Another Month of Art Journaling....

When I looked at my blog this morning I realized I haven't been posting my journal pages for several days. And since this is the end of April I thought I better get them posted....plus I have a busy day today and not much time to write!

So here are the pages that will finish up this second month of my art journal....I can't believe I've kept this going for two months!

April 24


April 25

This has a freehand stencil I cut as the background.

April 26


April 27

Once again I had trouble with pens. I never seem to be able to write over paint like everyone else does! I have a box jammed full of every kind of pen known to man and I always have this problem.

April 28


April 29


April 30

Again with the pen problem!!!

Have some fun today!!

Addicted and Enabled....

Have you ever seen movies where one person has an addiction and all their friends seem to feed it? How they all enable that friend thereby keeping the addiction alive? And we always feel sorry for the addict because if not for their friends they might be able to kick the habit.

I have just such a friend!! She's feeding my habit! Look what came in the mail yesterday from my BFF Gail!







Don't you all feel sorry for me?! Isn't that just terrible for her to be feeding my addiction this way?!! I may never kick the habit now!!

When I opened the package and saw what was inside I just let out a big WHOOP and danced around the room. HB just stood there looking at me as if I'd lost all my marbles! Then I pulled all the lace out and started waving it at him and then he understood my excitement. I finally sat down and looked at each piece, actually drooled over a couple of them, and planned how I would use them in my next spray adventure.

Unfortunately that may be sometime next year the way things are going around here! We have had wind for days now and no let up in sight! Just so you know I'm not exaggerating here's a picture I took yesterday of a wind thingie I have on my patio....



This wasn't a wind gust....the wind was blowing like this the entire day and into the night. About the only chance I have of calm wind is just after dawn and then only for a little bit. So if I sleep past the window of opportunity there's no spray painting going on! And if I'm lucky to have a little bit of calm time to spray then I have to remember the sprinkler schedule so I don't end up a soggy mess along with my artwork. It's just hell having an addiction!!! Thanks, Gail, for feeding it! I love all the lace bits and pieces you sent. You can enable me anytime!!

Am I Crazy? Don't Answer That!!

A fresh new week is beginning and I've done it again! I've jumped in with both feet and put myself under the gun! Gary Reef has challenged us to do a piece of art every day for 30 days and I've accepted! It begins on May 1st. I'm already taking part (very loosely) in Leah's Creative Every Day challenge for the year, I've been keeping up with my art journal pages each day since the beginning of March, I'm doing Mary Ann's stencil class, and I have another class waiting in the wings....so what's one more challenge!! I said my word for this year is GROW and I guess I'm growing.

I did a small painting/collage on a piece of cardboard from a food box....


It was an experiment and I'm happy with it. The lower right corner is very texture-y....it is too a word!!

In Mary Ann's class this week we cut bursts of rays stencils. She uses them quite often in her art. Here are a couple of quickie samples of one of my stencils....




Both of these were just trying out new stencils. The circles and swirls are both new stencils I bought and wanted to test so I put them on the paper first. Then I cut my burst of rays stencils and decided to test them on the same pages. I like all of them plus I also have a burst of rays stencil that goes out in a circle like rays of the sun but I didn't spray it yet. We're still having quite a bit of wind and it was a challenge to just get these couple of tests done.

As for the Poppy Festival....we didn't go. HB got busy working on his "honey do" list and I didn't want to disturb him!!

Sunday Morning....

First off I need to take care of something....this is a note to all my followers. I'm really bad about paying attention to the details when I'm doing a lot of art. So if you are a follower and I haven't visited your blog (and apparently there are quite a few I've missed!) please be patient with me. Just this morning I noticed the number of followers had increased by quite a bit since the last time I looked. I don't mean to ignore you!! I appreciate you, and thank you for adding your name to my blog.
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This morning is beautiful....just a light breeze, blue skies, and cool. I've already been outside spraying and experimenting. HB is still sleeping. We thought this job was going to be a straight 40 hours a week....wrong! He's working four 10 hour days plus Saturdays. So he still only has Sunday off. We might go to the Poppy Festival today. If we go I'll take pictures and share.

Last week I did a few things I'm happy with. When I first started my blog I made a small collage piece that I found the other day. It was hideous!!! Shocking pink and glitter and just horrible. So I painted over it, added some cheesecloth scraps and this is what I wound up with....


I scanned this and it doesn't show the gold highlights, and it looks much duller than it is in person. It really has move vibrancy that this picture shows.

And these are some of my spray painting experiments from a few days ago.


Most of this is where I "printed" with the stencil after I used it. I liked it so I added the man's silhouette. I think it shows how busy he is....lots of stuff on his mind!


This is one where I was just testing out a couple of stencils I cut. The blue one in the middle is mostly freehand and the one in the upper right is one I cut from a picture.
That one is only a mask but I love it.


Another experiment....it's ok.


I woke up one morning with this one in my head! I wish I had used different colors but I still like it.


This one is my favorite. HB likes this one, too. I thought about putting something in the middle but he thinks it would spoil it. I was thinking of a very translucent red heart....maybe not!

Ok, that's all I have for today. I spent last evening cleaning my studio. I put down clean newspapers on the work table and put everything away. That'll last about five seconds once I get in there! I have a couple of larger things I'm working on and some new stencils I've cut but I haven't used them yet. We had a great stencil class this week. I haven't been able to do anything from it but hope to get something done later today.

If anyone is interested Mary Ann is offering this stencil class again in August. I can definitely recommend it!

Keepin' On....

I went to Joann's yesterday....had another one of those 50% coupons that was running out! I only bought some spray paint this time. And I got my favorite color....PURPLE!!!!

But no spray painting the past couple of days. It's been very windy. Cooler, which I love but with the cooler air came the wind. My wind chimes on the back patio have really been working overtime!

So since I can't show you any spray painting I guess I'll catch up on my art journal pages. I'm still doing them every day and believe me, that amazes me!

April 20

This is one of the stencils I cut the other day. I just love her! I remember dressing like this!!!! There's a lot of texture on the right side of the page but it doesn't show up in the scan.

April 21

This was one of those quickie days. I tried a stencil in the upper left corner but it didn't do too good. I like the image though.

April 22 Earth Day


April 23

This page had all the images on it and just sat there for quite awhile. Then I looked at the Priority 1 tag and thought....ME!! We all need to put ourselves as #1. Thank you, Oprah!!

Sprayin' in the Wind....

Usually the early morning hours are fairly wind-free, however this morning it was quite breezy. That really plays havoc with my spray painting! I did manage to get a few pieces sprayed before it got too bad.

The day before I cut 9 or ten stencils! Mostly silhouettes of people. I'm looking for a good silhouette of a man but haven't found one yet. A good silhouette man is hard to find!!

I cut this stencil and used it a few times....


I did this same picture in pastel colors....pink, blue, and lavender.


HB named this one "Leap of Faith"

These are more graphic....







I love doing these! I did several others but I don't think they're finished yet. I'll save them for later.

I hope you all celebrated Earth Day by doing something good for Mother Nature. She needs all the help she can get!!

Bein' Bad....Bein' Me!

Yesterday I was bad again! Or should I just say I was still bad!! I had to run a couple of quick errands for HB and since I was driving right past Joann's, and since I had a 50% coupon in my purse....well, I'm sure you know what happened! I found some beautiful lace and bought 1/2 yard of each, and they had some of their stencils on sale so I got a couple more, and I needed a new pad of Bristol....and while I was in that department I noticed canvas frames were on sale so I got some of those too. I think you get the picture!! When HB and I drive past Joann's or Michael's or Barnes & Noble's he always waves. He says he's waving at his money!

I have a couple of things to show you today. First of all, earlier I showed a picture of some "dragon skin" from my class with Gary. The original picture is on this post. After I got my automotive goo I worked on it some more and this is the result....


You can't tell in the picture but I took gold and just hit the highlights and it looks so cool. I also turned it vertical and like it much better that way. It makes me think of underwater and bubbles etc. I like it now!

I worked on another little piece that was inspired by two of my blogger friends.... Lila and Lia....


Lila for the pear and Lia for the squares! I'm not sure if it's finished yet but I love the colors.

And here are a couple of pages in my art journal that I did yesterday....


I like these pages sooooooo much!!

And this page was the result of another page....I was experimenting with some stencils and didn't like how it turned out but this page is where I used the paint left on the stencil and printed with it. I hope that makes sense. I just love how this one turned out....


It makes me think of tire tracks.

It's a New Week....

Did you have a good weekend? Did you have nice weather? If not, you may not want to read any farther! We had spectacular weather....on Sunday it was 80º in the shade! HB and I did some work in the yard and enjoyed the fresh air, the birds singing, and blue skies. Today they are predicting 93º here!

With all that good weather I still got some art done inside. Here are my most recent completed art journal pages....

April 16

This one says: be calm - live in the moment - meditate - live a good life

April 17

This was a page I had started a long time ago, and that day I was busy so I decided to finish it. Nothing special!

April 18

"Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls...."

April 19

"Imagine the life you dream of....and make it happen"

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Over the weekend I cut several new stencils. I showed you a couple of them Saturday....the woman walking and the yoga pose. Here is another one I like. It's on unfinished pages....


I can see this one used in so many ways....I'm very excited about it.

Then I took a copy of this drawing (I did this in the early 90's from a picture in a magazine) and cut a stencil....




I'm not so sure about how it looks. And I had to paint this in with regular acrylics because I ran out of black spray paint and didn't have time to go get anymore. Today that's at the top of my list!

Spraying in the Sunshine....

HB worked today and when I woke up this morning shortly after 6 AM I realized the wind was not blowing!! I threw on my clothes, gathered my things and headed out to the patio for some spray paint fun.

It was a gorgeous day. I think we got into the 70's today, sunny and bright and no wind until later in the afternoon. I was in heaven!

I have an old plastic table that I'm using for my spray painting....



Doesn't the grass look great! It looked so green this morning. You can tell it's still very early because I have lots of shadows but you can get an idea of where I'm playing.

Here are some pages in my art journal....none of them are finished....just have the spray paint on them....




This was a page I didn't like so I sprayed over it and now I like how it looks.





After awhile I decided to go inside and cut some stencils. Here's a couple I did....




This was a page that I did last week and I just added the yoga pose to it today.


I love this woman....she looks very strong and confident and she was pretty easy to cut. The purple page on the left was another one I didn't like so I sprayed over it, too. Don't get in my way when I have spray paint in my hand!! I'll spray anything!

I had so much fun....I hope you all had a fun day too.

Hello! My Name is Janet....

And I'm addicted to books!!! I had to get some milk this morning so I ran over to the new store that just opened....the one that just happens to be right next door to Barnes & Noble!! I couldn't go to one store and not stop in at the other....it wouldn't be neighborly! And besides I had a coupon from B&N so I HAD to use it otherwise I'd be losing money....right?



I bought the two books in front today and the one at the back is the one I bought just a couple of days ago. I had to get the "Journal Bliss" because it's by Violette and I love her blog and her art. "Creative Awakenings" was recommended by Kate so I bought it, too. I think I'll avoid B&N for a few days and see if I can't kick this habit! I don't hold much hope for that but you just never know!

I mentioned the other day that I had received an automotive product that I wanted to try since it's at the basis of much of Gary's texture and layering class. He has told us we can share a bit about what we did as long as we clearly state that this is a technique developed by him.... Gary Reef. So here's what I did....


This is a canvas board and I first glued down some textured paper along one side and the top. The piece of cardboard was inside the "Creative Paint Workshop" book. I took the end of a paintbrush and ran it up through the grooves of the cardboard and got a bunch of curly pieces that looked cool. I glued the cardboard to the canvas. Then I cut several moon-shaped pieces of cardstock and glued them together in a stack and glued it to the canvas.


Plain old aluminum foil went over most of the piece....smooshing it down into the crevices, nooks, and crannies.


Sorry the picture is so blurry but you can see that I just splopped paint on over the foil and the textured paper. In my mind I saw the grooves of the cardboard as tree trunks in a forest and all the curly bits at the top as the leaves on the trees! I know....I have a weird imagination!!!


Then the automotive goo goes over everything. When it dries use turpentine and spritz it on, wiping away as much as you want. It leaves a yummy rich, brown color in all those crevices, nooks, and crannies.

Unfortunately my end result is not something I like but you get the picture about how the process is done....


It didn't turn out like I had hoped and I don't like anything about it! See I even show you the goof-ups! But at least I was trying!!

And DARN!! It's still been very windy here so I can't spray paint. I'm just itching to wear my respirator, press that little nozzle and watch magic happen. But instead maybe I'll try some more automotive goo and see if I can come up with something I like better. The first couple of times I tried it, I loved the results. In case you missed them, you can see them here and here at the bottom of the page.

Now I'm off to go read these new books and learn lots of fun stuff!