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!

Seasonal Creative Projects Part 4: Gratitude

Bernice of Newly Creative hosts many different art journaling classes throughout the year. I especially enjoy participating in the gratitude one she hosts in November.  In fact, I noticed many gratitude creativity projects sprouting up last November.  In 2012, I participated in her Attitude of Gratitude class and created an art journal which you can see by clicking on this link and scrolling down a bit.  The last few days I've been sharing some of the art work I've been working on which relate to different seasonal creative projects, and I'm ending up with the tag book I'm doing this spring in conjunction with Bernice's current class called "The Art of Practising Gratitude." Each day has a theme, a technique suggestion, a scripture and a quotation, as well as some other links. Here are a few of my recent tags:

The one on the left featured dry embossing and the theme "smile." The one on the right is about compliments and used a technique for coloring stencil images using inktense water colors. 

The top tag is on the subject of celebrations. My journaling reads "after surviving so much, around here, we celebrate each and every good day." I used a combination of stamps and stencils. The bottom tag features a marbled background technique and a message about why I don't need to try to acquire more things to keep up with anyone else. I can be filled with gratitude because "I have enough." I have a few more tags to share later this week, but before then, stop by for a cup of tea tomorrow and to check out my zoom in < zoom out pair on Wednesday. And, of course, the Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt will go live on Sunday!

More Gratitude tags

I'm really enjoying "The Art of Practising Gratitude" class hosted by Bernice.  For the prompt on inspiration, I used the suggested bubble wrap printing technique and journaled that "I have been inspired by brave artists, bold colleagues and fierce mothers." For the prompt on "Be Positive," I followed the painting with stencils technique and used the quote "Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things truly are."

I made this very simple tag because I wanted to highlight this quote. They key to happiness is being grateful for what you have.

I broke out my distress inks and journaled about the importance of making time to do the things you love. And here's what my tag book looks like now:

I'm off for the weekend to visit Henry in Oregon for Mother's Day. I hope your weekend is filled with inspiration, joy and gratitude.

#21 Days in May: Practising Gratitude

Bernice, of Newly Creative, has hosted some wonderful, FREE art journaling classes, including An Attitude of Gratitude (see my journal here). and Passport to Art (see many of the pages in my altered book here) which I took and loved. This May, she is hosting a new class titled "#21 Days in May: The Art of Practising Gratitude." I was on the fence about participating, but I decided to take the plunge. For my journal, I decided to create a series of tags and put them on a ring. This will make it easy to create without worry about keeping things in a certain order. Bernice will be posting prompts each weekday in May, which include a theme, a quote, a bible verse, some video inspiration, a link, journaling prompts, a technique suggestion and an action. Bernice encourages you to use any or all (or none) of each day's suggestion.
For day #1, the theme was "create." The quote from Matt Groenig read in part "Living creatively doesn't mean only artistic creativity, although that's part of it. It means being yourself, not just complying with the wishes of other people." One of the featured techniques was water color salt background, and the journaling prompt asked about what impediments keep you from being creative. The action item was to start a gratitude list.  I used these prompts to create the following tag:

I used a variety of stamps that represent the various aspects of my creativity and added the clock because finding time to create is my biggest impediment to creating.  On the back, I put the Groenig quote and add the following journaling: "My creativity starts with my camera, my paint brush, my words but hopefully continues into who I am and how I affect the world around me." I started a gratitude list (visible in the top photo) and wrote "I am grateful for my art studio space." This is what the project looks like so far.

I really like how it looks, and I'm looking forward to practising gratitude and carving out some art time this month. The class has just started. There's plenty of time to join in. The Practising Gratitude blog, with all the instructions, and the first prompt is at this link. 
Anyone else planning to play along?

Dec. Daily: Snow Day!

Here's a page from my December Daily album that is a little different.  First, it's not about what we're doing here at home. Instead, it captures a very special story for Henry, even though he's 350 miles away at college. When I woke up this morning, I had a text from him which consisted of this photo:

The journaling on my page reads: "On December 6, Henry woke up to snow in Eugene, Oregon! It's a fairly rare occurrence, so the entire campus celebrated. Henry went to a football player vs. student snowball fight and played a little snow soccer. We've had record lows here, but nothing compared to Henry's snow day." And here's another picture I pulled off facebook:

My boy is wearing #16, standing second from the left and rather sensibly dressed!
The other thing that's a little different about the page is that it's out of order. I recorded the journaling on an undated miscellaneous page between Dec. 3 and Dec. 4. But that's just fine. Ali Edwards mentioned on her blog that she doesn't stress about matching the stories up with the exact dates because each story is a part of her December story. And that really spoke to me. I'm happy to capture this story, even if I didn't experience it and even if it's technically out of order because it's part of our family's December story. And now it will always be recorded in my December Daily.
How much flexibility do you allow yourself in your December album?

Dec. Daily: Christmas at the Humane Society

One of the things I'm enjoying about my December Daily album is the way I am capturing how the holidays are being celebrated at the places where we live our regular, ordinary lives.  For instance, Clara and I go the the Peninsula Humane Society every week to walk dogs and care for them in their kennels. When we went today, we found Santa there posing with pets!
During a break, he offered to take photos with volunteers, and I couldn't resist capturing a visit with Santa.

Even Clara was game!

Have you noticed how your everyday, routine places are dressing up for the holidays? Have you gone to visit Santa?

Look Up//Look Down #49: Christmas Time at the University

This December I chose to do a December Daily album, rather than Journal Your Christmas, because I want to create an album that documents not just the holidays but also what our lives are like at this moment. So, a lot of the pages will feature regular activities.  Like today, when basically all I did was to go to work. I did take this nice look up//look down pair that captures both the season and my work place. Looking up at the winter sky behind St. Ignatius church on campus and looking down at the reindeer and Christmas tree in our library. That's a picture of our Dean on top of the tree! The second photo will definitely be going into my December Daily.

Chatting about the Holidays and Dec. Daily over a Cup of Tea

Abi over at Creating Paper Dreams hosts a monthly gathering where bloggers can sit and have a virtual chat over a cup of tea. This month, she's chatting about the upcoming holidays. And I'd love to sit down and chat with you about the same thing. I'd start by showing you my latest Christmas acquisition. I saw it in the store last weekend and couldn't pass it up, even though it wasn't yet December and we just finished celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend.

I bought it because this year I'm feeling pretty festive, and I wanted to start decorating early. Next I'd show you a couple of pages from my December Daily album. Here are the pages for December 1. 

The journaling on the bottom of the second page reads "Sunday, Dec. 1.  December began just as the cross-country season ended.  We spent Thanksgiving at the Cargases enjoying a brief visit with Henry home from college. Clara and I spent Friday and Saturday in Fresno where she competed in the California State Championships and ran her best race of the season. By today, we were ready for a quiet day around the house. One season ends, a new one begins."  On the upper left journaling strips, I wrote about our sleepy winter day: "On December 1, we did homework, went to E.F. (our gym); checked out college websites to see if Clara could run there; did laundry; ate stuffed squash and watched The Walking Dead." I'm going to put this photograph on the first page. And here's the photograph I plan to feature on my December 2 page:

It's a photograph of the wonderful Christmas cards I got today from blog friends and a super cute ornament as a thank-you for hosting the photography scavenger hunt. I'm also going to put our Christmas card on this page. The journaling for Dec. 2 reads "I received my first Christmas cards today, as well as a really cute ornament. This spurred me to order our Christmas cards."
If you had time to have another cup of tea and chat some more, I'd share with you the introductory page of my December Daily album:

The journaling reads simply "Life is Good. A record of the everyday joys of our life this holiday season. "  I'd tell you that as much as I am feeling excited and festive this year, I still sometimes feel haunted by the ghosts of Christmas past. Last year our lives were in such tumult, and the memories return when I find the box of Christmas cards I ordered last year and never sent or remember shopping for our first artificial tree because I knew we could not make it out to the tree farm. I'd tell you that building my pages for December Daily 2013, writing the journaling, sticking down the cute embellishments and applying wash tape, always make me feel better. As does chatting with good friends. Over tea (virtual or otherwise). And finally, I'd ask if you have any holiday news to share . . . 

Make it Work December Daily (Frosty Festivities Blog Hop)

Welcome to my stop on the Frosty Festivities Blog Hop, hosted by Jennifer! She's offering up a wonderful prize in conjunction with the hop (details at the bottom of post) and lots of other hop participants have fun winter projects to share (you'll also find them listed at the bottom of my post).

Today I'm going to share the album I have put together for my December Daily Album.  I call it my "Make it Work" album because everything I used came from my stash . . . and not all of it screams Christmas. So, I definitely had to, in the words of Tim Gunn, make it work! I started out with this as my base album:

A 7x9 Knee Highs and Bow Ties journaling binder that I won from Kristin at the end of her Find Your Voice Storytelling class. The kit came with several page dividers, several 7x9 page protectors, several page protectors divided into six squares and several page protectors divided into three sections. As you can see, the page dividers are not Christmas-themed, but I figured I could make it work. So, I grabbed some Christmas papers, including most of a package called Winter Fun by Carta Bella (which I won last year in Jennifer's Frosty Festivities blog hop!). I also decided to use a bunch of Tim Holtz inspired tags I have made during the "12 Tags of Christmas" class he used to run.

I then started cutting papers to fill the various page protectors and added embellishments:

7x9 page protector and six square facing page

Three section page protector and facing page divider.

On the page above, you will see that I had to be creative in covering up the non-holiday page dividers, but it was pretty easy because I simply covered up almost the entire page! For these next few, I did things a little differently:

I left the base page as-is but added a whole bunch of holiday stickers to make it more festive.

On the right hand side, I covered up a car graphic along the bottom and added stickers up top. The left hand page is a full 7x9 page protector. And sometimes, I managed to find Christmas embellishments that worked, even with the nontraditional color scheme:

On the whole, I really like my blank album. It's fun and different but, since I stayed with similar tones throughout, it is even fairly cohesive.  You can click on the pictures to see the pages in more detail if you want.  I'm planning to do a 1-2 page per day from Dec. 1-25. I plan to vary the size and number of photos, depending upon what I do that day. I am really looking forward to this project because I have really enjoyed the previous "Photo-a-Day" or "Week in My Life" projects that I have completed. I've done Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas a few times, but this year I wanted to create something that was a more general capture of our life this December. I'm also hoping it will help us be more festive!

I'd love to hear what plans you have (if any) for a December Daily, Journal Your Christmas or other Holiday Journal project.

****************************************************************************

And now for the prize information: If you comment on all the blogs in the hop, finishing at www.jennifergracecreates.com and let Jennifer know you've been all the way around, then you'll be in with a chance to win a jolly seasonal prize of Simple Stories December Documented and Elle’s Studio Noel items, worth over £28! All entries must be received by Monday the 11th of November at 10.59pm GMT. 

So, click on over to Sarah to continue with the hop.  If you get lost along the way, here's the various hop participants:

Jennifer: www.jennifergracecreates.com

Annie: www.artyfartyannie.blogspot.co.uk

Clair: www.obstinatepursuit.blogspot.co.uk

Daphne: www.dapfniedesign.wordpress.com

Diane: www.dianepayne.typepad.com

Jacky: www.scrappyjackylive.blogspot.co.uk

Jill: www.jillcornell.blogspot.co.uk

Katherine: www.fruitofmyscraps.blogspot.co.uk

Lisa-Jane: www.comeinsidemycrazyhead.blogspot.co.uk

Meghann: www.meghannslittlecorner.blogspot.co.uk

Natalie: www.onescrappydoctor.blogspot.co.uk

Riikka: www.paperiliitin.blogspot.co.uk

Rinda: www.gallorganico.blogspot.co.uk

Sarah: www.scropping.blogspot.co.uk

Sheena: www.sheenasscrapsandscribbles.blogspot.co.uk

Jennifer: www.jennifergracecreates.com

Sneak Peek from my creative weekend!

I'm enjoying a long, productive weekend. Yesterday, I had a wonderful lunch with an old friend at a tea shoppe with great food (but painfully slow service). It's also a polo/tack shop and has a beautiful garden, so at least it was a pleasant wait. Later in the day, I spent time watching Clara run, using the computer feed set up by the meet, and texting with my brothers and sisters who there watching her in person. She did great and the whole team finished very well.
Creatively, I completed the base pages for my December Daily, 2013 album. I'm only posting a little sneak peek today because I'll reveal the whole thing the weekend of Nov. 8-10 when I participate in the blog hop for Jennifer Grace's Frosty Festivities!

You can read more about the Frosty Festivities free blog event here. You can also enter to win a great paper pack from Glitz Designs, so pop on over and see Jennifer

Today, I'm going to do some computer work with my photographs, so I can order prints and to create some fresh blog posts, plus I'll make a few cards. I'm hoping to squeeze some time out to finish my Learn Something New Everyday/Faces album, but I also have some actual work to do and I'm going to watch a friends' son in a high school play tonight! I'll keep you posted on my progress. What are you up to this weekend?

Summertime Plans Redux

A few days ago, I posted about my desire to come up with summer plans that included some fun, in addition to the projects which have dominated my summertime agenda. After pondering for a while and rereading the links in my post, I decided that while I want to accomplish a variety of things this summer, I also want to experience the joys of summer.  So I came up with my summertime list and divided it into five categories: fun; learn; sweat; repair; and maintain.  I've been itching to make a mini journaling book featured in Jennifer's Projects that Wow class, and I thought it would be a perfect way to memorialize my list.  I don't want to give away class secrets for free, but I will show you a peek into my booklet:

And here are my lists:
Fun
1. Go to the beach: pick sea class; study the tide pools; sit on the sand.
2. Sit beside the fire ring out back, enjoying a drink and good conversation with family and friends.
3. Enter a photograph in the County Fair and then attend to see if I won a ribbon.  I really wanted to do this but when I investigated further, I found that the fair is already half over and entries were due back in April! 
4. Pick blackberries.
5. Go to the zoo.
6. Visit the  Filoli Estate: take photographs and sketch.
7. Visit the Museum of Modern Art
8. Take Clara and her friends to Great America, The Boardwalk and other fun places
9. Go to a concert at Stern Grove
10. Create a fun zone in the garage
Learn
1. Attend obedience classes with the dogs.
2. Enroll Clara in lifeguard training and/or swim aide program.
3. Online art classes (I blogged about these here)
Sweat
1. Empowered Fitness and running for me
2. Empowered Sport for Clara
3. Running for Clara
4. Kick Boxing for Clara
5. Swimming for Clara
6. Spinning Class for Clara
Repair
1. Clean out the garage
2. Fix up the back yard
3. Inventory and trouble-shoot the computers
4. Fix internet in the house and the television in Clara's room
Maintain
1. Dentist for Henry and Clara
2. Doctor for me
3. Doctor for Clara
4. Eye doctor for me
5. Dentist for me
*****************************************************************
Feeling much better about my summertime plans!

Pass the Book: Last Call

I have been enjoying Trading Card Treasures: Sharing Cherished Photographs by Carol Heppner, which I received as part of Pass the Book: Year Two, hosted by Melissa of Daily Life - Bits & Pieces (read the details of how Pass the Book works here).  The book is all about how to use photographs when making Artist Trading Cards (some times called ATC's or ACEO's). My favorite techniques in the book were about making multi-page cards.  I made a little Marilyn Monroe mini-album based on one of the ideas in the book. The front and back covers are up top. Here are the interior pages:

I was intrigued by the book because I have so many collage sheets, and I'm always looking for new ways to use my images. Plus, I enjoy creating in the ATC format (2.5x3.5 inches).  The book is very good for beginners and has a few ideas for intermediate or advanced ATC artists. The instructions are very clear and could be used for any age group. 

I posted once before to see who was interested, and the names I currently have in the draw are:

Scrappy Jacky

Carola

Deb

Mel

Julia

If you are interested in the book but aren't on the list, let me know. I'll pull a name tomorrow night (Monday, Nov. 19) and post the winner on Tuesday. Please remember that, with Pass the Book, once you've had it for a while, you need to offer it up to others and pass it on . . .

Attitude of Gratitude {2}

This month, I'm working on a Gratitude Journal, in conjunction with Bernice's Attitude of Gratitude challenge blog. To read about how I set up my journal and to see previous pages, click on the "gratitude" link at the bottom of this post.  This page was inspired by Bernice's Day 3 prompt and quote on creativity. I really love the scripture: "He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers - all of them skilled workers and designers." I journaled around the angel with my thoughts on how art and creativity are gifts from a higher power that tend to be unleashed when I open my heart. For the embellishment, I drew on her idea from Day 9 to use fabric on a page.  Instead of fabric, I layered lace on top of ribbon to create a brocade effect and stay within my color palette.

The page on the left draws from several different posts.  The quote "I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw." goes with the Day 11 prompt about learning. But, to me, it resonated with the work that I do as a teacher and an activist. This page was also influenced by the Day 6 prompt on technology, which included a scripture about work/labor, and the Day 7 prompt which suggested using a stencil. My journaling along the branches reads "I am grateful to have a job in which I can pursue justice, for I have seen injustice and it has touched my heart." I used the Byzantine green metallic paint again.
The page on the right draws mainly from the Day 10 prompt on emotions, although for me, the page is really about trust. I used the creative prompt (use stars or hearts) and the scripture "Bring joy to your servants, Lord, for I put my trust in you." My journaling reads "I am grateful for the moments of peace that come from trusting in God's plan." I stamped the starts in antique white acrylic paint.
Hope you found some inspiration today, and a huge thanks to Bernice for providing such a wonderful challenge for November.

Attitude of Gratitude {1}

I am working on a Gratitude Journal in November. You can see my plan for it by clicking at this link. The genesis for this project is Bernice's Attitude of Gratitude challenge blog.  Because I started late, I'm not following her posts exactly - I'm mixing and matching her prompts and really enjoying the process.
The page on the left features her Day 7 quote ("At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person." Albert Schweitzer). I added journaling "I am grateful for Paul, and for my friends who pick me up and rekindle my light. I used Byzantine metallic green paint for the letters and my scarlet lime journaling pen.
The page on the right combines her Day 8 prompt on "Self" and Day 9 prompt on strengths. The journaling reads "I am grateful for my inner strength and recognize its roots in my family tree." The prompt suggested using a picture of yourself. I chose these two heritage pictures instead (one is my cousin; the other is my mom) because I think of them as my artistic alter egos. I use them a lot in my art journaling to represent me. I drew the frame with Adirondack acrylics in cranberry, and I stamped a little heart in antique white paint. When stamping with paint, I brush the paint onto the rubber to get a thin (but thorough) coat. Also, always remember to wash the acrylic paint off your rubber stamps right away to keep them from getting ruined.
Hope you like today's pages. If you do, I encourage you to check out Bernice's blog. It is really packed full of all kinds of inspiration!

Gratitude Journal (Monthly Make)

When Bernice of Newly Creative announced her November challenge blog, "An Attitude of Gratitude," I knew right away that I wanted to join in.  It took me forever to figure out what type of journal I wanted to use. I almost made a stitch-bound journal with drawing paper or an old journal I had laying around.  Eventually, I decided I wanted to use water-color paper and simply hold the sheets together with a brass ring. Because Bernice is posting a series of prompts that includes scriptures (as well as general quotes, an art technique and an inspirational idea), I decided to use religious/angel images from my stash.  While diving through my stash, I also decided to pick a color palette of paint from my miscellaneous paint bin (as opposed to the Golden brand acrylic paints which I tend to use).  The colors include metallic copper, metallic green, dark brown, antique white, cranberry and eggplant. Here's what I ended up with as my supplies for the project:

I painted all the pages with a background of byzantine copper paint and then used gel medium to adhere the images. I decided early on that I didn't want to try to make a page each day. I ended up with 16 pages, which feels just right. 

Every day, Bernice offers a prompt filled with so many ideas! Rather than try to reread them each day that I find time to work in my journal, I decided to use an idea that Shimelle featured in the latest version of her class, Learn Something New Everyday. I took a small notebook from my stash (thanks Deb!) and jotted down the quotes, artistic suggestions and scriptures which spoke to me.  That way, when I find time to create, I simply grab my little note book and go. I'm hoping to do a few pages today and start posting this week.  I'm also calling this my "Monthly Make" for November.
Are you doing a gratitude project this month? Did this give you any new ideas?