December 2012 Calendar Page

It was just about a year ago that I discovered Kate Crane's wonderful blog The Kathryn Wheel. She is an amazing artist who has opened my eyes to lots of new adventures. One of her ongoing projects is the  calendar project which is to inspire us to make art every day...366 days this year to be exact.

In this crazy year of moving, moving, moving, packing, packing, unpacking, etc.  my monthly pages are one of the few things I've been able to keep up on - well almost (missed July). And I was super excited to do my December page after my horrid November. Check out Kate's page for her November page and links to other followers!

I used Dylusions spray inks in red, pink, and yellow for the background, and then the greens on a piece of bristol board that had a coat of gesso on it. This was a happy surprise ---when i mopped up with the kitchen roll, a lot of the color came off which I find easier to write on. And then I put a bit of glaze over the page because I find it easier to write on. 

The last blog post had the empty August, so here's the completed version. 

September was the month we moved into the new house and I think the first thing I actually did in the new, smaller, more compact Craft Room. 

October reminds me of growing up in Pennsylvania with beautiful blue skies and red and orange and brown and green leaves...alas we don't have that here in Alaska....but old habits die hard. Tee Hee.

And I kept hoping for snow so of course I had to try out the new Dylusions snow stencil. Actually we are still waiting for snow; very unusual we don't have any at this time of year. Lots of cold and plenty of wind, but no snow. Kind of weird....

And this is November. A good idea, gone bad. But this fall I just don't seem to have much time so I used it.

I am so thankful for Kate's great idea and look forward to new techniques and ideas next year. 

August Calendar

Crafting and Inkeeness have been significantly absent for a while, as we are between abodes and staying at someone else's lake cottage. But things finally settled down long enough on Sunday morning to think about an August calendar page. I am SO glad that Kate Crane started this monthly calendar project lo those many months ago on her blog, the Kathyrn Wheel.

And while I wasn't thrilled with the background I had grabbed on the way out of the old house, I did at least have it! I made the day tags out of manila tags since that was literally all I had with me except scrapbook paper. Out came a few of the stamps I have with me and some Distress Stains and I was in business. It was SO FUN TO PLAY.

As you can see, it's a bit too much on the sparkly side, which is why I didn't use it months ago, but now I'm LOVING it!!  August is about biding our time until the house is done.

I did start on a calendar in June - late - didn't finish, and skipped July all together. I found I really missed it...

So I'm back on the band wagon. Happy August everyone!!

All Things Seem Possible in May

Ah, the beginning of a new month. And here in Alaska I could actually see little, tiny, leaf buds on the trees today. Cause for great excitement!!. After all the cold and snow we had this winter, many of us thought spring would be a long time coming, but this is almost early for us.

The lovely, talented, and Ranger U educated Kate Crane invites us to her blog, The Kathryn Wheel  each month to post our on-going calendars. Kate has been hosting this challenge for a few years and it's a fabulous journey. I use it to record my artistic endeavors of the month, what I'm working on, sometimes why I'm not working on anything, what I'm doing, etc. For May I'm celebrating green!

I played with my Dylusions spray inks....what a gas. Such vibrant, sassy, amazing colors. Just love 'em. I've found that a coat of glaze on top of the finished piece makes writing oh, so smooth. So after I spritzed, misted with water, dried, and used a touch of black paint with a very dry paint brush, I put a quick little coat of glaze on top of the background.

The design is pretty basic...please note my ode to the mosquito (got my first one today!). All the little white dots and the bird are Ranger white enamel which I like a lot...very glossy...comes in white and black - the black is way cool around Halloween. The bird was a bit too white though, so I popped a bunch of seed beads in its tail and body. This is all a result of thinking about the design for about, oh, maybe a fraction of a second. It started to rain this afternoon...so I used the umbrella. One of those things.

I had the most fun with the journal blocks. Dylusions spray inks again, but in lighter colors, more water, and more blotting. I used Gesso instead of white acrylic on top of the stencils, and liked that technique better.

In the end I have to say, May looks more like me. I love that I got a nice, light, creamy yellow for April because I tried pretty darn hard to do that, but I just couldn't use one ink color for journaling and had to put some pictures in from my trip to Los Angeles. It got a bit busier than I kind of pledged to do at the beginning of the month...oh well.

Hope you all have a great month of May!!