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

Minnesota memories journal pages

and now for a couple more 'serious' art journal pages, featuring memories of childhood vacations to Minnesota. Every year growing up, we went on vacation to a resort on a lake (Loon Lake, in Ottertail County) in northwest Minnesota for a week of fun, fishing, and relaxing. My dad went there with my grandpa for a 'guys' fishing trip' even before any of us kids were born, maybe even before my mom and he were married? (I'll have to check with Mom on that one.) Anyway, those trips have been on my mind recently, because we would always go at the beginning of August. So, I painted and collaged my way into recording some of those memories:

Map to the Past:  I found a topographical map of the lake on the internet,
and printed it out a couple of different times at different zoom levels.

This page spread marks places I remember, like the cabins we stayed in, the bay where we always went to pick waterlilies, some of our 'tried and true fishing spots' (right out from the Lutheran Church across the lake is one I remember), things like that. This page was sort of inspired by techniques from Jill Berry's Personal Geographies book... she taught a class at Artfest when I was there that involved some of these map-related techniques, and I saw some of the student work at Show and Tell night.

close-up of the left-hand map, showing the entire lake. 

#9 was turtle town, where we could always find plenty of turtles sunning 
themselves on downed trees; #14 is a spot where I remember (very vividly) seeing a loon swimming underwater right next to the boat. #11 is the fishing spot across the lake from the resort cabins. 

another page of Minnesota memories

the Minnesota map on the page above marks Vergas, the town nearest the resort. The loon statue is the largest in the state (Minnesota is known for large statues of all sorts of things); we'd always have to go into town at least once and stop by the loon statue for a photo op. 

my work space (plus a nosy dog trying to horn in on the photo- lol!)

This is a photo of my usual work space, which isn't really much of a defined space, at all. If I'm painting or spraying something, it's done either in the kitchen or out on the patio, but the collage and 'finishing work' is usually done in the family room, in front of the TV. So, I sit on the floor in front of the love seat and spread everything out around me, effectively 'walling myself in' until I get it all picked back up again. I've tried sitting on the loveseat or couch, but I work better with everything spread out... Michelangelo had his work space issues, I have mine- lol! 

my journals

last week when I took one of my current journals to work, I happened to mention that it was one of my 'latest' journals. One of my co-workers asked, "you have more of these?" Well, yeah- just a few, LOL!! So, the other day when I got out the spray ink and stencils, I decided to take all my journals off the bookshelf and take some pictures.

my journals, getting some fresh air on the patio!

aren't they yummy?? they usually hang out on a bookshelf in my craft room, so it was really nice to get them out and flip thru them... like visiting with some old friends! 

This photo is the journals that are completed- or pretty much completed, anyway-- I arbitrarily decided I was done working in a couple of them so I could move on to a different book... I've felt 'guilty' about doing that in the past, but I finally decided there's really nothing wrong with doing that; they're my journals, after all. Then again, I picked up the my 9x12 spiral journal again after not using it for a year or so, so there's nothing saying I couldn't do the same thing with the other ones. 

And now, for a bit of a confession: the photo above shows journals that I've made in classes but never actually 'used' as a journal. Oh, I may have decorated a page here or there during the class, or even actually wrote an entry or two, but these journals are NOT filled with artwork and/or words. (yet.) I don't know exactly why this is; maybe because I'm usually using a different journal (that I want to finish before using the new journal) when I take the class?? I think the answer is some of that, mixed with a bit of 'it's-so-nice-I-need-to-do-something-really-special-in-it' syndrome. Since I have the paint, ink, and stencils out right now, I've started working in a few of them so once I finish working in the 9x12 and 5x7 journals, I'll actually choose one of these for my next one.  I'll show you some pictures of that soon! (once the paint dries, that is!) :D

recent random photos-

some random photos from the last week or so:

a grate (or drain?) in the sidewalk that caught my eye- 

this pattern would make a neat stencil!

election season humor- Salmon Roe, hahaha!!
 Someone named Salmon running for Congress, 

and someone else named Roe running for city council. 

(Somehow I don't think their signs were put next to 

each other by the candidates!)  

amber waves of grain (fields of corn, almost ready to harvest) 

and purple mountains majesty (the Estrella Mountains)... 

on my afternoon commute home from work. 

 doodled details on a journal page- 

paint pens and black permanent ink

more doodles on the same page- 

white and black pen details on gray acrylic paint

(I've been into these 'pod' shapes lately)

an 'Olympic' soda display at the local grocery 

store- these kinds of displays are so neat! 

(I imagine the delivery guys who have to create 

them don't like them quite so much, though...)

more pages from the 9x12 journal

are you getting tired of journal pages yet?? lol! I hope not, because I have a few more... and I have photos that I need to get off of my camera, but I haven't gotten around to it- so, till then, journal pages are it!


more pages from my 9x12 journal:

Prayers to Heaven- full page

This page is a watercolored background with collaged paper. Some of the papers used include: an image from a vintage National Geographic magazine; scrapbook paper; photocopied black & white text; green & pink text image from a graphic arts magazine.  The paint texture (look for it in the upper right corner) comes from putting crinkled plastic wrap onto the paint while it's still wet, then letting it dry. 

Closeup of the watercolor texture 

This page is 'done' in the sense that I've written what I want on it, but every once in a while if I land on this page as I flip through the journal, I'll do a bit more doodling on the upper left part of the page. 

This is a (horizontal) quote page: stenciled watercolor background, teal StazOn stamping (the numbers and the circle design), a bit of paper and tape collage, and a quote by Anais Nin: "We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present and future mingle and pull ius backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, and constellations." I wish my writing was neater (straighter, and more 'interesting' looking)-- it's been a long time since penmanship lessons in school!

This page is pretty simple, with a watercolor background and a few papers I wanted to save: a get-well card my mom sent me while I was recuperating from my second surgery, and a couple magazine / newspaper clippings she sent along with the card. (thanks, Mom; I love getting fun mail!)

Another quote page: a watercolored background over gesso that was scraped through a stencil (the squares and rectangles), Sharpie and white pen border. The image is from a magazine, and the quote was written on with a blue Sakura glaze pen. The quote is by John Muir: "Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to the body and soul." I really like this magazine image, and was glad to finally find a page to use it on: it reminds me of summer vacations on the Loon Lake in Minnesota, which are some of my most cherished memories. Memories of the lake, the dock, and loons on the water are the  'happy place' mental images that I use to relax and unwind during times of stress (I don't think about the mosquitoes that I'm sure were there, lol!).

I have been having a good time working in these two journals lately; watercolor paint is such a quick, easy way to get color onto the page! Especially with the low humidity here; it takes practically no time at all for the paint to dry!! (there's got to be something good about summer in Arizona, righ?!?)

Storm clouds journal page (again)

Okay, so I think it's done now... remember this journal page that I posted last week?? the one that I kept messing with, and screwed up? I didn't take a picture of what I did to it- or tried to do, rather- but trust me, it did not look good... so, I had to cover it up! This is the result:

Storm journal page

I covered up my mishap (it's not a mistake, it's an opportunity, right?) with some vintage text paper for clouds, and blended it in around the edges with a soft graphite pencil. I also added some vertical graphite 'rain' lines on both sides, to tie the pencil in with the rest of the page. 

Lots of artists say if you don't like something you're working on, to keep going: add another layer, add another color, etc. and I truly do believe that philosophy: if you keep going, you can usually get past that 'I think it looks icky' phase. (most of the time, anyway; lol!!) 

Actually, I think it might need a bit more shading in the clouds to look 'just right' but I know better than to mess with it again, lol!! (...and I still haven't written the date on there, have I?!? :D   lol!)

I've been working in my journals (the 9x12 and 5x7 spiral-bound ones) quite a lot lately, so I have more pages- both completed and in-process ones- to show you soon... 

random photo catchup--

just some photos to catch up on the last couple weeks of my surgery recovery, and  some additional ones taken since I started back to work:

 this is a beautiful 'get-well' flower arrangement sent from the folks at Tom's office: an assortment of flowers in gorgeous pinks and purples, displayed in a pink and white teacup and saucer. The photo above was taken when a ray of sunshine came through the window just right and spotlit it-- gorgeous!

 the photo above is the same flowers, edited with a 1960s-ish type of color filter, just as an experiment. (I think I like the naturally-lit photo better, actually.)

 While I was recovering from the second surgery, I didn't feel up to any 'really serious' art-making sessions, but I did eventually feel good enough to have a lot of fun with one of my most recent coloring obsessions- a $4 (gotta love those 50% off coupons!) student-grade pan watercolor set from Michael's. It was a really good choice, actually: enough colors that I don't have to mix my own, and simple enough that I could easily create some colored art-journal page backgrounds without needing too much in the way of supplies- just paper, water, brushes, and paper towels.

another great recent purchase was this 5x7 inch notebook (only $5!!) that I picked up at a local art store... I wanted something to mess around in with my new watercolor paints, and this is a smaller size than the two previous journals I had worked in, which looked interesting to me. 

So, just to recap: $4 watercolor paints + $5 spiral-bound notebook + $2.50 for a set of 3 brushes = countless hours of creative fun: priceless! (In the next couple posts, I'll show you some of the pages from this new journal, along with more pages from one of my earlier journals.)

 Random photo of Ariel: she likes to snuggle right up to the window-- so she can prop herself up, upside-down, I guess? But, apparently, the light was too bright for her, here?!? she's a crazy kitty!! 

Just a shot of a random outdoor temperature from a couple weeks ago- summer is finally here! 

and since summer temps are here, so are the dust storms. I got to drive home through this one (last Wednesday, my first day back to work). It's really sort of eerie to see them approaching like this... it was also sort of weird to see the local television channel helicopter hovering out in front of it, shooting footage for the nightly news!

Driving through one of these storms is sort of like driving through a snowstorm; visibility is greatly reduced. (And, unfortunately, there were just enough raindrops to wreak havoc on my freshly-washed car: insert frowny face here.)

Yesterday afternoon, I hauled my spray inks, stencils, paints, etc. out onto the patio... 100+ F temps makes for really quick paint-drying times! 

and lastly, a photo from Tuesday afternoon, when we had rainclouds and rainbows (but sadly, no rain). The rainbow was huge, and we could see the whole arc in our backyard; if you look closely, you can even see a second rainbow (which we could see better in real life).

journal pages... in a pink mood

a couple more of my recent journal pages, one finished, and one not. 

First is the unfinished one:

This page has a painted background (over collaged paper, which you can sort of get a 'feeling' for, underneath the paint in a few places), an image from a home and garden magazine, and a hummingbird and flower drawn onto tracing paper. Below is a close-up image from the lower left part of the page, where you can see a bit of striped paper,and a barcode strip beneath the layers of paint. I haven't done this technique in a while (even this base page was made sometime a year or two ago, I think), but it is a fun technique; I'll have to make another page or two like this soon.

I sort of 'cheated' with the hummingbird: I traced it (and the flower) from a magazine (thanks for the tracing paper, Jude!) and then colored it on the reverse side with colored pencils. (looking at this photo, it appears a bit more like a duck-bill than a hummingbird's beak- looks like I need a new eraser, since the one I used apparently left a huge smudge- lol!)

The page below is finished. No writing (again), but I really like the mood / feeling of it, and think it's perfect just like it is. The background started out with Dylusions spray inks (bubblegum pink and lemon zest- I absolutely love both of those colors- sprayed over a vintage doily (upper left-hand corner), then I added things in the same colors... a piece of Japanese paper (the bunnies, from the Paper Studio), shapes cut from magazine pages, a quote and image from a magazine, paper I painted (the yellow lined paper), a bit of scrapbooking sticker border (the yellow polka-dot), and a bit of fabric border (the pink scallop). 

Below is a close-up of the central part of the page, so you can see the little birdie sitting on top of the letter I. (I think I got this out of an Oprah magazine, along with the quote.) You can also see the paper circles closer; I just took colors that matched (some of it was even from a dress in an advertisement, I think), and started cutting and layering circles. 

I really like the idea of making a page based around color, or a mix of colors, and will definitely be doing this again, possibly even an entire journal with this theme. I usually have an issue with 'themed' journals or photo albums, but a theme of color, I think I can get behind!!  

a few more art journal pages: both finished and not

remember this page that I showed you a couple posts ago? 

Well, it doesn't look exactly like that anymore:

I didn't alter the figure too much, but I did add to her hairdo with Sharpie poster-paint pens, changed the color of her eyes with my Sakura glaze pen, and decided to go a bit crazy with the background. If you haven't scribbled on anything for a while, I highly recommend it!! It's really therapeutic, and unlike doodling, scribbling doesn't require any thought at all about pattern or repetition. 

Above is a detail of the scribbled background. (scribbling is the most fun with a good, soft pencil, a nice heavy-line marker, or even a crayon; you really should try it!!) Again, I think this page is done- no writing necessary; her expression (and the scribbling) says everything that I need it to.

This page most likely isn't done yet, but I love how the painting turned out! It was made with one of my favorite stamps ever, which is bubble wrap! I love how bubble wrap gives such an 'imperfect' pattern, and adds a bit of texture from the thickness of the paint.

Above is a close-up of the yummy texture and pattern bubble wrap gives. If you haven't tried this yet either, what are you waiting for?? 

This page is collage only, and was pretty simple: a magazine photo, a printed quote I found on the internet, and a couple pieces of collage paper with a bit of red wax pencil on the tissue-paper heart for texture.

Another doodled page made with red and white wax pencils, soft black pencil, and a few circles cut from a vintage National Geographic. Doodling with repetitive shapes is also quite therapeutic-- you should definitely try it sometime! Well, that's all the newest pages I've worked on in the last couple weeks... I think that means it's time to do some more! :D

more art and stuff...

it was really sunny outside when I was painting over the weekend- I put my pages outside on the gravel, and they dried in no time! My new / old paint palettes are two muffin tins I got from the Goodwill store; they work great, except they got pretty hot after sitting out in the sun to dry!

The page below was started a couple weeks ago when I was at the Honda dealership, getting my brakes repaired. Later, I added some stamping to it (the brackets you can sort of see on the right-hand side), decided I didn't like it, and covered it up with gesso and watercolor crayons. ...I like it much better now!

The page below is technically not a page yet; it's a piece of random paper I had underneath my work surface so it would get paint and overspray on as I worked. I like how it turned out, and will probably use it for collage sometime.

The two photos below are the 'stuff' part of this post! Last weekend (on Sunday, I think) we had the windows open in the morning, and Tom said he heard quail outside. I thought they sounded awfully close, so I looked, and took some pictures through the window screen. Do you see it? (just kidding; I don't think it's in this one-- it was moving kind of fast.) 

Here it is, in the photo below! This is a Gambel's quail, which is easily distinguished by its scaly-looking plumage and its funny, bouncy topknot. This quail meandered around the front yard, to our delight (and that of the cats!), and there was even a bit of a wildlife show-- he wandered out into the road where he met up with another quail who was in the yard across the street! There was a short scuffle, then he came back into our yard and the other one retreated back to the neighbor's yard. It was really fun to watch them, and I certainly hope they come back again soon.

This journal page is another 'doodled' page; it started out with a blue acrylic background, I added the large circles / bubbles, then added the gold ones in the empty spaces. After the paint dried, I added details with soft pencils in black and white. I really like how this page turned out, and I think this one is another 'art only' page; I don't want to write over it, or add anything more to it.

Here's a detail shot of the 'bubbles' from the page above:

Not sure if I'll do any more painting for a while again; I go in spurts where I want to do painting (and don't mind the mess), then switch to pasting, gluing, collaging, and doodling for a while. I think now that it's 105+ degrees out already, I may switch to collage and doodling till we get a cold spell! (but then again, that could take till October or November, though... lol!!)