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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Pop Culture's Conscience

I saw this shared on Facebook this morning and immediately thought of the pop culture challenge. What is more pop culture today than Facebook? Bill Cosby is saying what I think so many times when I read some of the posts. The title is "Pop Culture's Conscience".

I wanted it to be sort of plain so that the words would stand out and speak for themselves. I had done the background on Friday. It was doing a faux wood grain crackle using glue and gesso, then distress stain. I liked how it turned out and wanted the background to show in whatever I decided to put on the page. The two ideas seemed to fit each other.

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Be You

An AJ page just for fun. Quote " Be the You of your SOUL". I think she has soulful eyes and wild hair. I like her!
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Quote

Messy fingers,
Happy mind!


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Paris Dream

I'm working on making a journal using the front and back from an old book. For the inside I am working on the pages to be included. Some of the pages will just be backgrounds, some will be finished. I will have to bind it since all the pages are loose. This is one of the finished pages from a quote I saw and liked. The page just evolved from there. I used some of my gelli prints in this one.

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Penelope and Petunia

I created these mom and daughter tag dolls to hang out at my art table and keep me company. They are supposed to keep me from getting into trouble but don't think they're doing a very good job.

I was influenced by the doll swap and the April TIME lottery theme to create these dolls. The mom is Penelope and the daughter is Petunia. The tag bodies are gelli prints. I used the glittered glass technique on the body parts.



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AJ page play

I didn't start out this AJ page with washi tape in mind. I just started a background using acrylic ink and a straw. Added some molding paste with an ABC stencil and some black with a swirly stencil. As the background progressed it screamed for a bold word. So I decided to do the word LIVE using washi tape. Also some tape in other spots for accents. I just love it when a page comes together.


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