This time of year I’m really done with winter. Especially a long, snowy, brutally cold winter. My thoughts turn to warm weather, starting my seedlings and Easter. Pastel colors are everywhere in the springtime. My color palette tends to lean that way as well even when its really one of my least favorites to work with if I’m completely honest. Yet here it is…pastels.
I think the pastels remind me of rebirth, soft and new…like baby clothes and accessories. Or maybe it’s just babies…spring is full of birth and babies! None here…and that’s 100% just fine. :)
As I take this photo this is my view…pouring rain on the mountains of snow…now we are in a flood warning too.
We are lucky enough not to live in the river valley so we just have to deal with local street flooding on occasion. So spring really can’t get here soon enough for me.
The sun was shining brightly today just daring you to step outside. It looked beautiful. Snow glistening a pristine white. It was all an illusion. Our daytime temperature stayed in the negative°F all day. Did I mention I’m DONE with Winter? I decided to throw some creative energy towards Spring.
I thought of a wild riot of color. Pretty pastels. Flowers in the peak of color sharing their joy of Springtime.
I put together a phrase from my found text stash that reflected my feeling about my wish for spring.
Recently the cold weather had me reaching out for warmth anywhere I could think of…it really showed through in the warm colors of this journal page.
Can’t you feel the warmth radiating off the page?? Come on now…use your imagination..ah isn’t that better. Toasty warm.
The image I chose made me think not of a masquerade ball as intended but to something sneaky…not dark and sinister but sly and cunning. I had to find the right words to match my thoughts.
Don’t you just love it when things work out like that!
Did you check out the texture!?! My first layer on this page was tissue paper. Over top I blended several shades of yellow and orange with my fingers until the overall look pleased the senses. Seeking more texture I attempted to stamp with some nearly ancient pigment ink pads…alas they left very little mark. Then I had the idea to smudge them here and there then sprinkle clear embossing powder over top. I had hoped I’d get more color from the ink…it was not to be. Then I decided to get even more aggressive with the ink pads and use some UTEE in copper. I really love the end result.
I also added some bits of leftover rub-on quotes I had laying around. I think it adds to the mystery of the page and what the masked woman is planning to deny.
My last step was to add a bit of India ink loosely around the edges to act as a frame.
Linking up today with Art Journal Journey for Yellow.
Welcome to T stands for Tuesday! Last week was a cold one…record breaking. It was a crazy week for school as well. We started out Monday with a 2 hr late start due to snow. Then had 3 days off due to extreme cold. Friday was normal. Check out this little collage of images from my house.
I had ice on my wall next to the front door. All the windows were iced up…even the nail heads of the trim were frozen. The cold was desperate to get in. So much tea was drank…so much…of course, no picture because I’m forgetful sometimes.
Friday we had a normal day of school. Saturday Mini-me had an archery tournament in the morning.
She did well and is looking forward to the next tournament in a couple weeks. The day actually got so warm that I grilled steaks! Of course the deck had to be shoveled to even get to the grill but…details, details. Yummy grilled steak is totally worth it!
This morning we awoke to icy conditions but had our regularly scheduled work and school for all of us. The poor neighbor girl fell down her front steps on the way to our house from the glaze of ice. Several people fell at both schools I have contact with. Bad news!! I’m thankful I did the penguin shuffle and made it without incident.
Today is also J’s 19th birthday! It’s the first one I haven’t spent with him. *sniff* He is planning to come home next weekend so at least we won’t have to wait too long to give him a birthday hug!
I did a little journal work today but I think I’ll save that for tomorrow.
I am going to try and upload a video flip through I did over the weekend. The end got cut off when my phone started to ring but hey that’s life. Fingers crossed I did this properly again. I’m really thinking I need to just upload to YouTube…I’m just not sure I want to deal with all the haters out there. Everyone’s a critic.
Today for Second on the 2nd I’d like to share an art journal page from 2015. I decided to re-share this page as the journaling I wrote I still think about to this day. Alternate time lines, time travel, all that mind twisting sci-fi sort of business. It really intrigues me.
Take a look…
10/29/2015
I started this page at craft club next door. I wasn’t feeling like making cards this time. I prepped the pages with tape down the spine and a thin coat of gesso at home so I’d be ready to play. I brought my gelatos, some pens and baby wipes for my fingers. The baby wipes work really well for both clean up and to get a little moisture on your fingers so the gelato moves more freely.
The next evening I sat watching TV with the unfinished page on my lap. Something came up about pondering and questioning…or perhaps something else triggered that in my mind. I just started free writing my thoughts. I have always been intrigued with the idea of time travel and parallel universe theories. What if there were an alternate timeline some how…some way?
If you could take a peek at your life in that time line the branched from a choice you made…would you look? Or would you be afraid to look?
Ok I think I’m a little obsessed again. I’ve been creating tons of mini collage pieces.
While making embellishments for my December Daily I rediscovered my love of fabric and paper collage at my sewing machine.
I haven’t made any of these in a very long time. Likely since I made them for the article I wrote for Sew Somerset. Of course my style has changed since then a bit but that’s to be expected. We shouldn’t stagnate in our creativity in my opinion.
These blue ones make me want to created a winter theme journal or set of greeting cards.Although these I think are my favorite. I love the pop of orange along with the teal and blue.
Trust me you haven’t seen the last of these pieces…
Welcome to the first edition of Second on the 2nd of 2019. It’s fun to look back and re-share posts from the past. Since my focus lately has been journals I thought I’d re-post a tutorial I wrote about one of the ways I prep a vintage book for altering. The altering after this point is completely up to you.
Take a look…
2/8/2015
Since I was starting a new journal I thought I’d share with you my process for prepping the book. First find yourself an old book that appeals to you. For me it was the size of this book. Not too small or too big… Just call me Goldilocks.
Look inside to see what kind of binding you have.
This inside cover gave me a really good indication that I had a sewn binding but I had to make sure.
Yep…sewn binding. Perfect! Now we’re ready for the thinning of pages without leaving chunks of torn pages along the inner spine. Removing pages reduces bulk since the altering of a book whether journal style or a themed altered book adds lots of bulk!
I find the center of each signature (as seen in the above photo) and remove the page from each side.Like this. I go back and carefully pick out all of the torn fragments. It will appear as if nothing has changed until you look at the page numbers. You’ll have a definite gap which would make reading the story a real challenge at this point.
I remove at least one page from each signature, sometimes more. You can always go back and remove more.
Here you can see the gaps along the spine and how the book is more narrow going toward the outer edge. This is exactly what you want.
You have a nice stack of pages for your altering pleasure when you are done.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So here’s an after photo of the completed Gypsy journal.
