Journal Love

Journal Page using watercolors & water brush

  I may have already written a post with the same title...but, I just can't think of anything else. I just LOVE my art journal. So that title is totally stuck in my head. Journal Love. 

I started a new journal this past summer. I bought one to work in for
Kristin's Summer of Color. After Summer of Color (fabulous-ness) ended, I had lots of pages left.  My goal is to have it finished before 2012. I want it to represent my art from 2011.  No pressure though...I try to make my journal a pressure free place. Just fun, experimentation, joy, feelings, ideas...all that good stuff (and bad too!).

I love how it is getting fatter & fatter. I can't wait to see what it looks like when I am all finished. 

The other night, while I was watching Project Accessory (yes, totally sucked in. I love Project Runway. So naturally I am watching the spin off. But I am missing my Tim Gunn!) I pulled out my watercolors, water brush, and journal. I didn't put too much thought into it...and just painted. My water brush is fairly new, so I am having tons of fun playing around with it. I like that I can take my water brush with me anywhere. My studio is upstairs, so I love how convenient it is to move around. 
Do you have a little portable art kit you take with you? 

I think I need to make one!

That's it! :)

Happy Journaling!

XO,

I am linking to Artists in Blogland and Just Journals. Come visit!

Busy Painting

Whoa...what a busy week! Harvest Festivals, Halloween, costumes, chaperoning a field trip, editing pics, filling my shop (ever so slowly) ...and, painting too! Lots and lots of yummy painting. I just get going sometimes and bust out a bunch of backgrounds all at once. Then I have a stash of backgrounds to grab and start working on when I have some time.

I love working on backgrounds. Don't you? I get that "warm & fuzzy" feeling...total happy dance ready when I am creating backgrounds. The combination of book pages, found paper, little bits from here and there, paint, layers, sprays, stencils, texture....love! :)

I started working on this larger (for me) 16 X 20. I was actually cleaning my kitchen (no fun!) the other day when I thought the flowers on my paper towels would look really cool in a background. I am liking the way it looks and love the bumpy texture of the paper towels.

Sorry. The pic is a bit dark. Rainy day. :)

 Look at that interesting pattern left behind after using the top of a plastic fly swatter as a stencil. I love it! I can't get too attached to the background though...it will undoubtedly become covered up by more layers. :)

I hope you are having a beautiful week!! I am looking forward to more painting this weekend, how about you? I definitely want to visit some blogs too...
so inspiring. 

Art Filled Home

That is what I would love...a home filled with art. I would love to see the walls filled with children's art (already have a lot of this!) , others artist's pieces, some more pieces made by my hands, sculpture, mixed media, abstract, beautiful words & inspiration, color...just a bunch everywhere. Wouldn't that be inspiring?

Around my house, I definitely see the need to fill up the walls, corners, ledges, and shelves with beautiful works of art. So until my pockets fill up with more $$ so I can buy some art...I will work to fill it with some of mine. This week I had fun repainting a canvas that I had purchased at Michaels in the clearance section. Somewhere (Pinterest no doubt) I saw words laid out scrabble style & liked the way it looked. So I added our names using an ABC stencil. I am not sure if I am finished yet...but, I am happy with the way it is turning out. :)

 Do you have a lot of art around your home? 

How do you like to display it?

 

XO,

Fall Book Page Banner

I recently saw this darling banner made from book pages on Heather Bullard's site. She has a beautiful blog filled with tons of eye candy. I love decorating or doing projects with book pages, so I really wanted to make a banner for my mantle. It was quick, easy, and my daughter was able to join in the fun too!

Supplies needed: old book pages, pencil, scissors, watercolors & brush, letters, twine, glue, and leaf cookie cutter.

First, I used old book pages and drew a large leaf free hand. Then cut them out. For the smaller leaf I used a leaf cookie cutter I had in my stash and used it for tracing. After cutting out all my leaves, I laid them down on some paper ready to be painting.

With my daughter's help, we painted the leaves different fall shades and let them dry.

After drying for a bit, we stacked one leaf on top of another in pretty color combinations. I just glued the top of the smaller leaf down so the banner had some movement. Earlier, I had chosen the word blessed and searched through my collection of ABCs for the letters I needed. (I seriously hoard letters...lol. Maybe it's the elementary teacher in me. I don't know. The scrapbook aisle at Michaels with all the letters...hold me back. Thank goodness they are not too pricey!)

The letters were glued to the top leaf, then turned upside down so I could hot glue the twine along the top of each leaf. Just a bit of advice...make sure the word is going the right direction when you turn it around. Yep. I did it. I glued the whole thing down, turned it around...smiles & happiness. Until I saw that I had glued the entire word backwards. My little assistant thought that was the funniest thing ever. :)

But, in the end...here is how it turned out. Super cute! It dresses up the mirror on my mantle just enough and reminds us of all the many blessings we have this season. 

I am joining the craftiness with Jaime over at Crafty, Scrappy, Happy. 

I love handmade things, don't you? :)