WOYWW #197, Color and Words

Julia over at The Stamping Grounds cracks me up. I just love her sense of humor. Each Wednesday she sets up a post so we can link and spy at other people's work spaces....hers had a lot of activity on it this week. Unlike mine. I starting prepping this journal page on Sunday night I think. I'm taking an on-line class from Julie Fei-Fan Blazer on journaling and it's been lots of fun. Lots of new insights.

Had to work tonight and tomorrow the young adults who are the "kids" come home for a few days so it's going to be a busy week. I've been doing a lot of work in my art journals and thought I give a peak there too. My first art journal page was in October and I find I really, really like playing in them. Finally one day I hit upon why I like them so much. Color and Words. Two of my favorite things. Combined into one thing.

I've also been working on Lifebook 2013 and one project had us concentrating on our word for the year. Mine was more of a sentiment: This is the year I become an Artist. I think of lot of that is in your head...we all make art, we just have to own it. But I want to make a concentrate effort to LEARN and STUDY and DO this year. So I've been working on that too.

I used the remains of a paper I had die cut letters from as a stencil on the one above. 

Practice with white space

Practice with grids and white space

This one and the next three started from Julie's class

Now I'm off to check some of my friends' workspaces. Have a great week!

From the Heart

Even tho I am eggs-haunted (family word for exhausted) and there is A LOT  going on there is no other word that describes how I feel about my life...mostly the man I share it with

I love my art journals. What could be better than color and words....sigh. Not much. 

Diaster at the Work Desk!! Yikes

Been a busy and somewhat stressful couple of days up here....good thing I had ALL day on Saturday to play in my art journal and make a few cards...see previous posts. But sadly this is the current state of my work table. Ms. Julia over at Stamping Ground is ever so nice to connect us all around the world so we are able to create, share, and make friends. It's called WOYWW - short for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday and this is the 196th time she's done it!  Cool huh?

The colorful file folder is full of Lifebook 2013 PDF's I finally remembered to copy on a good copier. The videos for these projects are really long, and I just haven't had enough time to really sit down and watch them. But I'm feeling readier (is that a word??) now.

I did just get the new Dylusions sprays, along with the Donna Downey stamps and stencils I ordered a while back which are sitting in a heap in the center along with some brass earrings that are so heavy they might actually make my head tilt...need to clip some of the beads off and re-posistion the ear piece so I might actually wear them. The rest of the stuff is just dribs and drabs of art making goodness.

Thanks for taking the time to snoop in the Fun Room!

Love 'Em - Don't Know Why I Don't Use 'Em

I got a text from my daughter last night trying to cajole me into sending her Girl Scout cookies in the mail. Turns out she really wants mail...and probably the cookies but as much as I like the Girl Scouts - having been one myself - the cookies are already plenty expensive and she can buy her own! But I did bite and decided to make a card for her on Sunday afternoon. I also wanted to participate in the Simon Says Stamp challenge of using a stamp you love but don't use often. Sadly I have, well, let's just say there were a lot of stamps to choose from.

The Fairy Stamp is a old Graphic 45 Stamp that doesn't seem to be available any more. I stamped her on a piece of manilla paper, colored in the edges with Spun Sugar and Bundled Sage Distress Inks, and went around the edge with Vintage Photo. I used Distress Markers and a water brush to color her dress and flowers, but the thing I now LOVE is the dry glitter I used on her wings.

OMG - this stuff is SO Cool. Well, it's from Tim Holtz, master of the universe, so I should have known, but it SOOOOO dimensional. Little late to this party, but I can't wait to use it again!

The other stamp I really like I got from my sister Daina and it was way before I knew Donna Downey was...as fate would have it she's one of my current inspirations! I stamped it in clear and emossed it with white....love the look. The other thing I want to mention is the trick I picked up from Tammy Tutterow about embossing the top of a brad. Super simple. Touch it to the Versamark pad, dip it in the embossing powder (with tweezers) and try it. And yes, I will say it. Don't touch it. It's metal. It's hot. You would think I get that. Nope. Ouch.

I mounted the whole paper on a piece of card stock and embossed some more dandelions, inside....and while for us spring is at least 6 if not 8 weeks away, it is sunny and the days are longer and it's all good!

March - Coming in Like a Lamb

I had such fun making my March calendar. Perhaps it was because it involved coloring which I found particularly soothing after my stupid computer at work ate an entire afternoon's efforts....ooo, don't even want to remember. So I came home on a Friday night and came right to the Fun Room to finish my calendar for the lovely Kate Crane's calendar challenge at her blog The Kathryn Wheel.

A sea scene in delight of the new Dylusions Ocean Backgrounds...love them!

I started with the seaweed and leaves on a separate piece of paper, colored those in, and then started cutting them out. Wasn't too long before I reached the conclusion I was NOT having fun. So I stamped right on my background and colored them in with a collection of Copic and Tombow markers. I used a white pigment ink pad to stamp the little fishies on the background and found some old Stamping Up! fishes my sister had given me which were easy to color and cut out.

I'm always challenged by the lettering for the page. March was no exception. These started life as white chipboard, which I almost used but decided it was too white. Painted them green, didn't like that. Covered them with distress stickles, wasn't crazy about that either. And then IT happened. I rubbed a little white paint on it and the stickles acted like a resist and I LOVED the result. Happy Accident. Yay.  I can't wait to try that combination on something else!

The circles are my continued attempt to push the envelope beyond the squares. They remind me of golf balls right now, but will look better once they are filled in, I'm sure. Lastly, here's February all done!