Art Journal Every Day # 11 - Reindeer

I am finally getting to post the next page from my Art Journal. 

The picture is a drawing that I did of a reindeer.  I saw one like this online and wanted to try drawing it.  Sorry but I can't find where it was from.

I had drawn this early but wanted to preserve it, so I added it to my art journal.

The Art Journal Every Day project is being done by Julie Fei Fan Balzer.  You can check it out here: Art Journal Every Day

Update on eBay store inventory

I have been listing like crazy in my eBay store.  I now have 116 ads up for Sizzix die cuts.  I have listed all my small green Sizzix and about half of the medium Sizzix yellow ones. 

So if you need any die cuts let me know.  I have tons more to list.

Thursday February 24, 2011

Woke up to a wet rainy day; and with a horrible cough.  This morning was one of those mornings that everything and anything went wrong.

I did manage to get more ads posted to the eBay store; have 54 ads up there now.  Check it out. 

Heritage Scraps eBay store

Sorry about not getting the Art Journal Every Day post up; maybe tomorrow.  I hope that I feel better.

Got two orders cut and ready to be packaged and mailed tomorrow.

Wednesday Feb 23, 2011

Well today, I spent posting die cut ads to my eBay store.  I have 41 ads up, as of this blog post.

Also I finally got all the cards for this month sent out; had lots of birthdays and anniversaries.  And yes I know that some of them are late, but I have been away.  However, I decided long ago, that just because life intervened and I missed the particular day, I wasn't going to say forget it.  I would send them as soon as I could.  I know that I would rather have a late birthday card, than to think I had been forgotten.

I will try to get the next Art Journal Every Day post up tomorrow.

Art Journal Every Day # 10 - Dogwalking & Coupons

Now that I am back home, I am going to continue on with the Art Journal Every Day posts.  This is a project that Julie Fei Fan Balzer has been doing; you can check it out here: Julie Fei Fan Balzer's Art Journal Every Day Project.

This page in my art journal is for 2 days, January 13th and 17th, 2011.  The 13th's is just a list of "Things To Do" and a note that I took one of the dogs for a walk.  Both she and I could use more walks.  On the 17th I journaled about trying to start using coupons and how I got so frustrated that I cam home early, lol.  Really you have to study them like an algebra exam in school.  I want the savings, but wow, it makes me feel dumb, how many little details you have to coordinate to save a buck.  I feel like Eisenhower planning D-Day.

As usual this page was down fast and easy with my Whispers Strokes markers from Sugarloaf.  I love those and I have had them for a few years and they are still going strong.

Art Journal Every Day #9 - Self Cleaning House Wanted

Now that I am back home, I am going to continue on with the Art Journal Every Day posts.  This is a project that Julie Fei Fan Balzer has been doing; you can check it out here: Julie Fei Fan Balzer's Art Journal Every Day Project

This one is very appropriate for today as I am once again playing catch up after being gone on a trip.  This time the trip was for a happy reason, I got to visit with my third son that is currently deployment with the Army in Iraq.  He was on his mid-deployment leave.

The page shown below was done after I cam home last month from my Aunt Thelma's funeral.

This page was for January 12, 2011; inside the house it say dishes, cleaning, laundry, scrubbing, sweeping, mopping, take out trash.  This is some of the things I need to do after being gone for two weeks.
To the right side of the page it says: HOUSE WORK  The necessary evil of life until they invent a self cleaning house.  I know I have lots of things I would rather do than housework, like being creative!

This was a quick and dirty page down with my Whispers Strokes scrapbook markers from SugarLoaf Products.  I love them.  They do not bleed through to the back of the paper; and they are double tipped (or should that be double ended?) anyway they have a brush tip on one end and a very fine tip on the other end.

Be artful!

Ebay Store Opened

In addition to the e-crater and webstore and the artfire store.  I have just reopened, my eBay store.  I closed it about a year ago after eBay raised their rates.  But they are the big boys in traffic, so I am hoping to do good. 

The first things there are custom die cut ads, so far, for crayons, super scallop tags, clock hands, and locks and keyholes.  With many more to come.  I have so many Sizzix dies, punches and Cricut cartridges it will take a long time to list them all.  Please contact me if you are looking for something as I might have it and can do a special order for you.

Everyday Book

Like I just mentioned, I got home tonight and have begun the process of catching up.  Although I have numerous blogs that I follow on my Google Reader, one of the first one that I always check, because it is always so inspirational is Julie Fei Fan Balzer's blog.  And her latest blog post is about doing an Everyday Book.  I love this idea and I love how she gave many examples WITH PICTURES! 

This is such a great idea, check out this blog post: Julie Fei Fan Balzer's Everyday Book

I will be posting the next Art Journal Everyday post soon. 

I'm Home!

Yippee, yippee; I am finally home!  Had beautiful weather for the trip down.  My Dad came down to spend two weeks with me and the kids!  He will be fishing as much as he can with my oldest son.

Dad drove part of the way, we followed along the Ohio River for quite a while until we crossed over into Kentucky.  Dad drove til we got to Elizabethtown and the my son drove us the rest of the way.

It is good to be home.  I got pics to load and posts to write.  Emails and blogs to catch up on.  Housework and laundry.  Yeah, I am glad to be home.

My second son that I was staying with got me flowers for Valentine's Day.

Isn't that sweet?  They are so pretty.  Then in the evening he took me and his girlfriend to a Japanese restaurant.  I had never been to a Japanese restaurant before.  I liked the calamari.  But the soup was bland without flavor to me.  Same thing with their salad dressing, it wasn't bad but it wasn't good, it was a taste non-entity.

Heading Home Today!

Getting ready to head home today!  Had a good visit, but I am so ready to sleep in my own bed again tonight.  I will be posting pics of what I have did while I was away when I get back. 

It is a nice sunny day for a trip, which is nice since the drive up here was in a blizzard .. yuk-o.

Discovered a new quilting show on PBS up here called Quilting Arts.  And the very first episode I saw had one of my favorite artists on it ... Julie Fei Fan Balzer.  I am going to try and find this show when I get home or see if it is available online.  If it is on in your area, it is a definite must see if you like modern art quilting.

Stay arty, my friends.  Talk to you soon.

A Peaceful Thursday in Portsmouth

Well I am still in Ohio; will be heading home on Saturday.  I was able to have dinner with my dad tonight at Bob Evans ... one of his favorites.  We had their farmhouse burgers (really good) and vanilla ice cream.

Worked on my crazy quilt project yesterday.  Will post pics of the new stuff this weekend.  For some odd reason, my iphone won't load my pics the last few days.

Stopped by Big Lots and got a letter P monogram rubber stamp ... the only one in the store, so it was meant for me, lol.  Got a scrapbook techniques book and a watercolor technique book.  Since art school isn't in the cards; I'm gonna try to learn something to improve my drawing this way.

Used the watercolor technique book and did a page in my art journal; except I used colored pencils instead of watercolors.  My sketchbook won't do watercolors and I only brought colored pencils and markers not the watercolors.  Again I will post a pic of the art journal page this weekend.

Helping my son's girlfriend to learn to quilt; so far we have finished two baby quilts this week; and are going shopping for the supplies for a third tomorrow.

Trend Alert

I am completely obsessed with scrapbooking among my other creative pursuits.  So I have many scrappy blogs on my subscription list with Google Reader.

I have been noticing a trend lately; for sloppy, messy work.  Now I do not mean that as an insult.  I mean that it a purposely flawed, humanized style that lets the view see the imperfections.  And that helps us realize that maybe they are not really imperfections. 

Just like people do not have to be a certain size or color to be ok; so it is with art.  Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.  And we do not have to look a certain way, our art work don't have to look a certain way.

Somer examples of this style are:

Julie Fei Fan Balzer of Balzer Designs  she is wonderfully free in her artwork and encourages others to just make art and not worry that it is not good enough.

Claudine Hellmuth  she does whimsical and handmade art.  She embraces the realness of art made by hand.

These are just two of my favorites.  But the common themes are hand drawn, hand cut, stitched on 'imperfectly' and other similar techniques.

Out of town

It's been almost a week since I have posted, because I am out of state.  My third son is in the Army and has been deployed to Iraq.  He had his mid-deployment leave this week and so I went to Ohio to see him before he had to go back.  It was great seeing him and his wife and my two little sweet grandbabies.

Art Journal Every Day #8

Here is the next page in my Art Journal Every Day project.  Julie Fei-Fan Balzer is hosting this project, check it out at Balzer Designs: Art Journal Every Day

This page was done for January 11th, just another ho hum day.  This page was done with Whispers Strokes markers.

Last Night's Cards

Here are the pics of the two cards I made last night.

For the top card both greens are Staedtler Mars Graphic 3000 duo markers.  The little berries in the middle are done with Whispers Strokes markers and highlighted with Inc Elementz Metallic Markers.

For the lower card the pink flowers are done with Zig ColorBrush Twin markers and the green stems and the highlights in the center of the flowers are Whispers Strokes markers.

Sunday Feb 6, 2011

My second son came down from Ohio today.  I am going to get to go back to Ohio with him for a week.  My third son is home on leave from Iraq and is up in Ohio; so I am thrilled to be able to get up there to see him before he leaves.  Poor thing got feeling sick on the trip down, so as soon as he got here I had to take him to the Nashville VA; hopefully he will be feeling better asap.

On the creative front, I have worked on another page in my art journal tonight, but not finished it ... and that is ok.
Also I have done two cards tonight, but his the lights are low so that he can sleep, I can't post a picture of them until tomorrow.

I have noticed that as time goes by and I have given my self to create "imperfect" art; that my art is improving.  I am very pleased with my results lately.  It was all about developing that artistic confidence, to just go ahead and do it and not stress to make it "perfect".  In fact, perfect things often are less artistically beautiful than so-called "imperfect" or flawed things.

What do you think, do you find perfect things more appealing or do you see the beauty in the not-so-perfect and slightly flawed things?  Leave me a comment and tell me your take on it.

Art Journal Every Day # 7

This is the next page in my art journal.  It is for two days, January 9th and 10th.  Quick and easy is letting me keep at this pretty steady.

 

It seems some days just don't have enough interesting stuff happening to warrant an entire page in my art journal.

Thursday Night's Card - So Deer

Here is the card I did last night.  Got the inspiration from Lawn Fawn.

 

I used some Whispers Strokes markers for the body; for the eyes and ears I used a Zig ColorBrush Twin, they are so delicate and just wash the color on.  The tail and the white highlight dots are done with my handy dandy white Sakura gelly roll pen.

Art Journal Every Day # 6

On this journal page I added a cartoon that seemed particularly appropriate.  Again just a few lines of what's been happening that day; with a few very primitive drawings.  That is what I love about this art journaling that you do not have to be worried about it having to be fancy.  Just like that commercial used to say, "Just Do It."

Shopping, Couponing & My Math Teacher's Revenge

I can remember back in high school arguing with my math teacher, that I would never need to know this stuff in "real life".  I would tell him, "Just show me how I will ever use this?".  And while I still feel this way about algebra I do see the point to some of the other more practical math, that I am still struggling with.

How is this relevant to shopping?  Well I recently started couponing and math skills are essential to being successful at this.  The better the math skills, the better your savings will be.

So I was at the store tonight trying to decide if:

1. Dog Food A at $16.97 for 40 pounds if a better deal than

2. Dog Food B at $5.83 for 3.6 pounds, but I have a $2.00 off coupon, or

3. Dog Food C at $20.97 for 31 pounds, with a $1.00 coupon.

Now where is my Excedrin coupon?  I am getting a headache.  So dear old high school math teacher, I will practice these math skills, despite my undying hatred of math.

Another Card

I made this card a few nights ago; it is inspired by something that Julie Ann Bailey posted on Facebook.

Last Night's Card

Here is a drawn card I did last night.

It didn't show well in the photograph, but the ink is a pretty silvery ink from Sakura.

Two Card Night

While catching up with the blogs I follow, I saw two cards on the Zany Not Crazy Blog  that inspired me to make these two cards. 

My cards are just drawn with markers very freehand and fast.  But I am sure my friends would like to receive one of these cards.  And while I love love love my rubber stamps (I have 100s) sometimes it is cool to just hand make something.

Art Journal Every Day #5

Here is the next page of my art journal.  I am not worrying if I miss a day.  Hey life happens.  These pages are not high art.  They do not take long to do.  Usually, I will get an idea and grab the journal and whip out a page in about 5 or 10 minutes.  But that is the point I think, to not be paralyzed by the fear of not doing something "good enough".

 The To Do List is hard to read.  It says: shopping ... emails ... laundry ... paying bills ... details ... details ... details.

Art Journal Every Day #4

Here is the next page in my art journal.  I am being very free and easy in this journal.  No thinking or planning.  Just get an idea and slap it down quickly.  It is freeing and allows the creativity to flow.

This art journal, is just a few sentences telling about my day with drawings added in.