Art Journal Every Day # 17 - Big Pink Flower

Sorry for the long delay in posting the next page in my art journal.

This is the next page in my Art Journal that I am doing as part of the year-long project that Julie Fei Fan Balzer is hosting. You can check it out here: Art Journal Every Day

This page is dominated by the huge pink flower, obviously, lol.  It is done with Whispers Strokes markers, pastels, and Zig Watercolor System ColorBrush Twin.  I just made this flower up free-form with having any model. 

The background is non-stop journaling done with a beautiful blue Sakura gelly roll pen.

Art Journal Every Day # 16 - Critters, Critters, Critters

Sorry for the long delay in posting the next page in my art journal.

This is the next page in my Art Journal that I am doing as part of the year-long project that Julie Fei Fan Balzer is hosting. You can check it out here: Art Journal Every Day

There is a Pluggers cartoon that was very appropriate to a house that has as many critters as we do.  Each section of the page tells a little about each of the dogs that share my life.

 
This page is all journaling except for the cartoon, which was the spark for this page.  I did the journaling with my Whispers Strokes marker.

Art Journal Background Prep

I prepped two pages for art journaling.

The first one is chalked around the edges and then I chalked over one of my new stencils.

I think this came out very cool.

The next one is just direct to paper inking with Cement colored Antiquities Ink Pad by Ranger.

I like the subtle texture that it gives the page.

I got the idea of prepping your page backgrounds from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.

Walmart Trip - Crafty Stencil Goodness lol

So I had to run to Walmart earlier tonight and while I was wondering through the craft section and looking at every little thing, lol.  What?  You don't do that?  Lol.

Anyway, I found these stencils that are so perfect for art journaling, scrapbooking all that crafty goodness.

I have been drooling over the Crafters Workshop stencils that Julie Fei-Fan Balzer has been showing; but they are not in the budget right now.  So these did the trick.

These are by Plaid; there is 12 different patterns; and the stencils are plastic.  And the best part was they were only $2.97!  These are in the craft section, I believe by the acrylic paints.

Art Journal Every Day # 15 - Rejuvenate Your Spirit

This is the next page in my Art Journal that I am doing as part of the year-long project that Julie Fei Fan Balzer is hosting. You can check it out here: Art Journal Every Day

I like this page a lot, the background is pastels that I blended; some blend nicer than others - specifically the beautiful blue pretty much just sits where it lands and holds on tight. Once the background was in place I drew a winged heart with a Whisper marker.  I added a "I" sticker and a crown sticker to it. 

The quote in the upper right corner says: "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. - Eleanor Roosevelt.  Such an inspiring quote.  Further up in that corner is a butterfly on a seal sticker.

Rejuvenate your spirit is what I feel that art does for you.  I added black parentheses and a black arrow sticker to highlight it.  And I drew a lacey fringe border under it.  I hand drawn swirly is in the lower right corner I used a purple metallic fat marker for that.

The quote in the middle in blue metallic marker says: "The key to change is to let go of fear. - R. Cash"  Just above that is a faded sticker that says "2 unique".

The upper left corner has a hand drawn purple flower and a phrase sticker that says "How Sweet It Is".  Below that is another butterfly sticker.  Butterflies symbolize the change that can happen as we crawl out of our cocoon to become the beauty that we were meant to be.

The rectangle Journal sticker tells that date and a short message about the day; I added gold pen fringe to it so it looks like a throw rug to me.  Below that in the lower left corner is a compass rub on and the word "recharge".

This is my most 'art journaly' page so far in my opinion.

Art Journal Every Day # 14 - Welcome Home Soldiers - Good Well Done!

Sorry for the long delay in posting the next page in my art journal. 

This is the next page in my Art Journal that I am doing as part of the year-long project that Julie Fei Fan Balzer is hosting. You can check it out here: Art Journal Every Day

This page is a collage.  Here is a little secret the previous page was fine until I outlined in black with the Marthe Stewart ebony writing marker.  Now I love this marker, got it at Big Lots for a dollar and it is wonderful.  However, in this case, the black bled through the paper (the art journal was one I grab when I was visiting my Dad at Big Lots so probably not the best quality paper.

Anyway, when I saw the the black bleed through marks, I decided to make this paper a collage.  Now with four kids in the military and living near an Army post (Ft. Campbell) I am very into military and patriotic things.  I have been cutting these images out of newspapers and local magazines for a long time.  So this page went together fast.  And then I had the soldier sticker (I think, technically he is a Marine, but still military).  Overall, I think the page speaks for itself.

God Bless all our service people and bring them all home safely.

Art Journal Every Day # 13 - Flower Peace

This is the next page in my Art Journal that I am doing as part of the year-long project that Julie Fei Fan Balzer is hosting. You can check it out here: Art Journal Every Day

The large flower was inspired by none other than Julie Fei Fan Balzer; I saw something similar on her site.  The black outline was done with a Martha Stewart ebony / dye ink double tip permanent marker, but it bled through the page (but this is a cheap-o journal I grabbed up at Big Lots); the purple petal are outlined with marker and then filled in with colored pencils in many colors to blend together.  The leaves are done with various scrapbook markers.  The red petals are colored pencil; but the innermost mauve petals are a scrapbook marker.  The center is yellow marker with a swirl of orange marker over that and then tiny dots of green marker.

The word Peace is stickers that I doodbled around with a gold Creative Memories Precious Element Metallic Fine Tip pen - it writes so nice.

In the lower left hand corner are a little garden of doodled flowers and a vellum quote that says: "Plant kindness, gather love.  Not sure who I got the vellum quote from as it has been in my drawers forever and a day.

In the lower right hand corner is a date sticker that I added the date 1-22 to; then I doodled a lace border around it in a sweet hot buble gum pink pen from Sakura Gelly Roll, I love these pens, but I especially love when I get a 'juicy one' ; some are just more liquid than others and I got this juicy pink one and juicy pretty robins egg blue one.

I used Zig's ColorBrush Twin Watercolor markers to give a very soft texture to the background in the different section.

Overall I am pretty pleased with this page.

Art Journal Every Day # 12 - Iris

This journal page is journaling of a bad day I had on the left side.  On the right side is an Iris that I drew with colored pencils.  I saw a picture like this posted on Facebook by I believe it was Dale Ann Potter.  Without thinking about it, I tried to draw a similar one.  Dale noticed it when I posted my version and said she had did her one for a class given by Dede Willingham.   I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Art Journal Every Day is a project that Julie Fei Fan Balzer has been doing since the first of the year.

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

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!

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. 

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.

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.