Handprints

Last Week of June 2010

2011-03-25T11:26:00.000-07:00

This is a nice sunny spread. I had previously painted it using Americana's "Light Buttermilk" and Anita's "Tangerine" paint. It was perfect for a summer spread.

P.S. the picture at the bottom may look like flowers at first glance, but it's really pineapple slices which we had with our supper.

Ferberizing Baby

2011-03-25T11:15:00.000-07:00

These pages are an example of using odds and ends and little scraps to perk up a journal spread.
The mandala was from a brochure; the butterfly was a rubber stamp cut-out left over from another project; the colored strips are scrapbooking papers.

Red Bird

2010-08-16T12:14:00.000-07:00

I really like this spread. I first painted the pages with "Antique White". When it was dry, I used Post-It tape to block off sections and painted with "Lime", "Island Green" (which is the aqua), and "Raspberry". The splotchy area was made by dabbing with paint on a wadded-up paper towel.
This technique creating some interesting spaces for the writing instead of my usual boring method.

June 1-3

2010-08-16T12:04:00.000-07:00

For the last few days I have enjoyed reading Martha Lever's blog "Art du Jour". She is a calligrapher and watercolor artist who lives in Jacksonville, Florida.
I've gotten some great ideas from her, which she says she's gotten in turn from other folks. All of us seem to "steal" and adapt from each other. In her book "Cover To Cover", Shereen LaPlantz said "One of the great joys in art is transmutation. We all learn from others' ideas. The process of adapting these new ideas to our tastes and needs is transmutation." I especially admire Martha's fun lettering. She has taken Suzy Ratto's brush letters to a different level by adding black micro lines to them in the style of Sherri Kiesel. And who knows where Suzy and Sherri originally got their ideas?
Another thing I really love on her blog are her wonderful watercolor doodle flowers. Since I'm not much of an illustrator, I adapted that idea to make the flowers on the right page. I used HeroArts "A Real Candytuft" stamp, coloring directly on the stamp with Tombow markers, and spritzing with water before pressing it to the paper. This is a favorite technique that gives a watercolor look to stamps. The taller, darker flowers were the initial stamping, while the lighter, shorter ones were the second stamping done without reinking. After they dried, I used a micron pen to draw the black lines to define them. This is what gives a hand drawn look to a stamped image. I had to extend the stems with the pen.
On the word "June", after writing it with a Zig brush marker in one color, I added a new layer by giving a flick on top of each letter with a darker color. This is a trick I've used for years after learning it from Suzy Ratto's booklet "Color Layering System". However, the new layer just sits there. For some reason, this time I decided to see what would happen if I used my Kuratake Waterbrush filled with blending fluid to pull the top color around. It blended nicely, and that was an interesting discovery, which I'll try to remember.

Wilma's First 100 Years

2010-08-16T11:22:00.000-07:00

More strange experiments creating backgrounds.
These pages started off by me using up the yellow paint left in my brush. Later, I had some blue left in a brush and I added that around the yellow. On another day, I had stirred some blue Plaka paint with a wooden skewer and rolled it around on the page, making the funny little marks.
My next experiment was a suggestion from Martha Lever. She says that she often uses the cardboard insert from a toilet paper roll to make marks on backgrounds, so that gave me the white circles.
The flowers blossoms were made with a Fiskars decorative punch. It's one of the kind where you squeeze the handles. This type works so much better than the kind where you have to mash really hard on the top of it. The paper I used was made by dabbing stamp pad inks onto cardstock. I cut the leaves out of some scraps of textured handmade paper.

Two Birthday Parties

2010-08-16T10:56:00.000-07:00

The circles on this spread came about in an unusual way.
Several months ago, I bought a rubberstamp of a sunflower at Dollar Tree. The stamp itself was okay, but I didn't like the fact that it was mounted on a 2" tall plastic handle shaped like a door knob. That's actually easier to grasp than the wooden blocks that most stamps come on, but it was too tall to fit in the shallow drawers where I keep my stamps, so I eventually peeled the stamp off and just use it on an acrylic block. After I did this, I noticed that this exposed a round piece of black foam on the bottom of the handle. Aha, I thought. I bet I can stamp a circle with this. I spread some white acrylic paint on a piece of plastic, and here's what I got. I like the fact that there are empty spots left inside the circles with lots of texture.

Blake in the Bluebonnets

2010-08-16T10:35:00.000-07:00

We took these photos in Granny's field. This was a bumper year for bluebonnets all over the state since the winter had been cold and the spring wet.
The bluebonnets that grow in this East Texas field are daintier than what we see along the coast and in the Hill Country. They are "Lupinus Subcarnosus", while the bigger and showier ones are "Lupinus Texensis".
This was Blake's first experience touching flowers and grass, and she was fascinated, as she is by everything. Of course, she wanted to put them in her mouth.

This spread is different looking, to say the least. I was experimenting with backgrounds, and this is the result. I began by partially painting the pages with red and green acrylics. When those were dry, I brushed on gesso, letting the colored paints show through. The bluebonnet borders were from a rubberstamp, colored with Tombow markers and spritzed with water.

Bunny Ears

2010-08-16T10:21:00.000-07:00

For this spread, I carved a rubberstamp from a Speedball Speedy-Cut block. I was inspired by one I saw on Martha Lever's blog. She said she used watercolors to stamp hers, which is what I used on the back egg, but I think I got a better result on the front egg by using stamp pad inks.

Little Piggy

2010-08-16T10:12:00.000-07:00

Today Blake was 4 months old. She is so adorable. She grins, grins, grins when I talk to her. She is also trying out lots of new sounds. For the last few days, she has been grunting like a little piglet. It's such a funny little noise that we can't help laughing when she does it.
We had to take her to the pediatrician for her checkup, and she grunted the whole way there. We knew from how she has been outgrowing her sleeper suits that she was getting lots bigger. She weighed 14 lbs & 1 oz. and is 25" long. Dr. G. says that puts her in the 60th and 75th percentiles.

New Books

2010-08-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

The art books I ordered finally came, but I have to say that I was pretty disappointed in both of them, but especially the one by Judy Melvin. Her work and her classes are SO GREAT, but her handouts are almost non-existent, so I was really hoping for a lot from this book. Actually, it's just a little 18-page pamphlet, and although the photography of her artwork is gorgeous, each technique is described by only 3 or 4 sentences.

St. Patrick's Day

2010-08-16T09:48:00.000-07:00

March 17 has always been a special day to me.
First because it was the birthday of my great grandmother (my mother's mother's mother).
Then later, it became more special when it was Missy's half-birthday. And last year, it was the day when she found out that she was pregnant!
This year, we marked the occasion by taking Blake out in public for the first time. For some reason, she had a screaming fit in the car, but she was super good in the stores. We went to JoAnn's and Hobby Lobby looking for fabric to trim the drapery material that Missy wants to use to make cornices for her kitchen windows.
The next day, Missy & Jerry came over and planted a live oak in our backyard in Blake's honor. They wanted to put it in our yard since they figured that we're here to stay, whereas it's likely that they'll relocate someday.
The shamrocks are a rubberstamp and I created the rainbow with soft pastels.

Peter Rabbit Story

2010-08-16T09:36:00.000-07:00

Some of Missy's favorite stories as a little girl were the ones by Beatrix Potter. That's why we used that theme to decorate Blake's nursery.
While Jerry made a trip to Florida to pick up some restaurant equipment, I stayed with Missy and the baby. One night she asked me to read to Blake before she put her to bed. I was astounded how that 3-month-old baby smiled and never took her eyes off my face. I know she didn't understand the words, but she certainly reacted to the sounds. Missy says it's because I read with lots of expression. That comes from having been a children's librarian. Reading to kids was one of the things I enjoyed the most. I really missed it when I switched from my elementary school to a junior high position. I can't wait until Blake can really interact with the stories.

Blake Meets Granny

2010-08-16T09:19:00.000-07:00

Alas, another page that didn't photo well. I bought a new camera (a Nikon CoolPix) right before Blake was born. It takes fine pictures of people, etc., but I'm not happy with the results from photographing my journal pages. I think my old Fuji FinePix did a better job, but the little door that holds the batteries in place broke off.

January 2010

2010-08-16T08:54:00.000-07:00

This is a pretty page in real life, although it didn't photo very well. The background is a soft pink brushed in the middle with "Seafoam Green" after the pink was dry. You don't want to mix these two colors when wet, because you would end up with a light gray (unless, of course, that's what you're aiming for!) This would happen because all three primaries are present in these colors (red in the pink and blue and yellow in the green). Anyway, the date and the decorative stripe were written with a metallic green ColorSharp marker, and the tiny calendar page was from a shopping list pad.

Snow

2010-02-13T14:52:00.000-08:00

We get snow so seldom on the Gulf Coast, that it almost becomes a holiday when it happens. It is rare any year, but it never happens this early in the season. It's not even officially winter yet.
I first painted these pages with "Antique White" just to cover up the lines and to give me a base to apply the diluted blue and green fluid acrylics. Fluid acrylics are fun to use. The Golden brand is what I have, and even though they are quite expensive to buy initially, they are very concentrated so you only need a few drops for intense color. They also give a nice sheen to the paper and have a yummy feel. Almost silky. This picture doesn't begin to show the intensity of the color, let along the sheen.
I used a white pigment inkpad to stamp the snowflakes, and a white Prismacolor pencil to journal. The swirly lines were added with FW white acrylic ink.

Thankful

2010-02-13T14:43:00.000-08:00

The photo of this spread is not very good, but I had to include it anyway because it shows Blake getting her first sponge bath and also features the sweet thank-you card that Missy gave me. Inside, she listed in detail the things that she was thankful for that I've done for her lately. I'm thankful that I am so blessed to have such a loving daughter.

Coming Home

2010-02-13T14:36:00.000-08:00

The top picture shows Missy and Jerry as they are just about to take the baby into their house for the very first time.
The bottom one shows Alley taking a sniff of this strange new critter that they've brought home.

Ta Da! Our Baby's Here

2010-02-13T14:28:00.000-08:00

This spread commemorates the birth of my granddaughter. They'll be calling her Blake, but I'm so honored that they chose to make her middle name Eliece. She is just perfect!

New Camera

2010-02-13T14:11:00.000-08:00

This spread features three different days separated by rubberstamped frames.
I first painted the background with Seafoam Green and Morning Blue. When that dried, I stamped the top frame with Kaleidacolor's "Caribbean Sea" dye pad. Notice how badly it bled. Maybe dye pads are not the best to use on top of acrylic paint. I colored in some of the spaces with a "Brite Purple" Prismacolor pencil.
After stamping the smaller rectangle, I added some extra greens to the page with Neocolor IIs and a babywipe. I also used a sponge and ColorBox inks to apply the pinkish colors inside the rectangles.

Coquette Weekend 2009

2010-02-13T13:46:00.000-08:00

I used Seafoam Green and Wisteria to paint stripes for the background.
I'm usually pretty good about making notes in the back of my journals that remind me of how and what I used do various spreads, but I fell down on the job for this one. I have no idea what I used to color the rubberstamps used on these pages. It appears to have been a multi-hued pad, but I don't seem to have one with those particular colors. Maybe I dabbed on individual colors.

Granny's Little Rocker

2010-02-13T13:32:00.000-08:00

This spread shows various items that I've worked on to get ready for my grandbaby. The photo on the left side shows the dust ruffle on the crib that I referred to in my "Eyelet" post. In front of that is the little rocking chair that belonged to my mother. After refinishing it, I wrapped it up for Missy to open at her baby shower, and included a tiny book to explain it. There were pictures of the three of us as toddlers and this is what it said:
"This little chair first held your granny.
Then me
and you.
Now it's been refinished to the color it was 85+ years ago,
and is waiting for a new little girl.
With love
from Mom"

Flu Shot

2010-02-13T13:17:00.000-08:00

This spread is an example of pages that started out so ugly and ended up looking really good.
I began by painting with "Wisteria" and "Moon Yellow." Because purple and yellow are complements of each other (directly across the color wheel), they go well together and make what is known as "neutrals" when mixed together. This is usually some version of gray or brown, and you can see that happening where the two colors came together.
My next step was to brayer some bubble wrap with the "Hydrangea" ink from a Ranger pad. I randomly applied this to the pages and then wiped with an old T-shirt to blend and soften. The resulting dots are quite subtle, so you may have to look carefully to see them.
I used various purple hues of Prismacolor pencils to draw the swirls, which were further embellished with a black Pitt pen. The dates were written with a Prismacolor "Parrot Green" pencil.

Diaper? What Diaper?

2010-02-13T13:03:00.000-08:00

This illustration is another picture that I had been saving for years. Little baby butts are so cute!
It was perfect to help tell the story of our search for a changing table that would match the crib, be small enough to fit in the designated corner, and have drawers.
The background paint is "Wisteria" with streaks of "Hi-Lite Flesh". I used a black Pitt brush pen to draw the swirls and to write the heading. These were shadowed with a "Platinum" Brushable by Zig. I used Dr. Martin's Bleed Proof White to paint the white spaces on the swirls.

Eyelet Trim

2010-02-13T12:42:00.000-08:00

This spread is to commemorate how I made the dust ruffle for the baby's crib.
I painted the background with dark periwinkle paint. Then I used my "Elegant" multi-punch to cut holes along strips of white paper to resemble eyelet fabric. To simulate the pink grosgrain ribbon that I threaded through the eyelet, I ran a piece of linen-textured cardstock through my shredder to quickly and easily make quarter-inch strips. Cutting the slots to pass the strips through was the tedious part. I wish I'd had one of those ribbon stitch punches to save me having to cut each one of these holes with an Xacto knife.
I attached the shower invitation with a strip of Magic Tape along the side so that it can be flipped back to read the reverse side.

Crib

2010-02-13T12:29:00.000-08:00

People just shake their heads when I show them this spread. It relates our experience in putting together the baby's crib.
I got the brilliant idea (????) to make a little replica of the crib from glossy cardstock. You can't really see this from the photo, but the front and side pieces are cut separately and layered over the back piece, and the drop-gate folds up and down. Also, I used a ball-tip burnisher to deboss designs onto the legs. Yes...I need to get a life!

Silhouette

2010-02-13T12:16:00.000-08:00

The illustration here was an experiment where I cut out a picture from a magazine and applied repositionable spray adhesive to it to create a kind of reverse stencil.
After painting the background with lavender and aqua paint, I pressed the tacky cut-out into place and brushed red paint around it.
This didn't work out quite as I had planned.
I discovered that some of the printing inks had transferred to the background when I removed the cut-out. I didn't really object to that since it created a funky look.
I think I would have liked the red paint better if I had sponged it on instead of using a brush.

Creating Your Own Story

2010-02-13T12:08:00.000-08:00

This spread shows a label that I made to go on some copies of CDs of my art journaling lessons that I plan to give the Coquettes when we get together in October.
If anyone is interested in these lessons, you can read about them here:
http://creatingyourownstory.blogspot.com/

Julie and Julia

2010-02-13T11:51:00.000-08:00

The illustration on this spread came from the food section of the newspaper. It appeared months (maybe years) ago, and I had been saving it all this time because I really loved the look of it. It was perfect for my entry about seeing the movie "Julie and Julia."
I first applied the yellow paint called "Melted Butter"...how appropriate is that name for this background? Overbrushed that a bit with a wash of turquoise.
I carefully cut around the vegetable drawings and ran them through my Xyron machine. I positioned it just where I wanted it on the pages, and peeled the backing paper away a bit at the time while pressing it down so it wouldn't curl up onto itself.
I added shadows all around the cut-out with a gray Prismacolor pencil, as well as a few curliques and spirals.

M Is for Melissa

2010-02-13T11:45:00.000-08:00

The background for this is "Steamed Milk" by Anita. Occasionally, I like to have a plain background instead of something more colorful. This allowed the initial letter to show up nicely. It's an Art Nouveau letter that I colored with Prismacolor pencils.

Multi-Punch Border

2010-02-13T11:03:00.000-08:00

The paints for this background were "Spring Green" and "Bright Blue". To make the borders, I used a multi-punch called "Elegant" by The Paper Studio and strips from a magazine page. The top one is the lacey look that the punch makes, but I thought the part that was left over was interesting looking, so I stuck it to the bottom of the right-hand page.
For my journaling, I used Dr. Martin's Bleed-Proof White and a Nikko G nib. It's not necessary to be a calligrapher to use these materials. This is just my ordinary handwriting. It's difficult to find a pen that writes reliably with white fluid. Believe me...I've tried every kind I can find! It's especially difficult when writing over acrylic paints. The Bleed-Proof White works better than anything else for me. I decant some into a tiny container that will hold no more than 1 teaspoonful. You can use the pop-off lid from a bottle of hairspray or something similar. Just so it's narrow and just deep enough to accommodate your nib. After putting a small amount of the BPW into the container, add some distilled water drop by drop and stir it to mix well. Try it with your nib until it flows well, but is still opaque. You'll need to rinse it out of the nib periodically so it won't get clumpy.

Visit to New JoAnn's

2010-02-13T10:56:00.000-08:00

The background for these pages was "Bright Yellow" and "Wild Berry" overbrushed with "Cream" when dry. I inked up a foam butterfly stamp that I found in JoAnn's $1.00 bin with the Versacolor "Velveteen" pad.

Yah! The Cast Is Off

2009-08-20T19:33:00.000-07:00

The stamps on this page are some more of the bargain ones I found in the $1.00 bin at JoAnn's.

Updated Sister Study

2009-08-20T19:13:00.000-07:00

This spread is rather unremarkable except for the fact that I decided to make a paper facsimile of a real throw pillow that I made for the nursery.
I had seen this pillow at Sew Contempo and fell in love with it. Unfortunately, I couldn't find all of the exact same fabrics, and I wasn't real happy with the look of a couple that I used, particularly the bow. Now, mind you, I had already tried two different fabrics, and had even zig-zagged the second one in place. Really close together zig-zags! I disliked it so much that I wasn't even going to show it to Melissa, but I'm glad I did, because she came up with a suggestion that worked well. She said why not use some of the pink striped fabric that I'll be using for the window valance. So, that's what I did after spending about 2 hours painstakingly clipping and pulling out all that zig-zagging.
After all that work, I just had to commemorate it in my journal by making a tiny replica. At least that was fun.
It's probably hard to tell from the picture, but the green dotted part at the top is a whole pillow stuffed into a sack that's made from a soft blue fabric covered in white dots. This is appliqued with a gift package, a party hat, and a small heart. The inner pillow is held in place with straps.

Nursery Pillows

2009-08-20T19:04:00.000-07:00

I got a real bargain on the stamps that I used on this page. I found them in the $1.00 bin at JoAnn's. There are 4 different styles of flowers on a foam block. You can hardly beat 25 cents per image! I added the vine with Tombow markers.

JT's Broken Wrist

2009-08-20T18:47:00.000-07:00

It seems that I've become lax in my journaling. Most of my spreads these days seem to cover several days or even a week or more. I guess that's better than nothing at all.
The design on the right page is a strip that I made ages ago by swiping colors from pigment ink pads onto cardstock using cosmetic sponges, and then using just one small stamp held at various angles. I found it in my scrap box. I'm finding lots of good stuff in there of late.

Third Week of July

2009-08-20T18:39:00.000-07:00

The illustrations on this spread are "Brianna Florals" by Brenda Walton. I love her illustrations, and they are even prettier in person because they are embossed. These were left over from 2002 when I was making a memory book for Mother's 80th birthday. I can't believe she's going to be 87 next month.

Beatrix Potter Fabrics

2009-08-20T18:27:00.000-07:00

This spread tells how Melissa and I spent our weekend picking out fabrics and a crib for the nursery.
For the background, I painted Turquoise and Barnwood, overbrushed with Antique White when it was dry. Then I cut out a Peter Rabbit scene from the Beatrix Potter fabric and adhered it with Sobo glue, adding dots and dashes around it with Stabilo mini pens.
I had some space left after I got through recording our adventures, so I glued on a strip from my scrap box that had complementing colors.

July 6-10

2009-08-20T18:21:00.000-07:00

These pages were painted with "Soft Apple" and "Melted Butter". The flowers were cut from the cover of a magazine and adhered with a xyron machine.

Hip Hip Hooray

2009-08-20T18:06:00.000-07:00

I pre-paint most of my pages, but I did this one especially with the picnic basket in mind. To create a soft blue for the sky, I added some white to "Morning Blue" for the top and used "Soft Apple" on the bottom.
You can't really tell it from the photo, but I used a couple of flat toothpicks to make the stick for the flag and lifted it up with foam tape so it stands above the page for a 3-D look.
I used a blue Tombow brush marker for the title, shadowing with a platinum Zig Brushable, and adding little doodles on top with a silver gel pen.

It's a Girl!

2009-08-20T17:59:00.000-07:00

The ultrasound came up with 96% odds that Melissa's baby is a girl. She and I are ecstatic and Jerry says he's fine with that too. I thought Charlie would be wanting a grandson, but he says he really prefers a little girl.
Missy and I can't wait to start decorating her nursery now that we know what to expect.

Denis Brown Workshop

2009-08-20T17:46:00.000-07:00

This 4-day workshop with Denis Brown was probably the most difficult I've ever attempted, and I've taken from over 60 different calligraphers. He is a good teacher and an amazing calligrapher, but the pen angle changes, switching smoothly to half the nib and then to the corner only, were way beyond my comfort level. And having to contend with weekday traffic was a real stressor too. I tried to leave home by 6:45 to avoid the worst of it, but it was still bad, and even more so in the afternoon. I am promising myself that I will never take another workshop clear across Houston except for those held on the weekends. I have to admit that it was a great relief when it was over.
I really much prefer to write with a brush or a pointed nib. The only broad-edge nib I really like is the Mitchell #6, and that's probably because it's so tiny it's almost a pointed nib anyway.
The illustrations on these pages are Denis' work. It was almost worth the price of admission just to watch him write.

Fruitful Day

2009-08-20T17:31:00.000-07:00

I love the colors on these pages. I used Turquoise, Morning Sun and Napa Red.
Of course, the cut-out picture goes so well with these colors and really draws the eye.
To repeat the yellow and red colors on the left side, I glued on some strips that I had left over from some faux momi paper that I made using brown paper grocery sacks. I never throw away even the skinniest strips of paper. Just toss them in my scrap box, and eventually I find the perfect use for them. I didn't even trim up the raggedy edges on these, and I'm proud to say that I like that look. Maybe there's hope yet for overcoming my 'Miss Perfectionist' gene!

P.J. in the Rain

2009-08-20T16:22:00.000-07:00

This was a fun spread to do. Lots of experimenting just to see how something would look. I started by painting just as I usually do...this time using "Wisteria" and "Turquoise". Then I took the Hero Arts stamp "Old French Writing" and used it to stamp all over the pages at various angles and in a variety of colors, being sure to keep stamping without re-inking until the image faded to nothing. This makes an interesting, but subtle background. Next I stamped some swirls with brown ink. These didn't show up as well as I wanted them to, so I touched them up with a brown Prismacolor pencil and used a white Prismacolor to outline them, join some together in new shapes, and just doodle in general. I continued with additional Prismacolor pencils to draw shapes and add color to the pages. Prismacolor pencils are fabulous to use on top of acrylic painted backgrounds.

Ovals and Rectangles

2009-08-20T16:04:00.000-07:00

This spread shows another time when I used stencils to create journaling spaces. However, these stencils were not plastic. I love to walk around in "Dollar Tree" stores looking for stuff to use in journaling. Many months ago (maybe even years!) I happened upon a package of paper frames in different shapes, sizes and colors. Never did anything with them until now.
I had previously painted the pages with "Citron" and "English Ivy" greens. To prepare for the writing, I taped the stencils in place with double-sided removable tape and then painted the interiors. After the paint was dry, but before removing the stencils, I applied chalk inks with cosmetic sponges for some additional color. Then the stencils were removed and I used black Pitt pens and brush pens to emphasize the edges.

Paper Towel Motif

2009-08-20T15:47:00.000-07:00

I was working on my journal at my sister's house when I spotted the pretty paper towels on her counter. I hadn't used this technique in a while, and since I needed an image for the right hand page, they seemed perfect. I tore around the butterfly, but since the white background paper didn't blend into the page as much as I would have liked, I just cut around the flowers, leaving a small border. Then I peeled the layers apart and applied the one with the image using matte medium.
The pages had been painted with "Wild Berry" and Delta's "G.P. Purple". I created journaling frames by drawing around the openings in plastic stencils that many scrapbookers use to plan their pages or for cropping photos. Then I doodled on the top left one, and used colored pencils on the bottom one.

Eyeglasses

2009-08-20T15:38:00.000-07:00

This is different looking page compared to what I usually make. After blending stripes of "Teddy Bear Tan" and "Morning Sun" on the pages, I simply stamped an image of framed eyes all the way around and used various colored pencils to fill in the spaces between them. I think it's simple but effective. I wrote the text in a vertical alignment reminiscent of an eye chart.

Visit with Judy

2009-05-21T11:30:00.000-07:00

I got to spend a couple of hours with Judy today. It had been quite awhile since I had been to her house in Alvin, since they spend most of their time now in Huntsville. It was like old times just sitting and talking. She's the first friend I made when we moved to Alvin in 1963.
She is so excited about Missy's baby and delighted that I'm finally going to be a grandmother. Like everyone else, she tells me there's nothing else like it.
She has a beautiful Jenny Lind cradle that she wants to lend me, as well as a nice oak highchair. Said she stopped on the side of the road where someone was selling them before Emily was born. I never find bargains like that!
She also had a book for me called "Guess How Much I Love You." The illustration here is from the cover. So far, this baby has three books for Emme to read to it and is only 10 weeks in utero.
These pages were painted with "Winter Blue" & "Wine." The title was written with a Marvy calligraphy marker No. 64 from the Victorian set. The text was written with a "Spice" Zig Writer.

Mother's Day 2009

2009-05-21T11:06:00.000-07:00

The flowers on this page are from the stamp that I used on Granny's card, but on it I placed them in more of a horizontal line, although they still over-lapped. And I used watercolor pencils instead of the waxy Prismacolor pencils that I used here.
Missy and I spent the afternoon together. It was extra special this year since she's on the way to becoming a mother herself.
I adore the gift she made for me. It's a wooden picture frame painted light blue. Sage green wooden letters spell out the words "Emme & Me." At first, when I just had a cat as a grandchild, we referred to me as "Me-Me." My name is Marian Eliece...thus the ME. However, Jerry's mother, who already has a number of grandchildren, is called that. Plus, that's what my sister Jan is called. So, we had to think of a different appellation. Missy's friend Leigh suggested "Emme" which is what the individual letters "M" and "E" sound like. I think it's cute and kind of unique. Of course, you never know if a child will come up with something on their own!

Muffins

2009-05-21T10:51:00.000-07:00

These pages were very simply painted with "Ice Blue" paint.
I cut the border with a Multi-Punch manufactured by The Paper Studio. This particular style is called "Elegant." Since the cut-off part allows the previous page to show, I decided to use that brown color for my writing. A Pitt brush marker was used for the title (pooh! I left out a letter.)
The left page was written with the bullet end of a Tombow marker, and you can probably see how the letters did not stay crisp. I love the brush ends of these markers, but the opposite tips on them seem to always bleed when used over acrylic paint. I need to remember that when I consider using them on my journal pages. For the right page, I used a brown Pitt F pen. Notice how much sharper the writing is.

April Showers

2009-05-21T10:31:00.000-07:00

This spread was a combo of several experiments, and I'm pleased with how it turned out.
I painted the pages with midnight blue paint, using my brush to create swirls and while it was still wet, I used the pointed end of a bottle opener to draw loop-de-loops in the paint on the right side.
Next, emulating a technique that I learned here: http://web.me.com/jwesolek/cre8it/Blog/Entries/2009/4/17_Artist_in_the_Kitchen_-_Food_for_Thought.html I cut some frames from fun foam.
Stamped them with "Crafter's Ink" by ColorBox. The green one didn't show up very well on the dark blue paint, so I enhanced it with a green Prismacolor pencil. I also used that pencil to write the numbers and the words "April Showers." Retraced them with a white pencil, which is what I used, as well, to write the text.

Easter Week

2009-05-21T10:20:00.000-07:00

I spent Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and part of Saturday in Huntsville. I met Judy at a shopping center in Conroe. She showed me an OshKosh outlet there that has fantastic discounts on kids' clothes. She's as excited as I am (almost) about Missy's baby. Then she treated me to a wonderful lunch at the Hunan Chinese restaurant.
When we go to their house on the lake, I was bowled over by how beautifully they have landscaped their yard. The azaleas were still in bloom, and they also had some daffodils in pots and dozens of ferns. There were yellow irises all along the edge of the lake.
She introduced me to a friend of hers named Sylvia Gintz, and as we talked, we discovered that she had lived in Nacogdoches as a little girl, just one street over from me. She was a year ahead of me in school and as far as I know, I never met her. They moved away after second grade.
On Friday, I showed Judy how to make doodle-art flowers with Tombow brush pens. She had been wanting to learn this for a long time, ever since she wasn't able to take the class I taught at Novel Approach.
I used light gray and deep lilac paints for these pages. The borders were created with strips of scrapbooking paper, while the Easter eggs were cut out of an advertisement. Wrote the title with a Pitt brush marker.

Miracle

2009-05-21T10:08:00.000-07:00

I was so thrilled to be able to accompany Missy on her first visit to the obstetrician.
When they called me in for the ultrasound, it seemed unbelievable that I was actually watching the fluttering of the teeny-tiny little heart of my first grandbaby.
This background was painted with "Latte" and "Soft Apple" paints. I cut the illustrations from some gift wrap I had left over from a baby shower.
I wrote the word "Miracle" with a green Tombow brush marker, shadowed the right side of the strokes with a light gray marker, and separated those strokes with a fineline black Prismacolor pen.
When you create shadowing for your letters, you need to decide whether to do it on the left or right side of the strokes, and be very careful that you stick with whichever side you've chosen.

Generations

2009-05-21T09:59:00.001-07:00

I wanted to come up with a clever way to tell Mother that Missy is expecting a baby. I looked and looked and finally found a small silver frame that was hinged with room for three photos. I put my baby picture in the first spot, followed by Melissa's. I had never before noticed how much we resembled each other as infants. I knew that we looked alike as 2-year-olds, but I guess I'd never looked at these pictures side by side before.
I wrapped the frame and told Mother that we'd brought her an Easter gift, although that was still two weeks away. She was intent on looking at the photos, so it took her a minute to realize what the message in the third place really meant.
Jeanne caught on at the same time and just started hollering and crying and hugging. I know it must have pleased Missy so much to see how happy Jeanne is for her. My reaction had been much more low-key since I knew she had gone off the pill and I wasn't so shocked when she told me.

Grandbaby!

2009-05-21T09:54:00.000-07:00

This spread records some of the best news I have ever received.

Yummy Tomatoes

2009-05-20T17:16:00.000-07:00

Every spring I try my hand at planting tomatoes. Sometimes I have fairly good results, and sometimes not so hot. I once heard someone joke that their first home-grown tomato only cost them $100.
After painting the pages with lime green paint, I used a holey sponge to apply a darker green paint as a border. Wrote the title words with a medium size Prismacolor pen, and used a smaller nib to add the little flowers. Colored with yellow and red Prismacolor pencils, as well as using a green one to shade the right sides of the letters.

Australia

2009-05-20T16:46:00.000-07:00

These pages were painted with Periwinkle, and when dry I used Bright Yellow paint to stencil the stars down the side. They were outlined with a .01 Prismacolor pen. These pens are relatively new to the market I think, at least they are new to me. I bought a set of them at Hobby Lobby and the sizes of the nibs range from a tiny .005, to .01, .03, .05, and .08. Any of you who've done much writing on acrylic painted pages, know that not every pen works well on this surface. Or, if they work well at first, the paint seems to ruin them after a short while. So far (and I'm keeping my fingers crossed) these pens seem to be holding up. There is a guarantee on the back of the package that says: "If your product does not perform properly, please return for replacement" and gives an address. I plan to take them up on this if one quits any time soon.
I have used Prismacolor pencils for many years, and my set was bought back when they were manufactured by Berol. I've heard some people say they don't like them as well since Sanford began making them in 1995, but I can't really speak to that.
I wrote the word "Australia" with a Pitt F pen, and I promise you that is one pen you can count on! Then I colored in the counters of the letters with soft pastels.
The picture was from a review of the movie in the newspaper, and I just drew a frame around it with a yellow Prismacolor pencil.

My Birthday Week

2009-05-20T16:33:00.000-07:00

Squirted on Calypso Blue and Lime paint, moving it in swirls with the brush, and leaving bits of white paper exposed. Stamped around the edges with white pigment ink. Used a broad-edge marker to create the capital "D", and embellished it with a white Sharpie Poster-Paint pen. The moon and stars on the right side are rubber stamps applied with white pigment ink and enhanced with Prismacolor pencils.

Oct. 6

2009-05-20T16:21:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting technique. I placed a plastic stencil under the right page and rubbed the unpainted page with the sides of red, blue & yellow crayons. Then I over-painted with Americana's "Graphite", which is a medium gray paint. I wiped the wet paint with a baby wipe to expose the crayon colors which had resisted the paint. As you can see, the holes in the stencil had resisted being filled in by the crayons, and left bare paper that the paint covered up.
I used white FW acrylic ink and a Nikko nib to write the text.

Now the Clean Up Begins

2009-05-20T15:58:00.000-07:00

This page had been prepainted with Melted Butter and Fuschia and I was pleased how it complemented the streaks of sunlight coming through the trees in the photograph. This was just a picture I had in my files, but it illustrates the feel of the hurricane in so many ways. As I stare at it, I can imagine how hard the wind must have blown to create the havoc that we saw in all the yards as we drove back down the streets toward home. I've never been in a war zone, but that word came to mind as I ogled the piles and piles of debris. Trees, vines, leaves, and limbs are littering all the yards and most fences are down. Brush is piled 12 feet high. But, oh how lucky we were. It's a major inconvenience being without TV or Internet, but our electricity was back on several days before our neighbors' was, and we didn't even lose one shingle, while thousands had to have their roofs replaced, not to mention those poor people right on the coast who lost their entire houses and some of them lost their lives, as well.

Hurricane Ike continued

2009-05-20T15:40:00.000-07:00

These pages had also been prepared earlier as I was continuing to play around with this same stencil. For the background, I first painted with "Melted Butter" which is a very pale yellow, and then overpainted with Periwinkle, Robin's Egg, Morning Blue & Winter Blue. Look carefully, and you'll see where I glued an old dictionary page on the right side and dabbed more color on top of it. When this was good and dry, I positioned the stencil with temporary adhesive and sprayed it with shiny black paint. Then I embellished the figure with acrylic paints. You can click on the picture to enlarge it for a better look.

Waiting Out Ike

2009-05-20T15:16:00.000-07:00

This is a spread that I completed while we were at my sister's house in Pflugerville just outside Austin. The background and stenciled girl had been completed sometime before the storm, and the disgruntled look on her face seemed perfect for how we felt as we waited to find out how bad things were.
I made the stencil by taping a piece of transparent vellum over a magazine photo and tracing the girl. It takes a bit of practice to figure out what parts to cut out. Of course, the black parts you see here are where the holes were cut. Sometimes, I use spray paint for my stencils, but for this one I sponged on black stamp pad ink.
The lefthand border was made but laying down a strip of drywall mesh and sponging with Tuscan Red paint.

July 12, 2008

2009-05-20T14:48:00.000-07:00

I've been very remiss in posting pages to this blog. I can't believe it's been 10 months. For much of that time I was occupied with developing some PDF files that explain how I go about making my art journal pages. Lots of this I've already explained on this blog, of course, but the lessons that I sell are in a much more organized 1,2,3 type fashion. To read more about them, look here: http://creatingyourownstory.blogspot.com/
This page is less than spectacular, but it illustrates how you can create writing lines with corrugated cardboard. After the blue and green background paints were dry, I brushed red paint onto a piece of narrow-ribbed cardboard that was inside a package of Reveal light bulbs. (Unfortunately, they seem to have discontinued using it, but Starbuck's has something similar around their cups.) Anyway, you need to quickly press the painted cardboard to the page before it has time to dry.
The small picture is from a paper napkin.

Sandy

2008-07-23T13:59:00.000-07:00

After painting part of the background with 'Wild Berry', I squirted on some 'Periwinkle' to tone it down. When this was good and dry, I taped down a stencil and applied white acrylic paint with a sponge. Unfortunately, I forgot to tap the sponge off on a paper towel first, so it bled under in the upper corner.

Wrote Sandy's name with a purple Tombow brush marker and shadowed it with a lavender one. Used white and black pens to highlight and outline.

Mother's Fall

2008-07-23T13:54:00.000-07:00

The large flowers were from a stencil set that I got at Dollar Tree. Used fingertip daubers to apply Colorbox ink and then heat embossed with clear powder. The smaller ones were cut-outs. A purple Prismacolor pencil created the shadowing. Even though the background appears to be blue in the photo, it's actually a lavender called "Wisteria" by Americana.

New Stamps and Punches

2008-07-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

Used Navy Blue and Robin's Egg paints for this spread. I used white pigment ink to show examples of my newest rubberstamps and leftover bits of wrapping paper to demonstrate the punch shapes. Wrote with my white Sharpie Poster-Paint pen. I've noticed that it's starting to get balky, but it still does better than any other white pen I've tried.

April 29

2008-05-17T21:14:00.000-07:00

I painted these pages with Melted Butter and Rust Red. I used a square punch on magazine pages to make the embellishments on the left side.

The right page features a picture of the birthday card I made for my brother Keith. I used one of the little watercolor collages I made in Sherri Kiesel's class. He really seemed to like it, and that always makes me feel good!

Grandma

2008-05-17T21:01:00.000-07:00

This shows my Grandma sitting on a log and holding my little brother with my sister and me beside them. That's an old family photo that I used in a book I made my mother for Mother's Day this year. She just loved the book. It was accordion-style and pictured many of our ancestors, including my great-great grandfather.

Leap Year

2008-05-17T20:48:00.000-07:00

I dotted on Wild Berry, Petal Pink, Crocus, Purple, and Bright Blue and smeared with an old credit card to completely cover the pages. Next, I brushed silver paint onto a piece of corrugated cardboard and quickly pressed it to the right page, creating lines. Then I used a sponge to dab the silver paint around the edges and down the center. Of course, frogs "sprang" to mind for a Leap Year page, so I was glad to find these little critters in my picture file. I used a Sharpie Extra-Fine Poster-Paint pen to do the writing.

Gardenia

2008-05-17T20:04:00.000-07:00

This spread has so many components, I can barely remember how it came about. To begin with, I had painted both pages entirely with blue and beige paint. You can imagine that wasn't very exciting. The bright yellow came about when I was stirring some of my paints. I try to do this every few months with the expensive bottles to see if I need to add water (I don't bother with the cheap craft acrylics.) This yellow was either Ziller Ink or Plaka casein emulsion paint. Anyway, I just rolled the stir stick across the right page to use up the bit of paint that still clung to it. That livened things up somewhat and gave me the idea to make a yellow-green border. I cut curved pieces of acetate film as masks to protect the blue paint and brushed on yellow paint around the edges, followed by some green which was partially wiped off to reveal parts of the yellow. Next, I drew a narrow border on top of the blue shape using a white charcoal pencil. This was outlined with a black Prismacolor pencil, and finally decorations were added with a black Pitt F pen. The final touch was the photo of a beautiful gardenia...my favorite flower. I love how the colors in it complement those already on the page.

One of my favorite tricks when gluing an illustration to a page, is to adhere it so parts of it hang off the page, and then trim these off after it's dry. I think the page looks more professionally designed this way, than when I just plop something in the middle.

Doily Spread

2008-05-17T19:47:00.000-07:00

This spread was the result of experimenting to see if I could use a paper doily as a stencil. It worked fairly well, but I think if I tried it again, I might spray the doily first with a sealer since it got kind of mooshy from the wet paint.

First I painted both pages with the dark green paint (English Ivy), and when dry laid the doily on top and stippled through the holes and across the top with the lighter Apple Green.

It was rather blah, so I tried to liven it up by using Prismacolor pencils in various places. I think this gave it kind of a stained glass look.

Menopause the Musical

2008-05-17T19:25:00.000-07:00

This spread was to help me always remember the delightful time Linda and I had at this musical. I would urge everyone to see it, especially if you grew up in the 50s and 60s. The music will carry you back to your youth even though the lyrics have been changed ever so slightly to comment on menopausal issues. I dare you not to love it!

I painted the background with 'Wild Berry' and some blue color (It was either Anita's 'Morning Blue' or Americana's 'Calypso Blue'.) I just clipped the illustrations from the program.

Patchwork Painting

2008-05-17T18:50:00.000-07:00

I made this page following directions by Kelly Rae Roberts in the Nov/Dec '07 issue of "Cloth, Paper, Scissors. In brief, it involves gluing squares and rectangles of a variety of papers to cover the entire background. Then coat the surface with gel medium to seal. Sketch the figure. Use a brayer and/or brush to apply various colors of fluid acrylics over the collage. Wipe with a damp paper towel to remove some of the color and let the paper patterns show through. Gesso the skin and hair areas. When dry, paint these with acrylics, shadowing and shading for a realistic look. The butterfly that forms the bodice was cut from wrapping paper. Finally, outline the entire figure with black paint.

The background of the left page was first painted with periwinkle and yellow craft acrylics, and when dry, a sponge brayer was used to apply a variety of green paints.

New Babbo Bruno

2008-05-17T15:56:00.000-07:00

For my birthday, we went to Babbo Bruno's new location in Friendswood. This is quite a bit larger than their old facility and has more ambience. With stone floors and arches, it has a Tuscan feel. And I love the fact that it isn't noisy like so many restaurants. They were playing Andrea Bocelli's music, but not intrusively.

Missy and I had planned to have a girls'-day-out on Sunday, but I told her that we would do it later since she needed to spend her time preparing for another insurance exam. However, she took time anyway to bring me a fantastic coconut pie from the Busy Bee, a beautiful Christmas cactus and a visit with my sweet little grandkitty Alley.

The background for these pages was red and purples paints that I had left in the brushes from other pages. I often get some lovely backgrounds this way, by just dabbing on whatever's left in the brush; adding to it over time until I have a nice look. Then I added yellow and purple NeoColor II water soluble pastels on top of the paint. The illustration is part of a napkin applied with matte medium.

The text was written with some markers that were new to me: Prismacolor Premiers in .3 & .1

November 26-30

2008-05-17T15:39:00.000-07:00

These pages were painted with blue, green and copper acrylic paints. The designs were done with Prismacolor pencils, outlined with a black .8mm Copic pen. This was an incredibly fun spread to do. I was inspired by Ingrid Dijkers art. She is absolutely amazing! See her work here: http://IngridDijkers.com

Korean Barbeque

2008-05-17T15:34:00.000-07:00

I had read a good review of the Korean Barbeque on El Dorado, so Missy and I went there today to check it out.

It was a tiny place in a strip center, but the food was good as promised. Our main dish was bi bim bap, which was rice, beef, and vegetables topped with a fried ess and served in a hot stone bowl. Mia, the owner, brought it to the table and proceeded to chop up the egg and mix it into the other ingredients along with some hot chili paste. We also had fried dumplings, miso soup, and a kimchee pancake.

Dog Up a Tree

2008-05-17T15:21:00.000-07:00

For Coquette Weekend this year, we went to Rockport. We saw the funniest thing when we were coming home on Sunday. We had stopped at Goose Island State Part to view a 2000 year-old live oak that is 38 feet in circumference. That was pretty spectacular, but we saw something even better when a little dog that was part Jack Russell took off after a squirrel and actually climbed a tree! She jumped up about 4 feet and then clawed her way up another 3 or 4 feet until the trunk angled out above the ground and she could run all the way out to the end of the limb. This was not the 2000 yr-old tree, but one that was plenty big itself. It happened so fast that we were only able to get a picture of her as she headed back down. We were all whooping and hollering. Her owners live nearby and said she does it all the time.

I applied gesso to the left page and let it dry. Then painted royal blue & turquoise on the right page. While it was wet, I closed it over onto the dry gessoed page, and then carefully pulled the pages apart. This transferred some of the wet paint. Once all was completely dry, I applied Adirondack 'Stonewashed' dye ink to the left page with a cosmetic sponge. The text was written with a white Uniball Signo pen. This was also used to outline the picture which had been trimmed with decorative edge scissors.

Art Journaling in Austin

2008-05-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

The 1-day class I taught in Austin went very well. We had 12 people, which was a nice size group to work with.
Everyone seemed to have a good time, although with only one day they didn't get much actual journaling done. Hopefully, they'll complete some of the pages they started at home.
This spread was burnt sienna fluid acrylic mixed with soft gel matte medium over pages that had been previously painted with gesso. When this was very dry, I brushed it again with gesso and stamped into the damp gesso around the edges of the right page with a Staedtler Mars eraser that I had carved in a grid pattern. The uncarved squares of the eraser lifted off the damp gesso, revealing the burnt sienna underneath, while the carved-out lines remain white. I wrote the title with a Pitt brush pen.
The illustrative elements on the left side are serendipity squares, which are a great way to use up those scraps of paper that we all save. Choose a solid color of paper or cardstock for your background. Tear your scraps into small pieces and glue them down at random, leaving the background sheet showing in places. It won't look like much at this stage, but don't worry. Now you can add all sorts of embellishments, such as punch-outs, stickers, lace, embossing. Anything you can think of as long as you can cut through it. It will really look a mess now, but looks great once it's cut up. Cut into small squares or other shapes and they're ready to mount on journal pages or as decorative elements for cards.
This spread is wonderfully tactile with the collaged pieces on the left and grid marks you can actually feel on the right.

Dancing Chickens

2007-10-06T12:58:00.000-07:00

This is the last page in my current everyday matters journal. I had been saving this picture of the dancing chickens for years. It was just what I needed to accompany this recipe for Parmesan-Seared Chicken. You'll have to try this. It's great!

Going now to my teaching mode...I encourage my journaling students to tie two pages of a spread together. That's what I did when I used the red from the chickens' combs to outline the recipe.

Medicare? Yikes!

2007-10-06T12:47:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is a picture of me as an infant. I was a WWII baby and will be 65 in December. How impossible that seems!

The white was written with a Sharpie Poster Paint Pen. I've found they are the most reliable thing out there for writing in white.

Liking Has To Be Earned

2007-10-06T12:32:00.000-07:00

I've always loved this quote by Colleen McCullough. It's from her book The First Man in Rome. For several years now, I've felt that my daughter is my best friend, so this page seemed the perfect place to write it.

The inner parts of the flowers are a rubberstamp that I heat embossed with copper, then drew the outer edges with a black pen, and colored the white parts with a Prismcolor pencil.

Spray Paint Stencil

2007-10-06T12:16:00.000-07:00

This was my first experiment with making a spraypaint stencil. As you can tell, I didn't quite get the hang of it on this one. Here are some things I learned by trial and error:

1. You can make a stencil by directly cutting from a magazine photo, but it may be easier to see what should be removed by tracing just those parts.

2. You will get a cleaner image by using repositionable spray adhesive on the back of the stencil instead of removable tape.

3. You can use adhesive to stick down any part you accidentally cut off, or to mask an interior part (such as a thin line to demarcate the two lips.)

4. Wear gloves when using spray paint (unless you're into black fingernails.)

Sept. 2-5

2007-10-06T12:02:00.000-07:00

This spread was painted with Anita's 'Periwinkle' and 'Melted Butter' acrylics. Just squirted them on and spread with a 1" flat brush. For the date lines, I made a stamp by cutting diamonds out of a craft foam sheet and temporarily mounting them to an acrylic block with Scotch Removable Poster Tape. They were tricky to align just right, so I was sorry to have to remove them from the block. Next time I will adhere them to a piece of acetate and stick that to the acrylic block so they will be easy to remove and reuse.

Writing Samples

2007-07-11T17:02:00.000-07:00

This page is where I've tested several different markers, especially to see how well they show up on darker painted pages. For white, my favorites are gouache, Sharpie Poster-Paint pen, and Uni-ball Signo in that order. The worst is the Permapaque, the Gelly Roll, and the Gell Xtreme. I'm just talking about white. I like these brands in other colors.

2007-07-07T11:32:00.000-07:00

This spread is an example of "featuring" a mistake. While the paint was still quite damp, I somehow managed to pull on the right side and a hunk of the page tore loose. Instead of thinking I had ruined the page, I picked a contrasting color to paint the underneath page (purple) so that it shows through the torn place. When everything had dried sufficiently, I used a lilac colored pencil to create feathering around the edge of the tear. I could have also fixed the problem by gluing on a border.

At a class I taught a couple of weeks ago in Austin, one of the students had a magazine cut-out where she liked both sides. I thought she was very inventive when she tore a hole in the middle of a page and positioned the picture so both sides could be viewed.

Mockingbird

2007-07-05T13:23:00.000-07:00

I don't usually use this many different colors on a background, but it's fun to get wild and crazy sometimes. I added the flower just because I thought it was pretty and reinforced the bits of purple in the background. The picture of the mockingbird is to remind me of just how sassy they can be. Recently, as we drove up to the house, we saw a squirrel running along the power line and a mockingbird was flying behind nipping at his butt. I've seen them dive at my poor old cat who was just minding her own business, but this is the first time I've ever seen one harass a squirrel. Maybe it got too close to her nest, although I would have thought it's too late in the year for her to be raising young. However, now that I think about it, it was just two weeks ago that I saw a mourning dove sitting on her nest in Missy's pear tree.

June 20-22

2007-07-05T13:18:00.000-07:00

This spread is to remind me of some memorable meals that we had when we last visited my sister and brother-in-law.

Spirals

2007-07-05T13:02:00.000-07:00

This spread was painted with raw sienna and cad yellow. When it was good and dry I swiped a couple of rubber stamps with white acrylic paint and randomly pressed them on the page. Just a note of caution...be sure to wash your stamps well immediately after using them with acrylic paint since it dries permanent. I colored in some of the spaces with Prismacolor pencils.

Camp Cheerio

2007-07-05T12:18:00.000-07:00

In May, I went to Camp Cheerio, which is a breath-takingly beautiful place in the mountains of North Carolina not too far from Winston-Salem. However, it was remote enough that my cell phone couldn't get service and too far up a very winding road to rule out dashing into town. My friend Jennifer Phillips and I were there for a calligraphy workshop. The organizers tried something this session that I feel sure they won't repeat. They had engaged two instructors as usual. But instead of assigning half of us to one and half to the other for the whole week, or dividing the week in half with each teacher...they divided each day in half so we had to totally shift gears in our thinking because the subjects being taught couldn't have been more diametrically opposed. Worst of all, the students had to move instead of the teachers. So here's 40 mostly middle-aged to elderly women, and even a man in his 80s, packing up and moving our multitudinous art supplies up and down stairs every single day and sometimes twice a day!

They said they had to do it this way because the techniques that Brody Neuenschwander was using needed drying time, so dividing the week in half would have been a problem. But as it was, no one finished their projects anyway. His class needed full days all week long. The things he taught were extremely intriguing, and he has such a brilliant mind, along with being a wonderful human being. It was a joy to be exposed to his techniques.

As bad as not having a permanent situation in class was, the food almost made up for it. Camp Cheerio has lucked out by accidently hiring a fabulous young chef. Martyn, who is English, was between semesters in college and not looking forward to spending a summer at home, so he applied to be a camp counselor in the States. At that time, Cheerio had a cook, who by all accounts, made school cafeteria food seem downright tasty! Martyn insisted that he could do the job when the first cook left...and was everyone pleasantly surprised.

Since most of the time, he is cooking for teenagers, he goes all out when he gets the chance to cook for adults. The ingredients he used are what you would expect in a 4-star restaurant and each meal was more amazing than the one before. He served such things as a leg of lamb, baked salmon, grilled strip steaks, portobello mushrooms, fresh asparagus, and parsnips, in addition to a 30 foot long salad bar. Breakfast was French toast with fresh raspberries, blueberries and strawberries; bacon & sausage; Belgian waffles; real whipped cream, cheese grits (not sure what the Yanks thought about those, but we southerners ate them up.) And he always had a fabulous dessert at both lunch and dinner. There was a mixed fruit cobbler that was better than any I've ever had. The crust did literally melt in your mouth. The bread pudding was to die for (and I'm not even a bread pudding fan.) If all this wasn't enough, there was a coffee machine with about a dozen selections that could have competed with Starbucks.

3rd Week of April

2007-05-21T16:41:00.000-07:00

This spread is about my spring cleaning efforts in the yard and garage.

Since this involved moving some of my daylilies, I found a pretty picture as illustration. I like how the colors in the background complemented those of the flowers. That was entirely random, as the spread had been painted long before I recorded on it. It was just the next one in the notebook. I love when that happens...and it does more than one would expect.

Squirrels

2007-05-21T16:29:00.000-07:00

This page tells of our battle with the squirrels who were systematically trying to make our house their house!

Generations

2007-05-21T16:19:00.000-07:00

This spread will be a reminder of the first time I saw my great-nephew in person. That's my baby sister Jan holding him. She's his grandmother and that's our mother sitting next to her. On the opposite page you can see a photo of my daughter with Mother and me, and on the bottom is Mother's new dog "Miss Daisy."

Callen at 3 Months

2007-05-21T14:27:00.000-07:00

Here's a great picture of my first great-nephew! I drew basketballs and stamped stars to accentuate the designs on his shirt.

Dawn Burgess

2007-05-21T14:22:00.000-07:00

With the death of Dawn Burgess, only two of the Coquettes' mothers are still living...Donna's and mine. This page just commemorates some of my memories of Mrs. Burgess. What a wonderful teacher she was! I'm so sorry that her last few weeks were so painful.

Babbo Bruno

2007-05-21T14:10:00.000-07:00

We were thrilled to discover this wonderful little Italian restaurant for JT's birthday.

This subtle background was created by overpainting reds and yellows with a taupe wash. The illustrations came from food ads, and I wrote the title with a broad-edge pen and black gouache.

Patchwork Frame

2007-05-21T13:54:00.000-07:00

To create this very colorful page, I first painted with cadmium red, overbrushed with yellow while still damp. While this dried, I cut rectangles and squares out of a Target catalog. I adore their catalogs for the fabulous colors and designs. These were arranged and glued in place with matte medium, interspercing a couple of circular patterns . Then a black Neocolor II crayon was used to outline the frame and smudged with my finger.

Chairs, Chairs, Chairs

2007-05-21T13:30:00.000-07:00

My daughter works for an interior designer who often gives her the opportunity to do special projects on her own time for extra income.

This background was several shades of medium greens, with bits of pale yellow and cream brushed on, and topped with a white wash. The title was done with a greenish-gray Tombow brush marker, shadowed with a lighter gray, and outlined & embellished with a black Uniball pen.

Aunt Mildred

2007-05-21T12:57:00.000-07:00

I created this page in memory of my aunt who died in February. The background was painted by alternating two colors. Over this, I laid down a cut-out of flowers with matte medium as the adhesive. This has become my favorite way to apply cut-outs in my compo journals:

1. Position the cut-out where you want it on the page and hold it in place with the fingers of one hand while lifting one edge with the thumb.

2. Dip a flat brush (I use a 1/2" or a 1", depending on the size of the cut-out) in matte medium.

3. Brush both the underside of the cut-out as well as the place on the page where the cut-out will lie.

4. Once this bit is stuck down, you can more easily lift up the rest of the cut-out to glue it and the underlying part of the page.

This works so well for me. The cut-out almost seems to sink into the page instead of just sitting on top. When I want to reduce the shine of a glossy magazine cut-out, I also coat the top with the matte medium. Also, with this method, you avoid the curling that happens when you apply the glue all over the back and then try to stick it down. And since you are applying just a bit of adhesive at the time, it doesn't dry out before you can get it down on the page.

Note: This cut-out was from a paper bag that Hobby Lobby used to put your purchase in.

January 2007

2007-05-21T12:51:00.000-07:00

The background was painted yellow, and after it dried, I masked off the edges and the gutter and then painted the center with black gesso. Because this dries a very matte black and looks like old-timey chalkboards, I wrote with a white Sharpie poster-paint pen (extra-fine point.) The decoration around the edges was done with a rubberstamp and colored with brush markers. The title was written with RoseArt ColorSharp metallic markers.

Mary and Jane Live On

2006-10-27T14:24:00.000-07:00

Two of my dearest friends died from breast cancer. Both of them were schoolteachers that the rest of us could only hope to emulate. Their names were Mary Marek and Jane Cox. When our newest elementary school was named for Mary, her children and grandchildren were honored to have Barbara Bush attend the dedication. The picture on the right side is of Jane's granddaughter, Lyndsay Mavus.

Coquettes 2006

2006-10-27T14:09:00.000-07:00

For the past 20 years, we've spent the 3rd weekend of October together. There were 12 of us to begin with, some going back as far as kindergarten, but all of us friends at least as far as junior high on.

We gathered at Rose's house in Nacogdoches in 1987 and that was the only time that Gayle joined us. Sue has only come about 3 times--but the rest of us rarely miss--and Rose has perfect attendance (even when she was bald from chemo!)

Last year was so bittersweet, as it seemed that Cookie was holding onto life until we could be together when she passed away on that Saturday evening and we threw our sand dollars into the ocean.

This year we met in Longview, and Helen gave us a wonderful DVD with old photos and songs to commemorate those we've lost, as well as to remember all the good times.

Each year Sally has a T-shirt made for us, and it's always a great surprise and delight to see what she comes up with. This year the front shows a Chevy topped with the slogan "Young and Foolish," while the back says "Now we are old and wise" and shows caricatures of each of us.