Multi-tasking

I'm still learning that you don't have to cover every single bit of page with something. I like the blank bits.

Proud Mama

A couple of weeks ago in a comment someone asked me to do a step-by-step of one of my journal spreads. It probably would have been better to have taken pictures as I went along, but I didn't. Maybe this will be of interest to someone. I posted the page recipe to CompositionArtJournals a few days ago. I'll put it here in a separate post. You'll see that I didn't follow it very closely.

I sat down this morning intending to try out my latest page recipe, #3 borders. I picked my three items: first a newspaper ad that features my son. I've been meaning to put this in my journal for a couple of months and someone mentioning seeing it in the paper again on Thursday prompted me to dig for it in my box of "things to journal with". Next came a page from a notepad that I got in an ephemera swap. The paper color and feel made me consider it and the lines that went with the stripes on my son's shirt sealed the deal. My first two items being black and white,

I was ready for some color. I decided I was in the mood for black, brown, red and white. I just needed a color photo to go with the scheme. On the floor was a magazine page with a great picture of buttons in frames hanging on a paneled wall. I had my three photos (sort of).

I glued the clipping on the left page and the button photo on the right and decided that I wanted my note paper to sit on top of the paint, so I just picked a position for it overlapping the button photo. I used a small brush and brown fluid acrylic to paint a narrow border around the clipping. Then I did the same around the button pic with black. Then again around the clipping with some red paint mixed with brown to tone it down a bit.

By this time I decided I needed one more photo, so it was back to my magazine. I found a great shot of circles of different fabrics. One paisley was perfect. I cut it out and glued it down behind where the note paper would go. My recipe called for three photos, but recipes are meant to be guides, not rules.

I painted another border of the red/brown around where the notepaper would go and a brown border around the paisley fabric circle. Next was a third border, off white this time around the clipping. I decided to just finish off the bottom of the left page in white thinking I could add more paint over the white if I wanted to. I added a white border next to the black around the button photo and above the notepaper.

Then a black border around the paisley and another black one in the lower right corner which I painted brown and added a stamped date in red/brown. That just left the center portion of the right page which I painted brown at the bottom and red/brown at the top. I didn't like that so I smeared some red over the brown area.

My recipe calls for stamping in the borders, so I picked out one of my favorite stamps which is just slice of an eraser cut with a serated knife. I stamped in black on the two red/brown borders. That made the borders really pop. I finally glued down the notepaper after I wrote on it.

The big white space was really bugging me, so I glued a strip of paper from an old book of sheet music. Around it I painted two narrow borders, brown and black. It seemed to still need more color, so I painted five red dots. I thought these would work with the buttons. The page was starting to come together, but I still wasn't happy with all of the white. There was a piece of needlepoint canvas laying on my work table and I put it over part of the white border and stamped black ink through that. It looked great, so I stamped all of the white borders on the spread. Wow, much better!

The last things I added were the strip of text, favorite things because it was laying on the table and seemed to fit; the circle punched brown paper on the paisley; a little bit of black next to the paisley to extend the line of black from the bottom of the page and a stamped date.
I liked the way it looked, but then I got the idea to sew on a real button. I usually don't put many things like this in my journal because they tend to make it hard to work on the later pages. I'll probably be sorry, but I love the way it looks.

I didn't notice until much later that the circle of paisley mimics the circular photo. I love it when things work out like that.

Spanish fruit stickers!

I got these great stickers a couple of months ago and am just now getting around to journaling with them. Most of them arrived on clear plastic which meant that they were fairly easy to remove and stick in my journal. I'm enjoying them even more now that they are all spread out on my journal pages.

Art soothes me...

Looking through Pam Garrison's blog last night got me fired up for pink and blue. She has some wonderful pages and I love looking at all her photos. I really must get it together and get a new camera.

September 13

This is what happens when I don't have a journal page prepped and I feel the need to journal. I wound up writing on printer paper and gluing it into the journal later. Then I couldn't stand the plain white paper, so I painted on some glaze that I added drops of paint to. I'm not sure what was going on on the other page. I rarely have a whole page without any writing. The journaling that I had to get down was a new page recipe. Hopefully I'll get it typed up soon so I can share it.

Daisies

I included a scan of a postcard I made for Kathrin from Germany on this spread. I've had these particular banana stickers saved to make her something for ages waiting for inspiration. Finally it hit and I liked the way it turned out. The round daisy label is from a tub of sour cream. I guess they have these cool flower sayings on all their tub. I threw away another one in a rare spurt of clutter control. I won't be buying anymore soon because I discovered that I have a large gallstone last week. I've been on a low fat diet for two weeks now. Pain is a great motivator to change the way you eat. One benefit is that I've lost over five pounds.

I may never get to Venice

These photos of Venice and the flowers and dove frame were all laying on my worktable last night when I went up to paint a background spread. I slapped the one on the left and the flowers on and started painting around them. Then I put the other two and did the writing. I wanted to match up the color and design in the photos so I used the lavender and black. I like the filagreed look of the postcard word stamp. I think I was inspired for this page by some of Dan Eldon 's work. Not that I think this looks anything like his. I just wish I had taken the pictures, or at least the Venice ones.

Yakima wine labels

The bottles of wine from our wine tasting tour in Yakima Valley are all gone and I finally took off the labels and threw away the bottles. I'm reallly surprised at how much I enjoyed the wine tour. It wasn't so much the wine as getting to meet the people at the wineries and taking a slow, leisurely drive through the valley. It was nice sipping the wine at home and remembering the day too.

Slowing down

I've been thinking about doing more sketching and the other night I finally just did it. I sketched my feet right where I was sitting, without making a big deal out of it. I just started on the page I had prepped. I like the way it turned out ok. My feet really aren't that ugly, but they are that big. ;> I actually thing the right foot turned out pretty well. I don't have a strange bump on the other one. I just drew the ankle bone in the wrong place to start with.

The other page has some cool stickers I got in the mail and a page from my daily devotional, Portals for Prayer, that particularly spoke to me that morning.

I need/want

This isn't finished yet. I'll be adding to the list. I had the background painted and just grabbed a magazine image that appealed to me to glue on. I got to looking at the pattern on the Delftware plate in the image and decided to try sketching and painting it. I haven't sketched in a while and really enjoyed it. I'd like to
get back to more regular sketching. The one-a-day grids I did a couple of years ago were such good practice. I couldn't believe how much I improved in a short time. Then I just quit.

One Week Done

The first week back to school is always the hardest it seems. I'm always glad to have it over and get on with the year.

I want

This turned out a little busy or something. Not one of my favorite spreads. Maybe it's the co
lors.

Magazine photo mini-challenge

I picked the magazine photo on these pages because I loved the colors and the paisleys. Then I challenged myself to make a background to go with it. I spread the paint on with an old credit card and drug out all three of my paisley rubber stamps. Two of them are eraser stamps that I carved. The colors match much better in real life than they do in the photo.

My vacation has me noticing recipes again. It was so nice to eat food that was cooked by other people who just happen to be good cooks. I tend to get into a rut with cooking and cook the same things over and over.

Yesterday I sorted my creative space

August 8, 2006

It was good to do a journal page and have access to all of the supplies I've gotten used to. I went stamp happy on this spread.

I used gesso around the edges under the black on this spread. I'm still getting a feel for using it. The car stamp came in a grab bag. I would have never picked it out, but I've gotten a lot of use out of it.

August calendar

I carved an eraser stamp for my calendar pages this month. I was thinking it would be an easy way to make them, but I'm not sure how I'll be able to vary them in the future. Maybe I should use the other side as a shadow stamp under the frame. These are stamped with acrylic paint sponged onto the stamp.

Pocket page

I made two pocket pages for our trip receipts, one going and one coming back. It was a really handy way to save them. I'm planning to photo copy them though because I've learned the hard way that receipt ink is very unstable.

The journaling on the left was done on a scrap of paper and glued in later. Yellow acrylic paint is transparent and works great to integrate this kind of journaling onto the page.

New shade

Last week I got the idea to make a new window shade. I was sorting my art space and found some fabric that was really stiff. It made a great shade and wasn't that hard either. The fringe on the bottom is the selvedge of the fabric. I just sewed on the part from the other side to make a pocket for the plastic rod at the bottom doubling the fringe. I used the old roller and just taped it on with strapping tape.

Newest member of my doll family

I finally found a Robert Tonner Gracie doll to buy this week. I haven't had a new doll in ages. She's the one in the red and yellow dress. They are all wearing clothes sewn or knitted by me. The taller blond doll is one I bought for a quarter. She turned out to be an Avon Hello Kitty doll. She's wearing an outfit scavanged from a cheap porcelain doll. In the back you can see a bit of my postcard display. I found a black frame and have been hanging my favorite or newest postcards with push pins and clips.