Art Journaling

I find this very much a challenge. That is a good thing, but there are days I just sit there and look at blank pages. From reading other blogs, I am not alone. But I did want to share a few things that I have done.

Doodling. It is therapeutic. It calms the nerves. For me personally, it drains the stress right out of my body. When I do sit down to doodle a page, I am compulsive about finishing it, but that is getting better. What I want this to be is something that I can do for 10 or 30 minutes, leave and come back to finish. The two covers are to one of my journals. I stamped "Art Journal 1" with some very old foam stamps I had on hand, then drew lines with a Sharpie Ultra Thin marker, and colored within the lines with a cheap set of Sargent markers from Hobby Lobby. Love them. No smearing, no residue on your hands, gets the job done for pennies.

The Dylusions journals I am using have an outside cover, and an inside cover. The photo above with the numbers is the inside of journal #1. I did this first, liked it so much, that I then did the outside as well. The vibrant colors make me want to pick the journal up and do something with it. (not toss it out the window, which I have considered).

And this is supreme doodling. This is letting your inner anxiety out, getting it down on paper, then covering it up so no one can read it. I love it.

The first photo is simply painting the page black (using any acrylic paint you have on hand), then making whatever lines you want with a white Sakura gel pen. Trust me on this. I bought every white pen I could find. They don't work. Bite the bullet and buy Sakura. They really are not expensive, and work perfectly every single time. I used Dyan Reaveley's Journaling block, which has a curved edge, to make the lines for a start, then doodled from there.

Second photo. This is from class, and she had us put the Sharpie to the page and just make circles, figure 8's, whatever curves you wanted. We then wrote over that in big, loopy handwriting whatever we wanted. Why you hate to shop for shoes, lyrics to a song, whatever. Dyan told us in class if we couldn't think of anything, simply to write Blah, Blah, Blah. I ended up writing the lyrics to "I Saw Her Standing There." One of my favorite Beatle songs. We then traced the image of Bert, one of the Dylusion stencils, on the page. Painted around Bert with black paint, then when it was dry, went back and redefined our loopy lines so we could color within the shapes. On this page we used Dylusions spray ink to color. Dyan had provided us with Ranger water pens filled with her sprays. I have done it since using a good paint brush and dipping it in the spray. If you use the Ranger water pen, you have to have one pen for every color. There are 15. A tad expensive. To finish, I outlined Bert in white ink and drew on the bricks.

You can finish one of these pages in an hour or so, depending on drying time. The sprays dry fast. I used my heat gun on the paint, at home. We didn't have heat guns in class. So. Stuck on what to do on a page? Complete one of these, and it will get your creative juices flowing nicely.

Supplies used:
Dylusions Sprays
Dylusions stamps on the covers, but mostly doodling.
Sharpie Ultra Fine black pen marker
Sargent markers - Hobby Lobby
black acrylic paint
paint brushes
Dylusion stencils
Dylusion journaling block
Tim Holtz number stamps
Staz-on black ink

Enjoy. Thanks for stopping by.
Linda

Wild Weather Week

Boy. Say that fast 3 times. Good Morning!! I have a little recap of my weekend in Moline, IL.

First of all, it is a long, long drive from Indianapolis to Moline. Long. Did I say that? And the weather didn't cooperate (surprised? I'm not.) with the winds out of the west. So for the first 100 miles I was driving due west, then I-74 bends to the northwest. Needless to say, I burned a whole lot of gas.

After checking into the hotel, I decided to find the scrap book store before heading out for dinner. The ladies that arranged this did a great job: the store was 2 blocks from the hotel. If you are ever in Moline, IL., please stop in at The Scrapbook Studio. It is filled to the brim with all kinds of goodies for making pages, cards, and mixed media. I spent money. And we aren't surprised at that, either.

This is Dyan Reaveley in the store on Friday night. The owner had set up a "meet and greet" from 6 to 8, so I had to go to that. Had to. Dyan is a lovely lady, very open and giving. She had a stack of her completed journals on the counter, and we could look through them, take pictures, she didn't mind at all.

This is an example of one of her journal pages. You do what YOU want to do in your art journal. You are doing this for you, not anyone else. But I've got to say, each of her pages could be framed and hung on the wall. Not mine. ......

The above are various size tags she has done in the same format. She has used her spray inks, stencils, and stamps. I love the one on the left of the woman with 3 men behind her.

This is a combination of some of her stamps. Love the fish swimming in the background. Her detail is so vivid in color. I'm still working on that. Trying to avoid making mud on my pages. It does take some practice.

We did a man similar to the one on the tag above. Not as much detail. It was a fun project. She had us loop our black pen around on the page, making different size loops and circles. We then journaled across that, writing fast and large, whatever you wanted. I ended up doing the song lyrics to "I Saw Her Standing There". We then drew around the template of the man, as you see him here. Using a black paint dabber, we put black paint around him, then went back and filled in all the individual loops that were showing with Dylusion inks. Loved the process. And I am doing it again.

Moline is a very clean town. Not fond of the narrow bridge going over the Mississippi. Scary, folks. I went to dinner with three ladies from Chicago metro area in Bittendorf, IA. A good time was had by all.

Have a great day. Thanks for stopping by.
Linda

Peacock

The Promised Land, the farm where we sheep herd on the weekends, has a few peacocks. You have to be careful around these birds. Usually they will just hop to a different spot if they feel threatened. Or they may turn, cock that head, and say bring it on, baby.

I had the little Lumix camera with me last Saturday. These are not the best pics in the world. I also had my hands full trying to control the 2 dogs who thought, HEY! Wouldn't this be fun to chase? Uh, no, Gracie and Jake. It wouldn't.

Today I leave for my art journaling classes in Moline, IL. I was adjusting these shots in Photoshot Elements, and thinking I would love 2 Dylusion sprays in that color blue (Peacock Breast would be a great name), and the green on the tail just to the left of the "eyes". Beautiful colors.

Have a great weekend. I do plan on one myself. It's a new adventure.
Linda

Mirabelle and her Melon

Good Morning.

This is the latest primitive doll I made. Actually, she was sewn, stuffed, and painted in January. I didn't finish the grunge look and clothes until last week, just before the spring sale. Beginning to suspect ADD in my old age.....

In the first photos, Mirabelle is wearing a dress of cotton fabric, and in the last photo, she has on blue coveralls of cotton. She wears a bell on a rusty wire around her neck, and holds a big slice of watermelon. Her face is needle sculpted, raising the stuffing and muslin with button thread for the eyebrows, nose, and her mouth. This is a process that requires you to swear a lot and run for bandaids. A lot. But I really love the look it gives to a doll's face. So I just grinned at the dogs, and kept on sewing.

Thanks for stopping by.
Linda

Now we know it's spring

We went to the farm for sheep herding yesterday. And found a very pleasant surprise. Lots of lambs had been born this past week, but especially on Friday. Leah said that the norm this year is twins and triplets. No single births. There was one ewe who gave birth to four, but one didn't survive. Very unusual.

My dogs were in the car while I was by the barn looking at the lambs. We don't want to scare the babies. And the llama probably would have not appreciated the dogs anyway. He is there to protect the herd.

This is my third spring of seeing the lambs, and it never gets old. They are born so perfect, eyes open, hooves ready to run. And they all follow mom around to get a quick drink. I am fortunate to have seen this.

Peace.
Linda

Spring Sale

This is a crazy week. The craft mall where we have a booth is having a Spring open house this weekend. Sales have been slow this year, and we welcome this chance to get more people into the building. But, and this is a LARGE but, Cathy and I have been on this mixed media kick and neither of us has started the sewing machines since January. Yeah. Not good. Not that all the primitive crafts have sold. On the contrary, they are still in the booth.

I am torn. We have a large selection of canvases, like this one, to put in the booth. I also have 2 naked black dolls waiting for grunge mix to be applied, and clothes. So I swing back and forth from one project to another.

And then we have whining:

We're bored, Mom!

I have to laugh. Yesterday I was cruising the net, reading some of my favorite blogs for inspiration. Donna Downey, an artist who lives in North Carolina, has 2 dogs. The smaller dog fits into a knapsack type carrier, that sits on Donna's chest. You guessed it. She carries this pup around while working in the studio. My two are too big for that, but boy, can I relate. The dogs can be just as demanding as kids.

Have a great day. Be productive. I'm trying!
Linda