Over the Flu Hump

I'm doing better, finally. Since I last posted, The Hubster came down with it, too. He even took a day off work, which is shocking in itself if you know him. I think he had perfect attendance grades 4 through 12 (grades 1-3 had a few days of absence due to mumps, measles and chicken pox, or he'd have had perfect attendance there, too). Anyway, he's back at it and recovering slowly but surely as well.

Oh, where to start catching up? Ah, oldest first. Here's my next art journal page, back in March (looks Halloween-ish, doesn't it? It's the Marah Johnson skull rub-ons):

The rest of today's photos are creations made last month. Here is a 4x6 artist postcard. I do not know what came over me to draw this...acute bravery, I guess (my courage isn't cute, just strong hehe). I guess it was time for me to play with the shabby whimsical portraits I've been learning to draw in Suziblu's class.

I call it Jane's New Dress because it looks like she's modeling it a little shyly. I used a charcoal pencil rubbed in with rubbing alcohol (it earned its name) and watersoluble oil pastels using watercolors as the wetting medium:

After it was finished, I realized I'd used Halloween colors, and she would have made a great Good Witch with the addition of a black hat or broom. Oh well, next time.

Next, how about an artist trading card?

The weekly mingle theme was purple power, so this is titled Purple Marie. I took a dusty mauve purple card base and rubbed in some w/s oil pastels. Then I stamped in purple around three corners and heat embossed in sparkly clear powder before adhering the images, from a collage sheet by Collage Visions.

Finally, a greeting card, made for another one of my nephews for his birthday:

I used sketch #160 from my yahoo group Stampers Corner and some ancient Scrapworks papers and diecut.

A little journaling

I need to get caught up with uploading my photos and scans, so first I have a journal spread to show. Then, I have some gorgeous art to show that I have received in the past month from members of my 4x6 Expressions yahoo group swaps and such.

{Click on all photos to see them larger}

Here is a background I did in my *Almost Daily* composition book art journal:

After gessoing the pages, I water colored the page in green, then brushed on some brown swirlies, then stamped circles in red distress ink, and green squares with versamark and brushed on Perfect Pearls. And here is what it turned into after I journaled:

On the left side, I've summarized a few movies worth remembering that I watched, and on the right side is an entry about one of my fave leftover meals, sliced steak salad with sweet cherry tomatoes and cole slaw. I meant for the red circles to represent the tomatoes, but I was basically doodle-stroking the green zig marker, not realizing til later it looks kinda like sliced cucumber, which is not in the salad but what the hey, right? The hand-written title is my practicing my creative lettering. I just began some self-paced online lessons in alphabet formation and creative lettering, so I should be trying my hand at it more in the coming weeks in my journals.

I also wanted to show some yahoo group art that has been making my mail box and me very happy recently. First up, 4 lovely 4x6 pieces from Sandi:


Next up, an abstract piece from Roz, and 2 cards from Nancy, an Asian themed and an Indian themed:


Then, a vintage "B" card from Nancy, a postage stamped beauty from Ayesha, and pretty butterflies from Jan:


I have been so pleased with the quality of art I receive from this group. I can only hope that mine has been as worthy. :-)

Until next time,

various & sundry things

i'm actually on a blogging roll on both of my blogs. this is like the third daily post in a row, mmwwwaaahhh winkwink. well, good for me, anyway.

so if ya haven't been here in a while, read on down to catch anything ya missed.

i was honored by my blogging friend cathy with this cool award:



The rules governing this award are as follows:

List 7 things about myself:
1. I'm left-handed.
2. I drink one glass of oj every day upon waking.
3. I try to drink 2 cans of V-8 every day.
4. I also drink a glass of Metamucil orange every other day.
5. My favorite *good* fruit to eat right now is apples.
6. My favorite luxury fruit is a ripe avocado.
7. I try to eat a salad every day.

Okay, I must be hungry. :-) Now, I need to pass this along to 7 other Kreative Bloggers:

1. Benita
2. Nancy
3. Linda B.
4. Laura Kay
5. Roberta
6. Ingrid
7. Shirley

I'll check all ya'll out in a few days to see what deep dark tidbits you list about yourselves...or not. :-)))




My latest budding collection obsession: the cupie doll illustrations of Grace Drayton, aka The Campbell Soup Kids of vintage yesterday. I love them, so when I saw these books on Amazon at special prices, I scooped them up. I think this is my first book of paper dolls. Always before I'd remained uninterested, but not with these little dolls. Sure wish I could find more sources. If anyone knows any good links, let me know!


One of my groups recently had a monthly lottery for artist trading cards with a green and gold theme. This was my entry. There are some other very nice cards entered, so I should find out on Wednesday if I won...wish me luck! :-))

until next time,

recycling to reuse...

How do you store your colored pencils and related supplies like erasers, blenders? Right now, I'm liking mine in this, scarfed before our old dishwasher was hauled away last year. I keep my watercolor pencils separate from these plain janes -- different techniques and process, so why mix them? Anyway, my tip for the day, in case you have one of these just laying around, lol. Nah, probably not...winkwink.

Journalling Update...

Lately, I've been in some kind of linear art progression borne from my being so anal, I fear. I get going on prepping pages, in my present case it is painting gesso on journal pages in every journal that needs it, and I cannot stop. Well, I can but I don't want to. I get the best feeling when I'm gessoing -- I feel secure, safe, peaceful -- much like the feeling I'd get when I colored as a kid. It's also mindless and that feels good, too.

At any rate, when I do get time to play, all of this gessoing prep gets in the way of actually creating something, because I don't have access to a journal. The journal I need is either underneath a weight getting pages flattened or laying open getting pages dried.

The answer, of course, is to have a journal for right now that is solely for creating without requiring a prepped page. That means gluebooking. So, problem solved, right? Well, you know dense old me, I have to get to the answer in my roundabout way. I went to my storage box that holds blank journals and looked around.


I "inherited" this 2006 student planner from Missy. She wrote in only about 2 dozen pages of it, so it is mostly blank. I love the way this book feels in my hands, and I like it that the wire binding is small in circumference. It has an attached vinyl zip-pocket on the front that I can keep or cut off. I'm keeping it on for now.


The back chipboard on this one is very thick and strong with a nice glossy finish.


The pages feel stronger and thicker than copy paper. I'm guessing at the very least they are 38# thickness. So, I pull out the journal and gesso a two-page spread. I immediately notice that it takes the gesso well and stays pretty flat. Score!

However, I am still in the same boat, just with one more journal in the mix.


So, I go back to my box and notice this 2006 hardbound planner. I have a few of these. I was ordering them through American Express. I like how this one feels in my hands too.


There are page spreads in the front and back that are gorgeously patterned.


And every month the month view has large photos of scenery or people doing things.


So, I gesso up a spread in this book. The pages do well, almost as well as the first planner. Still, same boat.


Finally my dense brain snaps and I pull out of the box another composition book. This one has SpongeBob SquarePants on the cover. That's the one. I can call it SpongeBabe GlueBook. winkwink


Finally, remember how I pasted on the strips from a mail-order catalog to pages in my *almost daily* journal? Well, this is a photo taken of it after the next step. I brushed gesso onto the last page spread of the strips. Doesn't it look cool? When I was brushing it on, it laid down fine, but if I back-brushed across the same spot, the gesso glopped up, literally changed form. Silly me just left it that way to see how it would look after drying. I like the way it looks. I'll have fun inking and glazing over this, and so far the pages are still sturdy and intact.

Until next time,