January 2014 Calendar

Goodness Gracious. Time is flying by...zip, zip. Three years ago this month (also rather alarming since it certainly doesn't seem that long ago) I stumbled upon Kate Crane's calendar challenge and fell in love. Each month we make a calendar page - no theme, just the month - and use it how we want. I jot down little notes about the days.

This page turned out a lot differently than I had imagined. And I am sorry I don't have a better photo because it does look pretty cool in person. I knew I wanted to use the moon and the stars. We're all about lots of night time this time of year, and I was a bit tired of the snow theme. 

I made a background by fan folding wax paper and laying it on a piece of Bristol paper and pouring severly watered down acrylic paint down the page. I was hoping for water but what I got was ice (you know, in my mind) so I've been keeping it handy since October. I gave it a good spray of Perfect Pearls Mist in Pearl to add a little - okay - a lot of sparkle. That's one reason it was hard to photograph. 

Next I cut some large stars out of a Tim Holtz die and colored them with alcohol inks. Inside my container of alcohol inks was these bits of plaid paper I had made on glossy card stock a couple of years ago. 

I decided to use the blue, white, and pink plaid which took me in a whole other direction. 

I found a smaller sheet of of a pink plaid - so I made some more pink plaid and combined the two in the title. The journaling squares started as very light pink Dylusions spray but the fact of the matter is I'm not really a pink kinda girl. Out came the purple and turquoise along with the amazing white Dylusions ink and after about 7 or 8 layers I had something I liked AND something that reminds me of the arctic sky.

I'm happy to have had a fun and restful December, and be moving onto a new year!

Best wishes for a Happy New Year and thanks so much for stopping by the Fun Room!

Waiting for Blue Skies

Several months ago, I became resolved to certain colors being linked in my physique to certain months. This July I saw lots of medium greens, bright yellow flowers and the fuchsia -pink of our most beautiful weed, the fireweed. Of course by the time I made the August background, the fuchsia had pretty much evaporated. But it was on the calendar....

We have a saying for the rain in August....it's Fair-time. For 21 years my life revolved around the 11 day annual event as I worked for the organization that produced the Fair. Best job ever, with a group of wonderful people who only wanted to make it better every year. Now 17 years after I had to leave the Fair due to health issues, my husband still tells people I have it in my blood. I think he's right. 

But I digress once again. It often rains in August which can put a tamper on the festivities (or not)  but is often sunny immediately after the Fair ends. True to form, it's been raining for a while now and I am ready for the blue skies!

I made my September page for Kate Crane's calendar project...I don't even know if it's a challenge any more, but it does have a fun Facebook page. I stopped for a few months, but find I missed my little squares. It's kind of fun to look back over the time and see - in a glance - what was going on. So I'm back in. 

In true autumnal colors, I created a paper background of what the country around me will look like in a few weeks...with the minor exception of the actual color of the leaves. Although all the colors will be found in the ground cover, the leaves from our beautiful Birch trees will be yellow. I used the new Bo Bunny paper Autumn Song in the 6 x 6 paper pack and theTim Holtz Sizzix Autumn Garland die cut for all the leaves. My big discovery on this page was how will a Pitt Pen works. Man, those things will go over anything - glue, paper, adhesive, etc. pretty impressive. 

So I am waiting for blue skies....in September. 

February = More Light

Yee Haw.... more daylight will be wonderful. And just think in 2 1/2 months we might be able to think about Spring. Ah well. In the meantime, I'm finding the preparation of my calendar pages part of the ebb and flow of life...which I like, a lot. Each month over at  The Kathryn Wheel Kate Crane hosts a monthly calendar event, I guess you would call it. I started last year, and love entering a bit of something on every day of the year.

In fact I got so excited I gave myself an extra day in January! I used it to highlight my intent for this year, which is to learn. Try new things, really try new things, work on the basics and see if I can find my own voice....

To that end I am taking some on-line classes and have been pretty successful at getting into the Fun Room 4 or 5 times a week, so hopefully that's a  good start. 

My February page is a real wonder to me. I wonder why there is so much pink, why I used gold instead of silver and why, oh why is it so damn busy? --- seems to be a failing of mine in February -- It's odd to use colors you don't usually use, but I do seem particularly drawn to circles as of late. So much to fun to color in. The page started out as red, and I just kept painting, and painting... I did use one of my current favorites tho - a Sharpie Poster Paint White Pen...what a wonderful little score that was!! Thank you Dina Wakely for turning me on to that.

I wanted to try out new shapes and arrangements this year; this month seemed like a good opportunity for a vertical arrangement. I figured that entitled me to go back to my little 1.5 x 1.5 squares. With the background so busy I went back to my trusty dry brush technique for a bit of color on the days...and then of course I put way too much paint down so I used my finger to "edge" all of the blocks. I do that every month - they seem to stand out a bit better with that extra bit of definition I think. 

So there we have it. Happy month of love and more sun!!

2013 - Bring It On!!

It's gonna be a great year. And one of the reasons I know is because I like my January calendar page. What 's a calendar page you ask? Well, the talented and beautiful Kate Crane came up with a lovely little challenge which you can find on her blog, The Kathryn Wheel, three years ago. Each month you make a page with a place to make art, or notations every day, and we all link up here. It's a great way to keep track of things, try new ideas, etc, etc, etc.

I was new at this last year and used little squares all the time, so my goal this year is to play around with daily shapes and layouts and see what I like. Small problem though, can't count, so the middle row/week has eight days. Whoops.

So voila! I have a bonus entry for the new year. Lol. I wanted the page to reflect the blues that are so prevalent in the Alaskan winter skies this time of year. I also want SNOW - badly. Today it was 38 and raining. Bummer.

My background started with gesso, and then a layer of London Blue Dylusions Ink and Tattered Angel blue of some sort with lots of water. I let it sit for a bit and then wiped it off with paper towels. A layer or two of Picket Fence Stain, a bit of an accent here and there with Shaded Lilac Stain and then white acrylic paint through one of Dyan Reavely's fabulous stencils. Actually white acrylic paint through a couple of Dyan's stencils. I thought it needed a border so I just drew a couple of lines with dashes and dots with a gel pen.

The tickets were made pretty much the same way but with some added extra Evergreen Bough Ranger stain applied in many ways, including plobbing it down a few times to get splash marks. I cut the tickets out with a Tim Holtz Sizzix die,  and a nod to Marjie Kemper who really opened my eyes to the possibilities with a ticket. I mean, who knew?

Lastly the snowflakes had to bring some glitz, and some of the purple back in by applying the Shaded Lilac ink pad directly onto grunge paper covered with Picket Fences Crackle Paint. I also took the Dusty Concord Distress marker to the top of the flakes.

This seems more me, than my December. But I still loved HAVING a December...

That's us dancing in the upper right corner....you can tell right?

Here's the rest of my year.