2014 Journal52 - Week 20 - Book Inspired

The theme for this week in Journal52 was Book Inspired. I drew the owl on a separate piece of paper and coloured it and cut it out. The background paper was done by putting a stencil down and then sponging through the stencil with inks and stamping through the stencil with stamps and different colours of inks. I then glued the owl to the background and drew the branch and drew some zentangle patterns and leaves on the branch. I found some ornate letter stickers for the O and A for my lettering and wrote the rest with my calligraphy pen. I like the way this one turned out. :D What do you think? I appreciate hearing from you.
Have a fabulous day and read a book!

2014 Journal52 - Week 19 - Photography

Photography was the theme for Journal52, week 19. I chose a picture of myself holding a mask to my face. I cut just myself from the photo and added a skirt made from some wrapping paper from my Mother's Day gift. I did some ink sponging through stencils for the background and added some stamping with the Mardi Gras theme. I coloured in some of the stamped images using inks and pencil crayons. I also did some doodling and added some washi tape.
This was a fun page to do. I'll have to use photos in my art journal again sometime. Have you tried it?
Have fun and thanks for stopping by. I'd love to hear from you! :D

2014 Journal52 - Week 18 - Creative Hands

The theme for week 18 of Journal52 was Creative Hands. I decided to use the lyrics from the Beatles' song "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" as the theme for my page. I used a gelli print for the frame and the heart and glued them onto black cardstock. I drew the hands on white cardstock and drew the border and did the writing with a black marker. Then I cut out the white heart and glued that to the gelli print heart. Then I used my white Signo pen to write the lyrics of the song onto the black cardstock.
I've been humming the song ever since! :D
I really appreciate when I hear from you so please leave a comment and let me know that you visited.
Thanks and have a great day!

2014 Journal52 - Week 17 - Refresh

In what ways do you refresh yourself? This was the prompt for week 17 for Journal52.
I first gessoed my page and then added acrylic paints and rubbed off with a wet paper towel over several stencils. I stamped the birds by Dina Wakley and then painted the birds and the branches. I wrote the words with a black marker and used a white Signo gel pen to highlight the words. The word "Refresh" was stamped with an alphabet stamp set.
Have a wonderful day. I would really appreciate hearing from you so that I don't feel like I'm doing this blog for no one. Thanks. :D

2014 Journal52 - Week 16 - Recycled Art

The prompt for week 16 in Journal52 was Recycled Art. I recycled many things on this two page spread. The journal itself is a recycled magazine from the University of Waterloo.
I covered the page with some pieces of cardstock that my friend Linda had used to punch out oval shapes and was going to throw away. I glued them all over the page and then painted over it with gesso and then some acrylic paints. The girl was one of my quick drawings on an old calendar that I call my calendar girls.  I cut her out and glued her onto this page. The kite was made from the patterned paper on the inside of an envelope. I drew and cut out some flowers from a paper that I used behind some ink spraying that I had done. The bottom of the page and doily designs were from a napkin. The birds and butterflies were stamped on a piece of a gelli print.
 It's fun to use up things that you have saved from other projects.
What have you recycled lately for your art?
I'd be pleased to hear from you! :D

2014 Journal52 - Week 15 - Party Animals

This page, for the prompt "Party Animals", was done with my grade two class to demonstrate the crayon resist technique. The scene was drawn with crayons and then tempera paint was applied over the crayon and the crayon resisted the paint. I call this "Party on the Pond".
This was a simple and fun page. :D

2014 Journal52 - Week 14 - Rain or Shine

I stenciled gesso onto the background of this page and then added paint, stamping and splatters. I drew and painted two watercolour paintings for the rain and sun theme. I glued them to the background and added the writing. If you click the above picture, it will enlarge so that you can see the detail in the background.
Enjoy your day no matter what the weather! :D

2014 Journal52 - Week 13 - How Does Your Garden Grow?

I started this page by covering it with Tim Holtz patterned tissue paper. I put a light coating of gesso on it and then stenciled the background with paint using the brick stencil. I did not cover the entire background. I did some stamping using different colours on parts of the background as well. I stamped some flowers onto some of my gelli prints and cut them out. I drew some leaves on a green gelli print and cut them out. I glued the flowers and leaves to the background and did some doodling with white and coloured markers. Then I stamped the sentiment.
I wish my camera would take pictures that show the true colours of my pages. The photos always look washed out.
Have a great day! :D

2014 Journal52 - Week 12 - A Day in the Life of Me

The background for this page was inspired by Julie Balzer. The top and bottom of the page were masked off, and then paint, sprays and stenciling were used to do the design on that area. Then I removed the masks and watercoloured the rest of the page. I then drew in the circles and did lots of doodling and wrote in the activities for a typical day for me. I used black markers for this part.
I don't get all of that done everyday, but I try! :D

2014 Journal52 - Week 11 - Stars

For week 11 of the Journal52 prompts, we were to do a page based on stars and the night sky. The background is done with acrylic paints and a stencil of stars. I gessoed the page and then applied the paint and put the stencil down and wiped away some of the blue, green and red paint to show the stars in the background. I then did lots of white splatters with watered down white paint on a paint brush. I hit the brush and let the paint splatter over the background. Then I did some splatters in gold paint.
The stars were drawn on shiny white paper and and then painted over with sparkle glaze and cut out.
The fairy was stenciled onto white paper with acrylic paints and then also covered over with sparkle glaze and cut out. I wrote the sentiment, cut the words out and applied them to the page. Then I highlighted the stars, fairy and words with a fine point black marker and some shadow marker.
Wouldn't you like to dance among the stars? I would.
Have a great day! :D

2014 Journal52 - Week 10 - Art for a Cause

The prompt for week 10 of Journal52 was Art for a Cause. I chose to use a journal page that I had created a couple of years ago in my Healthy Living Art Journal. I am reading a book called "Clean Cuisine" by Ivy and Andrew Larson and it inspired me to choose "encouraging clean eating to feel better" as my cause.
This page was first painted and stamped and then I did some collage of patterned paper for a boarder and pictures of healthy fruits and vegetables. I wrote the title with marker.
Cheers to all of you as I drink my clean, green smoothie! :D

2014 Journal52 - Week 9 - Colour Swatch Inspiration

For the week 9 prompt for Journal52 we were to take our inspiration from some colours that we like and use them for our art journal page. I decided to draw some flowers with a pencil and chose a few colours of my Twinkling H2O paints to paint them in. Then I doodled around the flowers and leaves with a fine black marker and a white gel pan and also drew the frame. I splattered some paint onto the painting for interest.
The next picture shows some of the details.

You can click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

I did a second painting for the same prompt. 

For this one I used watercolour paper and painted with the wet-on-wet technique. First I wet the paper with clear water, then painted the flowers and leaves. I did not draw them first. I outlined my flowers and leaves with black paint with a liner brush. Then I splattered black paint on the page and drew a frame with a marker.
I couldn't decide which one to post to the Journal52 group so I posted both! I thoroughly enjoyed painting these. I can't wait to get rid of the snow and see Spring again!!!
Take care! :D

2014 Journal52 - Week 8 - Found Poetry

The prompt for week 8 for Journal52 was to do a page with Found Poetry. You were to find some words from a page in a book or any other written work, and make a poem. I chose to do mine with book spine titles.
My poem reads, " Toxic Bachelors, Night's Gift, Sweet Everlasting, Let Me Call You Sweetheart, Morning, Noon and Night.
I stacked the books and took a photo and printed it out on regular printer paper. Then I made a frame for the photo with some black textured paper and rubbed gold metallic acrylic paint on it. Then I marked where the photo would go on my page and collaged some patterned papers around the edges. I added some paint with my fingers and with some bubble wrap on the patterned papers. I then collaged some pictures from a magazine and drew around the collaged papers with a black marker.
I then added the title and drew around that with a white gel pen.
This whole journey of following some prompts with Journal52 is really helping me try new things and making me think outside the box and taking me out of my comfort zone. It's quite fun!
Take care! :D

Art Journal - My First "Houses" page

My friend Linda came over to do some art journaling and showed me her page that she had done of some houses. I loved it! Her inspiration was Cathy Bluteau who does awesome "Houses" art journal pages and has some videos on youtube.
Linda wanted to do another one so we both got to work and this is my first attempt at making a page of houses. It was so much fun adding all the different little details. I put some things in there that make me laugh. If you click on the above picture, it will enlarge and you can see more of the details. I know I will be making more little villages in the future. I have already started my second one.
The houses on this page are all patterned paper cut free hand into house shapes and collaged onto the painted background on the page in the art journal. Then I added some paint and doodling and stamping and rub-ons.
This was too much fun. Give it a try! :D

2014 Journal52 - Week 7 - When I grow up...

Our Journal52 prompt this week was "When I grow up". We were to think of all the things we thought we would like to be when we grew up or interpret it any way that we wanted. Because my career as a teacher is over, I chose to do my page on how I'd like my retirement to be. I found I could have filled many pages with things I like to do, but I narrowed it down and tried to keep it simple. I used the mind map technique for my composition.
I stamped the background randomly with black ink images, then scraped some paint onto it with an old credit card. I added some texture with bubble wrap and white paint. I sprayed three colours of Dylusions ink in spots and let it drip down and sprayed it with some water to disperse it.
I made the main figure by tracing a model from a magazine and cutting it out. I then stamped some black ink images onto the silhouette and drew in a few details and then the word "Retired".
I made the framed word cards for my subtitles and then added a small picture of something from each topic by each card. I grounded the figure with some washi tape.
I then stamped a handmade border stamp a couple of times and inked the edges of the page with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.
If you want to see more detail, click on the above photo and you will see a larger picture.
Thanks for stopping by! :D
I'd love to hear from you.