Memorandum Monday: A Return to Creativity

Welcome to Memorandum Monday! A chance to share your weekend adventures and reflect on new experiences, hosted by Sian of From High in the Sky. 
Last week I went to a crop and put all my Christmas card photos from 2015 into the proper album. It was great to complete a project and got me in the mood for scrapbooking. So, I organized my photos from 2013 (the only year I have printed and undone) and then sat down to order photos from 2015 and 2016 (somewhere along the line, I had already completed 2014). I discovered that most of my 2015 photos were on my iphone and decided to just print them at shutterfly. Well, this weekend was the first time I used the shutterfly app to download pictures off my iphone, and it worked like a dream! 
After downloading them, I got on my computer and made the first photobook ever for Henry (of their soccer national championship tournament) and ordered all my photos for 2015 and 2016. I was so pleased with myself!
I'm very excited to return scrapbooking and have a few dates planned with friends over the next month. Next step, organizing a few page kits so it will be easy to complete them.
What else was I up to this weekend? Gardening - I've been trying to spend about half hour every few days outside pulling weeds and cleaning up. Getting ready for spring! 
I also did a little doodling of hearts that might make their way into my art journals. For these, I totally owe my inspiration to Laurie over at Lone Black Bird. She has printable heart coloring pages that I copy and use as a jumping off point. Here's a page I made last week:

They're in my sketchbook. I plan to use them as a reference for art journal pages.
What were you up to this weekend? Anything new to share?
Have a great week, and thank you all so much for your comments on my brave post from Friday. Your support means more than you know. I love having a safe place to share.

Snap! Brave four ways

My one little word for 2016 is "Brave," and I've been playing around in my art journal with its various meanings. So, this week for Helena's Snap meme, I'm sharing photos of four of my pages. They're all slightly different styles, but I like them all. Do you have a favorite?

Snap: Goodbye Dear Friend. . . .

We recently had to say good-bye to Clara's dog Aria. Those two had such a close bond, it was incredible. I created an art journal page to say good-bye and a photo collage for Clara. It's a bittersweet Snap to share at Helena's blog this week.

Memorandum Monday: Creating an Alternate Universe

Hello Monday!
Sian over From High in the Sky organizes an opportunity on Monday to check in on your weekend and (especially) mention anything new you've done lately.
Well, I had a pretty relaxing weekend. Spent a lot of time in front of the TV catching up on Downton Abby, The Bachelor and Top Chef. Also watched the entire second season of The Fall! Yikes! No wonder I didn't get much done. 
The one new thing I did was work-related. For the law class I teach on employment discrimination, I created a case file of documents that the students will work with this semester to evaluate whether the two made-up applicants could successfully sue the fake employer that refused to hire them. I made up a job description, mocked up applications, wrote imaginary interview notes, drafted rejection letters, etc. Both applicants are applying for jobs as air traffic controllers. One is turned away because he is color-blind (which affects men more than women and could also be a disability); the other is possibly turned away because he is a Muslim of Pakistani descent (although he was born in the UK and worked at Heathrow). It should be interesting to see how the students work with the imaginary, real-world documents I created for class.

A Nostalgic Art Journal Page

Sian of From High in the Sky posted an interesting quote on her instagram feed:
"What one wants to say is formed in one's childhood and we spend the rest of our lives trying to say it."
Barbara Hepwoth
I know that I use a lot of nostalgic elements in my art journaling because who I am and the art I create is definitely shaped by my childhood. 
For this page, I started with the background and then sorted through some tags I had sitting around. The bright yellow monocled cat jumped out at me. I started layering on other elements that seemed to fit the mood I was in. A dozen additions later, I decided it was ready for journaling. I wrote around the circles first, repeating "my heart is filled with nostalgia" and "childhood memories fill my heart." I then filled the internal white space with more journaling about how my childhood memories fill my heart and make me brave.
I did a lot of art journaling this last week during my visit to southern California and this was probably my favorite page.

I'm not sure if what I want to say was completely formed in my childhood, but I know that my childhood definitely influences who I am and what I have to say.

What do you think of Sian's quote?

True Change Comes from Within (art journal page)

Made this simple art journal page over the weekend. It features some left-over paper printed during a recent print making class and a Dina Wakley stamp.
I made it thinking about my daughter, who just returned home from having spent a month in Peru. I know the experience will change her, but just realized that the changes may not show up for a while. When I think back on some of the biggest adventures in my life, I realize that they shaped me slowly and over time, rather than right away. I wonder where Peru will eventually take my girl . . . 

Reminder: 2015 July Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt Linky coming Friday!!!

No, it doesn't count as a bouquet of flowers, but it's as close as I've gotten so far! LOL!
Maybe I will treat myself to a nice bouquet this week so that I can photograph before the end of the month. That's when I'll be hosting the July linky for the Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt. Please come back on Friday and link up a post (new or old) about your scavenger hunting adventuress. 

Art Journaling: One Print Three Ways

Last Saturday I took an art journaling class with Dina Wakley that focused on print making. One of the techniques we learned featured making a collage-style print plate with book board. I made a scene with a simple house, some journaling lines and a winged heart with the word "yes" on it. I had difficulty with this technique during the class (especially with getting the winged heart to look like anything other than a red blob). Yesterday I revisited the prints I made and my print plate, and I ended up some results I like. First up, I took one of my print "failures" from the class and added some outlining. I then attached it to a background in my big road atlas journal. It's still not a perfect print, but you I think it works on this page.

Next up, I cut the bottom half off of some of my print failures and used the house and journaling lines on another art journal page in my road atlas journal. Again, the pen lines I added do more work than the print, but I think it works, and I can see using this print again.

Finally, my favorite! I added paint to just the house portion of the plate and printed onto some tags. I got a pretty good print and one that I can see myself using over and over again.
Print making really is a great way to create elements for an art journaling page, and, for this technique at least, simple is definitely the way to go!

Me on Monday: Art Journaling and Dog Minding

Waving hi to Sian over at From High in the Sky to share a photo of me on Monday and share my weekend adventures. What kind of a weekend was it? 

It was a husband and children travelling weekend, leaving me to take care of the house, dogs and chickens.

It was also a seizing the opportunity the take an art journaling class with Dina Wakley, one of my favorite artists and teachers! I was so thrilled to finally meet her in person, take a class with here and spend some time art journaling!

 The class was a print making class, as well as hints for how to incorporate the prints and print-making techniques into your art journals. The flowers on the second page and the bee crown image on the last page are both prints made from different types of plates. The tags on the top page were made with simple printing off acetate and a craft sheet. I've taken many online classes with Dina, and you can page through the class reviews at this link to find them. All-in-all, it was a great weekend! How was yours?

Do you mandala?

My friend Deb of Paper Turtle has been drawing mandalas; lots and lots of mandalas. Her love of mandalas and the joy they bring her shines through on her blog, and she created this tutorial to bring that joy to others. On a recent business trip, I took along a sketch pad and decided to make a few mandalas.

 

These were the first two I made. They were pretty clean and basic. The only art supplies I brought along were a small container of water color crayons, a few pens (black and white) and a water brush. The top one I drew free-hand, but for the others, I used a plastic cup to help draw circles. And then something happened. . . . 

My mandalas turned in to art journal pages, with lots of writing. .  . . 

And my own mandala style started to emerge. My favorite one of these five is the one up top because of the blended colors and the journaling. I really enjoy making mandalas. It's very calming and it's a perfect thing to do while on the plane or sitting in an airport. I only wish that my sketch pad was square and that I had a selection of circle templates. But I will definitely continue to make mandalas, especially when I'm on the road.
And I'm not the only one making mandalas. Over at Deb's World, Deb (English Deb, not Arizona Deb) made some pink/pink/orange mandalas and this blue/blue/green mandala.  She's making mandalas for Summer of Color. And clearly enjoying herself. What about the rest of you? Do you mandala?

Art Journaling and Musing on Health

Way back in 2011, I selected "health" as my one little word. It served me well, as I got into shape and became stronger and healthier. I made this journal with several intentions to become healthier. I did pretty well on most of them, but there were two that I ignored: find a doctor I like and get caught up on my "tests."

Well,this year, a mere four years later, I finally got around to those two very important tasks. I found a doctor I like and trust, and she set me up with all those scary tests. I am happy to report that the mammogram, PAP, and sugar level tests all came back fine. My blood pressure, cholesterol and pulse rate are all great! Today I went to have all my odd looking moles checked and had one removed. I created an art journal page with Tim Holtz's crazy birds stamps to congratulate myself on overcoming my fears and getting these tests done. And I'm hoping that I won't let these tests go so long before I do them again. I'm wondering if I'm the only one who puts these tests off for fear of a bad result. I know it's irrational behavior at its worst, but I can't believe I'm alone. Am I?

A Peek Inside my Art Journal

I had some spare time today, and I decided to do some work in my art journal. This is a page thinking about my daughter's plan to study abroad this summer in Peru. I started with a heavily textured orange and blue background. I drew South America free-hand and then covered the rest of the page with white paint before adding ephemera and journaling.

And here's a page I did in my travel art journal a few weeks ago when I went to visit my son in Oregon. It features a group of flags on a flag pole, each representing something on my mind at that time.
Even though I set an intention to focus on photography this month, it's nice to continue with other artistic pursuits like art journaling and photography as well.

Some final thoughts on art journaling

I spent the month of March exploring art journaling, and I have rediscovered my love of this artistic outlet. I have found that I really enjoy mixed media collage and simple sketching and water painting. I celebrated a little by buying some new water colors (Golden QOR). I made this page as an index sheet of sorts. It features flags and some Miro-inspired figures. I really like these creations and plan to incorporate them in future pages. 

The one thing I never got around to re-exploring this month was face-drawing. And, frankly, I'm not sure when I will. I will definitely continue to make art journal pages, but I will make pages that I find easy and fun and satisfying, rather than ones that feel like a lot of work. And right now, I think faces would be too much work. I see myself continuing to art journal a couple times a week. I'll add that to scrapbooking several times a month. And doing photography several times a week. That feels like a good mix so far.

I'm looking forward to focusing on card making this month, and I'll be back tomorrow with some initial thoughts and questions on that subject.

Take that Mr.Prufrock!

This may be my favorite art journal page from this month, and it comes from a very unlikely source. This semester in A.P. English, my daughter Clara studied the poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot. I helped her analyze and understand the poem and one line stuck with me, the saddest line in the poem to me - "I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think they will sing to me." 
As this page came together, I thought about the poem and the mermaids. And I changed the journaling to read: "I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. And I know they will sing to you." It is, not surprisingly, a message to my teenage daughter. 
As my month long revisit of art journaling comes to an end, I hope that I continue to hear the mermaids singing to me. And I hope that they sing to you. 

A Happy Heart (art journaling, tutorial link and RAK thanks)

Recently, I received a wonderful RAK from Andria of the Drawing Near blog. She sent me a wonderful little mini-book stuffed with ephemera. You can read her tutorial for how to make one at this link. It provided the perfect elements for a happy mixed media art journal page about how happy I was to have my son Henry home for a few days for his mid-term break. I hope you enjoy the page and get a chance to go visit Andria's blog - it's a good one!

On my block this week (art journaling)

I'm continuing to play with a type of art journaling where I draw and paint groups of simple subjects, each of which represents one of the things on my mind at that moment. Recently, I've done a clothesline, a plant with many leaves, and a swarm of butterflies. For my page today, I drew a variety of buildings each of which represents all the things on my "to do" list and called the page "On my block this week." I really like this type of art journaling and will surely create many more clotheslines, plants and neighborhoods. I'm also trying to come up with other groupings that might work - simple objects that I can sketch, paint and decorate. I'm thinking of a flag pole or line of bunting and a group of postcards in my mailbox. But I'm looking for more ideas. Got any to suggest?

A Peek Inside My Art Journal

"I would rather. . . "

Just a simple art journal page today describing the choices I want to make.

Art Journaling on a Large Scale

"Throw me to the wolves"

One of my art journals is an old road atlas. It is BIG, and it has taken me a while to figure out how to best create on this larger scale. For this page, I used a really large image and one of my favorite affirmations.

Advice at 50

And for this page, I followed the underlying grid of the atlas to create different cells full of advice to myself at 50. It has been fun to create art journal pages on different scales.

Art Journaling: Finding my Groove

"Our Time Together"

"My Garden of Life"

Most of the way through my month-long exploration of art journaling and what it means to me, I think I have hit my stride and found my style. . . well, actually, two styles. 

I love mixed media collage style art journaling for the way it allows me to play with my supplies and work out my feelings (like in the top page, which I made shortly after hearing that Paul had received good news on his most recent cancer check-up). 

I also really like pages where I make simple drawings that can be used as the backdrop for lists about things percolating in my head (like the second page where each leaf details one of the ingredients to success in my life).

There's still one area I want to explore: faces. I really appreciated everyone's feedback to my post with some initial thoughts about art journaling. My main take away from reading those is that I want my art journals to be fun and not hard work. When I look at pages where I try to incorporate more involved drawing in my art journals, they seem tortured and I realize they were not very fun to create (even if I did feel some accomplishment in their completion). I'm still on the fence about faces. I really want to draw faces in my art journals, and I want to get to the point where they are fun and easy. I feel like I can get there, but I still need practice which might be more work than fun. So, I will delve into faces a bit more between now and the end of the month. But I will also be creating pages in these two styles which feel really right to me just now.

"Love Yourself": Mixed Media Collage Art Journaling

When I first start art journaling, this is the style I used. 
Step 1: Acrylic paint background with texture and ephemera.
Step 2: Focal point image
Step 3: Embellishments and finishing top texture.
After all these years, it is still one of my favorite styles.