Bad Art……

Make Bad Art……Make Good Art….Just keep drawing, keep putting pen to paper, playing with your paint, or cutting or pasting or sewing and designing. Just stick with it, thru the empty times, the unproductive pieces, the what am i going to do with this mess work. Keep searching, when you feel like all of your art is going nowhere, just keep plugging along. Cuz you never know when INSPIRATON will strike. How it will strike or what is brewing inside your so called “empty head”.

You just never know, but I believe we must attend to our “art”. We must treat it like we would other lessons we take to improve. You know like piano lessons, swim, tennis lessons. Or even Spanish lessons, we must be diligent, dontchathink? Why do we expect art to be so different? Is it because of all the gifted artists out there? The ones that produce beautiful piece after beautiful piece and don’t ever seem to go stale. But we don’t ever see their practice pages do we? Maybe we should! I think DaVinci has a whole book published just from his notebooks. He practiced and wasn’t he gifted??

The other day, I was wondering why I seem to want to color so much when I can’t even make an original drawing for the life of me. I haven’t taken a drawing class yet, or watercolor or painting class. I really, really want to, but just haven’t found the right one. But no worries, it’ll come when I’m ready!

While feeling so bored and uninspired with myself I stumbled upon a blog that took me over to YouTube. Before I knew it I was watching papparoc46 on YouTube about drawing Keltic Knots…..I was mesmerized and with the visual aid and thankfully the pause button, I could actually figure this out! You’ve got to check out this vlog, it’s so good. I then checked out her vlog about the 10 things she likes about herself (titled My Ten Things). She is hilarious, I couldn’t stop laughing. She’s got a very dry sense of humor that is just charming!

PRACTICE PAGE 1:

I liked only a couple of things on the page; I liked the word “ART” , and the flowers, the square tiles, but I am pretty lousy at swirls, and i have a hard time making anything with pink look good! But pink and blue go together right????

PRACTICE PAGE 2:

I was inspired by this piece on flickr, but my piece just didn’t do it for me. Possibly it was the pink again???? But pink and green go together right??

PRACTICE PAGE 3:

This was a fun page, but it didn’t have any direction to it, it was like a practice piece, like a warm up page for something to happen in my head later, hopefully, maybe, please!!!!

AH-HA moment Page:

For me, I finally got to a piece I like! I made a piece that let me play with my markers, play with my colors and learn something at the same time. I love this piece. Yeah, I know it’s simple, and I know that it has mistakes, but it represents a turning point. That when I get so bored with my drawing, so bored with my color choices that I must just keep observing, keep reading and eventually I’ll hit upon something that excites me. That gives me that “I can’t wait to try this myself” feeling! Oh yeah!

Thanks for stopping by! And letting me tell you my tale of woe this week! And if you can relate to this at all, just keep on doing your thing out there, you just may stumble upon something you like too!

Eden

Christmas in Kentucky

I finally got the tree up, and the Santa Quilt, and put out my Christmas decorations. The new Ikea furniture takes up the entire back wall, which was where we usually put the tree. This room has 3 entrances, so we decided to block off the hallway entrance by the basement door. I like it here. I made this Santa Quilt in 04, i think! But I never knew what to do with it. I couldn’t throw it on the back of the couch because the Santa’s would be walking sideways. It’s a rather lightweight quilt so I just thumb-tacked it to the wall. Hey, it was easy, and it works for me, why not? Don’t tell the quilt police though!!! LOL!!

Another view of the tree and of the fireplace! I adore our Christmas stockings and wouldn’t know where to begin to make one of these myself. We have a total of 6 (guess I should’ve had 2 more kids!! ) Four were made by my DH’s sister (2 not shown) and the two in the middle were made by my Great-Aunt. She even knitted the names of the kids at the top!! Talk about talent!!! How in the world do you figure that out????

I obviously have a thing for Nutcrackers! Why? I don’t know, but I have always loved them and to me they symbolize Christmas. I love that there are so many different kinds and designs and nutcracker people out there.

And of course no Christmas decorating would be complete without displaying the reason for the season. Our nativity is completely white and very simple, but I love it.

And these are most of the wrapped pkgs that I must get out into the mail (UPS of course) by Monday. My self-imposed goal. Usually I’m standing in line on the 23rd paying the exuberant fees to mail out packages to our dear families in (Chicago, Pensacola, Newport and Iowa). Not this year!

A couple other hand-made gifts which I adore. The one on the right was made by that same DH’s sister. She used perforated paper and cross-stitched this. There are 2 more ornaments not shown that hang off of the strand that Santa is holding.

And the hallway view of our tree, with a rather pouchy hand-made Santa, made by that same sister-in-law. She can make anything I tell you, Anything!! I like him here, it’s like he’s greeting us!

What Christmas decoration do you find you have a lot of? What Christmas decorations make you smile when you pull them out year after year?

Thanks for stopping by,

Eden

Quality vs. Quantity

To everything there is a season! November was my season to explore drawing more by participating in NaNoJouMo here. It was fun. Some of the art journal pages that I made on my watercolor moleskine, I really liked and was surprised at how they turned out. A few I was disappointed in, but not one of them was a waste. I tried different things with just about every prompt and some of the pages the fault was more in the way I laid out the page. The energy or the eye wasn’t pleased. I had a choice and sometimes it gelled and sometimes it didn’t.

I want to share a story with you that has influenced my thinking in the regard of creating or doing art. I wish I could remember where I heard this little story, when I do I’ll give them credit. Here goes: There was an Art teacher who divided his class into 2 groups. For the first group he told them, “I will grade you on quantity. Yes, quantity, the more pages you give me the higher your grade will be, irregardless of what you do on the pages”. To the second group he told them, “I will grade you on Quality. The better and prettier your work, the higher your grade will be. I want to see the very best you can do”.

Which group do you think turned out the better work? The Quantity group or The Quality group????

I thought it would be the quality group, why wouldn’t it be? They were taking more time, probably using the better materials and measuring everything out and deciding what looked the best. They worked really hard on every single piece. But I was wrong, the group that produced the better work was the Quantity group! The quantity group? How could this be? Well, apparently they didn’t worry about perfection and making everything so pretty and precise. They played, they colored, they painted, they did a ton of trial and error. You see this group learned. They learned as they went along and they got better and better at the task on hand. I also wonder if maybe their ego wasn’t in the way and they were able to silence their inner critique. They enjoyed different media and didn’t get bored with a piece. They were able to experiment.

So, this is my take on “art”……I want to just make stuff. Lots of stuff. All sizes, using many different techniques. Markers, paint, fabric, canvas, photography, decorating, collage, digital art, get your hands dirty art! I better get going, there’s a lot of stuff out there to make :D :D

How about you? What are your thoughts on creating art????

Thanks for stopping by,

Eden

My three Elves

The above quote is: Be a student, learn as long as you still have something to learn. (Free Digital element from Jan Hicks at Scrapgirls last year).

This pretty much sums things up for me lately! I drew these three elves yesterday. I love their hats. There is so much possibility in the hats alone! Just think of the patterns and colors you could draw up there, fun! The blue elf looks to me like he could be related to Porky the Pig. The red elf looks related to the South Park family and by the time I got to the green elf, by leaving his/hers eyes closed she looks the most like an Elf. Ahhh, live and learn… live and learn. I did accomplish one goal. I wanted each set of eyes to have some personality. They do have that don’t they?

I had fun coloring in my elves, but I couldn’t stop there. Next was the background; off I went with my ruler and measured off for my default background of diamonds! But, I may have taken it a little too far! It’s a busy little colorful background. I also wish I had made my Calligra-Fun “Elves” word bigger! It got a little swallowed up! I extracted the 3 elves in photoshop cuz I was curious how they’d look on there own. Ahhh, the wonders of photoshop!

I got my inspiration for the hats from this picture from Pam Carriker.

Thanks for stopping by,

Eden

P.S. What are some of your default backgrounds? Do tell :D

Brush Calligraphy

Moving on…..I drew everyday when I was participating in the NaNoJouMo November challenge at www.dblogala.com. But toward the end I couldn’t keep up with the prompts. Bummer! But it was FUN! I must admit I loved following the prompts and thinking up a way to draw or doodle the word. But alas, now it’s over and I must find some other challenge.

This week I signed up for an online class called Calligra-Fun from a very talented lady, Martha Lever . She does beautiful calligraphy with Zig pens, Faber-Castell pens, and LePlume pens. If the pen has a brush at the end then just sit back and watch her magic. She can do loopy letters, swirly letters with a touch of scrolling. Oh to see her alphabet taper! Wow!

I was immediately fascinated when I came across her work. Above is my first flowerpot page with a word that I wrote and embellished per her technique. I have to practice a lot more, and it's a whole-lotta Fun!

What are you challenging/learning for yourself these days?

Thanks for stopping by,

Eden

Sharing

*click on image to see it whole

Ironic that the One Word prompt at NaNoJouMo is Share that I’m working on today because when I went to my blog reading list I saw that I’ve been tagged by Tammy at Daisy Yellow. Her challenge to me was to answer each of these questions in one word (or my version of one word). So I’ll share the answers with you all here. It’ll only take a minute and it’s a wee bit o’ fun!!

Here goes …………………………………………

1. Where is your cell phone? ….purse

2. Your hair?… bedhead

3. Your mother?… young

4. Your father?… hero

5. Your favorite food?… shrimp

6. Your dream last night?… forgot

7. Your favorite drink?… Bailey’s

8. Your dream/goal?… toDrawMore

9. What room are you in?… study

10. Your hobby?… Many

11. Your fear?… snakes

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years?… Australia

13. Where were you last night?…SwimMeet

14. Something that you aren’t?… superficial

15. Muffins?… banana

16. Wish list item?… Organization

17. Where did you grow up?… StLouis

18. Last thing you did?… drinkCoffee

19. What are you wearing?… YogaPants

20. Your TV?…HD

21. Your Pets?… HairyDogs

22. Friends?… Precious

23. Your life?… Evolving

24. Your mood?… Quiet

25. Missing Someone?… yes

26. Vehicle?… Crossover

27. Something you're not wearing?… wool

28. Your favorite store?… Quilt

29. Your favorite colour?… Red

30. When was the last time you laughed?… AnHourAgo

31. Last time you cried?… Movie

32. Your best friend?… husband

33. One place that I go to over and over?… Grocery

34. Facebook?… timid

35. Favorite place to eat?… CarryOut

Now, I’d like to tag Sue Doodles.

Purity Prompt at NaNoJouMo

Well, I went back and did Purity! When I think of purity I think of “all white”, and since I’m not an “all white” type of person, I then moved on to the type of image I should draw.

An angel represents purity…..so, off I clicked in Flickr to find an angel that I could actually draw. I found this image and I thought I’d give it a try.

So, then I added COLOR……ahhh beloved COLOR (*grin*)

*click on image to see all of it

Thanks for looking,

Eden

NaNoJouMo

I’m participating in National NonStop Journaling Month this month at D'blogala . I’ve done just about every prompt.

1. Freedom
2. Purity- haven’t done yet
3. Inspire
4. Beauty
5. Solitude
6. Felicity
7. Compassion

This is really fun! It’s making me DRAW SOMETHING. We then (if ya want) upload our drawings/Art Journal pages to Flickr to the group created for this.

Here’s a little collage of what I’ve done lately.

I can’t wait to see what tomorrow’s prompt will be.

Well….I guess I can go back and do PURITY since I missed that for some reason.

Overwhelmed….

I knew I was overwhelmed today because as I walked around Hobby Lobby armed with my 40% off coupon I didn’t know what to spend it on. First stop was the Art Supply section. I checked out all their markers and some calligraphy inks. Then I went to the stencil section to see if they have any new stencils I liked. Next was the scrapbook section where I checked out the Sakura gelly roll pens I’ve heard so much about. All of a sudden I remembered that I’d really like to get a date stamp where I could roll today’s date in and stamp it on my work. I even asked a nice lady stocking the shelves if they had one. I’m thinking that an Office Supply store may have one. I then got so frustrated, I didn’t know what I wanted! I became so overwhelmed. When I get like this I’ve learned that it’s best to just leave, to not buy anything (you know be stuck with Buyer’s remorse) and so I picked up an encouraging card for an old friend that’s going thru some rough times right now, and left. I saved a whopping 40 cents with my coupon!

I’m participating in D’blogala’s NaNoJouMo this month and the prompt for today is Solitude. The prompt for yesterday was Beauty. I started this Cardinal drawing yesterday and thought I’d journal in the white area of the post. But I got stuck!!! So stuck! Not because of lack of ideas, but because I had too many. I thought a nice quote would work, but would it have to be about the word or the bird? I didn’t know if I should use the 2 prompt words and tie them together in a cute little poem like…. “Cardinals, awww beautiful Cardinals- they seem to like their solitude, like me”. But that’s so cutezy and I’m really not that cutezy!

Then after I got home from shopping I thought how easy it would be to just plug in a digital image from my ScrapGirls stash. It would look so neat and this one would work (see below). It’s positive and expressive. But again, it’s not me!

So, finally I took out my personal journal ( a composition book like these ) and wrote out my frustrations. After a little bit of editing I was finally okay with a piece of me that made it to the page.

It reads: I seemed to have lost my focus today. I have been taking in & taking in- getting excited about new art- new pens- new people- new attitude. I am so overwhelmed.

Oh, before I forget, does anyone know where to buy a date stamp like the NOV 5 09 in the bottom right corner? The one used here is digital.

All the best, [Eden[

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

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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