It's a monkey in the tree!

Today's photo journal page is of a female gibbon monkey that took me two hours to photograph at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago two years ago.  She would not sit still but I loved her.  It was worth the wait because she one me second place in a photo competition.  You can't tell from the small picture but she looked right at me and you can see her eyes so clearly.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

I love making background papers!

I have two more 5x7 background papers to show you that I made. I really like the small size. These two might end up on cards for Easter.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

No Mojo, Inks Blots, Therapy oh my!

Hello! Todays journal pages for Art Journal Every Day was a challenge to myself since my mojo is walking out the door.  I work full time for a tax accountant and tax season has taken my mojo away. I'm working late nights and weekends so finding time when I'm so exhausted to make art has been very hard. For these journals pages I decided to take whatever acrylic ink I had on my table and add it to the pages and close it up to form ink blots.  I figured this can be my therapy to try and get my mojo back. The challenge was to make something out of the ink blots.  Here is what I made. It's not the greatest but it helped a little bit.

The butterfly counts not the months but moments.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

I'm Perfect!

Well, no I'm not but I thought the rest of the sentiment fit perfect for this little canvas. It is 2"x4" and it already had some acrylic ink on it but I lost interest until now.

The only thing I would have done differently is cut up the words more so they run down the side of the canvas. But I love the way it came out.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Hope is a thing with feathers

I've been playing in my photo art journal and found my photograph of a blue jay. I decided to use tree templates from Crafters Workshop and a wood grain embossing folder on a manila tag to look like branches.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Background Papers oh my!

Today I have two background papers I made to show you. I found for a dollar 5x7 packs of watercolor paper. I decided that that size would be perfect for making background papers for cards.  I love this color combo. Yellows, grey, browns and black.

For some reason they are posting side ways but I guess it really doesn't matter. The bottom one has trees so if you tilt you head you can see them.  My computer is getting fixed so I'm on our other one but it doesn't have any of my photo editing software or anything else I use.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Pinky Background Paper

The last batch of background papers I made were only 5x7. I found packs of watercolor paper in that size in the sale bins for $1.  I made this small card with what was left of this background paper.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Accidental paint spill into Spring

Hello! Today for Art Journal Every Day I have a journal page to show you that made out of an accident.  I originally had an idea for these pages and started out painting the background green but then I accidentally spilled back paint on the pages.  I pushed the paint around and then didn't know what to do with it. That was over two weeks ago.  I picked up my art journal today and just pulled out paint and started painting. I never to that at all. I can't paint anything but I tried.

I decided that the black was dirt and flowers are starting to sprout. I was thinking of Spring. They are abstract looking to me. I really didn't think about what I was going to do. If I did I wouldn't have even tried to paint anything.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Solitude

I take many photographs of miscellaneous things especially on vacation. I think it's because its just different scenery.  I really have a hard time finding something at home or in town or anywhere near me to photograph. I really need to try to challenge myself to do it.  Anyway, I take at least 5 to 10 words with me and take a photograph to represent each word. Its very challenging but I really love to do it.  On a trip to Chicago one of my words was solitude.

I found this bird sitting all alone in this tree and thought it was perfect for the word.  At the time I made up this challenge just take pictures not knowing that someday I would love art journals.  If you haven't tried this type of photo challenge you really should! It's so much fun. Oh and the grid behind the picture it's another fav of mine! It's cement tape just like dry wall tape but used for cement. Very cool and inexpensive! 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Hello! Background paper!

The one thing I struggle with is coming up with a title for each post. Does anyone else have this trouble? I guess I can say, card 1! or another card! or hey i have another card again! but that's pretty boring. Anyone have any ideas or do you have a strategy you use to come up with titles?  Let me know!  Okay, on with my project.

Today I made a few background papers. This one I didn't take a picture of but I made a card with part it.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

It's almost Spring!

Hi everyone!  Moved the clocks forward which means spring is getting closer. This week in CT there will be a few days in the 60s! I'm so excited.  I made a tag to celebrate spring. The tulips is a photograph that I took in Chicago. I decided to cut out the tulips for the tag. I really love the look. 

This is one of many manila tags that I use to clean up extra paint or inks on my craft sheet. As I cleaned my craft room I realized I had quite a few.  Instead of going through the tags picking out one I like I decided to close my eyes and just pick one.  Very fun! You should try it.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Art Journal Every Day - Friendship

Hello, today I have another page from my photo journal today for Art Journal Every Day with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.  The photograph on my journal page is something I have had forever. I don't know where it came from. I keep a folder full of miscellaneous images of odd ball stuff and some of it is pretty old. I decided to go through it for this page.

As you can see the background was made with stamps, spray inks, paper, templates, etc. BUT my most favorite new thing to use is the dry wall tape. Its the white strip behind the picture. I was watching a Donna Downey video where she used dry wall tape in her art journal. I decided to roam around Lowes (a hardware store if you are unfamiliar with the name) and see what I can find to play with. Let me just say you will be seeing it quite a bit this week.   It's my new favorite thing!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Minimalism is so hard!

Hello! I have another page to show you from my new art journal. I have been working on minimalism and finding it a challenge. It really has changed my style a little but I think I like it. Working on a pages talking to myself saying less is more, less is more, is funny and I almost stamped that on the page but worth it. I realized that some pages can have lots going on with paints, inks, stamps, paper and embellishments but with photographs you need to make them the star.

What do you think? The paper is Basic Grey scraps. I'm not sure on the name of the paper pack. It's been used quite often and not much left of it. The pic of tulips was taken in Chicago on the Magnificient Mile in front of the Wrigley Building.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Crusade 61 - GPP Street Team's Challenge Restraining Order

Hi Everyone! Until I started getting into art journals I never really experimented like I should with inks, paints, stamps, etc.  In an art journal it's so free for me that I can try anything.  One thing that I do is add lots of stuff to my pages which is perfectly fine. There are no rules. On Michelle Ward's GPP Street Team blog they have a challenge called Restraining Order to practice minimalism. Crusade 61 is Michelle's and her teams last one.

I decided to try it with a couple of art journal pages. I thought it would be easy. NOT! It was so hard to stop and take a step back, breathe, and say it was finished.

These pages are from my new art journal that I'm using photographs on every page. This first page I had a hard time walking away but now looking at it I love it.

This next page I really had to stop myself before I ruined the page.  I was having so much fun. The picture is a character from the movie, Horton Hears A Who, and her name is Katie. She is also my daughter's favorite character.  Katie also reminds me so much of my daughter and her imagination! The quote is what Katie says in the movie. It makes us laugh every time we watch it.

I'm going to keep trying to do more pages to practice minimalism.  It really changed the look of my pages and I think I like that!

Well, if anyone wants to join in on the crusade hop on over to Michelle's blog and join in the fun!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Art Journal Every Day - Two Journals, Two Different Styles

Today I have two art journal pages to show you for Art Journal Every Day with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.  As I was perusing my local craft store I found a Strathmore Visual Journal in their sale racks for $2! I did dig a little hoping to find more but that was it. I love photography but scrapbooking it not my favorite thing to do. I want to use more of my photos so I chose this journal to use.  I was amazed at my pages. They are so different from each other.  Both have lots of inks, sprays, stamps but used in different ways. I really love how the photo journal is starting out. 

Here is the first page of my photo journal.

This is page is from my other journal. I think it's page 26 of the journal.

To me it looks like two different people made these pages. What do you think?  Are they both my style?  I love both. I'm loving my photo journal.  I'm in the process of going through all my pictures and printing them out. I can't wait to do more pages.  I'm not sure if the photo journal will end up being like a scrapbook or just pictures and quotes or a mix.  I think I won't plan anything for the journal. I will just choose a picture and make a page. Stay tuned for more!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Do you remember birthdays?

I am so terrible at remembering birthdays.  I even have a monthly birthday book to look at but it never happens. Now that most of my neices and nephews are older I just give them gift cards. Today I made two gift card holders out of manila tags.  They both already had inks and paints on them from cleaning up puddles on my craft sheet. I just added a few other colors and some stamping. They were quick and easy.

I think this one is my favorite.

As you can see there are lots of stamps and spray inks on these tags. They were a lot of fun to make.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Weird Dreams and the Umbrella Man

Hi Everyone! I have had some weird dreams lately. One dream I woke up exhausted. In my dream I am painting yellow paint on watercolor paper one piece at a time with someone on a speaker saying to go faster. When I looked up I realized I wasn't alone and each person in the room had something to add to the paper.  At the end of the line that last person was the umbrella man. He was stamping himself on the page.  I woke up so tired but laughing. I don't know where that came from but I decided that I needed to add him to this tag. I know weird!

Thanks so much for stopping by.

March 2012!!!

Hello! It's March and time for my March's calendar for Kate Crane's calendar challenge. I can't believe its here. In one way I'm glad because I work full time for a tax accountant and we are really busy so April 15th can't come fast enough BUT I don't like to wish my days away. They just go by so fast. I actually made my calendar on Sunday. I couldn't get my mojo started so I opened up my journal and start spreading paint in the different spots on the pages and then it hit me. I really would like warmer weather. Don't get me wrong this winter has been so mild and warm.  Saturday they say its going to be 60! It should be 30! Like I've said before I would rather be hot then cold. So this journal reminded me of spring time and flowers so thats exactly what I stamped on the pages.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

 

Do you have a favorite color combination?

Yes, I do! I seem to be using yellow, orange, green and either blue or red. I think I'm using it because I really would love warm weather. I don't want to wish my days away but I don't like being cold.  I made a tag from leftover sprays and paints on my craft sheet then used Tim Holts stamp (heart) and Dylusions Rubber Stamps (sentiment and background).  Real simple tag.

Thanks so much for stopping by!