Art by the Inch Goal Met

These last two pages took me over the top on my goal of 5000 inches with two days to spare!

5,153 / 5,000 (103.0%)

We had our family Thanksgiving celebration yesterday. Right before people were due to show up, in between the final cleaning and the last minute cooking, I got the idea to paint a page of squares and ask everyone to decorate a section. I hurried upstairs and painted a quick background and grabbed some gel pens and some Zig pens. Then I came back down and finished the meal. After dinner, my 7-year-old niece spotted my new journal and said she didn't think she had seen this one before. I told her to look at it and mentioned my idea for the project. She immediately sat down to do her square. Then she asked, "Do you think everyone will do a square?" I told her that I bet if she asked them to they would. Well she did a wonderful job taking the journal from person to person and watching and discussing as they filled their section. I was busy being hostess, but overheard tidbits of the conversations. I heard everything from, "I'm not very creative." to "What does a goat look like anyway?" My favorite line came from my 4-year-old niece. She was busy playing and ran into the kitchen and did a few quick lines and came back to the toys. Her sister and mom were trying to get her to do some more to her square, and I said, "I really want you to do a square." She jumped up and headed back to the kitchen. I heard, "Why are you drawing a square?" Her answer, "Because Aunt Dawn really wants me to." My 15-month-old granddaughter is just learning that pens make marks. I helped her hold the pen and she made her marks. I love all the drawings from My granddaughter's marks to my niece's square, to my youngest son's stinky cheese and flies buzzing to my eldest's fisherman self-portrait and everything in between. I cheated and drew my contribution in the quiet relaxation after everyone had headed home. After putting everyone else on the spot, I couldn't think of a thing to add and wound up copying the Van Gogh Sunflower print that hangs on our wall. This will be a treasured part of my journal and I'm already wondering if I can get everyone to do it again for Christmas. 

I was looking for more color a few days ago. I think I found it. I've included the tag from our turkey, a poem by William Stafford, some tags and labels that I found when I cleaned out my dresser, and lots of writing. I wanted to sew on some buttons from a skirt that I had to throw away because a mouse chewed a hole in it, but the last time I put something that bulky in my journal it made it really hard to write on the following pages. Instead I just drew the buttons. 

About Panache Faces Plate

Here is the link to the faces rubber stamp plate from About Panache. For some reason I can't get it to print in my last post.

Lucid Dreams Collection

This is the first time I've done a four-page spread. I thought I'd better do some explaining after my last sorry-for-me page. I'm not sure why flowers are suitable for Thanksgiving. I was wanting to try out the one on the last page with the stamped face and petals cut from the page of a book, and I just continued with the theme. I love using these face stamps from About Panache. There are so many varied faces that I always find one to suit the mood of what I'm working on.

I am getting close on my Art by the Inch goal.

4,860 / 5,000 (97.0%)

We decided to have our Thanksgiving celebration on Saturday, so the boys wouldn't have to run between suppers. Even though it was my idea, I was feeling a bit sorry for myself. The text on the left is a description of Thanksgiving from my one volume encyclopedia. I find all kinds of things to use in my ABs and journal in it. It was a great buy for a dollar. It even has an index. The leaf on the left is a color copy of the endsheets from my grandma's Ave Maria. I love using the copies and thinking about how familiar the book was to her. 

Sometimes it's hard to keep it all in the air. I came home and made this page after I stayed late at school to do grades and send out yearbook bill letters. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with my juggling act I guess. There is vertical writing on the page in purple gel pen, but it doesn't show up in the photo.

My last page for the Colors Altered Book RR. I know nothing about New York, but the song title kind of took over the page. The fellow is bidding on the stock exchange. 

I scanned this one and it turned out a lot better. 

I finished the cover of my Oct/Nov journal last night. It's labeled Volume 1 because although I've had many journals over the years, this is the first one that came close to successfully combining the visual and text elements. I tried several times to get a decent picture and this one turned out the best of any of them. The No Boundaries text was on the compostion book when I bought it. I think it goes well with the purpose of this book. 

The back of my recipe had the word heritage on it. That led me to dig out some photocopies of photos of my grandma and her sister. That's Grandma in 1921 at the top of the page and Aunt Marie in the tree. I've always loved both of these photos. The group photo has my grandma's sister's family visiting with grandpa's family. It was taken in 1937 while Grandma was pregnant with my dad. She has tucked herself behind my Uncle Chuck in the center front to hide her belly.

The red letters in the word heritage didn't go well with the page, so I went over them with a copper gel pen. I like the way that looks and will try it again I'm sure.

I've been wanting to try out these muffins. I figured if I put them in my journal, I'd be more likely to. The right side has ideas that I got from listening to Michelle Ward on HeartsART radio. I made a leaf stamp from a foam gardening knee pad after seeing something similar in one of her pages. The stamp faces are from a great plate from About Panache Unmounted Rubber Stamps.

My hand doesn't really look like a man's hand. This is the first time in years I've tried to draw a hand. They are hard! The pear is from some great wrapping paper I got from my daughter-in-law.

Art by the Inch- 3847/5000.

Looking at Kelly Kilmer's journal pages caused another swing toward the purely visual.

I used images laying on my worktable again. The stamps are from Melanie's Rubber Stamps. 

I started thinking about the fact that I'm doing much more visual journaling than text. This page is a result. 

Perfectly Preserved

Another spread for Becky's book. This seemed to fit the fall theme well. I'm getting more secure about adding handwriting to my AB spreads since I started journaling so much.

Art by the Inch

2,902 / 5,000 (58.0%)

I've been working on Becky's book for the Colors Altered Book RR. Becky chose fall colors which suited me perfectly this weekend. This is similar to a spread that I did in my compo journal, but different enough that it was fun to do. 

There was a Spider. Inch count for Art by the Inch.

2,544 / 5,000 (50.0%)

Half way there!
 

I keep coming back to the stencil made when I cut out these two guys. 

A hummingbird for Beth's book in the Colors Altered Book Round Robin.  

I saw a version of this on the art by the inch site and thought I'd give it a try. It took way longer than I thought it would. If I do another one, I won't try to do it in two sittings. 

Inside cover. 

The cover for my new journal. This is the first time I have started with the cover. So far I've only done one other cover. I wasn't sure about using the orange compo book and wanted to be sure I could live with it for the next couple of months. I was pleased with how it turned out. I was going to get rid of some old Birds and Blooms magazines that I have because I don't like the paper they are printed on. Then I wound up using the birds in this and a RR book. Guess I'll keep them. One of my students saw this laying on my desk and said, "Ugh, what got on the cover of that notebook?" So much for my aspirations of making it look better. 

Violette's Folk Art

Violette's Folk Art

I just found this page of tips for journaling. I especially like the sections for objects, timelines and walkabout.

Full journal!!! I can't believe that this journal is full and I started it in September. I usually take much longer to fill a journal. Of course before they were mostly just writing. On to the next one which is waiting for me to start it. I thought I wanted to do something special for this last page and then I was afraid I would put it off waiting for inspiration. I decided it was much better to finish as I did most of the journal. Just sit down and begin. 

I painted the background for this page quite a while ago. I finished it tonight because when I got to the last page I wanted the journal to be done. Of course I will add more birthdays as I remember them. This is supposed to help me remember to make and send cards, something that I'm lousy at. 

Text reads Don't Hold Back.  

The cat looked even more like an alien before I painted it. The lady is my grandma. I love using this picture in my art. 

I decided to push myself a bit and extend the inch count. This is the result of things laying around my work table. The bit on the left is the tear strip from the feed for our cattle. Inch count 1147.75/5000 

The Hemingway photo led me to search the net to find where the quote for whom the bell tolls came from. It is John Donne in a fairly lengthy devotional he wrote. 

It was getting close to bedtime. What can I say. I was surprised to wake up this morning and find the days reading in Portals for Prayer was about the Good Shepherd and sheep. Of course I added that to my journal page. 

I've been reading and listening to books on CD a bit more lately than usual. I've decided to read all the E.L. Konigsburg books I can find. I was a bit surprised to learn that she had written one about DaVinci. I enjoyed it and finished the Tale of Two Cities CD's too. This page celebrates both. 

This is for a challenge to do a spread about pets on the CompositionArtJournals list. I had fun thinking about my early pets. Inch count

585 / 5,000 (11.0%)

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My first page for Beth's book in the Colors Altered Book Round Robin. I used a glaze over the top to pull the collage together.I got a glare with the flash. Thanks to Daylight Savings time, I couldn't get an outdoor shot. I used this background color scheme in my compo journal a while back and wanted to try it out again in a different format. I did this one on Halloween and couldn't count it in the Art by the Inch challenge. 

This is more like the page I set out to do with Cezanne's painting. I just keep adding those feathers. The texture is great on them. This brings me to a 438.75" one day total out of the 5000" I'm aming for for Art by the Inch. 

This is for the Art a Day challenge to make a copy of Cezanne's Lake Annecy painting. I started out thinking there was no way I would even attempt it. My plan was to print it out and glue it into my journal on a matching background. Once I started the background I decided to give it a try. It's not wonderful, but I'm happy that I at least tried. I do kind of like the tree and the colors are great. 

The Luther emblem came from our church bulletin. The ATC in the pocket is one that I made to include in the Artful Treasures exchange. This has been a fun swap. I got the feathers from the swap box. I just keep adding them to things. 

Art by the Inch

I took the plunge and joined the Art by the Inch Challenge. I signed up for 5000 inches. That's just a little more than one journal spread a day. I came pretty close to that in October. I just finished a spread in my journal, so that is 146 inches for today, and I'm headed upstairs to see what else I can come up with in an hour before I have to get in bed.

I finished this page last night. I had cut the things out of my son's junk mail while my sweet grandbaby was taking a nap. It looked pretty plain when I had it all glued down, so I kind of went crazy with the gel pens. It didn't scan real well, but I kind of like it. 

A spooky page a day early for Halloween. I love the way the faces turned out. I stamped each one three times, once with white paint, once with gold ink and then black ink. The hand stamp is one I carved. The face is from About Panache. 

A birthday page to me. I was feeling extremely sorry for myself for having to work late for parent/teacher conferences on my birthday. It didn't help when one of the mothers decided to punctuate several of her comments with curse words. I felt better after finishing the page. 

I did this page after a great walk around the farm and yes, across Bay Creek. I think I need to go over the rubber stamped leaves with something darker. They don't show up enough. I love the way the envelope turned out. I did another one on the page for today.