Under the Lights

Today Carol and I drove from Phoenix to Vegas to watch Carol's son David play in a Mens Baseball tournament. He had a double header and they won both games!

I was very happy I thought to bring along my Large Moleskine and my trusty Copic multiliners!! I doodled and drew for most of both games - the 2nd game was under the lights giving me just enough light to continue drawing. It was a chilly evening with a bit of a wind - we've been out of the cold for an hour and a half and I am still chilled. I took a few shots of my doodle with the game (David at bat) in the background and told Davids dad Jon I was going to blog about my game doodle. Well that just gave him license to tease me every chance he could "why don't you blog about this? Or that?" It's all in good fun:)

Time for bed- 7am alarm set for us so we can get Starbucks before the 8:30 game - where I will show Jon that I blogged about my doodle and HIM ;)

Arting with Auntie Ella

Today is an arting day with Auntie Ella!! Yea! Ella is my dad's sister and she is my godmother who used to send us girls fancy dresses each Easter and Christmas - she is a fave ;)

Last trip here to Phoenix Carol and I taught Ella how to art journal and she took right to it. She brought old greeting cards and old photos. I made her some tags with the old cards and she told me all about the old photos. I took her albums home and scanned some of her wedding photos - the album photos were too small for her to see so I enlarged and printed some for her :). Today we are journaling with those photos and having a lovely afternoon. My spread is the darker pink and coral one in my Santa Croce Angel Journal and Ellas is the softer pink one.

Wasn't Ella a beautiful bride?!

She is living my life motto- never stop learning or you stop living:)

She is 84 and learning how to art journal :)

Love you Auntie Ella :)

Roses in the Desert

I always buy cut flowers when I come to Phoenix - pink roses this trip.

I am trying out a link to my Instagram.

http://instagr.am/p/K8YboiBxZU/

Hmmm a link but probably not a pic - i need to figure out this new fangled technology ;)

Sarah and her Christmas card

Last Christmas I gave my friend Linda one of my handmade Christmas cards and her cat Sarah adopted it. Linda would come home and find her with the card and she would pick the card up and put it away somewhere "safe". But Sarah always found it and made it her own - it was finally destroyed at the end of January. When Linda told me the card story and how much Sarah liked her card - I gave her another one that I had extra. Here it is the end of May and Sarah has almost destroyed her 2nd card. Too darn cute!!

The card was made with alcohol inks and glossy cards with poster paint pen drawings and lettering. I guess they were a big hit.....with a cat named Sarah!

The ship wocked and wocked

When we were in Cayman in January we went on a charter fishing trip which included a stop at Stingray City. My husband Clayton was excited to share this experience with our family since he had been on the same trip last spring during a business trip and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I am not a fan of boats or the water but knew I would enjoy the stingrays- we've been several times and it's always a thrilling experience!

Oh boy was I ill. I asked Elle to take my pic so I could journal about it ;). Here I am 5 months later and I've actually completed the page - the background has been painted for almost 5 months - I got the idea while on the boat to have this crazy background withh all the colours of the ocean I was seeing that day. Heh. So I procrastinate- what else is new?!

Trying again with the Blogger app and pics from my phone- one of these times I will figure out how to orient my phone the way Blogger wants me to.

*rolls eyes*

Have a great Monday!!

It is hot in the desert!

Carol and I are in Phoenix enjoying the heat! We've had a lovely lazy day - floating in the pool - Mimosas - some shopping - a delicious pasta dinner at home and some art too!!

An entry in my Embrace Imperfection journal. Fun stuff doing some doodling over a inky Gessoed background.

Hopefully there will be plenty more arting happening this week - its always great to have an art mess on the table ;)

**edited**

Oh darn it! I thought I had it all figured out which way Blogger wanted me to orient my phone when I take and post a pic - sorry the pics are sideways.

Large Bloom Doodle

such fun working in my large Moleskine - 11.5"x8" - while either watching TV or during a quiet moment in my day - I've pretty much dedicated this one to doodles - florals so far

I thought it would be challenging to work a fantasy flower as far out on the page as comfortably possible while still retaining the shape somewhat.  I loved working on this one and I haven't put colour on it yet because I am letting it marinate for a bit - to see if it's done or if it needs some tweaking.....

this one will be challenging to colour with the big blocks in the pattern - which is why I am still thinking about maybe adding some more design into it to make it more manageable to colour evenly...

drawing these shapes, designs and patterns is so soothing to me....real therapy!!

Possessed Fingers?

oh my gosh.

seriously pissed off.

I have spent a couple of hours on a blog post documenting all my journals with links to previous posts etc.  I had been saving it frequently while typing it. 

this happens ALL the time.  I must have lazy fingers that rest on my touchpad while typing OR my fingers are possessed.  but I touched something WRONG and poof.  all my work including about 20 photos uploaded and resized.....all disappeared. 

gone.

so frustrating.....

I am going to take a bath....I will try again tomorrow.

here's something pretty to look at - I think I need it too ;)

have a good evening!!

 One of the 2 hibiscus I bought myself last week....this bush had 5 blossoms open yesterday....truly spectacular!!

 This one looks like you threw bleach on it at the edges of the blossoms....

and this is a yellow cut orchid I got from Karly and Michael for Mothers Day :)

Santa Croce Angel Journal

This is my newest journal - a real heavyweight!!  There is so much gel holding the pages together that I think I might have doubled the weight of the book with just gluing pages!  It was a Math textbook which I find totally hilarious because I do NOT do math!! Some books while I am prepping them for altering I read the pages as entertainment while ripping them out and gluing the remaining pages together.  heh.  Not with this one....I don't think I read even one math problem ;) But the twisted side of me loves that this is my journal - a sick kind of irony. 

I bought a piece of birch plywood....really thin stuff and it's so smooth and gorgeous! I tried a gel transfer on it and it worked beautifully.  This photo I transfered is a pic of an angel statue that is in the outdoor courtyard of Santa Croce Basilica in Florence, Italy.  Michaelangelos tomb is here and it's one of my fave spots in Florence. My daughter Ellen discovered this stunning angel and took pics of it.  I somehow missed her my first 3 trips there but was determined to find her this past September.  I was not disappointed she is more beautiful in real life and I just love her, her hair, her crossed wings and the clouds in the background. She was the perfect size to fit on the cover of my newest journal and I've titled it

Santa Croce Angel Journal

I started out with painting the journal with my hand carved "cinnamon bun" stamp all over in purple and then a light wash of grey over top with a final layer of silver!  This book has a subtle shine and I love it!  I am going to attach a book mark ribbon to the eyelet on the spine.  All in good time ;)

Here's a page from this journal that just plain makes me happy!!  Love the colours and the feel of it.  I love how my dress shows through on the gel transfer.  I need to journal more....it makes me happy while doing it and after as well. 

Mandala Moleskine

This is my Mandala Moleskine - it's a small size - 8"x5" and it's filled with watercolour paper.  I haven't painted in it but I really enjoy the thick paper to draw on with my Copic multiliners. I pack it into my carry on when I am travelling and since starting this habit of bringing it on the plane with me I haven't watched one movie in-flight - all I want to do is draw!!  And the best part is that I don't have to power it down during take off and landing ;)   Moleskine has a wonderful pocket on the back inside cover and I keep business cards in it in case someone shows an interest in my doodles I can direct them to my website and blog. 

It had not occured to me to decorate the cover (duh!) until I started seeing others around the web doing it - including Tammy of Daisy Yellow where she smashed some paint on her Moleskine.  In case you haven't visited Daisy Yellow please do....Tammy is a wealth of inspiration and knowledge and there is a plethora of gorgeousness over there.

I threw some paint around the other day and had a lot of fun painting my cover and then while out shopping for tracing paper and carving blocks at Michaels I found this beautiful piece of abalone shell that I thought would match perfectly with this colour scheme.  I tried to find the word mandala in my 2 dictionary's that I use for collage but it is not entered so I settled for doodle which is quite appropriate :)

I am so thrilled to have a decorated Mandala Moleskine to take on my travels!!!

A Wonderful Arting Evening

Lee-Anne came over for a visit and some arting....what a wonderful evening! She is such a great friend and I appreciate her so :)

She's almost finished her first altered book and tonight she prepped her new one.  She also made the base for a beautiful spread and tag in one of the last pages of her very full first book.

You can see that chocolate is front and center - an important part of our arting ;)

Don't you love my messy table? You can see I have a meticulous filing system for my collage papers and my stencils.  yikes!  I need a new system for my overflowing paint bottle bucket.  I am still thinking on that one and haven't quite come up with the right idea yet.  I did buy some shelving for my table though and need to assemble it so my papers and stencils will be a bit more organized and accessible. 

Tonight I worked on a base for a spread in my Anxiety journal and I completed a page in my newest journal which I haven't titled yet....the journal not the page.  I figure that I am rapidly gaining a collection of journals and if they don't have titles then I won't know how to distinguish them from each other.  I took pics tonight of this newest journal and will show you in another entry - maybe by then I will have a title for the journal. 

happy arting!!

i heart my copics

have I told you that I love my copic multiliners?!!!

well I do!!

they are such fun to work with - very reliable - easy to change the nib or cartridge if you are like me and wear down the nib on a regular basis - a $2 nib is a lot easier to swallow than replacing the pen for over $10!! and those brush points are delicious!!  oh I just love colouring in my doodles!!

okay...way too many exclamation marks going on here...on to the pics of my declaration of love for my copics....

this in in my large Moleskine and I've been working on it for probably a month or so....

not thrilled with how dark it got in the center of the heart - but I am considering adding some 3-D white paint dots or swirls in there to break it up....we shall see....