Away too long...

...for me anyway! Between dance conventions for my daughter, trips across country, and school work I have barely had a chance to breathe much less create! I still haven't adjusted back to my time zone but I have finally gotten things under control and managed to get a little fun art play in today.

Here's what I made...

Color Throwdown #177 features the yummy colors shown above. I decided to use the CTD colors in conjunction with this week's Studio L3 - Grungy Monday Week 34 Challenge using Tim Holtz's crackle techniques. The result is this Valentine's Day card (shown below) I made for my daughter.

 Card Front (left)    Card Inside (right)

This month, on the ArtChix group, the Fat Book swap colors are Red, Pink, and White. I approached the challenge a little differently this month. All the wonderful online classes and projects I have been doing have encouraged me to step outside my comfort zone. I played with layers, stamping, masking, collage, micro slides, ribbon, papers (my fave), distress inks, and even a crocheted doily.



 

"Be My Valentine" entry for the bi-monthly lotto on ArtChix Yahoo group

This is probably all I will post tonight, but I will be back at it tomorrow.

Art Journal All Year

A few months ago I happened upon one of the neatest people I have never met! I am not sure how I found Elsie Larson and her blog but I did and it is a veritable wonderland of all things vintage and awesome! If you know me personally you are probably thinking..."You like vintage things? I would have never known!" It's true, there is very little about my outward appearance or my surroundings that display the funky cool person that lives inside my heart. But alas, I do love vintage stuff.

Anyway, yesterday is was browsing A Beautiful Mess and found that Elsie and her pal Rachel are offering an Art Journal All Year eCourse for $30!

So what's the big deal you may ask? Well I have "journaled" off and on throughout by life but never art journaled before. I always have good intentions but can never make the leap into that world. I guess it is like any blank page to an artist or writer.....very scary! Plus I was never really sure what to put in an art journal. Where do I start? What is it about? What is the purpose? What do I do with it when I am finished? Will I ever look at it again? I could go on but I am sure you get the idea.

Elsie's course is all online and can be accessed forever (yay, no printing!). It consists of 52 weekly prompts. Prompts is definitely something I can do!!! All 52 prompts are available when you sign up so you can go at your own pace. Everything about Elsie is inspiring to me so this seemed like a good time to finally take that leap.

I will be doing one page a week and will post my efforts here. To protect the ownership of the course I will not be sharing the prompts only the work I do.

Week 1 - Art Journal All Year

Material Used:

Used book - $1

Magazine ad from craft magazine

Red Lead Stamp Pad - Sihouette Flowers

Tim Holtz Distress Stamp Pads - Forest Green, Broken China

Copic Markers - various colors

White Uni-ball Signo pen

Micron Pens - .005, .02, .05

Various cut out images

Smooch Accent Spray - Gold Glow

I started with a used book distressed the edges Broken China, then glued down the full page magazine ad. I loved all the doodling and colors already present in the ad and felt it was a good place to start for me. Then I stamped the flowers at the bottom (using one of the stamps I shared last post) with Forest Green. I added the castle, Eiffel Tower, dream definition, and vintage swimmer images. Next came journaling and my own doodling.

Like most things I create, I like some of it and some I don't but it's my first page and I have decided not to stress about it. I am just going to go with the flow and what ever comes of this little project at least I know I tried!