On The Other Side

This is the time of year, where so many beautiful yards are in bloom. When I see a garden gate adorned with flowering vines, I can't help but wonder what is on the other side? Is it as beautiful as the entry?

We never know if, once on the other side, we'll be surprised or disappointed. 

That is what has happened with my art lately. The opportunity came up to try my hand at sketching, so I decided to give it a try. I've never thought of myself as being able to draw, so I knew it would be a challenge.

I am pleasantly surprised to find that I like to sketch, and then.....add some watercolor.

I have always liked the soft, marble look of watercolor, and how it flows on paper. 

Sketching will take lots of practice, but I am enjoying the process.

Blessings,

Linda  

Spring Line Up

This page was inspired by Junelle who is teaching The Art of Wild Abandonment class. I am sooooo loving this class!

Junelle also encouraged us to hang some personal photos on our clothes line. I decided to use a picture of myself when I was 8 years old. I have a box of old photos that will probably never be put in an album, so I thought I would scatter them throughout my journals.

Check out the dress my mother dressed me up in. Oh Goodness! I'm even showing off that some of my front teeth are missing. 

Spring Has Sprung

Every time I say "Spring has Sprung," my husband finishes my sentence with this poem... 

Spring has sprung, the grass has ris.

I wonder where the birdies is?

Some say, the bird is on the wing, but that's absurd.

Everyone knows, the wing is on the bird.

I know it's silly, but I had to share.

Hope your first day of Spring is full of Love and Smiles!

Painted Walls & Painted Paper

Last week my 12 year old decided it was time to paint her room.

She wanted something different, so we ended up painting one wall a darker shade of blue and adding the orange dots to go with the theme of her bedspread. We finally finished painting today. We still need to put the rest of her furniture back in, and accessorize. It turned out really cute!

The other painting I did was on paper. I just received my new stencils, and I was dying to try them out.

 ,

 The big thing now is to stencil with ink or color sprays (like Ranger Color Wash, Distress Ink reinkers or liquid watercolors) and, of course, I don't have any. The closest place to get any decent art supplies is 50 minutes from my house, and I didn't have time to drive that far, so I started thinking.........

hmmm....

What if I put a chunk of watercolor paint in a spray bottle? Will that work?

Well, it did work, but not very well. I think I added too much water, and the color intensity was kind of dull.

So........ while at the grocery store, I spotted the Easter displays, and thought....

Hmm....what if I use Easter egg dye and put that in a spray bottle? Can you see I was determined to use my new stencils with something other than acrylic paints?

 Ok! I was on to something....

Yay! I would be able to try out my new stencils!

I tried the dye on watercolor paper and heavy drawing paper. One thing led to another, and here is what I ended up with (worth sharing, I should say).

This is mostly the egg dye on drawing paper. I tried once with the watercolor. That is the blotchy, smeared one to the right side. Tip: the watercolor chunk of paint doesn't work too well.

 This is distress ink, stencil with egg dye, and Perfect Pearls. I really like how this one turned out.

This is the stencil with egg dye, stazon ink, and acrylic painted circles.

It's always a good day when experimenting with paints.

Stepping Out

I started a new online class today called Art of Wild Abandonment with Junelle Jacobson and Christy Tomlinson. I've taken a class from Christy before and had so much fun. Christy inspired me to try new paper and painting techniques. So, when she announced this class, I thought....Why Not?

I've always wished I could draw. Not necessarily people, but just objects.

So......here I am in a sketching class. I am stepping out of my comfort zone. 

The first assignment was to pick an object. I don't know why I picked this pencil sharpener, but here goes.

And.....here is my first sketch. Don't laugh too much!

Not too bad, right? Only I should have stopped while I was ahead.

I tried adding some watercolor, but the shading didn't come out so well.

Yay! I did it!

My Name In Bright Colors

Made time to work on my lettering today.

Playing with water color pencils.

I just noticed I used too much yellow and not enough purple. Oh well!

Letter Love And Book Making

Hope you had a good weekend. It was rather crazy for me.

I did manage to sneak in a page from Joanne's Letter Love 101 class. Whimsy Grids is what this page is about. I used Tombo markers, which is becoming a favorite.

Here is a fun picture.

I taught a book making class over the weekend at the Volo Bog Youth Art Guild. Keep in mind that it usually takes a good 6 plus hours to make a book from start to finish. I had to condense this down to 2 1/2 hours. These kids were amazing! They did a great job and finished their journals by the end of the class. That was their quick introduction to the art of book making, so I hope I inspired them to want to learn more.

Catch Up and A New Art Journal

I am so behind on everything.
I just got a new computer, and it has consumed most of my free time. Trying to transfer files, playing with all the cool features, etc. The new computer also motivated me to re-arrange my office/guest room (forgot to take pictures). I did it right this time. By right, I mean, I cleaned and organized every space in the room. The only thing I didn't do was repaint the walls. That would have held things up for months! I can't describe what an awesome feeling it is to accomplish such a huge task (patting myself on the back).

Ok, on with some fun stuff.....

Here I am with my daughter at our Homeschool Medievil Fair. It was put on by our 7th & 8th graders. They did a great job. Lots of food and homemade crafts focused around that period.

This is my newest art journal. It is my model for a journal making class I am teaching to a local youth art guild. It has been a challenge to condense this project into a 2 hour class, which means a lot of the steps have to be completed prior to the class. This cover was inspired by a technique in "Pages" magazine, where you stitch fabric onto a paper backing. I will not be teaching this cover technique. I just used it for my own personal journal. I think it turned out pretty cool, and if you look closely (up towards the top), you can see a bear cub peaking through the fabric. I plan on taking this technique a step further on my next cover.