Friday Links and more…

Never allow anyone to rain on your parade and thus cast a pall of gloom and defeat on the entire day. Remember that no talent, no self-denial, no brains, no character, are required to set up in the fault-finding business. Nothing external can have any power over you unless you permit it. Your time is too precious to be sacrificed in wasted days combating the menial forces of hate, jealously, and envy. Guard your fragile life carefully. Only God can shape a flower, but any foolish child can pull it to pieces.”

Og Mandino quote (American Essayist and Psychologist, 1923-1996)

It’s been a busy week.  It’s raining again….very cool weather for this spring.  Grandson’s graduation was last night and Awards night on Tuesday.

This page is from my altered book journal.  I started with ink dribbles.  There’s no acrylic paint on this page…I used Caran d’ache crayons and some oil pastels.  I used a dip pen in acrylic ink for the black lines.

close up:

and another close up:

LINK LOVE FRIDAY:

hosted by Daisy Yellow

Link#1 – This a website that hasn’t been updated recently but is well worth a look.  If you interested in seeing other artist’s sketchbooks…check this link out. Book by Its Cover by Julia Rothman.

Link#2 – New design magazine…there’s three issues to see here:  Do What You Love for Life 

Link#3 – I love Joana Carvalho’s color sense and style.

Link#4 – Truth seeker and artist Cynthia Lee at  Spirit Uncaged

Link#5 – Terri over at Artful Affirmations has some free video tutorials. I liked her video on making your own fairy house.

Friday art and link love…

I planned to post earlier in the week but our internet was down for two days.  Our phone company sent us a new modem…it’s better and faster now

Today was our local library’s book sale.  I picked up some great books for altering or junk journal fodder.  Maybe I’ll take some photos of some of my loot for a later post.

I have a spread in my altered book journal to post  and a sketchbook page of a quick doodle sketch I drew with my non dominant hand.

This week’s Link Love hosted by Daisy Yellow

Link #1 – My friend Janet does wonderful Random Acts of Art, check out her Pixie girls and other art.

Link #2 – Another blog friend is Lee over at Defining Me.

Link #3 - After receiving a postcard this week from a swap, I found a new blog: Be Currie

Link #4 – Monica Zuniga is a talented artist from Mexico City. Her blog is:  Hands and Heart

Link #5 -  I don’t remember how I found this one (love the blog name): The Tin Goat

Happy May Day!

It’s the first day of May….2013 is going fast!  There are lots of various activities going on this month…graduation (grandson), birthdays (mine, and, one of my sisters), and Mother’s Day, to name a few.

I wanted to show a journal spread I finished this week.  I glued down some painted paper scraps on one side and didn’t know what to do with the other side.  I put the face there and it went through several different reincarnations before I settled on this one.   I used ink, acrylic paint, watercolor crayons and Stablio black pencil. I threw a lot of “stuff” at it and she still needs something but I felt it was time to move on to another project.

Journal pages…..

Last week I spent most of art time working on some mail art projects. Those will be mailed out today. I’m thinking I will do some “pink” postcards for a swap over at Mail Me Some Art. The link is on the sidebar if you are interested in checking it out….the deadline is April 22. Here’s a journal page I finished last night:

Here is the front side of the little flap:

I also have two spreads from the round robin group.  These are the two spreads I did for Janet’s journal:

Love that aged mahogany Distress Ink! Click on this one to enlarge it!

I am kind of hung up on flowers right now…must be spring

I’m back…

It’s been three weeks since I’ve posted.  I am sorry I haven’t been around to visit my usual blogs…maybe I can catch up soon.  I won’t bore you with why I haven’t been around…it would sound  like  ”the dog ate my homework” excuses. Anyway…this week has been a good week, so far.  I have started an abstract on a canvas…I’ll show that in progress.

  

Blue Lady is in my big journal:

Three faces in the old book:

BOD Journal

This page is sewn in between tabs from the original book.  It is only about three quarters as large as the original page.  This has a flip up page.  This is the front of that page:

 

This is the other side that flips up:

 

Close up of the flip up page:

 

This shows the back of the three quarter page, plus, the collage papers I have glued down  as a start for the next page:

 

 

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”
Scott Adams

Christmas card and pages…

I want to show a beautiful card I got last week.  It’s a wonderfully  handmade card by Lee.  I agreed to exchange Christmas cards with her…in my mind…card=postcard   I made a postcard for her, in fact, it’s the card on my header.  I don’t usually show cards before the receiver gets them (forgive me Lee)  but I needed a Christmas photo.  The other card I made that day ended up in the trash.  Here is Lee’s card…the bears are so-o-o cute!!!

Here are two pages from my Strathmore Journal.  The big flower piece, I started months ago and decided to finish it…it needs something but I didn’t know what…so I moved on from it.  The abstact is about me trying out a new shade of purple

This the last part of a poem by Joyce Carol Oates, entitled The Time Traveler from a book of poems by the same title:

“I don’t recognize

that person,

you whisper,

who is that person?

A stranger’s face

swimming

in a mirror.”

These are my sentiments about getting older…I don’t have many regrets…a few…or I wouldn’t be human….but sometimes I don’t who that old lady is staring back at me in the mirror.   No, I’m not depressed…or going through the holiday blues…just happened that I found the poem last week.

Journal Pages

I spent most of yesterday afternoon in my studio. I say “studio” rather lightly because my little basement room doesn’t look like some of the studios I see on other blogs.   That’s fine with me, I’m thankful to have a place to  do my art.  I moved everything down there because the dining table was covered most of the time and I’m trying to keep everything in one place.  

I started a piece on a canvas yesterday…I do not like it and I will probably end up painting over it and trying again.  I finished two pages in my Strathmore art journal.  The first page started with a magazine page that I altered with Citra-Solv.  I glued it down first,  then glued a face  from Gas-House McGinty book pages.  I used some additional doodling pieces to complete the page. I used Caran d-Ache water-based crayons, gesso,  and acrylic paint to embellish the face.  Finally, I used a tiny paintbrush with black ink to tie it together. 

The next page is one that I did quickly with charcoal pencil, tinted charcoal pencil and a Derwent sketching (Dark Wash, 8B) pencil. I tried a wash with some orange and yellow acrylic paints.  I liked it better without the color but I couldn’t leave it alone    I also used another pen on the hair….I don’t remember the name of it.

lost in a flurry of pages and postcards…

I’m still here…after recovering from Thanksgiving, I was finally able to get back to my art.  I did two spreads for a round robin journaling group.  There are four of us involved in that project.  It will extend into the middle of next year.  I was asked by Danielle over at A Love Affair With Paper to take part in the project.  Danielle has written an explanation of the project on her blog, click here and go to the November 29th post to read about it.  I will be posting more about that as we go along.

After getting my journal mailed to Danielle, I made some postcards.  I used one for my heading.  I can’t seem to get away from the book pages no matter what I do   I also very quickly used some Caran d’Ache crayons and some white paint on one of my zen doodles.  This poor girl looks like she isn’t going to get anything for Christmas this year.

 

More Impressions – Strathmore Journal

It’s been way too long since I have posted anything new. My younger sister and I have been helping out our niece with some child care…picking up the two little ones  from kindergarten and daycare…”it takes a village,”  my sister quipped.  We are happy to help  

I have been working in two different journals but I couldn’t find the time to take photos and get them posted…until now.  We are also going to go see The Help in about an hour.   I hope to get this finished before we leave for the movie.  I have been concentrating on faces in my Strathmore journal.  For these two, I have used mainly Caran d’Ache crayons, white gesso,  and Stabilo black pencil.  I also used a General’s 9xxB on one of them.  Both of them make bold black lines.