More art journal pages

Maybe I am on a roll! First I worked on this hair style page ... I've been searching for a long time for the perfect haircut, but trying to describe what I want to a stylist just doesn't work too often. And it seems that when I finally get a stylist that understands, I never see her again. Ah, such is the life of a cheapskate ... I suppose I wouldn't have quite this much trouble if I went to the same stylist every time at a fancy-schmancy salon, but until I win the lottery, that just ain't happenin' LOL! So my sister suggested I get some hairstyle magazines at the drugstore and use them to get a real "picture" of what I'm looking for. I didn't even realize there were such magazines! I thought they only had those huge books that you find in the salon waiting area. So, hey, I learned something new ... always a good thing! Anyways, I started out just turning down the corners of the pages as I found ones I liked, but then realized it would be more helpful to be able to see all of them at once. So a journal page was born! In this second picture, you can see what I did when there were 2 cuts I liked that were back-to-back.Btw, it worked very well! I made this page just after lunch, then took it over to the place I usually go to and when I showed the stylist, she was very happy. She said, "Perfect! We love pictures!" I'm very happy with my new cut. Wish me luck as I try to style it myself tomorrow LOL!

Tonight I worked on this gardening page. I had done the left page last year to map out our garden, and today I journaled on the right about how it had done. I guess I just wanted to prepare myself for this year's garden adventure LOL! Which reminds me ... I need to map out the new garden layout!

The daily routine

This last week's journal prompt at Inspire Me Thursday was to describe a typical daily routine. I don't really have much of a daily routine, so I wasn't sure quite how to respond until I saw Deb's journal page. She inspired me to just look at the things I do practically every day without worrying about what order I do them. When I approached it that way, it came much more easily LOL! Here's my response to the prompt:The background is watercolor crayon that was smooshed with a babywipe. I collaged with magazine clippings and added some color with more watercolor crayons, then journaled with Pitt pens (love these pens!) In case you can't read it all, here's what I wrote:

The DAILY routine ... it never ends ...
Keeping an eye on the girls.
rush, rush ... gotta do those errands
always more dishes to wash
LAUNDRY! would these fancy things make it easier?
create something!
don't forget to homeschool!
did I remember to? [water the garden]
mmm...
thinking [treats] while doing [exercise]
feel the burn!
What's for ...
breakfast?
lunch?
DINNER?
will they eat it?
do we have enough $?
clean something NOW

You can others' routines here.

More art journal pages

A couple weeks ago, I tried my hand at making some stamps with foam meat trays. After trying out the stamps on scraps of paper, I cut them out and glued them into my journal for future reference. They were really fun and easy!More recently, I did this page about my love of reading. It took me several days to think about my favorite authors for the right side LOL!

Back to my art journal

For some reason, I was in a bit of a slump with my art journal ... I kept pulling it out and thumbing through it, but just couldn't seem to get in the mood to actually do any journaling. I had ideas in my head to write about, but I was paralyzed at the thought of actually marking up any of the pages. Was it my perfectionist side rearing it's ugly head? Was it fear that what I wanted to say was too trivial? What? I don't know, but I was getting very frustrated. I kept reading ABOUT art journaling, but not DOING any ... ugh! But recently I discovered Inspire Me Thursday. It's a neat blog that inspires you to think and create art. I spent a few days checking out the archives, while thinking about the prompts for last week ... circles and dreams. And then Donna Downey posted about her new Art Journaling 101 online class. I immediately signed up ... and I'm so glad I did! I had a few ideas from all that thinking about circles and such, and her class gave me some ideas on how to actually put those ideas on paper. So yesterday I sat down and did this page:Too fun! The background was done with watercolor crayon, using a babywipe to smear it. Then I added the fruit stickers and journaled around them with a Pitt pen and used watercolor crayons to embellish the journaling.

Next, I carved my very first wine cork stamp to make the shape of the blocks we used to border a flower bed in the front yard, and used it on a page to journal about what we did to that bed:More circles LOL! This background was done with torn bits of masking tape and acrylic paint. (I'm so happy with how this page turned out! When I did the background a couple months ago, I really didn't like it at all ... the color was so weird. But it works well for this gardening page ... now I love it!) The stamping is also done with acrylic paint.

And finally, I got up the courage to mark up this page:Oh, hey, I just noticed ... another circle LOL! I actually had done the collage stuff months ago and just loved it, but then I didn't know how I wanted to journal on it. But I finally just let myself write and write. It's not perfect, but I'm glad it's done. I love doing the journaling this way ... so much more fun than my own boring handwriting!

So, am I on a roll? Well, we'll see ...

If you want to see some more circles, check here.

My new bag

I've been crocheting this bag for a few months now and it is finally done ... yay! It's called "Blooming Granny Squares" and I got the pattern out of this book. The only problem I had was finding handles for it ... I couldn't find the kind the pattern called for at any local stores and I didn't want to pay shipping on just one little thing. I finally had to settle for the round ones. Took a little creative maneuvering to get them to fit, but that's okay ... it's done! Now it's filled with my next crochet projects ... totes for my girls' dance class stuff. They're getting this bag done in yarn they chose. Hope I'll be showing you pics of them soon LOL!

Close-ups are below.

A baby quilt

I've been so focused for the past few months on trying to organize my studio that I haven't had time to do any actual sewing. Of course, it doesn't help that my plans keep changing as I try to fit several types of craft and art into it LOL! But a couple months ago at a quilt guild meeting, a lady had brought several "kits" for baby quilts to be donated and I thought that'd be a great way to get me focused on clearing off my new sewing table and really giving it a spin. The kit included the front and back fabrics and a piece of batting. The lady just wanted them to be quilted and bound, no need to do more, but if you wanted to get creative, go for it ... can't beat those rules! I chose one that had a cute blue sky/cloud fabric with little purple, yellow and pink stars. When I got it home, I opened it to find that the other fabric was a simple white-on-white with stars. After a little thought (which I had plenty of time for, since I had a ton of stuff to clear off the sewing table before I could even start LOL!), I decided to make the sky/cloud fabric the back instead of the front, and have fun on the white-on-white side. Here's the result: