happy new year!

I just love the new year...the possibilities and promise of a new, blank calendar hold so much hope...
One morning as I was waiting for my french press to finish steeping...setting out my cup...with great anticipation, I might add...  :)  I realized my cup shared the year (kinda)...twenty-sixteen...16 ounces...I love little connections like this...so I snapped this pic (like you do...wink)...

Then one thing led to another and I was inspired to do this...

In case you can't tell...wink...this is a blind contour drawing of my cup...(blind as in NOT looking at the paper while you draw...I ONLY looked at the object, in this case the cup)...what I like about doing this drawing exercise is that there is absolutely NO PRESSURE...afterall, how good can it be if you aren't even looking? Right!!! :)  PLUS, I feel like these little sketches have a wonky charm all their own...embrace your inner wonky!  :)  Oh, and I DID look when I did the star and lettering...just so you know.

Then following the prompt from DLP (Documented Life Project 2016), I created an ATC
(or PAC-Pocket Art Card)...

A little pen play...watercolor with my Tombow Dual-tip markers and water brush...a touch of foil and very quickly this little project came together...super fun!!!

I do hope that you make time nurture your creative self this year...

Happy New Year!!!

onto the page

I L-O-V-E art journaling for so many reasons...but you know that already don't you...I love it just for the joy of creating, but there are times when I am working through "something" and the processing is screaming to be expressed on the pages of my art journal...this is what happened with this page.  As I was "struggling," a picture of a cherry pie came to mind...hmmm...and so I hunted through magazines till I found just the right picture...and I propose that even that "hunting" helped with the processing...anyway, here is the process as it developed on the pages...

First, I "spilled" what needed to come out all around the edges, creating a border...

Then, since it wasn't "pretty,"  I covered over parts of the journaling with dictionary text and strips of a magazine page...

Then came the "antidote"...one of my favorite Scripture verses, written big and loose, some of the letters ending with an upward swoosh and some with a long finish line...

Next, I added some swipes of gesso over some of the journaling and the collage elements, plus some texture paste through a stencil, to unify the different elements... 

  

Since I knew I was using a cherry pie I decided to sketch some cherries over the verse and watercolor them with Tombow markers and a waterbrush...kinda scarey, but so much fun once I just committed, and did it...I had fun with the doodled leaves too!   :)  I also added a bit of shading around the sketches with a Distress marker (Antique Linen) and waterbrush...

Finally, I outlined the pie with a Fudeball pen-all squiggly-plus a Stabilo pencil and the same Distress marker and then blended with a waterbrush...

That's it!  I had worked it all out right there in my journal...it is hugely significant to me and the page will serve as a reminder and encouragement to me to engage and be faithful to the process. Once again, our art journals serve us well!  :)  Hi Ho Cherry-O!!! 

shine.bright.

In my last post I showed the "beginning" of this journal page...

I played around on this page some more and this is what happened...
First I gathered some things that I might use...

 

Did I mention that the sunflower picture is a "tip-in" attached with washi tape as the "hinge"?...

(I think I have "hinted" at how much I L-O-V-E interactive pages)  :)

 



I used the dictionary page strips to "frame" the sunflowers...

Next I added a die cut piece that I wanted to journal on...and I used my Kuretake Zig Mangaka markers and a yellow Tombow marker to jot down a thought...and also to outline the journal piece...

 

 

Oh, and I added the bird (crow, I think) sticker looking down at what I wrote...    :)

This is the page with the "door" open...

 



That's it...at least for now...a fun summer-y art journal page...
Well.come.sun...shine...bright.