A Few Things I Did....

Honest....I'm not still on blog break! It just seems that way. HB and I are still busy clearing out, throwing out and carting things to the thrift shop. There hasn't been much art going on around here and I miss it.

I did manage to do a couple of doodle papers....

I used paint and markers and some stencils and stamps on both of these.

They will eventually get torn up and used in some collage.

And now that I know my partner has received these,
here are two ATCs I did for a swap at Tam's ning site.
The theme was umbrellas.

My partner likes teddy bears so I had to do one!

That's about all the "art" I have to show you today. Tomorrow is our marathon grocery shopping day so I doubt if I'll get much done tomorrow either. Life just keeps getting in the way of my art making time!

Friday Art on Monday....

Did everyone have a good Easter holiday weekend? Did you eat too much chocolate? Oh, well, the Easter Bunny only visits once a year.

The last art I did was on Earth Day....after that HB and I began cleaning out closets and cupboards and throwing out stuff. I have a huge pile of plastic bags filled with clothes sitting in the dining room waiting to go to the thrift shop. How do we accumulate so much stuff!!!

Anyway, here's the journal spread I did for Earth Day....

The background began with leftover ink from a stencil. 

I just blotted it off on these pages.

Then I added some other stencil work, some patterned paper scraps,

stamps and a poem I found online.

I thought the soft blues and greens were good

for Earth Day.

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Last week I put down some clean brown paper on my work table....

It doesn't stay this clean very long!

These are two of the pieces I cut out of the old paper. 

I love using this as background for other art work.

It already has lots of layers happening....who knows what I'll do with it now!

From the Postcard Swap....

I've been waiting to do this post until I received all 10 of my postcards but I guess I'm only going to get eight. These are the ones I've received so far....

from Viv at Sew Much Progress

....this is fabric. And Viv was the only one who included a blog address. Thanks, Viv!

from Colorado....no name on this one

from Janice Arendt in Minnesota....

the part that says Beautiful swivels back to reveal the flower underneath.

from Kathy Stewart in Washington

from Tara Simmons in Minnesota

from C Wolfe in Minnesota

from 10 yr old Riley in New York

from Tracey in Canada
Don't you love that carrot cloud!!

Thanks to everyone who sent me a postcard! Most of my cards came from Minnesota. I only received one postcard from outside the US. If the other two cards ever show up I'll post them later. And a huge Thank You to Hanna for organizing this swap.

It's a New Day....

Thanks for all your comments yesterday....and for all the emails, too. I'm doing much better today. A good night's sleep works wonders!

Even though I had a bad day yesterday I managed to finish a journal spread that I had been working on. And it makes me smile when I look at it....I hope you like it, too.

I love the bright colors and the background.

I found this guy silhouette online and left him all black because.....

She is the center of attention!

I still have several more journal spread backgrounds finished from when I was on my break so maybe I'll get another one done today. Thank you again for all your comments. I read each and every one of them....and I try to respond but there are times when I don't get around to all of them. I apologize for that.

I hope you all have a great day. Hugs to everyone!!

Not Such A Good Day....

So far, I'm having a very bad day today. Nothing I want to talk about right now but it's causing me to be less than enthusiastic about blogging or anything else.

So I'll just show you another of my journal spreads and a few more ATCs.

I don't really shop at Macy's but it was the shortest name I could think of to put on the bag!

I thought about putting Michael's or Joann's but decided on Art Shop because I wish I had one close by.

These two ATCs were ones I drew quite some time ago.

I just added color to them.

This ATC background has been around for a long time. I added the flowers and words recently.

I hope to be in a better mood tomorrow....see you then.

More Easing Back....

Day two of easing back and here are a few more things I did on my break....

This journal spread came about in such a cool way. First I covered both pages with watercolor and then added lots of writing about being creative and about trying to find ways to stay creative. Then I took some patterned paper and glued down strips over the writing.

Then I decided to add some text and I reached out to a stack of pages I had torn from a book. I had planned to just tear random bits of text and use it but when I looked at the page it was so incredible that I had to cut out sentences and use them. The page I had randomly pulled out was titled Stoking the Fires of Creativity!!!

That was definitely a bit of synchronicity! So I just went with it. I haven't added anything more to the pages. Even thought they're a little plain I think I'm leaving them just as they are.

And here are a few more ATCs I made. Some were backgrounds I had done earlier and I simply added to them....

Be Brave

Love this little bird cut-out....

The background of the one above is a bit metallic so it doesn't scan well 

but in real life this one is very pretty.

And I did another postcard....can't seem to stop although I'm not doing the girls so much right now.

This one was done with some stencils, markers, and colored pencils.

Just doodles....

Thanks for stopping by for a visit. I'm slowly making my way around Blogland again. If you haven't already seen me you will soon.

I'm Easing Back into Blogland....

I've been gone awhile! It was fun taking a little blog break. I just relaxed and did whatever I felt like....no pressures, no blog posts to write, nothing scheduled. Some days I didn't even turn on the computer. It was heaven!! But I did miss all of you and I wondered what was happening in Blogland. Even so, I made myself stay away because I've found that when I read too many blogs (and I do read a bunch of them!) it all gets jumbled up in my mind and there's no room for my own thoughts and ideas, and no time to make art.

I kept busy in the studio....not with anything huge or spectacular but just little things to keep me creating each day.

Here are a few of the things I did....

A journal spread called Girlfriends

I have since journaled on these pages

I also did a few ATCs....

The one above looks much better in real life because the paint is a bit metallic.
It's sort of a re-do of an ATC I started quite some time ago.

The one above has dimensional flowers and a button on it. It's made from some of 

the background paper taken up from my worktable.

I did this postcard using part of a transfer that didn't turn out, some pages from a magazine 

and the crow image was from Google Images.

That's just a little bit of what I did while I was away. I'm going to ease back into things so you might not see too much of me over the next few days but I'll eventually make it around to see everyone again.

I will also be posting about the postcards I've received in Hanna's swap. So far I've received seven.And only five people have let me know they received mine. I made sure to put my email on each card but apparently some people haven't used it....thanks to those people who did respond. I appreciate it so much. My mother taught me to always acknowledge any gift I received whether I liked it or not. It's only common courtesy. I have emailed each person that included an email address on their postcards. Only one that I've received didn't have an email address on it. So Riley if you read this, I got your pretty postcard....thank you!!

Okay, that's it for today. Over the next few days I'll be posting more of the art I did on break. Until then....have fun and remember to smile at someone today.

My Most Recent Creations....

Today I have a couple of things to share with you and then I think I might take a little break from blogging. Not too long but just long enough to re-charge my creative batteries.

As you can see from the journal spread below, I've been doing a lot of thinking about art and what it means to me. I'm also not happy with the fact that I don't seem to be growing in my art. I'm doing a lot of stuff but it's all something I've seen someplace else. I know....I've talked about this before.

I read this article and it really got me thinking. That's when I created this journal spread....

What is it with me and all the blues and greens lately!!

This is a close-up of the left side....

And here's the right side.

I'll probably do a little more journaling on these pages but for now this is where I left it.

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Recently Lee and I have both been talking about a project we were doing. We agreed to pick one of the projects from Art at the Speed of Life and then both of us would do it. I chose the project on page 63 and we each did it. Being me, I didn't follow the directions completely! Here's what my project looks like....

I tried using a sheet of red paper behind it in the photograph 

because my work table has so much paint on it!

I did one of my favorite techniques for the background. It's one I learned from Gary Reef.... 

it has a peeling paint look which I love.

The dress is made from toilet paper....yes, that's what I said! Toilet paper!

I used a piece of mesh drywall tape along the bottom and attached a small frame. Inside it has the definition for "gown"...."dress" had already been torn out of my dictionary and used.

And just so you know how much I love peeling paint, this is my Google background....

That's all for now. You may not see me around Blogland for a few days....don't forget me! I'll be back soon. And I hope I'll have lots of new art to show you.

My Mess of a Worktable....

Since this is Wednesday and many of you do something called What's on your Workdesk Wednesday I thought I would show you my mess....er, I mean my worktable. It's really getting beyond workable so I think today is going to be "stop everything and clean" day.

Is that a mess or not??

You might be able to see that I'm working on another journal spread there in the midst of the mess. There's barely enough room for the journal. And what is it with me lately....I seem to be gravitating towards blues and greens all the time. 

Most of this mess is left over from the wild postcard-making sessions earlier last week. I thought my production line would help but obviously it didn't!

Okay, clean up and maybe something creative later in the day. It's gloomy today so I'll keep busy inside.

More in My Art Journal....

Today has been another "no postcard" day....at least, so far. And not only have I not made any new postcards I haven't received any more from the swap. But it's still early. I am a little concerned about the ones I mailed out. I sent all mine out early and I've only heard back from three of the people that they're received my postcards. If the postcards for Serbia and Israel arrived already it only stands to reason that the ones right here in the US should have arrived too....but no response.

As for what I did do today....another journal spread! I haven't worked in my art journals for several months and all at once lately I've been doing something in them almost every day. But that's how I operate! I never stay with anything too long.

You can tell how messy my worktable is....there's just barely enough room to open my journal and that's all!

Wonder why I put images on her face? Didn't mean to do that! I was using some rub-ons and one accidentally stuck right on her nose! So I added a couple more to make it seem more natural. Didn't work! But that's okay....that's what happens with art journals. Mistakes are part of the "art"....

This page may get some more writing later on  but for now I'm finished.

So that's been my creative contribution for today. Just as the page above says, the afternoon is my slow time so I think I'll go read a good book.