nothing.' Other than my love of pretty paper, glue, and pictures. Sometimes that's all I need!)

magazine and book images, wrapping paper, hand-painted and stamped,
scrapbook paper, clip-art butterfly from the internet.

scrapbooking paper (inside the glassine envelope),
rub-on (on the envelope), decorative paper tape and 
an Alice in Wonderland themed playing card.

 The photo above gives you a good idea what the calendar looks like- it's a really nice heavyweight paper, and the paintings are very pretty, if you're into the cliffs of Dover, that is. I decided I wouldn't orient the whole book  either landscape or portrait-- just whichever I felt like for each individual page.

a close-up look at the glassine envelope + rub-ons...
I like how you can see a bit of the patterned paper inside. 

Another page, waiting for paper and glue

So, there was more to 'what did I do with my summer vacation' than just this journal. Let's see... We went to the town July 4th celebration, we really did go on vacation (for a week, back to the Midwest to visit family), I did a lot of estate saling and thrifting (even on vacation, lol!), and in addition to this calendar journal, I worked in some (two? three?) of my other journals. Oh, and I bought a Smash journal, and took a class and made another journal... no scrapbook pages, but I guess right now it's 'art journaling season' for me! 

I have at least a few hundred photos on my computer waiting to be edited, and tons of things to take photos of, too... (oh, hey! While we were on vacation we toured reproductions of the ships Nina and Pinta! On the Mississippi River, no less! I totally need to post those pics, for sure!!) I guess I have some photo-editing, and some photo-taking, to do!! 

random journal pages

just some random journal pages from the last couple weeks. Since I've been focusing on scrapbooking, till just recently I hadn't done anything in my journal at all-- I finally decided to give it some love! (my most recent journal is almost finished, now, so that'll give me the incentive to keep up with it.)

stamped text: I had a spelling issue, but as you can see
I didn't let it bother me- just stamped right over the error.

awkward: the entire page.  

This page definitely 'took a turn' from where it started out, lol! I started with a stenciled background made ages ago with acrylic (blue, pink, and green) and watercolor (gray) paint. The antlers came first, from a clip-art elk. (I think it's an elk, anyway- could be a caribou. Don't tell my dad if I'm wrong, because after growing up in a house with a taxidermist for a father, and getting a zoology degree, I really should know that, lol!) 

Anyway, the elk head was just hanging out on the page for a while... then recently I found the 'eye-image' necklace in a fashion magazine jewelry advertisement. It looked like it should just go there, if you know what I mean. (people who do collage will know what I mean- if you don't do collage, then just trust me- it was the perfect place for it.) I kept flipping through the fashion magazine and found the figure leaning on the railing, added it to the page, then added a skirt (which is actually a calla lily, taken from a different jewelry ad). Since I've already gone 'off the page' with it, I still may give the figure some legs-- not sure (I'm thinking bird legs). Then, the question of people staring popped into my head, so... the text.

odd? yup. but sometimes, 'odd' is what's in my head!

watercolored background (which reminds me of the Brady Bunch,
for some reason) with a clip-art hand and some collaged details.

your outlook on life totally depends on your point of view!
acrylic painted bubble-wrap stamping and a watercolor wash
over the top with collaged images and patterned paper. 

patterns and texture.
all pieces cut from a fashion magazine and
glued onto a watercolored background.

and now, it's back to 'scrapbook' mode for a couple days, because I'm going to be scrapbooking all weekend long in Tucson starting (bright and early) tomorrow-- yay!!!! I'm taking my journaling stuff with me though, of course- along with practically all my other supplies, including my typewriter, my inks and mists, my new camera, my laptop, plenty of Diet Dr. Pepper and Diet Mt. Dew, my Mad Men seasons 1-3 on DVD... lol!!  (I definitely don't pack light, that's for sure!) 

It's a 3-day retreat at a Tucson hotel and I'm really looking forward to it- if you hadn't already guessed :D  I found out about it on an online scrapbooking forum- and I'll actually get to meet a few of those 'online' friends in real life! I'm hoping to have a lot of fun, do a little messing  around with my camera and Photoshop Elements, sleep way too little, and maybe even get a few scrapbook layouts completed... I'll let you know how that turns out! 

journaling with random words and type

one thing I've always loved is reading, and words themselves (can you tell? lol!)... when I was little I would read part of a volume of the encyclopedia, or the dictionary, for fun. (yes, I was a bit geeky, I suppose, lol!) Words and phrases fascinate me; they can be so essential in setting the mood in a novel or story. (an aside: if you want to read wonderful narrative descriptions about the American prairie, I highly recommend reading the novel Oh, Pioneers! by Willa Cather... her wonderfully vivid descriptions of the prairie grasslands make me swoon every time I read them.) 

Anyhow, back to the journal pages... I recently went on a cutting-and-pasting spree through a fashion magazine (including images, words, and phrases) and jumbled it all onto a journal page- here's the result:  

I really like how it turned out! It was done on a previously painted background (painted with bubblewrap, one of my favorite stamps), so all I did was add in the images, a bit of deco tape, the text, and a bit of coloring with gel pens.

So, I couldn't just stop there, now, could I? In addition to using magazines for collage, I also have a small stash of "vintage" hardcover books (nothing valuable, or I wouldn't cut them up) that I use for backgrounds, or if I want a particular word or phrase. For example, I have a vintage Gregg's shorthand instruction manual from the 1930s, a vintage outdated world atlas, and a couple Reader's Digest Condensed books. Although the type is a bit small, these are good for finding words and phrases in, which I did for the page below: 

The background was simply torn pieces of paper that were glued randomly to the page, then I colored the spaces in between with my Stabilo watercolor crayons. There's also a bit of doodling on the different papers. I looked for words or phrases (2 or 3 words in a row) that sounded interesting in my Reader's Digest novel, cut them out, then I piled them together. After finding a few, I started shuffling them around till I made an interesting combination, like this bit of 'found poetry' made from random words and phrases:

And no, it doesn't really mean anything; it sounds kinda cool though, doesn't it? 

In other journaling news, I'd really like to show you a picture of this journal; it's getting pretty full, which is really exciting! But, alas, I accidentally deleted it out of this post... (drat!!)  So, I'll save that one for another post.

journal pages: history in flowers...

apparently, I have somewhat of a habit of writing posts, then forgetting to hit the 'publish button. I wrote this post about a month ago, and just never published it: 

Another journal page, this time a '2-page spread' that started with a background collaged when the book was made. The background papers include scrapbook papers and brown- paper bag (? I think) which made the pages a bit stiff-- note to self, don't do that again!

history in flowers... 

Above is a close-up of the left-hand side; I added an image found on the internet (from the Graphics Fairy, again, maybe?), deco tape, and some souffle pen details. The writing was done using one of my newest items, a set of Italic lettering stencils... (I love playing with new stuff!)  Below is a photo that shows both pages:

history in flowers... both pages

What's on the right side (the entire page topic, really) is a newspaper article about gardening that my mom sent me a couple weeks ago . I thought it was really interesting, and didn't want to just recycle it after I read it, so I pasted it into my journal. 

I don't know why it took me so long to do this sort of thing in my journals; I still have fond memories of the big 'scrapbooks' my Grandma had that we used to flip through whenever we visited her. The pages were made from wallpaper sample book pages, and were pasted full of newspaper articles, quotes, comic strips from the Sunday funnies, and other interesting things. Sadly, I don't know whatever happened to them... I guess there's not room to keep everything, but I can keep a few of my favorite things in my journal, at least! 

journal page catch-up

just a few random pages in my journal that I don't think I've shown before (sorry in advance for the somewhat blurry pictures; for some reason, I can't seem to get crisp photos of my journal pages):

vintage bird image from the Graphics Fairy website (I think), random paper
and a couple bits of deco tape, along with some coloring (of course).

The page above had background paper on from when I made the book... a pretty floral Japanese paper and a piece of a vintage cookbook leaflet. For some reason, I could not figure out what to do with it from there, though! So, instead of collaging over the entire thing with more paper (I was thinking about it), I decided to do a *whitewash* of sorts and added a thin layer of white acrylic paint to blend the disparate background elements together. ...much better!

Happiness is a Warm Puppy

This page is another that was mostly done back when I made the book; the only things I added to this one were the magazine words and letters, a few pieces of deco tape, and the pen details. I loved this picture of the boy and his dog, and it immediately reminded me of Prescott (and Tom)!

Kachina 

This image was in a magazine article Mom sent me; I liked him, and wanted to save him. This page is a mix of handmade and scrapbook paper, along with patterns made with black marker and Sakura souffle pens.  (I'm using them an awful lot; seems like I just bought them, but I may need to replace a couple of them soon already!)

journal page "Into the Crazy"

Turns out this is a bit of a 'before and after' post, considering that this page looks very different now from when I first collaged it back when I made the book in 2010-- lol!

Finished page

This page is one of those 'more is more' pages that I like to do. I started out with the collaged image and background (see below), but when I looked at it, I really didn't like her dress. I started out pretty simply by adding silver dots all over her skirt with a paint pen- I still didn't like it! I thought briefly about covering the entire image with something else, but figured I'd try and salvage it first... I decided it was the huge flower that was bothering me, so I started adding hand-cut paper circles to cover it up. I liked that better, but decided it needed 'more' of something- so, first more circles, and then doodling on top of it all. After all that, I decided the borders looked too plain, so they got doodled, too.

a 'before' shot of the base page:collaged background
with a focal image from a fashion magazine.

The words were also cut out of a fashion magazine, and colored in with souffle and glaze pens. I can't remember what the article title was, but I thought the words I chose fit the image.

close-up of the skirt

Once I got going with the coloring (done mostly with souffle and glaze pens), I almost couldn't stop- whenever I stopped, I noticed a spot that I thought didn't have enough detail! Even some of the colored places have more than one layer of color on, if you look close- lol! This is definitely not one of those 'fall into place in 20 minutes' type of journal pages (it took a good number of hours to do all the coloring), but I do love how it turned out. And, since collaging, coloring, and doodling is my way of 'meditating,' it was quite successful, in my opinion!

new-ish journal pages

a few of my latest journal pages-- nothing 'special' in terms of the artwork or the techniques, but at least I've been working in my journal, even if I'm not exactly inspired to make 'great art,' or anything. After all, a journal is a place to experiment, try out new techniques, and basically 'get out' whatever is in your head, whatever form that takes, right? (right!!)

The page above had a collaged background made a while ago; I finally 'finished' the page off with more collage and a focal image. The collage background was painted separately, and added to the book page later- I get into a painting mood sometimes, and paint onto thin newsprint... that way, I can spread out the papers, get as messy and painty as I want with stencils, spattering, and stamps, and then use the papers later on my  journal pages.

Bluejay and Vines page

This page was collaged back when I made the book in 2010; I added more doodling and details to it (the green dots and the deco tape) before writing on it, to make it more 'up to date' with the amount of layering and the types of materials I'm using on the other journal pages. (I just love that pink pompom trim!!)

Flower Garden

This page was also collaged during the class in 2010 when I made the journal, but it looked slightly different then than it does now... I had pasted a vintage magazine focal image onto it, but I never really liked it. The other day I was hemming and hawing about how to make it work, then decided the best way would be to cover it up! easy, right?!? lol! not so easy, really, because somehow I felt like I was 'obligated' to use that image, even though I no longer liked it... but I got over that feeling, and now I like the page tons better than I ever would have before!  

how to have fun: see below.

I had to show you the new, cool thing I did just last night for my next art journal page!  (yes, I'm excited; but just wait- it's really cool!! (At least I think so, anyway... lol!)

so, I learned this technique in Kelly's class on lettering, and when I started on it, I said "I do not like the way this looks." She said, "just wait, you'll see" and when I still protested, she said, "okay, how about this: everyone I've taught this too said it was their favorite thing to do in this class." High expectations, right?? But you know what? In the end, she was right, and it did turn out really neat!! (I should have listened... lol!)

So here's what I did... I started with this piece of paper:

my starting point: a journal background, stenciled with some Dylusions spray inks

This pic is actually the reverse side of the paper, but the side I used looked very similar to this. This was a background that I ripped out of one of my other journals; I didn't like it, so I used it as scratch paper and drew a map on it-- anything when you're in a hurry to get out the door to an estate sale, lol!  But I didn't want to just throw it away, so I figured out a way to use it in my current journal.

then, I doodled all over it:
lots and lots of doodling with all sorts of different pens and markers

Now, I like doodling, but I think this looks sort of *ick* the way it is... lots of mixed media artists and art journalers do this sort of layered doodling very well, but not me- some people who I think are very good at it are  Tracie Bautista, Tammy from Daisy Yellow, Roxanne Padgett, and iHannna, to name a few.

 close-up of the doodling... I like this section!

After I did all the doodling, I got out the scissors... and voila! the results are below:

this girl knows how to have fun!

The word 'fun' was cut out of the doodled paper, and outlined with white souffle pen. And, like Kelly said during the class, I like it!! I don't do much hand-cutting of lettering like this either... I've seen other people use this technique: Kelly Kilmer of course, Julie Balzer, and Mary Ann Moss, but again, I don't think (didn't think) I was very good at making and using lettering like this, but I'm liking it more and more!! I will definitely do this again, for sure.

so-- cool, right?? I think so!! (and now I have the rest of the doodled / painted piece of paper to cut up and use for other things!)

How to have fun?? paper, paint, pens, and glue, of course! :D

 

a Thanksgiving weekend recap

dang, Thanksgiving weekend went fast! I took Friday off from work so I could have a relaxing 4-day weekend, but it turns out that it wasn't all that 'relaxing' after all...  here's a recap, including photos:

our Thanksgiving spread: roast duck with all the trimmings... and you can't forget
the relish tray!! (vegetables, cheese- NOT limburger- olives, and 2 kinds of pickles)

Thanksgiving dinner was yummy; the duck turned out really nice, and we took advantage of our wonderful weather to grill the asparagus. I wasn't sure whether I was going to go out or not, but decided to do it-- but not to the mall: I went estate sale-ing! (I also saw the last Twilight movie, too, but I digress...) Since I work, I never get to go to sales on Friday, so I decided to take advantage of having the day off to see what Friday sales are like as opposed to Saturday. I went to three different sales, but only bought things at one ($10 total). The sale was the the estate of someone who was a miniature and dollhouse maker... there were over 20 completely furnished dollhouses for sale, and literally thousands of dollhouse 'ingredients' and miniatures, including all sorts of furniture, rugs, pieces for iron fence, 'stone' walls, siding, shingles, and all sorts of crafting supplies. Here's what I got for my money:

I spent at least 2 hours digging through two 10-drawer cabinets that contained
wallpaper samples. (they were all sorted by color, even!) I pulled out
some interesting colored and patterned pieces, and came away with a small
stack. (I could have bought an entire cabinet full, but I chose to use restraint.)

In addition to the wallpaper samples, I also got a  couple bottles of craft paint, an unused stencil (a really neat lattice shape), and a couple other crafty supplies. 

I love this Western wallpaper and border!
(I would never use it in a room, but I still love it.)

some really interesting patterns and colors, here.

again, I would never use this on a wall, but it's really cool!

we all hung out on the patio a lot during the weekend;
the weather was spectacular all weekend long.

this woman also had a very extensive wardrobe of clothing and
accessories- I picked up a couple silk scarves, including this large square
Valentino...  I'm not sure I'll ever wear this one, but I do like the clever way
the "V" is incorporated into the design of the scarf.

The weather was spectacular all weekend, and it's nice that it's finally cooled off enough to enjoy a fire in the fire pit. (we also toasted marshmallows, which of course meant s'mores!)

a 'sneak peek' at how we spent our afternoon.

Sunday afternoon, we started on our Christmas decorating while watching football... overall, it wasn't exactly a relaxing weekend, but it was a fun one for sure! (and after sleeping late all weekend, I am not looking forward to having to get up early again!)

more photos from my latest 'Kelly Kilmer Weekend'

Somehow, I can be in a class at Frenzy Stamper, mean to take photos, but end up with only one or two of them when the day is over with- I don't know how it happens! I guess I'm having too much fun to think about taking pictures. Anyway, here's photos of the two journals we made during Kelly's last weekend of classes at Frenzy Stamper. Three classes, and in two of them, we actually made new journals: 

this is a really fun little book; just wait, you'll see why!

This is the book we made on Friday morning; when Jane Eileen saw this book on Saturday, she said, 'it's so unassuming from the outside, isn't it??' The reason she said that is this journal has a secret:

it has fun fold out pages on the inside!

they flip up, and out, and down... 

This book has secrets, sort of like how Clark Kent had the Superman suit hidden underneath his conservative suit and tie! It's going to be fun to work in, and to figure out how to configure the pages... do I use the sections each individually, or should I make the journal page in the photo above go across all four sections for a super-huge-mega-cool-landscape journal page?? oh, the possibilities!

a mostly completed page spread in the flippy book 

another mostly-completed page in the flippy book.

these boots 'looked' like they 'needed' to go onto this page when I was making it; something about the colors and the patterns just makes me smile when I look at it!

Here is the other book we made:

Taped cover journal

This is the journal we made in the Saturday / Sunday class; we made it from scratch using bookboard and canvas, with hotpress watercolor paper for the signatures. The covers were fun to do, because they're completely covered with decorative tape! (Kelly has an awesome deco tape collection; I can never hope to compete with her collection... but I can dream- lol!)

close-up of the tape layers- layering tape
over tape gives a really cool effect.

a view of the spine and the bookbinding stitch

The spine is covered with painted / stamped canvas, which is always fun to do. You could even do this using book covers salvaged off a vintage or cast-off book. (I have a couple I'd like to use for this purpose, but I have a few already-made journals that need to be completed first, as you can see!) The bookbinding stitch is an interesting one that required two needles; it's sort of an 'interlocking chain' that turned out really neat. I always have problems sewing my books together, and this time was no exception- I think I tangled the threads together a few times, had to un-sew once or twice, and even broke a needle! But, it's always worth it in the end.

So, now that I have two new journals, I'm raring to go and finish filling them up! Except that neither of these is my next journal-- they will have to wait! I'll post about which journal I'm going to be working in next... :D

weekend recap, in pictures- Art Journaling, and more!

At last, some art! My art-making goes in cycles along with my other interests, so during the last couple months while I was heavy into estate sales and Goodwill shopping, I hadn't done any art journaling. I changed that this past weekend, taking three classes at Frenzy Stamper in Scottsdale (my favorite store!) on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Kelly Kilmer was in town (yay!) and taught three really fun classes- two on Friday, and one that went over the course of both Saturday and Sunday. Selected pics from the weekend, below:

My workspace, before getting started: the only time
it would look that neat all weekend- lol!

random helicopter, hovering outside the store at dusk...

There was an art show going on along the canal just north of the store, and according to the newspaper, there was some sort of an art installation involving solar lights floating in the canal that were going to light up as it got dark... I'm guessing that's what the helicopter was monitoring. (either that, or someone fell into the canal, which does happen, sometimes, unfortunately.)

A very pretty sunset on Friday night.

right outside the front of the store: photo shoot!

Outside the store, there's a large fountain with horse statues... very picturesque, and tourists always stop there to have their photo taken. When we first saw these photo-takers, our first thought was 'wedding' but after seeing the girl's beautiful blue and purple dress, we decided 'quinceanera' was more likely. (Quinceanera is a Latin American tradition when girls turn fifteen, sort of like a debutante's coming out party.) 

a shot of the entire fountain right outside the store...
always surrounded by flowers, it is a very pretty spot!

geranium on fire...

Just kidding, not on fire... but I thought this photo turned out kinda cool. This is the un-edited photo; the fiery effect is from the sunlight shining through the petals.

Geranium in shade. (these geraniums were really pretty,
but they needed some deadheading to continue their bloom--
I wanted to get out there and do some gardening! lol!!)

here's my corner of the table during the weekend.
I had sort of 'walled' myself into my seat with all
of my stuff; it was a bit of an obstacle course! 

Page spread in progress, Sunday. The right-hand page has a wash of
white acrylic paint over the entire page to tone down the
colors, then I painted in the girl's dress and hair with watercolors.

The spreads above and below are from the book we made in class on Saturday and continued working in on Sunday. Kelly goes to a lot of trouble to always develop new class material, different techniques, and new and different book formats, and this weekend was no exception. The small book we made on Friday has all sorts of different-folding flaps and pages, and this book has a unique binding stitch. For this book, we also used watercolor and acrylic paint in new and different ways.

another page in the same journal, also with washes of watercolor
paint over the patterned paper, focal image, and decorative tape.
Different materials 'take up' or resist the paint differently,
depending on their finishes, which makes for interesting results.

This past weekend was also the Phoenix area 3-Day for the Cure walk... I saw walkers briefly in Chandler on Saturday morning before I headed to Scottsdale, and on Sunday, their route brought them right past the store-- how cool is that?!?

a couple of people getting set up for their cheering
section, to cheer on the walkers as they went past.

Another member of the same cheering section- this group was
all dressed as 'fractured fairies.' I love this fairy's floofy petticoats! 

An action shot of some of the walkers, taken as I drove past on
my way home after class. (I think this woman even has a walking
cast on her leg-- but she's still doing the 3-Day; how cool is that!) 

Seeing all the preparations, hearing all the cheering and honking as the walkers went past, and seeing the walkers themselves got me to remembering what a great experience it was to be part of this event-- now I'm sort of thinking about doing it again sometime in the next couple years.

Sunday afternoon on the patio

Ariel, stretching up to watch a butterfly that landed on the chili
ristra outside the patio- I love how she's on her tiptoes!!
I think she was being careful not to scare it away (which didn't work).

A photo of both journals-- it was too bright to get good
photos of them yesterday afternoon, but I'll take some soon
so I can post them. The little flippy book is so much fun, and
they're both really nice sizes to work in.

More photos to come, but I wanted to show you what my weekend looked like! I had a great time with Kelly, Debbie, and all my classmates. It was nice to get my hands dirty with paint and glue again after such a long time, and I'm looking forward to working in both these books. I'm also definitely looking forward to Kelly coming back again for more journaling fun in February!!