Category : Art

432 posts

T Tuesday: completed journal recap edition

I am finally finished….as in completely finished with another journal. The inside pages have been done for a month or so but I had not been inspired on how to pretty up the outside until now.

As you can see this was a big improvement from the original.

The pretty paper came from a flower Mini-me received at the end of her first campus tour.

They have a cool tradition there that every Friday local florists bring single flowers for the students to purchase and place in each others mailboxes. Since it was a Friday, each of the kids on the tour got a flower. Hers was wrapped in the lovely pink floral kraft paper.

I wanted to keep the original inscription so I used washi tape to adhere the paper like a book jacket. Remember covering textbooks with grocery bags…same concept. Just prettier.

Mini-me and I are both a little obsessed with washi tape. Sometime I’ll show you our collection.

I received some happy mail from a dear friend of mine the other day. She was doing a major purge and thought of me. Yay! Thank you!!

On a recent thrifting excursion I picked up a couple goodies for my stash. The journal is really cute but a little small. Not sure if it would work for me to art journal with as my original thought was for it. I’m always on the lookout for a new book to journal since I don’t work cover to cover in a methodical manner. I tend to jump between several journals. The one I shared today was started Nov 2016 and considering there are only 8 spreads…I definitely jump around.

Mini-me and I had our first taste of Fall with a Pumpkin Iced Crafted Press. So yummy!!

Tuesday we both head back to school. I’m ready for the schedule. I almost feel more productive at home when I’m working.

T stands for Tuesday

What are you doing today?

| |

, , , , , , ,

16 Comments

T Tuesday: collage and college edition

Lets start with the collage since this is an art blog after all. I decided to attack my scrap pile and make a few mini collage pieces as card backgrounds.  It’s been a long time since I made any cards.  It was really fun…why did I put it off so long.

I even got out my sewing machine to add a bit of stitching to a few places. I decided to leave all but one of the cards without any sort of greeting or sentiment right now. That way I can add whatever I want when the time comes to fit the personality and appropriate greeting for the recipient.

As expected I missed last weeks edition of T stands for Tuesday. We were on the road bringing J to college. We were up before the crack of dawn to get on the road.

My baby bulldog’s new home.

Shockingly we traveled lighter than some for move in day. We’ve started a bag of stuff to bring on parent weekend in October.

*note the waterbottle in accordance with T stands for Tuesday guidelines*

Then this happened the day after we dropped him off at school.

Today was his first day of classes. He bought his books, made it to all classes and sent me a nice selfie to add to my first day of school photos. It’s a good day. For me I had my first half day back to work. Another half day this week then back full time the following Tuesday. I was super excited when on the third attempt I remembered my locker combo. HA!

We are settling into our new normal. Soon I’ll have my sewing machine set up in the unoccupied bedroom. I have several projects I’ve been thinking about and just some repairs that need attention.

I have a ton more stuff to talk about but we have a big storm rolling in and I’m thinking I may have to shut this computer down for a while. I’ll save it for another post.

T stands for Tuesday
What are you doing today?

| |

, ,

17 Comments

Yes I loved it

Today’s art journal page was all about me wanting to play with some of our new washi tape.

Mini-me and I picked out 12 rolls at Michael’s the other day when we stopped in to pick up some twirly sticks for my planters along the front walk. Yes I know summer is half over but I still wanted them.

Anyway..back to the journal page.  I simply love the look of dress pattern paper over text so I knew I had to leave a good portion of that revealed on my page. I loosely framed the page first with paint then with washi over the top. Some of the wider washi tapes I tend to tear into thinner pieces and apply in a slightly random fashion.

A clothing tag serves as both a backdrop for the first part of my sentence and the date stamp. I think I may need a new Staz-on pad…that stamping didn’t turn out very well.

I used a needle tipped bottle with thinned white paint to create this heart. After it was somewhat dry I laid the washi over the middle. And true as the statement across it…I loved it.

This page put a smile on my face. Yet another reason I keep creating. Just for me, just art for art’s sake.

 

Art Journal Journey

| |

, , , ,

6 Comments

AJJ: art of arts sake

Taking time to play in my art journals has been a challenge. I’ve been suffering from bouts of extremely busy schedules followed by times of extreme sloth. No, I’m serious. I’m not sure what’s up with that but I find if my schedule or to-do list isn’t packed with stuff, I have a hard time getting motivated. I justify it to myself as “I’ve just been so busy, I’ll just sit down for a bit and __(fill in the blank)__.  These options often include a screen, but of course not a useful screen such as learning something…no, just time wasters.  Netflix, Pinterest, phone apps, iPad games. WHY!!??!!

Ok…now that I got that confession off my chest I’m ready to move on since I actually have broken my slothful ways the past two days. Taking time to create. Let’s hope it continues, shall we!

This page went together as so many of my recent. I begin with what is around me. Gluing pieces down as the mood strikes.

Next comes the color. My fingers are truly my best tool….second best being the baby wipes I use to clean them off.  As I add paint with my fingers I remember the joy this brings me. I recall why I consider art my own private therapy.  I let go. Let it happen naturally.

I honestly cannot walk away from a page with adding words. They don’t have to be mine. They can be a quote, a sticker, handwritten or stamped. You may not even be able to see them. I often will “journal spill or mind dump” on a page. Sometimes its so messy that it’s illegible. Other times I cover it up with paint or papers. Just the act of writing it out helps ground me but really what it says is no ones business but my own.

These words struck me. Not in the way they were likely meant to.  For me it was more about how creating is good for me, for my soul.

And that is a beautiful thing.

Linking up today with Art Journal Journey is Art for Art’s Sake hosted by Chris of Pearshapedcrafting.

Art Journal Journey

| |

, , , , , ,

5 Comments

Art for art’s sake

Early Sunday morning I sat down to create. Getting my fingers full of paint and glue rejuvenates me. I used what was at hand.

 Scrapbook paper, magazine cuttings, ribbon and washi tape just to name a few.

After creating this page I notice that the current theme for July on Art Journal Journey is Art for Art’s Sake hosted by Chris of Pearshapedcrafting. Don’t you just love it when things fall into place. It doesn’t always happen that so when it does…woohoo!

Art Journal Journey

 

| |

, , , , ,

11 Comments

Inspired by Summer
As I sat down to create in the midst of a summer that I hadn’t planned, my mind wandered to the beautiful things. The things that make me appreciate summer. Beautiful colors. Flowers. Birds singing. Breeze blowing through open windows.
All this had me in the mood for an explosion of color. I used my fingers to loosely apply paint in a tribute to a gorgeous sunrise or sunset. The colors were a little too bold. Too in your face so using a baby wipe I blended and softened the page until it made me happy.
I pressed uninked rubber stamps into the paint to create some interest on the background as the stamps pulled even more of the still wet paint away with them as you can see above with the grid pattern.
After heat setting the page I used a harlequin stamp with white ink to lightly stamp randomly around the background using white embossing powder over top to provide a little more kick to the white.
Digging through my stash I found some rub-ons that fit my theme perfectly. The black really pops against the background.
A canning jar full of flowers screams summer beauty to me, Casual, simple, perfect.
I really wanted it to appear that these flowers were indeed inside a glass jar. This gave me a bit of a challenge.
I stamped the jar twice. One was clear embossed for later use. The first was adhered directly to the page. I then stamped my bouquet of flowers onto tissue paper using black Staz-on ink. I adhered the tissue with matte medium and placed on the page, partially “inside” the jar.
Next I cut out windows in the clear embossed jar. I cut a piece of vellum to fit and gave that a bit of shimmer with clear embossing as well. I carefully stacked and glued the pieces of the jar over the original stamped piece. Much to my great pleasure, the stems of the flowers shone through the “glass” as I had hoped.  I used a Tim Holtz word sticker to sum up my thoughts.
The jar seemed to be missing something so I thought about the basket of goodies I carried home from a friends house like Little Red Riding Hood.
The perfect embellishment was right there.
I’m linking up today with Art Journal Journey for Inspired by… the theme chosen by this months host Gil from gibbyfrogettcraftations.
Art Journal Journey

| |

, , , , ,

6 Comments

T Tuesday: flora and fauna edition

This Memorial day marks one year since I lost my mom. She was on my mind all day. Half way through my first cup of coffee I made the decision not to be sad but to reflect and remember the good things, The funny memories. The things that make me smile.

As I walked around the yard watering before it got too hot, I thought about her green thumb. She had flowers galore and a big garden. Houseplants too. I guess I’ve taking after her in that way. I love spending time tending to the garden. Making it beautiful and productive,

My newly sewn and strung garden bunting made me smile. Mom was no seamstress. In fact she hated sewing. She was so happy when I learned how to sew in school and gladly passed all of her supplies on to 13 yr old me.  I’ve never stopped sewing since!

After finishing the outdoor chores I headed inside to do a bit of art journaling. I was really feeling inspired by nature.

The background colors I laid down didn’t scream nature. They were the colors that spoke to me though. Sort of a hard edge along with nature.

Layers upon layers stacked. This fussy cut stamped birds nest was the perfect way to embrace nature. I used watercolor crayons to color the robin eggs then used diamond glaze over top to add dimension. The addition of the thread help sell the idea of the nest for me.

I added the skeleton leaf for balance.  As soon as I added the leaf, the words “live gently upon the earth” jumped out at me.  This page made me smile.

Linking up with Art Journal Journey for Flora and Fauna

Art Journal Journey
as well as T stands for Tuesday today.
T stands for Tuesday
Eight days of school left. Whoop, whoop!
What are you doing today?

 

| | | |

, , , , , , ,

13 Comments

PAGE TOP

© 2007-2024 Halle's Hobbies All Rights Reserved -- Copyright notice by Blog Copyright