Back to Beadin'

I was going through all my old bead magazines trying to thin out all my "stuff". I came across many patterns I still want to try so I saved those and chose one to do after reading a post about making time on Kathy's blog Catching Happiness. I let time slip away without anything to show for it much too often. I will give this necklace to my daughter at some point. She has a birthday coming up and then there is always Christmas or just as a "here, this is for you" gift. It was a fun project and I think I will make a few more.

I am working on other things now to. Every so often I guess I just need a swift kick in the rear to get moving!

Autumn Fun!

Once again, a class of Laure Ferlita's is finished. These are the pages I painted for my journal. Don't you want to try this? A new Fall class started just today. You could join in right now and not miss anything! There are other classes listed on her site too. Check them out. You won't be sorry.

Love Those Grandkids!

My husband took us back to California just a few weeks after we'd come back from there. He wanted to fix up some of the family computers. While there I got my 13 year-old granddaughter signed up for Laure Ferlita's Autumn Class which just started (there is still room. Go here ). I helped her sign up in blogger and showed her what she'd need to participate fully. She wanted to try out the new watercolors I'd gotten her which would be used in the class so she and one of the other granddaughters sat down to paint. They didn't know what to paint though! So I put down my coffee mug and had them choose between it and a pink goblet that was already on the table. One chose the mug and the other the goblet. Then I showed them how to paint them and they did a great job. You can see for yourself they did a great job. Now let me tell you, these girls are 11 and 13 and this was their first try at using watercolors in a real way. If they can do it, so can you! So scoot on over and join in on one of Laure's classes. You won't regret it.

Wow, Another Page!

I got a new bird yesterday. Actually I got him a little over a week ago but when he didn't eat for 4 days and was sitting on the bottom of the cage, not even on his feet, I took him back. I was so happy to hear they'd take him straight to the vet. We hear such awful stories about the treatment of animals in stores and mills. When I called back later the manager told me the vet thought he'd make it and it was mites that were the problem. She said she'd put my name on him when she got him back so I could rebuy him. Then she took ALL the canaries for treatment. This was at PetCo so they really do take care of the animals.

Because I missed him after I took him back to the store I made a Zentangle with him. Now that I've got him back I made a journal page that I had pre-prepped with paint, about him. The zentangle is there rather than his picture. Now that I think about it, I should have had both picture and zentangle. Oh well, I guess I'll have to do another page sometime.

By the way, he is doing great now. He's hopping all over the place, eating the veggies I put in the cage and his seeds. He's even done some chirping. Cross your fingers he stays this way!

Helena ( Creating a Likeness )offered to make me some photo corners and I thank you for the offer Helena. As you can see, I made a couple for this picture and they are much larger than the punch cuts out. I appreciate your offer so much though.

Doves

I've made a new collage page for my journal. I found the feather yesterday. I hesitated in reaching for it in the midst of a few bushes since I've seen two rattlesnakes this year in my garden areas so far but I didn't see any so got it and put it in my journal.

I sure wish I'd known about this kind of journaling back when my kids were little. Back then they had baby books but that meant answering the questions in it and adding pics and that didn't work for me. I didn't like the questions and couldn't afford the pics - that was before digital cameras which I consider to be one of the top inventions of our time. So, many memories are lost from that time but I hope not to lose all of my present days.

About Time Eh?

Yes it's about time I posted here! I went to California to be with family which I do several times a year. This time I just got so busy I didn't even get online for a long time!

We went to our granddaughter's ballet recital where she had a solo after taking ballet for only two months. She got to do a dance she'd made up before starting ballet and didn't know that was what she was doing! (She was in gymnastics for 3 years so I'm sure that helped).

We stopped first in San Diego to visit our son for his birthday and then went for an overnight to my sister's in Fallbrook where I picked up my new bedframe (my husband had his truck with him so could bring it home for me).

We went to the circus in Los Angeles as my husband was given that as a gift back in Feb. for his birthday.

Then up to Simi Valley for that recital I mentioned and then staying for my grandson's 16th birthday unparty. He didn't want the anxiety associated with a party so it was mostly family and a few neighbors and we kept up the unparty theme teasing him that we brought an ungift and so on.

My daughter took me shopping for the bath stuff I don't get here at home and for skirts that were on clearance at JCPenneys. I was down to only two very old skirts hanging in my closet so needed something.

And then it was watch the girls do this and watch them do that and journal with us Grandma and listen to this and watch us swim and play a game of pingpong with me and on and on. I had fun!

Finally it was a couple of days with my sisters and brother. The last time all of us were together was eleven years ago for our dad's dying and funeral.

Busy, satisfying and very tiring. Now I am home trying to get back into doing classes and catching up with everyone.

In the pictures I am wearing a blue t-shirt and a skirt at the beach and a purple t-shirt at my sister's condo she just moved back into (lucky her, she's back in the San Diego area). We range in age from 51 to 63. The journal page pictures were done mostly at my daughters in spare moments. I added the words to the borders page when I got home.

Beaded Flowers

I mentioned doing beading in my last post. These are some of the flowers I made. The pot is about 2" high and the larger daisies are not quite 1 1/2" across. I also made some roses but they are not in an arrangement yet so I'll share them later.

Art Everyday

During Laure Ferlita's Foundation To Journaling class I made a calendar page. Everyday during July I put a red circle around the date if I did anything artwise. I also wrote down the main thing I did. I managed to do something everyday! It feels good to see every day marked off.

This month I probably won't be able to do art every single day since I'll be visiting family and doing lots of things they want to do but I will try to do as much as I can.

If you want to take her Foundations class you'll find a new one starting up tomorrow. Hurry over and sign up. It was a super class and you CAN do what she teaches. Really. Give it a try.

A Grateful Heart

While I was browsing blogs I came across a pretty picture with a quote I liked. It turned out the quote belonged to the blog author so I asked if I could use it for my journal. This is the page I made with it. Watercolor was laid down, some flowers collaged on and some penwork. Now I won't forget the quote. My word for this year chosen at New Year's was gratitude so this fit perfectly. You can see Jennifer Maroney's blog here.

Finished a Class

I've been taking another class. This class was called Foundations of Journaling and it was taught by Laure Ferlita. As you know, I've enjoyed some of her trip classes. Well this one was just as good! I've posted most of the pictures we did but not all of the exercises or pages. We covered a lot of ground and had a lot of fun. Again, this is another class of hers I highly recommend.

Now I am moving on to her Explorations class. She has room for a couple more people. See, she keeps her classes small so you get the attention you need. Why don't you click the Imaginary Trips button on my sidebar and see what is being offered. Hurry if you want in the class that is starting on July 20!

A July Challenge

Sarah at Curious Crow is challenging herself and anyone who wants to join her during the month of July by trying to do things to stretch and grow beyond just sketching in a sketchbook. I've decided to join her and the picture here is my first piece I've done. This is for day three. I would have done day two but it was to use the primaries and make a color chart. I've done a color chart which I will be posting about soon but it was for a class I took and since I just did it recently I didn't want to do another just yet. Day one was to add paint or collage to some of my journal pages just to present a challenge when I use those pages. The picture here has a piece of testing-out paper glued onto the page. It was sitting on my desk when I needed to add that collaging so I used it. Then I wondered how in the world I was going to incorporate that into a page.

So how did I do it? I used ink to draw my picture. I used some purple for flowers. I used the grid I had around the top red square in the window on my little adobe house which I drew from my imagination thinking about how it should look and using what I've been learning in watercolor painting with Laure Ferlita in her classes. I added some swirls to another corner and although all of that didn't fit that strip of paper in completely it no longer looks foreign either.

Why don't you check out Sarah's blog and see if you want to join in?

Continuing With Fake Journal

I know the Fake Journal month is long past but when I get an idea I am going to continue to add to my journal.

I was looking through my newest book I bought Drawing Lab For Mixed-media Artists by Carla Sonheim and I realized I bought it because I enjoy her fanciful, fake animals. Then I picked up my papers I was using for my fake journal and saw a bird on the top piece. So, I picked up a pen and doodled it out. It's a fake for sure so I decided to add it to my fake journal as an official entry.

Animals in the Desert

I rather enjoy watching the animals around our place. I saw these crows in the yard and wondered why they were hanging around - until I went out to water my apple tree. They had pecked apart every apple and torn off many of the branch ends! Couldn't they have just eaten ALL of a few apples and left everything else alone?

The bunny is so cute sitting in the shade of our tree. I'm sure he didn't expect to see me come outside with my camera but then they've surprised us a few times too. We now surround all new plants with chicken wire because the bunnies decimate them. They have even chewed off many lower branches on our oleander bushes but drop them when they realize they are poisonous. Once my husband opened his car hood to see why the car wouldn't start and there was a cute little bunny who had chewed the spark plug wires!

I still like watching all these animals. I don't know what to do about the apple tree. We built a garage to keep our cars away from the rabbits and rats. I have foil strips hanging from my tomato cage which is up on our porch away from the bunnies but evidently not the birds! I sure hope I get a few of the tomatoes.

Journal Page - Celebrate?

I was clipping words and pictures out of a magazine that I thought I could use for journaling and ended up making a quick page. I thought I'd share it with you. This is just some cut and paste work but is a lot of fun at times.

C is for Color

I got the new book The Journal Junkies Workshop. Using a few of their ideas I made this page. I've previously done a page for the letter A and have started (barely) one for B so I decided to do C here. Since this uses mixed media I decided to post it on this blog even though it is also on my drawing blog.

I used watered down acrylic for the watercolor looking background hoping it would somewhat seal the page. This is done on drawing paper and the paint was watery enough to soak the paper and bleed through to the other side almost ruining my page there. Adding watercolor pencil lines, I had to rewet the paper to blue them out. Then I let it dry and stuck with drier stuff like a photo I took of a flower in my daughter's yard and some butterflies from gift wrap. A little inkwork and I called it done at least for now.

I think my next journal will only have watercolor paper in it. I like painting on the 140# but it's so thick you can't get so many pages in a single journal. Could any of you tell me how 90# paper works for doing wet backgrounds concerning bleedthrough to the other side? I don't mind buckling as it flattens some when the book is pressed close.