being inspired

i was recently inspired by watching teesha moore's utube videos on making a journal.  i've done 8 x 10 journal pages before and feel like they are a little too big for me, so using her directions for her 8 x 10 journal book i made one half that size. this is my front cover.  that's my face when i was little, well, minus the big eye on the left.  the scary part is i actually had shoes very similar to that except mine were tan and blue with big reddish brown soles.  i am looking forward to completing this journal.

being a grammy

sometimes i share personal information on my blog rather than my art, altho this particular post is art in its purest form - the making of a baby.   what a miracle babies are to us.  so without further adieu i would like you to meet my first grandson, benjamin todd nicholas.  these are two three dimensional photos from the recent ultrasound done to check on the baby's condition.  he weighs a little less than 2 pounds now.  his due date is april 29th and i can't wait to meet him. 

deli paper

my friend, marilyn, aka rockgran, has an amazing tutorial on her blog http://wwwmarilyninmyroom.blogspot.com/  that you just need to check out if you already haven't done so.  she uses deli paper to paint on and uses it in her collage work.  well i was really awed by it.  she was gracious enough to send me a few sheets til i can locate it on my own. when it showed up in my mailbox today i just had to try it out.  here are 2 samples i've done so far.  i still want to do some rubberstamping on it as all i've done so far is some foreign text.  i really love the feel of it and i know i will be making a lot more of it. thanks marilyn!

creating journal pages

 my friend, deb is hosting a nature journal swap and there are lots of great artists in it. i finished up a journal page for my art friend, melinda, who is also playing in it, and  this is the one side of it, those muddy feet crack me up.  in the upper corner, in case you can't read it, it says,  i love a glorious nature walk.  in a perfect world, and if i were on the ball like my friends marsha and terri, to name a few, i'd know all the collage sheet creators to tell you where those muddy feet came from, but sadly i am not that organized to know.  sorry about that.  i do know that the little ball border comes from my friend cassandra. she has a shop at etsy and you can find her tag on the right side of my blog. i hope you all have time to enjoy a glorious walk in nature today.

the holiday season

happy new year to everyone!  it's been quite a long time since i've posted to my blog. this holiday season had me spending a great deal of time away from art unfortunately.  i suppose it is good to take breaks periodically. it may rejuvenate the creative juices.  i was blessed to have a good family to spend time with for thanksgiving, christmas and new years. i had my family here today. we customarily eat at lunch time for our holidays.  i normally have christmas for my family but my sister in law asked to have christmas and, of course, i said yes, which left me hosting new years in her place.  i made ham with apricot glaze, macaroni and cheese, stewed tomatoes, coleslaw, applesauce and home made rolls.  for dessert we had brownies with vanilla ice cream drizzled with hot fudge sauce topped with whipped cream.  i never made a large ham before but it turned out well inspite of my  lack of experience.  i hope that everyone has ushered in the new year in style and i look forward to my creative journey with each one of you.

making envelopes

i'm hosting a challenge for altered envelopes.  here is one i made for the challenge. i'm thinking that i'd like to make a couple more but i'm not sure if i'll have the time to or not.  december is a busy month by itself, let alone, i find that i'm lacking in time management skills these past few weeks.  i don't know where all my time goes and i can't keep track of it!  christmas is only three weeks away and i've gotten one gift together to date.  that sounds kind of scary now that i write that.  i hope that all of you are doing better than me in that department, too. 

postcard time

here is a postcard for an postcard challenge with the theme of
egg.  it says "life cracks me up".  well it's true.  life does seem to crack me up. sometimes it's the raw stinging kind of cracks and most of the time it's laugh til your sides hurt kind.  the clouds i used for the postcard are from my friend marsha aka tumblefishstudio's collage sheets.    the egg and the face are from my friend donna aka collage anonymous's collage sheets.  both of these great artists can be found at etsy.

here i am

it's been some time since i've posted to my blog. i really have no clue what happens to my time. i've been less than artfully productive lately.  life is definitely happening all around me and sometimes i feel like a salmon swimming upstream.  but hey...at least i'm still swimming.  i did create a journal page for a journal swap i am in.  some of the collage images used on this journal page were from my good friends tumblefishstudio  ( http://www.etsy.com/shop/tumblefishstudio )  and donna ( http://www.etsy.com/shop/Donna67 ).
they both have etsy shops where you can find their collage sheets.  a few of the images i used were from another special girl traceylea/angelea.  she just made a collage sheet to share. how nice of her.  thanks girls!

a really good art friend of mine is hosting a steampunk journal swap. i didn't sign up for because when she posted it i have to say i just don't feel i have steampunk in my genes.  i've never attempted anything like this before so it was it quite a stretch for me.  the hostess did ask me if i would consider doing a page for her journal and i said i would but i have to say it made me nervous, especially after seeing the other journal page entries in the swap. everyone has done such incredible work. you could only use black, cream, rust, white, brown tones to complete the journal page.  her theme of what she was looking for she told me was "sky gypsy". i finished these up this morning and i'm waiting to hear from her if they are what she had in mind.   

more puzzles

i managed to make a couple more puzzle pieces for the next person in the puzzle swap. her theme was the same as the other person's theme.  i really like this style of art for some reason and it brought me lots of joy to work on these.  i used some collage sheets by a super talented artist, marsha jorgansen, aka tumblefishstudio. you can check out her etsy shop to see her latest creations at: 
http://www.etsy.com/shop/tumblefishstudio?section_id=6535349