Art 365 ish

On January 1, 2014 I started a project called Art 365. The idea was to make a little piece of art - as in an inch by inch little - every day. I did pretty well until the Alaskan summer came upon me. Summer is so short and so busy that this just went by the way side. But I picked it up again in September and I'm still doing it in 2015. So here's a sample of what I've done.

January 2014

February 2014

March 2014

April 2014

Summer 2014

September 2014

September Favorites

October 2014

November 2014



November Favorites



December 2014

December Favorites



January 2015

January Favorites

Catch #2 - Summer DLP

 

The pictures above and below are from Week 22 of the 2014 Documented Life Project which has truly been a wonderful experiences. The prompt this week was: Houses.



 

Week 23 was something about gratitude. In the end I was grateful to be a cancer survivor and be alive, which I journaled about behind the race bib. The Alaska Run for Women celebrates breast cancer survivors, and even though I didn't have breast cancer it was a totally cool event. My first (and quite possibly last) 5 mile walk. The following pix is the inside of this spread.

Week 24 was use bookpaper. I used some of that, and some left over bingo paper which happened to strike my fancy that day.

 

Week 25 was use a heart. So easy when you have heart stickers from Shruti Deve in India, and beautiful heart dollies from Anne Ryan in Seattle. Smiling now, even just thinking about them!

And finally week 26 a bible verse. Hmmm. Went for a spriritual quote from the Dali Lama. Love the quote. The page? Not so much. Oh well. Can't win them all.

Lots more to post. Someday....

November Tim Holtz Tag

As I explore new paths in art I am still fascinated by the creative mind of Tim Holtz. And I do really like dies....so when I saw his November tag I knew I wanted to try. Small problem, didn't have the leaf die and emboss and everyone was out of it. As I was laying in bed last, not sleeping, it occurred to me I should try the new emboss and die snow flake and see what I could do with it.

Believe me when I say this went through quite a few iterations! I loved Tim's idea of transferring metal through a stencil, but I didn't have the right metal sheets - hence the sliver snowflakes. I did however, apply the sticky embossing powder and then put some glitter on the embossed snowflake.

Believe me when I say it glistens! I really am in love with the paint and the glitter and and the frostiness of it all! 

I followed all the steps Tim laid out but I just didn't like the cardboard with the snow flake, so I tried some pattened paper. That was too much too ---  and as I some how managed to let myself run out of picket fence paint, I used alcohol ink over the paper and it I decided I like the messiness of it....kind of like snow in little piles.

So indeed - this is life.  And all of this is just about perfect....because it finally snowed here yesterday! 

Catch Up #1 on Summer DLP

This has been a busy, busy summer - as witnessed by the lack of blog posts. But I have been keeping up on on my weekly challenges with the Art to the 5th Documented Life Project. At the beginning of the year my recollection was the DLP would be part calendar, part journal, and part art journal. And that's exactly I how I have been using, or abusing, my little mole skin planner. Here are my takes on a few weekly challenges. 

Week 31 - Add a pocket and recollections of the week. 

I used a library pocket I'd had laying around forever and started playing around the new Tim Holtz dragonfly die and embossing set. I am in love with it. I used twinkling H2O's to paint and then used the left over paint to color up the scraps and that's what I used to make the flowers the dragonfly is soaring above.....I filled my pocket with goodies from the week, including some photos of art projects and activities.

Week 30's challenge was the "Smash Book" style. Since that is kind of what I do anyway, and I wasn't aware there was a style - this is what I went for....

This was towards the end of the month, so I made a collage on the right hand side using design elements from my desk, clips, from magazines, and a bit of happy mail.

Sometimes throughout the week I add journaling, quotes I pick up, and essentially this and thats....like below. It's all so much clearer now isn't it??

Week 29 - Make a Wish List. Not my favorite page - but you know - not everything is a home run.

Week 28. Add an instagram or other tiny picture. My honey and I on a whim took a great day trip on July 4, and we took this selfie along the way. I love the picture, and it's a great reminder or a fun, fun day. Again, I used some Happy Mail, doodling, die-cuts, left over paper cut into circles....I seem to be on a real circle kick lately!

That's it for now...I have lots more pages to share....whenever I get a minute!!!

Watercolor Flower Fun

I've been following action over at the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge 3 even if I haven't had the time to participate in all of Linda Ledbetter's and the Curosity Crew's calls to action. Beautiful work - be sure to check out the site if you haven't already.

We're using Tim Holt'z third book of techniques....cleverly entitled Compendium of Curiosities 3! These books are just great - overflowing with inspiring ideas. This time the challenge was Distress Watercolors. I just had to play along!

As you can see I went with a floral theme. Each of the flowers used a minimum of three of the distress markers on each of the paper flowers. I remember the first time I tried this technique; I felt like I was actually painting! If you haven't tried it, get your hands on the book, and turn to page 39 and 40 for a full description from Tim.

I layered the paper colored flowers with some metal flowers (an inspiration from Hels Sheridian, a member of the Curiosity Crew, who used metal flowers on her piece). I love the contrast in texture of metal and paper but wanted to mix it up a bit from Hels, so I  colored them with alcohol inks and/or distress embossing powder.

Other bits of using the magic of Distress with water include the ribbon colored with inks, and the second background. For that - I used the cute little mini distress inks on an embossing folder, misted with water and embossed. LOVE this process. Thank you Paula Cheney for that idea.

Okay - one thank you card done, only about 10 more needed!!