This was the last day of the trip. We mostly took interstates and just came home. I'm thinking I'll add photos of the maps and stuff we used along the way as I didn't take many pics that day. I like the way the background turned out. I'll probably do more in this style. 

I took a few bottles of paint with me, so I was able to paint this one at the campsite. I drew in the curved line before realizing just how curvy the road we would be taking was. I'm planning to put a couple of photos we took on the bare spots when I get them printed out. 

This background was also painted at home. Everything else was done either in the truck as we drove or at the campsite. I still need to fill the top two boxes. I thought I'd go ahead and post, since I have no idea when I'll get around to doing that. 

I was going to put some things in the blue part, but I think I've decided not to. I kind of like the uncluttered look. I will probably do more with the title. This background was painted at home and finished on our trip. I journaled about what I was seeing as we drove along. Then I drew the truck and camper at the campground. I'm sure glad the tires aren't really that small. 

Previous story continued and trip preparations. I thought it would be handy next time if I put the list of things to take in my journal. I need to add some things to it so that it will be more complete. The stamp is one I carved to make the texture in one of my crazy quilt hearts. It's going to be great for journals. 

Mostly text. I've been thinking I need to add more words to my journal. I miss reading the stories. 

The color didn't photograph right on this one. I used gouache for the background and then tore a heart from a page from an old dictionary and painted that with yellow gouache and then over painted the various colors. It looks better in person. 

Another one using the eraser stamp. 

I carved an eraser stamp for this one. Also used gouache and orange stamp pad ink. 

Gouache with a bit of gel pen for sparkle. 

I finished up some more hearts now that we are back from vacation. I had tried black on white, so I thought I would try white gel ink on a dark color. 

This one looks similar to the gouache heart because I used the one I tore for that as a template, but this one was stamped with eraser stamps. I used strips of paper to block off the individual patches. A couple of the patches were sponged first in one color and then over-stamped with another color. I also carved a new eraser stamp for the royal blue square. It was really easy and looks great in my journal too.
 

I drew this one with a gel pen. I can see now why people like the micron pens so well for detailed drawings. The last one I sketched was with a micron. You just can't get as much detail with the gel pen. I suspect that by the end of the month I will be able to draw this heart from memory from repeating it so many times. I will have to try that. 

I got on a roll yesterday and did three hearts. This one, I think, is my favorite of all of them that I have done. I painted it in acrylics on a dictionary page and layered it with mulberry paper onto the cardstock. For the stitching I tried something new. I drew the stitches with a white gel pen and then, when it dried, I went over that with colored gel pens. It worked great for those pens that will not write over darker backgrounds. I think this one looks the most like the original crazy quilt heart. Maybe that's why I like it the best.

Same page as the last one except with the fold-out closed. The rubber stamps that I used were all handmade stamps, some carved erasers, one checkerboard stamp was made from leftover pieces after I cut out some purchased stamps, the other one is thin fun foam glued to a block, the orange one in the center of the right page was cut with scissors from a gardener's knee pad. 

I seem to be so busy I needed a calendar for next month to write down inservice, appointments, etc... The sketch is a couple of my handmade checkerboard stamps sitting on the cassette case that I put inkpads in. 

This morning I made a copy of the heart I sketched on textured paper and colored it with water colors. This is the first time I've tried water color for something this detailed. It was hard going around all the stitching, so that I could come back when the background dried and paint the stitches. 

This version was painted with water colors onto a torn heart. I then embelished it with some stitching and pseudo-stitching done with markers, water color and acrylic paints. 

The pieces for this heart were cut from photocopies of two photos of my great-aunts and a piece from a dictionary. After being painted with water colors, they were glued to a heart cut from a dictionary page. The background was done by drawing the stripes with an orange galaxy marker and then going over it with water color. The marker acted as a resist. Finally, after sewing on the borders, I gave the whoe thing a coat of golden colored glaze. 

For this heart I used my new gouache paints. One goal of the swap is to try out new art supplies and techniques. I tore the heart out and tore it into patches which I then painted and glued back together onto another torn heart. 

Here are some of the daily hearts I am making for my swap. This was the first one and is done in pastels. 

Added an icon to my blog.

I just spent too much time figuring out how to add an icon to my blog when someone has it on their favorites list. I've been thinking about trying it ever since I saw it discussed on Sharon's site. I like seeing her icon when I open my favorites list. I finally decided to try making one using the crazy quilt heart that I just finished. Well it worked! I know you are all impressed. :>

I decided to give coloring my sketch in Photoshop a try. It took a long time, but I'm pretty happy with the result. 

I've been working on a swap where I'm supposed to do one 5" square project a day based on a specific object for the month of June. I'm pretty far behind, but enjoying what I've done so far. I first chose a basket, but later changed my mind to draw, paint, collage etc...this crazy quilt heart. It was my third crazy quilt project. When I read the EveryDayMatters list this afternoon, I found out that the challenge this week is to sketch something you have made. I just did that a couple of days ago, so this serves two purposes. I've done four other variations, one in pastels and three in collage. I'll post some of them soon.  

June's calendar. I love the way the title turned out. I'll be trying this lettering style again. 

I had prepped this page ahead of time. When we got to our granddaughters house she was wearing blue and yellow. Perfect.This page turned out to be kind of scrapbook style. Madelyn loved it and once I told her the drawing was bubbles, every time she saw it she wanted to go out and blow bubbles. It's funny, I even had the dots on the squares before we went to visit her. they go so well with the bubbles. Sorry about the face blurs. I'm feeling a bit funny about privacy issues. The stamping around the edge is done with a cork and a piece of eraser cut off with a serated knife. The small dots are a pencil eraser. I used my new torquoise stamp pad.