Happy Halloween

  How to be a scarecrow for $10 or less…….

• Buy the straw bands (pack of 5)  from Factory Card Outlet~ $6.99
• Buy a black Hat from Halloween Express~ $2.99
• Grab some rope from your Halloween costume bin, detach the fake-bloody orange arm that the kids tied at one end of the rope that was used to scare people as they came to the door to Trick-Or-Treat~  FREE
• Grab old fake Sunflowers put away years ago in the basement box for a future project~  FREE
• Baste scrap fabric onto the jeans and Son’s old shirt in a random pattern~  FREE
• Find Fake Bird kept in Christmas decoration bin and attach to top of hat~  FREE
• Steal yellow bandana from daughter that she was given for a School parade last week~  FREE
• Obtain Red lipstick (that you never wore from Clinique free stash) and do cheeks~  FREE
• Obtain eyebrow pencil from make-up drawer and put a triangle on your nose~ FREE
• SMILE !!!~  PRICELESS

While working don’t forget to have a little fun!!!  Otherwise you’ll go CRAZY!!!  But that may redundant, see below!

Lyrics….”clowns to the left of me….jokers to the right….Stuck in the middle with YOU!!”

Faber-Castell Pitt Pens……chart

I love that FB puts numbers on all of their pens!  Helps me to keep track of what pen goes where, and what it does when it gets there! Ha !

I like the Bic Mark-Its too, but of course, absolutely no identifier on them!  Ugh!  And I love the Sharpie fine point markers, but has anyone seen a special note about the color/ a number to identify/ even a name (like they do with crayola crayons)?  Not I !!

I bought this last week.  8 new pens! Yum, I had two from the collection already, but you can never have too many pens even the duplicates, right?  Next, I’m going to check out the  BRIGHT COLORS  and the CLASSIC COLORS!  I get so overwhelmed when i go into my favorite Art shop and they have the whole display!  I just don’t know which is the best color choice for me, that day!  These 8-packs are perfect for the little beginner-me to try out all different colors.  And of course, over time a few favorites will appear.  Then i won’t be so stunned when I go back to the Art store!

How do you keep track of your art supplies that aren’t numbered or named?  Do you create your own system?  I guess I could use my Brother labeler and make my own identifiers……hmmmmm

Sun Series…..ColorSplash

First it started with this drawing…..Wait, No! It started with this picture I saved into my FAVORITES in Flickr. Then I found a background I like from Aimeslee. So, I taped up a moleskine page and watercolored the triangles. Then drew the birds and colored them in. I love how the bird in the middle seems to be talking to the one on the left….i digress……………………………….Then I WAS STUCK!! I couldn’t do anything with this drawing! I was SO missing something!

So, I moved on and forgot about the Bird Drawing and started a new page with my new favorite stencil, The Sun. I wanted to add a lot of color so I made a bunch of squares and colored them in. I know it doesn’t look like it but there is a method to my madness in coloring the squares. Each diagonal of squares follows a red series or blue, or green or yellow…….

But the squares were needing something! But what????? Then I remembered my birds. So, I brought my drawing into Photoshop and cropped the trio out. I then enlarged them and triplicated them (in case i had sloppy scissor-hands).

After I cut them out, I traced them onto my colored squares. Then I pulled out my new Dr.Ph Martin’s Pen-white ink.

Then I outlined the trio in .03 black prismacolor. And spruced up the Mr Sun-side! I didn’t know if I should put a face on the sun guy but he needed something. I think he looks a little proud…….as a sun should!!!

I seem to be hooked on the following in my journals;

• checkerboard
• diagonals
• journaling in this loopy way
• COLORS; red, green, blue, yellow
• And that White Pen Ink from Dr.Ph Martin’s

Well, that’s all folks!!!

[Eden[

Journal Mosaic

1. Composition journals again, 2. Houston Journal prior to marriage, 3. Journal papers, 4. Journals from eye level, 5. Marble Journals, 6. Me and My journals, 7. Black & White journals, 8. Top View 40, 9. Stack of 40 journals, 10. Favorite Pen, 11. Blue Duck on Journals, 12. Side View 40, 13. Pic of journals from 2 yrs ago, 14. Circle of Journals, 15. Aug 21 journaling, 16. Triplets

Yep, I journal. These are my journals, for my eyes only. I’ve told
my DH (Dear Husband) that he can read them any time he wants
(yawn/yawn), but to remember whatever I write there is so
passing and fleeting and to not hold me accountable for anything
I’ve written. Half of what goes on the page gets forgotten at
once. Think Brain Dump!

My journals don’t care if I have:
- sloppy handwriting (which I do, especially if writing down a
dream, or excited)
- a bad mood
- if my sentences run on and on and on.
- if i use imperfect grammar or can’t spell
- write letters that never get sent!
- draft letters that do get sent
- if I’m not so “nice”, so “kind”, so “pleasant”….reality check time
here, no pretense allowed! Whew! What a Relief!!

The Plus side of these books is:
- i may start off in a grumpy mood, but i usually don’t end up that
way! Yeah-hey! Much appreciated by those that live or work
with me, i’m sure!
- writing gives me insight. i figure things out as i go
- wonderful reference material for remembering someone new or
a fact that was interesting enough to write down that day.
- it lets me be me
- it’s never offended by my silence! When I neglect it for weeks,
months or years! Oh my!!
- lists, to do’s
- sometimes just the act of writing helps to Remind me later.
(in college i always re-wrote my notes)
- “stream of consciousness” writing

My current stash has 34 journals (+6 brand new ones bidding
their time). I like to include the start date and the finish
date. One journal i started while pregnant with my firstborn
Feb 1988 and finished March 1998. I guess in those 10 years
with 5 moves, and 2 kids, being a Navy wife with her DH
deployed for many months at a time didn’t leave me much
leisure after the kids were born. Too bad, cuz that would’ve
been an ideal place to record some of the kids sayings and
developments back then.

I stock up on the Composition Books when they are a buck
or less. I’ve tried decorating the covers and it’s not my thing.
So glad there are more color/pattern choices now than before.

Well, here you have it! My life or rather my Inner Life on paper!
To be destroyed upon my death! Cheery thought!

My Goal is to take some of these entries and do an Art Journal.
A Mixed Media journal. I just don’t have a clue where to take
my page though! Really must take a class……...

Red Fall Leaves

“We learn to be kind, accommodating, and nurturing to others while denying our own thoughts and desires. Creative expression requires just the opposite-----lots of self-nurturing and a willingness to speak our minds.”

-Christina Thompson

From Women Embracing Creativity at amazon

We are having gorgeous weather this week! Those days in the upper 60’s and low 70’s with clear skies are my absolute favorite. Went swimming the other day and a friend was out stretching for her run and I told her that it’s days like this that made me wish I was a runner. But only days like this!!! LOL!! Ahhhh, to be out enjoying that weather. I really need an outdoor project other than trimming bushes, pulling up weeds…. I’m a virgo, the Earth sign and you’d think I’d like that sort of stuff.

I looked out my bedroom window this morning and the entire tree was RED! A gorgeous red. I should’ve taken a picture of that, but I wanted to grab a good red leaf and paint it. Here you have it. Simple dots done with my white-pen ink. Still getting to know my brush and ink.

First Moleskine……complete

I love these moleskines! They are the perfect size for me. The paper is just right. I’ve had no bleed thru to the lower papers, and I’ve used Sharpies, Bic Mark It's, Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens , Sakura Micron Pens, Prismacolors and Watercolors.

I didn’t date my pages, but I’ll date my book. I have so much to learn here. Here being between these moleskine pages. I’m unbelievably hooked on markers!!! Markers, why markers? I have some really cool watercolor pencils, but I shy away from them because I don’t know what I’m doing. But they’re in my arsenal and when I get in the mood I will use them!

What I’ve discovered thru Tammy at Daisy Yellow is India Ink. What a cool product. I only have black and white right now, but I think I’m hooked and will have to get more colors. Of course, I’m not using a Dip Pen cuz it’s too hard for me. I really must practice. What I’m more comfortable using is a very small round brush. On the bottom pic. I tried highlighting and a little shading with the India Ink. Very comic book looking but it’s a start.

I’m curious in your Art Journals what is something that you’re trying to learn? A technique? A new product?

Family Room Project…….coming along….

I’m slowly getting there. This is Step 2 of the BIG FAMILY ROOM project that is now…….COMPLETE R.

I need something on my teeny tiny mantle, possibly a tall plant or vase or something…..If anyone has any suggestions, I’d love to hear them, cuz it looks pretty darn barren there, don’t ya think?

After printing and hanging up my black&white pictures my Dear Daughter says to me, “Mom, you should’ve kept something colored on each picture, like with Gretchen’s scarf, keep it red”. Wow! Why didn’t I think of that? So the current group of pictures may get changed. I love her suggestion!!! Don’t you?

The above is Step 3 of the project which is now…….COMPLETE R. I appliqued our last name on some pretty white fabric (oh, about 4 yrs ago) and finally this summer I sewed the border on and had it framed. The border fabric is one of my favorites in my fabric stash, so i get to look at it all the time now!

And here is Step 4……………….what do i do here? Anyone? Anyone at all? I’m completely clueless. I do know that I want a light I can work under. I’m thinking about getting this Alang lamp from Ikea , I like this because it’s only 5 ft tall and it’s adjustable. I could possibly get two????? or I could get a couple wall/reading lamps similar to this. I have a big mirror that I could paint the frame black and put in this space. B.u.t……the couch isn’t centered on the wall, then would it look stupid if i centered the mirror on the wall? Ugh….no creative ideas for this place AT ALL!!

Jane Sassaman Quilt…….assignment to self

I went to our public library the other day and I got so excited when I came upon this book….. Masters Art Quilts. Oh My! Oh, My!! Talk about eye-candy, talk about talent. The above piece is just part of the whole quilt created by Quilter Jane Sassaman. Not only would I love to be able to quilt such a masterpiece, I totally fell in love with her design….her art, here. Below, is the whole entire quilt. The yellow box is the small portion that the above picture shows.

So, needing something to color in using markers (because that’s my latest obsession), I used her quilt as my guide. I put my own little spin on it in many areas. This was a lot of fun.

(click on image to see it larger)

To see more of Jane Sassaman’s work. Just follow this link to her very own website. Lots to oogle about over there :)

Thanks for stopping by, vEden v

Enhanced Freehand Writing

Writing is no trouble: you just jot down ideas as they occur to you. The jotting is simplicity itself- it is the occurring which is difficult. - Stephen Leacock

I’ve been working on my writing-style, the look of it. This isn’t really calligraphy because I’m not using a calligraphy pen. But I’m trying to develop some styles that i can use in my Art Journals and what-nots.

Since my daughter is going to a Retreat next week they asked each family to write a letter to their child. What a perfect opportunity for me to play. I first wrote everything out on lined college paper with a .01 nib Prismacolor pen. I tried to be super neat and use all caps. Then I went back in and filled each and every letter with more ink. I used a .005 to fill in and Enhance certain characteristics of each letter. This was the fun part. But after 45 minutes of doing this my hand was screaming for a break. Hence, this took 2 days to complete. Yeah me! Got it done and mailed for the deadline on Monday. This will most likely embarrass my daughter. I’ll ‘betcha she says something to me about my writing style, you just wait!

Oh, before I forget……On the first big picture the actual font I used was my own. See the writing at the **. There is a Font Generator website that lets you create your own personal font for FREE! Gotta love FREE! Check out This Site They have very easy to follow directions. You get to print out the template as many times as you’d like to practice. Then just upload your Page and it will create a text file that you put into your text font manager. Simple! Really!

Girl and Flowers

It was such a gorgeous day today so I took my bag of markers and my moleskine outside and proceeded to, attempted to, tried to draw a girl. She’s a mighty simple girl, she is. I didn’t want to mess with hands so…… first I drew her pointing, well that didn’t look very proper. Then I drew her holding up a peace sign, but that was too SIXTY-ish. I finally just made her hand flat so I could add a bird. I adore birds. There is so much “bird art” around. Every artist has their own personal style with them. I Love, Love , Love the variety.

When it got cooler and the sun went behind the trees I brought my little page inside to finish! Ahhhhhh, a wonderful l.a.z.y…….Sunday!!! What more can a girl ask for????

Club Concept Winner

I just love ScrapGirls! I am in both of their clubs the ScrapSimple club and the ScrapGirls club. When this Collection (PinItUp) from Trish Yocum came out on January 1,2009 I fell in love with it. I knew just what I wanted to do. My DS is 20 now, and I have all his preschool and school pictures but I wanted to see these pictures in a LO of my own. So, first I put them into the Template from Thao Cosgrove's Gallery Template Collection and added his pictures until age 5 I wrote the year on each picture and I really liked it so far. But I felt something was missing. I looked and looked thru my scanned pics of Brad (i have about 50% scanned and jped'd now) and tried to find a picture I could use to extract only him and put him in this room. This is the best I came up with. He's about 7 here. His right foot was not totally in the original picture so I had to do some copying and cloning to get it to pass as a full foot in this Layout. I'm off today, did some cleaning first before I allowed myself to sit down with my first cup of coffee. I always have to get my Scrapgirls newsletter fix. And lo and behold! I almost fell out of my chair. There was one of my LO's featured in the newsletter! I am so honored. They have awarded me some ScrapMoney to buy more digi stuff. WooWho......off to the boutique! You can read the newsletter Here. (Scroll down a bit for my Layout)

Art Journal with Markers

View Full Album

Being the “independent” spirit that i am, when i came across this quote from Laura at Mixonian (one of the many blogs on my “following” list). I quickly grabbed my pen and notebook cuz I had to write it down before I forgot it….. then I emailed the blog author with my Kudos and if that wasn’t enough to show my exuberance…. I Art Journal’d it. I’ve never run across this quote. I like it cuz, it gives me permission. Yes, permission to go my own way! To do my own thing!! To be my own self!! Ahhh, the freedom of it all.

I also used Tammy’s suggestion for the journaling, from her Daisy Yellow blog. Here she talks about “slow journaling”. She explains it so well in her post. Head over and check out her blog . Super creative lady, with lots going on for the artistically inclined. I stop in with her every post :) and keep getting inspired!

I just wanted to show you a close-up of a part of this page. My initial “bright idea” was to do all these stripes that would emanate out from the sun. Well, this is not as easy as it looks. I got going with the 5 vertical lines then realized there was no angle to the stripe, no dimension. Hurriedly, I finished this section and moved on disappointedly. I’d love to try this again but i hesitate drawing pencil marks all over the page to stay with the angle….oh how i hesitate. But my it would look cool if i could do it. Check out this image i found on flickr where someone made it work. Of course i saved it to my favorites for later viewing and hopefully analyzing the “how-to’s” and the “oh, i see now’s”.

Now, the last thing i want to show you is this image when it’s first scanned…….see below…….

And NEXT the image when i bring it into photoshop and select my colors (like the black and red) and enhance them a wee bit!

Can you tell??? Can you tell???? You may have to click on each image to make it larger, then you’ll see it better.

Thanks for stopping by and have a good weekend everybody! Eden Y

I’ll give you a HAND

 

 

 

The first time I heard this quote I was a new mom to my first child!  I loved  these words!  They empowered me!  They reinforced the fact that I have a lot of influence over my young sons life.  Everything I do, the promises I fulfill will have such a lasting impact on his world.  I was building trust.  I was building character.  I was building a person with his own strong personality and strengths.  Our consistency in raising our kids has helped them to know how to trust their teachers, then their friends and hopefully have a good character judgment as they chose their future spouses.  Then…..with my future grandkids.  Ahhh……the circle of life!

Anyway, didn’t mean to go off on a child-rearing tangent but the quote added to the main reason I’m posting today.  I’ve finished my doodle hand.  Talk about relaxing!  If you haven’t given doodling a try since grade school, I urge you to do it!  You don’t have to show anyone.  But it would be fun to see.  You can easily upload them to flickr.  To get your creative juices flowing click HERE  to check out one of their many Doodle Art groups.