New Art Journal Pages

Happy Sunday Friends! How are you all doing? I am trying  my best to not melt in this heat wave we are having. I love a little sunshine for sure, but uncomfortable heat - NO thank you! :) But... it does give me some time for creating which is a definite plus in my book. I am so close to finishing up my 9x12 Strathmore Visual Journal!! I am determined to complete it this summer!! No excuses. I just need to keep my artsy mojo flowing and get to my studio table a bit every day. My creative focus this month: happy canvases for my shop, finishing my journal and keeping up with Project Life.

This last week I finished this little cutie. I had already glued down a bunch of extra little bits I had laying around onto the page. I like doing that because I have an immediate jumping off point. I open up my journal and I already have a page started. I threw down some gesso, got out a bunch of bright, cheerful acrylic paint, and I was off. Her face came out of the background after several layers. I didn't really plan to do a portrait (I can't seem to stop!), but she happened. :)

I love the swirly textured card on the right side of her dress. It was a piece of a small note card I had been given. The texture of the card really looks beautiful and the gesso I used lightly over top picked up the edges. SO cool! Of course I felt that my girl needed some words. "She found beauty anyway" fit the way I was feeling perfectly. This phrase was from an old print out from The Brave Girls Club Soul Restoration class I took a couple of years ago.

I really like the way my other page turned out too. It was another page in my journal that already had some color on it. I had used this page to wipe off excess paint as I worked on other things. As I was adding gesso and my favorite acrylic colors like pinks, aquas, and yellow...a bunch of interesting house shapes began to show up. I love that they were going every which way and had different shapes to them.

To add a bit more texture I used some modeling paste through a stencil and just wiped some on the page using a popsicle stick. I had some chipboard pieces that I painted with gesso and silver paint. I used some gray Staz On to bring out the raised design on each piece. I attached them to the houses using E6000. Finally I added the words...my home sweet home. I absolutely LOVE being at home with my family. It is such my happy place. My wonderful kids, amazing Hubby, and sweet dog make all things right in the world. This page reflects exactly what my heart feels. :)

I am looking forward to tackling my creative goals this next month. 

Can you believe it is already July! Yikes! (Grab hold because time is flying!!)  

What creative goals are you working on lately?

Summer of Color 3 - Orange and Hot Pink

Hello Friends! I hope you are having a fabulous weekend. We have been busy bees around here with my daughter performing in her 4th dance recital last night. (She was amazingly beautiful and we are SO incredibly proud of her hard work and dedication. Wow! Is that girl a little performer!) This last week has been all about dance, but I did find some time to work on this week's color challenge from Summer of Color 3. This week's color were orange and hot pink. Last week I worked on a black sharpie doodle, so this week I thought I would change it up and paint a whimsical girl. 

I wanted to use this sketch I did last week while my daughter was giving me a drawing lesson. :) Look how cute my little dancer's girl is. She told me what to do and I followed. I am ALWAYS learning new things from her!!

I cut out the sketched face and added her with Mod Podge to a journal page I created earlier in the week. I love how bright and cheerful this color combo looks. Isn't it fun!?

I used a paint chip that I picked up at Lowe's as her dress. I always keep my paint chips! They make for great collage goodies. There is such a wide variety of color too! I added the words SHINE ON that I had in my stash.

I had a lot of fun working on this journal page this week. I am looking forward to visiting some other Summer of Color 3 artists. Come take a look!!

Citron Green & Turquoise - Last Week's Summer of Color 3

I love that color combo. Don't you? I guess, truly I am a fan of anything with turquoise. So when I saw that the first week of Twinkle Twinkle's Summer of Color 3 was a combination of green and aqua, I felt right at home. That still didn't help me get the challenge finished by the Sunday deadline though. Ha! It's not really a "deadline." I am still going to link this post up, I just missed out on a chance to win the fab giveaway. You can see all the first week entries HERE.

In my art journal I had a couple of simple black Sharpie doodles that needed some color. I thought this week's color combo would work perfectly. Using a black Sharpie makes for a super "quick" page. Sometimes I use pencil first. Other times I just go right for the Sharpie. On this page, I drew this little house with words in pencil and then went over that with pen. The hills were a perfect spot for some journaling too. It sure does feel good to get all those thoughts out! 

When I created this journal page, I was never planning on going back and reading what I wrote. The writing in my journals is more about the process and having a place to vent feelings, dream, release the "ickies", clear my mind and of course add texture. Sometimes the text shows, other times it is hidden beneath layers.

Each Monday there is a new color prompt at SOC. This week we are creatively playing with Orange and Hot Pink. So girly and fun, right? It makes me think of rainbow sherbert. :)   What is your favorite color combination?

Come vote for next week's color challenge and join in!

Happy Creating!

Happy Flowers & The Color of Summer 3

Whoa! I can't believe how long I have been away from my little creative home here at Sadie Inspired. I just couldn't get my blog writing mojo going. :) Creativity has been flowing...a few canvases, art journal pages, home projects, and working on this year's (and last year's) Project Life album. I just needed a bloggy break.

I worked on this little happy flower canvas this last week as we celebrated our final week of school. Summer is officially here in our house, and I am beyond happy about that! Do you have any big summer plans? We have a very mellow summer planned with lots of trips to the pool, visits to the beach, lazy mornings, baseball games, flip flops, and watermelon. Hopefully lots of painting and crafting too!

Another fabulous addition to my summer will be The Color of Summer 3 - Artist's Choice, hosted by Kristin at Twinkle Twinkle. It is a free bloggy event that is super inspiring and loads of fun. If you paint, craft, scrapbook, art journal, sew, take pictures, or anything creative... you should come over and join in. This will be my third year participating and I am looking forward to it. Summer of Color has just started and you can read about it RIGHT HERE. Oh, wait...did I mention there are prizes involved too? As if a big color celebration isn't enough...prizes are involved! :) So, if you haven't popped over to 

Twinkle Twinkle already - GO!

 Besides enjoying the days of summer with my family, joining in the artsy fun at SOC 3, preparing new pieces for my shop, and tackling some crafty projects around my house (which I will be sure to share here)...I also will be revamping the blog a bit. It's time. I want my blog to fit where I am creatively. It is an ever changing process and journey, right? There are so many things I am interested in artistically and I want this space to reflect that! So be on the look out for that. Yay! :)

Last order of business - my Reader. I read all your fabulous blogs in my Google Reader. I had heard that as of July 1 Google was going to be taking that feature away (Boo). I was preparing for that, but my Reader has already disappeared. Poof! Gone. Did that happen to anyone else? Needless to say I am going to be making a transition over to Bloglovin' unless I find something else. What do you use to read your blogs? Any suggestions?

Don't forget that you can always find me on Instagram @sadieinspired.

I hope you are having a beautiful weekend!