Spring is here -finally!!

We had the most wonderful week of Spring last week! Finally, no coat/sweater weather! Of course, we are making up for it with a week of rain starting today, but everything is so wonderfully green!

I finished my last journal, I am posting the last pages, and I have started my bigger journal, 8 X 10 I think. It will be odd working on such large pages again! Haven't done much else in the last month, except my Mother's Day card:

I used a tag from my new Graphics 45 Steampunk paper pad.

Here are my journal pages:

 My Traci Bunkers order came in!

If you look in my last post you can see these pages before they were journaled upon. My DD and her boyfriend are in France for a wedding, and will spend the next 3 weeks in France and Spain, so my first few journal pages of my new journal will probably be about their trip. Talk about living vicariously! LOL!


BTW, a journalist I am enjoying, especially since she makes so many videos, is Journal Artista aka Paula. She showed a wonderful technique of making corrugated cardboard which I LOVE, here are some ATCs I made using her technique:

These are all swapped in a Ranger ATC Swap, but I loved making them, so I'll probably make lots more! Go to Paula's blog to see how she does this!

One last thing, ALTERED PAGES has launched it's new website, and it's AWESOME!! Please go and see what they have in their new "store" - lots of new things beside their already wonderful collage sheets!

April!

Lovely April day, I'm recovering from a miserable Spring cold, so here I am at the computer instead of outside. Oh well, hopefully more of these days to come!

Here is a Stampscapes card I made for a swap on Stampscapes ll Yahoo Group, it was a "barnscapes" swap. I didn't have any barns, so I had to buy a few. I like this one! And I bought the scarecrow. I bought them at Angels Attic.

Last Sunday, I got to have an afternoon of stamping with my friend Marg,and I made these two tags, also for a swap, for my Art for the Creative Mind yahoo group. Marg made some bird tags too. We had a lot of fun!

 

Here are my latest journal pages, some are just background pages. I think it's neat to see how the page changes as it evolves! 

I am currently working on the angel page, so hopefully next week I will have these last 3 pages finished and ready to show you.

I discovered an Art Journalist named Traci Bunkers - I love her techniques and ideas she uses in her journals! I, of course, immediately bought her book, and have started using a few ideas. Then I went to her Etsy shop and bought a couple of stencils and some stamps. They haven't arrived yet, but I'm sure I'll use them when they do! That funny scallopy stamp at the bottom of the last journal page is an idea from her - it's one of those things you use when you paint your toenails to keep your toes apart! She also does little videos which I love watching. So I don't know how my pages will change with this new influence, but I find I'm like a Borg - I just keep assimilating every Art Journalist I come across that I like- watch out!! Resistance is futile!

Finally-Back to Journaling!

Boy -it's been awhile! I stopped art journaling last September. I tried to figure out why, and what I came up with is that I was 2 pages to the end, and I didn't have another journal ready to go into. I wasn't up to making another one, so I just stopped. Then one of our best friends died, I knew I should journal about him, but couldn't. In January I finally got the gumption to start again, and it's been getting easier ever since. I even started the page on our friend yesterday. And I already have another journal to go into, so hopefully thing will go smoothly from here! But I have decided, after journaling every day for the past month or so, that I lead a terribly predictable and boring life! Oh well!!

So here are all my pages so far, some I took before the journaling as well, so that maybe I can use them in other pieces of art along the road. Besides, I think it's interesting to see "before" and "after"!

This is the completed page of the page I started a few blog posts back, using enlarged copies of 2 moo cards I made a few years ago.  

Before page

after- Family Day

The  background pictures are taken from some of my old ATCs

 Again, more of my old art enlarged in this page as well. I've always loved this Buddha page I did in someone else's Deco Book!

I made this page with the first Altered Pages stamp I got, as well as an extra page I made for another swap book,

and this is what it became:

Another page made with enlarged ATCs of mine. I originally had a quote in the middle, but I hated it, so painted over it. The leaf shapes on the right edge are made with those black heat sensitive foam things that you can impress shapes into. I love this one!

So I used it again on the next page:

This is the page I'm working on this week, so hopefully I will post it in a few days when it's full. The stamps are from Stampin' Up, a gift from a friend. I like using new stamps in my journals. And there's that neat leaf thing across the bottom from the previous page.

My next page to work on, ready to go:

 Images from Tim Holtz paper, other bits are things I found on my table that day. Bought some K&C chip board shapes (on sale at Michael's) and used a few as stencils.

I have one more finished background page but I haven't scanned it yet. Also started making background pages in my next journal with leftover paint from this one.

To make this blog post even longer, here are a few other things I've been working on lately:

I had an enverlope swap to do for Byhand -15 envelopes plus thing to put inside. My theme morphed into a Lord Byron (the poet) theme. I even made Byron Post stamps for each envelope (and put a few extra inside)! You can see the huge amount of room I leave myself to create these things!

SPOILER ALERT! If you are in this swap, and want to be surprised, skip this next photo!

 Inside each envelope are some Byron post stamps, a romantic letter from Byron (After I finished aging these letters, I realized I should have changed the name on each letter to reflect the person it was going to! oh well, next time!), and a "framed" portrait of Byron, as every love lost girl should have!

 

My mother turned 75 on Feb 12 (see sidebar for her new books!), and here is the card I gave her, and the inside:

And another card I made with the Altered Pages stamp (I love this stamp!)

And FINALLY (yes, this post is almost over!!) some ATCs I've made in the last month or so:

One of my favorite stamps -"Maude"  

These two were for a "Queen of hearts" swap.

Well, that's it. When I started I thought I didn't have much to report. Wrong! I really need to do this more often so you aren't subjected to such a LONG post!! Off to spend the afternoon with my friend Marg and to PLAY!!!

Blogiversary

Yesterday was my 5th Blogiversary. I can't believe it's only been 5 years, it feels much longer! Someday I will have a celebration, but this year I was sick.
    So far, I've been sick all of February. OK, so it's only Feb 6th, but what a way to start the month! I stayed home from work 3 of those days, and 2 were the weekend, so only 1 working sick day. I hope I'm up to going back tomorrow! Now Ron is sick.

Anyway, felt better today so was able to get some art done. An ATC swap for AFTCM called "Hands of Time". I like them both!

Last month I made a kit for Altered Pages, but I hadn't put it on my blog yet. Since it's been on the site for awhile now, I thought I'd post it. I made it from a wooden box my mother gave to me that she found in a second hand shop. I had some sheet music I was supposed to used on a project from AP, called "Song of India". I was all set to do a cool Indian box, until I researched the music and found what the story was. Not at all what  thought! It was about an under-the-sea wedding!

 The box was fun to make, I'll have to make a book someday to go inside.


Thanks for looking!