Thursday, June 30, 2011

Playing around with fabric journal pages



Today I experimented with making fabric journal pages and used my eyelet tool for the first time.  I'm super excited about making a journal that combines photos, fabric, and typewritten words....but need to spend more time experimenting so that it looks less sloppy!

52 Lists-- Weeks 2/3 and my new beloved type writer

Today I was downtown and decided to stop into a used bookstore where it was rumored that the owner liked to collect and sell old manual typewriters.  I fell in love with this tiny, teal typewriter.  I've been wanting one for a while so that I could add typed writing to my art journals without having to use my computer.  Just need to get some new ink ribbon for it, but it works in the mean time.  Other things I did while downtown today included:  taking the bus with Jamie to the Y and taking my first ever Pilates class, going out for lunch to Cafe Japon where I had a grilled veggie crepe and a chocolate croissant and green tea, exploring a few clothing/art boutiques, and splurging on chocolate-cherry turtles from the cherry store.  Yum! 


Here are lists for the 52 Lists project.  Week 2 is "things I learned from my dad" and week 3 was supposed to be things I learned from a place I visited....but I adapted it to be things I learned while traveling as a single mama!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

New Journal

Yesterday I finished making a new journal using leftover watercolor paper from an art class that I took, paint that I already had on hand, and an old belt that my son put in the Kiwani's Sale donation bag.  It's like one that I made before, only this time I tried sticking to one color scheme.  I can't wait to start filling it up!



"Pool"


My sister is getting married this summer.  She has 2 different colors of bridesmaids dresses:  "Tealness" which is a darker shade of teal and "Pool" which is a lighter shade of teal.  When I told my sister that I changed the color of my living room from "tealness" to "pool", she got it.  I love both colors, but this color for a wall makes the room much brighter and I'm so happy that I'm on Summer Break and have time for such creative projects.      I also spent some time re-organizing my craft corner and trying to make it look less cluttered.






Art Journal Workshop



On my reading list for this summer is Traci Bunker's The Art Journal Workshop and so far I have tried one of the art journaling prompts.  I'm noticing an unintentional recurring color scheme....

52 Lists Week 1


There is this fabulous blog that I found called (I think) "On the brink...of Something Beautiful."  She launched a project called 52 Lists in 52 Weeks, with weekly listing prompts for those of us who get motivated with writing lists.  Even though I'm already a few weeks behind...I'm planning on catching up this week and I'm so excited about getting weekly journaling prompts!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Flower Journal

Here's a page from an art journal binder that I'm working on that will be filled with flower imagery.  I had fun just playing around with paint, collage, words until I ended up with something that I liked.  Art Journaling is very therapeutic for me.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Creative Wildfire



This is a new art journal that I recently started.  It was a free journal that came with the book Creative Wildfire.  I decided to jazz up the cover with some paper/fabric/photo collage which included a napkin from my cousin Amy's wedding, fabric from Forever 21 boxer shorts that were (sadly) too small for me, and a photo of a flower that was blooming in my garden a few weeks ago....

Gratitude List


Today I am grateful....that it's a beautiful and sunny day, for the gift of solitude, that my allergy medicine works and doesn't knock me out, for the inspiration that a brand new month brings, for time to catch up with things, that Summer Break is almost here, that I get to teach Kindergarten, for inspiring books to read, for the smell of lilacs, for Katherine's Mixed-Media Paper Arts class that I'm taking this summer, for African Dance class at the Y, for my family, for my cats, for iced herbal tea with fruit slices in it.....

All Filled Up



Here are some photos of the last art journal that I completely filled up.  It doesn't happen often, since I tend to work in multiple art journals at the same time and have a whole bunch that are started.  I'm loving this type of journal and also the fact that it doesn't have that many pages.  A nice sense of completion....