Triumphs and Defeats journal page

 

Another art journal page. I meant to have this ready for the Fall, Fearless, and Fly challenge but wasn't feeling well and didn't have the energy or desire to get it done on time. I am posting it anyway because it is a page and I did paint, and I also worked on it a lot. It doesn't make sense to me yet but I had this vision.....so I went with it.

The quote is this:

"Not in the clamour of the crowded street,

not in the shouts and the plaudits of the throng,

but in ourselves, are Triumph and Defeat."

 

The color theme is obvious: black and white. It was really different to work with just these colors but I love how it turned out.

To tell the truth I don't know what I would have colored this if I could have used any color!

 



 

Close ups of the two halves.

I'm also sharing this page with others on the following blogs:

Paint Party Friday-92

Art Journal Everyday -this is a group, you might have to join to view the artwork.

Creative Everyday-Art Every Day Month (Nov) #46

and Mandarin Orange Monday -#42 (for my "orange" version of this page below)

 

 

I just love photoshop! All I did was adjust the hue, saturation, and lightness of my page and this is what I got. Love it!

Create Everyday

I have been creating everyday this month. I've only done one art journal page but I've also made a card, a scrapbook page and I'm journaling in my smash book. I am loving it.

This page is me, I am very passionate about everything. I am also stressed out a lot. I have to learn to relax yet live passionately. Is that possible? Well, at least I hope you find this page interesting. Thanks for looking!

Artists in Blogland-Challenge on Fall, Fearless and Fly #2

 

I made this art journal page for the Fall, Fearless, and Fly art challenge #2. Take a Chance is the title for it.

I used the question prompt which reads: When did you take a chance or a leap of faith?

My answer: I take a leap of faith everyday, and God-well, He catches me.

 

That is how I really feel most days. It is an experience that is quite unnerving to me and I have been struggling for about a year or so now with learning how to deal with my autistic son. He recently had an experience that brought out his autistic tendencies along with ADD, Anxiety and depression. He has drastically changed from a boy I knew and raised to someone I have to get to know all over again. It is a big learning experience to say the least! (for the whole family)

 

I also used the second prompt-color prompt, which says:

Which color do you like least? Use it!

I used browns, which I like the least. I don't decorate my home with it and I don't wear it or use it in my artwork very often. After this challenge I just might use it more often because I have discovered it is a very useful color. It is found in nature, it reminds me of fall which is one of my favorite seasons, and there are so many different shades or tints of brown that one can use! I have rediscovered brown!

 

Thanks for visiting my blog! I really appreciate comments! And come again sometime!

 

Orange Cat, Blue Dog

 

 

Orange Cat, Blue Dog

 

I did this painting in my art journal this week. When I was checking out some of the online challenges this idea popped into my head. I love cats and this one isn't too happy about the dog walking along down the street. I love using bright colors! I especially like using colors on subjects that you don't usually see them in like the blue dog. I guess cats can be orange, but I have never seen one a bright orange like this.

I am including this page in the challenge over at Artists in Blogland called Fall, Fearless, and Fly.  I incorporated the colors for the Fall, Fearless, and Fly challenge, which is the second prompt. They wanted Oranges, reds, pinks, and yellows. I could have included more of the prompts but they don't really fit with this painting. You can check it out by following the link if you are interested in finding out more about this challenge. I am also posting this on the Inspiration Avenue site. The challenge is that we were supposed to use orange in our work and I think my orange cat satisfies that requirement. I view orange as a happy color. I also love contrasting colors and blue is one of my favs. I love to wear orange clothing, or any shade of orange. Coral is another of my favorite colors.

I used acrylics for this painting. I hope you enjoy it. I would really appreciate any comments you would like to leave. Thanks for visiting!

kelly rae

I was just reading on Kelly Rae's blog. This is what I came across:

"The deepest secret is that life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation. You are not discovering yourself but creating yourself anew. Seek, therefore, not to find out who you are, seek to determine what you want to be” – Neale Donald Walsch

No wonder I've been going around in circles! I was trying to find me and all the time I should have been thinking, "who do I want to be?"  I think this is going to be so much easier to do because I already know who I want to be....

I want to be an artist. I already consider this done.
I want to be a kind, compassionate, caring, and creative person. I want to be helpful, supportive, and friendly. Oh, the list could go on and on but I won't bore you with it all. You should make your own list, yeah, that is a good idea, don't you think?

If you would like to read kelly's blog for yourself, here is the link:
http://kellyraeroberts.blogspot.com/
I hope you enjoy reading her stuff like I do.

Sunday Sketch

I went out to Vermont a couple of weeks ago and I met for the first time my new niece named by my brother-Dallas. She is just a little sweetheart! I quickly drew a sketch of her to capture her image. Dallas is about 8 months old now. I don't get back to Vermont very often but I plan to change that in the future. I had a great time with my family. The weather was perfect and the leaves were changing.

This is done with graphite (pencil) which is my most favorite medium.

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate any comments you want to leave!

I'm posting this on blue chair diary-Sunday Sketches

Leaf Art Journal Page for Fall

I love to make these art journal pages! I also feel that there should probably be more on here but what the heck, I like it like this! It is my tribute to fall and all the pretty colors out in nature at this time of year. I am originally from the east coast-Vermont-where all the trees are so beautiful.....I now live in Minnesota where the trees are still pretty but it doesn't last very long.

I used paint and ink sprays on this page. I also stamped leaf images and used some fluid chalk inks to add more colors. What do you think?

I'm posting this on the following website:
http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/2012/10/art-journal-every-day-fast-forward-video.html


I appreciate you visiting my blog and also any comments!

Back from Vacation

I just wanted to tell all my followers that I am back now and working on some projects so I can post. I went out of town for a week and I've had some other commitments that I've had to take care of. When I have a lot of other stuff going on my creative side gets hidden and I have a difficult time working on projects. I'm sure there are others of you out there that this happens to. Keeping your balance is so tricky...

I am getting things done now that I am back and that frees up my schedule to work on getting my fingers dirty. I want to do so many things....

A Dragonfly for Inspiration Avenue

I made this beaded dragonfly using a pattern from a Klutz book on beading. I think I will try again sometime using different colors for the wings since I have never seen a dragon fly with red and yellow wings. Though, it is very hard to tell sometimes what colors are on dragonfly wings since they zoom past you very fast most of the time. I love the ones with the blueish, greenish, iridescent colors. When I was a child dragonflies used to scare me because they were such huge flying bugs. Since I've gotten bigger though, I tend to scare them instead. (because I am much bigger, not that I try to scare them...)

This is posted to share on the Inspiration Avenue challenge blog. The challenge is to post a favorite dragonfly image. I think I will make it a new goal of mine to try to take some photos of dragonflies, because they really are very beautiful bugs!

Some favorite images of dragonflies I found on the web:

 

 

I love these colors!

Big Orange Flower Art Journal Page

I have been "collecting" Letraset Promarkers because of all the "colored" images I have been seeing on blogs and card challenges. On several beautiful images I saw the artist use these markers. They are really nice, color well and are less expensive than Copics. The markers bled on this paper which is what I wanted to happen on the petals of the flower. To stop the bleeding when I wanted, I used a heat gun to dry the ink before it bled too much. This picture is a result of my doodling. I really love how the blue dots on the petals really "pop." That is a result of contrasting colors. The yellow in the leaves are "popping" too. I love the look! What do you think?

I'd like to post this on the following blogs/websites:
Inspire Me Fridays 76-Anything Goes
Paint Party Friday

Fabric bag

 

Oh, isn't this fabric pretty? I love it. As you can see I've made a fabric bag. I love bags! This one is reversible but I don't know if I will ever reverse it because of the doily I sewed onto the one side. I have made it one of my missions to collect doilies and use them in my projects. It was a hard thing to do because I tend to horde my "embellishments"....uh hem, I just like to look at them and think about what I can do with them and .....I digress.

 

I found the pattern in an old magazine and went to town. It was a very easy project, who has time for lengthy ones these days? I know I don't have a lot of time.....I have a list of projects to get done and another list of ones to start....

Oh well, as you can see I used two different patterns of fabrics with the same color schemes. The picture really does the colors justice. They are the yellows and greens you see here. There is a little blue in there and you can see the black. This pattern was two pieces, just two! Another easy peasy project!

 

Thanks for visiting and I would love to "read" your comments!

Patched Dress

 

So, I ripped one of my favorite dresses! I was sitting on a cheap lawn chair and it broke! How embarrassing! The experience left this huge rip on the back of my denim dress. (I put a piece of white cardstock underneath so you could see the rip)

If you know a bit about sewing you can tell that this is not a very easy tear to mend. The threads are literally stripped apart! So, I came up with an idea...see below:

 

 

 

What do you think? I have always wanted to embellish my clothes and now I have. This tear gave me the opportunity and I took it! I'm always afraid of calling attention to myself because I am so self-conscious, but since I've been getting older....I don't seem to care as much. That's one plus to getting older!  At least, for me!

 

so I took some fabric that I had on hand, uhhum*....and I cut out some flowers with my Big Shot tool and dies. I layered them on my dress and appliqued them with my sewing machine. Oh, and first I stitched up the tear and put the flowers over it. Easy peasy! I even got a compliment at church the next time I wore the dress. No one even noticed this dress before...So a little creativity goes a long way!

 

*just a note to those who don't know me very well- I belong to the "let's see who can collect the most fabric before you die" club. I have a lot of fabric on hand, oh yeah, baby! (I'm gonna win......!!! hee, hee:)

Thanks for looking and I appreciate any comments you may have!

"You are Beautiful"

I painted another canvas with one of my other favorite sayings. I like to collect quotes. Here is a picture:

I am collecting quotes that are positive and help to remind me to be positive. I also collect positive affirmations. I love to journal. Writing is therapeutic for me and also helps me to keep all my thoughts in order or at least where I can see them. It's kinda like cleaning out all the clutter in my head so I can put more inspiring things back into it. Painting is something that I've also had a desire to do but could never feel like it was a "valuable" activity. I have since thrown out all my reasons NOT to do painting and I am currently deciding which of my canvases to paint next...

I would love to hear what you think of this canvas....comments are always welcome and desired. Thanks for visiting my blog.



This is a wedding gift I made recently for another friend of mine who just got married in May. She is actually a daughter of my friend, and I  have watched her grow up over the years. The base is a piece of wood and I put a hanger on the back of it to make it easier to hang. I took the wedding invitation and took it apart, then put it together on this plaque. Now it is a keepsake for all to see when it is hanging in their home. I hope they hang it up!

I made all of the flowers out of cardstock. It was a lot of fun seeing them come together and I think they are really cool. I tried to make everything look a little bit vintage by adding some off white paint to the edges of the flowers, the frames, and the background. If you are curious on how I made the flowers let me know and I can let you know, or you can do a search online at youtube.com. There are a lot of videos already made and a lot of them are about flowers.

Thanks for looking!

Art Journal page

I have also been working in my art journal. This is a page I did recently. It says, "Every journey has its rough spots, choose to get through them...you will only grow STRONGER. This kind of goes with the song by Kelly Clarkson- What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I like that message. It speaks of strength and overcoming struggles, or disappointments. I did spray paint the background and if you are wondering, yes, there is some fog there. Let me know what you think, thanks!

The other book pages for the fabric book

This is my painted page and the fifth page in this fabric book posting. I am not necessarily putting them in the order that I posted them. I will show you, of course, the book once it is put together. Then I will keep working on it.

Here is what I call the flower page. I actually took pictues of how I made this one. It is a little brighter, darker in real life. I like how it turned out.

Thanks for looking!

More fabric pages

Here is another fabric page for my book. I started with spraying it with inks

and then I put some rock salt on top of it and that's how I got all

that texture.

This is my blue page. It didn't turn out like I wanted it to. What I did was to spray some ink through a stencil to make that additional "wall paper" like pattern. The page was very wet and some of the ink flowed together, that's why there is a "smudge." It doesn't matter though. I am going to be covering it up with other things.

Fabric Book beginnings

Saturday I worked on making some fabric pages for a book I am going to make. I cut the canvas and used Stampin' Up!s ink refills to "paint" these pages. I am going to put them together in a book, but I wanted to post the original backgrounds before I stuck more "things" on top of them. 

Picture below is why I call this blog "dirty fingers." I have so much fun working with all my art supplies. My hands get pretty messy!

Another page--

This is what I call my "bird cage" page. The whole page is in the picture below.

I'll be posting some more pages in the coming days. Stop by and let me know what you think. Thanks.

I made this 4x6 exchange card a while ago. I actually made two of them, both were very different from each other. This was my favorite one that I want to put in my portfolio. I love how the sprayed inks formed paint patterns on this card. The shiny circles with the beads around them are little mirrors that I picked up at Walmart on clearance one day. I have some very sheer purple leaves on here, paint, rhinestones, and acrylic beads. The flower is made of designer paper that I formed and painted. This was a lot of fun.

Wedding gift 2

Here is the second wedding gift I made for another couple who got married around the same time as the first couple. This one has a different color scheme as you can see. On this one I used gold accents with cream colored lace and beading. It was fun to make. I hope they like it and put it on their wall to remember their wedding day.



A close up of the flowers. I punched out several flower shapes and attached them together in the center with a brad. I them sprayed them with water and scrunched them up one or two layers at a time. I then let them dry and they became hard in the shapes you see them in.

Wedding gift 1

I made this for a wedding gift for a young couple in our church. I watched this young man grow up and eventually get married. The couple is still in school (college). I thought having this memento of their wedding announcement would be a good gift. Usually we all just keep these things in a drawer somewhere and never look at them again. This way they can hang this up on their wall and be reminded of the blessed event always. I made another one that I will post in a couple of days. 

A 4x6 exchange

This is a 4x6 card that I made for an exchange. There are some fortunes from fortune cookies that I put on it.  One of them says

 "Your courage is like a kite, big wind raises it higher."

The other one says, "It is always best to act with confidence, no matter how little right you have to it."

I have found that I like using "sayings" on my art. I also like affirmations, and positive statements. I've decided that I will try to use more of them on my artwork. I also love using waterbased inks in spray bottles. I love to combine the colors on paper and or canvas. It is pretty messy, but I like getting my fingers dirty.  I've also started using acrylics paints on my backgrounds. The more time I have to create, the more I get to experiment. I am excited to have tax season over and to have a little more time to produce some artwork. It is really hard to "not create," when all I can think about is what I am going to do next. I get inspiration from everywhere. I am really fasinated by colors and the combinations of colors in clothing, pictures, nature, etc. Right now, as you can tell, I am using a lot of bright colors. I want to create the feeling of happiness, and warmth. Bright colors are related to summer, which is mostly warm or hot. I also love pastel colors but have not used them much in my background pages as yet. I am so ready for winter to be over! Yes, it is spring, that's a start....

A 2012 Caravan project

This is a project I did for the 2012 Art Journal Caravan with Tangie Baxter. I have a link to her blog on my page here, on the right column. Just click on Art Journal Caravan 2012. The link will take you to Tangie's blog and you will be able to find out all sorts of information about Art Journaling. It is a lot of fun. I will be sending this canvas to Tangie and she is willing to send a canvas back. I better get it in the mail soon.

Let me know if you like this one, or if you like any part of it. Thanks.

Another painted journal page

Here is the second journal page that I "painted." It is very "pink." I really like this one, and the first one too. I used the stencils on this page and a flower type stamp from SU that is retired. I can't tell you what colors of ink I used because I just grap whatever from my stash and spray. Coral looks very pretty on these pages though. I know I have used a coral color.

Let me know what you think... thanks for looking!

My painting project

Hi all, I've been working on painting some journaling pages and this is the first one I did. What do you think? I used several inks diluted with water, some I bought like that and others I made myself. I used a lot of Stampin' Up! ink pad refills in small misting bottles and went to town...

I stamped some images and sprayed through some stencils. I also used the other side of the stencil with the ink still on it by turning it over onto the page. I guess you would call that the reverse image.

It was messy  and a lot of fun!

I am going to try all kinds of things with this journal. I am still working a lot of hours so I don't have the time I want so that I can just work on art. I steal little bits of time here and there which isn't conducive to my imagination and inspiration. I'm stumped right now on a project I have to get done-a 4x6 project swap. I don't know what to do....
I know I'll figure it out though.

Live in the Moment

...well, its been a long winter for me in some ways...

...I've been terribly sad and I don't know why...

...I've learned some important lessons, ones I would like to share...

...life is a series of ups and downs, sometimes really down...

...but I've learned that I can manage, and that I can survive, and that living in the moment of all the chaos can help to put things in perspective...

...yesterday is gone, tomorrow isn't here yet, so just live in the today. I can do that. Yes, I can do that!

Today is the present, that's why we call it a gift. And it is a gift. Life is a gift. Everything I have, and everything I can do is a gift...everyone I know, are all gifts to me.

So, I am going to embrace the storms of life, and allow them to take me where they will. I will persevere and when I am thrown down, I will get back up, and live in the moment of every day...

Sketchbook page 6

Page 6

 

Okay, this is one of my favorite pages of the whole book...a brick wall with a tunnel to anywhere, there are trees on the other side and a world of wonder awaiting. I think it is my favorite because I was inspired from within. I usually get my ideas from looking at other pictures, books, artwork, and such. This time I sat and thought about what I thought would be a cool path. As a child my sisters and I lived near this big wooded area in Vermont. We had a stream that was in these woods behind our house. When it got really hot we would make our way to this stream where it came out from the mountain, under the highway, into a collecting pool which was deep enough to submerge our young, small bodies. It was a cool place and this tunnel reminds me of it. Yet, once we got cooled off we had to make our way back to the house and by the time we got back, we were hot again! We still thought it was great!

Sketchbook page 5

Page 5

This is sketchbook page 6, what do you think? It is a magical doorway in the woods! I have much more work to do on this page, but it is going to be awesome, I think. I love to draw! You can do anything, go anywhere...I haven't yet but I plan to cut this door open to get to the next page. We will see how it goes...

A Very Cool Repost-The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

This is so cool! If you have the time I suggest you take a peak at this. It is worth it!

Sketchbook page 4

Page 4

Here is my sketchbook page number 4. I went down low to the ground and drew some flowers. A person would see flowers walking in the woods wouldn't they? I'm not quite finished with this page, because I have another idea of something I want to add to it. When I get that done I will post it again. And yes, I added some color to this page just to see if I liked it. I have a page towards the end of the book that is totally in color and I like it! Hope fully you may like it too. 

Sketchbook page 3

Page 3

Here is page 3 of my sketchbook. As I imagine myself walking through a path in the woods, I come across an area where there are balloons flying through the air. They are high above the trees, floating in the clouds. I love hot air balloons so of course they would show up in my imaginary "path through the woods." I hope you like this page. Again, thanks for looking!

Sketchbook page 2

Page 2

This is my sketchbook again, page 2. I had this idea of a floating castle so I drew one, yeah, I don't really know what to say about this page. I was going to make the trail eventually connect somehow to this castle. I haven't finished all the pages yet so I can still do this, I think. It really takes a lot of energy and imagination to come up with original ideas, that is probably why it is so important that others do not steal your work. I'm sure there are others who have all their ideas floating around in their heads. I have some ideas but they always get shoved out of the way by everyday worries and work, or household chores.  I hope you like what I have done on this page. I would love to hear-"read"- what you think. Thanks for looking!

Sketchbook Project

This is the first page upon opening my sketchbook. The theme is "a path through the woods" and we are allowed to do anything we want. I started with trees and a path. I thought, "what do I see or want to see as I walk through the woods?" I came up with all sorts of ideas and just started drawing.

This is the beginning.

 My sketchbook isn't necessarily a story, but it is of sorts. I just wanted to draw. I was inspired by different ideas, pictures and scenes around my home, in the present, past, and ideas about the future. I hope you enjoy the drawings that I present here from my sketchbook project.



Still here

I'm still here. I have been busy working so much that I am just not able to keep my art work going this month. I will be continuing as soon as it slows down at work. Thanks for stopping by.

Grateful Page #2

Grateful Page #2

I used the same page as the previously posted one and added a background to it. I really like how this turned out.

All I did was to add a background paper and blended it into the page I already had.

What do you think?

Do you like this one better than the first one I posted on 12/28/11, or not?