Something "Wicked"...this way comes....

Just look at this cloud headed right towards our house.  A huge circle cloud.  I cannot believe Mother Nature sometimes.  Truly Amazing!

It was getting closer and closer.  It was unbelievably calm and muggy out.  This was taken approximately 8pm.  There was tornado watches all day.  I took a short video of it but it needs editing, lol.

 A quick "Art Journal Page".  I traced my hand and doodled a bunch of stuff.  I tried out some watercolors all around and tried blending and rubbing techniques.  Left the black and white in the center for a cool effect.

My youngest and I are heading west for a week.  Much needed break.  I will post some pics when I return.

Head on over to Dirty Footprints Studio where she is having an exciting "Give Away".

One of my "journaling secrets" is I hide a secret messege in alot of my pages.  Usually only I can find it and I don't tell anyone about it.  Sometimes it's visible, sometimes its underneath layers of paint or collaged over.  My favorite supplies are; watercolors, masking fluid (my newly discovered favorite) and my trusty white gel pen.  My secret is out Connie, great idea to find out what everyone does. Ha! Ha!


Here is just such a page.  I used all my favorite supplies.  This is a birthday card that I am making for my oldest who is turning "19".  

                        Happy Birthday Britney!!

And the winner is.....

Hey My Favorite Folks;

   Hope you are all well and out enjoying the lovely weather.  We have had some good days and some W-E-T days.  Our last storm looked like this.  This was just a couple of days ago.  It downpoured and I guess we got hail in a few places.  Here is just a few blocks from where I live.  Tons of it.

   I have some amazing news to share so you will have to watch this video to find out K?  It is only 8 minutes and then you will know.  Here it is...

    OMG...can you believe it???  How amazing is that.  I have been following Tam for years.  I am a member of her wonderful "ning" group and of course her number one fan.  I Love her art and she is a wonderful person. Did I mention that I love her??? LOL.  She still has her "Art, Heart and Healing Class" available and many other wonderful classes...just click on the button on my sidebar to see.  The print that I picked is this one .  She said that she mailed it out a couple of days ago, but I am a little worried about our stupid mail strike.  Of course that has to happen just when I win something.  Ironic isn't it?  Since it is coming from the UK maybe by the time it hits Canada our strike will be a thing of the past.  Crossing my fingers and toes...ow.

   Here are some pic's of some art that I have been doing.  You may remember that I belong to a Mail-Art Club.  Here are a few that I sent.

   I kind of like this one.  It reminds me of my Grandmother (who by the way is 93 years young).  She used to make all her own cards and sew them together and around the edges.  She was and is ahead of her time.  She was doing mixed-media before there ever was a name for it.  So this one got sent out to a co-worker of mine.

  This one was sent to my Mom for Mothers Day.  

     Boy oh boy, you never really appreciate a Mother, until...you are one.  I have 2 teens- and next to the terrible two's, this is the hardest stages that I have ever went through.  They are killing killing me off.  My youthful nature is disappearing and I am turning into an old-hag right before my very own eyes.  So on that lovely note....I love you Mom and again I am so sorry for breaking your heart so many times.  Thank-you for still loving me when I know how horrible I was.

   My sister sent me a beautiful song that I would love to share with you guys.  Its so funny because it is exactly how I have been feeling lately.  Thanx Christine.  Here it is.

   I am now working on a journal spread that I guess was motivated by a recent fight with my 15 year old.

    I will show you next time when it is all put together.  


   I am sorry that my blogging is, hit and miss.  But I guess that's life, with me anyways.  I will always try and blog more but it is hard in the summer isn't it?  I am outside more and doing less inside.  I love you guys and until next time, have a creative day!

" There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do."     Freya Stark

   

Is Spring Finally Here....?

   What a vision to behold!  Can it truly be?  Has springtime finally appeared in Alberta?  I am scared to admit that it might be true.  Every time I think spring has finally come....another BLIZZARD appears.  Touch wood.  

  I really feel it this time.  I want to go to the Rockies and go on a hike.  Not that it's a good idea at this time of the year, the nights are still too cold for hiking, but I am itchin.  I am a little antsy...and I can't wait to head into the mountains.  I am so grateful to live so close to the Canadian Rockies...if they weren't here it would be a very dismal place to live as I am not a fan of the Prairies.

   How was your Easter weekend?  We did the traditional Turkey supper, minus the dressing and dessert.  We tried to be somewhat healthy this year, cutting out the fat and sugar.  All the kids were home which was a real treat for us to be 5 again.  
My youngest arrived home from London safely and "wonderfully more" worldly.  My oldest is home from her first year of college for the summer, and my bestie's son is down.  It is nice having a house-full again.  I have missed everyone.   
 I am so grateful to be able to gather together as a family again, kids come and go but it is so nice to have them all home again too.

   I didn't get the girls chocolate this year.  (Unhealthy).  So I painted them each a postcard for Easter.  I used Twinkling H2O's, Liquid Frisket and pen and ink.  

 Jackie took these beautiful pictures of spring flowers on our nature walk today.  It's our last day off.  Tomorrow it is back to the daily grind.  I really enjoyed this weekend.  I feel rested and ready to take on the world again.  I never get week-ends off and I get that's why I really appreciated having this one off.  

   Every Blog post from now on...I would like to incorporate gratefulness and write about some of the things in my day to be thankful for.  Kind of like a gratitude journal.  It is so important for us to acknowledge the good things that happen in our lives so that we take nothing for granted and we can appreciate our blessings more.  

   Our lake is finally melting.  This is Dodd's Lake and the Canadian Geese are back and hopefully we will be able to see some goslings this year.  How exciting will that be?

  Here's some food for thought...

"The world would be a wonderful place if only we'd shut up and let it."

I am Back...

Hello there lovely people;

It has been a CRAZY month.  I am back and have lots to show you.  Check out the "Sketchbook Challenge" it is still going strong.  This months theme is 'Spilling Over'.  And oh my goodness I can definitely relate to that. Here is my rendition...

 What kind of sicky gets all worked up...just by simply LOOKING at "art supplies"....well...I am afraid to admit, that would be ME!  So this page is about that.  I love art supplies and I do have allot of it and not enough time in this life to use it.  So I now refrain from buying (which is extremely hard) and I just stalk other blogs and look at their supplies and how they are using them and that seems to fill the void.

I have been working on this next project for a couple of weeks now.  As you know my youngest daughter is going to London (this Saturday!!! OMG) and I thought it would be nice for her to document this journey in a hand-designed journal specifically for this trip. Here is the journal before.....

This is a simple lined Moleskin Cashier journal.  Looks pretty plain and not very inviting for a journey such as hers will be.  This is after I personalized it.

 I added an elastic enclosure that I attached to the back of the book.  I also handmade the button on the front.  I used my dremel tool to drill a couple of small holes that would incorporate the elastic and drew her name all fancy with ink and sealed it.  I picked her favorite color for the book which at the present time is "yellow".  I did some stamping and rubbing ink all around the sides to give it an old look, and cut out some of my hand-drawn flowers out of an old book page and glued it on.  I re-inforced the book by putting a seam of black tape on it.  I think it looks better like that.

 This is the back of the journal, I added a few more places that she wants to go to in her life.  I rubbed ink around those pictures as well to tie it all in together.

 I personalized the inside as well.  A blank book can sometimes be intimidating.  So I stamped some images in and I found some good "Travel Quotes" that I wrote in the bottom of some of the pages.

She is going with her classmates and at the last parent meeting they gave us their itinerary's so I added that to the journal hoping it will prompt her to write a little something everyday.  I also made a magnetic bookmark using the same paper as the journal so it matches. 

Re purposing an existing journal doesn't really cost allot of money.  I only used 1 piece of scrap booking paper; under 99 cents, an ink pad and a couple of stamps, glue and cut-outs from a travel book, and a little imagination which is FREE.  And of course TIME...which I know we don't have much of...that's why this took me 2 weeks because I could only work on it in 15 minute intervals.  I haven't showed her yet I just have a few last minute things to do, but I can't wait to show her :)

I will leave you with one of the quotes that I used in her travel journal...

"A traveller without observation is a bird without wings."                    Moslih Eddin Saadi

The Artist's Creed

Hi guys, I am still alive and creating. I will blog this week. I promise.

I found this video on ihannah's blog and I looooovvvveeee it!!!

I have been getting ready for my daughter to go to London and that's why I have been away. She leaves on Saturday and I am a little panick-stricken. That was unexpected of me...I did not know that I would be so nervous about this wonderful adventure that she will be on in less that than a weeks time. Forgive my absence and I will be back with lots of pictures and the new things I have created.

Tune in this week

Love and Hugs :)

Crosses

Hi guys,

A quick post to let you know what I've been up to today.  Check out "True North Arts " she has a wonderful post about cross-making.  What a great idea to make crosses out of found objects from your environment during Lent.  I work in a place where they throw out allot of perfectly good supplies and I have saved some to use for my cross.

 The cross is made out of garbage pieces of "rag-mat".  I have some old book pages and I will use some of the words that I find interesting or that I am drawn to.  At work we throw out allot of the brown wrapping paper so I saved some because I like the organic color and feel of it.  I also used a butterfly stamp with gold ink, (I put the butterfly stamp on almost everything).  I then used some pen and ink (brown) and distressed the edges with "Vintage Photo-Distress Ink".  Then for a finished touch I sprayed the whole cross with "Tattered Angel's-Glimmer Mist".

I have named my cross....Forgiveness.  I have a few resentments and I blame myself for certain things that I feel responsible for in my life,  so making this and meditating during the creation process has made me feel more peaceful with myself.  Thank-you Kathryn for enlightening me today :)

 If anyone and everyone is up for the challenge...what is your cross that you bear today?

"We are not human beings trying to be spiritual.  We are spiritual beings trying to be human."   Jacquelyn Small

My Mini-Tin

Good Day folks,

As I sit here... it is blowing and a mere 46 below zero with the wind chill.  I live in Canada and even for a Canadian that is severely COLD!!  I'm thinking the North Pole is warmer.  It's the kind of cold where I worry about the deer and coyotes and... I wonder... what temperature does it have to be before glass cracks? 

I have been working on my "mini-watercolor tin" and I must say, I really like it.  I needed to get some silicone so that I could make in water-proof on the inside.  I siliconed around the blister pack that I glued in.  Don't use metal glue...it didn't work for me.  I siliconed the blister pack in as well, so overall it took about 2 days to dry.  I painted it with acrylics and 

pen+ink and cut out the heart and flowers out of an old book page.  This was the first time I have tried Golden's Fluid Acrylics and Wow!! I love them...you don't need much and the pigment stays true...I knew there must be a reason they are so expensive.  Quality.  They also have a shine to them that I like.  I haven't tried them in my journal yet so I am interested to see if they are sticky when dry.  I have heard that some artists say the pages stick when they use it and some say that they don't stick.  So I will just have to let you know when I use them in my journal.  

I can't wait to put in the liquid water-colors into my mini.  I am going to put in the primaries, red, blue and yellow. Then white, black and brown.  I think I can mix any color with those.  I am not a seasoned watercolorist so if anyone out there knows what colors I should need in this little travel tin let me know.

 This is the bottom of the tin and I am not yet done, I want to write a personal note to myself but I am not quite sure what yet.  I want to thank Leslie at "Comfortable Shoes" for her excellent video and sharing her way of making these.  I want to make a ton of them...but no one paints :(  
I then will have to spray the whole outside of the tin and then do allot of coats so that it is well protected from the abuse that I know I will put it through.

The next project I have to finish is the Midori Traveller that I showed you last week.  I have all the supplies now and I just have to get it done.  I cut mine a bit too small so wish me luck.

"Skill to do comes of doing."  Ralph Waldo Emerson