art journal every day ~ december 6, 2013

i had decided to share some of the background work that i've been doing within my art journal pages today and then as a last minute (much needed) diversion i took my background image into photoshop and created a digital art journal page with it.


the top shot is of the backgrounded page and is a piece of cardboard from a cereal box that has been painted with a white acrylic paint.
i added:

• a piece of calendar page
• a white paper doily
• dylusions spray inks
• a stamped image/sepia & light green ink
• lots of glue 

i'll keep adding to the page but for now . . .  

this is the digital art page. i added several layers of my own photos and textures. i played around with the colors, opacities and just generally had a good time immersing myself in the process.
it turned out a bit dark but i think i still like it. at any rate, it felt good to create without any other purpose in mind.


i am linking up with  Art Journal Every Day at Balzer Designs . 
the very talented Malita Bloomer of Artful Fancies by Malita Bloomer is guest posting today and i can hardly wait to see the pages that other art journalers have posted.
feel free to link over and see some of the mixed media eye candy for yourself.


i do have some stitched goodies to share but they will have to wait until another day.


recent gifts include:

• good friends happily sharing their smiles and time
• warm wooly socks on my feet
• the generosity and kindness of other bloggers
• surprise packages in the mail
• long chats with my mom and daughter over the thanksgiving holiday
• the (always reliable) comfort of creating

wordless wednesday

Art Journal Every Day and my art journal page #1

i have been playing around with digital art journaling for a while now but i finally decided to get out my paper, glue, scissors, etc. and create a page the 'old fashioned' way.

 

 

 

what do you think~!?

i will be using quotes as jumping off points within my first pages and am looking forward to binding them together in some artistic presentation (when i get that far).

this page is created on a lightweight cardboard base (cereal box).
some of the supplies/techniques that i used:

• newspaper
• water color ~ paints & pencils
• paper napkins
• various found images & words
• lace
• some stitching
• micron pen
• lots of glue

this page was put together bit by bit over the course of a couple of weeks and inspired by my love of gardening.
i've enjoyed making art journaling a (mostly) daily habit during this time and i hope to keep it up. with that in mind i found a group of like minded souls over at  Balzer Designs. Julie Fei Fan Balzer has an "Art Journal Every Day" link-up on fridays and i'm going to jump in today. if you're a fan of mixed media art and/or art journaling you might want to check it out and join in too. today she has three fabulous short video's to share not to mention what surprises you will find if you visit some of the other artists links.


i also had the time to create a digital art journal page using a crop from a photo of this cut and paste journal page:

so looking above you see 'before' and below you see the 'after' the digital magic page.

would you share with me which one you like the best: the digital page or the one that i created with lots of glue? any particular reasons why?
i had fun making both. different skills and supplies needed and different surprises within the processes.

as always you should be able to click on any of my images and see the details in a larger size if you wish to do so.

slow sunday stitching

digital art journal work/play

i created a texture from a photo that i took of one of my beautiful vintage tablecloths and then i blended in another layer consisting of a cropped bit from a shot of one of my fabric postcards . . . still playing with this page but i thought i'd share what i've done so far.

this a.m. i've woken up to a grey sky but rather than snow falling we have light rain. perhaps . . .

i've decided to link up with Kathy at Kathy's Quilting for slow sunday stitching today.
i am seeing the last few stitches into the binding of my 'Abundance' doll quilt. 

i should be able to get a label onto it later today and then give it a bath. i like to see the puckers that washing and drying give to my quilts.
stay tuned, i'll show it in it's completed glory in my next post.

be sure you check out what else is being stitched on this stitchy sunday.

recent gifts include:

• watching the snow slowly melt and thinking about the flowers that are beginning to awaken down in the soil. i may not see them yet, but i know that they stir upwards.
• hearing my wonderful daughter's voice on the phone as she tells me about her days
• the taste of dark chocolate

a very belated happy new year

hello all.
i've finally returned from my long holiday break which was filled with all of my favorite things: family close by, good food, relaxed chatter, laughter, love and lots of quiet time. 

i've achieved a lot with the cleaning and organizing during the past few weeks even though i have had to take it at a continually slowing pace . . .
there will have to be a break from that for a while as i have another hip surgery scheduled for early in february. this time i get a new left hip and then, hopefully, i'll be as good as new. 
during my recovery time i'll be doing several small stitch projects and although blogging and internet contact will probably be sporadic i do hope to be around.

due to my slow start into the new year and the current issues to be gotten through i have decided not to challenge myself this year with anything more than enjoying the moment and healing.
that being said, i do hope to maintain my priority of stitching at least a little bit every day and will share the results of that as i have something to show. mostly i'm going to attempt to work steadily forward on small things that need finishing up and occasionally i may jump in now and then with a mini challenge.  i've begun a personal digital art journal using photoshop and i'll share pages from that on my blog from time to time. i do still have an interest in following along with the Photo Art Friday group but for now i'll be contributing only sometimes.
this week at Pixel Dust Photo Art the optional theme is to create a piece of photo art that is minimalist. i've cheated a bit and used a photo (and haiku) that i posted on my blog in january of 2010. the shot fit the theme very well so i will be linking up to share it.
this photo was used straight out of my digitalelph camera (the only one i had at the time) with only a slight crop.

 a white world revealed

bright cleanliness; a clean start

cold revelations
 

at the beginning of the year Photo Art Friday's optional theme was to share a piece that featured a word that i chose to guide or inspire me for the year 2013. i was so excited because i had already chosen a word (receive) and i had even just finished creating a digital art journal page using it~!~ but when i attempted to post it Blogger was having issues with photo uploads. dang it~! i tried some of their work-around suggestions but without any luck so i'll share that with you now.
btw: i'm really glad Blogger is working properly again. 

 

this digital art journal page was put together using only my own photographs and artwork.

i've chosen the word "receive" as my word of the year. i hope to learn to receive both the good, as well as the challenging, as gifts. it's all about learning to see that  what i've been given isn't always about the good. sometimes it's about learning something valuable from the challenging . . . or remembering that what may seem like a burden in the present moment may not seem that way in hindsight . . .
i will be open to what this word has to teach me in the year 2013.

since i couldn't do posts of my own (and apparently other bloggers could), i enjoyed lurking catching up on some of what was going on elsewhere. when i checked up on Lori at Humble Quilts i discovered that she was doing a mini doll quilt-along and decided to join in. i'm going to need a few small pieces for fundraiser donations this year so thought this would be a great way to get a start on those.

this is my first step of the "abundance" quilt-along all finished.
i didn't stick to the colors of the original antique doll quilt or those that Lori used. i just chose from scrap pieces that i had enough of for each part of the quilt.  



 

this is the postcard that i made for the wonderful daughter for the month of december. i have also finished with the january card and will be posting it soon.

 

 

i'm currently seven stitches behind with the TAST project/challenge from Sharon B's Pintangle blog, but have every intention of jumping back into  it soon.  okay, maybe not actually jumping but definitely sitting (nicely on a cold pack) with hands ready to stitch.

 

 

 

 

recent gifts include:

• watching my granddog Suki run spinnies (you know, when the dog runs around like her butts suddenly caught on fire) round and round the yard at full speed with a big lolling tongue sort of smile on her face.
• watching a flock of geese come (almost daily) and nibble on the golf course grass that is exposed under the trees . . . they seem to be making a habit of this.
• creating a pot of ham and mixed bean soup to enjoy on a cold winter night

 

 

click on digital 'page' to enlarge