Happy Mail, a Belated Link, and My Routine Two

I don't know where all my time is going these days...I think I've lost an hour or two somewhere and can't, for the life of me, figure out where...

I asked my friend Boo to be a part of the blog hop I was in, and HERE is the link to her post.  Boo's art is colorful, expressive, meaningful, and can so relate to the things she talks about on her blog.  I hope you will go check her out and tell her I sent you!

I'm still managing to get a few things done, as I have basically sworn a blood oath to myself that I will complete both JOURNAL 52 (J52) and THE DOCUMENTED LIFE PROJECT (DLP), and I am fighting tooth and nail to accomplish my goal!

For J52, the prompt was "Nature Inspired", and here's what I did:

"Fibonacci Sequence"

Now, there is a high probability that when you look at this page, you do not see it as nature inspired, aside from the little flower...  BUT, I assure you that you see examples of the Fibonacci Sequence in  nature every single day!  Seriously, it's crazy how many places it shows up.  If you want to learn more about it, here is a short little video:



And if you want to learn even more about Fibonacci and Lucas numbers and more, HERE is the link to  the video he mentions...(very interesting, at least to me, and I don't even like math or science...)  Or, just go google examples of the Fibonacci Sequence in nature...and you will see the seemingly never ending list, from flower petals to the night sky and many more!

Ok, I'm done geeking out on you...for now...

For DLP, the prompt was "use a quote from your favorite book", and here's what I did:

I actually cheated and used a quote from a book that I haven't read...but it is from a book and I REALLY like the quote...

I used Neocolor II"s for the majority of this page, as well as white acrylic paint and a brush-tip Micron.

"A story has no beginning or end, arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead."
-Graham Greene, The End of the Affair

This quote is the opening line to the book, and it made me start nerding out again...on multiple levels. It's just a good quote...it's solid...I like it.  But then I started thinking about it again in relation to the Fibonacci Sequence/mathy/nerdy things...

And what it made me think about was lines:

When you think of a line, you think of me...

But technically, you're whole life is a lie, and this is a line:

I have fancy arrows and that makes me better.

You see, the fancy arrows mean that the line goes on FOREVER!  A line has no beginning or end, it's infinite in both directions.  But, there's not enough paper to draw all that...so we get the image in the first picture, which is actually a segment.  Segments have a beginning and an end.  And, if you want to go one step further into dorkery with me, we have rays, which have a beginning, but no end.

So, to break it down, a line is like time; it's infinite in both directions.
A segment is like our lives.  We have a 'beginning' (being born), and an end (kicking the bucket).
A ray is like a vampire, having a beginning, but no end...unless he or she gets staked, and then I suppose they'd just end up being a longer segment...

And the point to that and how it relates to the quote is: where do our stories start and where do they end?  

If someone wants to know the story of how I met my husband, I could probably start out by saying 'I was living at the beach and...'  I'd say that's a decent place to start, right?  But did the story really start there?  I mean, I was born in Ohio and my husband is originally from Minnesota, how did we both end up living at the beach?  Everything in our lives, a bunch of factors, led us to being there at the time...why shouldn't that be a part of the story?  And why stop with there?  I mean, we wouldn't have  met if we had never been born, right?  So what's the deal with that?  What about our parents?  And their parents? And their parents...going on and on and on...

And if you're going to go there, when does our story end?  Presuming we are together until one of us dies, is that the end of the story?  Or if I die, and he doesn't, does the story go on until he finally goes belly up?  Or does it go on until the people we know are all dead?  Or until anyone who's ever heard a story about us are dead?  

I don't know, it was just some random thinking my brain pieced together from the quote and watching science-y/math videos.  My brain works weirdly.  But, hey, maybe you learned something...at the very least, you learned that you probably don't want to ask how I met my husband...unless you have a lot of free time...

At this point in the post, you are probably staring off into space just like this girl...

One totally awesome thing about my segment of time here is receiving mail art from friends.

Newspaper page in what I think is Chinese. (?) AWESOME napkins...I love the crow one SO MUCH!!!!

All of these goodies came from my friend Pamikins!

"Every moment in time is a gift and a blessing." ATC, card, and drywall tape.... I have been trying to find that particular type of drywall tape FOREVER, so I was possibly squealing with delight for five minutes straight when I saw it!

I am so excited by all the goodies, but especially this:

The GORGEOUS book that Pamikins made for me! (LOVE IT!!!)

And the inside:

Each page has pockets and it's own tag to go along with it!  I adore this book with an insane amount of adulation!

Thank you so much to my darling Pamikins for brightening up my day with the awesome care package!  

You all make this time segment worth living! <3<3<3

I Meant To Say...And I Fixed It"

I'm so super excited about my page for this week's Journal 52 prompt!  (You can read more about J52 HERE.)  The prompt was 'Love Letters', and I think I diverged from my routine a little bit on this one, and I REALLY like the result so much:

"You are all the words I meant to say but couldn't scribble them down before they slipped away."

In the beginning I struggled a little with what I wanted to put on the page...and then it hit me.  One of my goals for this year is to work on my hand lettering...and I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to practice...I mean, love letters...c'mon!

Because I am not the best with lettering, I used a piece of manila card stock to write out my quote (which is from a poem I wrote that can be found HERE if you want to read the whole thing).  It came out just right the first time!  ...I couldn't believe it either...  I wanted to make the paper look aged and like it had been read over and over...I got a little out of control with the Vintage Photo Distress Stain though, so the whole page is now brown...but that's ok, you can still read it!  I crumpled it up (after deliberating for a long time, because the writing was pretty good...for my skill level...but if you can make it once you can make it again, right?) and then used stamp pads to hit the high spots and make them stand out more.

Then on the watercolor paper (I've been using this as a base for all my J52 pages so far...and a lot of my other pages too...), I decided to pull out my Dylusions and used Vibrant Turquoise and White Linen colors mixed together.  An interesting thing happened...a happy accident, really.  I had sprayed the Turquoise first in a few spots and was going to spray the white into it right away, but had to go take the dog out (he insisted) and when I came back to the page, the turquoise had dried a lot.  But I figured they were water-soluble so they should still work, right?  And I sprayed the white over top.  What happened was these really cool areas where the turquoise sunk into the page and turned this grungy weird color...  I was a little disappointed at first, so I tried to cover it with more turquoise and white mixed and then dripped water in a few places...and it ended up being really cool and vintage looking.  I could never have figured that out if I was trying to do it on purpose!

When that dried, I stamped  all over the page using brown Stayzon ink and a stamp from Hero Arts called "La Letter"...and it was looking good!  Then I thought, what if I try to make it look older with some stamp pads (I mean, the ink box was already open...I HAD to!), and this time it happened like I wanted...(note to self: use stamp pads, not distress stain, for aging purposes).  

Then I wondered if I could make coffee cup stains on the page.  First I used Neocolor II's and they didn't give the effect I wanted...I almost thought I had ruined the page...so then I tried using brown India ink, drawing circles with a pipette to do it.  That was more of the look I was going for.  It didn't end up exactly how I wanted it to, but it has me going in the right direction, and with a little more practice, I think I can eventually get a really cool coffee cup stain.  But, even though it doesn't look like a coffee cup stain to me, it does look pretty cool!  When everything was dry, I took foam tape and stacked some pieces on top of each other in different thicknesses to attach the writing page to the background page.  I wanted it to look like somebody had just laid the note down and was coming back for it any minute...and it totally looks like that to me!!!  (Can you tell I'm excited by this page?)

Also, related to J52, I used a suggestion by my friend Pamikins to make some changes to one of last week's pages for the 'Abstract' prompt (it's SO much better now!):

"completely without meaning"
Thanks to Pamikins for the suggestion of adding words to the 'middle school art project page'...I also added thicker black lines, and I like this page WAY better now than I did before...It's still out of my comfort zone, but with the darker lines and the words, I no longer hate it!  I kind of like it more and more every time I look at it.  Thanks, Pamikins! <3

And then, related to suggestions for page fixing, I used a suggestion by my friend Patricia to change this page from last week's Documented Life spread...it was a little thing, but it makes a big difference to me:

Thanks to Patricia for the suggestion of adding something to the middle of the flower...I couldn't think of anything else, so I just did splatters with white and green india inks.  That small change made a BIG difference to me...It looks finished to me now, and I think that's what I was looking for.  Thanks, Patricia! <3

And then, I got some fabulous mail art from my friend, Cheryl, (Thank you, my Cheryl!!!) that I kept forgetting to photograph!  I finally remembered and here she is:

"What is true beauty?"
I got a surprise card from my sweet friend Cheryl with one of her gorgeous faces on it!  I love her so much (both Cheryl and the face she sent)!!!  I like how she just colors in parts and leaves white space...it makes me so happy.  And I love this gal's lips!

I am so happy with my J52 page for this week.  Out of my usual, ended up accidentally learning a few cool things, and got to practice my letter skills!  I always talk about how much my handwriting looks like a 12 year old boy's...and I notice a lot of other people aren't fans of theirs either!  What about you?  Do you like your handwriting?  Do you think you can have bad handwriting skills, but be good at hand lettering?  (I hope you can...or else my dreams will be shattered! haha)

A Gigantic Thank You or In Between Tissues

Last time, I think I mentioned that my husband gave me a cold, but that I didn't feel that bad.  Why do I always have to tempt fate?  The next day I woke up feeling horrible and wimpy.  Ugh.

So I got a little off track with my Morning Pages, but I'm going to play catch-up today and make it all better.  Before I do that, I'll work on my Journal 52 spread, which is not done either...but will be by the end of the day.

But I wasn't a complete slacker...oh no!  I farted around with some just-for-fun stuff instead...

Still trying to use up the less-than-desirable-papered journals, I made this owl and the pussy cat spread, mostly with Inktense pencils.  I thought the outstretched wings on the owl made him look like he was saying 'the fish was this BIG'...so I added that bit to the journaling.

My poor Gregg journal has been sorely neglected for far too long, so I made a double page spread in him...I got the idea for this spread from one of the Root prompts...basically 'what would your inner wise woman say?'  Apparently mine would quote Gloria Steinem: "Far too many people are looking for the right person, instead of trying to be the right person."  My inner wise woman would tell me that in order for change to happen, you have to change first...and that I should continue my quest to be the right person.  This spread is Inktense pencils, Pitt Artist Big Brush pens and washi tape.

Partway through the week, when I was my sickliest and wimpiest, I wanted to create but nothing good was happening...no inspiration at all.  So I decided to try somethings I don't usually do, like use stencils with acrylic paint and see what happened.  Not my favorite page by far, but it got the creative juices flowing...and led me to the idea of a journal specifically for doing things differently, or for when I don't know what to do.  I think it will be known as my Inspirationless Journal...as a play on Donna Downey's beautiful Inspiration Journals.  I had a little binder style scrapbook lying around that was a perfect place to keep such imperfect messes...

This page happened next, also in my new Inspirationless Journal, and I was much happier with the results of playing around this time.  The journaling part says "The heart keeps on beating and constantly reaching for something worth holding onto, something worth going through the thing that we go through." which is a line from a poem which you can read HERE in its entirety.

Then there's this face...or start of a face.  I tried something different for her eyes, and I really like how they came out...now if I can just convince myself to go ahead and keep working on her.  Mostly, I just look at this page and say 'your eyes...your special eyes...' over and over.

And lastly, there's this girl, done in Aquamarkers...she's very...I don't know...cartoony or something...she kind of looks like a muppet to me.  I waver between liking her and feeling meh about her...but like the cheek shading...

Most importantly of all, I want to say a BIG HUGE GIGANTIC ENORMOUS THANK YOU!!! to Jackie, my honey, for the two (TWO!!!) humongous (HUMONGOUS!!!) care packages she sent me!  My kitchen table was literally overflowing with goodies!  Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, Jackie!!!  There is so much good fun stuff that I just can't wait to get playing and arting with!  Squeal of delight!  SQUEAL OF DELIGHT!  Thank you so much! <3<3<3  You made me go from a sickly, wimpy, whiny mess to a shrieking, jumping, ball of happiness in 2.2 seconds!  Thank you.  :)

And on that EXTRA happy note, I am off to finish my Journal 52 page, get caught up on my Morning Pages, and then have a good play with my new presents!

Begin Again

Well, as you can possibly tell, I did not get to all the KIOS blog-a-thon posts.  I'm calling it a half marathon, as I did get to day 16.  So that's something, right?  Now I am gracefully bowing out and lying down at the side of the track while someone pours Gatorade down my throat because I need the electrolytes...  

But just because I've been a lazy blogger doesn't mean I've been a lazy artist...I have been a busy bee in that area indeed.  I've been piecing things together a little at a time, working on a lot of different things at once, but  I do have two things (TWO THINGS!!!) finished and ready to show you today.

In a moment of insane boredom...coupled with the fact that I needed a new bill calendar for 2014 and the fact that I REALLY did not want to go to the store...I decided to upcycle an old calendar I had on hand and made this:

Goodbye boring blank cover.  Hello pretty girl face cover!

I'm so stinking happy with the way her face turned out!  Doesn't she look all fresh and innocent and ready to face a new day and a new life?  *squeal of delight*  Wow, how much do I wish my face could look like that!?! ...and that my attitude could support that face!  My attitude wants me to go back to bed and sleep for a few days...and my face has pillow wrinkles on it and eyes glazed over with the mild confusion of someone who just woke up...hehehe...  But in my dream world, this girl's face is my face, and my attitude is looking forward to good things!  Slowly, I am making that happen, but it seems like I'm taking my sweet time getting there.  Can't I just have inner peace now?  Ugh! :)

Inside page of new (old) calendar

I cut out A BUNCH of scrapbook paper squares and glued them down on the old pages...then the decided not to stick (probably because I was impatiently trying to work on all the pages at once instead of letting one page dry and then going on to the next), so I covered them over with a gesso wash to make them stick together.  That worked, but, in the end, I could have saved time by being patient and waiting for the current page to dry before doing the next page.  I have learned my lesson for next time...probably...

Depending on laziness level, I may actually have a do-over bill calendar.  As you can see in the top picture (at the edges of the calendar), this book is a little disheveled.  The pages kept trying to fall out, so I had to tape them together, and now the book is really thick and I just don't know if I'm happy with it as a calendar.  But don't fear, if I do end up making another, the one I showed you today will end up being an art journal, so it won't be wasted!  I like that cover girl WAY too much to toss her in the trash can!

Ooh!  Before I forget, I got a really nice thank you card from Jen (you can check out her blog HERE), who was my buddy I sent a care package to for the KIOS swap.  She sent such an AWESOME thank you package...now I feel like a wiener that I didn't send a thank you to Sara, who sent me my care package that had an inspiring collage and some beautiful origami paper cranes (which caused me to have insane jealousy, because her folds were so PERFECT!)!

Here's what Jen sent:

Such a nice surprise!  I can't tell you how much I love the art card at the bottom right...that image makes me SQUEAL WITH DELIGHT!!!  AAAH...LOVE IT!!!  

Thank you for the lovely thank you, Jen! <3

In other news, I started reading The Sound of Paper (now known as SoP for the purposes of not having to click the underline button...)by Julia Cameron (the author of The Artist's Way).  My sister gave me this book a LONG time ago, and I started reading it and doing the exercises in it...then got distracted by shiny things (as is my tendency) and never finished.  (On a side note, I am really good at getting to the half-way point and then walking away...semi guilt-free.)  

If you are familiar with Julia Cameron, you know about morning pages, which are three hand-written pages a day about whatever you feel like writing about (in case you aren't familiar with them).  I guess to get the creative juices flowing...which (I think) is the point of this book (SoP) and possibly all her books...I don't really know...that's just what I gather from this book so far.

Anyway, one of the first exercises in the book is to create an  intuitive collage, where you pull various images that 'speak to you' (aka grab your attention) for whatever reason, without questioning the images, and make a collage with them.  Then write about the collage/analyze the images you chose.  I decided to make my collage on the notebook I planned on using for morning pages, and here it is:

I used the before-I-glued image, because the glue I used makes the images look really dark in photos...it looks just like this in real life, but take a photo, and it ends up super dark.  Anyway, the after-glue version looks exactly the same, but with neatened edges...

Not to get into it too much, the thing that surprised me about the collage was all the flower images I picked.  Don't get me wrong, I like flowers.  But they don't tend to be a recurring theme in a lot of things that I make.  And the magazines I used to make the collage weren't just full of flowers...most of the images of flowers came from ads in the magazines.  To get all hippy-dippy on you for a minute, it was like I subconsciously sought out the flower images.  In my mind, flowers are connected to growing, so maybe it's a mental pat on the back from me to myself for personal growth.  Or it could just be that I like flowers...

I don't know if I'll end up sticking with Julia this time or not...she's got a lot of hippy dippy, which I tend to be resistant to.  Although, because of art journaling, I'm learning to accept hippy dippy as it applies to me.  AKA subdued hippy dippy...which is basically learning to understand the principal behind the fancy, flowery, over-the-top wording of said hippy dippery.  I do know that it takes me FOREVER to write three pages worth of long-hand, so logistically, I can't see me doing morning pages everyday...I just don't have time for that/question my willingness to make time for that...but I've done morning pages three times so far and have already had a bit of a mental breakthrough (which I will probably end up sharing in another post), so maybe there is something to be said for making time for morning pages after all...

Now I'm off to make some art...or do morning pages...or eat...meh, I'm off to do something...

What's the 411?

Go HERE to find out more...

Today's prompt for the KIOS Blog-A-Thon is "Time Capsule"...capturing this moment in time by answering these questions:

1. What are you reading?

Blogs...I love being able to see what my pals are doing...meet new friends (hello, all my fellow KIOS-ers!)...and there's always something to get me inspired.  I am also re-reading (for the ten millionth time) The Collected Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay, who is my favorite poet and a total genius in my eyes...I love her and I could read her words every day for the rest of my life and still not get tired of her.  And I'm re-reading The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly.  A friend introduced me to his Charlie Parker series (which is great!) and then gave me The Book of Lost Things and it's different and wonderful!

2. What are you watching?

Art Journal workshop videos...yay!

 Donna Downey's Inspiration Wednesday videos on YouTube are always a good thing to have on in the background when I'm working (I love how she goes off on tangents...it's hilarious and it's good to know I'm not the only one...)

I just finished watching "The Vicar of Dibley" on Netflix recently (which is funny...oh English people...I love your comedy...) and am on the lookout for something similar to fill the void.

"Sleepy Hollow"...I've only seen two episodes and we DVR-ed the rest and haven't watched them yet...it's driving me crazy!

and "Person of Interest", which is also DVR-ed...

3. What are you listening to?

My Spotify stuff...always something new and interesting on there...

Spotify led me to find The Haunted Windchimes (that is a GREAT name!):

And Audra Mae (one day this song will become the inspiration for a fantastic art journal page...):

And on the way home from work today, I was listening to The Black Crowes, who are just classic in my eyes  (I love the line in this song "When you're up just remember I am down. Who's down?" I totally sing that as loudly and obnoxiously as I can every time I listen to this song...):

I feel like Chris Robinson (lead singer) is kind of a freaky weirdo...it makes me like him more...but if he is too freaky weirdo for you, enjoy this other song without his freakishness interfering:

I just love his voice...and the band...their lyrics are so good, and the way he sings them...I don't know soulfully or something...I love them.

4. What are you loving?

ART!  In my art journals, perusing art online, and in the form of mail art from my fabulous friend Pamikins:

Wonderful ATC!  I love that quote...fall is my favorite season!

And the four amigas from the Paperbox Playhouse! I'm very happy I get to be the black cat!  And I am so excited about the fibers on this...in my favorite color (green) no less!

Thanks my Pamikins, I love them!!!

5. What are you wearing?

Jeans, the best green shirt ever, a black hoodie, and in with the theme, my old school grey suede high top Adidas.  I am not a shoe person, but these Adidas make me fulfill me like no other shoe ever has...they make me understand shoe people at last...

6. What are you creating?

As always, I am in the throws of art journaling...the page that's on my desk at the moment is this one:

Don't know why I wanted a bunny, but there he is...in his incomplete glory...

I almost always have multiple pages going on at one time, he just happens to be the one I'm working on right now.  I'm also in the process of trying to use up some cotton yarn that I have in my stash, so I've been crocheting wash cloths for a friend at work, and eventually for my mom to (hopefully) sell at her little shop/booth.  Note to self, cotton yarn is not for me, despite the pretty colors it comes in...unless dishcloths happen to sell really well, in which case I may rethink that...

7. What are you looking forward to?

In my immediate future, food...I haven't eaten supper yet.  And, honestly,  I do always tend to look forward to food...   

I'm also looking forward to the 6th, which is my 10 year wedding anniversary...because there will be presents...bwa-ha-ha!  I go back and forth between not being able to believe it's been 10 years already and not being able to believe it's only been 10 years.  Sometimes (aka the days my husband is irritating the crap out of me) it feels like FOR-STINKING-EVER!  Today, it's leaning towards the "already?" end of things...it doesn't seem that long ago.  I'd like to also throw in there that it's hard to believe we haven't murdered each other yet...there are days, let me tell you... (haha...make sure you mention the 'haha' when the cops come asking questions...).  Egads, we were so young and stupid when we got married...we're still relatively young and probably still a little stupid...but we're WAY smarter than we started out being!  And we were so skinny!  I know, vanity, thy name is Sweets...  But I look at the pictures of our wedding day and wonder what happened to that girl...and then I remember I ate her...  Maybe one day I'll get back to that size...like when food stops being delicious...  I've already trapped a man, I don't have to be cute anymore...or shave my legs if I don't feel like it...that's a benefit of marriage no one tells you about...  Hehehe...

And the last thing I'm looking forward to tonight is the KIOS prompt for tomorrow!  So until then my friends...

Art for Anna

A while back...a long while back...my friend Anna sent me a fabulous care package FULL of goodies.  I take pride in being really good at packing, but if I'm good at packing, Anna invented it...I have NO idea how she got so much stuff in that box.  It was a modern day miracle!

So because I am the worst procrastinator ever, it took me a long time to make a reciprocation package for her.  In my defense, I wasn't really procrastinating, I was just trying extra hard to make awesome things for her...I got inside my head a little bit and freaked out...that's the true story... *hangs head in shame*  I don't know why I have such a hard time making art FOR other people.  I don't have a hard time making art for me...it must be my violent need for approval...  I just want to do a really good job so that they will still love me!

In addition to various bits...aka stuff to use in her own art (scrapbook paper, ephemera, etc.)...here's what I sent to Anna:

Back side of a tag I made...I cut my own tag out of watercolor paper.  I have an insanely strong desire to go buy those fabulous manila shipping tags that other artists are using so ingeniously...but I am trying SO HARD to be good and not do it.  I have so much good stuff to use that I feel like I need to use a lot of what I have before I go get more.  I REALLY don't want to do that though...what I really want is to max out my credit cards for art supplies.  BUT I've done good to this point, and just cut my own tag.  A tag cut out of watercolor paper is stronger and better anyway (she said bitterly to herself).

Here's the front of the same tag as above.  I did a little collage from the already gone months of this year's calender.  I also used a Martha Stewart foil embossing kit I got on clearance (so long ago I can't even tell you when) and some tiny heart confetti that my sister gave me.  Collage is not my forte, but I love this and I hope Anna does too...I am a big fan of the various funky ribbons...

This is the main/big piece I made for Anna.  It's on canvas!  This is the best thing I've done to date on a canvas.  I don't know what the deal is with me and canvases, but we hate each other...SO MUCH!  But this canvas has me rethinking my canvas hatred...  I am super happy with how she turned out...especially her lip area...her lips make me so happy I could scream...AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!  I'M SO HAPPY ABOUT YOUR LIPS!!!   ...oh, and modeling paste hair is the way to go for me...modeling paste hair all the way...lovely texture that is even better in person (if I do say so myself...so humbly)

The non-Adam-looking Adam...

The last picture is the thing that held up all the other things.  I was trying to draw her a picture of Adam Levine, because she and my other friend Pamikins have the hots for him in the most ardent way...but I can't draw Adam Levine.  I know, I know...I always say anyone can draw anything, but I was wrong...Adam Levine is my personal exception to the rule.  I had to have drawn twenty versions of him, and not a single one came remotely close to looking like him.  On a side note, Adam Levine, despite Anna's and Pamikins' love for you and despite the fact that you have freckles (which are usually very endearing to me), you are now my nemesis.  

This sketch was the best one I did, despite the fact that it looks nothing like who it's supposed to look like, I ended up liking the sketch very much...the only sketch out of the multiple sketches I did that did not end up getting gesso poured over them/crumpled in anger and frustration then gesso erased.  This guy, I love though...I don't know what it is about him, but I loved him, and I almost didn't send him to Anna because I am a selfish heifer...but in the end, my love for Anna prevailed and I sent non-Adam-looking Adam to live with her.  

I hope Anna will like/can use the goodies in her care package...I hope I sent just the right kind of things to make her happy!   ...you know, cause I love her and stuff...

Inner Excavations...I Open My Heart...

Poor Inner Excavations...with all the shiny things that distracted me, I let this work fall to the wayside a bit.  But I did not forget it entirely...I just had to circle back...the long way around.  But here we are...

Chapter 6 in IE is called "I open my heart..." and deals with community and encourages collaboration with another artist(s).  Which are awesome things!  

I've said it before and will say it again...I would not be where I am if it weren't for all the dear friends I've been lucky enough to get to know because of the art journaling, through Facebook groups or here on the blog.  I love each and every one of you gals!  I wish I could smooch all your faces and give you gigantic real life hugs!  I can't say enough about the encouragement and wisdom I've received.  

I love art.  I love art journaling.  I like to think I would feel the same way even if nobody ever saw my work or cared about it or thought it was good...even if everyone else in the world thought art was stupid.  BUT I'm so glad that I've met people who share my love.

I think community encourages growth.  For me, the lovely friends I've met turn my head...you guys help me to look at things in a new way.  I can't count the number of times I've made something I thought was REALLY bad and shared it with you all and it never fails that someone will look at it and point to something about the piece that they liked.  It makes me look at my work with new eyes!  Or somebody will use colors I might not pick and it will turn out so wonderfully it makes me want to try those colors.  Or when someone finds a new technique or thinks of a really unique prompt and they share it...you guys get my wheels spinning all the time!  You give me a gentle push to try things that are a little out of my comfort zone...and that's a big part of progressing as an artist!

So with that in mind, here is what I made for this chapter's spread:

Look at all the fun stuff!

For this, I used a lot of goodies from care packages I've been lucky enough to receive.  I also used some ephemera that I had in my (not so) little box of random stuff.

The clover image is a tag made by my friend Jana.  The crackling I did on it by covering it in UTEE and then cracking the UTEE coating.  The scarf on the lady is also from Jana, it's a piece of a tea bag.  The cool envelopes are from Anna (even though on the black ones I just used them flat and not folded up like envelopes...) I love the map one!  Anna also gave me the washi tape (except the polka dot one and the birds on wire...they're from my stash) and the big number ones.  The picture in the middle with the stones on it is from Laura, as well as the orange bus pass.  And then the blue dress in the bottom right of the picture is from my Pamikins.

On this side, there are things from my friend Rose (that 7, which I adore!) and my friend Rachel (the chevron paper and the green sparkly flourish and (I think) the yellow tickets) and my friend Christina (the sheet music, and the two die cuts that look like plants).  And the sequin waste stencil in the background was from my friend Jackie and my sister Marian!  

The thing I really like about this spread is that it reminds me so much of my friends!  The bright colors of the background remind me of my friend Boo...she likes bright colors.  The face in the middle I made during the 29 Faces challenge, so when I see it I think of all the new people I got to meet by participating.  The collage aspect reminds me of others friends I know who have collage work as a special talent.  And then all the bits and pieces were sent to me by my friends and fellow artists!  The more I look at this spread, the more I love it!  All those interesting pieces "shouldn't" go together, but somehow they work together to make a cool image.  I like that you can look at the spread as one piece, or that you can look at each individual element and it's interesting either way!  And this spread made me realize that I like collage...as long as I don't have to cut out the pieces!

Happy Mail and Some Encouragement

First of all let me just say a big WOO HOO!!!  I got some beautiful mail art today, from not one, but two lovely ladies!  Hooray!

First, from my darling Pamikins:

Two very awesome napkins, some really cool dress shaped paper (I think they must have been from a notepad?), and two AMAZING ATCs!  I love them both so much!  I love that Marilyn Monroe quote, especially that first line "Imperfection is beauty" (read on, because it applies to what I'll be talking about farther down).  And I love the WTF? ATC, that face... "Oh Lawd!"  I LOVE IT!!!  Thank you my dearest Pamikins!   

And from the fantastic Rose:

A fabulous bookmark (oh, I love these so much...I put my other one to good use right away, and, since I am a multiple books at once kind of reader, I will be doing the same with this one!), some really neat numbers (aren't they just too awesome???  I have been plotting with these since I opened the envelope...that 6 and the Paris napkin from my Pam are destined to be together I do believe!), a beautiful note card with butterflies (I love these so much, I don't know where she got them from, but I want to go to that place!) and then the Geisha and Crane piece, which I ADORE!  Thank you, wonderful Rose!

I am always so amazed by the creativity of the wonderful friends I've made online.  They are all so generous, kind and encouraging.  I am so fantastically lucky just to know each and every one of them!  Their kind words have made me so bold in taking chances and trying new things.  I know I would not have progressed as far as I have in so short a time without them cheering me on!

I had promised that I would share some of my beginning drawings with the ladies, and I decided to include them in this post too.  And I'm letting you see the horror that is my beginning drawings, because I want everybody to see that there is ZERO natural talent at work in me.  ZERO.  You won't believe it, but the following drawings aren't even the worst ones I did!  (I covered over the worst of them with gesso, hollered "DO-OVER!" and made art journal pages...so the following ones are the LEAST WORST...when you see them you won't think a person could do any worse, but trust me, there were worse...)

So here are a few of the (least) worst drawings I did when I was starting out:

Look at those hands...are they made out of straw?  Humongous head, little body.  Circular eyeballs.  Check out that nifty hair she's got going on there...look how flat her face is.  What nose has EVER looked like that?

Hand behind the back = I didn't have to attempt hands.  Two different sized legs.  Circle eyeballs again.  Who's hair looks like that?  What is up with those boobs?  It looks like one of her silicon implants is deflating...

So, you can't draw realistically?  Let's make some doll-like drawings then...good grief, how can you screw that up? Let's take note of just how you can screw it up: ..that hand situation...it looks like starfish and octopus tentacles...those are the fattest legs any ballerinas have ever had...do they have gout or something?  but look...eyeball improvement...they're no longer circles at least...  hair is clearly still an issue...  and proportion...

Check out that sweet pear shaped bod this gal's got going on...oh, and the one piece squiggle hair...who drew this stuff, a five year old?  Yuck.  

So, do you see what I mean?  NO NATURAL TALENT.  And the reason I want everybody to know that I have NO natural talent whatsoever, is so that they will know that they CAN draw (or paint or whatever).  All it takes is practice.  Talent is not needed.  Practice is the only thing you need.

Don't get me wrong, I know I am still, by far, NOT the best myself.  But, look at the above drawings, and then look at these: 

OK, she's definitely stylized, right?  But look at the 'before' doll-like drawings...disproportionate and terrible in general...  Now look at her, she's not perfect, but she's mostly in proportion.  The legs and arms do not look like disfigured sea creature appendages...  There is some sense to the hair as well...

OK, so what's going on here?  Still not perfect, right?  The wrong eyeball is bigger.  It looks like she got punched in the left cheek and it's swollen.  Mouth is still not right.  BUT, face has a face shape (it's not just a circle anymore!).  Same with the eyes.  The nose looks like it belongs on a human for once!

And then there's this girl, who I think is the best one I've done so far.  I still have hair issues, but I'm working on it...there is improvement.  Again, more realistic face shape, eyes, nose, mouth...more realistic everything!

I'm not showing you these because I want showered with praise...PLEASE DON'T!!!  I'm showing you because I want you to see that ANYBODY can get better with a little practice.  Again, I know that I've still got plenty of things I can do to improve, and I will keep practicing and practicing until I get to the point where I'm 100% satisfied (we all know that's imaginary...I bet no one is ever 100% satisfied...).  

I just want you all to see that you CAN draw (or paint or whatever), if you are willing to take the time and practice.  I've watched a lot of videos online, and did a lot of research, and I still am on the lookout for more and more.  I LOVE art, looking at it, practicing, reading about it, seeing what others do... I love everything about it and I do SOMETHING every single day.  

From the beginning drawings up above to the more recent ones down at the bottom, only about 6 months or so have passed.  When I look at these images, I can hardly believe that I've improved so much in that small amount of time!  It gets me so excited to think what I'll be able to do in another 6 months that I can't do now!

I guess the point I am trying to make is that six months from now, you can still be sitting there saying  "I wish I could..." or "I'll never be able to..." or you could be sitting there saying "Look how far I've come!"  I know you can do it if you really want to!  All you have to do is try and keep trying!  I KNOW YOU CAN!

OK, I'm getting down off my soapbox now...

Again, I just want to say a big THANK YOU to Rose and Pam for my GORGEOUS care packages!  (You ladies made my day a million times better!!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!)  And I want to add more big THANK YOU's to all the fantastic folks I am lucky enough to know!  Your words of encouragement are a big part of the reason I can sit here today and say "Look how far I've come!"  Thank you all!

Happy Mail Art and ICAD Day 4

What a happy surprise I found in the mail box today!  My lovely friend Anna sent me a surprise care package.  Thank you, Anna, for making my day!  

I thought I would show you the fabulousness that I was lucky enough to receive:

This is the back of the envelope.  I love this little guy so much!  He's just too cool.  His eyebrows are my favorite, I think, but his arm that's resting is a close second.  Such a cutie!

I'm sharing my favorite thing from what was inside the envelope first (I think that you're supposed to save the best for last, but I'm a rebel)  It's hard to pick a favorite thing,especially when everything is completely awesome, but I have admired Anna's lettering for so long now that I am absolutely sure that this is my favorite thing!  I love it, love it, LOVE IT!!!  I am so proud to be the recipient of this gorgeousness!  It will have a special place of honor in my craft room for sure!

I also got a beautiful ATC with its own envelope.  I love the brown toned hillside and the winged hearts, and am totally jealous of the ability to make something so cool in such a small space.  Teach me your ways, Anna, my darling!

And then there was this spectacular umbrella gal...I have a special place in my heart for all things umbrella...I wonder if my Anna secretly stalks me like I stalk her???  I am totally digging this gal's fashion sense too!  The skirt and tights, the color combo...this is what I would dress like if I were cooler than I am!  Who knows, with all my internal changes, could I be ready to make some external ones as well?  Maybe I'll be on a mission to find an awesome green skirt now!

Then I got this cute little charm in it's own special teeny envelope.  It says "You are my sunshine".  Why, thank you, thank you!!!  I think this is a scrapbook charm, but I am totally going to put it on a chain and wear it!  Maybe with an awesome green skirt?!?

And then there was this sweetness.  So beautiful!  I think this is just fabulous.   This is on kraft paper, and I am in love with the colors she got going on, especially how vibrant the red is!

I am not sure what to call this...I think they are called tryptics, but I'm not positive.  Maybe tri-fold envelope?  I don't know for sure, but either way, it is super groovy.  I love that paper!

When you open up the tryptic/tri-fold envelope, this is what's inside!  It says "Amaze yourself, dream big, love well, open your heart, sing along, fear not, zig zag, jump 4 joy!"  I am certainly doing several of those things right now...singing along (I've always got music going on in the background.), jumping 4 joy at all the awesome presents I got, and loving my amazing friend Anna...loving her well!!!  

So, aside from being super excited and squealing like a happy pig in mud, I did get my ICAD cards for today done as well.  The theme was "wallpaper".  This one was a little bit of a challenge for me, but after thinking about it for a little bit, I did some experimenting, and I ended up liking both cards quite a bit...what do you think?

The 3x5:

I experimented with masking on this one.  The background is a stamp I've had since 1922 and have never used until now...  I think it looks very wallpaper-y, don't you?  I used a piece of scrap paper I had and masked off the area where I wanted to paint my landscape picture.  I used a metallic Sharpie for the frame, drawing that first, then went in and painted the little picture.  Can I just say I am ridiculously proud of this?  I don't know why, but it made me feel like a darn genius when I thought of this...that's two flashes of genius in one week...I'm starting to get a little nervous about those!  

And here's the 4x6:

I have been admiring people's use of 'extra' colors in their pieces for a while now, but one of the other ladies in the ICAD group (Thanks Stephanie!)  had done a girl with 'extra' colors in her face, and it reminded me of my love for that technique.  Stephanie's piece (and others that I've drooled over) had much more boldly colors, but I got scared and went with more demure colors...which lent itself to a sad theme pretty well.  I used the gelatos along with watercolor for the details.  I couldn't get those quite right with the big stick of the gelatos.  I need to remember next time that I can use the gelatos like paint if I just water them down first...  But I do like the effect that the watercolor has over the texture of the gelatos.  I did this card first, and as I was having trouble with the wallpaper theme, I cheated a little and used it in the text instead.  I just made up the words and printed them out on regular computer paper.  Then I used alcohol inks (butterscotch and latte colors) to try to get a vintage paper color...I'm pretty happy with the result I got on that front.  I really would like to experiment with tea dying sometime soon...I have some berry tea that I had gotten forever ago and it got shoved to the back of the cabinet and forgotten about...and is therefore WAY out of date (we're talking like 3 or 4 years out of date...)...so that seems like a good thing to try dyeing with...as opposed to drinking it and end up dying in an entirely different way...  But I digress...  I am really digging the tears in the eye to the right and the highlights in the other eye...I think that's my favorite parts of this...and the text thingie too...I like that a lot!

I am really enjoying this index card a day challenge.  It's making me think outside of the box and try things I might not try otherwise.  I also love getting to see the creativity of all the other folks who are sharing their work on the ICAD Facebook page.  I am so grateful for the interaction on Facebook in general, because it means I've gotten to meet such interesting and creative people...who then send me fabulous care packages!  BWA-HA-HA!!!  (Thanks my darling, Anna!  I really do love all my amazing surprises!)  In all seriousness, the way these fellow artists support and encourage and inspire one another is such a beautiful thing.  I really don't know what I'd do without them!