Art is good for the brain.

Art makes you more observant. Leonardo da Vinci said, “Painting embraces all the ten functions of the eye; that is to say, darkness, light, body and color, shape and location, distance and closeness, motion and rest.” Creating art helps you learn to “see” by concentrating on detail and paying more attention to your environment.


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Colorful Tag

Challenge for this was to make something colorful. Use the neons if possible. I love birds so I decided on this colorful little tag.




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First video

I made a short video on the Gelli Journal I finished this weekend and posted yesterday. I've watched a lot of videos on artists showing the finished project or how to tut's. I thought I'd give it a try on this project. I had to hold my Ipad in one hand and try to turn the pages with the other one. It's not as easy as they all make it look. When I reached for a couple of products I wanted to show, the video picked up the sounds of my moving. Sounds like a train coming through. I don't have a way of editing this video, so I'll just post as it was filmed. I'll be able to look back at my first video and laugh. If you can't laugh at yourself, what's the point? At least I'll have a record of the completed journal.

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Handmade Gelli Journal

I made this Journal using the top lid of a Krispy Kreme box. The inside pages are all created with the gelli plate. I like it so much that I probably won't even alter the pages inside, at least for awhile.








The texture on the covers were created with wood filler, stencils, paint, varnish, sanding between layers and then a final seal using Dorland's cold wax medium. The signatures were bound with a pamphlet stitch. The beads from my stash were added as a decorative element.



A couple of examples of the inside pages. There are three signatures with seven (8 1/2 x 11 inch) folded pages in each signature. That comes out to 86 different half page surfaces to either continue to alter or enjoy. Right now I'll probably leave them as is and just enjoy. The designs that you can achieve with the Gelli plate are so pretty that sometimes it is hard to even consider doing something else to them.
This was a lot of fun to create and done over a period of time.
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Mail Art Swap

Joined a mailart swap. The theme was use one color. So I decided on pink. You could use white and black also. Mailed off my little pig today. I hope the recipient enjoys her.




This is the comment from the girl that received her mail art. "Hi! I received my mail art today, too! Well, actually, it may have arrived sooner, but I just went to get the mail today, so it was a great surprise! It's so colorful, and I love the texture! Thanks for all of your hard work. Yes, it's funny we both chose pink! Great minds think alike! Haha!".

Of all the colors to choose from in the color palette, we both chose pink. Thought that was kinda funny.

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Day at the Beach

This AJ page was inspired by a background page I did earlier this summer on book paper with paint swirls. Sorry I didn't remember to take a picture before I got started. Today when I looked at the background it reminded me of water. Using a picture I took of my daughter earlier this summer at the beach as my inspiration I created this page. I was sitting behind her on the beach and thought this would be a cool angle for a photo. I did change her hat to something from my imagination. It was done with more book paper pieces and painted with heavy body acrylics. I love my little seagull. He has such dimension I feel like he's going to fly off the page.




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Today's Bounty

Today's bounty! What a busy day this has been. I made a dozen banana blueberry muffins, two loaves of zucchini bread, froze eight 2 cup bags of shredded zucchini, roasted a pan of cherry tomatoes, and made 15 cups of tomato sauce. Now I have 5 frozen bags ready to use for spaghetti, pizza, chili or lasagne. I also had two pints of tomato juice to put in the refrigerator for this week.

The roasted cherry tomatoes were so good. I toasted a Hawaiian sweet roll and topped it with flavored goat cheese and the roasted tomatoes. I think I'll make a pizza with the rest of the roasted tomatoes this week.

All the zucchini and tomatoes are from the garden. I am tired but will be glad this winter when I enjoy the summer bounty.



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Farmer's Market

Watercolor sketch of imaginary trip to the Farmer's Market. I love to go to our local farmer's market. I love all the fresh veggies, fruits and breads. They have a wonderful selection of flowers and plants. We have a large one and you can find about anything you want.




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Jeanne Oliver Course sale

If you want access to some great e-courses then go to Jeanne site. Great sale on her courses through today. I highly recommend. Also having a great giveaway.
http://jeanneoliverdesigns.com/blog/2013/07/15/i-want-to-celebrate-with-you-huge-giveaways-and-sale/

Rainy Day Fun

"Children will not remember you for the material things you provided, but for the feeling that you cherished them."





We played with paint this morning. She painted a dozen masterpieces.


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Rainy day at the farm

We spent last weekend with our friends at the farm in the mountains of Virginia. It was a rainy day on Saturday so we just enjoyed the rockers, the birds and the view. These two quickly painted watercolor were done to remind me of the day and the sheer joy of spending time with dear friends.







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More pages for handmade journal

I added some pages to my handmade journal. At the suggestion of a friend, I documented how special some of the features of this journal are to me.
















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Handmade Journal

I handmade this journal. I used the covers from an old hymnal that I altered.

The cover: I cut out a niche in the front cover to place the gelli printed girl. The binding piece is an old paint brush with beads wired around the handle. The binding fabric I used is from a negligee I received as a wedding gift so many, many years ago.

I made the frame out of pieces of cardboard I cut with my Cuttlebug and dies. I covered them with molding paste and aged with paint. I also used some lace pieces given to me from a friend.

The crystal piece on the bottom of the frame is a crystal from my mom's old chandelier that had been ruined in hurricane Bonnie. The jeweled piece for a closure is from my grandmother's broken earring. Since neither my mom or grandmother is still alive, both of these pieces make the journal mean even more to me.

The papers: I cut pages from various types of papers. They were old book pages, used envelopes, water color paper, music pages, library cards, tags and anything else I could find to use if it appealed to me.

One of the pages is a color copied portion of a letter that my father wrote to my grandmother when he was stationed in the Pacific during World War II. You can see the edge of the letter in the picture.

Many of the pages have already been gelli printed and ready to use. Some of the pages have already been completed.

I'm very excited to work in this journal. I love so many things about this journal. It makes me smile every time I pick it up.
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Supporting the mixed media economy

I heard this today and decided it fit me like a well worn shoe. "I've had many , many years of SELFLESS spending to help support the American economy for the mixed media world.". Did you see I emphasized the word "SELFLESS"? Yes, I'm a true patriot!
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Findings and Trinkets Challenge

Marianne from PAO inspired me to try a Finnabair technique. So I looked at her tag video again and attempted to make a tag sort of like hers. Learned a few things that would make it better next time. First picture is how it looked before the spray, spray, spray process. I should have let the spray layers dry a little more before adding more. Oh well.







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Indian Princess

Did another two pages in the journal. Drying time again. Just couldn't get the shine out of the picture but will be gone once it's dry. I'm really liking the journal. The background started out as a gelli print. This is in the challenge journal.




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Challenge Journal

I did this little journal to practice one of the binding techniques. It is the Coptic binding technique. This binding is done with dental floss. It was a little slick but I wanted to try the technique. I have some heavier and better binding thread for the next journal. This one began as a practice journal, but is coming together very nicely.

The cover was gelli printed and then I used the same stencil with some tinted molding paste for texture. Every page is gelli printed. There are 18 pages so I'm not taking pictures of all of those pages.





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Front and back of challenge journal

Here's the back and front covers of the journal. The whole journal is gelli printed. The cover is on the right side of picture. It is opened out for drying. I may go back later and add a quote. Haven't decided yet.




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Altered box

I was cleaning the other day and came across my Gypsy box. I needed another straight edged box to hold inks and thought this would be perfect. The bottom has a divider. I altered the bottom with gelli printed deli and tissue printed papers. Covered with gloss medium. I will do the top the same way and use for something else. Recycle and reuse!

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Walk by Faith

AJ pages using gelli print background and sentiment. Her dress and hat is also a gelli print. Saw this quote posted by a friend and decided I wanted to use it in my art journal with this girl.

"She is one of those people with a bright smile on her face, a light spring in her step, and a true sweetness in her spirit. Walk by faith."


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AJ journal challenge

Ok, so this is my first attempt at a page following the directions in our PAO challenge. You just can't hurry the drying. I probably would get a very different effect I had waited between stages for the drying. But a gal has got do to go what a gal has to do. I don't have much time to play so I just went for it. Pam said if we like it then it's alright. I am satisfied with the result. BTW, the background started as gelli prints.

The paper across the bottom is from a color copied letter my dad wrote to his mom during WWII while he was in the Pacific.




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Altered Tin

I altered a tiny altoid tin. I used the alcohol inks on the tin, the wooden flower and bird. I added lace from an old pillow case my grandmother made when I was young. Inside I lined the bottom with fabric. It's a perfect size for rings or earrings.







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Washi Tape

Art Journal page using washi Tape as part of a challenge.
I love the quote "Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander".




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Awesome Pig

The background pages are gelli prints and I glued them into my journal. This particular journal is an old altered book. I copied the pig in b/w from the original canvas I painted before I gave to my GD, knowing I'd want to use again at some point. Since the background is so colorful, I wanted to show the gelli prints and I did the rest in b/w. I found this quote on Pinterest and thought it perfect for the page. "Weird is a side- effect of Awesome".
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1960's

We had a challenge over on PAO for the 1960's decade. I chose to do an Art Journal page using the psychedelic colors of that era. It all started with a background that I didn't really like and a piece of scrapbook paper that had green flowers that reminded me of the 60's. In the finished piece you can't see either of the two things but the were the bases of the design. I depicted and journaled some of the things that were significant during that era.
I really love the Volkswagen bus coming out of the psychedelic starburst. That's my favorite part of the page.

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