Take the Magic Bus

Doesn't this view of Seatle look like something from the future? I cut it, the wandering bug and the frog for a different page, but none of them worked there. I went upstairs and grabbed a few things off my table to throw together this page. I'm constantly amazed at how things fit together.



I printed and cut out ~keri smith's 100 ideas to use as journal starters. This is the page that I put together to hold them. I glued about half of them to odd bits of paper, but I realized that gluing all of them would make them too bulky to fit into the envelope. That and I was getting too sleepy to continue.

Busch Stadium from the Arch ~ Journaled

I wanted to put a printout of my postcard into my journal. I had one page painted with some left-over paint and I was too tired to go up to my craft table and paint the other side. I did have my zippered pencil bag of on-the-road journaling stuff on hand, so I pulled it out and got to work. I kind of like the look of the paint and mostly pens on the right combined with the water soluable crayons on the right.

Elementary Times

I found the Cat in the trash er..recycling bin at the post office. It was on one of those kids book club envelopes. I brightened the red up with water-soluable crayon. I've been wanting to make a list of everyone I remember from elementary school. This wound up being more a series of memories about those people.

Self-Portrait Tuesday

For twenty-seven years I've washed dishes looking out this window. There is a beautiful view of the creek behind our house, but at night I see myself reflected back. 

I was fooling around with some pictures we took at the arch and came up with this. I'm going to try to see if I can get a version that I can have some prints made from for a postcard. I love the way is shows my sweet granddaughter. She loved looking out the little windows at the city.  

Total Frustration

2005-11-15
Originally uploaded by Crazyquilter.

I spent yesterday in a fog of total frustration. I couldn't find my glasses and had to wear my old ones to school. Not only are they old, ugly, and scratched up, but they aren't bifocals and I can't read through them. Thank God for good glasses that work. I found them after I came home on my craft table.

Knitting

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Originally uploaded by Crazyquilter.

This background went great with my topic of the scarf and hat I knitted. I sewed a piece of the yarn to the page and used the label too.

Background

2005-11-14a
Originally uploaded by Crazyquilter.

Sometimes I paint pages a couple of days or more in advance. I thought it might be interesting to show what the background looks like and then post the finished pages.

The Journey

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Originally uploaded by Crazyquilter.

My niece and daughter-in-law came over this week-end to do some scrapbooking. Some of the ephmera on this page is what was left over after the photos were cropped. I learned how to crop photos into ovals and how to round the corners. I really want to do some traditional scrapbook pages, but I can't seem to get started.

Written journal page

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Originally uploaded by Crazyquilter.

Sometimes I feel more like writing than doing graphic pages. I used the left-over part of a sheet of pretty stamps. I like buying the pretty collector stamps to use on my postcrossing cards especially.

My first human-sized hat. I've made lots of doll hats. Of course I made this one without a pattern as I couldn't find one using the two yarns I wanted to use. Or at least I couldn't find one in the 10 minutes or so I was willing to give to the search before I sat down and started knitting. It looks less lumpy on, but I kind of like the way it looks off too ~ almost sculptural. I think I may be hooked on hat knitting. 

I've been knitting this week. I showed my daughter-in-law how last weekend and I guess having the needles in my hands inspired me. I went right out the next day and bought some Red Heard Light & Lofty yarn. I loved the color and texture, but at first I didn't like knitting with it. I've never knitted with anything larger than worsted weight yarn, usually something much finer since I mostly have made doll clothes. The size 15 needles seemed huge too. I took the scarf to work on during gate duty at the basketball game last night. I nearly finished it and it feels wonderful. Once I had knit several rows the knitting went much more smoothly. I made the hat this morning. I didn't use a pattern and it came out too short. I had planned to use a border of the Light & Lofty and do the rest in some knitting worsted that I found that just matches it. I decided to add three rows of single crochet around the bottom to make it fit better. It's kind of lumpy when it's not being worn, but I like the way it looks on.

The photo is one I took in the bathroom mirror because nobody was home to take one for me.  

I like the way silk flowers look on journal pages. I think this was one of those poppies you get when you donate to charity. I found the stamps first and the poppy was laying on my craft table. 

Another spread of random doodles and whatnot. The doodle on the top left is my husband's. He has stated that it's not safe anymore to even doodle. I guess it's not if you don't want them in my journal. I was trying out a technique with the hearts. It didn't work like I had imagined. 

I had no clue where this spread was going from the beginning until it was done.  

I seem to be on a clothes-buying binge lately. This skirt is one of the new ones I enjoy wearing the most. 

Sometimes I mostly feel like writing, but I still like adding some visual elements. I started carving this alphabet a couple of years ago. I add letters occasionally as I need them for a word I want to stamp. I added the F, R and D for this page. The flowers are stamped from a flower shaped eraser that I bought in a package from Dollar General. I added the black ink lines and the white ink center. I love the way it turned out. 

Two postcrossing cards, one received from Germany, the other one a scan of one I sent. 

I put everything but the kitchen sink in this one. I just love the Tuesday prayer that I copied from my Portals of Prayer book. The weekly prayers change each quarter and this one says exactly the things I need to pray for. I didn't want to loose it. I got the cute train stamp in a treasure box round robin swap that I particaped in. Several of the papers on this page came from the same swap. We just put in stuff we had extra of or didn't want any more and took out other stuff. Fun, fun. The hand stamp is one I carved as are the Y, C, B and other stamps on this spread. I'm thinking that the bottom left corner would make a good post card. 

I found another great journal.

jrnl 18
Originally uploaded by screaming lulu.

I came across this photo journal by Screaming Lulu on the flickr Art Journal group. I like browsing there lately which often seems to take up my own journaling time.

Wonderful Travel Journal

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Originally uploaded by winggleam.

I was looking through my Flickr contacts when I spotted this travel journal page by Suzette McGrath from the UK. I followed it back to her Madeira 2005 Flickr photoset. The whole book is wonderful. I just had to share it with anyone who stops by here. Her other journal pages are wonderful too which is why I had her as one of my Flickr contacts, but this journal just blows me away.

I painted this for a postcard, but I think I may have to keep it. I did a similar painting in my Altered Dictionary a couple of years ago. I'm thinking I may try to scan it for the postcards. 

Sometimes I wind up with something that looks a lot different than my other pages. I started this spread with the sticker in the upper left side that was on a swap package.  

I went up to journal after looking at this by Melissa McCobb Hubbell. This is what I wound up with and also a postcard with a similar design that I sent off to the UK. 

I've decided to do a self-challenge to do some journaling every day during November. Last November I did a spread a day for the Art by the Inch Challenge. Sometimes I followed the gluebook prompts, other times not. This time around I think I'll just try to do at least a little each day. 

This one is from our trip to the zoo a couple of weeks ago. I decided not to worry if it's not in order and just journal it when I get to it. I'll probably add some photos, but I don't have them yet. I didn't want to do any writing until I get the photos on. I love the way the dry brushing with antique white acrylic paint toned down the map colors, but still let the information show through. 

One of my students wished me happy birthday with fish letters. I didn't have the heart to tell him he misspelled it.