Ahhh!!!!

Here it is the middle of December and I feel like I haven't gotten anything done! We are having a very low key holiday so I "should" have more time on my hands. NOT!!! I have to make time for my artwork. I really want to sit down and figure out what I want to do, time wise, that is. Art wise? Sometime for housework, chores, running around, and some time for me!!! Must make art today! I also have to finish up my Xmas cards real soon!!!

Julianna Coles

Yet another artist has put up their instructions on their journaling! This just gets better and better!!! It's on You Tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHvbj33CIcE

Here's also a journal page I finished yesterday.

Teesha Moore

As a present to myself for Xmas, I went to
http://www.teeshamoore.com/publications.htm
Teesha has listed Teesha's Journal Books is a set of 4 books (40 pages each) for a total of 160 full color reproductions of her journal pages selected from the last 8 years of journals she's made. I got it the other day and between the YouTube video of how she makes her journals, I'm inspired. Just finished this page yesterday. It is little. About 3" by 5". I made a journal the same size Teesha showed which I think is about 8"x 10" which takes a whole piece of paper. I had more paper, so I made about four other journals in smaller sizes. Lots of fun!

Shopping day!!!

Here are some things that I picked up today to make my artwork a little easier! The first thing is my favorite eraser! It not only works great as an eraser, but you can use it to carve little rubber stamps! Then the glue. I have it on good authority that this glue holds fast like a hot glue gun!!! Aleene used to make the best "gold" paint, but no more. The Gridded Template Plastic is almost transparent and I use it to make templates, like for envelopes or tags. It is easy to cut and I can even get straight lines with it! I can put it over an image to make sure I'm getting what I want!!! All these I got at JoAnn's. The pencil case, I had to go to two Walgreen stores to find one. It cost under a dollar. When I'm doing my zentangles or drawings, I can put my specialized pens and pencils in them without looking around for them. You might think that it would be just as easy to put a rubber band around them. Well, when you have a cat around who loves rubber bands, that's a problem. And here it is so dry, the rubber bands rot away!!!

Sorry the pictures are all over the place. I'm not real good figuring this thing out yet. If I mess around with it too much, I might lose everything!

Great site on miniatures!

Although I don't think I've ever mentioned it, but a long time ago, about the time that dragons still roamed the earth, I fell in love with miniatures! I even built my own little house, made the furniture, and loved making the dolls. Somewhere along the way, I lost interest and gave my house away or sold it. Can't remember now. I still love looking at them though. A friend of a friend, actually it was DH's wife does miniatures and told me about her blog. It is not only charming, telling a story as she works on her stuff, she gives great tips and it is fun to read! Check it out if you get a chance!
http://www.caseymini.blogspot.com/

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I decided to go through the ATC's and Zentangles that I've made and make a feast of art to share with you for Thanksgiving!!!

As far as art goes, I don't post much because if I have some free time, I'm making art! My next project, at least in my mind, is to do some journals combining different techniques of my favorite collage artists. I hate to mention them because I'm afraid I'll forget someone. There are some really great ones out there! I still like to do the Zentangles because I do those while I'm watching TV in bed. Doing a collage in bed while watching TV at night, can be a bit messy!

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Just little stuff

Just been working on some little art as time permits. It's fun and easy to do!

New collage

Here is a collage that I did the other day. Going to try to do the whole alphabet, little by little!

Clothes pin dolls

Been under the weather, but had to share something. Check out these cute clothespin dolls! Got some in the mail yesterday and they are wonderful!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5123290&show_panel=true

September almost over

Time flies when you are having fun, or life gets in the way and that's how it has been for me. Thought that I'd post a few pieces of art that I've working on.

Still here!!!

I know it has been ages since I've posted. Life gets in the way sometimes. I'll post when I can. I haven't forgotten my blog!!! REALLY!!!

Almost August!!!

Time flies when it is a very hot and sticky summer. Have to learn how to slow down a bit and drink lots of water. Just thought I'd chime in and say hi to everyone! I haven't melted away yet!

Here is some art that I've made. The butterfly was from an idea of a dear friend.

Happy 4th!!!

Here are some new art pictures!!!

Paper Doll

I made this paper doll yesterday and glued it onto a piece of scrapbook paper for a card for my mother's birthday. I got the idea of the paper doll from Erin who is a great artist!!!

Zen and Postcards!

I've been busy making Zentangles and a couple of postcards. Thought I'd finally take the time to post them!!! Enjoy!

Happy June 1st!!!!

Here is a bookmark that I made very quickly yesterday when I realized I couldn't find a bookmark anywhere in the house!

Need inspiration? Check out Kelly Kilmer's blog! She has some of her own great artwork on it and she often shares interesting books and other artists' sites!

Memorial Day

With DH home, I actually was able to make a postcard!!! Usually I can't work when he's around, but I'm training him NOT to come into my studio when I'm working! Can't believe he actually listened today!!! He's happy watching war movies! I can't find anything good on TV these days. At least now at night, I can get out my pen and paper and doodle with Zentangles!!! Thanks Barb!!!

New postcards

Can't believe how fast times goes!!! I really want to get into a routine of making art, even when I'm not inspired. If I just sit down and start, something is bound to get down on paper!!! When I don't feel like I have a lot of time, I just make something small. In fact, a few days ago, all I did was cover a matchbox with some paper, antiqued it and put some gold thread around it. It just looks neat!!! So here are two postcards I made last week.

On a good note, for me at least, is that I found the two art related things that I thought were lost!!! Then yesterday I found my extra car key that I've been looking for, for over two years!!! I was cleaning out my purse and realized there is an extra zippered pocket in there that I forgot about! And there it was!!! I'm so happy about that!!!

More Zentangles!!!

I did these zentagles free-hand while I'm fighting a minor flu. No, it's not the popular one going around!!! I'm feeling better every day!! These are so much fun to do!

Zentagle

A wonderful artist and person started posting some Zentangles on her blog. I had actually made one about 20 years ago but I didn't know what they were called. Her blog is
http://craft-therapy.blogspot.com/
The website for Zentangles, if you want more info is
http://www.zentangle.com/index.php
Mine is not free handed. I did mine on good drawing paper in a spiral bound book. I tried to get back into drawing, and although I can still draw well, I really hate doing it. This I like doing!!! I had a pen that I thought would work well with it, sort of a fluid pen, but it started to skip in places, so I went back to my old ball point pen. Next time I make one of these Zentagles, I'm going to do it free handed and see what happens!!!

Here is a pin that I've been working on for the past few days for the fun of it. I can only bead so long and then my eyes get too tired!!! The pin is a bit too big I think, about 2.75", but while I was beading, I was just beading without anything in mind for it. Here are pics of the front and back.

Another one!

I tried to write down my instructions to combine a double spread. I think I'll understand it next time, but wanted to try it one more time. The resolution on these are not good on purpose. I don't really want you to be able to read everything, just get an idea of what I was doing. That's it for today!

Success!!!!

Knew there was a way to combine two pages in "Paint" program and I did it!!! The actual single pages are still bigger than the scanner, but you get the idea. I've got to write this down, how to do it, so it will be easier for me next time. This is from my big personal journal. Nothing really personal here. There is something that I know about it, that is not apparent in it though. About 10 years or more ago, I went back to college, community college, and took a drawing class. I've always wanted to learn how to draw, but I really sucked at it. Our first drawing was to go outside and draw whatever we saw. All of the students drawing sucked, so I didn't feel out of place. Our next assignment was to go home and draw some boxes. They had to be well lighted, so I put them in the backyard. We had to do it in charcoal, as I recall, and I couldn't believe it, but when I got done, they looked like boxes!!! That gave me the confidence to continue to draw. I drew everyday for class at least 3-5 hours a day. I then took figure drawing and I was pretty good at it! I'm a very modest person, so if I think it is good, I'm not just bragging. But there was one slight problem, I don't feel like I have any emotion in my drawings, so I haven't drawn in quite awhile. I can express more in collage than in drawing. I really should try drawing again and see what happens. Yet another project to do!!! Do you know why artists do so many self-portraits? The model is always handy!!! I asked my husband to pose for me, and there was no way he would do it! I've tried drawing my cat, but you'd be surprised at much a cat moves!!!

Cleaning???

For all the cleaning I did in my studio, I can't find two items. I wasn't really looking for them so perhaps they are in a box somewhere. I just noticed it a few days ago. I don't need them. I'm just wondering where I could have put them! I even cleaned out some, well actually a lot of my art books that I have bought over the years or books that I'm in and set them out. Not sure what to do with them. It's so much of a hassle to post them and then go to the post office to mail them out. I checked them all out on Amazon to make sure I don't have any books that are rare!!!

I'm trying to figure out how to scan a double spread of some of my journal pages that won't fit my scanner. Duh, I could photograph them, but another hassle that I don't want to go through. Rather spend my time making art.

I'm so terrible about journals! I have this great one which is pretty personal and big. I haven't worked in it in months. I realized when I looked at some of the pages, that they needed more. Not artistically, but for meaning. Then there is the one I'm showing here. Then there is the one I'm hoping to submit to SS though it looks like they put the deadline up to April 15, not May 15 so I'll never finish that in time. Then there is another journal that I think I was showing on Picture Trail. Not sure what I'll do with that one. Then there is a journal I want to make that is really, really personal, but I think I'll do that in my big journal. Then there is another journal that I want to start that is more grungy, if that's a word!!! I love to start journals, but continuing them is another matter for sure.

A few years ago, I did a few round robins, but decided that wasn't me. I'm actually very good at deadlines, but they seemed to limit my creativity, so I decided to just go it alone. Right now I have to figure out what journal is for what and stop making journals and just put stuff in them!!!

The picture here is one I drew and painted. No collage in it at all. That's unusual for me, but it just didn't need it for what I wanted to say. Funny thing is that in another one of my journals, I found a butterfly that I painted, though in blue. I must have a thing about butterflies that I didn't realize. I do love them, though I rarely see them here. Enjoy!

April comes!!!

I've spent the last two days cleaning my studio. I had already sorted through and re-arranged things a few weeks ago, but now everything has been dusted, vacuumed and washed!!! Couldn't believe the size of some of those dust bunnies. Must have missed them when I cleaned last. So today I decided to take it easy. It's been a very busy past few days and so was last week! So today I worked on a couple of easy to do Easter cards. They are drying now. Probably won't post them. But I did do a journal page last week and that's what you'll see here.

Cool artist!!!

Thanks to Kelly Kilmer, I found this artist!! Just love his artwork!!! You can watch videos and preview his books! Awesome!

http://www.jessereno.com/

March is windy!!!

A couple of days ago I found I had some free time but didn't really feel like doing art, but I went ahead and tried a journal page. I was surprised that there was art in me, even though I didn't "feel" it at the time. A good lesson for me!!! Do art in whatever mood I'm in!

Anniversary of sorts

It was about two years ago that I found a lump on my kidney and had to have surgery. Luckily it was benign, but it did change my life for the worse since then. I'm still trying to get back to feeling "normal" physically and emotionally. These journal pages are from my personal journal that I've been sharing. They aren't meant to be "art" as such. Just my life. Feels strange to share deep feelings, but at any point in our lives, things don't go as we would have expected and life isn't always happy or fair.

Time flies!!!

Time sure flies when there is lots to do and then I'm too tired to keep up with the internet. There are days I don't even turn on the computer!!! Hopefully I'll have next week off. In the meantime, here are three journal pages that I've done over the past week or more. Might as well put them all up now!!!

Back of cover

Here is the back of the cover of the journal that I showed you before.