New eraser stamp

I'm back to doing a little at a time. I saw the idea for an erasor stamp online and sketched it here, thinking I might carve one later. Instead I went right uptairs and carved the stamp. I used it to decorate a couple of envelopes and of course the next page in my journal which isn't done yet.

One Window to the World

Text on the red reads: One of the members of my Flickr: One Window to the World group posted a picture today of two of the most famous volcanoes in Mexico, Popo and the Sleeping Lady, as seen through her window. I just love the idea of this group and hope it catches on and a whole community forms world-wide, sharing their every day views.

I started the group three days ago and we already have 46 members and 27 photos. I'd like to invite all of those who read this to check it out and join in. We already have some awesome photos. I can't wait to see what we get over time.

By the way, if you do check out the group, I know there are a bunch of typos on the group page. I was tired and excited about starting the group when I typed it and I can't figure out how to edit it. If anyone knows how, I'd appreciate your help.

Parakeets

Well, I just got switched kicking and screaming to the new blogger. We'll see.

The lower left drawing was done by my sweet Madelyn. She is writing her name now. I need to have her write it in my journal soon.

More TV sketches

I had a post typed earlier and we got a pop-up thunderstorm. After loosing several televisions and a couple of answering machines to lightning over the years, I'm a stickler for unplugging stuff. So I lost the post and the train of thought.

My living room

I sketched a corner of my living room while watching a movie this week. I wasn't able to get much journaling done, but I did add a few sentences over several days.

I'm kind of journaling back and forth lately. These two spreads are the inside of the last two I posted. I like working on the old book pages for a change. This brings up something that has kind of bugged me lately. I keep seeing the phrase "altered art journal". Just exactly what is that supposed to be? Isn't a journal for writing, painting, arting, etc...? Don't you call one that hasn't been worked in just an empty journal? I get altered books. They were meant for another purpose and using them for art is altering or changing them. Calling a journal altered just seems silly to me.

Ok, I'm getting off my soapbox and going to watch 24.

Cows I have known

One of my lists had an assignment to make a spread on your favorite animal week before last. I thought and thought and didn't come up with an animal that I liked more than others. Then we got a sales paper that had this photo of three pretty Jersey cows. I got to thinking of all the cows I have been around and this spread came about. I wrote two pages of cow tales, but could have easily filled two more, and if I had gotten started on bulls...

What if I wanted to paint the sky green?

I was so irritated with this page when I first finished it that I thought I wouldn't post it. The flowers/date especially drove me crazy. The more I did the muddier and uglier they got. I just do not like working with Sharpie markers. I like the idea and will try it again, but this time it sure didn't turn out. Maybe I was just too tired.

The next day it still did nothing for me. I got some great fruit stickers from Spain and added them in. Still not one of my best, but somehow the balance was corrected I guess and it's growing on me.

Women of the World

I posted a challenge to the CompositionArtJournals group on Saturday to make a grid page using this inspiration page and share it with the group.

This is my grid. I started it by drawing some squares with a pen and then pulled out a couple of issues of one my favorite magazines to cut up: Veranda. Most of the images came from the two issues with a couple from a Victoria magazine and the three from an issue of Metropolitan Home that had a top 100 design issue with tons of great numbers to use.

The women theme developed as I went along. I had sketched the three faces the night before and wanted to include them. At first I wasn't pleased that they weren't going to fit into the squares, but I love the way they overlap now. The color and designs started out because the one face looked medieval to me, so I picked the dark reds and the rich fabrics to match. I think it's cool that all these images and words came together from such a few magazines.

Snow days

Yeah! My disk drive worked just now so that I could upload my photos. I've tried since Thursday to put my snowy day photo on the computer so that I could print it out in my journal. That's why I have a blank page in this series of pages ~ waiting to be able to add the photo to it. I'm enjoying the challenge of working with the vintage pages. These are the first ones I've come to since starting the journal.



The small drawing of the girl and dog is my Ann Estelle doll by Robert Tonner. I made the outfit she's wearing.

I'm loving this new concept of doing pages a bit at a time over a period of days. There are days when I just don't feel like doing a whole spread or really, really don't have the time. On those days it's nice just to do a doodle or write a little bit. Often, I do a whole spread just like I always have once I sit down to journal and get in the groove.



I glued in the magazine photo of the Matisse drawing to remind me about sketching loose. He managed to get so much recorded with just a few bold lines. The sketch of the girl is one I sketched from a drawing I found online.