2 weeks of November Art Journalling

Week 1 -- this week coincided with the start of Julie's 30 Days in your Journal online class, so I used some of the same tools and techniques we used in the first set of pages. Watercoloured and spattered the background. SU Halloween stamp in black and french script BG in copper. Added part of a new Starbucks coffee sleeve and a subway ticket that Marc brought home from Shanghai. Sharpie for journaling, as I was having trouble getting other pens to work on this surface. It happens from time to time. Pitt marker doodles around the coffee sleeve, dabs of green acrylic with Julie's punchinella stencil, circles and copper with the chicken wire shape.

Week 2 - Started with a background technique by Cuchy, featured on Julie's blog a couple of weeks ago. Misted colours, sprinkled with salt while still wet. Fun! As I wrote, my husband surprised me with a new, and much needed and appreciated, laptop. A protective fabric like piece was inside, between the screen and keyboard, and those two triangle shapes were in it. A ready made stencil! I sprayed with a dark brown walnut ink, dried my new stencil and added it to my stash. The cardboard sun was packagin material from a mug, brushed with yellow acrylic, then sponged with brown distress ink. Added some bits of paper from the week, wrote the big letters in black acrylic, journalled with a black Pitt marker, and coloured inside the heart with a pink chalk pen.

The Rest of October -- Art Journalling

Week 3 - I knew I wanted to use this stencil, but didn't want to start with my plain gessoed pages. So I used gel medium to apply strips of newpaper. Then the orange. Then then stenciled image. Then . . . I didn't want to cover it! I added a few die cut shapes and stalled again. Pulled out Julie's words stamps, chose 5 randomly, and using those as my starting point for this week's journaling.

Week 4 - black gesso, Julie's circle stamps with orange acrylic, a white spider die cut, and more acrylic paint.

October Art Journaling

October Week 1

Another one of those pages that started with leftover paint from the week before. I added the light blue with the intention of using black and the skyline stencil. The results weren't very crisp. I added a TH stamped image of a bug, and a couple of white rub ons. And our fortunes from Saturday's PF Chang dinner. Some Sakura pens for a bit more doodling, and the FC Pitt markers for most of the journaling.

October Week 2

It was an especially pink week in this pink month. I knew I wanted these pages to be pink. I used pink acrylic on gessoed pages, before the gesso was completely dry. I like how it turned out. I had picked up a pink chalk pen at Michael's -- it was among all of their BC Awareness stuff. I used it for all of my journaling. The white is a Sharpey paint pen.

Last Week's AJED

September Week Four and One Half

Last week, while I was working on these pages, Julie blogged about participating in a Sizzix blog hop, and shared the book she made for it. See it here.  I love love love the colours she used, and that was my starting point for this week. I blended acrylics to get this bright red orange. The black on the left is actually the result of a sloppy stencil job, so I covered it up. Once it was dry, I used Julie's leaf frame stencil and I love the result. Her punchinella stencil was used on the right, I added some journaling lines with the edge of an old gift card, and a piece of 7Gypsies tape filled the space on the left. Getting close to the end of the book, the left hand pages are tougher to work on away from the edges, cuz the left side is fat and lumpty. I did my journaling with a black sharpy this time. The paint finish is quite smooth, but it still seems to suck the life out of most of my pens. A sharpy is easier and cheaper to replace.

Art Journaling - September in September

Typos in paint -- I can't even be bothered trying to fix them. But I do know how to spell practice, just not how to paint it!

This is what I did last week.

These pages got their start with leftover paint from the week before. I squeezed out waay too much green for the stencil I was using, and didn't want to see it go to waste, so I turned the page and glopped on that green. Then I added bits of red and black that were also on the palette. I also flipped the stencil from the previous page and pressed it on these pages. Then I propped the book open, or so I thought. Not well enough, cuz the pages stuck a bit. Hence the white shmears.

Once dry, I stenciled across the top with some stencils I got in a book awhile ago. Black acrylic paint, of which I again squeezed out too much. That made my journaling decision for me. A small round brush and a bit of water. I want to work on script more with a brush. Printing is fairly easy but I need more practice writing with a brush in hand.

Those lovely green rhinestone flowers are Kaisercraft, and the cheese label is just something from my stash. It's delicious cheese!

September Art Journaling

The idea is to blog about life, but life keeps getting in the way of blogging! I blame it on the rain. Its been a big time suck in so many ways and continued this weekend, wreaking havoc on soccer schedules and yardwork. Always something.
So once again, I'm playing catch up with my art journaling. October will be here in less than a week, and I'm finally sharing some September pages.
One of the problems with not sharing weekly, is that I can't quite remember how I did some of these.

September Week 1

Awaiting my Julie stencil order, I pulled out some CWS stencils that I already had, and played with a couple, using Adirondack wash, Perfect Pearls Mist and Glimmer Mist. Maya Road Things To Do list, AC Date sticker, and some decorative paper tape by Cavallini & Co.I didn't spend much time on these pages. This was our first full week back home and we had a lot to do as a result of being away for so long.

September Week 2

This background really evolved. I started out spraying some Adirondack wash and Perfect Pearls. I then sprayed water to create the drips. That also muted the colours. I gessoed the raindrops through my brand new JFFB stencil. Love these!

Now this is a place to play and learn and I learned that a sponge brush isn't the best applicator for my purpose. Between that and the curve in the pages, some of my raindrops lost their shape. Oh well! I used the stencil to trace the raindrop shapes from some of the week's photos, and included them. Journaled in the remaining teardrops using FC Pitt markers.

Forgot to mention that both of these were built on gessoed pages.

September Week 3

With all of the France business mostly behind us, I was able to spend a little more time on these pages. While the gessoed base was still wet, I added strips of a polka dotted fabricky paper that was in the box with sneakers I purchased a couple of months ago. I tore them, so there's no consistency. I used gel medium to make them stick. The gesso alone wasn't quite cutting it.

I signed up for Julie's Stenciling 101 and this page made me realize I need to visit it and learn how to build more brilliant and defined layers. I also need to develop patience. The background might look better had I let it dry, rather than dabbing at it with a paper towel. Couldn't help myself!!

I used Julie's chevron stencil on the right, with a heavy bodied acrylic. Same with the punchinella dots on the left, but there I went over it again with a different color and ultimately covered it with jockey stamps! I also used a home made stencil -- the packaging from a 6 pack of Trader Joe's yogurt. With my fingers, I applied a white acrylic to those 6 holes in the yogurt pack. I patiently waited  before adding any journaling and doodles. I added the 3 Australian stamps, layering one of them on a blank Lisa Leonard tag that I had been hanging on to. A little distress ink around the edges of that tag and those stamps. Done.



Six Weeks of Art Journaling on the Road

I had taken the time to prepare to continue my art journaling on the road. I packed a travel kit with watercolours, scissors, adhesives, tape, markers, gel medium, among other things. I gessoed six sets of pages, one for each week we were scheduled to be away.

I saved all sorts of ephemera from our travels - brochures, ticket stubs, newspapers, napkins, menus, business cards. The gel medium was perfect for adhering these items to my pages. The first few weeks, my pages looked pretty similar.

July Week 3:

This week was a day in Paris, 2 days in Reims, 2 days in Paris, a day in Reims and then back to Paris for the weekend. Included bits of a Paris map, train ticket, napkin from a restaurant, newspaper, Reims map, Louvre brochure. And doodles with markers and watercolours.

July Week 4:

We were on the road, waking up in Germany Monday morning, spending Monday night in Munich, Tuesday in some Italian town just inside the border, Wedneday in Florence (delightful!) Thursday in the Cinque Terre coastal region of Italy, ending up in Monaco on Friday, for several days.  These pages were more of the same: maps, business cards, menus, newspaper and brochure bits. Doodles and bits of journaling.

August Week 1:

We started the week with a couple more days in Monaco, then hit the road Wednesday for a leisurely drive through France. Nice, Aix en Provence, Lyon, Dijon, Troyes, and back in the Reims area for the weekend. More stuff from our travels. Menu, parking vouchers, cool foil packaging from a Monaco chocolate coin.

August Week 2:

Most of this stuff was odds and ends from a quiet week in Reims, and a quick weekend trip to Belgium - Brussels and Brugge. A cool business card from a not so delicious crepe restaurant, more maps, wrappers from the free chocolates in our Brussels hotel. Journaling. Doodles.

August Week 5:

An entire week in one place is reflected in these more simple pages. We stayed put. Played soccer. Walked. Fed the ducks at the park. Did laundry once. Visited the hospital once. (Nick's hand -- cut that wasn't healing well) and of course the Police Station, in Reims, called the Hotel de Police. We did discover that fabulous bakery with the crispy baguettes and yummy meat pies.

And the last week of journaling on the road, my August Week 4:

This one, start to finish, was completed at home. I didn't even look at these pages that last week, til we got home. I had it in my head to use clouds, and perhaps rain, to document the crap. But I realized that being my birthday week, it wasn't all bleakness and clouds. So I cut out cardboard clouds for the left side, and a cardboard sun and rays for the right side. After a quick wash of yellow watercolour, with the sun in place over top and the clouds on the other side, I spritzed the pages with a few different blues. Journaled the 'bad' stuff in the clouds and the good, on the sunny side. Along with my age. It's just a number, right!?

Back in Business!

I'm baaaaccckkk! And hopefuly, to stay! Not back home. Yet. But back online. We've been fortunate to be in France, where Marc is working. What hasn't been working is my computer. Specifically, my power cord. The connection to my computer is loose, so the battery drains and then I can't use it. Even with all of the gadgets we're traveling with, I really can't get any blogging done if MY computer is down. Marc needs his computer for work, so I can't muck around on it. My Nook, an e reader, has a web browser, but its function is limited and I can't download photos to it with my camera's big CF cards. It doesn't have a usb port either. Then there's the ipods. Embarassingly, three, in our family. Everyone but me, and that's just fine. The kids have theirs as a result of Marc's upgrading his. And Marc also has an ipad, but that's his too.

We're actually traveling with our own router and a big power bar. The router works in locations where the free internet is hardwired, or the wifi doesn't work well, and the power bar is great for plugging in everything that needs charging -- all of these devices plus cell phones, cameras/batteries, you name it. We haven't camped for a couple of years and it would be fun to see how we would manage without electricity!

For now, my computer seems to be connecting to the power source properly. I'm handling it like an explosives expert attempting to detonate a bomb, and driving everyone else crazy with it! They know to steer clear of the cord and to not touch my computer. We're in one spot for a few days, so I'm hoping to catch up and share some photos soon. Marc was off the second and third weeks that we were here, so we travelled to Germany, Austria, Italy and the south of France. Back in Reims now, where he's working, we're still able to take small side trips. We just returned from a weekend in Belgium.

And I have been art journaling, though not 10 minutes a day. Just minutes, here and there, when I can find the time. I'll have to get those pages photographed, so I can share them.

Here are the last pages photographed, started back home and finished in Reims. My week 2 for July:

I picked up these stamps at my LSS, which sadly, is now closed. They were clearing out stock so I got a great deal, but I'd rather they were still open. On gessoed pages, I stamped, using Palette Noir ink. I watercoloured the background, coloured the stamped images with FC fine Pitt markers, which I also used to add colour elsewhere. I finished up the journaling with black Pitt markers, and some of the colours that I'm traveling with.

I prepped 6 sets of pages with gesso before we left, so that I could keep up with my art journaling. Its been more collaging than anything else, as I've been saving a lot of ephemera from our travels. I'll get those photographed soon.

Ready for the road!

Finishing Up June

I call this  - June week 4 and a half.

I first glued a few bits of the week's ephemera to the pages: a tag from a bag Gaby purchased, the tag from Nick's hiking boots for Guatemala, and the menu from Five Guys, where we had a delicious lunch of freshly made burgers and Cajun fries. Mmmmmmm. Gessoed the pages, lightly in some spots so the stuff underneath would show through. I stamped around the edges with Julie's ticket stamps. Love these too -- her freehand style translates so well to stamps.I tried out some new FC pens that I got -- the combo packs that come with the fat marker, gelato, watercolour pencil and marker. Went over them with a wet brush. Used watercolour crayons on the tickets themselves. Journalled with the Pitt markers.

July week 1.

Inspired by TH. He created a card on his blog for the 4th, and I used his stamps and duplicated his design. I used the FC fat markers on both stamps. I like the effect on these gessoed pages -- watercoloury. I used grey on the stars, where TH used white. The red and blue stripes are FC Aquarelle watercolour pencils. Like these too! The 4th stamp is SU, inked up with the same fat markers. Journaling is the pitt markers too.

Art Journaling for June - and it's now July!

I accomplished half of what I set out to do with my art journaling, in finishing up weekly pages for that week. But I obviously found it difficult to share them here. Not sure why, though summer did start off with a bang!

School was finished on Friday the 17th, and the following week, we were busy every day with VBS. Nick and Gaby were both counselors this year, and I got to be the official photographer. We all loved our jobs!

So I guess that's how I fell behind in posting my art journaling every day. Here's the rest of June:

June, week 3. Gessoed the pages, and then stamped all over with an SU Pattern Pieces stamp that I came across while tidying up my desk. I am not sure why I did this. As soon as I was done, I found myself staring at the pages, asking that very question. Why had I covered the pages with these itty bitty pattern piece shapes, and what was I gonna do next?

I ended up pulling out my SU watercolours and trying out different colour groupings on each set of pieces. I liked how it looked when completed, but I wasn't sure where I could/should journal. So I cut out the letters for the words 'School is out!', adhered those, and journaled on them with my fabulous FC Pitt markers.

June, week 4, I decided to cover my pages with bits of this lovely brown tissue I received with a recent purchase. Gel medium works so well for this and the result is much less sticky than with mod podge. And that's important during the humid season here, which can be April - October!

I also finally got my JFFB stamps, and I tried out the butterflies on these pages. The first images were a bit cloudy, as I had forgotten how bumpy the pages were. I got better as I stamped more. I watercoloured the wings, added a peacock feather rub on (Dove of the East, I believe) a recent fortune, the cap from the first bottle of Woodchuck cider for this season, and a TH journaling ticket. Again, the journaling was done using FC Pitt markers, which work well on so many surfaces.

Done!

Art Journaling Every Day - June in June!

June, week 2 pages:

With a glue stick, I adhered strips of ribbon on the pages. I journaled and doodled in the squares, added colour with water colour, white dots with a new marvy pen. Most of the journaling was done with the signo pens, the rest with fine black micron pens. There's also a Dove of the East rub on in one of the squares. Setting up pages this way makes it easier to add to it daily, at least for me. I can't seem stop with just a small bit each day.  I often find myself starting my pages, and allowing myself just a bit more. Then just a bit more. And before I know it the pages are full.

Perhaps by the end of the year I'll be better at pacing myself. We'll see

Art Journaling for June

My son left for his last full day of school today. Exams next week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, make ups Thursday and last day Friday. The year has certainly flown by. My daughter has loved her teacher and classmates so much this year, that she's not ready for it to end.

I, as usual, am so far behind on my to-do list, on what I thought I'd have completed as the end of the first half of 2011 looms. But I am keeping up with my art journaling! For now. Summer may change that. But since it's not officially summer yet, here's my first week of June pages:

The foundation for these pages is SU watercolour crayon circles. Doodled the stripey background with my FC Pitt markers. And filled in the circles with some lame doodles and journaling. Started journaling with the gel pens, but finished with the Pitt markers. I think the white laundry marker random doodles caused more of a problem for the gel pens than the markers.

I've even worked on this week's pages, but have nothing to share right now. Started out with a ribbon grid. We'll see how it turns out!

The end of May

Finished up the last of my pages for May. Week 4:

Watercoloured on gessoed pages. Added the postcard invite for Carole's opening, which is tonight. Our boys are busy, so Gaby and I are attending! I also added some bits from a package, and a picture of our Roxi dog, who is now living with her new family. I'll have to share that story soon. Its heartbreaking and still has me in a funk. We miss her.

Pages that I started this week:

No gesso. Used SU watercolour crayons to draw circles all over the pages. FC Pitt markers to do the background lines, and a bit of white laundry marker dabbed here and there. That's all I've got so far. Went with the brighter colours for a new month!

More Art Journaling for May

May week 2:

Gessoed these pages, then stamped images from an Autumn Leaves set that I just had to have when it came out, oh, 5 years ago, and have NEVER USED! Can't believe that. This was when acrylic stamps were first hitting the market and I found this one especially appealing. Had to have it! Never used it til now. So when I peeled the stamps off of their backing, they were quite gummy. I find that with acrylic stamps that sit before I get around to using them. They are either gummy, or difficult to remove from the backing  -- they often tear. Obviously, if I'm not using them when I first get them, I don't really need them. I have a serious stamp habit.

It was fun to finally use these, even if the image wasn't as dark as I would have liked, due to the gumminess. I used watercolor and my FC Pitt markers to colour the images. The hearts and the journaling were actually done with some new Signo uniball pens I picked up a couple of weeks ago. I like them.

May week 3:

I finished up these pages upon my return from Canada. I left on Tuesday, solo, for my high school's 50th anniversary celebration, and was also there to celebrate my Dad's 75th birthday. Bonus!

I used some bits and pieces from my travels -- business cards, a coaster, piece from a bakery box, a Canada post envelope, baggage tags -- and adhered them with gel medium. Unified them with a light brushing of gesso, sprayed some Adirondack color wash in butterscotch, red pepper, and sunset orange.. The flowers are SU stamps, watercoloured. The letters I journaled inside are outlined with Pitt brush marker, the journaling is the Signo black pen again. A few more dabs of paint and white laundry pen, and done.

And for this week:

My pages in progress. Gessoed and waiting to add these bits that were among the mail waiting for me. Packaging from wool I received for Nicole's online class, and the postcard is an invite to a friend's gallery opening next week. The piece is called OISEAU ROUGE. Isn't it fabulous?! Here's the link to the invite on FB: Carole's Opening   If you're in the Philly area, its next week, First Friday.

Art Journaling for April & May

Traveled to Canada last week, armed with, among other things, a flash drive with these two photos. I had every intention of writing this post while I was there, using my parents' computer. However, the usb port on their computer was loose and wiggly, so those photos came back home the way they went, and never saw the light of day!

Here's what I did the last week of April:

No gesso on these pages. Just watercoloured a background, tried my hand at a face, painted some circles, stamped some elephants (and the word lucky, which was part of the set) and journaled with my FC markers. I have since watched one of Julie's many AJ video clips where she created a face, and I must try her techniques. Many more layers of colour before she added the features. Mine is flat and boring, but it's my first attempt at freehanding with paint, so I'll keep it!

The first week of May:

Two weeks in a row with no gesso?! I'm happy to report that the pages are sturdy enough to stand up to this treatment. This is a Moleskine sketchbook, so I suppose that's why.

I watercoloured the pages blue, cut the pennant shapes from a small BG paper pack, included a photo of the birthday boy with his cookie cake, and the rest is FC markers.  Oh, and the frame stamp around the photo is Autumn Leaves.

Where Did April Go?

At this time last year I had been diagnosed with breast cancer and was facing surgery, and I still blogged. Actually started a second blog about that journey, which I refer to as my Lemonade Blog Went through chemo and radiation, and still blogged fairly regularly, on both. Finished treatment just before Thanksgiving, have been on tamoxifen for 5 months now, and have really dropped the ball here. The only excuse that I can come up with is that the tamoxifen causes intense hot flashes, day and night, and I don't sleep well anymore. So I find myself being less productive in the evenings, which is when I would usually blog.

And now, May 2nd finds me catching up with posting some art journaling. I've been adding to the Flickr Group fairly regularly, but it's been more than a month since I've shared here.

Starting with March, week 4:

Working on a canvas for Emily's Got Paint class at the same time, I started these pages in a similar  manner, bits of patterned paper lightly gessoed. TP roll circles with acrylic paint,  bubble wrap circles, also with acrylic paint,a birdie and branch punched from scraps of masking taped and painted paper. A small doily touched up with distress ink, a feather from our budgie and a Starbucks gift card take up all of the space that isn't journaling. FC Pitt markers for journaling.

March Week 5 (a couple of months are gonna have a week 5 and this is one of them!):

Sometimes you do a page you don't like and this is one of those times! I was painting the bathroom this week and used the wall colour for the base of my pages.  I used a mask and some spray mist, but can't recall exactly what. The photo is from a day spent with friends I used to work with 14 years ago. I hadn't seen one of them since I left that job, so it was a special day. They were having a girl's week in NYC, and came down my way for the day -- fabulous!! Back to the page, those two patterned pieces are the tops of tissue boxes. I saw them at Target and figured they'd go well in the bathroom, so I stocked up. They were on sale! Journaled with those reliable FC Pitt markers.

April week 1:

Chose pink over my gessoed pages because I had a mammogram this week. All good, thankfully! The quote was one that a friend had recently posted as her FB status. I like it. I coloured the letters with Pitt markers, painted the heart with some water colours, and doodled and journaled with the markers. The red ticket is from the raffle held at our neighborhood 5K, and the card from LLD was included in an order I received that week. Magic wands for the bubs for their birthdays. I love LL's stuff!

April week 2:

Gessoed the pages, folded the book closed when it was still wet and opened it to let it dry with some interesting textures. Green acrylic, and when dry, a CW template sprayed with PP mist. The turtle is from Turtles, one of my steady and favourite snacks of all time! Mmmmmm, I love Turtles. (that was a song featured in a Turtles commercial, back in the day, in Canada) Doodling and journaling with the Pitt markers.

April week 3:

Spring break, so these pages had to be green! The kids were home all week and we enjoyed some down time. Green acrylic over gesso. I stamped several flowers on the pages, stamped a few on cardstock, and watercoloured all. I also added a couple of flowers made using embosslit folders, and a couple that were punched from the cover of a CAbi catalog. I had used Stazon to stamp the images, but after watercolouring, the outlines were muted, so I went over all of the stamped images with a brush Pitt marker. All of the punches, folders and stamps are SU.

Thinking that perhaps I should schedule blogging days, to try to get back on track. We'll see how THAT goes!! I should also get rid of the frozen tree in my blog header and look for something more spring like. Though my Mom said they saw snow it Winnipeg last weekend. In May! Wacky weather everywhere.

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More Art Journaling for March

Catching up with a couple of week's worth of Art Journaling. During the second week of March, I've been doing some painting for Emily's online class, Got Paint. Had this green leftover, so I decided to use it for this week's pages. We were also stamping with paint. That's where the blue flowers came from, and I added the colour with SU watercolour crayons. This was also the week that Starbucks officially introduced their new logo, and the sleeve worked well on the green background, as did the bracelet from Gaby's school's talent show. The Asian lady is part of a glassine bag from Chinese takeout we had for supper Sunday. Coloured her with FC Pitt markers. Used fine black for the journaling.

Should have saved the green for this week, with it being St. Patrick's Day Thursday! Nick and Gaby got into the green, picking up some items at the dollar store to enhance their outfits for school that day.

These pages were first gessoed, then burnt sienna acrylic. I stamped off some colour using the cut out bottom of a styrofoam meat tray. It had a cool grid pattern, so I saved it for something just like this! I also added a bit of blue paint using the same styrofoam 'stamp'. I like the way it looks.

The Chinese Proverb is a quote I was using to make a card for someone special. I still need to practice 'writing with paint' so I made two backgrounds. Just in case. I used textured cardstock and a bamboo background stamp. After the painted words dried, I used a white Chinese laundry pencil, and have Julie to thank for that. She mentioned it in a recent blog post, and I added it to a Dick Blick order I was ready to place. Love it! Thanks Julie!!

I had also made a green background for a birthday card, and used the scraps to punch hearts to make a shamrock to recognize this St. Patrick's Day week. The hands are rubs ons from Dove of the East. Not sure if Dove of the East is still around. I do love these rub ons and should use them more. The little blue leafy piece is punched from paper that I had covered in masking tape and then painted. Another technique from Emily. Studio G mini alpha stamps for the Rita's title and FC Pitt markers for the rest.

And this is the second attempt at the Chinese Proverb, that was made into a card. The only difference between this and the first one is that I used a Pitt marker to write at the bottom, and I added some white scribbles with that wonderful white pencil!

Art Journaling for March

February and March, actually. These are pages I did the week that Julien left. And speaking of Julien, I don't know why the post I wrote about his visit came out so wonky. Everytime I created a subtitle, the first paragraph that followed was blank on the actual post. Not sure why that happened. If anyone has more blogger expertise and might know why, I'd love to know!

For these pages, I used gel medium as per Julie, who recently mentioned using it for collage. It's similar to mod podge but doesn't dry sticky, so I think that will be my go-to product for collaging also. Thanks for that Julie! I attached a ticket that Marc had brought home from his recent travels, and some torn pieces of newspaper. I added colour with Grumbacher transluscent water colours and I like the way the colours looked on the gel medium. I didn't cover the entire page with the gel medium. There was just residue from adhering the pieces and the paint over that residue left an interesting finish. I also used a couple of stamps from ElvieStudio I found Lori through Julie's AJED group and ordered several of her stamps from her etsy shop. I also used some TH stamps on this page. Some FC Pitt pens for colouring and journaling. Done.

More Art Journaling for February

The last half of February was all about our French exchange student, Julien. He arrived on the 16th, a Wednesday, and we headed to DC on the Friday, which was the start of a 4 day weekend for President's Day. During their two week visit, the French students had several excursions to Philly and NYC, so we thought Washington would be a good choice for the weekend. That's how my pages for this week ended up so very red, white and blue!

On my gessoed foundation, I used some Golden Fluid acrylics left from a Donna D class I had taken before Christmas. Quinacridone Crimson and Turquois (Phthalo) to be exact. The stars were painted with the same turquois (tough to spell it without the 'e'!), outlines with a white Sharpie, and then India ink. I used the white sharpie and India ink for most of the journaling, except for the blue and red. That was done with FC's Pitt Artist Pens, brush tip. AC Moore has been carrying them, so, with a 50% coupon, I picked up a couple of assorted packs. I think I mentioned before how I like that the colour stays fairly true on my backgrounds.

The rest of the page has bits of stuff from the weekend, like the room card envelope from the hotel, and, from a restaurant we had lunch at, a bit of the paper used to wrap the cutlery and napkin. The heart was punched from a coffee sleeve and dabbed with some white acrylic paint.  The red patterned tape is from a roll gifted to me by Stacy, my dear Flickr buddy!

My page for the last week of February was definitely created with Julien in mind! It didn't take long to realize that turquoise blue was one of his favourite colours, at least to wear. He brought a couple of shirts in this colour/shade, and purchased a couple more when he was here. So I knew my background would be that same blue that I used last week.

Not much else to explain here. I took Julien's baggage tag from his trip here, and a tag from a pair of jeans he purchased, and included both. The photo is from the 21st, Julien's 15th birthday. It was fun to celebrate his birthday with him, and even better that his birthday fell on the Monday of President's Day weekend, so the kids had no school. He's wearing a Flyers shirt in the photo, which is NOT blue, cuz that was one of his birthday gifts! And he's wearing Gaby's birthday hat, because he's a good sport! All of the journaling and doodling is with India ink and the FC Pitt markers.

Some February Art Journaling

It is now March. I realize that I posted once in February. ONCE! So much for my goal of ,at the very least, posting weekly about my art journaling. I have a great excuse, which will be explained at great length in a post to follow shortly. Our French exchange student, Julien, with us for the last two weeks, returned to France Wednesday. Yesterday, though since I haven't slept yet, for me, he left us this morning. We had so much fun with him and are so sad that he's gone.

While I've again done a fair job of journaling regularly, photographing and sharing it has fallen to the bottom of my to do list.

Here's a couple of my pages for February:

I covered these pages with gesso, as I've been doing with most of my pages. I've been starting out with a coat of paint most weeks, and be it water colour or acrylic, I prefer to paint over the gesso. On these pages, when the gesso was still wet, I carved out the heart shapes using the handle end of a paint brush. The hearts were all painted using water colours and some water colour crayons. I glued a few bits down and used India ink to outline and journal and dot.

This is an idea I've had brewing for awhile. Ha ha, brewing! Read on and you'll understand why I think I'm so clever! These two pages are covered with the tags from Yogi brand tea bags. They have a variety of inspiring and uplifting words and sayings, and I'd never been able to dispose of them. I've saved them for awhile, but never been sure what to do with them. Displaying them here, I can enjoy them and even refer to them for quotes on other pieces.

This is a rare, non-gessoed spread. I knew I was covering most of the pages with these tags, so I didn't see it necessary to gesso. Though I do prefer the look of the paint on the gesso -- this one looks a bit dull to me. I watercoloured the pages , adhered the tags, and dabbed more watercolours on each tag. India ink for a bit of journaling for the week.

Promise to share more before April!!